I have long held a love affair with jam . . . it is something which I have loved for all of my life, and I am not fussy about which jam it is either, totally loving all sorts of jam . . . although if I had to pick a favourite it would be Raspberry . . . wait . . . Strawberry . . . NO . . . Black Currant . . . umm . . . Cherry . . . BLUEBERRY!

Oh heck, I couldn't pick a favourite if I tried! I love them all.



I especially love desserts which incorporate jam. Jam is something which I always have a lot of on hand . . . so it just makes sense that I would love to bake desserts which use it. Coz . . . I LOVE JAM!!



Ahem . . . sorry about that! Todd loves jam too.



When I was a girl my mother used to make the most heavenly Dessert Squares every Christmas, called Feather Squares. A delicious sponge cake, topped with raspberry jam, meringue and coconut. She never baked them any other time of year and my goodness but we did love them so. I think they were our absolutely favourite Christmas Treat . . . along with her date slices, war cake, fruit cake . . . ahem . . . well, ok, we loved them all!



This delicious pudding is very reminiscent of my mother's feather squares. The jam is on the bottom though in this dessert, and the sponge is baked over top and is stogged full of coconut. There is no meringue. It is simple and easy, and ohhhhhhhhhhhhh sooooooooooooo scrumdiddlyumpously good!!



We loved it. We ate far more of it than we should have . . . we enjoyed every single mouthful. We will eat more tomorrow. ☺ ♥♥♥ (yay!!)



Adapted from a recipe in Rachel Allen's newest book, Easy Meals. (I love Rachel Allen's recipes! Those Irish sure can cook!)

I just adore Autumn. It is my favourite season. I know . . . I say that every season and I guess that every season it is true . . . I love whatever season I am in! Each one brings us a wonderful mix of colour, textures, scents and flavours!! I'm a 365 a day foodie and my gluttony is no respecter of seasons I suppose!

I thought it would be fun to showcase several of my favourite autumnal puddings here this morning . . . the absolute best of the beautiful flavours that this season brings to the table in all it's decadent glory! I do hope that you will see at least one that you will want to try out, if not today, then very, very soon!



Delicious Michaelmas Dumplings, a beautiful mix of bramley apple, blackberries stewed together and topped with soft dumplings. Oh so good with lashings of cream poured over top!



A beautiful Apple and Plum Tart, served warm with, once again, lashings of double cream . . . a good vanilla ice cream would also go down very well!




Delicious Raspberry Buns . . . delightfully buttery and crispy biscuits stogged full of some of those raspberry preserves that you've just made!



Wonderfully scrummy Pumpkin Spice Bread, oh so moreish when toasted and spread with cold butter. You can't get enough of it!



Nectarines Baked in Cream, oh so rich and delish. Sweet fruit, rich cream and a crunchy nut topping. Oh so wonderful!



Break out the Cream again! It's Cinnamon Pudding Cake!!! Rich, spicy and chock full of lovely autumn apples!



Pretty hard to resist, it's Berry and White Chocolate Pudding! A delicious baked pudding stogged full of mixed berries and white chocolate. Pass the cream again!



It's Melt in Your Mouth Blueberry Cake, served with a delicious topping of Lemon Cream! Just can't get enough of those little blue gems, and that topping is to die for!



A scrummy Apple Crumble with Maple, Oats and Walnuts. Fall comfort and decadence in a bowl! Pretty hard to resist. Do at the British and serve up with lashings of warm custard, or cream.




Sticky Topped Gingerbread. This is fabulous, comforting and smells beautiful when it is baking! This tastes like Home Sweet Home!



Sour Cream Apple Squares, moreishly delish when served up with a nice dollop of Clotted Cream on top!

I hope that I have given you some autumnal food for thought this morning! This is my favourite part of autumn . . . it's such a delicious season with it's apples and pumpkins and late summer berries. Enjoy some autumn today!



And in The Cottage today, a delicious Autumnal Salad of Apple Dressed Pears and Walnuts with Blue Cheese Toasts! Oh so scrummy yummy!

Chicken Katsu Curry is a delicious Japanese curry that first caught on over here in the UK through the Wagamama restaurants. I have never eaten at a Wagamama, but I have heard that theirs is very, very good.



I have bought a packaged Katsu Curry kit at the grocery store though, and was instantly hooked. It was quite, quite delicious! I thought though . . . there has to be an easy way to make it yourself, without having to use a kit.



The other week I saw some ready to cook chiller meals of Katsu Curry in our local Morrisons. These ones had fresh peas, edamame beans and red onions included and I thought to myself . . . wow, that looks like it would be really tasty. I decided to come up with my own at home version. So I did a search online and came up with a recipe for a wickedly delicious sounding Katsu Curry Sauce via Simon Rimmer. I played with the ingredients a bit and came up with this.



A delicious curry sauce that is a wonderful mix of sweet and heat and spice. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded until tender, breaded with a mixture of seasoned flour, egg and panko, and then fried until crispy tender. Delicious edamame, peas and red onions heated through in the delicious sauce and then spooned over top of the tasty chicken breasts and served along side some sticky Japanese rice.



This was wonderfully delicious and something that I will make regularly I think! I'm not sure what my brother who lived in Japan for 4 years would think of it . . . I'm not even sure if it's authentic. I only know it's delicious, and that's . . . well . . . more half the battle as far as I am concerned, and really all that counts after all!!



*Chicken Katsu Curry*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

A wickedly wonderful Japanese curry in which chicken breasts are breaded and fried until crisp and then served with a delicious Oriental curry sauce spooned over top.

For the sauce:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp fennel seed
2 green cardamom pods
2 TBS vegetable oil
2 brown onions, peeled and sliced
2 small red bird's eye chillies
1 (400g) tin of chopped tomatoes (14 ounce)
1 inch piece of fresh ginger-root, peeled and finely chopped
1 TBS ground tumeric
9 fluid ounces of chicken stock
1 TBS honey
1 TBS Japanese soy sauce

For the Chicken and curry:
3 1/2 ounces plain flour, seasoned with some fine sea salt and
freshly ground black pepper (1 cup)
5 ounces Japanese panko breadcrumbs (about 2 cups)
2 large free range eggs
4 chicken breasts, boneless skinless
4 TBS vegetable oil
5 1/2 ounces frozen peas, thawed (1 cup)
5 1/2 ounces frozen edamame beans, thawed (1 cup)
1 small red onion, peeled and sliced

Cooked Sticky Rice to serve

Dry fry the spices in a hot skillet for several minutes, until very fragrant. Remove from the heat and grind to a powder with a pestle and mortar. Heat the oil in the same pan. Add the onions and cook, until golden brown, for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, chili, tomatoes, ginger-root and tumeric. Bring to the boil, add the chicken stock and then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 25 minutes. Blitz the sauce until smooth. Return to the pan and whisk in the honey and soy sauce until totally amalgamated. Keep warm.

For the Katsu curry place the seasoned flour and the bread crumbs into two separate shallow bowls. Beat the eggs together in a third shallow bowl. Place the chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic cling film and pound with a rolling pin to 1/3 inch thickeness without tearing the meat. Dust the chicken breasts with the flour, dip them into the egg and then roll them in the panko to coat thoroughly. Set aside for about 5 minutes.

Heat the oil in a clean frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add the chicken breasts and cook them until browned on both sides and cooked through, approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. Keep warm in the oven. Dispose of most of the oil. Add the red onion, peas and beans to the pan Cook and stir until the onion has begun to soften and the peas and beans are crispy tender. Stir the cooked vegetables into the curry sauce and heat through.

To serve, cut each cooked chicken breast through the middle diagonally and place onto a heated plate along with some cooked sticky rice. Spoon an equal amount of the curry sauce and vegetables over each. Serve immediately.



Over in The Cottage today, some delicious Chocolate Chunk Muffins!

Because there are only two of us in our house, I have a tendancy to cook smaller amounts a lot of the time. It just makes sense and there's no waste. I have found that most recipes can quite successfully be cut in half.



But then again . . . other recipes that are meant for two can quite successfully be doubled to feed more people as well.



This delicious chicken recipe is just such a recipe. Easy to make for two, or ten! It always turns out moist and scrummy!



Most people overcook their chicken. Dried out chicken breasts are not very tasty at all. If you follow the directions exactly for this recipe you will be rewarded with deliciously moist chicken . . . with a sticky sweet and tangy coating.



The flavours are very Greek I think . . . honey, lemon, oregano, garlic. All you need to complete the meal would be some steamed new potatoes, or rice and a tasty tossed salad on the side.



Your hubby will love this. I guarantee! It's quick, easy . . . and quite, quite tasty if I don't say so myself!



*Sticky Lemon Chicken for 2*
Serves 2

This is deliciously moist with a tangy sweet flavour that is quite scrummy indeed. You can double the ingredients if need be, but keep the cooking time the same.

2 part boned Chicken breasts
(Free range with the skin on)
the finely grated zest of one unwaxed lemon
the juice of one lemon
1 dessertspoon of runny honey
(for a deliciously different flavour try using Greek Honey)
1 TBS light olive oil
1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
(I like to use Bart freeze dried)
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Line a baking tray with some foil. Set aside.

Whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, honey, and garlic. Place the chicken breasts on the baking tray, skin side up. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Pour the lemon juice over all. Sprinkle with the oregano.

Bake in the heated oven for30 minutes, basting with the pan juices every 10 minutes, or until cooked through. The juices should gradually thicken and give the chicken a delicious sticky coating at the end. Allow to stand for 5 minutes to rest before serving. Just wonderful!

NOTICE - The other day I inadvertantly left out 1/4 tsp of baking powder in my 2 Minute Chocolate Chip Cake recipe. Please make sure to add it to your recipe if you have already printed it out. I have amended the recipe now and am sorry if I caused any of you any problems!! Oh, and the two ladies who wanted to know if they could bake it in a regular oven, I can't see why you couldn't. Just bake it for about 10 to 15 minutes until well risen and nicely browned. Or else you can just make my regular Chocolate Chip Cake recipe, which you can find here. I promise you it's also, very, very good, although it will take a bit longer than two minutes before you can indulge in the feasting.




Over in The Cottage today, a very delicious casserole of Cheesy Sweet Potato and Cauliflower.

(image courtesy of BBC)

Have I told you how much I love Nigel Slater??? Oh, yes . . . I guess I have haven't I. I pretty much have made no secret of it. Nigel cooks like I want to eat. I suspect he eats like I want to eat too . . . he's my cheffie hero. He's pretty handsome too, in a very rugged way . . .



He has a series on the BBC on Friday Nights at the moment called "Simple Cooking." It's just a simple show, filled with unpretentious ingredients . . . delicously and simply put together in the most scrumptious way . . . the way that only Nigel can do.



Last Friday night he made these delicious looking Chocolate Snaps, and I couldn't wait to try them out for myself. The sight and sound of him tucking into them when they were done made me almost drool . . . he made them look and sound sooooo scrummy!



Today I finally had the chance to make them. I didn't have the exact ingredients he used, so I improvised and used my own toppings. (he toasted some flaked almonds and sugared them, which was as easy as spreading the flaked almonds onto a baking sheet and toasting them in a180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4 oven for about two minutes, sprinkling them with sugar and toasting them for a few more minutes until glazed. He also used crushed candied rose petals. I didn't have any of those either.)



I chose to use chopped pistachios, chopped macadamia nuts, chopped dried cranberries and chopped candied ginger . . . along with the flaked seasalt.



These moreish ingredients are sprinkled over rounds of melted dark chocolate and then chilled until crisp and snappy! Each scrumdiddlyumptious mouthful brings a mixture of tastes and textures . . .



Sweet, spicy, tangy, crunchy, nutty, salty . . . all mixed with smooth dark chocolate richness. Oh my . . . but they are some good. They snap in your mouth, which in and of itself is very rewarding on top of their deliciousness . . . and then you get to lick the melted chocolate off your fingers after, which is also very rewarding. These were in short . . . FANTABULOUS!!!



But then they would be. Nigel hasn't disappointed me yet!



*Sea Salt Chocolate Snaps*
Makes 8 to 10 snaps
Printable Recipe

Sweet, rich, salty, crunchy . . . there isn't a sense these don't tingle!

100g (3 1/2 ounces) dark chocolate (You want a good quality one
with at least 70% cocoa solids. I used Lindt)
a good handful of shelled pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
a handful of raw macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
7 or 8 cubes of candied ginger, roughly chopped
a handful of dried cranberries, roughly chopped
flakes of sea salt



Break the chocolate up and place it into a bowl. Place the bowl over simmering water, without allowing the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Leave alone without stirring for about 8 minutes. Halfway through the melting time, push the unmelted chocolate down into the melted parts. Turn out the heat and just let sit until it is all melted.

Line a large baking sheet with some non stick baking paper. Spoon out little disc shapes of the melted chocolate onto the paper, spreading it out thinly with the bottom of the spoon. While the chocolate is still warm, scatter the chopped nuts and fruits in combination over the chocolate. (Pistachio and cranberries are nice. Macadamia and cranberries are also nice. Macadamia and ginger is lovely as well.) Sprinkle a little sea salt over each.

Place the tray in the refrigerator to chill for 15 to 20 minutes. Carefully lift from the paper and serve.



Cooking in The Cottage today, a Simple Celery Soup.

You are gonna either love me to pieces or hate me for this . . . let's face it . . . after today your life will never be the same again.



From this moment on you will never be more than two minutes away from a scrummy, delicous, buttery cake, chock full of lucious chocolate chips.



That's right. Two minutes, or one and a half depending on the strength of your microwave oven.



I know . . . it's a sin isn't it??? (You will need a big mug for this. )



Oh to think that something so beautifully scrummy can be yours as quick as a wink!! It's downright dangerous. But what a way to go!



Put on your fluffy slippers, slip into your robe and get ready for the scrummiest two minute wait of the day! Your world has now changed. You can thank me tomorrow.



*Two Minute Chocolate Chip Cake*
Makes one serving

Chocolate Chip Cake. Two minutes. 'Nuff said!

1 large free range egg
3 packed TBS of soft light brown sugar
5 1/2 TBS plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 TBS softened butter
3 to 4 TBS good quality chocolate, chopped coarsely
(I like to use Green and Black's Organic milk)
1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together in a large mug. Place in the microwave. Cook on high for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, or just until the top centre of the cake is set. Allow to cool slightly. Serve warm with clotted cream, Creme Fraiche or ice cream. Enjoy!

Note: You can make as many servings of this as you want, but cook each one individually.



I could not resist. I ate the whole thing. Myself . . . the eating did take a bit longer than two minutes as I wanted to savour every . . . single . . . bite. Sigh . . . What can I say. I am a bad puddy tat! =^..^=



I'm cooking Perfect Corn with a Basil Lime Butter over in The Cottage today.