I've been thinking a lot lately about blogging and food blogging in particular.  I started this particular food blog about 11 years ago now, but have been food blogging in general for I guess about 15 years altogether.  For most of that time I have blogged about food just about every day with very few exceptions.  I cook and eat every day, so why not write about it??? 

Since I started this blog 11 years ago, I have posted 3886 blog posts, and I am proud to say that for the most part each post contains a recipe.  I have learnt along the way and I like to think that as time has gone on I have gotten better at this lark.  I still don't have the most aesthetically pleasing, well-thought-out food photographs. Photography has never been my strong suit, but I do try to present to you food that is pretty realistic. I don't use filters or edit much except to crop.  Some days you get my laundry in the back ground, and some days the kitchen bin (and trust me when I say I have heard about that from some people!)  What you get is real food, in real time. 

One thing I have always prided myself on is that you don't have to jump through a bazillion hoops to get to a recipe on my page.  You land on the page, and yes . . .  admittedly I do post a lot of photographs in between the information and chit chat, but you all know that if you can't abide chit chat, all you need to do is to scroll down the page and a printable recipe is right there waiting for you.

Nothing jumps out at you.  Nothing obscures the recipes.  You don't have to click on accept this, or that.  Its just my chit chat, the photos and the recipes.  In a world where there is far too much advertising and lets face it fake crap  . . . I like to think that what I present to you is fairly direct and succinct, despite the chit chat. 

 

Admittedly there are a couple of ads.  One in the right handcolumn and one beneath the posts.  But I still think they are not very intrusive and if I thought they were intrusive in any way I would take them off. I make a few pennies a week from them from google. I get a little payment from them about every 4th month which amounts to about $60, which isn't an awful lot when you consider how many people I have visiting my page each day, which in all honesty amounts in the tens of thousands each day.  Sometimes it is upwards of 50,000 and sometimes about 30,000. Its never been about money for me.  Its always only ever been about food.

Occasionally (and I try not to make it too often) I will share something with you which I have been sent to try out.  Back when I first started I used to share these things more often than I do now.  I only share occasionally now.  I get a Degustabox once a month, which has a variety of different products in it for me to try and I share my findings with you on that, and I may share the odd thing now and again, but for the most part, I try to make all of my posts sincere and just about food.  I probably have offers every second day or so from companies wanting to send me this or that, or to visit here or there.  I turn most of them down.  I am just not interested in travelling very far these days (and at my own expense most times) or having an abundance of kitchen goodies in my already too small kitchen. 

 

Some bloggers fill their posts with hyperlinks.  I only occasionally add a link to a post and that is because I think it is something you might find interesting or will use.  I don't get paid for them. I'm just sharing.  Some bloggers only ever rarely write fresh content.  What you get from a lot of them is the same old stuff reconfigured to look like a new weeks worth of menus and recipes and they will send them out at the beginning of the week, but it is the same old stuff that they have had all along, presented in a new manner.  I try to write fresh content every day, and only ever very occasionally have I written something which is a compendium of a variety of recipes that I have already shared.  On special occasions for the most part, like Pancake Day when I think you might want to have a choice from a multitude of different options, or around Christmas when I might post the links to all my Christmas Recipes.  That's done just to make it easier for you to find them.

Had I known back when I started what I know now, I would have started off with an index.  Unfortunately I didn't and so I think a post where I share all or my best pancake recipes, or my holiday recipes is not entirely a bad thing!  It would be just too difficult for me to now go back and index all of my recipes, there's far too many of them.  But often if someone asks me if I have a recipe for this thing or for that thing, I will go to the effort of digging it up for them! 

Occasionally I have written little cookbooklets that I sell to make a few pennies. They are in the cookbooklet Tab up at the top of the page.  Again, I am not tecchie saavy enough to be able to present them to you as instant downloadables.  I sent each one out individually, so it can take a few hours sometimes for me to get them to you.  First Paypal has to let me know you've bought one, and then I have to be online, and I do try to sleep at night so sometimes I am in bed and it has to wait until I get up before I check my e-mails and send them out.  But again, I just do this because I enjoy putting them together and sharing them with you.  I've never had any complaints, and everyone who has ever bought them has really enjoyed them and found them to be a fair value for money spent. 

I find myself getting a bit more tired these days. I am not sure why. I reckon for every post I do, I spent the time it takes to cook the recipe, the time it takes to take photos of the recipe, and then the time to crop and edit them, post them and write about them.  To make things easier this year I signed up to Recipes Generator so that you could have decent printable recipes.  This does cost, but not as much as some sites cost.  I wanted you to have something decent to print out and keep.  I may not be able to keep it up next year, which in and of itself presents a bit of a conundrum for me, because I just started wondering recently what happens if I can't afford to keep it up next year?  Does that mean that all of my printable recipes disappear?  Food for thought there and I may find myself having to go back and make sure that I have another free alternative that I can slip into place should that happen.

I am not bored with cooking, but I am tired.  I find since my mom passed away a bit of the spring in my step has disappeared.  I may find it again, I hope so at any rate.  And I am finding it a bit expensive to keep presenting fresh content on a daily basis, so I guess I am really thinking about how to go forward with all of this. I find that most days I don't have a lot of time for much else.  How I ever wrote that cookbook a couple years ago, or even how I ever worked full time and kept this up I will never know!  It beats me. But then if I didn't food blog, how would I fill all those hours???

 

So I guess what I am asking is this. What about this blog do you like?  What would you like to see?  What would you not like to see.  How should I go about moving forward?  I'll be honest. I am not TRENDY!  I don't follow fads, in fact I highly dislike them.  I only ever want it to be about the food, and real food, and I want it to be about food that I enjoy cooking and that you will enjoy reading about, trying for yourself and eating.  Maybe this page has run its course?  I'm not sure!  What do you think?  I really want to know! Lets start a dialogue!  Thanks so much! 

 

 

I decided to bake a cake for Todd so as to make up for having baked Brownies the other day. He is not fond of chocolate as you know.  He loves coconut, and so I decided to bake him a Coconut Cake.

 

I had seen a recipe a few weeks back on Clodagh McKenna's FB  Page for a Cloudy Coconut Cake. (Way back in the archives of 2017) But the link never took me to any recipe for it. I decided to wing it.

 

Winging it isn't something I would recommend to people without much experience in the kitchen.  You are likely to experience many more failures than successes.  I have been baking and cooking for about 50 years now so I can do so without too many problems.

 

I used a basic layer sponge cake recipe and replaced milk with coconut milk and added a bit of coconut oil as well . . .  for plenty of coconut flavour and moistness. 

 

The lemon in the cake batter comes from the use of the juice of one lemon.  When you use something like lemon juice in a cake, you need to add bicarbonate of soda to counteract the acidity and help get a rise. Not sure why that is.  Its a chemical reaction of sorts.

 

You could use half butter and half shortening and get  a lighter cake, but I don't mind cakes which are a bit dense and so use all butter.

 

There are more coconut and lemon flavours in the frosting/filling.  A bit of coconut oil and the zest and juice of one lemon goes into the butter cream.

 

I went for broke and added a layer of lemon curd to fill as well . . . Todd was not so happy about that, because he not only doesn't like chocolate, but he also doesn't like lemon . . .

 

If I had left out the lemon curd he probably would not have noticed . . .  but alas . . .  I never do anything halfway . . .  and so he did.

 

He really enjoyed the cake otherwise however  . . .  I know  . . . its not quite natural to dislike chocolate and lemon . . . 

 

I used large natural, raw coconut flakes to decorate the top of the cake. 

 

I think they looked really nice.  They are also not sweetened . . .

  

The cake itself is pretty sweet enough. You could toast them I suppose, but I liked the way they looked in their raw state. I thought they gave the cake a really pretty finish!

 

Can you see how  moist and delicious that cake is?  Its just wonderful.  I am afraid I will never win any awards for food photography.  I am far too impatient  to leave things for hours and hours in the refrigerator setting up.  I find myself just wanting to dig in! 

 

I was so embarrassed today.  We went to the grocery store this morning to do my weekly shop, only to have my card turned down at the cash register.  Not once, but twice. And then we tried Todd's card and his was turned down also. Has that ever happened to you?  I wanted to wither up and disappear into a hole in the floor.  I have never had it happen before. But then again, normally I check our bank balance before I go shopping. Today I neglected to do that.  Lesson learnt! 

 

In any case this will be a slim pickings week to say the least.  I rise to the challenge.  Thank goodness we have a fairly generous store cupboard!  Perfect for times like this! Oh boy! I don't think I will ever be forgetting to check our bank balance prior to shopping again!

 

This brownie recipe I am sharing today is one I baked early last week. It is not Rocky Road in the sense of the North American style of rocky road, although it is similar to be sure! 

 

The recipe comes from this cookbook I bought at M&S a long time ago when we were living down South.  The M&S cookery books are usually quite good if you can get your hands on one. They are filled with good dependable recipes.

 

I love M & S (which stands for Marks & Spencer's).  I am always telling Todd, if we won the lottery I would shop there all the time.  You can't beat their clothing.  We always buy our nightclothes there and Todd gets his shoes there.  Quality. And everything wears well. 

 

It is the same in the food hall.  Quality. You do pay a bit more for their food, but it lasts twice as long as food you buy anywhere else.  Funny that! 

  

Anyways, back to these Brownies.  Rocky Road here in the UK, is a type of slice that is made from melted chocolate  with butter and  then stirring in broken biscuits (usually digestives), candied cherries and marshmallow bits.  You press it all into a pan and then stick it in the refrigerator.  Its quite nice actually!!  Very sweet.

 

These brownies are not made of melted chocolate, butter and broken biscuits.  The batter is a simple brownie batter  . . .  with melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder  . . . 

 

You stir candied cherries and toasted walnuts into the batter  . . .  glace cherries.  You could use maraschino cherries if you wanted to.  Just dry them off very well.  I always rinse my glace cherries in warm water and dry them off anyways.

 

They get baked like any other brownie gets baked . . .

 

They have a thick chocolate glace icing . . .  its not runny, but it's not fluffy either.  

 

This gets spread onto the top of the cake and then you lightly press some mini marshmallows into the top over the icing, just so that they adhere.

 

Let them set and then you can cut them into bars to serve.

 

These are amazingly good.  The brownies are  moist and hold well together . . .  with a nice crunch from the toasted walnuts and a bit of sticky sweet cherry surprise here and there, that I quite liked!

  

I think I would actually call them a bit dangerous actually  . . . in that you will find yourself sneaking into the kitchen to cut off one more sliver when nobody is looking.  Oh, I am so naughty!

 

I remember going to a cooking show when I was working down South and they had several celebrity chef's on.  They both baked Brownies.  It was a brownie-bake-off. The end result was somewhat disgusting.  the Brownies were like melting in the middle cakes.  A good Brownie shouldn't be soupy or messy.  You should be able to pick it up with your hand and eat it.  I felt like telling them so . . .  but I didn't because I am polite, and well  . . .  they were the celebrities. 😲 

Happy Saturday!  If you are looking for a tasty treat to bake the family this weekend, do bake these. You won't be sorry that you did! 

 

The recipe I am sharing with you today is one that the whole family is going to enjoy, especially if they are pizza fans!  It is a small batch recipe in that it only bakes 8 perfect medium sized muffins. Of course you can double the recipe to make more if you like!

 

It borrows its flavours from the popular Ham & Pineapple Pizza . . .  with chunks of ham and pineapple being included.  Of course if you are not fond of that combination, then you can substitute them with your own favourite pizza toppings! 

 

Cooked bacon, salami or pepperoni are all good . . .  as are chopped spring onions, or chopped olives (green or black). 

 

They are as easy to make as stirring together a group of dry ingredients  . . .  self rising flour, baking powder, salt and garlic Italian seasoning  . . .  a pinch of salt. 

 

Into them you stir some cheese (strong cheddar and Parmesan) and the chopped ham (or other ingredients) and the pineapple.  Make sure you pat the pineapple dry before chopping and using. 

 

You beat together some vegetable oil, an egg, tomato puree and milk separately . . .

  

This then gets stirred into the dry ingredients . . .  just to combine.  A few dry streaks are a.o.k. 

 

Divide the batter equally amongst your muffin cups.  I did six in my small muffin tin and two in custard cups.  I lined mine with paper.  You do need to do this, or at least butter and flour the tins  . . . 

 

Its really important you do this, unless you want the muffins to stick to the pan.  Cheese and things like that have a tendency to stick, so be warned . . . 

 

Finally you sprinkle a combination of cheddar and Parmesan cheese on top . . .

 

Just a tiny bit on each  . . .  and then bake.

 

They're done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean! 

  

Perfect for taking on picnics, packing in lunches or just eating as a snack.  Great with soups and salads as well!

 

I am sick up to my eyeballs of rain and cold.  Brrr  . . .  I keep having to close the door because when it starts it gets really, really cold. 

 

This was looking out our back window early this morning.  I think I am about to develop webbed feet and start quacking! I hope we have sunnier warmer weather soon!