Minnie's Soup Kitchen

My current project is to work my way through recipes from Norfolk’s Own Cookbook: Everything Stops for Tea , which was a present from J'Zo and G-Cro. J'Zo is delighted that I'm using the book and is even more delighted to be mentioned in my blog. She told me not to write that in my blog. Too late. Last Thursday (18th February) I made three things from Everything Stops for Tea : blondies, apple crumble cake and vintage Cheddar and walnut scones. The spouse, younger offspring and I were heading west to stay with family for a couple of days. I was pleased to have a good reason to progress my project. Everything was well received. Blondies Blondies: Rapture! Blondies are the heart of class! One way or another, you’ll want more of these. You’ll be in raptures after one. I’m dreaming of when I’ll next make them. Ingredients: 200g unsalted butter 450g light muscavado sugar 2 medium eggs and 1 medium egg yolk 3 teasp vanilla extract 280g plain flour pinc...

Spicy biscuits for St Valentine's Day A Better Batch of Biscuits ... Next Time The spouse is away and I have baked biscuits using recipes from Martha Day's Baking and from a cookery book given to one of the offspring. There are two types on offer: spicy biscuits and lemon biscuits. The latter are supposed to be Christmas cookies but who said I had to stick to a timetable? And this batch of dough didn't respond well to being cut out with a heart-shaped cookie-cutter. The cheek! The more obedient spicy biscuits behaved well and so I'm including a photo. I've admitted previously that decoration is not my forte so I must learn a few tricks.  The spouse and I are both trying to watch what we eat so there left-overs will travelling with me to the office tomorrow. Goulash Good to Go   Just in case you're wondering, I shall be making soup from The Soup Book . Well, strictly speaking, I'm going to adapt the recipe for Hungarian goulash soup that I fir...

Peanut butter brownies Party Pieces While sorting out recipes cut from magazines recently, I came across one for marbled peanut butter brownies. Having been off chocolate in January, I decided that I would reward my abstemiousness with a chocolate treat. My self-imposed rule when I haven't given up chocolate in January is not to eat chocolate except on Fridays and Saturdays ... and perhaps a sneaky bit on Sundays. Back to the brownies recipe. When would I get to try it out? The occasion arose. Two colleagues were moving on and in the time-honoured tradition of showing affection for people who are always on diets or lamenting their weight, a group of us marked their departure by going out for lunch and then having a tea party about an hour and a half later! I baked, of course. First I made good  old-fashioned cup cakes using the batter and glace icing recipes from Mary Norwak's Breads, Cakes and Biscuits , which was published in 1978. Then I made the marbled peanut but...

Fig and apricot scones  First off, let me say I pronounce the word scone to rhyme with don and upon. It's not an affectation. It wouldn't occur to me to pronounce it the other way. End of. Now, moving on. Last Saturday (30th January) I made fig and apricot scones using the recipe in Norfolk's Own Cookbook . I had an open packet of dried apricots and I wanted to use it. The ingredients include self-raising flour, caster sugar, dried figs and apricots, butter, ground cinnamon, baking powder and milk. I put everything into a bowl and brought them together with a knife. Then I tipped out the dough on to a work surface and kneaded it for the final binding. Now, for some unknown reason, I misread the instruction to roll out the dough to a 4cm thickness: I rolled it out to 4mm and then wondered why I ended up with twenty rather than ten scones. They were somewhat biscuity but very tasty. I will try them again - not sure when though, as I have prepared a list of recipes I ...