Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Nigel Slater's sausage and potato pie Where has 2018 gone to? And while it was evaporating around me, have I been baking? Yes. I am not going to write a dreary list of what I've made but I'll share some of the highlights. Back in February I took out Nigel Slater's "Real Food" and made his sausage and potato pie. It was delicious. I used sausages containing black pudding. A little bit fiddly but worth the effort. "Quality!" said the younger offspring. "Put it on the 'make again' list." In the same month I made Yotam Ottolenghi's plum, marzipan and cinnamon muffins, which I first baked five years ago. On that occasion I went to the trouble of making fresh plum compote according to the recipe. Subsequently I've used jam out of jar. Life's too short. Other bakes in February were muesli muffins, banana gingerbread (Paul Flynn's old reliable recipe) white chocolate fruit and nut slice.   Simnel cake (Irish ...

Cabbage Patched with Pork Banana gingerbread I first made French cabbage soup ( The Soup Book recipe) in October 2012 and on checking my blog entry I see that I was not impressed with it. I made it again last week but this time I served it with fried slices of pork steak which I had coated with sun-dried tomato paste. It was a good combination: the tomato paste helped to disguise the blandness of the soup. Medley of Gingerbread, Muffins and Chocolate Slice Baking is still my favourite activity. I recently made Paul Flynn's banana gingerbread - a favourite in this house for many years. Sometimes I make things because I have an ingredient I want to use up before its expiry date. For example, a packet of muesli has been languishing in a cupboard so I made muffins with it. They weren't too sweet and were well received both at home and at work. Muesli muffins Next I was under orders from a colleague to make something nice for her before she gave up goodies f...

Last night I watched the film Julie and Julia which was the original inspiration for this blog. I'd forgotten what a good story it was. It inspired me to get back to writing. Long-term readers (if there are any) might recall that I began by working my way through The Soup Book (edited by Sophie Grigson). I completed 170 of the 200 recipes and decided to leave it at that.  Cherry almond cake (November 2017) Last year I revisited some of the recipes in The Soup Book but my primary venture was baking. I tried  out over seventy (yes, 70) recipes. There were a few personal favourites: pear and cardamom upside-down cake, raspberry squares, Brunswick buns, Bronte Aurell's banana cake, amaretti plum cake, pecan toffee shortbread, cherry almond cake (pictured) and Nigella's Christmas rocky road. My apple crumble cake received a first prize and best exhibit in the cookery class at a local show and my colleagues regularly benefited from my culinary adventures. Even the one...