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Ginger snaps are on of the traditional Christmas cookies that I grew up with.

After making my Yellow Carrot Tart with the barley flour crust, I started thinking. That crust base was unique, with a bit more bite and a bit more sweetness to it than regular crust. At some point when nursing in the middle of the night (sometimes that's when the best ideas happen, the problem is holding onto them in the morning) it occurred to me that the crust modified slightly would work nicely for shortbread. After thinking of it it kept niggling me until I tried it. So I did. It also dawned on my while making them that if I can get the barley flour fine enough, barley, with less gluten than regular flour, is a great replacement as in shortbread everything is done to prevent gluten chain formation (soft butter, no kneading). Starting with something even less likely to do that has the potential for even crumblier, tenderer biscuits. Ingredients: 2/3 c barley flour 2/3c flour 1/2 c butter, very soft 1/4c sugar 1/3 c dark chocolate chips 1) Place flours and butter in a bowl and mix until smooth. Add sugar and chocolate chips. Mix. Press together into a dough. Do NOT knead. 2) Turn out onto a clean surface and roll out to about 1 - 1.5 cm thick and cut into rounds of the desired thickness. Place rounds on a cookie sheet with wax paper and chill 20 minutes. 3) Bake at 190°C for 15-20 minutes until golden. These were very tasty and the flavours came together as I had hoped. The biscuits could have been a little thicker though. Also, in terms of the texture, these didn't melt in your mouth the way regular shortbread cookies do. I need to grind the barley flour a little finer next time as it had too much bite, but otherwise, I am delighted with these!

With citrus fruit now in season, one way of preserving them is in a curd - a custard-like jam that keeps in the fridge for about 4 weeks and in the freezer for about a year. It requires eggs and butter, making it rich and creamy, but less long-lived. I have experimented with making various curds at different times, and enjoy them all. Grapefruit curd is a particular favourite. It is also something that always seems like it will be more complicated and difficult than it is. Some recipes call for egg yolks, others for whole eggs. I've done it with both in the past and both work. The curd is maybe a little richer when made with egg yolks rather than whole eggs though. This time, going away a day later for Christmas, I didn't want extra egg whites hanging around, so I used whole eggs. Feel free to substitute though. As you cook until it thickens, I don't tend to change the proportions much, the curd just thickens faster with egg yolks than whole eggs. Ingredients: 5 eggs 1 c + 3 tbsp sugar (250g) 1 1/8 c butter, diced (250g) Juice of 1 1/2 grapefruits, reduced by about 1/3 Zest of 2 grapefruits 1) Place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water, forming a Bain Marie. In this, whisk together the sugar and eggs until uniformly combined. 2) Add the zest and the juice and whisk well. Add the butter a cube or two at a time, waiting to add the next cube until the previous ones have mostly melted. Continue whisking and adding butter cubes until all the butter is added and melted, and the curd begins to thicken. (Optional extra step for a smoother curd: Strain the curd when it has begun to thicken, removing the zest and any other bits. I find this unnecessary and don't mind encountering bits of zest, but the choice is yours). 3) Meanwhile, sterilise jars in boiling water for 15 minutes. When the curd has begun to thicken, spoon the hot curd into freshly boiled jars and seal immediately, making sure the rims of the jars stay clean. As the curd cools, it will seal the jars. ( I needed three jam jars for this quantity of curd). The curd should keep in the fridge for about 4 weeks or in the freezer for about a year. Once opened, be aware that it is made with eggs, so consume it relatively quickly. I am pleased with how this turned out, and am planning on conserving more citrus this way as they come into season, so stay tuned for any variations!

As mentioned in Day 84 of The Challenge This is one of my favourite tarts (and for any of you who've been paying attention, I make a lot of tarts). The first time I made it was just before we were going to go away on a trip for a week, so I made mini tartlets and brought them with us so as not to have the onions rot while we were away. Sitting on our (very short) flight all I could smell was the onion wafting down from the over-head compartment... Maybe not my most socially conscious move ever, but by then it was too late. Anyway, they made for a really tasty picnic lunch on our adventures and I've been making this tart, in normal or mini form, ever since. Feel free to omit the tomato or bacon, add spinach, cut the cumin and replace it with some nutmeg or add cheese. All of these options work! Ingredients: 1 pie crust (for pie crust recipe, see here) Half a dozen onions, sliced 100g bacon, sliced 2 tbsp butter 1/4 c flour (scant) 2 eggs 100ml milk 200ml cream (I don't always use cream, sometimes I do it with just milk) 1/2 - 1 tbsp cumin 1 tomato, sliced salt and pepper to taste 1) Line a pie dish with the crust and poke with a fork. 2) Melt butter in a frying pan and fry the bacon with the onions until they are translucent. 3) Mix flour, eggs, milk, cream and cumin. 4) Spread onions and bacon on the pie base. Pour the egg and milk mix evenly over the onions. Place tomatoes on top. Salt and pepper to taste. 5) Bake at 190°C for 25-30 minutes. Serve hot or cold, as a main or a side. It holds its own either way, and I love it! Great finger food for little bit too!

As with the Honey and Cinnamon Scones, these were for an Afternoon Tea collaboration I was invited to take part in on Instagram for International Tea day on the 21st of May. Devilled eggs are simple and tasty, but a lot of people seem daunted by the idea of making them, so I thought it worth including a recipe here. I used my dad's Scotch bonnet hot sauce to devil the eggs, but beyond a bit of a kick, left them pretty mild so Little Bit could have some too. Along with fruit, he is an egg fiend. Ingredients: 6 eggs 1 - 1 1/2 tbsp mayo 2 tsp mustard 1 -2 tsp hot sauce (or more to suit your taste) Salt and pepper to taste Tandoori powder for sprinkling 1) Boil the eggs for 9-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and run under cold water then let them sit in it until cool. 2) Peel the eggs carefully, halve them and pop out the yolks. In a bowl, mash all the yolks together with the other ingredients except tandoori powder. Taste test. 3) Spoon or pipe the yolks back into their wells in the whites. Sprinkle them with tandoori powder. I hadn't had devilled eggs in ages, and was delighted to have some again! I really should entertain more often (pandemics allowing) in order to make these more! Or maybe just have tea time at home with my boys and make these for us...

My second attempt at making my own ricotta went well, but I scalded it a little (Little Bit waking up at a crucial moment was not part of the plan!) The scalding actually gave the ricotta an interesting caramelised flavour though. The plan had been to make ricotta gnocchi with it, so I went ahead with that but decided to use the caramelised flavour and have a slightly sweeter, more robust sauce to stand up to the ricotta. I made a pumpkin sauce with a little red wine and balsamic, caramelising the onions first. Using my own home made ricotta for this also had the advantage of allowing me to drain it in its little basket for a couple of days so that it was nice and firm to start making the gnocchi. I must say, it came out nicely! Ingredients: For the gnocchi: 1 c ricotta 1 egg 1 c grated aged cheese (eg parmesan) 1 - 1 1/4 c flour 1/2 c cornmeal, and extra for sprinkling Pepper For the sauce: 3 onions, sliced fine 1/2 head of garlic, crushed 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp sage, crushed 1/2 sweet potato, grated 2 c roasted pumpkin (I pulled mine from the freezer stash of pumpkin I put aside when it was in season) 1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 3/4 - 1 c red cooking wine 2 c water salt to taste 1) Place flour and cornmeal in a bowl and form a well. Crack eggs into well and add ricotta. Mix to form a dough, adding a little extra flour if it is too wet. Mix in the cheese and pepper. 2) Cut the dough into quarters and then roll these into long snakes. Cut the snakes obliquely every 1 cm or so to form the little pillowy gnocchi, then toss these in a little cornmeal to coat them (this absorbs excess moisture from the outside and gives them a little bite). Leave to rest while you make the sauce. 3) Heat oil in a pan. Sauté onions, sage and garlic over medium-low heat to sweat them. Add the sweet potato and pepper and cook for a few more minutes. Add the balsamic and wine and bring to a simmer. Add the pumpkin and break it up. At this point, the sauce should be quite thick, but coming together nicely in terms of the flavours. 4) Add the water and salt to taste and bring to a simmer. Add the gnocchi and cook for a further 5 minutes, until the gnocchi are tender but firm, not mushy. Serve, with a little more grated cheese over the top, optionally. I loved this dish! I wasn't sure until I started exactly what I was going to do with it, and then had my doubts mid-way in, but it was tasty, with nicely layered flavours without being heavy. It had some creaminess, and some tang, and some sweetness, and some umami. Overall a well balanced dish, in my opinion.

I started out by trying to make candied lemon rind in the same way that I've been making candied orange peel. I used a little more sugar to simmer the lemon rind though to counteract its' being slightly more bitter than orange peel. When I went to cool and then drain the peels (setting aside the syrup for some other use), I discovered that they should be kept together, rind in syrup rather than just drying the rinds. The combination was really tasty! It was not too sweet nor too bitter, had a strong lemon flavour and the peels had a nice tooth to them without being in the least bit tough. Trying a spoonful, I decided to set it all aside as it was and make panna cotta to have with it. We did that this weekend, and the combination was too good not to share. Ingredients: For the Lemon rind in syrup: Rind of 2 lemons, all flesh removed and sliced into strips 1/2 c sugar (approx) Water (approx 2-3 c) For the panna cotta: 500ml cream 1/4 c sugar (approx. - adjust to suit your own tastes though) 40g gelatine (I used the granulated kind, but check the packet instructions for the one you use) 1 tsp vanilla 1) Place the lemon rind and sugar in a saucepan with enough water to cover them to twice their depth. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes, until the rinds are tender and the liquid is reduced to syrup. Cool and set aside. You can make this ahead of time and store it in the fridge in a sealed jar. 2) Place cream and vanilla in a saucepan and heat gently until it reaches a simmer. Stir in the gelatine and sugar (if using gelatine sheets, don't forget to soak these first). Taste test for sweetness and vanilla. 3) Pour into small pots or ramequins and chill for at least a couple of hours or overnight. To serve, spoon the lemon peels and syrup over the panna cotta. I absolutely loved this dessert. The tart peels played off the creaminess really well, and none of it was overly sweet. My only problem was with the gelatine. It caused the panna cotta to be slightly grainy, and it is not the first time I've had this issue with the granulated kind. It didn't happen with the Lemongrass Panna Cotta but did a previous time. I don't know why it does this, whether it is simmer time or something else. On the whole, I prefer the sheets and have since picked some up for next time. Book Pairing: I was listening to China Miéville's Embassytown when I made these. Miéville's novels are delightfully strange. This one centred around language and its effects on thought patterns and ways of knowing the world around us. One race of beings represented can only speak Truth and can only conceive of what they have words for. Through the plot, the differences in language and the way it is used were interestingly explored. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, although the reader was a little irritating. Certain concepts are described using an existing German word which was surprising. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

As mentioned in Day 67 of The Challenge This was a pre-night shift dinner for me by my husband and went over very well with all of us, including Little One who has started making definite preferences known. It is a bit of a multi-step process, but so worth it! Warm and filling, it is the ultimate comfort food. Ingredients: 2 eggs 500 g of ziti, penne or other tubular pasta 1 head of garlic, crushed 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tins (800g) tomatoes 2 c (800g) of cottage cheese 600g mozzarella, shredded 1 c milk 1 tsp sugar 2 tsp basil 2 tsp oregano 3/4 tsp cornstarch 1/2 c red cooking wine Salt and pepper to taste 1) Heat olive oil with garlic in a heavy bottomed sauce pan, allowing the garlic to infuse gently. Add tomatoes and wine and bring to a simmer. Add basil and oregano. 2) Once the sauce has thickened, add the sugar. 3) Beat eggs, and add cottage cheese and half the mozzarella to them, whisking again. 4) Cook pasta 3/4 of the way there - it still must have some bite to it as it will continue cooking in the oven! Put in a casserole dish and set aside. 5) In a saucepan, combine cornstarch and milk, stirring and heating slowly until they thicken, then remove from the heat. 6) Add the cottage cheese mixture and 1 c of tomato sauce to the milk mix. Add this resulting triple mix to the pasta and stir well to coat all of those little tubes in gooey goodness. 7) Mix remaining tomato sauce with the pasta gooey-ness, and stir in the mozzarella to melt through. 8) Bake at 180°C for 45 minutes until the top is golden (and has a few crispy bits as these are amazing!) So tasty, and almost better as leftovers. I definitely recommend this. Hubby's been promising/threatening to make this for years, and never having even heard of this until he mentioned it, I had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least, and (after the challenge) this will be making it into regular rotation!

Continuing on my citrus adventures for this winter, I present you with lime curd. Using the same base recipe as my Pink Grapefruit Curd in December, but obviously replacing the large pinky yellow orbs for smaller green ones. And more of them too - by a ratio of about 4. If you recall, I discussed in my pink grapefruit recipe the fact that there are recipes using both whole eggs and egg yolks for curd. In December, because of other, non-cooking related circumstances, I used whole eggs. This time though, I decided to really test the hypothesis, so I made two batches of lime curd, one using egg yolks, and the other using an equal number of whole eggs. Both worked, but because of accidents of... shall we call it life? ... I had some light issues with both. The egg yolk version was interrupted about 6 times by phone calls, so a quiet, chill time that was perfect for it suddenly was not and there was a lot of stop-and-go cooking, involving bringing things back up to temperature, then walking away again etc. The second time, I thought I had picked a good time to make it and had everything prepped along with dinner prep. But then things became rather more complicated than anticipated with Little Bit, including just after adding two of the eggs, so I ended up with little bits of egg white solidifying in the curd. Not ideal! Whisked with the rest of the eggs as they were added though, it came out better than I had hoped. Ingredients: 200 g butter 200g sugar 6 limes, juiced and zested 5 eggs / 5 egg yolks 1) Over a bain-marie, combine the butter, sugar, lime juice and zest and heat gently until the butter has melted, Whisking to combine as it all heats up so that an emulsion is formed. 2) Add the egg 8 (whole or yolks) and whisk continuously over gently heat until the mixture thickens. 3) Meanwhile, sterilise clean jars in boiling water for 15 minutes. When the curd has thickened, spoon into jars, wipe the rim and cap tightly. Place upside down on a clean cloth until cool. So first things first, both of these taste amazing! The egg yolk version thickened less than the other, despite taking a lot longer, but then, I am not sure if that was due to the interrupted nature of the cooking, or down to the yolks or something else. The other has those unfortunate tiny bits of egg white. Both taste equally rich and creamy and the zesty lime flavour comes through equally well in both. (In the centre picture above, I tried a little of each on one piece of bread, for real side by side taste testing). All in all, I stand by my statement from the introduction to my Pink Grapefruit Curd recipe saying that both work and it is up to you whether you want to use whole eggs or egg yolks. And it is especially right about now, after an experiment like this where both parts were interrupted and affected by life in general, this makes me wish even more that I were able to make use of a test kitchen...

I first tried making these for myself last year, but as they are traditional here, I grew up eating This year's tweaks worked very nicely, adding a bit of a twist to old favourites.