Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Carrot and pineapple cake Oh October! Last month we hosted a teenage boy from overseas for two days and so what do teenage boys like? Cake. I made coconut and jam tarts and carrot cake from the Norfolk cookbook and a rich chocolate cake with orange and lemon from Gill MacLennan's Chocolate . According to my note in Chocolate , I last made that cake about six years ago. When making carrot cake I usually use the Good Housekeeping recipe from 1989 and I think I'll go back to it. The Norfolk recipe included a lot of sugar both in the cake batter and the cream cheese topping. The coconut and jam tarts were a big hit.  Now for November Amaretti plum cake This morning the spouse and I co-hosted a coffee morning fund-raising event for the younger offspring. He'll be heading off to sunnier climes next year to take part in a charitable project. What an opportunity for me to engage in a bake-fest!  From the Norfolk cookbook I made the morning muffins which I fi...

September: it's all back to school, sunny days and increased traffic volumes. Then someone injures himself and earlier events fade from the memory. But there's always baking. My fifteenth recipe from Norfolk's Own Cookbook was for lemon and blackberry cake. The key ingredients were grated lemon zest, rapeseed oil, sugar, ground and flaked almonds and sugar. The blackberries were added to the top for the last fifteen minutes of baking. I have to admit I didn't pick my own blackberries. I bought these ones and I am not a fan. Next time I will put my boots on and scramble among the brambles.   As it was the younger offspring's birthday earlier this month I made him one of his favourites: rocky road muffins from Gill MacLennan's Chocolate recipe book. He was appreciative. Then as a treat for when he was in hospital I made him Nigella Lawson's rocky road crunch bars .  Yesterday I reverted to The Soup Book and made a lentil and vegetable soup that I...

Pottering and Potting I'm still cooking away and trying out new recipes, perhaps not as frequently as I might. My excuse: it's August and everyone's on holiday. That said, I made potted shrimps and strawberry ice cream with shortbread biscuits from the Norfolk cookbook for a family lunch earlier this month. I loved the potted shrimps and the ice cream wasn't bad. Would you be surprised to learn there was freshly ground pepper in it? Strawberry ice cream in preparation A former colleague presented me with homegrown courgettes quite unexpectedly. They're not my favourite vegetable so I knew I'd have to make something interesting with them: charred courgette with tomato and bean salad from the Riverford Farm Cook Book helped to brighten things up.  A couple of days ago I got home from work earlier than I'd anticipated and so had time to make a mushroom tart from a Martha Day recipe. (I strayed from Martha's path by making wholewheat pastry and...

Baking and Boasting Last year I entered a local baking competition for the first time. There weren't many entries and I achieved a couple of seconds and thirds ... out of twos and threes! I decided that I would re-enter this year, having identified that the competition is quite old-fashioned and that the judges don't seem to require anything too fancy. Fortunately, I was on leave in the run up to the competition so had the time to prepare and make seven entries: shortbread, tea brack, scones, gingerbread, cupcakes, apple tart and a deep chocolate fudge cake.  Shortbread (Norfolk recipe) I tried out two shortbread recipes: one from Delia Smith's  Complete Cookery Course , the other from the  Norfolk cookbook . Delia's book was first published in 1978 and my copy was a twenty-fifth birthday present from one of my siblings. I have to state that I was not twenty-five in 1978 - I was still a teenager. The Norfolk cookbook was a more recent present from my other sibl...

Recipe Round-Up An e-mail went around at work on 1st June: baked goods were being sought for a fund-raiser. Great! I was home early from work but I had to cook the dinner before going out. Somehow I managed to make two batches of scones (one containing sultanas and the other cheese and chives) and a coconut jam slice from Successful Cooking: Slices . We were planning a quiet bank holiday weekend after the spouse's busy week. Flicking through Doreen Fulleylove's Country Fare I came across a recipe for wine cobbler, the ingredients for which are a bottle of white wine (this book was published in the days when no one was expected to know anything about wine regions), ice cubes, sliced lemon, mint, maraschino cherries (I substituted fresh blueberries), lime juice and a pint of soda water. This quantity was supposed to give you fourteen cups! The spouse and I had about two glasses each before it disappeared. Very tasty and refreshing, all the same. I also baked a cheesecake....

Fete-ful Fudge Fest  Last year I was asked to make fudge for a parish fete. This year I was asked to do so again and invited to assist at the stall where the fudge would be sold. I agreed to both and the fudge-making began five days beforehand (16th May). I decided to try different recipes: one from a recipe book sold many years ago in aid of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin , one cut out of a magazine and one downloaded from a commercial website. All three required different types of sugar, or different types of milk (evaporated, condensed or ordinary) or a combination of two. Altogether I made four batches, including one with fruit and nut. What a blissful week that was!  This haiku by "Amanda in Scarlet" sums up my feelings for fudge:  Layers and folds yield  to pressure, tongue sinks - dissolves  into soft, sweet bliss. Training Days  Wholewheat scones: worthy but dull I am now preparing for another local event: the baking competiti...

Root Vegetable Soup Chopped vegetables coated in oil and ready for roasting What else would you do on a cool May bank holiday weekend except make soup? This roasted root vegetable soup from Complete Comfort Food looked interesting. Lots of vegetables to be prepared: butternut squash, onions, leeks, turnip (swede), parsnip (yes, I hate them but surely one parsnip would be overwhelmed by the other ingredients) and carrots. Prep work done and bay leaves, rosemary and thyme interspersed, I popped the vegetables into the oven to roast. I had to leave the house for a few minutes and when I re-entered, the aroma of rosemary rose to greet me. Mmmm!  Roasted vegetable soup with creme fraiche and cayenne When softened, I simmered the vegetables in stock and then liquidised them. The soup was a little too thick. We ate it with a dollop of creme fraiche sprinkled with cayenne pepper. A little bland, I thought, but the spouse and younger offspring were very pleased.  Pea...

Banana and Cranberry Muffins  Banana & cranberry muffins In recent weeks I have been particularly busy at work and yesterday (Saturday 23rd April) I allowed myself the indulgence of going around in my dressing gown all morning. I felt a little guilty about not making much progress on my list of soup and baking recipes and so was easily prompted by the sight of three blackening bananas into baking muffins. In addition some dried cranberries were approaching their "best before" date and I decided to substitute them for the raisins mentioned in the Martha Day recipe. Brown sugar and sunflower oil helped me to feel they weren't too unhealthy. I had one today on return from the gym and a 10k cycle with the spouse.  Benson Revisited Another indulgence I'm allowing myself is a re-reading of E F Benson's Secret Lives, which I first bought and read in March 1985. And I have just this minute discovered that it was dramatised for radio by the BBC ! Why did no ...

Sometimes Things Go Pear-Shaped As you know, I enjoy baking and usually things turn out well. Last month (16th March) things went pear-shaped when I attempted to make what should have been a delicious, caramel-flooded sticky pear and ginger cake from my Norfolk cookbook . I carefully weighed the ingredients, I followed the instructions to a T so I'm not sure what caused the problem. First of all, you have to make caramel which will sit in the bottom of the baking tin. Unsalted butter was specified for the cake batter but not for the caramel. As I was short of unsalted butter, I used salted butter for the caramel. The other ingredient was soft dark brown sugar. I melted the two ingredients together and stirred but the mixture seemed too thick and grainy, and it was too salty.  Once the caramel had set in the baking tin, I placed pear halves over it before getting on with the batter. This contained chopped pears, chopped crystallised ginger and ground ginger. I checked the oven ...

Mushroom Stoup  Mushroom stoup: prep work done Yesterday (12th March) I made Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's mushroom stoup. In his book River Cottage Veg Everyday , he describes this mushroom fest as "somewhere between a soup and a stew." The ingredients include dried porcini mushrooms, onions, carrots, celery, fresh mushrooms, garlic, parsley and dill. There's the usual chopping in order to prepare, but there is also the soaking of the dried porcini mushrooms, the liquor from which is used later in the stoup. What really tempted me to make this stoup was the addition of dumplings. As might be expected from a vegetarian recipe, vegetarian suet was required. Vegetarians should look away now. I couldn't find any vegetarian suet so I used the well known non-vegetarian brand.  I haven't made dumplings in a long time. The spouse thinks he remembers me making them but can't say when. I can remember making them in domestic science at school as an accompa...