VEGETARIAN
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STRAWBERRY PANNA COTTA WITH A STRAWBERRY COULIS…the one that wouldn’t oblige!
“I leave my fats for dessert.”Bruce Mathews My favourite dessert of all time is a panna cotta. Panna cotta, an Italian dessert, which literally means cooked cream, is luxurious & creamy, eggless & sensual. In winter, we like a deep dark chocolate panna cotta. Come summer & I’m all for fruity flavour. With winter on it’s last legs here, throwing up the odd cold front now & again, strawberries are flooding the market. Good fresh strawberries are available for a shortish period of time, & then they kind of perish in the heat. I made a panna cotta with strawberries the other day because I had 2 boxes in the…
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BLUEBERRY OAT WALNUT GRANOLA BARS…Yummy mouthful!
“With all that together, you’ve got a snack with lots of fiber, vitamins and protein.”Emily Walker A friend of mine was flying down from the UK in December ’08 & she asked if I wanted anything from there. Me? Yes, of course! I never let a good offer go by & asked her to ‘please’ get me some dried cranberries, blueberries etc. Don’t know if she’ll ask me again in a hurry, but she got me lots of bags of dehydrated blueberries, dried cherries & a couple of beautiful baking books too. One thing I do miss not getting here are fresh berries, & the only local dried ‘berries’ we…
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BALSAMIC STRAWBERRIES WITH WHIPPED MASCARPONE
“You have to ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Strawberry season is setting in here. Yes, it’s winter & still quite cold, but this is when we begin to see strawberries entering the market. Steeply priced, but far too tempting to turn away from, I bought a box to see what I could do with them. I also stumbled upon some locally made mascarpone cheese & my heart skipped a beat. You see most mascarpone we get here is imported & exorbitantly priced. I was thrilled to find a local variety & bought 2 tubs. Bought some goat cheese & fresh mozzarella too.…
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CRACKERS WITH CREAM CHEESE…& a bit on BLOGGER AID
“The Super Bowl is the No. 1 snack food consumption day of the year” Frito Lays Made these super easy snacks the other day … great as finger food, & they disappeared as fast as I made them. You can flavour them as creatively as you like, choosing different toppings. The ones I made had a sour cream & onion flavoured topping. I think buttermilk ranch dressing might add an interesting twang to them as well. You can also substitute the cream cheese for finely grated cheddar. Or, if you are lucky to get the brown sugar or honey butter variety, pipe on some peanut butter, or cream cheese topped…
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WARMING UP TO SOUP…TOMATO & ZUCCHINI with BAKED HERBED CROUTONS
“Soup puts the heart at ease, calms down the violence of hunger, eliminates the tension of the day, and awakens and refines the appetite.” Auguste Escoffier Just when we thought that winter was finally on it’s way out, it snowed in the hills up North, & the temperatures here in the plains plummeted. Shiver me timbers…brrrrrrrr…so back it was to slurping hot soup & being bundled into duvets again! The daughter will NOT touch soup in any avatar, but the son loves a hearty tomato soup & I make it often. This time I tried a different one because I had zucchini & wondered how the zucchini would feel to…
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CANDIED GINGER & TANGERINE SHORTBREAD
“I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find.” James Beard Mmmmmmmmmm shortbread! Think shortbread – think crisp, think buttery, think an indulgent cookie… Add some crystallised ginger & tangerine peel to it & you give this traditional favourite a delicious twist. Go a step further, dip it into dark chocolate, & you reach dangerously delicious shortbread nirvana! Yes, that is what I did!It all began with the David Levobitz’s post on candied ginger. I made a whole bunch of it, with candied tangerine peel as well, & have had a great time experimenting with my crystallised ginger &…
