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I went looking for spicing inspiration in Food DIY by Tim Hayward, which I discovered was a good choice Place a quail egg in the centre and fold the meat around the egg and pinch it shut. 5) Roll the ball

Ginger Snaps are always a favourite at this time of year, and baking a variety of Christmas cookies is a joy of the season (as perhaps suggested by my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies last year). As part of it, I posted a Ginger Snap recipe (on the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me one ginger snap). They, of course, had to be on the roster for this year, but I wanted to tweak them a little, mainly with the addition of pieces of candied ginger and orange peel, and by increasing the powdered ginger. I didn't have quite enough molasses, so the 1/4 c of molasses was completed with some honey). Ingredients: 2 c flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp ginger 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp cloves 3/4 c butter 1 c sugar + 1/4 c to roll the cookies in after 1 egg 1/4 c molasses and honey (about 2 tbsp honey, the rest molasses) 2 tsp grated tangerine peel 2 tsp dried orange peel bits, briefly candied with the ginger 3/4 c candied ginger pieces 1) Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses (with honey) and mix until smooth. Add tangerine zest, orange peel and candied ginger. 2) Gradually add the dry ingredients, and stir to form cookie dough. Chill for 30 minutes at least. 3) Roll the dough into marble-sized balls and then roll in the remaining 1/4c of sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet with at least double the size of the marbles between the balls of dough - these spread! Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes. I love these! The smell of ginger snaps baking is so reminiscent of Christmas time for me, and of baking as a family growing up, with friends, and now with my own little family. I really enjoyed this year's tweaks and hope you do too!

Having porridge most mornings of my life, sometimes it's nice to mix it up a little and change the flavours and textures. Here are a few autumn/winter flavours that we've been enjoying over here! Pumpkin Pie Oats: 1 c oats 1/2 - 3/4 c pumpkin (I roast mine then mash it up as the tins are unavailable here) 2c milk 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp orange peel 1 tbsp chia seeds 3 cloves A generous grating of nutmeg Apple Cocoa Oatmeal 1 c oats 3/4 c apple sauce 1 1/2 c milk 1 tbsp cacao nibs 1 tsp cinnamon (We trialled this one with the quantities of milk and apple sauce roughly reversed, but the oats came out too stodgy and not creamy enough. With proportions this way around, they are creamy and taste almost like apple pie oats). Candied Sweet Potato Porridge 1 c oats 3/4 c sweet potato, roasted and mashed 1/2 tsp cardamom 1/4 tsp tumeric 1/4 tsp fenugreek powder 1 tbsp ground almonds 1 -2 tsp brown sugar Apple Cranberry Oats 1 c oats 2 c apple juice 1/4 c dried cranberries 1 tsp cinnamon sugar For any of these, they can either be assembled the night before and left to soak overnight, or tossed in a saucepan in the morning. Either way, place all ingredients in a saucepan and bring slowly to a simmer. Cook until they have reached the desired consistency (I like mine creamy, but others prefer their past a bit thicker). Add raisins or sugar to taste. Alternatively, place all ingredients in a baking dish and leave to soak overnight. Bake at 180°C for about 25-30 minutes until thickened and golden. If you bake it, a little almond sprinkled over the top is beauteous. We use either whole oats or finer cut ones. My favourites are the coarser ones, but they never cook as smooth and creamy as the finer ones. Either will work for these.

Sweet Potatoes are normally really expensive here, so when the price drops, I buy up loads of them. Usually, being a tuber, they last pretty well. This time though, that meant using up 4 kilos of sweet potatoes fast. After putting a couple in a few other dishes and still having a mountain of them to use, I chopped off the ugly bits and made soup. As often happens, I didn't have a very clear idea when I started of where I was heading with this soup, but I am really happy with where it ended up, so thought I'd share. I had thought maybe I would go a big veggie soup direction, or maybe cream of sweet potato soup, or something coconutty. The Fromage Blanc was the last from my most recent batch of homemade cheese, and the chives were the only ones that poked their heads through this year. The pot looked rather like a bald man's head with only a few green hairs sprinkled around. I used chicken stock as I had some from a recent chicken dish, but veggie stock would have worked well too. It all came together very nicely though! Ingredients: For the soup: 2 tbsp olive oil 3-4 onions, chopped 4 cm ginger, diced 2 - 2,5 kg sweet potatoes, chopped 4 c chicken stock 1 tsp Urfa Biber 1 tbsp nigella seeds 1 - 1 1/2 c corn Salt and pepper to taste for the red pepper paste: 1 red pepper 1 red chilli pepper 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 onion, chopped For the fromage blanc 3/4 c fromage blanc (or cream cheese) 2-3 tbsp fresh chives 1/2 tsp garlic powder salt 1) Place red pepper and chilli in the oven, whole at 200°C for 20-30 minutes, until the red pepper is soft and starting to char. 2) In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté onion and ginger. 3) Add sweet potato and stock. Add water until the sweet potatoes are just covered and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 - 25 minutes until sweet potatoes are soft. 4) Using a hand blender, blitz soup until it is most of the way smooth. Add corn, Urfa and nigella seeds. 5) Meanwhile, remove peppers from the oven and blitz in a blender with the onion, olive oil and vinegar. (I used olive oil left over from preserving my Cabécou Goat's cheese). 6) In a bowl, mix the fresh cheese, chives, garlic powder and salt. 7) Serve the soup hot, with dolloping options of fresh cheese and red pepper paste. I am really happy with this soup. Having the fresh cheese and the red pepper paste on the side meant we were each able to spice it up or make it creamy according to our own tastes. This also continues the trend of keeping spicy things on the side so that Little Bit can eat the same meal as us. He wanted corn from the tin while I was cooking, so I ended up needing more corn than anticipated, but then he offered me 5 kernels for the soup. Individually of course. He was very proud of his contribution too! The fresh cheese was very tasty, and I enjoyed the creaminess as it melted into the soup, but the soul also works really well without it. The red pepper paste is tasty in its own right, and I am happy to have it around for other purposes too. I like happy accidents in cooking!

I hate the idea of food waste, so instead of tossing them in the compost, I decided to try and salvage I decided that Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky was too depressing and I wasn't in the mood, so instead Definitely worth a read if your mood can handle it though.

Late last year, my sister, a friend and I agreed to start on a new project with the new year, making different recipes in 3 different ways, each putting our own spin on it. (For more on our Variations on a Theme project, check out the main page)With the new year now underway, there has been some discussion back and forth for a few weeks now as to what we should make for our first recipe, and last week we lit on brownies. No firm plans were made yet, but we each agreed to start thinking about what we wanted to do and to set a date soon to lay down the ground rules and to cook. And then this weekend I was on night shifts on a very busy surgical ward (we barely sat down all night). Around about 4 in the morning I had a craving for brownies, which obviously couldn't be satisfied then and there, but I sent out a message asking that we have a call and make our brownies Sunday evening or Monday. The other two agreed, and I am extremely grateful, as last night I was able to satisfy the previous night's craving! So here is our first Variation on a Theme! Traditional Brownies with a Twist by my Sister Experimental Peanutbutter Brownies by me Vegan Pomegranate Fudge Brownies By Hibiscus Kook All in all, this was a very fun project! Looking forward to trying Hibiscus Kook's brownies, and I really enjoyed seeing where each of us went with these. And for the next one, pancakes coming up! SO watch this space...

It is warm and comforting and hot milk has a soporific effect.

I love this soup! We originally came across a recipe in Gordon's Great Escape - Southeast Asia, but it has since made it into our regular rotation and become our own. It is dead simple to assemble, tasty and warming with a hint of heat. It is a satisfying chicken soup with a twist. A lot of recipes recommend straining the broth once you have simmered it, but we like it with the bits and so never strain it. Feel free to do so though if you'd rather. Ingredients: 1 litres of chicken stock - the richer the better, and even better with bits in 0.5 - 1 litre of coconut milk ( or you can do half coconut milk and half coconut cream if you want it richer. If the stock is weak, I do recommend this, but it also depends on the chicken to coconut balance you want. I like it just fine with simply coconut milk. A big chunk of ginger, peeled and julienned 1 head of garlic, minced 6 chilis chopped 6 kafir lime leaves, crumbled 2 lemon grass stalks, chopped (these can be woody if left in. Like I said, I do anyway - I enjoy the crunch - but remove them if that's not your thing) 3/4 c shitake or oyster mushrooms (rehydrate these in advance if using dried ones) - chopped 2 shallots, chopped 1 tbsp soy sauce 2 tsp rice wine vinegar 1 tbsp lime juice salt to taste 1) Bring chicken stock and coconut milk to a simmer. Add all ingredients up to shallots and cook 30-45 minutes, allowing flavour to develop. 2) Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and lime juice. Serve. We had this alongside our (first attempt at) Spring Rolls. The two paired wonderfully together, complementing flavours and rounding out the soup into a meal. Very tasty even with nothing to pair with it though. Simple, light but nutritious, I do love this soup (even if I am not quite sure to what extent it still resembles anything Thai).

As far as I have always been concerned, waffles are a breakfast food (or at a push, a breakfast-for-dinner food). Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks then fold them gently into the batter.

This one isn't anything particularly spectacular, but it was quick and easy for a week night dinner and very tasty, so I thought it maybe worth sharing. Little Bit loved it for all the bits he could pick out and identify and get excited about (and for the mess he could make with the couscous). Ingredients: For the couscous: 1 c couscous 2 c water 1 tbsp olive oil 1 carrot, grated 1/2 c raisins 3 cloves 2 tsp curry powder (I used a pineapple curry powder from a spice market) Salt to taste 1 tbsp butter For the veg: 2 tbsp olive oil 1 onion, chopped 1/2 head of broccoli, floretted and chopped 2 - 3 cm butternut, chopped 1 red pepper, chopped 2 tsp zathar 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 tbsp honey 3/4 c chopped almonds, toasted 1) Heat oil in a small saucepan and toss the couscous. Add the other ingredients except the butter, bring to a simmer, and cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has been absorbed and the couscous is fluffy. Add the butter and mix it in, allowing it to melt into the couscous. 2) For the veg, in a large sauté pan, heat the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil. Sauté onions until beginning to soften. Add other veg, balsamic, honey and zathar, and cook until veg is tender - about 10 minutes. 3) Spoon the veg over the couscous and serve. Sprinkle warm, toasted almonds over the top. Full of veggies, with a little crunch from the almonds and some sweetness from the raisins, it was satisfying and flavourful. The balsamic and honey balanced each other nicely, with the sweet curry flavour adding further flavour notes. Dead simple, this pulled together in under a half hour and was filling and satisfying, not to mention healthy! The butter could be skipped to make this vegan, or bits of chicken could be added just after the onion for the carnivores out there.