What a month it's been! The spouse celebrated a milestone birthday and had surgery five days later. I've continued to bake at a frenetic pace in preparation for an event I'm hosting to mark International Women's Day. I wrote a poem about reading an anthology of diary extracts (The Assassin's Cloak, edited by Irene and Alan Taylor). I re-joined the gym (but haven't been exercising there). I completed two panels of a throw I'm knitting. Oh, what a busy woman I am. Just as well there was an extra day in the month.
On the savoury front, I made:
￫ a sausage, bacon and onion casserole using venison sausages from our local butcher (recipe from Fiona Beckett's Sausage and Mash). Delicious.
￫ toad in the hole using sausages with black pudding from the nearby German store (recipe from Bridget Jones' Complete Comfort Food). I love toad in the hole and the batter recipe was glorious!
￫ vegetable moussaka (also from Complete Comfort Food). Not bad.
￫ roast pesto chicken (recipe from Jane Dupleix's Simple Food). Tasty but for some reason I seem to get my timings wrong when roasting chickens.
￫ vegetable and lentil soup (recipe from Salma Hage's The Lebanese Kitchen). Not bad.
Speaking of soups, I see that there's a new edition of The Soup Book (Sophie Grigson). It has a smart grey cover. I'm still fond of my first edition, battered , spattered and well-thumbed as it is.
On a sweeter note, I have made the following:
↝ peanut butter and Snickers muffins (Nigella, How To Be A Domestic Goddess). I'd already made them in January so knew they'd be great!
↝ cherry marmalade muffins (Martha Day, Baking). The name is misleading: cherry and marmalade would be more accurate. Tasty nevertheless.
↝ cherry cake (Doreen Fulleylove, Country Fare). Nice.
↝ nutty chocolate biscuit cake (Butlers Chocolate Cookbook). No baking involved. Made for my uncle's 65th birthday.
↝ wholemeal scones (GH, Step-by-step Baking). Worthy but dull.
↝ chewy fruit flapjacks (Complete Comfort Food). Rendered floppy by the eggs. I wasn't too keen but my colleagues liked them.
↝ in the freezer ahead of next month's event are pear and cardamom loaf, date and banana ripple load, rosemary cake and lime cake (all recipes from Step-by-step Baking, the only recipe book I have that tells me if I can freeze the cakes)
↝ refrigerator cake (Tom Hunt, The Guardian). The author of the recipe advises that you can use stale biscuits; I used some tired chocolate that has been hanging about since Christmas.
Honey-dipped words
I spotted this book of poems (milk and honey, by Rupi Kaur) in my local book shop and have been promising to buy myself a copy. Here are some lines from one of the poems:
how is it so easy for you
to be kind to people he asked
milk and honey dripped
from my lips as i answered
So, that's it for February 2020.
Minnie
On the savoury front, I made:
￫ a sausage, bacon and onion casserole using venison sausages from our local butcher (recipe from Fiona Beckett's Sausage and Mash). Delicious.
￫ toad in the hole using sausages with black pudding from the nearby German store (recipe from Bridget Jones' Complete Comfort Food). I love toad in the hole and the batter recipe was glorious!
￫ vegetable moussaka (also from Complete Comfort Food). Not bad.
￫ roast pesto chicken (recipe from Jane Dupleix's Simple Food). Tasty but for some reason I seem to get my timings wrong when roasting chickens.
￫ vegetable and lentil soup (recipe from Salma Hage's The Lebanese Kitchen). Not bad.
 |
| Vegetable and lentil soup |
Speaking of soups, I see that there's a new edition of The Soup Book (Sophie Grigson). It has a smart grey cover. I'm still fond of my first edition, battered , spattered and well-thumbed as it is.
On a sweeter note, I have made the following:
↝ peanut butter and Snickers muffins (Nigella, How To Be A Domestic Goddess). I'd already made them in January so knew they'd be great!
↝ cherry marmalade muffins (Martha Day, Baking). The name is misleading: cherry and marmalade would be more accurate. Tasty nevertheless.
↝ cherry cake (Doreen Fulleylove, Country Fare). Nice.
 |
| Cherry cake |
↝ nutty chocolate biscuit cake (Butlers Chocolate Cookbook). No baking involved. Made for my uncle's 65th birthday.
 |
| Nutty chocolate biscuit cake |
↝ wholemeal scones (GH, Step-by-step Baking). Worthy but dull.
↝ chewy fruit flapjacks (Complete Comfort Food). Rendered floppy by the eggs. I wasn't too keen but my colleagues liked them.
 |
| Wholemeal scones and chewy fruit flapjacks |
↝ in the freezer ahead of next month's event are pear and cardamom loaf, date and banana ripple load, rosemary cake and lime cake (all recipes from Step-by-step Baking, the only recipe book I have that tells me if I can freeze the cakes)
 |
| Pear and cardamom load (L) and date and banana ripple loaf (R) |
↝ refrigerator cake (Tom Hunt, The Guardian). The author of the recipe advises that you can use stale biscuits; I used some tired chocolate that has been hanging about since Christmas.
 |
| Refrigerator cake |
Honey-dipped words
I spotted this book of poems (milk and honey, by Rupi Kaur) in my local book shop and have been promising to buy myself a copy. Here are some lines from one of the poems:
how is it so easy for you
to be kind to people he asked
milk and honey dripped
from my lips as i answered
So, that's it for February 2020.
Minnie
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