Cooks Cooking Cookies

The wonderful Kitchen Aid is now very at home in the kitchen, and I totally love it. It makes baking incredibly easy, which in turn could make staying trim incredibly hard. I had the fab friend (different person to the lovely friend) round for dinner last night. That in itself was pretty delicious (salad of rocket, watercress and spinach with grilled Portobello mushrooms stuffed with cheese and topped with a poached egg) BUT my fab friend then announced we "have to make peanut butter cookies", at 9pm at night!

She was dutifully sent to buy the peanut butter and chocolate chips as I (quite uncharacteristically) had run out and we (more or less, well more really as we added a great deal more peanut butter (accidental) and chocolate chips (deliberate) than stated) followed the recipe in the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. This book should probably be illegal incidentally. The lovely friend has lent it to me and it contains the most amazing, decadent recipes that are completely irresistible.

The result - well, after less than 24 hours there is just one cookie left. The gorgeous husband was practically speechless when he tried them - he couldn't believe how good they were. Who gets the last one? Amazing son number one - we had a sweep stake on the Grand National which he won. He hadn't realised that he had won, and I would probably have got away with snaffling that last cookie for myself, but honesty prevailed.

In The Mix

There has been a plethora of birthdays during March, with more to come. Amazing son number 2 turned 8 last weekend and we had a wonderful day with a trip to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (his choice, I was just glad it wasn't Pizza Hut again this year) with a few of his friends, then on to Sugacane (think sweet heaven for young boys and try to not imagine the ensuing sugar high) to get them all some pick n' mix before heading back to our house to watch a DVD. All good fun and the Lego cake pops were an outstanding success too, although I now have a feeling that the bar has definitely been raised for all future birthdays and that an ice cream cake may not cut it any more.

Somewhere in the mix was my birthday and I turned "that old" - thank you lovely friend for that. I had a number of different celebrations over the week and it was really special. Out with friends for lunch, dinner with the amazing husband the following day, and a weekend with my family in Cheltenham. Happy times. Plus I've got the excitement of my birthday present to come - a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. I'm almost giddy at the thought of the bread, pasta, cakes etc that I'll be whipping up in no time once it arrives.

First on the list will be 'macarons' though - I can hardly wait. What flavour to make first, that is the question?

Chorizo, Bean and Lentil Stew

I've just finished work for the week - I know, I know it's only Tuesday I hear you say. I got home pretty late after son 1's trumpet lesson and needed to cook something for dinner.....with very little food in the house! If it wasn't for being rescued by the milkman again this morning (milk, bread and yoghurt - THANK YOU) I think there might have been a mutiny on my hands. We get through a lot of food - I say we, the cat and I tend to graze modestly during the day, the husband has scaled back his portions, so in truth it's the sons who at age 12 and 7 (nearly 8) can pack it away! So dinner tonight was a store cupboard raid, and in truth it was rather good.

1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion finely sliced
200g chorizo sliced and then the slices halved
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 litre vegetable stock
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 carton of passata
1 tsp chilli flakes
200g lentils
2 tins cannellini beans
salt and pepper

1. lightly fry the onion in the sunflower oil
2. add the chorizo and cook for a minute or two, then add the tomato puree and cook for a further couple of minutes
3. add the vegetable stock, chopped tomatoes, passata, chilli flakes, lentils and cannellini beans and stir well
4. bring to a simmer and let it gently bubble away until the lentils are cooked - mine took about 30 minutes
5. top up with a little water if the lentils swell too much
6. season to taste
7. serve with couscous or rice, or if you prefer bread (pittta? naan? crusty baguette?)

VERY easy - I like that after a day at work! And there are a couple of portions ready for the freezer which makes me very happy too and an extra one put aside for the lovely friend's lunch tomorrow. I'll definitely be making this one again.

The Proof Is Always In The Eating...

I think it worked - the One Of Your Five Drizzle Cake. The drizzle was more of a glaze, but was tangy and gingery (is that a word?), and the cake was dense and moist. The husband seemed happy - he wanted to know if the cake was for general consumption or out of bounds. So here's a photo. And as the lovely friend would say "nom nom nom" especially if it was served with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

One of Your Five Drizzle Cake

Sorry to say, there will be no photographs of the peanut butter 'Fudged Fudge'. It simply didn't last long enough because it was too scrumptiously tempting - chocolatey, creamy, fudgey, nutty perfection. Ahem. Even if I do say so myself.


I've not been feeling so well over the last week - but you could tell I started to feel better this afternoon as I actually did some cooking after 9 days of living off the freezer and the generosity of the lovely friend (the same friend who brought me my Raffles Earl Grey tea back from Singapore - she is really, really lovely!). Ok, so dinner for everyone was from the freezer stockpile (that is looking a little low now) but I have baked a cake!


Due to a glut of overripe bananas, some old carrots and some slightly wrinkly courgettes (due to the no-cooking-for-9-days thing) I have made a cake by mashing and grating these, with some sunflower and pumpkin seeds thrown in too. I also haven't been to the shops for a while, so the rest of the ingredients were cobbled together so we will have to see if it works........


1/3 cup melted butter
4 mashed up overripe bananas
1 grated courgette
2 grated carrots
1 cup of golden caster sugar
1 cup of soft brown sugar
2 cups semolina flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/3 cup sunflower oil
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade

2. Melt the butter and then mix in a large bowl with the mashed bananas, grated carrots and courgette

3. Stir in the sugars well, followed by the flours, the baking powder and the ground ginger

4. Stir in the oil and the beaten eggs, followed by the pumpkin and sunflower seeds

5. Pour into a large square baking tray - my preferred one is silicone as there is no need to grease or line it

6. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 50-60 minutes, or until you are sure it is cooked through when a skewer comes out clean

7. Once you remove from the oven poke holes with the skewer all over the cake......you'll see why as you read on......


I also decided to do a crunchy lemon drizzle topping - but only had 1 very old lemon which barely yielded any juice. So I added the juice of 3 pretty ropey oranges, grated some fresh ginger (which wasn't all that fresh!) and heated this to dissolve the last 1/4 of a jar of lemon curd before letting it cool. Once cool I added in about 150g golden caster sugar and poured it over the skewered cake. 

Now all that is needed is some patience while the cake cools and the topping (hopefully!) goes crunchy (as it should!!) and an open mind when tasting it! We'll see what the husband and sons think, and I'll try to post a photograph or two. If nothing else, we will all have had one of our five portions of fruit or vegetables for the day after eating a slice of this cake!

Infused and Enthused.....

Lying in bed with my favourite cup of Earl Grey tea (this one from Raffles Hotel in Singapore, thank you to a lovely friend for that!) I have been looking for recipes. I need to make a dessert (or possibly 2) that is suitable/desirable for a family lunch next weekend. This involves accommodating everyone from a 3 year old to a nearly 93 year old, and many ages in between with different likes and dislikes....

In doing so I have been stumbling across many foodie blogs - and feel somewhat inspired to start my own. Probably more for my pleasure than anything else as not sure how many people will read this but it could be fun! So here goes.

Incidentally I think I have decided on my puddings - mulled poached pears with a spiced nut stuffing for the more refined palates and chocolate malteser tray bake for the kids (big and small). My preference? - I'll be having both!