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.

As mentioned in Day 40 of The Challenge This was an experiment. We have made the bloomer before, but as it requires you to roll out the dough into a rectangle the roll it up into a loaf, we decided to try it with nettle pesto spread on it. With black sesame seeds sprinkled on top it was a tasty snack but might need some tweaking. Certainly an idea to pursue though. Ingredients: 6 c flour 15 g cake of yeast 1 tsp sugar 1 1/5 -2 c lukewarm water 1/2 c pesto/nettle pesto 2 tsp salt water 2 tsp black sesame seeds 1) Dissolve yeast and sugar in the lukewarm water. Place flour in a bowl and make a well in it. Pour in the yeast and water mixture and gradually incorporate the flour into it. 2) Knead the dough for about 10 minutes to form a smooth elastic but heavy dough. Leave to rise covered with oiled cling film in a warm place for 4-5hours or until doubled in size. 3) Knock back and then knead for 5 minutes then leave to rise for 2 hours again, until doubled in size again. 4) Knead briefly, then roll out into a rectangular sheet about 1/2 cm thick. spread pesto on it up to 3 cm from the edge, then roll into a loaf. Preheat the oven to 230°C. 5) Leave to rise again for a half hour, and then seal the edges. Brush the top of the loaf with salt water and sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top. Cut slashes into the top of the loaf. 6) Bake the loaf on an oiled baking tray for 25 minutes then lower the temperature to 200°C and bake for a further 20 minutes. This was tasty, and an interesting idea, but the nettle pesto had too strong a flavour for the bread. It was better once the bread had cooled and the pesto's flavour had mellowed. The bread itself is tasty, but the pesto spread idea needs tweaking. Maybe a regular basil pesto, or a red pesto? PS: We used some of this loaf to make a savoury pesto bloomer French toast for dinner with kale and onion salad and some cheese and it worked surprisingly well. I do recommend trying this. This was the first time I've made a savoury French toast, but I will do so again! We had it with various condiments, both sweet and savoury, ranging from maple syrup and rhubarb jam to BBQ sauce and mustard, and they all worked delightfully well. If you try the bloomer, I do recommend trying out the French toast as well!

I wanted to play around with using fresh rose petals and thought a risotto might be a way of playing around with the flavours. It didn't come out quite as well as I had hoped, and the rose flavour was fainter than I had intended, but it was a tasty dinner and an interesting experiment, so I thought it worth sharing. Interestingly, the flavours came out more once I added some honey. Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil 1 onion, chopped 1 sweet potato, chopped 3 c fresh rose petals, mostly yellow 1 1/2 c Arborio rice 3/4 c whey 2 1/2 c rosé wine 1 c parmesan 1 tbsp honey 1) Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a saucepan and add the Arborio rice. Sauté until translucent then add the whey. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. 2) Meantime, heat the remaining oil in a frying pan and sauté onion until translucent. Add sweet potato and cook until tender. 3) Gradually add the rosé to the rice as the liquid is absorbed, and continue stirring. 4) When sweet potatoes are tender and just beginning to brown, add rose petals and cook, stirring, until they wilt. Set aside. 5) When the liquid has been absorbed into the rice and it is tender, add parmesan and stir in. Add honey and then vegetables. Serve hot. This one had mixed results. It may be that the combined whey and rosé were too acidic. Or it may be that the parmesan was too strong a flavour for the poor rose petals. Either way, initially, it was a little disappointing. Once we added the honey, it tasted nice, but not spectacular and the rose flavour was not very strong. I'd like to try rose petals in a water-based infusion next as they don't seem to be very lipophilic. In neither the oil nor the milk have they given up particularly strong flavours when fresh. Still a tasty dinner though, and as far as failures go, very definitely edible, although not what I had been aiming for.

Switzerland has its own soft drink that I haven't encountered anywhere else. It is a whey-based drink called rivella. I am not big on soft drinks but do enjoy the occasional rivella. With my cheese-making journey, I suddenly discovered that at times I had a lot of whey on my hands. While I found other uses for it (In soups, in porridge, in lasagna, in blondies or in risotto for example. Just type Whey into the search bar to see other things I've done with it.) I thought I might try out a homemade version of Rivella. Having toyed with the idea, we were then in the grocery store and a soda stream was on sale. We picked it up on what I thought was a whim so that I could try making whey, but it turns out that Hubby has been wanting one for ages. In the end, I'm glad that's the case as he's used it way more than me, but I still get to try my experiment. Ingredients: 2 c whey 2 c water 1/2 c brown sugar 2" ginger, grated 1 lime/orange/lemon, juiced 1) In a carafe, mix all the ingredients except water together. Place in the fridge and allow the flavours to marry overnight. 2) The next day, strain out the grated ginger bits. Fizz some water and add to the whey mix. Serve chilled. This was so good! Really good in summer, but a good drink anytime. All three of the citrus variants worked, but the best were lemon and lime, orange a bit less so. I might play around with the orange flavouring in future, and maybe cut the sugar and add cloves to it. Either way, all three disappear in no time whenever I make it. The more acidic the whey, the better this works. Beware to properly strain out all the curds though! Book Pairing: When making this, I was listening to Doctor Zhivago on Audible. I had heard a lot about it over the years, mainly about how great it was, and even had a friend named after Lara in the book because of how much her mother loved it. I enjoyed it, and found it beautifully written. I did however find that it was a better piece of anti-Soviet propaganda than it was a novel. There were just too many coincidences and beyond them, the plot didn't hold together great. As a piece of propaganda though, it was fantastic. Supposedly, the CIA helped to first get it published because of that aspect of it. I would recommend it, but not necessarily for the reason I always heard it recommended, as this great love story. What are your thoughts on Zhivago? Propaganda or novel? Did you like it? As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Eggs last year though, I've been meaning to make them again, and had been wondering about the idea of vegetarian During Lent, when I am vegetarian, heading off for a ski week with Little One and Hubby, I decided to What better vegetarian base than lentils? Multiple (vegetarian) birds with one stone (or egg) as it were.

After a big shop for fresh veg (and not quite enough fridge space for everything), craving something quick and easy, but healthy and tasty, I pulled this together and it made a great dinner! And the Wonderbag, as so often happens, helped a huge amount (use a crock pot or slow cooker). Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil 2 onions, chopped 1/2 head of garlic, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 zucchini, chopped 1 sweet potato, chopped 2 c roasted pumpkin (I pulled mine out of the freezer from the stash I set aside during pumpkin season) 2 tsp zathar 2 tsp sumac salt and pepper to taste 400 g chickpeas 1 c bulgur wheat 1) Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot and sauté the onions and garlic until fragrant. Add the other vegetables except the pumpkin, and the spices and stir. Allow some of the veg to char a little. 2) Add the pumpkin, the chickpeas, bulgur and enough water to cover everything to about 1 cm above the level of the veg. 3) Bring to a simmer and then place in a Wonderbag or crockpot, or keep over medium heat until the water has largely been absorbed and the veg is tender, about 45 minutes. Serve. So it took slightly longer for the veg to cook than I thought, but this was so tasty, with surprisingly complex flavours given the very little seasoning that went into the dish. It worked both fresh and as a leftover and was very satisfying. I hope you enjoy it too!

I wanted to try out an idea my sister had had recently in using syllabub - an 18th century cream and wine based dessert - instead of frosting. I chose to do a lemon cake as I find the flavours light and well balanced, and to match them up, added lemon zest to the syllabub too. I used a Gewürztraminer, a German white dessert wine, to whip into the cream as its sweeter, lighter flavour seemed appropriate. I used my mom's lemon cake recipe for these and it worked beautifully. Try it out with your favourite lemon cake! Ingredients: 3/4 c cream 2 tbsp sugar 1/2 c sweet white wine 2 tsp lemon zest 2 tsp lemon juice Blueberries to top 1) While your cupcakes (or cake) are in the oven, beat the whipped cream and sugar with a whisk until you have stiff peaks. Add in the white wine and zest and beat well. Taste and adjust sugar, zest or wine. Add lemon juice and mix well. 2) Allow the cupcakes to cool then top with syllabub and blueberries. I like frosting, but sometimes it is too rich and too sweet. I found that this hit the right notes, with some sweet, some zest and a lot of airy lightness. I want to try syllabub as a frosting replacement for other cakes too now, using different flavours. Maybe rum and chocolate next?

We were having a games night with some friends recently, so I decided to make nachos, as an easy finger-food nibble. Instead of fully loading them, I mixed the tortilla chips only with the Meat Sauce and cheese, and on the side, I had several dipping sauces - guacamole, Carrot Top Pesto, sour cream and this Roast Pepper Dip. Initially, I made this one really simple, with only peppers, garlic, some Kashmiri chilli and some olive oil. The taste test proved it to be rather bland though, so I added some bits. The taste came out quite interesting and unexpected - but tasty. Ingredients: 2 red peppers 1/2 head garlic 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder 1/2 tsp cacao powder 1 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp Black Sesame seeds Squeeze of lime juice Salt to taste 1) Roast the red peppers and the half head of garlic at 200°C for about 20-30 minutes, until they are soft and the skin of the peppers is beginning to char. 2) Leave the peppers and garlic to cool for a few minutes, then peel the peppers and remove the cores and the seeds. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin and place these and all the ingredients in a blender. Blitz until smooth. Serve with dippables. I was in a hurry before people arrived and tweaked the dip without giving it much thought, or having time to do it properly, so the dip came out a little differently than I had thought, but tasty nonetheless. It is even better a day or two later once the flavours have married. I might make it a little hotter in future, but didn't want to carpet bomb my friends' tastebuds. Then again, as it currently stands it is tasty too, so pick whatever suits your mood!

I made this on a whim to change up our lunch menu from soups for a day. I had a vague idea of what I was heading for, but layered as I went and am delighted with the result. The crust was a little experimental, using cottage cheese instead of milk to bind the flour-butter crumbs together. I wasn't sure how the texture or taste would hold up, but they did, really well as it turns out. The filling had a vaguely Mediterranean leaning to it, with some garlic, olive oil and lemon. Ingredients: 1 c flour 1/3 cold butter, diced 1/3-1/2 c cottage cheese pepper 1 aubergine, chopped 1 courgette, chopped 1 tomato, sliced 1 onion, sliced 4 cloves of garlic roughly crushed 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp thyme A squeeze of lemon juice 200g feta, crumbled 1) Place flour in a bowl and add diced butter. Rub the flour into the butter until it is all mixed together, forming a crumb like mix. Add pepper to taste. 2)Add cottage cheese and stir in, bringing all the crumbs together to form a dough. Wrap up and chill for at least 30 minutes. 3) Place aubergine and courgette in a bowl and salt generously. Leave for 10 minutes. 4) Roll out the pastry and line a tart dish with it. 5) Place aubergine and courgette in a colander and rinse thoroughly. Place in a clean bowl and toss with feta, garlic, olive oil, thyme, lemon juice and then spread evenly over the bottom of the pastry. Place tomato and onion slices over the top and bake at 180°C for 20-30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the veg is tender. This came out how I had hoped it would and made an excellent lunch for the three of us. Salting the aubergine and courgette ahead of time drew out some of the liquid, making the tart less wet, and also added a nice aspect of seasoning. The cottage cheese crust, surprisingly baked with flecks of red in it, and was very tasty. I will be making this variant again! Overall this came out well! I hope you enjoy it too!

As mentioned in Day 74 of The Challenge Have I mentioned that it's pumpkin season? Once or twice maybe... Here is a another new twist on pumpkin soup. This time it was smooth rather than chunky, but sweet and gingery. Tasty and warming, it made for an excellent lunch. Ingredients: 1 small pumpkin, chopped 2 parsnips, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 onions, chopped A 6 cm chunk of ginger (approx), peeled and diced 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 c vinegar 1/2 c red cooking wine 1 tsp urfa biber (Turkish black chilli) 1 tsp fenugreek seeds Salt and Pepper to taste 1) Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot and sauté onions with the fenugreek seeds until the onions are translucent. Add ginger and cook for a few minutes until fragrant (you should be smelling the fenugreek by now too!) 2) Add the vegetables to the pot and cook for a couple of minutes before adding enough water to just cover the vegetables. Simmer until the vegetables are tender (I put my pot in my Wonderbag slow cooker once it had come to a simmer and went out for a walk in the meantime.) 3) Blitz the soup until smooth. Serve with crusty bread. So tasty and a beautiful variant to the traditional pumpkin spice soup. The carrots and parsnips add some sweetness and the ginger brings a nice heat, while the fenugreek (yes, more adventures in fenugreek exploration!) brings a warm fragrance to the soup. I do like the traditional one, but this one will be sticking around too.