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This year, I accidentally planted lemon mint on my balcony instead of a variety I might be more familiar with and like more, like, say, peppermint or spearmint. Ironically, the lemon mint is one of the few of my plants to have flourished this year. I planted more things too early, then we had late snow and frost which wiped a lot of my plants out. I replanted and hoped for the best. Then the spring was very rainy and drowned a number of them. Then we had hail. Twice. A lot of plants were flattened. In and amongst weather catastrophes, was Little Bit, who delights in tearing up my plants by the roots, or picking the leaves off of them to make mud soup in his paddling pool. Through all this, the mint survived. I was delighted until I made tea with it and discovered that the flavour was not quite what I was expecting. I wondered if there had been black tea left in the bottom of the pot? No. I tried again. It still tasted odd: at once muddier than regular mint and more acidic, but without mint's typical freshness. I left the plant alone for a bit and wondered what to do with it. And then I hit on the idea of a pesto. It took a little tweaking, but it worked out well in the end. I had to add a little water to get the blender to work properly, and then it was too wet as well as needing a grounding note, so I added some stale bread to the blender. If your consistency is ok without it though, skip the bread. I also gradually increased the amount of garlic. As the pesto is raw, I was worried that too much garlic would be overpowering, but the pesto really did need it. Here it is. Ingredients: 3-4 c fresh lemon mint leaves 3-4 tbsp olive oil 1/4 c pine nuts 1/2 head garlic 1/4 c water 1/4 c bread crumbs Juice of 1/2 lemon 1/2 c grated parmesan Salt and pepper to taste 1) Blend all ingredients until smooth. Taste test. I am happy with how this came out. It doesn't taste overpoweringly minty (but then, neither does the parent plant) but has a nice balance to it. We had this first with sandwiches. The minty pesto worked very well on wholegrain seedy bread with cheese and sausage for lunch. We have also tried it with spinach and ricotta tortellini, and it was delicious. Little Bit refused to try it, but then he doesn't like any sauce on his tortellini.

I've always loved chestnuts in any shape or form, especially roast chestnuts. They always speak to me of Christmas markets, friends and family, and the smell alone is enough to carry me back. Traditionally, these should be eaten out of a paper cone, fresh from a roasting pan outside in freezing night air, and the chestnuts so hot you burn your fingers peeling them. The other day I settled for home-roasted ones for Little Bit and me, though. He ate fewer than I had anticipated (always the case) and I made the mistake of leaving the rest in the cast iron pan on the stove while I finished tempering chocolate. As a result, they were rock hard but not burnt. I hate the idea of food waste, so instead of tossing them in the compost, I decided to try and salvage them by turning them into custards. I didn't have enough eggs for that, so instead turned them into little puddings. Ingredients: 1 1/2 - 2 c chestnuts, roasted 3 tbsp butter 1 1/2 - 2 c milk 1 egg 1 tsp cinnamon 2 tbsp flour 1/3 c sugar 2 tbsp dark chocolate, grated 1) Melt 1 1/2 tbsp butter in a saucepan. Briefly toss the chestnuts in the butter, then simmer in milk until liquid is reduced by about half and the chestnuts are tender. 2) Blitz the chestnuts in milk, adding a touch of extra milk or some water if it is too thick. 3) In another saucepan, mix sugar and flour over medium heat. Add the chestnut mix and a little extra milk, and cook slowly, stirring well. When well incorporated, remove from heat and beat in the egg, remaining butter, and cinnamon. The egg should be fully cooked by the residual heat of the pudding. 4) Dish into little individual ramequins and sprinkle chocolate over the top. Chill in the fridge for an hour or so, then enjoy! These were delightful. I wasn't able to blitz the chestnuts until smooth as Little Bit was already asleep and after about a minute of pulsing, he was starting to wake up. Instead, our puddings had chunks of roasted chestnut in them, which worked rather well. They would have been nice with a little whipped cream or mascarpone, but were also very tasty as is! Book Pairing: While making these, I was listening to the start of In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick. It is a history of the real-life whaling ship Essex and its wreck which were the inspiration for Moby Dick. I decided that Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky was too depressing and I wasn't in the mood, so instead switched to a book that opens with an account of cannibalism... Hmmm... It is well written, but listening to the unrelenting series of errors in judgement, leadership and navigation made by the captain and first mate and knowing where the whole thing is headed is a bit grim. It would be funny how badly things went if it weren't so tragic! At least, having decided that I wasn't up for anything depressing at the moment, this is a quicker read than Brothers K! Definitely worth a read if your mood can handle it though.

I suggest calling this a Coupe Raisa, because we have been watching more Star Trek, and that is the ultimate vacation spot in the Federation, it seems, and this is the ultimate unctuous, creamy, fresh dessert with just a hint of acidity. (And thus marking me out as a nerd henceforth). This is a bit of a twist on normal berries and cream. Around here that tends to involve Double Crème from Gruyèree which is so thick it stands up on the spoon. There was some on sale last week, so I picked some up. As it is the middle of winter, berries are only available for substantial amounts of ready money (or credit, but lots of it either way). What we had on hand happened to be blood oranges though, so that is what I did. The White Balsamic Syrup is one I got as a Christmas gift. I hadn't opened it yet, but when I assembled the Coupe Raisa bowls, they looked like they needed it, so I brought it out and it was a hit. So here goes. Ingredients (per person): A generous dollop of Double crème de Gruyère ( in a pinch, mascarpone might do instead) One blood orange Optional: half a banana, sliced 3 dates, pitted and quartered (prunes work, but they are not as good) A handful of roughly crushed pistachios 1/2 tsp cacao nibs A drizzle of white balsamic syrup 1) Layer ingredients in a bowl, starting at the top of the list and working your way down. Serve with a small spoon. Mix up as desired. This was super tasty and I cannot recommend it enough. I loved the bite from the balsamic syrup paired with the cream and the fruit. The cacao nibs and the pistachios added some welcome textural contrast, too. A meringue crumble dup in there could work, but the extra sugar would be simply unnecessary.

Note: Toying with how to make this recipe keto, it occurred to me that it might be possible either to

I saw the title of this recipe elsewhere but didn't look at the recipe and then couldn't remember where

As with so many other recipes, it is one I had seen the title of but then lost the recipe link before

As mentioned in Day 8 of The Challenge Savoury crêpes can have any range of fillings. Dead simple to make (if you have the right pan, which I now do! :) ), they can suit almost any taste: vegetarian or carnivorous, with cheese or spinach or mushrooms , spicy or not. With eggs or not. Very versatile and easy. We did a bunch of these with traditional fillings and then trialled something new with our last few crêpes. Ingredients: 1 1/4 c flour 2 eggs (I had used all my eggs on the soufflé the night before so instead I used 4 egg yolks - these came out beautifully!) 1 c milk 1/4 c oil Cheese, ham, spinach, mushrooms, fried eggs, cockles, tomatoes, Swiss chard.... the choice is yours! And, for our new filling per crêpe: 2 tbsp pumpkin purée 2 dates per crêpe 1 tsp lime juice 3 slices of mozzarella Black pepper 1) Mix flour, egg and milk together. 2)Oil a crêpe pan, heat slowly and pour in 2 ladles full of batter. Wait for batter to turn opaque and for bubbles to burst, then flip. 3)Add whatever filling you want and fold the crêpe in half, allowing cheese to melt. * For our new filling, spread pumpkin purée on the facing side of the crêpe. Place halved dates and mozzarella slices in them, and add lime juice and black pepper. 4) Flip again allowing the other half to cook, and serve. These worked beautifully. I wasn't sure about our new filling until I tried it, and did warn my husband that I was trialling something new and that he didn't have to join me if he didn't want to. It worked though! The traditional ones were tasty, but the new ones had an added spark. They were somewhere between savoury and sweet, or savoury with a twist of sweet. They could use a little tweaking, maybe adding some spice or some heat, but I would certainly try this again.

My sister's suggestion, therefore, of making Pancakes our next recipe to coincide with Pancake Day suited Here are our three different Pancake Experiments, and a bonus Whipped Cinnamon Honey Butter recipe. For my friend, HibiscucKook's recipe for vegan pancakes on her blog, click here.

Ingredients: Shell for 1 pie crust (For crust recipe see here) 400g of L'Etivaz or Gruyère (or a similarly

did I start expanding what I used them in, both sweet and savoury, This was an experimental soup, no recipe