Minnie's Soup Kitchen

January started off at its usual crawl then got a wiggle on. I didn't do too much out of the culinary ordinary for the first half of the month.  I found a recipe for a marmalade fruit cake that I remembered making years ago. The recipe turned out to be in our old M&S cookery book, bought in 1983. Not an exciting recipe but it was a good way of using up some rather dull shop-bought marmalade. (As an aside, I thought my handful of readers might be interested in the spouse's marmalade venture . He even designed his own jar labels.)  Muttleys with cheese and walnut scones and fruit scones Later in the month I travelled to North-East England to look after my youngest sibling (I can't remember my earlier pseudonym for her so I'll call her "T Rex" for now). She broke her leg before Christmas and is enduring enforced rest at home. Anyway, my other sister J'Zo gallantly took care of T Rex for ten days then I jetted over for five days. It gave me a grea...

Recipe Round-Up An e-mail went around at work on 1st June: baked goods were being sought for a fund-raiser. Great! I was home early from work but I had to cook the dinner before going out. Somehow I managed to make two batches of scones (one containing sultanas and the other cheese and chives) and a coconut jam slice from Successful Cooking: Slices . We were planning a quiet bank holiday weekend after the spouse's busy week. Flicking through Doreen Fulleylove's Country Fare I came across a recipe for wine cobbler, the ingredients for which are a bottle of white wine (this book was published in the days when no one was expected to know anything about wine regions), ice cubes, sliced lemon, mint, maraschino cherries (I substituted fresh blueberries), lime juice and a pint of soda water. This quantity was supposed to give you fourteen cups! The spouse and I had about two glasses each before it disappeared. Very tasty and refreshing, all the same. I also baked a cheesecake....

Fete-ful Fudge Fest  Last year I was asked to make fudge for a parish fete. This year I was asked to do so again and invited to assist at the stall where the fudge would be sold. I agreed to both and the fudge-making began five days beforehand (16th May). I decided to try different recipes: one from a recipe book sold many years ago in aid of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin , one cut out of a magazine and one downloaded from a commercial website. All three required different types of sugar, or different types of milk (evaporated, condensed or ordinary) or a combination of two. Altogether I made four batches, including one with fruit and nut. What a blissful week that was!  This haiku by "Amanda in Scarlet" sums up my feelings for fudge:  Layers and folds yield  to pressure, tongue sinks - dissolves  into soft, sweet bliss. Training Days  Wholewheat scones: worthy but dull I am now preparing for another local event: the baking competiti...

My current project is to work my way through recipes from Norfolk’s Own Cookbook: Everything Stops for Tea , which was a present from J'Zo and G-Cro. J'Zo is delighted that I'm using the book and is even more delighted to be mentioned in my blog. She told me not to write that in my blog. Too late. Last Thursday (18th February) I made three things from Everything Stops for Tea : blondies, apple crumble cake and vintage Cheddar and walnut scones. The spouse, younger offspring and I were heading west to stay with family for a couple of days. I was pleased to have a good reason to progress my project. Everything was well received. Blondies Blondies: Rapture! Blondies are the heart of class! One way or another, you’ll want more of these. You’ll be in raptures after one. I’m dreaming of when I’ll next make them. Ingredients: 200g unsalted butter 450g light muscavado sugar 2 medium eggs and 1 medium egg yolk 3 teasp vanilla extract 280g plain flour pinc...

Fig and apricot scones  First off, let me say I pronounce the word scone to rhyme with don and upon. It's not an affectation. It wouldn't occur to me to pronounce it the other way. End of. Now, moving on. Last Saturday (30th January) I made fig and apricot scones using the recipe in Norfolk's Own Cookbook . I had an open packet of dried apricots and I wanted to use it. The ingredients include self-raising flour, caster sugar, dried figs and apricots, butter, ground cinnamon, baking powder and milk. I put everything into a bowl and brought them together with a knife. Then I tipped out the dough on to a work surface and kneaded it for the final binding. Now, for some unknown reason, I misread the instruction to roll out the dough to a 4cm thickness: I rolled it out to 4mm and then wondered why I ended up with twenty rather than ten scones. They were somewhat biscuity but very tasty. I will try them again - not sure when though, as I have prepared a list of recipes I ...