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As mentioned in Day 39 of The Challenge Pancakes are an easy classic. For whatever reason we decided to have pancakes and bacon for dinner, but to give it a veneer of respectability we made the apple cinnamon pancakes. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 3 tbsp sugar 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 3 tbsp melted butter 2 eggs 3/4 - 1 c milk 1 apple, grated 1) Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add wet ingredients one by one, mixing after each addition. 2) Melt butter in a heavy bottomed skillet, and drop a large spoonful of batter into the skillet. Wait until the bubbles have come to the top of each pancake and popped, then flip them. When the second side is golden brown, serve up. We had ours with bacon and maple syrup, quark and cinnamon sugar, and a fresh cheese on the side. I've never tried this before, and was happy with how they turned out. I highly recommend trying these, both with the apple and with the cheese, but step up the amount of apple. It was more prominent in the batter than in the cooked pancakes. It made a tasty, very adult dinner.

As mentioned in Day 40 of The Challenge I love making my own pasta. My pasta maker is one of my favourite kitchen toys. I started making fresh pasta a few years ago with my dad, for lasagne or carbonara or ravioli. I got my pasta maker as a house warming gift and love pulling it out. For a long time I stuck with traditional fresh pasta, made with flour and eggs, then last year I started replacing the eggs with different vegetables. It gives the pasta a cool colour, and impregnates it with flavour without losing any of the richness. It works with pumpkin, carrot, beet, sweet potato, each with its own profile and different sauces or dishes to match them to. Some work better than others for the texture, so sometimes, the addition of one egg is necessary. Seeing as it's pumpkin season, I decided to use some roasted pumpkin for the pasta. I only started using nettles this year. I've heard for years about how good it is nutritionally, and it grows all over around here. I've been curious, but only got around to it this summer. I made the pesto earlier this summer and froze the extra, so for yesterday's dinner we made the pasta and simply heated up the pesto, sautéing it with onions before mixing it with the fresh pasta. Skip the parmesan to make this recipe vegan. Ingredients: Pumpkin pasta: 1 1/2 - 2 c roasted pumpkin, mashed 3-4c flour 1 1/2 tsp sage Salt and pepper to taste Nettle pesto: 4-5 c nettle leaves, de-stalked and washed ( I recommend gardening gloves!) 1 head of garlic, peeled and crushed 1 tsp olive oil 1/2 cup walnuts 1/2 c olive oil 1/2 c parmesan (for this one I added 1/2 c roasted beetroot, but it is just as good without). 1 tbsp olive oil 2 onions, chopped Parmesan for grating 1) Put flour in a bowl and create a well in the centre. Put the pumpkin in the well and gradually mix the flour into the pumpkin to create a soft, elastic dough. Knead in crushed sage and salt and pepper to taste. 2)Dump it out onto a clean, floured surface and knead for a few minutes. Make sure it isn't too sticky as otherwise it will gum up the pasta maker, or it will get sticky when cooked. If it seems to sticky, knead extra flour into it. (If you don't like all the kneading make sure the dough is floured on the outside and pass it through the first setting of the pasta maker a few times. It will work the dough for you.) 3) Once the dough is ready, cut off a piece the size of half a fist and pass it through successively higher settings on the pasta maker. Different machines have different settings, but just to give you an idea, I stopped at setting 5 for this one - thick enough to have some bite, thin enough to be delicate and not clumpy. 4) Once you have it to the desired thickness, pass your sheet of dough through the fettuccine cutter and the hang to dry on a pasta tree, rack or the back of a chair. Just make sure the surface is clean and that the pasta won't stick. At this point you have the option to dry the pasta completely and store it, or to cook it right away and have fresh pasta. 5) To cook the fresh pasta, bring a pot of water to the boil. Put pasta into the water a couple of portions at a time. Cook for a couple of minutes and drain the pasta. Be careful! Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried, so it won't take long. An extra 30s and you will be eating mush. 6) Meanwhile for the pesto, heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Sauté the garlic and add the nettles. Traditionally the garlic is left raw, and you can for this too, but I like the softened sweeter flavour of the garlic to contrast with the nutty flavour of the nettles. To not be stung by nettles they need to be either steamed or sautéed, so I figure, kill two birds with one stone. 7) When the nettles are wilted, tip them and the other ingredients into a blender or a mortar and pestle and grind until it forms a smooth paste. Taste and adjust any seasoning. 8) Sauté the onion in a large pan, and then add the pesto to it to warm. Add the cooked pasta, and if it looks dry, a couple of spoons of the pasta cooking water. Grate cheese over the top, salt and pepper to taste, and serve! This came out beautifully! possibly some of the best pasta I've made. It was almost better without the pesto, just with butter, much as I like this pesto. It is a little labour intensive, but it is a labour I love and truly enjoy, especially with a buddy. The turning certainly provided a show during Little Bit's dinner! In case you want to try making these but don't have a pasta machine or pasta tree click on the links to get one of your own! As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Day 37 of The Challenge (I lied. We cooked tonight rather than eating leftovers before leaving on our trip). We roasted the last of our Georgia candy roaster pumpkin this evening, and had 250g of chanterelles left. It was either pumpkin pasta with a mushroom sauce or risotto. We opted for the risotto, and the pumpkin pasta will have to wait (although not to long. I do so love it and it had been a little while since I pulled out my pasta maker). This was creamy and filling (and orange) and very tasty. Ingredients: 250 g of Arborio rice 1 1/2 c roasted pumpkin in chunks 3 onions, chopped 1/2 head of garlic, peeled and chopped 250 g of chanterelles 3 tbsp olive oil 1 c of milk 1 1/2 - 2 c of water, broth or reserved mushroom water (like from prepping a chanterelle tart) 1 1/2 tsp sumac 1 tbsp lime juice 2 tsp thyme 1 tsp sage 1 tsp urfa biber (Turkish black chilli pepper) salt and pepper to taste Parmesan for sprinkling 1) Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan and sauté onions. When they go translucent and then begin to char a little on the bottom, add in the garlic and then keep them moving. 2) Heat the rest of the olive oil in a saucepan and add the rice. Stir until translucent then add the water/mushroom water/broth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed. Add milk and stir. 3) Once garlic is soft, add the chanterelles, the thyme and the sage and lower the heat. Cook gently, allowing the mushrooms to give off their liquid. 4) As the rice cooks and absorbs the liquid, add the pumpkin and stir. Add sumac, and once the milk is absorbed, add lime juice and urfa biber. 5) When the rice has thickened and cooked, add the mushrooms and onions to the rice and mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle desired parmesan over the top. Super tasty. I love making risotto and find them relatively quick and easy once you figure them out. They are endlessly adaptable too. The flavours played off each other beautifully in this tonight. It would have worked with bacon, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it lost out by not having any.

As mentioned in Day 35 of The Challenge This is a recipe which I very much enjoy, but full disclosure here, it isn't mine, it is my husband's. I had never had it before moving in with him, and he has developed and tweaked it and made it truly his own in the years since. I am always delighted when he decides to make it again, and it is too good not to share. As with almost everything I make (I seem to say this a lot), it is endlessly variable, with different vegetables being able to be included or substituted. Here's the one he made me this time, so moreish just before a night shift, I ended up not wanting my midnight lunch. Ingredients: 500g long grain rice (we used a wild rice mix) 500g kidney beans, cooked (or others of your choice. Traditionally it would be with black eyed peas, but those are hard to obtain here) 200g bacon cut into chunks 200 g cabbage chopped 2-3 chillies, sliced 3 onions, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 tsp chilli powder 1 tbsp olive oil Salt and pepper to taste 1) Fry onions in olive oil in a pan until translucent. Add bacon and stir. Once bacon starts to give off juices, add cabbage and carrot. Add any other herby notes here if you so desire. 2) Cook rice as per instructions. Reserve any cooking liquid from the beans and the rice. 3) Once the rice is cooked, add it to the bacon and veg mix with beans. Add any reserved liquid or about 1/2 c of water and stir. 4) Simmer and spice to taste. Serve hot. Very simple, minimal dishes but very versatile, tasty and filling.

As mentioned in Day 18 of The Challenge As it was plum season, we somehow managed to buy several kilos of plums in a very short time period. In addition to eating them plain, they made their way into a variety of dishes. The plum jam was one batch, then the next day, starting with plums, apples and ginger in one pot, I split the jam and the chutney into 2 separate batches after passing it through the food mill. Play around with the sugar and spicing. I like my jam more fruity and less sweet. The compromise there though is that then it may be a little runnier, but I'll take it. If you like your jam sweeter or more gelled, add more sugar. Boiling for longer will also firm up the jam a little. Just be careful you don't boil it too long! One batch of marmalade I made a few years ago ended up a bit caramelised as the door bell rang just before it was ready. Plum Jam Ingredients: 2 kg of plums, halved and pitted 750g sugar 2 tbsp dried orange peel 1 cinnamon stick 2 tsp ground cloves 2 c water 1) Place plums in a heavy bottomed pan. Add water and bring to a simmer. Stir in other ingredients. Put a saucer in the freezer. 2) Stir occasionally to prevent the jam from sticking. As it thickens you'll need to stir more consistently. 3) Taste test to check for sugar and spicing. I go light on sugar, you might want to use more. 4) Drop some of the hot jam on the saucer from the freezer. If after a minute if starts to solidify and the top wrinkles and pulls tight, it should gel nicely once cool. If not, then boil it a bit longer or add sugar (or both). 5) To sterilize jars: boil clean jars and their lids for at least 15 minutes. Fill them with the boiling jam immediately on removing them from the boiling water (canning tongs make this so much easier and makes it less likely that you'll burn yourself, but you can do it with a spoon or a spatula and a dish cloth). Fill to just below the rim, wipe the grooves clean and screw the lid on tight. As the jars and contents cool, the centre of the lid should be sucked down and the jars will be sealed properly. Place the jars upside down on a clean cloth. Label when cool. (The part about putting them upside down is from my German Oma, I don't know what's behind it but it works. ) Plum and Apple Jam: Ingredients: 1 kg of plums 3 apples 1 large knob of ginger, peeled and minced or cut into julienne strips 4 cloves (2 tsp of ground cinnamon or 1 cinnamon stick. I didn't as I wanted this jam sufficiently different from the plum jam I had made the day before, but it works both ways) 500 g brown sugar 1) Place plums and apples in a heavy bottomed pan. Add water and bring to a simmer. Put a saucer in the freezer. 2) Stir occasionally to prevent the jam from sticking. As it thickens you'll need to stir more consistently. 3) Once the apples are soft, strain the jam through a food mill or push through a strainer. You can then either keep the skins and the pulp, as I did, or toss it and have jelly instead. Personally, I like the bits. 4) Stir in other ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste test to check for sugar and spicing (I tend to go easy on the sugar, so you might want to use more.) 5) Drop some of the hot jam on the saucer from the freezer. If after a minute if starts to solidify and the top wrinkles and pulls tight, it should gel nicely once cool. If not, then boil it a bit longer or add sugar (or both). 6) To sterilize jars: boil clean jars and their lids for at least 15 minutes. Fill them with the boiling jam immediately on removing them from the boiling water (canning tongs make this so much easier and makes it less likely that you'll burn yourself, but you can do it with a spoon or a spatula and a dish cloth). Fill to just below the rim, wipe the grooves clean and screw the lid on tight. As the jars and contents cool, the centre of the lid should be sucked down and the jars will be sealed properly. Place the jars upside down on a clean cloth. Label when cool. (The part about putting them upside down is from my German Oma, I don't know what's behind it but it works.) Plum and Apple Chutney: Ingredients: 1 kg of plums 3 apples 1 large knob of ginger, peeled and minced or cut into julienne strips 2 red onions, minced 2 red chillies 1/2 c apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 c brown sugar 1) Place plums and apples in a heavy bottomed pan. Add water and bring to a simmer. Put a saucer in the freezer. 2) Stir occasionally to prevent the jam from sticking. As it thickens you'll need to stir more consistently. 3) Once the apples are soft, strain the jam through a food mill or push through a strainer. Add the pulp and the peels to the strained fruit. 4) Stir in other ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste test to check for sugar and spicing. 5) Drop some of the hot chutney on the saucer from the freezer. If after a minute if starts to solidify and the top wrinkles and pulls tight, it should gel nicely once cool. If not, then boil it a bit longer or add sugar (or both). 6) To sterilize jars: boil clean jars and their lids for at least 15 minutes. Fill them with the boiling chutney immediately on removing them from the boiling water (canning tongs make this so much easier and makes it less likely that you'll burn yourself, but you can do it with a spoon or a spatula and a dish cloth). Fill to just below the rim, wipe the grooves clean and screw the lid on tight. As the jars and contents cool, the centre of the lid should be sucked down and the jars will be sealed properly. Place the jars upside down on a clean cloth. Label when cool. (The part about putting them upside down is from my German Oma, I don't know what's behind it but it works.) In my experience, these keep for several years if properly sealed. These batches all came out very well. My husband swore that each successive one was the best I'd ever made and then declared that he couldn't choose a winner. We always have far too much jam as I can't resist buying home-made jam at farmstalls, and I make some every year, but it is like money in the bank. With jam in the cupboard, breakfasts are safe for a while to come! Jam is so tasty stirred into porridge, spread on bread, waffles, pancakes or used in cooking... I'm also enjoying taking advantage of fruits in season as the appear.

As mentioned in Day 30 of The Challenge I used to not be a fan of tapioca pudding. I didn't like the texture, and I had been served it cold which just accentuated the texture that I didn't like. And then my grandmother got sick and struggled with solids and had minimal appetite, so we made a lot of puddings, and I came around to it. Making it again for the first time since she died was bittersweet, but certainly a tasty dessert. And because we always make healthy decisions, we added a chocolate sauce... Happy eating! Ingredients: 1/2 c tapioca 1 1/2 c milk 1 c coconut milk 1/2 c raisins 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 c sugar 1 tbsp butter 2 tbsp cocoa powder 1/4 c coconut milk cinnamon for sprinkling 1) Heat the milk, coconut milk and tapioca in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly. Add vanilla, raisins and sugar and keep stirring until it thickens. If it glops at you, turn the heat down and stir. 2) Melt the butter in a small saucepan and slowly stir in the cocoa powder (personally I like dark cocoa powder, or baker's chocolate with a little sugar, but tweak it to how sweet you want it.) Once it has formed an even mass, add the coconut milk, and blend until smooth. 3) Portion out the tapioca and drizzle over the chocolate sauce, Sprinkle with cinnamon or cocoa spice and serve. Alternately, if you prefer, chill the tapioca and serve cold, with either hot or cold chocolate sauce. So many options! It took me a while to come back to this after my grandmother died, but now that I have, it might make it into more regular rotation again... I'm also wondering about a savoury version. Something to think about. I hope you enjoy and make your own memories with this!

The Challenge update: With 5 night shifts in the last 10 days, we needed either easy one pot meals, like Hoppin' John , or big meals that would give us left overs. On days off in between there were also some experimental recipes, like the pumpkin chilli, or tasty staples, like traditional local sausage with greens and barley. Lunches continue to be light, the only one of note being a chanterelle tart, and a tapioca pudding with chocolate sauce for dessert one night. And then there was tonight, the end of the week, end of the shifts Sunday fry-up, because, you know, healthy choices and all that... But for dinner, not breakfast (it's hard to bump porridge from the breakfast slot in my book). We've also been roasting a Georgia candy roaster pumpkin as dessert on its own, drizzled with olive oil before going into the oven then sprinkled with cinnamon (or more decadently with brown sugar and cream, but that is not necessary as this pumpkin is so sweet on its own!) As a side note, I have also discovered that dry cured ham spread with fresh cheese and honey and rolled up is quite delectable. Others at the table looked askance until the tried it and had to admit that running short of ham at that particular point in time was mildly tragic (on a very minor scale). I highly recommend it and will certainly do it again, either just to amuse my own gueule, as the French expression goes, or for a canapé board at some point. I would however tweak it by adding fresh thyme. I'm afraid for any of you keeping up with this challenge that days 37-44 will have to wait as we will be away on holiday for a week so I am stopping the counter until we get back, hopefully with tasty meals under our belts and some inspiration to share ;)

As mentioned in Day 34 of The Challenge Mushroom season is here now too! (I know, so many seasons... plums, pumpkins and now mushrooms, but that is the beauty of autumn and the harvest season. My tomatoes are coming in too, as are little cucumbers on my balcony garden). Chanterelles are ridiculously over priced most of the year, but suddenly in September and October they aren't! They are almost like a normal food! So we got a little wooden basket of them from the store and made... a tart! Ingredients: Crust: (you can use a store bought crust if you want, but this is also very quick and easy, I promise! It is better if you have a half hour to let it chill before rolling it out, but it still works if you don't) 3/4 c flour 1/2 c cold butter, cut into pieces pinch of salt 1/4 (approximate) water Tart: 250g of fresh chanterelles 1 1/2 c fresh cheese (the eat with a spoon-fresh like quark or blanc battue) a few sprigs of fresh thyme 1 tsp of dried sage 1 tsp butter salt and pepper to taste 4 zucchini flowers 1/2 tsp dried mint 1 tbsp parmesan 1 tsp olive oil Salt and Pepper to taste 1) To make crust, mix flour and salt. Cut in pieces of butter and mix together with fingertips until it forms a crumb like texture. Add water and mix with a fork, then knead into a soft dough. 2) Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. 3) Mix the fresh cheese, reserving 1/4 c of it, with the thyme, sage, salt and pepper. Add 1 tbsp of water. 4) Roll out the crust to approximately 1 cm thick and line the bottom of a pie plate with it, and stab with a fork to create breathing holes. 5) Spread the fresh cheese over the crust in a thin layer. 6) Sauté the chanterelles briefly in the butter to allow them to give up their liquid (we didn't the first time making a mushroom tart and it was tasty, but swimming), then drain them (reserve the liquid if you want for use elsewhere) and sprinkle them over the cheese layer. 7) Take the remaining fresh cheese and mix it with the mint and some salt and pepper. Using a teaspoon, gently fill the zucchini flowers with it. 8) Place these on top of the tart and drizzle the olive oil over them. 9) Salt and pepper to taste and bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes. Serve warm with a side salad. Light but warm, it made a good lunch for an early autumn day, and easy to assemble too.

As mentioned in Day 33 of The Challenge It is pumpkin season again! We picked up a big Georgia Candy Roaster Pumpkin from a road-side stand (also excellent as dessert just roasted with a little olive oil and cinnamon! If you want to be decadent add butter and brown sugar to the hot orange mess and pour cream over the top, but it honestly doesn't need it! I think this will be my dessert for as long as the pumpkin lasts.) As the evenings have turned cooler, we decided to make a pumpkin chilli, with pumpkin replacing the role of the tomato. It worked well but was missing something, so we added a bit of tomato to the leftovers the next night and it was beautiful. Sweet and hot with just the right touch of acidity to balance it, and the deeper flavour notes from the beans. Ingredients: 1/3 of a large pumpkin 3 tbsp of olive oil 3 cups of assorted beans, soaked and ready to go ( we used adzuki and pinto beans) 3 onions, chopped 2 heads of garlic, chopped 2 red peppers, chpped 2 spicy(ish) white pepper 4 chilli peppers, chopped 8 mushrooms, chopped 2 tsp orange curry powder (or another of your choice. This is an interesting one we picked up in a market) 1 tsp Aloha Spiced Cacao 2 tsp Urfa biber (Turkish black chili) 2 tbsp lime juice 2 tsp cumin 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp cloves 1 tsp ground ginger Salt and pepper to taste (500ml of tomato passata) 1) Roast the pumpkin chunks with 1 tbsp of olive oil at 200°C for about a half hour until soft. Mash with a fork and set aside. 2) Sauté onions and garlic in the remaining olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pot. Add spices and stir. 3)Add peppers and chilis and cook until almost tender. Pour in beans, pumpkin mash with all the roasting juices, the lime juice, and about a cup of water. if using tomato passata, now is the time to add it. Salt and pepper to taste. 4) Cook for an hour or more until flavours are married. Serve hot with corn bread or over rice. Garnish with fresh coriander if you have any. Served with fresh corn-muffins, it hit the spot both ways and was tasty, warming and satisfying but not overly heavy. We are just disappointed that with the Challenge in play, we won't be able to make this one again during pumpkin season (unless we cheat and call a time out). We kept this one mild as we were going to share with our 9 month old, so do feel free to spice it up further!

As mentioned in Day 21 of The Challenge Growing up, my dad made jambalaya a lot. I have never been to the South of the US, never been to New Orelans or had true creole food, but jambalaya is a comfort food for me, a childhood flavour. I have no idea how close mine approximates a true jambalaya, call it a faux jambalaya if you want, but it is tasty and filling, with few dishes and a warming flavour hitting all the right notes. It can be meaty or fishy or both, always with a bunch of vegetables. I cheated for this one and used the last of my homemade Thai red curry paste as it needed using. Ingredients: 1 spicy sausage, sliced (I used Turkish Suçuk) 2 pieces of chicken per person 2 tbsp olive oil 4 prawns per person, shelled and veined 6 medium onions, roughly chopped 2 heads of garlic, chopped 3 tbsp Thai red curry paste 2 red peppers, chopped 3 celery stalks, chopped 1 courgette, chopped a dozen okra, chopped Hot peppers - as many or as few as you like depending on taste and which ones you have. I used 5 or 6 little ones of medium heat 2 cups of rice (we used a wild rice mix for this) 1 cup red cooking wine 4 cups broth 2 stalks fresh thyme 2 stalks fresh oregano 2 tsp cayenne pepper (or sometimes I substitute tandoori powder as it has a different heat and a warmth to it) 1 tsp cumin salt and pepper to taste. 1) Brown the chicken pieces and sausage in the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Grind pepper over it while it cooks, add salt if you are going to, and add cayenne and cumin. Set aside. 2) Cook onions and garlic in the oil and sausage fats. When they change colour, add the curry paste and stir for a few minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables and allow them to start to soften slightly. 3) Add the cooking wine and cook further before adding the rice. (This allows the acid in the wine to react with the okra so they don't turn slimy). Stir until the rice turns translucent and add the broth. Stir the chicken and sausage back in, allowing them to cook alongside the rice, absorbing all the flavours now bubbling away. 4) Cook approximately 20 minutes until the rice is cooked and the liquid almost entirely absorbed. Tuck the shrimp into the rice 5 minutes before you are ready to serve and cook until they are just opaque. 5) Serve it hot, on its own, with mustard or hot sauce. Jambalaya is one of those dishes which never comes out the same way twice for me. The general lines of the dish are there, but the exact flavouring and final product depend on what meat and/or seafood I am in the mood for, what veg I have at home and what the sniff test around my spice cupboard reveals which might be of interest.... Play around with it, use whatever veg or meat you want, and tweak the spicing to suit you. Have fun!