Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Over the land is April  Coconut and pine nut cookies Over the land is April, Over my heart a rose; Over the high, brown mountain The sound of singing goes. Thanks to Robert Louis Stevenson for the title of this entry. April activity This month I made Chetna Makan's coconut and pine nut cookies. Distracted by something, I left them in the oven a little too long. Even so, I quite liked them but I'm not sure that my tasting audience was hugely impressed. Easter bark with Smarties I haven't bought a copy of Good Housekeeping for a long time so I treated myself to the April 2017 issue. There were lots of tempting chocolate cake recipes but I opted for the fairly straightforward Easter bark recipe . I made two batches: one with the suggested chopped mini eggs, the other with chopped up Smarties. These were very much appreciated by my tasting audience. Sometimes I have to remind myself of why I started writing this blog: to encourage...

Raspberry mousse gateau in progress Last month (March 2017) I forayed into a couple of my older cook books for recipes. My aunt and uncle came for lunch at the beginning of the month, so I used Bridget Jones' recipes for boeuf bourguignon and raspberry mousse gateau. The latter was accompanied by mango kulfi (recipe from the Kaul sisters' The Three Sisters Indian Cookbook .  Brunswick bun My favourite bake of last month was Bronte Aurell's Brunswick bun ( Hygge and Fykke ). It was my first attempt at baking with yeast and took nearly all day. The flavour and aroma of warm cardamom - oh, pure delight! I was inspired to write a poem about cardamom and it was well received by a small audience.  Blueberry stud muffins Other recipes of Bronte's that I tried were the blueberry stud muffins (okay) and the saffron bundt with pears. The latter was not a success (too much batter for the size of my ring-tin) and I realised I don't like the ...