Some days you just want a cookie . . . or biscuit as they are called
over here. That inner child in you just crys out for something sweet . .
. something which feels like a reward.
A tasty treat that is equally at home with a glass of cold milk . . . or with a cup of something hot, for dunking . . .
A tasty treat that is equally at home with a glass of cold milk . . . or with a cup of something hot, for dunking . . .
Something comfortable and comforting. It doesn't even have to be
chocolate . . . in fact there are days when chocolate just doesn't cut
it . . . you want something more . . . something homey . . . with just a
touch of sophistication . . .
Something which wraps you up in a nice warm hug like a loving Grandmother's cuddles and kisses always did . . .
Something which feels indulgent and yet at the same time wholesome . . .
we don't always want to feel totally naughty . . . sometimes we just
want to be a tiny bit naughty . . .
Chock full of rolled oats, toasted walnuts, chunks of apricot and gently
sweetened with creamy honey . . . these are biscuits to come home to . .
. biscuits you want to sink your teeth into and then just float away on
a sea of remembrance of honey comforts and a gentler . . . kinder time.
*Honeyed Apricot, Oat & Walnut Cookies*
Makes 4 dozen
Makes 4 dozen
Soft and golden, and studded with toasted walnuts and bits of dried apricot.
180g of butter, softened (3/4 cup)
95g of granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
2 tsp finely grated orange zest (optional)
170g of creamed honey (1/2 cup)
1 large free range egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp orange extract
160g of old fashioned rolled oats (2 cups)
175g of plain flour (1 1/4 cups)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
60g of toasted chopped walnuts (1/2 cup)
75g of chopped dried apricots (1/2 cup)
For the optional glaze:
125g of icing sugar, sifted (1 cup)
whole milk
1/2 tsp orange extract
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line several baking sheets with baking paper. Butter the baking paper, or spritz with low fat cooking spray.
Rub the sugar and orange zest together if using, until you can smell the orange. Cream the sugar, honey and the butter together until light and fluffy. Beat in the extracts and the egg. Stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add this to the creamed mixture along with the oats. Mix together well. Stir in the nuts and the apricots. Mix well.
Drop by the tablespoon onto the prepared baking sheets, at least one inch apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Scoop off the cookie sheet onto wire racks to cool. Once cool, whisk the drizzle ingredients together until smooth and dribble the resulting glaze in a decorative manner over the tops. Store in an airtight container.
I really dislike these cold dark days. The light has been really poor no matter the time of day and its hard to get a decent photo of anything. If it wasn't so cold out or raining, I could go outside but brrr . . . not doing that. Don't let the dark photos put you off from these tasty cookies. They are really delicious! Perfect with a hot drink for elevenses! Bon appetit!
I always try to buy enough bananas so that the Toddster can get his fill of them, and I will have some leftover blackened ones to bake with. I confess I am not overly fond of eating fresh bananas, but bake them into a muffin, cookie or a bread and I am all over them!
The exception for the eating fresh rule is eating them on top of my rice crispies. And I always need a sprinkle of brown sugar on top. Not sure why that is . . . its probably something that goes back to my childhood. Rice crispies, banana and brown sugar just makes me feel all yum yum. I love them.
Is there such a thing as too many banana bread recipes??? I think not!
And this is one of my absolute favourites. It smells all heavenly when it is baking . . .
Its moreishly moist from the amount of banana and then the buttermilk . . .
Its stogged full of lovely toasted pecans. I always like to toast my nuts before using them. It just makes them taste . . . well . . . nuttier, for some reason.
This is beautiful on its own . . . with no embellishment, just the bread . . . sweet, moist and banana-ee.
Its lovely cut into thin slices and spread with softened butter too . . . and it is gorgeous toasted under a grill until its edges start to caramelize, flipped over and caramelized on the other side . . . and then, yes . . . . spread with butter or honey butter . . . wowsa. I am such a glutton!
*Buttermilk Banana Bread*
Makes 1 large loafor 3 small to medium bananas or 2 large)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
125g butter, melted (1/2 cup)Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F. gas mark 6. Butter a 9 by 5 inch loaf tin and dust it lightly with flour, shaking out any excess.
Combine the mashed banana with the eggs, both sugars ad vanilla in a bowl. Beat in the buttermilk and butter. Sift the flour, soda, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Add the banana mixture and beat until well blended. Stir in the chopped nuts. Spoon into the prepared baking tin, smoothing the top.
Place the tin into the preheated oven and immediately REDUCE the oven temperature to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Bake for one hour and fifteen minutes, or until the top is risen and nicely browned, the loaf is beginning to pull away from the sides of the tin, and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to unmold. Carefully turn over and cool completely before cutting into slices to serve. As with any teabread like this, letting it stand overnight improves the flavour and helps it to cut neater.
Note - this is really lovely toasted and buttered. Just saying . . .
A slice of this with a hot cuppa is a real treat on a cold winter's day. Perfect for chasing away the winter blues . . . Bon Appetit!
I am not a person who feels blue very often, but today I had kind of a blue day. It came at me from out of nowhere. I felt teary-eyed and down-hearted for most of the day, for no real reason. I find that when one of those moods hits, it is best to just get my head down and get stuck into something simple and mindless. I decided to bake muffins.
These sounded lovely . . . . and somewhat healthy, aside from the sugar and golden syrup . . . with plenty of oats, sunflower seeds and chopped apple.
If you don't have light muscovado sugar, you can use soft light brown sugar, and in the place of golden syrup you can use light corn syrup, or even honey would work well.
Actually I think I might even try them with date syrup sometime. I think that would be fabulous . . . with some chopped dates instead of apple and maybe toasted walnuts instead of sunflower seeds.
Watch this space. In the meantime we are sitting here enjoying these just as they are. Delicious little cakes that are completely at home with a hot cuppa or a hot chocolate, or even a glass of milk.
They would also make very lovely additions to the kids' lunch boxes I dare say. A delicious way of getting something good into them.
*Oat, Apple & Sunflower Seed Muffins*
Makes 12
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line a 12
cup medium muffin tin with paper liners, or butter and dust well with
flour, shaking out any excess. Set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Push the muscovado sugar through a fine sieve and stir it into the flour. (If you cannot get muscavado sugar, use light brown sugar). Stir in the porridge oats. Whisk together the milk and eggs in a measuring beaker, beating together with a fork. Heat the syrup and butter together until the butter melts. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the milk/egg mixture and the syrup/butter mixture all at once. Stir together just to moisten. Stir in the chopped apple and sunflower seeds. Spoon into the prepared muffin cups.
Sprinkle the jumbo oats on top of the batter, then the sunflower seeds and finally the demerara sugar.
Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until well risen and godlen brown and the top springs back when lightly touched. Scoop out to a wire rack to cool for a bit prior to eating. Lovely warm, and pretty good cold as well!
Hopefully I will be able to shake off this feeling soon. I hate feeling blue, especially when I have nothing to feel blue about. I guess they call it the January Blues and I know I am not alone. We all get them from time to time! In any case I did enjoy these muffins, and I had a good old clear out of the cupboard at the same time! Bon Appetit!
Sometimes I think about becoming a vegetarian, but then I think about the things I really enjoy . . . like steak and I realise I could never really do it. Become a vegetarian. I enjoy a good steak once in a while far too much to ever give it up. No offense to vegetarians, I know they have their reasons, but I am a meat lover, albeit free range and organic if possible. I try to only eat happy meat.
This recipe today is the perfect recipe for when you are wanting to indulge in a good steak with your partner. I like meat that has hung a bit longer and which is organic and free range. You can tell good meat by its colour. It won't be overly bright red . . . and it will be moist, but not overly moist, and not overly dry either.
It should be a dark red, not bright red . . . without a lot of liquid in the package, and the fat on the edge should be creamy white, almost waxy looking in appearance. Nicely marbled, without any obvious bits of tough sinew. (I hate sinew.)
There are many thoughts of school on salting prior to cooking or not. I, personally, salt prior to cooking. If you let your steak rest properly before serving, any juices that might escape will be reabsorbed by the meat when it relaxes . . . salt just enhances the flavour of good meat.
Personally we like our steaks medium rare. They are tender and delicious. Not bleeding, but nice and pink in the centre, with a good sear on the outside.
Mmmm . . . now that's a good looking steak . . . . perfectly done to my taste.
The sauce is beautiful also . . . with lovely rich flavours that help to bring out the best of the meat and not overpower it. I am a real pepper lover . . . that heat and bite really goes well with a good piece of beef, and the richness of the cream and butter and whiskey, well . . . what can I say? Perfectly sized for just two. This could be your new romantic dinner option.
*Steak with a Whiskey Peppercorn Sauce*
Serves 2
2 TBS butter
2 TBS mixed peppercorns
Make the sauce first and keep warm. Heat the 1 TBS olive oil in a
saucepan. Add the shallots and garlic. Sweat, stirring occasionally,
over low heat and uncovered, until they are softened. Season to taste
with salt and black pepper. Add the stock to the pan. Bring to a boil
and cook on high for 15 minutes until reduced by half. Strain into a
clean saucepan. Whisk in the butter, cream, and peppercorns. Cook for a
few minutes longer, then set aside and keep warm.
Brush the steaks on both sides with a bit of oil and season with salt and black pepper. Heat a grill pan until very hot. Cook for 3 minutes on one side, then flip and cook for a further 3 minutes for medium rare. Let rest for a few minutes before serving on warm plates with the sauce spooned over top.
I served with chips and onions rings and a crisp wedge of iceberg lettuce with my Creamy Cheddar Salad Dressing. We were both very happy campers. Bon Appetit!
Cheesy Rigatoni. Just those two words are enough to set your taste buds to tingling. Add some tuna and some broccoli and you have a dish made in heaven! This is easily absolutely the best Tuna Casserole I have ever eaten.
This casserole I am sharing today is adapted from a recipe by James McNair that I found in a cookbook entitled "From Our House to Yours: Comfort Food to Give and Share", by Joyce Goldstein. It is rich and delicious.
I used the basic recipe for the pasta and sauce and then I added my own twist to it. I also cut the recipe perfectly in half for just us, and it worked well.
In fact I would say that half of the recipe would easily feed four people just right.
I made half the recipe, which should have fed two to three people. We only managed to finish half the dish.
So definitely make it when you have a table full of hearty hungry eaters in the house to feed.
Its really a very simple make. You just cook the pasta and then layer it in a baking dish.
Next you make a rich bechamel sauce, using both regular and evaporated milks. You can use the skimmed evaporated milk which will cut down on the fat somewhat . . . but really . . .
With all the cheese involved why bother! There are four kinds of cheese. Emmenthaler (a Swiss type of cheese) and Gruyere (another type of Swiss-ish cheese) . . . both of which have great melting properties.
The Emmenthaler is a bit nuttier and sweeter I think . . . then there is a sharp Cheddar (I used a vintage one) and Parmigiano Reggiano. All cheeses I had leftover from Christmas.
I also had leftover cooked broccoli I wanted to use up, which is why I just threw it on top, added a tin of good quality tuna drained.
Those were layered over the pasta and the sauce gets spooned over top. All the cheese is layered on top of the sauce, creating a ooey gooey blanket of yumminess!
*Baked Rigatoni with Four Cheeses*
Serves 4 to 6
1 tin of albacore tuna in water, drained (7 ounces) broken into chunks
2 cups cooked broccoli florets
Heat a large saucepan of generously salted water to
the boil. Add the pasta and cook, stirring frequently, until done to al
dente, according to the package directions. Drain well, rinse in cold
water and drain again. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to
180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. Spread the
pasta out in the dish. Top with the flaked tuna and broccoli.
Melt
the butter in a large saucepan. Add the flour and whisk together,
cooking over low heat for about five minutes. Remove and set aside.
Combine the milk and evaporated milk in a large saucepan and heat just
to the boil. Pour all at once into the pan with the flour/butter
mixture and whisk together until smooth. Season with some salt, ppper
and nutmeg. Place over medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, until
the mixture begins to bubble and thicken. Pour this evenly over top of
the tuna, pasta and broccoli in the casserole dish. Mix together all
of the cheeses and sprinkle them evenly over top of all.
Bake in the preheated oven for about half an hour. Place under a heated grill to gild the cheese if desired.
Note - you can leave out the tuna and broccoli if you wish.
Even my so called pasta-hating other half gobbled this up. In his words, it wasn't so bad. Now, knowing him and his taste for pasta, that was a high compliment indeed.
This is incredibly delicious. Rich. Creamy. Probably the best Tuna Casserole I have ever eaten!
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One thing I love most about Winter is that we get to enjoy lovely homemade soups with abandon. There is no time like the present to be enjoying these beautiful forms of sustenance!
Everything I know about making soup, I learned from my mother. She made beautiful soups. As a family we loved her soups and one of the first things we always looked forward after we grew up and went home for a visit, was a hot bowl of one of her homemade soups.
Mum never skimmed the fat from her soups. She always told us those little beads of fat floating on top were the vitamins. I do skim the fat, but I always smile while I am doing it, thinking of all the vitamins . . . .
One of my favourite memories is from when I was living on my own after my divorce. I had a rented room in someone else's house. It was January and I had come down with the "man" flu . . . horrible, soul wrenching, energy draining flu.
I was in bed for several days, not caring if I was dead or alive. There came a knock on the door one day and there stood my mother with a lovely container of her homemade chicken soup. Nectar of the Gods. And filled with vitamins, no doubt! 😉 But when you're sick . . . who cares.
A good homemade soup is one of the most beautiful examples of love you can share with someone you care about . . .it is indeed soup for the soul.
This version I am showing you today starts with a delicious homemade stock which is made from the carcass of a roasted chicken. I always freeze my roast chicken carcasses specifically for the purpose of making soups.
You don't always feel like making the soup right away, so freezing them makes good sense. I just pop them into an empty bread bag, tie it shut and pop it into the freezer.
I also cut up my own chickens to use in dishes and save the backs and necks, also for the purpose of making flavourful stocks. All get frozen for future use.
Breasts in one container, legs in another, wings in another, and backs & necks. Its a cheaper way of having chicken portions to hand, and just makes economic sense to me.
For this delicious soup I combined my own homemade stock, pearl barley, grated parsnips, and cabbage with perfectly delicious results. You can use ready made stock as well if you want.
You will still end up with a fabulously tasty soup. Perfect for these cold winter days and for whatever ails you.
*Roast Chicken Soup with Barley, Parsnips and Cabbage*
Serves 4
a generous sprig of thyme
2 TBS chopped fresh parsley
140g pearl barley (3/4 cup)
Put the chicken stock into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add
the spring of thyme, parsley and pearl barley and reduce to a simmer.
Cover and cook for about forty five minutes. Add the vegetables,bring
to the boil again and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for a further 15 to
20 minutes, until all of the vegetables and the barley are very soft.
Add the chicken and heat through. Season to taste with salt and black
pepper, squeeze the lemon juice over top and serve.
You can make your own chicken broth quite easily with the carcass of your leftover roast chicken. Homemade is always better than ready made in my opinion.
*Roast Chicken Broth*
Makes 3 to 4 litres (2 to 3 quarts)
1 tsp sea salt
a handful of fresh parsley sprigs, and other soft herbs such at thyme, oregano, savoury, sage or marjoram
Any leftovers can also be frozen, ready to haul out at the first sign of a sniffle. Almost as good as a mother's hug when you are feeling a bit under the weather. Bon Appetit!
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