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A traditional Cheese Tart, or a Tarte au Fromage, is an old favourite. My dad has made it for years, and I absolutely love it, sometimes with a little twist. This time, to cut down the richness a little, I added leek and some of our Carrot Top pesto (well, proto pesto as it doesn't yet have nuts or cheese added). The combo had some zing, and some fresh greenness, and some leeky freshness, as well as all the cheesy richness. I was in a hurry, so I'm afraid that it was a store bought crust, first one in two years, but the tart didn't suffer for it. Ingredients: Crust for 1 tart 2 - 2 1/2 c grated cheese (something mature!) 3 eggs 2/3 c cream 2 /3 c milk Nutmeg, freshly grated 2 tbsp flour 1 tbsp butter 1 leek, sliced 2-3 tbsp carrot tip pesto 1 tomato sliced Pepper 1) Melt butter in a pan and sauté leek over medium until softened but not browned. 2) Beat together eggs, cream, milk, flour and nutmeg. Line a tart pan with the crust. Spread pesto along the bottom. Layer leeks over the pesto, and spread the cheese over the leeks. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the cheese. Lay tomato slices over the whole. Liberally grind pepper over the top. 3) Bake at 180°C for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown on top. Eminently satisfying as a quick easy supper before a walk in the snow, but this would have worked equally well as a lunch, or alongside soup. I was very happy with how this turned out.

I find this very satisfying, and as much as I like a good, traditional meat lasagne, I also like having

Stir in the juice, cranberries and zest, and finally, fold in the melted chocolate.

and savoury soufflés on a regular basis, they are something I come back to as an easy throw-together comfort food. Dust the dish with the remaining flour mix, ensuring good coverage right up to the rim. Gently fold in the remaining whites.

Historically, they were the survival food of France during rationing during WWII. It was good but... A good comfort food, and a very nice variant on a regular gratin.

Looking into fenugreek a while back, I came across a description of it comparing fenugreek's taste to that of maple and the fact that fenugreek is sometimes used as a maple substitute. That gave me an idea. What about if I used fenugreek in something that often has maple syrup added to it, like pancakes. The idea niggled for a while until I finally tried it. The pancakes worked really well. They were missing a little richness to the maple flavour, but with butter or yogurt they were really tasty! Less sweet obviously, than adding maple syrup to a dish, and the flavour was more delicate, but very tasty. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp fenugreek powder 3 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp melted butter 2 eggs 3/4c milk 1) Combine dry ingredients, then gradually add wet ingredients. Add an additional splash of milk if necessary for the batter to be just thin enough to pour. 2) Melt butter in a skillet then cook the pancakes in two-tablespoon-dollops (or bigger if you want) over medium heat until bubbles appear and pop on the surface and it goes from shiny to matte, then flip. Serve hot with butter, jam, syrup or fruits. Or anything else you fancy. I really enjoyed these. They had a definite maple flavour but without added sugar. I enjoyed mine plain with butter, which gave them an extra richness that brought out the maple flavour. These are definitely coming back out! The only aspect I wasn't delighted with was the texture. They were a little heavier than usual, and I don't know if fenugreek requires a little additional liquid or rising agent, or if there was a mix-up somewhere. To be tried again I guess, and I will see. If you try them, let me know what you think!

So I'm a little late in posting this, but we get spectacular apricots here in the summer, so while they were in season I decided to make jam. Rather than going traditional though, I thought I would try something a little different and add port to the jam to deepen the flavour a little. We then had to try them with scones and clotted cream... Ingredients: 2.5kg apricots, stoned and sliced 3c sugar 2 c Tawny port Water 1) Place apricots in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add enough water to cover the fruit 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. I go light on sugar, you might want to use more. 4) When the jam looks as though it has thickened enough, drop some of the hot jam on the saucer from the freezer. If after a minute it 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 make it less likely that you'll burn yourself, but you can do it with a spoon or a spatula and a dishcloth). 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. I was very pleased with the result. The balance between the apricots, the port and the sugar was delightful. The jam worked well on scones or muffins but also in oatmeal and such. I will definitely be making this again!

This was satisfying and balanced, a comfort food if there ever was one.

As Mentioned in Day 42 of The Challenge We made baking powder biscuits ( sort of non-sweet scones, very tasty if not strongly flavoured despite the unflattering name) for our Pork Shoulder Roast, and then decided to have the rest for dessert with a blueberry and port sauce and a chocolate sauce. It was very tasty, with the sauce melting the dollop of crème fraiche over the top, although possible not strictly speaking necessary after the pork roast. A beautiful way altogether of celebrating our last night of holiday before going back to work. Ingredients: For the biscuits: 2c flour 4 tbsp butter 2/3 c milk 2 tsp baking powder For the Blueberry Port Sauce: 2 c blueberries 2 tbsp sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 c ruby port 1) Mix the flour and baking powder together and then cut the butter into the flour in small pieces. Rub the butter into the flour with fingertips until it forms a crumby dough. 2) Add milk and mix it into a light, soft dough, then knead briefly until smooth. 3) Roll the dough out to 1-1.5 cm thick on a floured surface. Cut with a floured cutter or glass into rounds and place these on a greased baking sheet, leaving a little room for the biscuits to expand. Bake 12-15 minutes at 230°C, until golden brown on top and risen. 4) To make the blueberry and port sauce, place berries in a saucepan with 1/4 c water. bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 10 minutes or so. Add the sugar, cinnamon and port and stir, cooking until the desired consistency is reached. Taste test and adjust sugar or spicing. 6) Serve the biscuits hot with the sauce drizzled over and a dollop of crème fraiche. Decadent but quick and easy, this was beautiful for a lazy evening.

In preparation for the Littler One's arrival, I've been stockpiling food in the freezer, and that has included some breakfast foods for Little Bit, like pancakes, waffles and muffins that can easily be I've ever done, but I've seen a lot of chatter about using air fryers for different things on online foodie