Search Results

Ramen is something my husband started throwing together as a quick, easy and healthy meal a while back and we have it semi-regularly. He usually makes it with miso and beef broth, but we were out of miso, and I had pumpkin I wanted to use, so I went for a different flavour profile. Not what you might term authentic, Japanese ramen in the least, but tasty! Be aware, this recipe makes rather a large batch. I sometimes have issues with batch cooking... It did reheat very nicely though, with fresh noodles or a little extra stock. Ingredients: 4 onions, chopped 1 head of garlic, minced 3-4" ginger, minced 2-3 tbsp peanut oil 1 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar 1/2 leek, chopped 1 pack mange tout, halved 1 head of broccoli, floretted 3 l beef stock 1 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tbsp ras-el-hanout 2 tsp Mix spice 2 c roast pumpkin purée 1 small squash, chopped 1/3c soy sauce Noodles sesame seeds 1) Heat the oil in the bottom of a soup pot. Sauté onions until translucent, then add garlic and ginger. Cook until fragrant and starting to char a little and add squash. Cook 5 minutes, then add other ingredients except for mangetouts, noodles and sesame for seeds. 2) Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until squash and broccoli have reached just shy of their desired consistency, then add noodles and mangetouts. Taste test. 3) Remove from heat and serve as soon as noodles are cooked. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. I was unsure how this would come out but I am pleased with the end result. It would go very nicely with a little fresh coriander, but I didn't happen to have any on hand. It would also work well with veggie stock if need be. Flatteringly, even my dad, who was over for dinner and an evening with the grandbabies, enjoyed it and went for seconds. Until now, his ramen experience has always been the instant kind in teenage boys' dorm rooms, and he has always complained that it smells like feet. His enjoyment of it, I felt, was therefore quite high praise.

These Cherry Brownie recipes three ways- two cherry and almond white chocolate blondies and one cherry and dark chocolate brownie recipes - are the result of multiple tangents after discovering that I was missing ingredients for successive recipe variations that I had originally set out to make - passion fruit, cocoa powder, orange juice - leading to the first iteration of the cherry and almond blondies... It thus wasn't planned out in advance, but rather assembled and devised as I went, with Littler Bit as my helper (she was more interested in taste-testing every stage than anything else. And in going through the cake decorating things and commenting on them, and asking if we could use them on various things. E.g., with sprinkles in hand, "These are for ice cream", and with food colouring, "Can I put this in yoghurt?", and with the almond extract, "Is this for cake or cereal?"). Anyway, assembled with multiple changes of direction midway through, this wasn't necessarily how I would have made Cherry Blondies otherwise, but such is life... as a Type C mom anyway. Having made them and being happy with them, but... the recipe kept going around in my head for days, so I decided to try two new variations side by side a few days later. All three of these wound up being quite different, from taste, to colour, through texture and how sweet they were. Two are blondie recipes, and one is for dark chocolate brownies. Recipes Cook time: 15-20 minutes prep, 30-35 minutes in the oven ~~ Portions: (how big do you cut your brownies?) approx. 20 brownies ~~ Difficulty: Easy Cherry and Almond Blondies, Take One Ingredients: 4 eggs 2 c sugar 4 TBSP oil 3/4 tsp orange extract 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 3/4 c (250g) white chocolate, melted 1 c tinned cherries, blitzed 2 c flour pinch of salt 3/4 c flaked almonds 1 c dark chocolate chips 1) Beat the sugar and eggs together. Stir in the oil and the extracts, mixing well before adding the white chocolate and the cherries. 2) Stir in the flour and salt until just combined, followed by the almonds and the chocolate chips. If the batter feels to thick, add a little of the cherry syrup. 3) Pour into a brownie pan and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool thoroughly before serving. Cherry and Almond Blondies, Take Two Ingredients: 3 eggs 1 c sugar 1/2 c butter, melted 1/2 tsp almond extract  1/2 c (~200g) white chocolate, melted 1 c fresh or frozen cherries, puréed 2 c flour 1 c flaked almonds 1/2 c triple chocolate chips 1) Beat the sugar and eggs together. Stir in the butter and almond extract, mixing well before adding the white chocolate and the cherries. 2) Stir in the flour until just combined, followed by the almonds and the chocolate chips. 3) Pour into a brownie pan and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool before serving. Cherry and Dark Chocolate Brownies Ingredients: 4 eggs 1 c sugar 1/2 c butter, melted 1 c fresh or frozen cherries, puréed 1/4 tsp almond extract 1/2 tsp vanilla extract  1/2 c (~200g) dark chocolate, melted with 1 TBSP milk 2 c flour Pinch of salt 1 c flaked almonds 1/2 c dark chocolate chips 1) Beat the sugar and eggs together. Stir in the butter and the extracts, mixing well before adding the dark chocolate and the cherries. 2) Stir in the flour and salt until just combined, followed by the almonds and the chocolate chips. 3) Pour into a brownie pan and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes. On the whole, I was happy with all three of these, although that does not preclude the possibility of more playing around with these in the future. The first variation of the blondies was tasty, with a very strikingly distinctive hot pink colour to them. What they had in colour, they lost in taste, though. Having used tinned cherries (due to the peripatetic nature of that particular recipe development, that is what I had on hand), the cherry flavour was less present than I had hoped, but the colour was brilliant. I also used a little too much white chocolate and too much sugar so they came out tasting too sweet to me. Having said that, they were most definitely kid-approved, with both Little Bit (who usually has less of a sweet tooth) and Littler Bit devouring them at any opportunity. I had liked the idea of using the orange extract with the cherries, and while it did work, I found that using the vanilla as well muddied the flavour-waters a little, so to speak, so I would strike that one out next time. Instead, I would add some orange zest to really lean into that flavour combination (but given my pantry scarcities I seemed to encounter on that particular occasion, I didn't have that on hand either. At least, not fresh. I do still keep Dried Orange Peel as a pantry staple). I would also use orange juice instead of cherry syrup to moisten the batter, leaning into the citrus notes and cutting some more of the sugar. Attempting to balance out the sweeter, higher, flavour notes, I added dark chocolate chips. Unfortunately, I added too many of them (I know? Right? I didn't think that should be possible...) So again, the flavour profile was a little muddied, and so in the subsequent variations, I cut the chocolate chip quantities significantly. Texture-wise, they were moist and squidgy, well within the normal blondie texture range, but I liked the almond flakes in them, so I kept those in the subsequent recipes. I am aware that nuts in brownies or blondies aren't everyone's thing, though, so feel free to just skip those if you so prefer. Overall, tasty, and I would make again, possibly just tweaking one or two things. Blondie Variation two, I don't think I would tweak much. For blondies generally, I have discovered that I prefer to eat them once they have cooled. Because of the white chocolate, I find that if eaten hot, the only flavour that really comes across is sugar. As they cool, more subtle flavours are allowed to emerge. In the case of variation two, the flavours when it was hot were sugar and almond, which were overpowering. As they cooled, however, I found that the flavours were more balanced. I would possibly still cut the almond extract a little to showcase the cherry flavour a little further, though. These were on the slightly cakier end of the normal brownie texture continuum. Adding a little more liquid next time would not go amiss. Despite this, they were lovely and moist and stayed so the whole time that we had them around - almost a week, in fact. The downside to these was that, using the frozen cherries, although the flavour was more pronounced, the colour was darker. Still visibly pink brownies, they lacked the pop of colour that variation one had. Maybe if I need that colour in future (like for Littler Bit's pink birthday coming up), I try doing half-half tinned and frozen cherries - get the colour and flavour? The dark chocolate and cherry brownies were delightful. The cherry complemented and deepened the dark chocolate, while the chocolate added richness and counterbalanced the sweetness. These ones were a little on the fudgy end of the texture continuum and quite sticky. It could have been that they were pulled out a couple of minutes early (what made me think that baking two batches of brownies back to back while doing bath-time and bedtime for the kids would be a good idea, and after a nursing shift, no less?) The other possibility could be the extra egg compared to the second variation of blondies. With the sugar content lessened, the 4 eggs could simply be too much. I might try these again with one less egg. Beyond that, though, and I'm not saying the fudginess really was even a bad thing, I was happy with this one. The original brownie recipe I grew up with, for dark espresso brownies, is my dad's, and he was teetering on the verge of mildly offended that I had felt the need to play with what is generally agreed to be a rather excellent brownie recipe. When he tried these though, he did succumb to their call and recognised that although possibly not the healthiest lunch option on his visit, they were tasty and addictive. Swaps and Substitutions: Try using different citrus extracts, zests or juices in any of these; just adjust the other extracts accordingly. I went with almond and vanilla in the brownies here, but orange could be delectable! Try different nuts, cut into different sizes to play with texture. Try adding 1 TBSP of cream or milk to make the recipes squidgier. Try swapping the almond extract and flakes for coconut. Book Pairing I am listening to The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon at the moment. Set in the late 18th century in Massachusetts in the wintertime, the story follows a midwife in her community. Right at the start, there is a murder, and the community is in uproar, people taking different sides. I am not very far in yet, but it is beautifully written, and I am completely won over to the main character's side. I just hope I am not betrayed by her later on! I wasn't listening while baking, but had been just before on my walk home from work, and so as I was stirring batter, my mind kept wandering back to the bookish world I had just left and mulling over where the story might take me. So far, it has been lots of fun!

This is one of my favourite side dishes. I started making it years ago as an accompaniment for simple meat-and-starch meals that I wanted to round out the flavour and nutrition of a little, like sausage and spätzli, Rösti or pasta, meat and potatoes (like this Chicken and Waffles recipe) or even as a side to this Autumnal Macaroni and Cheese or Apple and Cheese Soufflé . I've added variations to this over the years, such as extra spring onions at the end or a little grated carrot, but for the most part, this dish is an onion dish. I like it alongside other sides like Rotkohl , or Broccoli Poppers . The flavours are very forgiving, and you can adjust the quantities of the various ingredients to tailor the flavour profile to your liking. The only caveat is to start it early enough before the meal to allow the onions to cook down low and slow. You want them to melt and caramelise rather than brown them. Any burnt bits will add bitterness to this that you probably want to avoid (but then, who am I to tell you what you want?) Recipe: Cook time: 1 hour -- Portions: 4-5 side-dish portions -- Difficulty: easy Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil 1 1/2c onions, sliced 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 tbsp honey 1-2 tbsp sesame seeds 1) Pour oil into a frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent. Add the other ingredients and continue cooking until the onions are very soft and melting together (not literally. They are not going to turn liquid.) 2) Season to taste and serve up hot as a side dish. The end. They are that simple. I am always very satisfied with this dish. It lends itself well to a variety of dishes, and as it has some sweet and some savoury/acidic notes, it can balance out mains or other sides that are either on the sweeter or the more acidic side. It is soft enough that it doesn't steal the show, but has enough flavour to hold its own. How much honey or balsamic go in changes every time I make this, according to what else it is being served with and what mood I'm in. It works with red, white or pink onions, just adjusting the balsamic and honey accordingly to compensate for the onions' varying strength and sweetness. Swaps and Substitutions: Instead of regular white sesame seeds, try it with black sesame, toasted seeds or nigella seeds (or a combination of the three). Instead of honey, try substituting molasses, maple syrup or another form of thicker syrup/sweetening agent. The flavour and texture will change accordingly and you will need to tweak the balsamic quantities to compensate, but the different flavours can work very nicely depending on what you are pairing the onions with. Try changing the vinegar you use. I personally really like the depth of flavour from balsamic, but other vinegars do work as well. Particularly interesting is apple cider vinegar, especially when paired with an apple dish. Let me know what you try!

So I am back.... I hope. I know it has been a while. Little Bit and Littler Bit have gotten bigger, we've moved, work has come and gone. I am hoping, now that Littler Bit is in regular day care, to get back to trying out and posting more recipes. Bear with me, and as ever, let me know any comments, additions or questions! The inspiration for this was an Amish recipe we grew up with for a breakfast cake (as odd and decadent a concept as that is) called Amish Cinnamon Flop. It is essentially a white cake, on top of which a butter-brown sugar-cinnamon mix is crumbled. While in the oven, the brown sugar and cinnamon sink through the cake and caramelise at the bottom of the pan. It is rich and decadent and delicious. As would be suggested by the fact that it is a breakfast cake, it is an occasional treat, but always a delectable one. I did, however, decide to try to find a slightly less decadent, slightly healthier version. Given the cinnamon and brown sugar, I decided to try out adding apples and oats. I tried several different versions of this before landing on one I liked. I tried different sugars (white, brown, molasses, and honey), and different amounts of fruit and flour. The final iteration has no oats, less flour, more apples and different spicing. Recipe Cook time: about 1 hour -- Portions: about 15 slices -- Difficulty: Easy Ingredients: 1 1/2 c sugar 2 TBSP soft butter 1 egg 2 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp cinnamon (half coarse, half fine) 1/4 tsp ginger 1/8 tsp nutmeg 1 3/4 flour 1 c milk 2 small apples, grated 3/4 c brown sugar 2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 c soft butter 1) Cream butter and sugar, then beat in egg. Mix together the dry ingredients together, then add these to the butter and sugar mixture alternately with the milk. Mix in the apples and pour the batter into a greased baking dish. 2) Mix together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Crumble over the top of the batter. 3) Bake at 220°C for 20-30 minutes in a shallow dish. Serve warm. I am very happy with how this came out after the different variations. The caramel no longer sinks all the way to the bottom to solidity on the base of the dish, but rather gets caught in the apple on the way down so that the cake has one single layer rather than two distinct ones. In the end, the flop is a rather different beast than the one I started with, but one I am no less pleased with. I rather enjoy it with plain yogurt or sour cream, but it is also very tasty on its own. The oats, it turned out, made the cake too dense, and too... healthy feeling. I abandoned them after the first trial. I played around with different quantities and mixes of spices, and found that although more spicing than the original recipe was tasty with the apples, less was more when it came to the additional spices. Otherwise, the different notes were drowned out. I also found that using the original quantity of flour left the cake too dense with the addition of the apple, so I adjusted this down. My attempts at changing up the sugars failed, though, leaving the flavours unbalanced, so I have stuck with simple white sugar in the cake and brown sugar in the caramel crumble topping. I still find it a little sweet for my tastes, so I might keep playing with the sugar types and content. Swaps or Substitutions: Try adding orange zest to the crumble (or the cake). Try adding nuts - walnuts or pecans alongside the apple to the cake. Try swapping out the apple for other seasonal fruits (something I intend to do at the first opportunity) - peaches, plums, pears, pumpkin.

We recently had a dragon-themed birthday party for Little Bit. When asked what kind of cake he wanted, he excitedly said, "Passion fruit!". There is a double reason for this. 1) It is his favourite fruit (this week, anyway. Other times it is mango, or orange, or pear...) 2) I have joked in the past that the slimy inside of passion fruits looks like dragon snot, so as it was a dragon-themed party, he decided that this would be the obvious choice. The only issue was that I didn't have a passion fruit cake recipe, so I made one up. Here it is. Recipe: Cook time: 50 minutes -- Portions: 1 double-layer 8" cake -- Difficulty: easy Ingredients: For the cake: 1 1/4 c sugar 1/4 c passion fruit syrup 2/3 c butter, soft 2 eggs 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 2 3/4 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 c milk 6 passion fruits, pulp and seeds For the frosting: 200g cream cheese, soft 1/2 c butter, soft 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 1/2 passion fruits, pulp and seeds about 2 c powdered sugar 1) Cream together the sugar, passion fruit syrup and the butter until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and then add the vanilla. 2) Gradually stir in the dry ingredients alternating with the milk. When the batter is smooth, stir in the passion fruit. 3) Pour into two prepared 8" cake tins and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. 4) Allow to cool thoroughly. In the meantime, make the frosting. Beat the butter and cream cheese together. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and the passion fruit. Stirring until combined. Chill until shortly before you are ready to frost the cake. 5) When the cake is completely cool, frost it to your satisfaction. I was pleased with how this came out. I thought the passion fruit flavour came out strongly enough without being overpowering. Based on how much cake was left after the party, I would venture to say that it was a success with the kids, too. The choice to leave in the passion fruit seeds was deliberate, as that is where most of the flavour is, but it did mean that there was a crunch in the cake. I enjoyed it, and as others commented on this, I know I was not the only one. I decorated by rolling out a sheet of marzipan on top, and the almond flavour complemented the passion fruit nicely. I may have to experiment with this recipe some more, possibly adding some almond extract to the cake batter. Swaps and substitutions: Try adding almond extract to the batter, just a dash, though, as almond extract can be overpowering. Try a passion fruit or raspberry coulis over the top instead of frosting. If you would rather have a uniform texture to the cake, you could sieve the passion fruit seeds out or blend the passion fruit to make it smooth before stirring it into the cake or frosting. Add other tropical fruits to the mix for a more exotic cake flavour, rather than a specifically passion fruit one. Book Pairing : While making this cake, I was listening to A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. This one came highly recommended by my husband. Being different people, it took me a bit longer to get into it, but I am thoroughly enjoying it now. Written by a scholar of Byzantine history, this is a sci-fi book that draws much of its culture and political intrigue from Byzantine history. Sci-fi isn't as much my thing as his, which might explain why it took me longer to get into than him, but it is well written. I was also, in between mixing and baking, finalising papier mâché dragon eggs for the party favours. My dragon egg party favours

This recipe for a summery strawberry and citrus blondie treat was a joint effort with my sister. She messaged me one afternoon to say that she was making brownies but that instead of adding vanilla extract, she had added lemon. Could I help her think through a pivot? I suggested blondies, and we discussed options. I usually prefer caramel-based blondies rather than white chocolate ones, as these can be a bit cloying at times. She had already mixed the sugar with the other ingredients, so the die was cast and white chocolate blondies it was. She then created a version of them, sending me the changes she had ultimately made. When I came to make them myself, I tweaked them further, and this was the result. Recipe Cook time: about 15 minutes prep and 35 minutes in the oven -- Portions: about 24 -- Difficulty: easy Ingredients: 1 1/2 c sugar 2 tbsp oil 2 tbsp melted butter 4 eggs 1 tsp lemon extract 1/2 tsp raspberry extract 1/2 c (200g) white chocolate, melted and slightly browned. 1 1/2 c flour 1/4 c black tea 1/4 c milk 1/2 c dried strawberries zest of 1 orange 1) Cream together the sugar, oil and butter, then beat in the eggs. Gradually stir in the other ingredients, mixing until just combined. 2) Pour into a brownie pan and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes (or until the blondies have reached your preferred brownie consistency). 3) Cool on a wire rack and enjoy with a good cup of tea (or coffee if that's your thing). I was very happy with how these came out, and more than that, it was a delight to get to collaborate on a recipe with my sister, even while on different continents. My estimated cook time above is not what it took me, as Littler Bit needed to be involved and absolutely had to have control of the mixing spoon, so things took a bit longer than they should have for a healthy, somewhat competent adult... but then Littler Bit is neither competent nor an adult so I think we can be forgiven for the time lag. And hey! who needs sensory bins for a toddler when there are baking ingredients to shower the kitchen with instead? All joking aside, these did turn out rather well. Trying them how I was a bit disappointed as they were tasty but with a thoroughly unnuanced flavour. Only sweetness on blondie-ness came through. Once cooled, though, they remained on the squidgy side of cakes and had a delightfully citrussy-berry flavour to the white chocolate. They were still sweet (they are blondies after all) but not overly so. The grounding notes of the black tea and slight caramelisation of the white chocolate helped. The only downside was that the dried strawberries lost their colour on top, going a dull tan colour. Inside, they were still bright red, though! With their lighter flavour note than brownies, I preferred to pair these with a spiced black tea rather than a glass of milk. These would be perfect for a summer picnic! Swaps and substitutions: Instead of going a berry route with these, my sister went for lemon and coconut. Instead of the raspberry extract and dried strawberries, add a sprinkling of coconut flakes. Try adding slivered almonds, or skip the berries and add pecans or walnuts. Make them more citrusy by swapping out the tea for orange or lemon juice, skipping the lemon extract if you do so. This will brighten the flavour, doing away with the slightly deeper note from the tea, so some grounding through the addition of nuts might be beneficial. Shoot for a higher note altogether and skip the caramelising of the white chocolate. Try swapping out the strawberries for other berries (blueberries, blackberries, black currants could all work nicely) or other fruits. Slices of dried citrus, or other dried fruits, could work very well. Fresh fruits work nicely too, but be advised that they affect the moisture in the blondies and can make them too wet or prone to going off faster. Book pairing: While Littler Bit and I were making these blondies, Little Bit was listening to Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, starting with the Snow Queen, on his Yoto player. As he decided he was anti-headphones for the afternoon, we all got to listen along (it was the audiobook of the week, so we listened along quite a lot, if I'm honest). Writing up the recipe just now, even though it was a few weeks ago, I had images from the fairy tales pop unbidden to mind. I had forgotten how good they are, and I aim to get him into Oscar Wilde's stories next. One of the fairy tales kept making me think of the Nightingale and the Rose. Quite aside from that, the fairy tales seemed to fit with the blondies in a way, so I thought I'd share. I'm also delighted to have succeeded in getting Little Bit into Audiobooks, too, as they are something I live by.

Now, I know this is a weird one. It is as odd an idea as it sounds, but hear me out. They actually worked quite well. Done the first way, no one could tell they were turnippy. They were moist, tender spice cookies. Here's how I arrived at these. I've been cooking with Little Bit since he was tiny. He has a toy kitchen of his own, and he frequently "cooks" for us and has us try his meals. Sometimes they are things he has seen us make, sometimes not so much (like strawberry and banana soup). I want to encourage his creativity and interest in cooking, so I like to try out his ideas. Sometimes they are a direct request to cook together, like "Mama, we can make pear sorbet", sometimes just an idea in play, like "Mama, smell my turnip cookies". Either way though, I try to honour them and make his ideas a reality, and show him that they are viable. So hence the idea of turnip cookies, from my 3-year-old asking me to smell his turnip cookies. I don't know if he really registered that it was an unusual idea, or when a few weeks later, we bought a turnip and made the cookies, I don't know if he made the connection between the two. Cooking to my 3-year-old's imagination is an interesting challenge though, which I enjoy taking up. I spent a couple of weeks turning the idea over in my mind and playing with flavours I could pair with the turnips before settling on these two variants. The first batch, I had wanted to be almond and spice cookies, and so they were, but less almondy than I wanted as I discovered that I was out of almond extract when I went to start baking. I played around with different proportions of different sugars to achieve the flavour I wanted in the first batch, too. The second batch is a heavily adapted spiced molasses cookie from Claire Saffitz's book. As for the turnip itself, I wasn't sure how best to include it. Raw, like grated carrot in a carrot cake? Or precooked somehow? And if precooked, then in what way? I ended up going with the pre-cooked idea, first boiled and mashed, then roasted and blitzed. In terms of just eating the turnip, the roasted one was beautiful, but in terms of the cookies, the boiled ones were more subtle. The roasted ones somehow developed a strong negative turnip flavour from somewhere that wasn't apparent at every bite, but often enough that it bugged me a little. I would therefore steer clear of that method and boil the turnip for both cookie variants. I decided against the raw, grated ones as I wasn't sure how bits of turnip would work, rather than being smoothly incorporated into the cookie dough. Recipe Cook time: approx. 1 hour -- Portions: about 30 cookies -- Difficulty: Easy Almond and Chocolate Spiced Turnip Cookies Ingredients: 1/2 turnip (small) for 1/2 - 3/4 c boiled and mashed turnip 3/4 c butter, soft 3/4 c light brown sugar 1/2 c white sugar 1/4 c dark brown sugar 2 eggs 1 1/4 c ground almonds 2 1/4 c flour 5 cloves, ground (5 is Little Bit's favourite number. Very important!) 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp cardamom 1/4 tsp cumin 1 tsp bicarb 1 tsp vinegar syrup (from pickled peaches) OR 1/2 tsp molasses and 1/2 tsp vinegar 100 g dark chocolate chips 1) Boil the turnip until fork-soft and mash. Cool. 2) Cream the butter and sugars together in a bowl. Beat in eggs, then the turnip. 3) Mix in the dry ingredients and combine well. Add vinegar and chocolate chips. 4) Place teaspoonfuls of cookie dough on a lined cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes at 180°C. Molasses Turnip Cookies Ingredients: 1/2 turnip 2 tbsp butter 3/4 c butter, melted 1 1/2 c dark brown sugar 2 eggs 1/4 c molasses 1/4 c liquid honey 1/4 c milk 3 3/4 c flour 1 tbsp baking soda 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/2 tsp finely ground black pepper 1/2 tsp allspice 1/4 tsp cloves 1/2 c oats 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (Or homemade rosehip vinegar) 1) Cut the turnip into cubes and roast with the butter at 180°C for about 20-30 minutes, until fork-soft. Cool. 2) Cream the cooled, melted butter with the sugar. Beat in the eggs, then the molasses and honey. 3) Blitz the cooled turnip with the milk until smooth and add to the batter. Mix thoroughly. 4) Stir in the dry ingredients, mixing well, then add the vinegar (this is important both for the flavour balance and to activate the baking soda). 5) Roll dough into 1" balls and place on a lined cookie sheet. Bake at 180°C for 10-12 minutes. Both of these cookies turned out very nicely indeed, although, as stated above, I would stick with boiling and mashing the turnip for both recipes, as the roasting brought out some less desirable flavours. On the whole, I wouldn't know which of the two I liked better. Everyone I shared either with (and not just sycophantic family members who have to tell me they're good) said that they enjoyed both cookies. Each time, I waited until after they had been tasted to divulge the tuber secret, just to avoid a placebo or nocebo effect. Overall, odd as turnip cookies sound, I can't work out what it should be any odder an idea than carrot cake, or red velvet for that matter, which was traditionally made with beets. Side note, I've started using a silicone baking sheet mat instead of greasing cookie sheets. I find it works across different types of cookies and therefore doesn't waste the extra butter or shortening. Feel free if you prefer to grease your cookie sheets or to use baking paper instead. Swaps and substitutions: In both recipes, the different proportions of white to brown sugar can be played around with, although be aware that this will affect the texture and flavour of the cookies. Try preparing the turnip different ways - raw, boiled, roasted - and see how it differs. See how the difference between smooth incorporation and pieces (I would recommend small pieces) of turnip affects the flavour profile. As with the sugars, the proportion of honey to molasses can be played around with in the second recipe. It shouldn't affect texture too much, but it will change the flavour balance a little - darker and deeper with more molasses, lighter and more golden with a higher honey proportion. Try adding some almond extract - only 1/2 tsp or so to the first recipe, as I had intended (and plan to do at the first opportunity). As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Anyone who has ever lived with me for any period of time knows that my morning go-to is oatmeal. I love it. It is quick and simple, it keeps me satisfied for the morning, even when on my feet on a busy ward (or nursing a baby every 2 hours) and I love the creamy texture. Not to mention that oats are very healthy for you. 95% of the time I have my porridge the same way (made with milk and raisins, and just a sprinkling of cinnamon over the top). Once in a while though, I like to shake things up a bit and play with other flavourings for my morning go-to, and even sometimes to sweeten the pot a little, as it were. I've posted a few oaty recipes before (Persimmon Porridge, Fenugreek Porridge, Sweet Potato Porridge, Baked Oats) but thought it was maybe time for some more. Recipes: Cook time: 15 mminutes -- Portions: 2 -- Difficulty: Easy Roast Chestnut Oats: Ingredients: 1 c oats 2 c milk 1 c roast chestnuts, crumbled or chopped A handful of raisins 1 tbsp maple or light brown sugar 1 tsp mix spice (Optional: a splash of cream) 1) In a small saucepan, place the oats, milk, most of the chestnuts and raisins and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly to prevent burning. 2) When it has thickened to the desired consistency, stir in the sugar and spice, pour out into two bowls, and top with the remaining chestnuts. Pour over the cream now, if using. Enjoy hot with a good cup of tea (or coffee if that is your thing.) Hot chocolate works too. Candied Orange Oats: Ingredients: 1 c whey 1 c milk 1 c oats 2 tbsp candied orange peel A handful of raisins 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tbsp cacao nibs 1) Place the whey, milk, oats, most of the candied orange peel and the raisins in a saucepan and soak overnight. 2) In the morning, bring the saucepan up to a simmer over medium heat. Stir regularly to prevent sticking and cook until you have achieved the desired consistency. 3) Spoon out into two bowls and top with the remaining orange peel, the cacao nibs and the cinnamon. Both of these work beautifully for a bit of a switch-up of your morning porridge. Either or neither can be soaked overnight, depending on your tastes and what is more convenient. I tend to soak whey porridge overnight as it cuts the acidity a little and comes out sweeter than it would if made fresh in the morning. I like it both ways (pun unintended), but Hubby finds making it fresh in the morning too acidic, so I have bent to his taste here. Conversely, although I do soak milk porridge overnight, I find it quite sweet in the morning, so I often make that in the morning instead. There are no hard and fast rules though! Swaps and substitutions: Both of these recipes would work with other forms of hot cereal. For example, for cream of what, substitute out the cup of oats for 6 tbsp of cream of wheat. For a vegan or dairy-free experience, swap out the whey or the milk for your favourite nut milk. Personally, I would go for almond milk in this instance, but the choice is yours! Instead of the mix spice in the first recipe, swap in pumpkin spice, or some cinnamon and cloves, or skip the spice altogether. Rather than the raisins, replace them with some diced prunes or dates, but be aware that these are almost a little sweeter. They do work beautifully though. Instead of the cocoa nibs, you could be truly decadent and use chocolate chips. For my part, I would go for dark ones, but it is your breakfast! (As a side note, I have been loving cocoa nibs recently and have enjoyed putting them in all sorts of things that would normally have chocolate chips. If given the chance to soak even a little, they soften up wonderfully, while still remaining toothsome, and they have that much less sugar.) Instead of the maple sugar in the first recipe, use light brown sugar. Be aware that although dark brown sugar would work too, this will deepen the flavour notes considerably. Cinnamon sugar or plain white would work too. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Appologies for the break since the last recipe. A travelling husband and sick kiddies really put a hole in my schedule! (hurray for scarlet fever!) All better now though so I'm hoping to be able to post a bit more regularly again. Here's another winter warmer for those cold nights! It was snowing out when I made this, and it was the perfect dinner to feed everyone before Little Bit and my sister "kicked" the rest of us out of the house for the evening (We had a reception to go to, and they got an auntie and nephew date night). I've got to say, using the expression "kicking out" around a not quite 3 year old was not my best ever parenting decision... Not that he didn't like it. Quite the opposite! He loved it, but takes it rather too literally... Anyway, gnocchi are a bit of a labour of love to make, as it does take a little while to roll them out and cook them, but it is so worth it! I do it every once in a while and am always so happy with the result!I had made a load of apple sauce with my sister earlier in autumn when apples were in season and wanted to try apple sauce gnocchi. I must say, they came out delightfully! Recipe Cook Time: approx 2 hours -- Portions: 4 -- Cooking difficulty: Medium Ingredients: 3 c potatoes, chopped 1/2 c apple sauce 1 egg 2 tsp thyme 2 tsp sage salt and pepper to taste 3 1/4 c flour 1/2 c semolina 2 tbsp butter 2 onions, chopped 1/2 head garlic, minced 3 big cubes of frozen spinach (or 3 c spinach) 2 balls of Mozzarella, grated 2 tsp sumac 1) Boil the potatoes until soft. Drain well and mash. Incorporate the apple sauce, the egg and the herbs, and season to taste. Mix in the flour, kneading for a few minutes until you get a soft dough. 2) Sprinkle semolina on the counter. Cut off a fist-sized piece of dough and roll it out into a snake about a finger thick (just like with playdoh!). Cut off inch long pieces from the snake. If you want to get fancy, roll them off the tines of a fork to mark them. 3) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Plop in a few gnocchi at a time and boil them until they float to the top. Fish them out with a slotted spoon and drain thoroughly. Toss them in semolina to coat. 4) Meanwhile, place the butter in a shallow baking dish and put it in the oven at 180°c. When the butter is melted, stir in the onion and garlic. (If you're using fresh spinach wilt it briefly in boiling water at this point.) Using frozen spinach, I popped it in the baking dish once the onions and garlic were fragrant to allow it to melt while the gnocchi finished cooking. 5) When all of the gnocchi have been boiled and coated in semolina, remove the baking dish from the oven and add the gnocchi and mozzarella to it. Stir to mix thoroughly, breaking up the spinahc cubes as you go. Sprinkle with sumac and pepper, and place back in the oven for a further 25-30 minutes until the cheese is melty and crisping a little on top. This went down a treat! it took a little while in the making, but was quick and easy to serve up. and wash up afterwards. It hit the spot and was a very satisfying dinner. I would however add a little more cheese next time, and maybe a little broth in the bottom of the baking dish. This would bake off in the oven, but keep everything moist and provide just the tiniest bit of sauce. Maybe apple sauce instead of broth, to reinforce the apple flavour from the gnocchi themselves? Swaps and substitutions: Instead of apple sauce, an interesting variant of this recipe could use pumpkin purée for a seasonal twist, or tomato paste and a dollop of tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish. This recipe was great vegetarian but would also work very well with little bits of bacon or sausage stirred in when the gnocchi and cheese are, before being popped back in the oven. To vary the flavouring a little, or to suit your own fridge and tastes, try it with different vegetables baked in - broccoli, carrots, peppers or tomatoes would work great. Instead of plain white flour, I have used bread flour with seeds in for ghocchi before. The seeds add a beautiful textural variation to the gnocchi, and adding them, whether in the flour or separately could be a tasty way to add some more nutrients. For some extra crunch, try sprinkling some chopped walnuts over the top for the last 10 minutes of baking? If you have leftover nettles, try swapping them in instead of the spinach? (I blanch mine and keep them in the freezer until I'm ready to use them) Book pairing: With cold dark, snowy nights, my impression from when I made this is unavoidably accompanied by images of wooden ships caught in polar ice. My sister and I were reading Icebound together about William Barrents' polar expeditions. It is amazing to me how slow the men on those expeditions were to learn! They knew they were going North, and that there was a likelihood of encountering freezing temperatures, but the clothing they packed was totally inappropriate. They prioritised saving merchandise over themselves and surprisingly, saw polar bears that they killed as trophies only, rather than using the fur or the meat to help them survive. It was a very interesting read, if a little overly dramatic in places. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Served up as a chicken melt. About a year ago, I made some of my own vinegars. After leaving them to age for a while to allow the flavours to develop, I started trying to think of ways to use them. I've used a number of them in different things (I used my apple and rosehip vinegar in my Black Pudding and Pumpkin Pie, and I used some of my lemon vinegar in the Creamy Lemon Pasta for example). An idea I had a while back was to use the rosehip vinegar in a homemade mayo and then to use that mayo as the flavour base for a chicken salad. It took a while but I finally got around to it. And I'm glad I did, too. It was nice to make my own mayo again after a bit of a hiatus since making my other ones. You could use apple cider vinegar instead of the rosehip vinegar for an easy swap. Recipe Cook Time: approx. 1 hour -- Portions: 4-6 -- Cooking Level: Easy Ingredients: for the mayo: 1 egg yolk 3/4 c rapeseed oil 3 tbsp rosehip vinegar 1 tsp mustard (preferably whole grain) pinch of sumac salt to taste For the chicken salad: 2 c shredded leftover roast chicken 2 celery sticks, diced 2 1/2- 3 tbsp rosehip mayo 3-4 tbsp yoghurt 1 tsp mustard 1 spring onion, dicced 1/2c raisins For the melts: butter, toast, grated cheese to top, urfa biber 1) Place the egg yolk in a small bowl and beat with a whisk. Then, very gradually, whisk in the oil, a few drops at a time to begin with. You can go a bit faster once it begins to emulsify. As it thickens, add the vinegar. Once all the oil is incorporated, stir in the mustard (I used some of my homemade wholegrain mustard) and the salt and sumac. Set aside. 2) In a large bowl, place the shredded chicken, then mix in the other ingredients. For the Chicken melts: Butter a cast iron skillet, then arrange pieces of toast on the bottom. Spoon chicken salad on top, sprinkle with grated cheese and urfa biber. Bake at 180°C until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown, 10-15 minutes. I was really pleased with these. They made a relatively quick and very easy dinner to assemble. Trying to juggle Little Bit and Littler Bit's schedules, I made the mayo and the chicken salad ahead of time, then the melts were extremely quick and easy when we got home. The flavour of the rosehip vinegar worked in the mayo, but was less pronounced than I would have liked it, and even less so in the chicken salad. As a whole though, the flavours were delightfully balanced. The mayo, yoghurt and cheese do produce a rather rich meal, but in my defence, temperatures outside were decidedly negative and we had been out rolling in the snow. Swaps and substitutions: If need be, it would work equally well with leftover turkey. Use apple cider vinegar instead of the homemade one, or in a pinch, use a pre-made mayo. Skip the raisins and toast to make it keto-friendly, or use gluten-free toast for a gluten-free meal. Instead of Urfa Biber, use your favourite tandoori or paprika to sprinkle over the top. Leftover cabbage in the fridge? Slice some thinly and use that instead of the celery. Book Pairing: While mixing the mayo, I was listening to Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt, all about his time in the NHS. Having worked in the NHS just after he left, it did bring back some memories, some good, some bad. Nurses had it easier than junior doctors at that point, so my experiences were quite different, but many experiences resonated, from idiots in A&E, especially on a Friday night (looking at you Glasgow), to the unavoidable, or even worse, the avoidable deaths. It was entertainingly written for the most part, and I did enjoy it, but it was bittersweet. I do definitely recommend it if you feel you don't understand why nurses and doctors have been striking in UK.