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Next on this winter's odyssey of marmalade batches is a lime one (and yes, I say "a lime marmalade" as I plan on making another one), and for this one, I decided to add gin and almond extract. Not sure exactly why I decided on this, but I am glad I did. I am afraid that with night shifts and a teething toddler (how many molars does one kid need?!) who is now in a big boy bed (woohoo for sleep disruptions again!) I opted for the easy, lazy method again. Ingredients: 1,5 kg limes (about 20 limes), halved 1,5 l water 3 c sugar 2 tsp almond extract 1 c gin 1) Squeeze the limes and place them and the water in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil and cook for about an hour until the limes have softened and the contents of the pot has begun to reduce. 2) Blitz and add the other ingredients. Continue cooking until the marmalade thickens to desired consistency. Taste test to check for sweetness and gin content. 3) Boil jars for 15 minutes to sterilise them, then spoon the hot marmalade into the jars. Wipe the rim clean, seal and place upside down on a tea towel to cool. This came out really well. No tonic in the jam, but it still tastes like a G+T (sort of) so I am sticking with the name. Unfortunately, the almond flavour doesn't come across much, but the lime does, and it proved a very popular spread when I brought a jar up to my parents' house for the weekend. Let me know what you think if you try it!

Continuing on from that initial request for a ketchup recipe, here is another one.

As mentioned in Day 2 of The Challenge I grew up with cornbread. It is a comfort food, a good staple. Usually it was a breakfast food, served in bread or muffin form with eggs and jams. Sometimes my father baked in pieces of bacon. For years though, that was all it was, until I started cooking for myself. Then gradually other things made it in, like cheese or jalapeños. I started baking it over chilli and experimenting with it in different ways. This loaf is one of those ways. It is endlessly versatile. This time I put in brocoli and spinach because I had them on hand, other times it is other vegetables. I find that feta works well as the cheese, but so do others. The red curry paste was because I had some in the fridge and it felt like the right palette. Quick, easy, adjustable to whatever tastes, cravings or stores you have, and super tasty. Ingredients: 1 cup flour 1 cup cornmeal 1/4 cup sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 cup milk 1 egg 2 tsp red curry paste 2 tbsp jalapeños 1 onion, diced 6 sundried tomato halves, sliced 1/2 suçuk or other spiced sausage, in chunks 1 red chilli, sliced 1 handful of spinach, wilted 1/4 head of broccoli 1 disk of feta, cubed/crumbled 1) Preheat oven to 220°C. Combine dry ingredients, then add wet, stirring just enough to mix. 2) Add all other ingredients, reserving half the feta. 3) Prepare a loaf pan, and pour in the batter. Sprinkle the reserved feta over the top. 4) Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown on top and a knife comes out clean. Serve as is, as a main or a side, with or without sauces or spreads. On Day 2 we had it as a main with different sauces. My husband liked it best with BBQ sauce, I preferred it with whole grain mustard. Butter, mayo and hot sauces worked too. Take your pick and enjoy!

I made pickles for the first time in the autumn. Bread and butter (sweet) cucumber pickles and spiced beetroot pickles. I made each a couple of times and was delighted to discover how easy it was to pickle. Based on those experiences, I decided to try my hand at an idea of my own, namely spiced pickled carrots. I had a hunch, so I read up a bit more on the pickling process and went for it. I made these in the winter sometime, but then they needed to sit for 3 weeks to mature, and then other things came up, so here they are now. Ingredients: 1 - 1,5 kg carrots 3 1/2 c apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp mustard seeds 1 c sugar 1 tsp salt 8 cloves garlic, sliced 2 1/2 - 3 " ginger, sliced 2 black cardamom pods, crushed 1 tsp turmeric 1) Place the vinegar and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add other ingredients and cook until the carrots are tender. 2) Meanwhile, sterilise your jars. Bring a big pot of water to the boil, and keeping it at a rolling boil, submerge the jars and their lids for at least 15 minutes. 3) Spoon the carrots into the jars, pour the vinegar over the top, wipe the rims of the jars and seal. Place the jars upside down until cool, then store in a cool dark place for about 3 weeks before opening them. When these were ready to go, I pulled them out at my parents' place first. They have been on the side of a quite a few meals since then and have proved a hit. I am pleased with how the spicing came out, and in general the idea worked as well as I could have hoped! Now for more pickling ideas...

As mentioned in Day 79 of The Challenge This was a hunch that I decided to follow and I am delighted I did. Both rosehips and pumpkins are in season just now and we have quite an abundance of both at the moment, so I decided to pair them up. I love traditional pumpkin pie (and will be making one soon), but wanted to try something different first. We had this with a dollop of plain yogurt and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. Ingredients: For the crust:(you can use a store bought crust if you want, but this is also very quick and easy, I promise! It is better if you have a half hour to let it chill before rolling it out, but it still works if you don't) 3/4 c flour 1/2 c cold butter, cut into pieces 1/4 c (approximate) milk 1 tsp of cinnamon sugar 1 small pumpkin, cut into 1.5cm thick arcs 2 c rosehip purée (made by simmering in boiling water then passing through a food mill or a sieve) 2 tbsp honey 1 tsp tandoori powder a pinch of salt 2 tsp cocoa spice 2 tsp of cinnamon sugar 1 tbsp butter, cut into pieces 1) To make crust, mix flour and salt. Cut in pieces of butter and mix together with fingertips until it forms a crumb like texture. Add water and mix with a fork, then knead into a soft dough. 2) Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. 3) Roll out the pastry and line a pie dish with it, and stab it with a fork. 4) Mix the rosehip purée with the honey, tandoori powder, salt and cocoa spice. Spread on the pastry base. 5) Arrange the pumpkin on the rosehip mix, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar and dot with the butter. Bake at 200°C for 35-40 minutes. This came out very well and just as I had pictured, except for the pumpkin I picked. It was less sweet than many of the others we have had recently. With the non-sweet pumpkin, the tart was tasty but it couldn't seem to decide whether it was lunch or dessert. My husband declares though that pumpkin or no he would eat an entire tart of the rosehip mix. It is quite an adult flavour (Not for a kid's birthday party, nor, it would seem, for my little sister), but a subtle and satisfying interplay of flavours.

As mentioned in Day 77 of The Challenge These were experimental, and came out very well. I wanted bread to go with our lunch. But we were out of bread, so I was going to make baking powder biscuits. But I was out of butter, so I decided to make corn muffins, but then realised that I had used the last of the eggs and milk already. So I made corn muffins with what I had - Apple sauce and apple juice instead of the eggs and milk. They were a bit sweeter than normal, and a little moister, but they worked! Ingredients: 1 c flour 1 c cornmeal 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 c sugar 2 eggs 1/4 c sunflower oil 3/4 c apple juice 3/4 c apple sauce 1) Mix together the dry ingredients. Gradually add the wet ingredients, mixing well to prevent lumps. 2) Spoon into muffin cups or into a prepared cake tin. 3) Bake at 200°C for 25-30 minutes. These worked very well? They are certainly more sweet than savoury, and worked best with just butter, no jam or chutney really did justice or had its own justice done on these muffins, but they were tasty never-the-less. In future, I might use a little less apple sauce, and probably cut the sugar a little. Definitely worth a try for a bit of variety though!

This was a somewhat experimental recipe as I have made something similar-ish in the past but not quite

Looking into fenugreek a while back, I came across a description of it comparing fenugreek's taste to that of maple and the fact that fenugreek is sometimes used as a maple substitute. That gave me an idea. What about if I used fenugreek in something that often has maple syrup added to it, like pancakes. The idea niggled for a while until I finally tried it. The pancakes worked really well. They were missing a little richness to the maple flavour, but with butter or yogurt they were really tasty! Less sweet obviously, than adding maple syrup to a dish, and the flavour was more delicate, but very tasty. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp fenugreek powder 3 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp melted butter 2 eggs 3/4c milk 1) Combine dry ingredients, then gradually add wet ingredients. Add an additional splash of milk if necessary for the batter to be just thin enough to pour. 2) Melt butter in a skillet then cook the pancakes in two-tablespoon-dollops (or bigger if you want) over medium heat until bubbles appear and pop on the surface and it goes from shiny to matte, then flip. Serve hot with butter, jam, syrup or fruits. Or anything else you fancy. I really enjoyed these. They had a definite maple flavour but without added sugar. I enjoyed mine plain with butter, which gave them an extra richness that brought out the maple flavour. These are definitely coming back out! The only aspect I wasn't delighted with was the texture. They were a little heavier than usual, and I don't know if fenugreek requires a little additional liquid or rising agent, or if there was a mix-up somewhere. To be tried again I guess, and I will see. If you try them, let me know what you think!

The creation of these is a bit of a saga, so buckle up (or skip straight to the recipe). The recipe calls for quite a lot of oil and sometimes the dough can be oozy. I started out keeping the recipe exactly the same, just replacing the oil with apple sauce. I made the cookie recipe as per usual, just cutting the sugar and adding a little cream and some extra

I made Jerk Chicken for the first time recently, from a recipe in my Spice Bible cookbook, and it worked One of the next recipes in the book was for sweet cardamom mango. I liked the idea, but instead of sticking with the recipe and having it for dessert, I took the idea