We have two young Missionary Sisters here now in our Ward area and they were coming over the other day to spend some time sharing with us and so I decided to bake them a little treat.  We don't very often get girl missionaries here and so it was really fun.



Not that the guys aren't fun.   They are.   But I can hug the girls, and do fun things for them like give them cakes of Cath Kidston soap, just because they are so sweet and I admire the service they are doing for the Lord.   I have never had a guy get ecstatic about a bar of soap.



And to be honest I've never had them get ecstatic about a cake either.  Although their lack of enthusiasm has never stopped them from enjoying my cakes or having more than one piece!  That makes me happy, even if they aren't jumping up and down.



The girls are different . . . they only had one piece each . . . but they were definitely ecstatic about it.  Makes me smile.

 

And really, no wonder they were thrilled.   This is a really  fabulous cake, really.   It's moist and warmly flavoured with lovely ground cinnamon . . . mmm . . . I do love Cinnamon, don't you?



Oh, and it has cute little apples nestled in amongst that lovely moist batter . . . apples that are slivered and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar . . . and baked in the oven along with the cake.  Then the whole thing is glazed with apricot jam.



I love it when that happens.  Dust with icing sugar or not . . . as you wish.  Do serve with lashings of softly whipped cream.   You won't regret it.  You hips might, but you won't . . . I dare say . . . you may even get a little bit ecstatic!

 

*Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake*
Makes one 9 inch cake, serving 8 to 10
Printable Recipe

A deliciously moist cake, filled with lovely apples and cinnamon flavours.   Serve warm with softly whipped double cream for a real treat!

185g of unsalted butter, softened (3/4 cup)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
126g of golden caster sugar (2/3 cup)
3 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
150g of plain flour (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
78ml of whole milk (1/3 cup)

To top:
4 small Granny Smith Apples, peeled, halved and cored
1 tsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

To finish:
a heaped dessertspoon of apricot jam, gently warmed (about 1/4 cup)

To serve:
Softly whipped double cream



Preheat the oven to 170*C/325*F/ gas mark 3.  Butter a 9 inch round spring form cake tin.   Line the bottom with baking paper.  Butter the paper.  Set aside.

Cream together the butter, cinnamon and sugar until light and fluffy.   Beat in the eggs, a bit at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.   Add to the creamed mixture, alternately with the milk.  Spread the batter in the prepared pan.  Cut little slits in the apples almost all the way through working from the rounded top down, taking care to leave them intact on the flat side.  Place the apple halves evenly spaced around the cake on top of the batter.  Stir together the sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle evenly over top.

Bake for 50 minutes.  Remove from the oven.  Gently brush with the apricot jam.   Return to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until the cake tests done when a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Serve warm, cut into wedges along with some softly whipped double cream.

Be sure to check out the Interview I did on Piggy Fair.   I really enjoyed doing it!  It's nice sometimes to be able to slow down and reflect on things, on the whys and wherefores.   Thanks Miss Piggy!

 

 If you are on a quest for the perfect bran muffin, I think you may have just stumbled upon it.  Your search ends here!  These moist bran muffins are delicious! Honed after years of searching for the perfect and best bran muffin!

 

We were in town the other day and I popped into the Little Waitrose they have there.   I sure miss Waitrose.   I used to do most of my shopping there when we lived down South.   Their meat and produce was always excellent.   I found some excellent looking organic free range pork chops that were on their sell by date and so I got a good bargain.   I froze them when I got home and then,  yesterday,  I thawed them out and we had them for supper.



We don't eat pork very often . . . actually we don't eat any red meat very often . . . usually it is fish or chicken or no meat at all . . . but the Toddster, he does enjoy a good chop once in a while.



My mother always way over-cooked her pork when I was growing up.   Seriously.   You could have used her chops to shingle a roof.   I think there was a lot of fear as well as danger in those days of people getting trichinosis from under-cooked pork.



You can cook pork well enough without drying it out and over-cooking it though.   There is a fine line between cooked through and cremated!   I don't care who you are . . . an over cooked pork chop is just not very tasty or appealing.  I find if you cook it so long as the meat which is closest to the bone runs with clear juices when pricked . . . then it's done!  And indeed you can cook the tenderloin only until it is a little pink and you will be safe.   Any longer and it's blah . . . YUCKO!



Today I pan fried my chops, finishing them off in a hot oven for a few minutes while I created a delicious sauce to serve over top . . . of red apples and onions, sage, walnuts and cider vinegar.   Beautiful.   It's not a sauce in the sense of a gravy . . . but more like a relish.

 

Pork and apples are perfect partners . . . add some sage, onion and walnuts, and you have something very special indeed. Tasty and colorful with just a bit of crunch from the walnuts.  The men in your life will thank you for these!

 

I paired this up with Tatties and Neeps . . .  Basically that is just  mashed potatoes and Swede . . . but doesn't the other name sound more delicious and intriguing??   I know, how could you not love something called Tatties and Neeps???   It's quite impossible.   And it just goes so well with pork.   It really does.

Enjoy.

 

*Pork Chops with an Apple, Red Onion & Walnut Sauce*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

Tender pork chops served with a chunky apple, red onion and walnut sauce.  Delicious.   I like to serve this with mashed potatoes and Swede, or Tatties and Neeps as it is known over here!

4 bone in, thick pork chops
1 TBS butter
freeze dried sage, sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

For the Sauce:
1 TBS olive oil
2 TBS butter
2 large red-skinned dessert apples, cored and cut into wedges
2 medium red onions, peeled and cut into wedges
50g of walnut pieces, toasted (about 1/2 cup)
1 tsp freeze dried sage leaves
2 TBS organic Cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7.   Have ready a shallow baking dish.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat until it begins to foam.   Sprinkle the chops to taste on both sides with salt, pepper and sage.   Brown them generously, for about 3 to 4 minutes per side.   Remove them from the skillet to the baking dish and bang them into the oven while you make the sauce.

To make the sauce.  Add the olive oil and butter to the pan drippings.   Add the apples and onions.  Cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes, or just until they are beginning to soften.   Add the sage leaves, walnuts and cider vinegar and cook for about 2 minutes more.  Remove from the heat.  Season to taste.

Make sure the juices of the chops are running clear.  Once they are done, plate them up onto heated serving plates, spoon an equal portion of the sauce over each and serve immediately.

 
 

I am a real cereal lover! It has ever been so.   I grew up on sugary cereals when I was a child.   My mother could never get us to eat oatmeal , or any other kind of cooked cereals for that matter.   We would only eat cold cereals like Cheerios (which I still love) puffed wheat, corn flakes and the like . . . not exactly the healthiest things around, but looking at them now, not exactly the worst things either!  There was no such thing as granola back then, at least not that you could buy in the shops.  I am sure there were a few tree hugging hippies (which my mother was not) that did make their own, but having said that . . . we probably would have turned out noses up at it back then anyways . . .



As an adult I have come to embrace and LOVE cooked cereals, but more than that . . . I adore Granola, often making my own.   The thing I have always loved about home created Granola is that I can put lots of fruit into it . . . and I do like lots of fruit in my granola.

Just prior to Christmas the people at Jordan's sent me some of their new Super Fruity Granola.  Super Fruity granola is bursting with raspberries, redcurrants, and pomegranate . . . lots and lots of lovely red berries.   There is also oat and almonds, baked with honey.    

Jordon's Super Granola's are all created with a base of toasted oatmeal and combined with plenty of special 'super berry' or nuts ingredients added for extra nutrition, flavour and texture.



And as you can see, the fruit was really bright and colourful, and I have to say it tasted just like real fruit!  Well, it was real fruit, but you know what I mean.   It didn't taste stale and dry like some of those dried fruits in cereals can taste.   I quite enjoyed it.  The oats were crunchy and slightly sweet from the honey it is baked with.   I quite, quite enjoyed.  I love a nice bowl of granola in the morning topped with tart plain yogurt.   I think it is the breakfast of champions!

From their page:

 

I often eat granola just out of hand as a quick snack, and I have been known to use it to top pancakes and muffins as well as my baked honey glazed granola donuts.

Very scrummy indeed and I am thinking that this fruity granola would go down very well in those!  This beautiful granola is available in Four delicious flavours.



Sometimes though, you are on the run and you don't have time to sit down and eat a bowl of cereal, or bake donuts or the like.   You want something quick that you can grab as you are going out the door and eat on the run.   They also sent me a box of their ABSOLUTE Nut Luxury Bars.   Oh my . . . just look at all the nuts in that bar!  I love nuts.  

These were beautifully chewy and just stogged full of lovely crunchy whole and chopped almonds, roast hazelnuts and pecans . . . combined with oats in a fabulous hand held bar which I truly enjoyed.  I love that it was healthy and very, very nutty.   Have I told you I love nuts?   Yes . . . well, I'm telling you again, I LOVE NUTS and I just LOVED these granola bars!

From their page:

 

 It's still snowing although it's not quite as cold as it was.  If this stuff freezes those roads are going to be treacherous!  It's definitely the type of day you want to spend indoors next to the fire!

 

 I know all you North Americans think we Brits are cold weather wimps . . . and maybe we are.   But in all fairness . . . we just don't have the insulation and heating systems that y'all are used to in North America, and it is a lot damper here!



I took a gathering from the leftovers on my Vegetable Bin today and created a lovely soup from them.  Rib sticking and heart warming . . . with lovely carrots, parsnips and swede (rutabaga) . . . fantastic root vegetables that have beautiful sweet properties, especially when you sweat them down with butter.



Added to the mix are wonderful aromatics . . . onions, leeks . . . celery, with a touch of fresh sage leaves.   It's sounding pretty good so far isn't it?   But just wait . . . it gets even better . . .



I've added the luxury of stodgy bacon, sage and suet dumplings . . . oh so wonderfully filling and fabulously delish.   Seriously.   The soup on it's own is rich and brothy . . . filled with lots of cubed vegetables . . . and these spectacularly scrummy dumplings.   Oh my . . . it goes down a real treat.

 

Soup.  Vegetables.   Dumplings . . . BACON dumplings no less.   What more could a body want on a cold winter's day?   Not much . . . not much . . . so, what are you waiting for???   Get cooking!



*Vegetable Soup with Bacon Dumplings*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe

A delicious filling soup.  Perfect for a cold winter's day.

2 TBS butter
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 leek, diced, white and green parts kept separately
3/4 pound of swede, peeled and diced
3/4 pound of parsnips, peeled and diced
3/4 pound of carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery sticks, diced
3 to 4 sage stems
2 1/2 litres of chicken stock (10 1/2 cups)
salt and black pepper

Dumplings:
100g of self raising flour (1 cup)
1/2 tsp English mustard powder
2 tsp finely chopped sage
50g of vegetable suet (1/4 cup)
2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
4 TBS cold water

 

Melt the butter over medium low heat in a large saucepan.   Add the onion and white part of the diced leeks.   Saute about 5  minutes, until beginning to soften, without colouring.   Add the remainder of the vegetables and sage.   Toss in the butter, then cover and sweat for about 10 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally.   Pour on the stock, season to taste with salt and black pepper and bring to the boil.  Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes until the vegetables are tender.  Adjust seasoning as needed.

To make the dumplings whisk together the flour and mustard powder.  Stir in the sage, suet and bacon with a bit of salt and pepper to taste.  Gradually stir in the water with a spoon, then using your hands to squeeze it together to make a smooth dough.   Using your hands shape into 18 balls by gently rolling between your hands.

Stir in the remaining green diced leeks.  Add the dumplings.  Recover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes until the dumplings are light and fluffy.  Ladle into bowls and serve immediately.

Note:   If you wanted to make this vegetarian, you could use vegetable stock and add gnocchi dumplings instead of the bacon suet ones. Or you could leave the bacon out of the dumplings and replace it with something nutty like chopped walnuts, and a bit of crumbled cheese, such as a creamy Stilton.   Sounds gorgeous already!

Ottolenghi is probably one of the best and dynamic places to eat in this country.  When I worked down South the daughter often came down from London for the weekend with friends