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Over a year ago, I made mead. It came out a little rougher than I had hoped, but much better than I had feared. I decided at that point to leave it to age to see whether it would improve, and planned also to try mulling it in the winter. For some reason, I never got around to mulling it last winter before finding out that I was expecting a Littler Bit, and therefore no longer drinking boozy things. It was therefore only now, with a Littler Bit happily swaddled in her Moses basket, that my sister, hubby and I decided to try mulling the remaining mead from a year ago. And how glad I am that we did! Don't worry if you haven't tried brewing your own, store-bought mead will work too, so don't let that stop you. Ingredients: 6 c mead 1 tbsp maple sugar 1 tbsp honey 1 tbsp dried orange peel 1 cinnamon stick 6 cloves 1) Place all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, and cook for about a half hour or longer to allow spiced to infuse. Drink hot. We very much enjoyed this. So much so in fact, that we are brewing a new batch of mead in order to have some for mulling purposes at Christmas. We did discover that leaving the mulled mead overnight, it was even better on day 2. I may even mull it a day or so early next time.

Cranberry sauce is a must for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, to my mind anyway, and also very tasty alongside all sorts of other meals, so I was delighted to find whole packs of cranberries available in the store. For our Big Feast, we, therefore, used these to make cranberry sauce. It is only in recent years that these are available here, so it is still quite a delightful novelty to be able to do this at all. Ever so simple, it is worth making your own! Ingredients: 3 c cranberries 1/2 - 1 c sugar 1 tbsp orange zest Juice of 1 orange 1 tbsp ginger, grated 1) (Optional: cut cranberries in half). Place in a saucepan, add enough water to cover, and add other ingredients. Simmer, stirring regularly and with increasing frequency as it thickens, until the sauce has reached desired consistency to desired consistency. Taste test and adjust sugar or orange according to your taste. Serve with extra grated zest. This was very tasty with the original Ham Feast, but then also with multiple other meals, such as a chestnut risotto, or a bacon roly-poly. Having it on hand was truly delightful, but unfortunately, it ran out in under a week... I may need to make more.

Thanksgiving was last week, and unfortunately - mid-November not being considered part of the festive season here, and there being, therefore, no reason for them to be available - no turkeys were to be had, even for ready money. We discovered the day before the Big Feast that we could have ordered one, but this required a few days' notice. Instead, we decided to have a Thanksgiving Ham. We modified our standard cornbread stuffing recipe by adding a little orange zest to it, then bedded the ham down on that. Smothering it in a gingery apple sauce, and then blanketing everything in bacon, all elements came out moist, basted and richly delicious. Paired with sweet potatoes, broccoli, basil carrots and baking powder biscuits, this was truly a Big Feast (as Little Bit calls it), enjoyed as a family. Ingredients. 1 smoked ham (ours was roughly a kg) 8 - 10 rashers of bacon 1 - 1 1/2 c apple sauce ~ 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated 5 c stuffing 1) 3/4 fill an oven-proof dish with the stuffing of your choice. Make a small hollow in the centre and nestle the ham in it. Smother the ham in the apple sauce and grate ginger over the top. Lay bacon over the whole. 2) Roast at 165°C for about 3 hours. Allow to rest for 15 minutes before carving. Enjoy with trimmings! We all agreed that the ham stood in nicely for the turkey at our Thanksgiving dinner and that this was a cooking method to be added into the rotation. The apple and ginger imparted a subtle but discernible and tasty note to the ham, which matched well with the orange note in the stuffing. Bacon was bacon, and therefore not to be argued with. Everything was moist and delicious. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

We didn't use all of the butternut purée that we had prepared for our Rainbow Lasagna the other day, so when in need of a quick easy dinner, I threw this together to have over pasta. It didn't come out entirely as planned because the Allspice spilled out a little faster than I had anticipated. With a couple of tweaks though, it worked out. Ingredients: 1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp flour 1 1/2c milk 1 1/2 - 2 c butternut squash purée (squash rings roasted until soft, then mashed) 1/2c white cooking wine 2 tsp allspice 1/2 tsp sumac 1/2 tsp thyme Salt and pepper 1) in a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour and cook for a few minutes until thick. Add milk in splashes, stirring until incorporated to create a roux. beware of it sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan. 2) Stir in butternut and wine, then spices. adjust consistency with extra milk if you want it a little thinner. We used the sauce in two different meals. The first was over spaghetti with veg on the side. It was tasty, but the acidity from the veg was a necessary component of the meal to balance out the flavours. With the leftover sauce, I mixed in tomato and peas and turned them into pasties for a picnic. These were arguably better than the original pasta the sauce was used for. I simply folded them in pie crust, brushed with olive oil and baked in the airfryer at 195°C for 8 minutes, they came out beautifully. These were perfect for a picnic, still warm in our hands on a chilly day. As a side note, I used peach syrup vinegar (from making pickled peaches this summer) in the pie crust instead of milk or water. The extra flavour layer worked very nicely and added a contrasting acidic note to the sweet flavour of the butternut,

Littler Bit has arrived, spelling the end of a rather tough pregnancy. My body and energy levels are bouncing back, but not so my sleep schedule. I now have a toddler and a newborn to contend with, so we'll see what effect this has on my cooking going forward. My sister, she of the Variations on a Theme recipes, is staying with us to help for a while. Shortly after arriving she mentioned having seen an idea somewhere for a rainbow lasagna, but without actually looking at what it entailed. We have since spent the last few days bouncing ideas around and decided to try our own version tonight. Well received by all (except Little Bit, who as a toddler, objects to various elements of his food touching each other, a necessity in lasagna), so here it is. It is maybe an intimidating ingredient list, but assembly is very quick! Caution: the quantities below resulted in about two complete lasagna pans-worth -- about double what we had intended. This worked out well, as we now have ready-made leftovers. Reduce all ingredients except cheese and red pepper for a single dish. Ingredients: 2 beets, peeled and sliced 1 1/2c ricotta 2 c spinach (or 2 large cubes of frozen spinach) 3/4 c tinned tomato 1 c black beans - cooked or tinned 1 large eggplant, thinly sliced 2 zucchinis, thinly sliced 2 c butternut squash purée* (from roasted squash scooped out of its skin) 1 tbsp butter, melted 2 red bell peppers, quartered lengthwise 2c grated cheese (we used gruyère- and raclette-type cheese leftover in the fridge) 1/3 c mascarpone 1/4 c whey, milk, or stock (we used whey) ~6 lasagna sheets 1 tsp sumac 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp urfa biber 1/2 tsp allspice 2 tsp sage 1 tsp thyme 1/2 tsp tarragon Handful of pomegranate seeds Salt and Pepper to taste * Could be replaced with pumpkin purée, either homemade or tinned (if you have the good fortune to live in a place where that is available to you). 1) Steam beets until al dente. Blitz with just enough whey, milk or stock to allow the blender to run smoothly. Add spinach, sage, thyme, tarragon and 1c ricotta. Set aside. 2) In a bowl, mix squash purée with 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, allspice and sumac. Add mascarpone and remaining ricotta. Set aside. 3) In another bowl, roughly mash up black beans with tomatoes, and add the urfa biber and remaining half teaspoon of cinnamon. 4) Brush a baking dish with melted butter. Line the bottom of the dish with lasagna sheets and brush with butter again. Spread beans and tomato mixture in a thin layer over the lasagna sheets and cover with eggplant slices. Spread a layer of the beet mixture and arrange a layer of zucchini sliced over the top. Sprinkle on a layer of grated cheese and then spread the squash mix, followed by the red pepper and another layer of cheese. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds over the top and grind a generous amount of black pepper. 5) Bake at 180° C/350°F for 45-60 minutes. Seve hot (with a nice glass of red if so inclined). We were very pleased with how this came out! Once his portion was deconstructed, even the toddler consented to have some. The consistency was a little goopy, resulting in a tendency to flow, rather than come out in nice squares. For structural integrity purposes, we should have used thinner layers of the puree, but we thought this would have been to the detriment of flavour -- after all, this is a meal, not an engineering project! The squash layer, taste-tested prior to assembly, would be great to experiment with as the filling for a pie! It was sweet and dessert-y, with warm flavour notes and a rich, creamy texture. We had intended to add orange zest to either the squash layer or the final layer, but forgot. In terms of eating the rainbow, this tasted great, but the green and blue sort of got lost. To truly eat the rainbow, we would need to devise a green/blue layer that held its own a little better without overshadowing the others. For example, a layer of beet greens over the zucchini. As a side note, the ricotta in this was homemade last week, as I had wanted to try freezing the ricotta. We defrosted it for this dish and found that it held its flavour well, although its texture was slightly grainier. This is a good solution for keeping ricotta on hand, as long as you don't need a smooth, whipped texture. This could easily be made gluten-free, by simply omitting the pasta layer, which we included primarily for structural-integrity purposes.

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!

I do love a soufflé, and since our time in South Africa when we got into making both sweet and savoury soufflés on a regular basis, they are something I come back to as an easy throw-together comfort food. With apple sauce and cheese on hand, this seemed just the thing for a light lunch with people coming around. Apple and cheese are flavours which I like so well together, too that it seemed an excellent opportunity to try them in this guise. Ingredients: For the flour mix: 1/4 c flour 1 tsp sage 1 tsp thyme Pepper 2 tbsp butter For the roux: 1 1/2 tbsp butter 1 1/2 tbsp flour mix 1/2 c milk 1/2 - 3/4 c apple sauce 1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 1/2 c cheese, grated (I used medium aged Gruyère) 2 egg yolks For the soufflé: 1 1/2 c roux 7 egg whites 1/2 c cheese, grated 1 tsp sumac 1 tsp thyme Salt and pepper to taste 1) Assemble the flour mix in a small bowl. Set aside 1 1/2 tbsp of this. Use the butter to grease the soufflé dish thoroughly. Dust the dish with the remaining flour mix, ensuring good coverage right up to the rim. Dump any excess flour out. 2) Make the roux. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the flour mix that was set aside, and stir well. Lower the heat and gradually stir in the milk, stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Add apple sauce and vinegar, and stir in cheese. Finally, beat in egg yolks. Set aside and cover the sauce pan to prevent a skin forming. 3) Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. Mix about 1/3 of the egg whites into 1 1/2 c of the roux in a large bowl. Gently fold in the remaining whites. Salt and pepper to taste. 4) Carefully pour the roux and egg white mix into the prepared soufflé dish. Sprinkle the grated cheese, the sumac and the thyme over the top. Use a butter knife to gently loosen the soufflé from the side of the dish. 5) Place the soufflé dish in a larger oven proof dish at least half the depth of the soufflé dish. Pour boiling water into the larger pan, coming midway up the soufflé pan. Bake at 180°C for 25-30 minutes, leaving the oven door closed until the end of the bake time to prevent collapse. I was pleased with how this came out. I would be tempted to use sliced apple with it next time too, either lining the bottom or arranged on top of the soufflé. Once you sort of know what you're doing, these come together pretty quickly, and I love the cloud of flavoured egg that is scooped out onto plates. It works either as a main or as a side. Caveat. I did make a little too much roux for the size of my soufflé dish and so had some left over to use up in the following days.

I first encountered clotted cream on a trip to Cornwall with my dad when I was 8, and I loved it. Living in Switzerland, it is unavailable here, so it was always only an occasional treat on trips to the UK. And then I moved to Scotland and discovered that I could have it whenever I wanted. And I learned to make scones. Hey Diddle Diddle! It never occurred to me though - growing up with it as a treat, with it commonly available for 6 years in Scotland, or since it has again become an occasional treat - that clotted cream was something I could actually make at home. With minimal faff or effort involved. And then I read somewhere about how simple it actually is and I had to try it. I read a couple of recipes and other people's accounts of making it, and the difference between making clotted cream and cornish cream, and then decided to try it for myself. The biggest impediment was picking a time when I could have it in and out of the oven at low temperatures for several days. Other than that though, it is the simplest "recipe" I think I have ever tried. Here goes. Heat cream at very low temperature for several hours (10-12). Turn off the oven and leave in, cooling oven overnight. In the morning, move the cream to the fridge. Allow to cool completely for several more hours, then scoop off the solid cream. There will be a slight skin or crust over the top, which is completely normal. It came out beautifully! I can't believe how simple it actually was once the veil was lifted. There are a few foods like that that I've enjoyed de-mythifying over the last few years, but this has to be the simplest....I am tempted to start playing around with this a little, like flavouring the cream beforehand for example. I would also like to try it as an ingredient in other dishes and see how it compares to using butter or regular cream. And then, of course, I had to make scones to go with it...

With pumpkins very briefly in season and available here, I am trying to take advantage. Some I am cooking with now, for tasty, warming autumnal foods, while others I am roasting and then freezing as pumpkin purée for future use. With some of this roasted pumpkin purée, I decided to make more muffins - still in a bid to stock up on breakfast foods for Little Bit before Littler Bit arrives, which require zero effort from me after the first half hour or so. I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go with these, but then as I made up a batch of British Mix Spice for another recipe, I decided to use that. Mix Spice, as it turns out, is quite similar to Pumpkin Spice, but with some differences, most notable of which is the coriander powder. I decided to try out the spice blend on the pumpkin muffins, and I am quite pleased with it. Ingredients: 3 tbsp butter 2 tbsp light brown sugar 1 tbsp white sugar 1 egg 1 c milk 1 c white flour 1 c whole wheat flour 2 tsp mix spice* 3 tsp baking powder 2 tsp dried orange peel 1 c pumpkin purée 1 c dark chocolate chips For a recipe for Mix Spice, here is the link to the one I used. 1) Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in egg and then stir in milk. 2) Gradually stir in dry ingredients, followed by pumpkin and chocolate chips. 3) Spoon into muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full. Bake at 200°C for 20-25 minutes, until a stabbing implement comes out clean (I favour knives for this, but I know some people like skewers. Stabber's choice really.) I enjoyed these, especially with a smidge of butter. Little Bit tucked in quite happily, so I think my goal of providing something easy for him succeeded! I must say though that the pumpkin flavour wasn't particularly strong. I have found that before when using my homemade pumpkin purée from roasted pumpkin, especially as contrasted with the much more pronounced flavour of tinned pumpkin, but being unable to get tinned pumpkin here, I am making do with what we have. I also chopped up dark chocolate from a bar rather than using actual chips, and some of the pieces were (deliberately-accidentally) a bit on the larger side, so the final muffins had big gooey chocolate patches in them, which was not a bad thing in the least.

This is one of those recipes that wasn't planned beyond "We need food. What's in the fridge?" It developed based on the ingredients on hand - homemade pasta, cauliflower, lemon and yoghurt. We tried a couple of variants - without the bacon, then with and finally with cured egg yolk grated over the top. It was tasty in all its iterations and so worth sharing. My favourite, though, was the final one in which we added a little crumbled bacon and the cured egg yolk, which tasted like a lighter carbonara. It made about 3 portions. Ingredients: Pasta 1 - 1 1/2 c plain yoghurt Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon 1 tsp sumac 1/2 cauliflower head, chopped 1 tbsp olive oil + 1 more for sauce 1/2 - 1 head garlic, crushed *5 rashers of bacon *Cured egg yolk to top salt and pepper to taste * Optional 1) Cook pasta until al dente, reserving a half cup of pasta water. In a large pan, heat the oil. Add the cauliflower and fry until beginning to brown and soften. 2) In a large bowl, mix the yoghurt, lemon juice and zest. sumac and salt and pepper. Add the cauliflower and stir. If using, crispy fry the rashers of bacon. 3) Toss the sauce with the pasta, stirring in the pasta water bit by bit. If using, crumble the bacon and grate the cured egg yolk over the top. Salt and pepper to taste. This was a big hit with all of us (Little Bit needed his separated into different components, but then, he is a toddler...). I loved the simplicity and lightness of this dish. The bacon and egg yolk of course added some richness, but without making the meal too heavy. The lemon and yoghurt's acidity also helped to keep it fresh and light, while the cauliflower pieces helped add a little depth and bite. All in all, a meal that I am quite pleased with.