Feeling slightly disillusioned after last night's election result. A post on my Facebook feed sums it up well, "Can I get a sticker saying, "yes I voted and I might as well not have"?"

It rained on and off all day and I spent the afternoon in the kitchen. Raspberry Jam Slice, Nigella's Italian Apple Pie and Nigel Slater's Mildly Spiced Beef. For the Apple Pie (which is really a cake) I used red and green apples, and melodramatically considered myself to be roasting the hopes of Labour and the Greens. Maudlin.

Italian Apple Pie

slightly adapted from Nigellissima

You will need:

• 100g soft butter
• 250g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 150g sugar
• 2 eggs
• juice of half a lemon + zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 apples
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in the group before milk in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until mixture forms a smooth batter.
2. With food processor running, pour milk slowly down funnel.
3. Cut one apple in half, remove core, and roughly chop. Add chopped apple into batter and pulse to mix.
4. Pour batter into lined springform tin.
5. Cut remaining applies into thin wedges, and place on top of batter in a fan pattern.
6. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle on top.
7. Bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.

This is very very easy, and visually stunning. The batter is dense and moist, and the apples provide texture. I used Jazz apples and Granny Smiths. The Jazz worked the best, the Granny Smiths got a bit mushy, though that might have been because they were old. I have a bad habit of buying fruit and then not doing anything with it.

Earlier this year, I flirted with a philosophy of "branching out" - a personal do something new/different/scary on a consistent basis. I started out well, attending a cooking class at Main Course where I made a mushroom tart, duck breast, and creme brulee. From never liking mushrooms, never having eaten duck breast, and never having made creme brulee, that was branching out for me. A little bit uncomfortable (mostly because it upset my strongly held assumption that I don't like mushrooms, turns out I do), but worthwhile. We went to a Japanese restaurant early on in the year, where I tried sashimi. I didn't like it, but I tried it. I applied for, and got, a job for next year that wasn't even on my horizon at the beginning of this year. Last night I went to the opera for the first time (Don Giovanni), and next weekend I will go skiing for the first time. But I feel like I'm not doing enough, apart from some standout examples I'm letting testing my limits slide. I've never been a risk taker but this year is turning out life changing. The least I can do is try some seafood.