Valentine's Day Treats Unveiled

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 first made in June 2010. I'll be adding vegetables (celery and carrots) to make it more like a stew and to get some fibre into the younger offspring. I'd better get going.

Post Script
I was in town yesterday afternoon to buy presents for family members. I sent the mother of an almost-teenager a text, asking what her daughter's favourite colour was. The daughter's response came via her mother as follows:

What is it for? Because looking at a colour is different to wearing a colour which is different to matching a colour which is different to eating a colour which is different to writing in a colour. Not yellow or orange or green or purple or brown or bright pink (dusty pink is nice) or silver. Blue or white or grey.

I'm almost sorry I asked.

Minnie

Comments

Tuscan Bean Soup

Tuscan Bean Soup This recipe calls for canned beans (borlotti, flageolet or cannellini) and as I have been tidying and cleaning out our cupboards I've used cannellini beans. I have to mention that the younger offspring has done an impressive job on the cupboards. That's enough about him. Back to me and my soup! Other ingredients include onion, carrots, leek, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree (I substituted sun-dried tomato paste as there was an open jar of it in the fridge), chicken stock (I had to use a cube as my home-made reserves have been used up) and spinach.When ready it's served with ciabatta bread, grated Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. So it's quite a rich soup. We've just had the Tuscan bean soup for lunch. All enjoyed it. The adult males were particularly forthcoming in their praise. The spouse liked the "tomato-ey sharpness" and mused that ham stock should be considered as an alternative to chicken stock. Bees' Cheese and other recipes H

Lovage Soup

Lovage Soup Today I made lovage soup, the second recipe by Sophie Grigson in The Soup Book that I have used in the last four days. She introduces the recipe with these remarks: "If you don't grow this old-fashioned herb yourself, ask around among your gardening friends or head down to the nearest garden centre to see if they sell it. " As I mentioned in my last blog entry (18th May), lovage now features among the herbs in my front garden. As the spouse left the camera at home, I took some photographs. Parsley, sorrel and lovage in Minnie's garden. Rosemary, parsley and lovage in Minnie's garden. I had hoped to add chervil to my collection of herbs - there's a recipe for vegetable and chervil soup in The Soup Book - but "Young Stephen" wasn't able to source any for me. At least he tried. Just while I'm mentioning Stephen, I have to reveal that the spouse and the older offspring claim that he has been mention

Mulligatawny Manoeuvres

Mulligatawny I see it's only been six months since I last made mulligatawny. The first time was back in May 2011 when I followed Roopa Gulati's recipe in The Soup Book ; last September I used The Essential Asian Cookbook . Today I used Rick Stein's India , a Christmas present from the spouse. It's one of those luxurious recipe books with thick paper and beautiful, vibrantly colourful photos. We had all been impressed by Roopa's recipe, less so by the second book, so how would we fare today? Well, those two recipes both involved apple. Rick's did not, so I felt that this must be a more authentic recipe. If Anglo-Indian cooking has any authenticity these days. Still, Rick states that his recipe is on the menu at the Madras Club in Chennai. It involves making a spice paste first and then the soup. Ingredients: The paste called for coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, curry powder, turmeric, garlic, ginger, and fresh coriander, curry and mint leave

Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Search This Blog