Minnie's Soup Kitchen

June: my favourite month. Not least because my birthday falls in June. This year I spent my birthday across the water with my siblings but my absence didn't hold me back from baking at home. I tried five new recipes and repeated Bronte Aurell's banana cake recipe from Hygge and Fika . I made it to bring in to work for a departing colleague and it had the best reception of practically everything I've ever brought in. You'll find the recipe here .  Strawberry flan Blondies with lavender and lemon My other June bakes were a strawberry flan with rich sweet flan pastry, banana flapjacks, walnut biscuits, lavender cupcakes (from Norfolk's Own Cookbook ) and blondies with lavender and lemon (another Hygge and Fika recipe). The blondies went down well with the younger offspring's friends.  Words to the wise: (1) strawberries dipped in hot melted chocolate seem to start fermenting and (2) when you have whizzed lavender sprigs to make lavender sugar, d...

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...

Banana and Cranberry Muffins  Banana & cranberry muffins In recent weeks I have been particularly busy at work and yesterday (Saturday 23rd April) I allowed myself the indulgence of going around in my dressing gown all morning. I felt a little guilty about not making much progress on my list of soup and baking recipes and so was easily prompted by the sight of three blackening bananas into baking muffins. In addition some dried cranberries were approaching their "best before" date and I decided to substitute them for the raisins mentioned in the Martha Day recipe. Brown sugar and sunflower oil helped me to feel they weren't too unhealthy. I had one today on return from the gym and a 10k cycle with the spouse.  Benson Revisited Another indulgence I'm allowing myself is a re-reading of E F Benson's Secret Lives, which I first bought and read in March 1985. And I have just this minute discovered that it was dramatised for radio by the BBC ! Why did no ...

Two Soups Celeriac and Bramley apple soup ingredients Last Saturday (27th February) I made celeriac and Bramley apple soup using Tom Kerridge's recipe in his book Proper Pub Food . I should have ended up with enough soup for 4-6 people but I was lucky to get two bowls. Because I'd used too much celeriac, once I had processed the cooked mixture, the resulting soup looked liked stodgy porridge. I strained as much as I could and it was very tasty indeed, especially with the crumbled Roquefort and chopped walnuts. Celeriac and Bramley apple soup with walnuts and Roquefort cheese Ingredients for butternutsquash soup and tomato salsa The next day I made roasted garlic and butternut squash soup with tomato salsa from Complete Comfort Food (edited by Bridget Jones). Lots of nice ingredients: whole garlic bulbs to be roasted, thyme, squash and ground coriander in the soup; tomatoes, red pepper and red chilli in the salsa. Much to my surprise, I have just found a ve...

Devilled Pork Chops I'm still trying to clear out foodstuffs from the cupboards and to use up any items in our freezer. Yesterday (9th January) I thawed out pork chops for our dinner but wasn't sure what to do with them. I flicked through Doreen Fulleylove's Country Fare and came across her recipe for devilled pork chops.  I wondered what the term devilled means as used in cooking. All I could find was "cooked with hot seasoning", a rather generic definition. Doreen's devilling in this instance requires:  75g/3oz butter or margarine  a teaspoon of dry mustard (I didn't have any so I used Dijon mustard paste instead)  a teaspoon of curry powder or paste  half teaspoon of ground ginger  half teaspoon of salt  1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce   These are all creamed together ready to spread on the chops when cooked. I followed Doreen's instructions and fried the chops. I spread the devilled mixture on both sides and covered th...