Exhausted, but perfect, flapjacks

There's a reason that tray of treats looks like it's curled up in a blanket, about to go to sleep.

That's where I want to be. I am so tired. So flipping tired. Work has kicked up about eighteen notches, and while I tend to thrive on an office crisis, it’s also stressful. And the stress is probably why I can’t sleep. Last night I dreamt about websites – specifically our company website – for about six solid hours. And six hours was probably all the sleep I got, because the rest of the time I was tossing and turning, too hot and too uncomfortable and too wired to sleep.

Even baking, which is usually a fun and relaxing activity for me, seems like a whoooole lot of effort. These days I want to sit in the bath and read in the evenings, or watch some mindless telly, not partake in an activity that requires (very, very minimal) physical effort. And thinking. Ugh. I have no energy for thinking!

I’m hoping I’ll snap out of this by the weekend. I usually accomplish an enormous amount in those two days and I hate to waste them. Last weekend, for example, in addition to sleeping for 11 blissful hours on Saturday night, I: finished the first section of my biology assignment, hosted a dinner party for two friends, went to the pub, sanded down a reclaimed chair, bought some fabric for said chair, made a trip to the post office, cleaned the flat, caught up on my favourite TV programs, and cooked two recipes from Felicity Cloake's brilliant How to cook perfect… series in The Guardian.

How to cook perfect... is a delightful little feature that appears every week or so on the newspaper's website. Food writer Cloake takes a classic dish, wades through its history and tradition, tries out multiple recipes and ultimately arrives at her perfect version. Then the real fun begins, when hundreds of people wade into the comments section with their own perfect interpretations. So far, I've had great success with these recipes. I don't always stick to Felicity's ultimate version, but I glean so many interesting and useful tips from the article and comments, that I always end up with something scrumptious.

On Saturday night it was cottage pie (my tip: try a mix of minced beef and already-cooked roast beef and add a healthy dollop of Branstons pickle - yum) then on Sunday it was flapjacks. In case you're thinking of a thick, fluffy pancake, that's not what I mean. In the UK, flapjacks are oatmeal squares, deliciously buttery and syrupy. And Felicity's version of this classic treat - with my health-giving addition of chopped apricots and mixed seeds - is indeed pretty close to perfect. If only I hadn't overbrowned them.