This week my inlaws came up to help us fit a new wooden base on our secondhand greenhouse. Our greenhouse frame is newtous, and used to belong to someone else on site. It got damaged in a winter storm and they didn't want it anymore, so we took the frame and have been thinking about how to put it back into use for the new growing season. The old base was rusty and of no use, so my fatherinlaw has built us a new base with some old wood scraps he had in his shed at home. Next we need to attach new panels, but that's a task for another day.

This week we also had to see to some storm damage as the two winter storms we had last week have damaged our shed. We need a new roof, but for the time being we have tried to make it waterproof so that the shed walls and contents don't get wet. We hope to replace the roof in early spring.

This week's recipe is for vegan shortbread, with lemon and rose petals. It's one of my favourite biscuit recipes and makes a lovely gift. With Valentine's day coming up, this might be a recipe you'd like to make to share with those you love.

The recipe is as follows:

50g nonglutinous rice flour
100g plain flour (all purpose)
50g caster sugar (alternatively used granulated)
100g vegan margarine (a firm variety is best)
Grated rind from one lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rose water
2 tbsps rose petals
a pinch of salt
Vegan milk, to bind.

Mix all of the ingredients except the milk by hand or in a stand mixer. Once the mix is crumbly, very slowly add some milk, starting with just 1/4 tsp at a time. You want the mix to come together into a smooth ball, but you don't want it to be too wet or soggy. Once combined, cover the dough and place it in the fridge to bake later the same day. Alternatively store it in the freezer, if you like to make things ahead of time.

After at least 30 minutes in the fridge, or once you are ready to bake your shortbread, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it to approximately 1/4 inch or 5mm thick then stamp out your biscuits with a cutter. You can make the biscuits thicker if you prefer, but I like to make them quite thin. Place the rounds onto a lined cookie sheet, and bake in the oven for 12 15 minutes at 150C or 300F. They should still look slightly soft and underbaked when you remove them from the oven, so keep an eye on them so that they don't turn golden brown.

00:00 Lemon and rose petal vegan shortbread recipe.
02:11 Storm damage at the allotment.
02:43 Planting ranunculus corms and anemones.
03:16 Restoring our greenhouse.
09:40 Shaping and baking shortbread.

If you're new to my channel, hi! My name is Stéphanie and I live in England. Here on Eighteen and Cloudy I share peaceful, slow paced 'slow living' vlogs about living a simple, sustainable, vegan lifestyle in a big city. They're quiet vlogs with subtitles available in translation where I take you along with me through the seasons as I spend time gardening on my organic suburban allotment, and cook and bake vegan recipes with the produce we grow. I also share my hobbies old fashioned heritage crafts like felting, quilting, dyeing with plant dyes, making soap, sewing and simple lifestyle habits I adopt to try and live more sustainably. If that sounds like something you might enjoy, take a look through my previous videos and consider subscribing for weekly, seasonally themed videos here on YouTube.

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