-
DATE & WALNUT LOAF…AFAM – a DATE with you & HotM 10
“Vegetables are the food of the earth; fruit seems more the food of the heavens.” Sepal Felicivant AFAM (A Fruit A Month) is a wonderful blog event which highlights different fruits. The event this month is being hosted by AkshayPatra and her fruit of choice is ‘DATES’. Golden opportunity for me to try the ‘Date & Walnut Loaf ‘ which I have been dying to try but have never quite got there. Last evening was a mad frenzy of date chopping & general confusion since I got to the event announcement late as usual! Huff Puff!!! Loaf was out of the oven last night, looking good, smelling great….& I couldn’t…
-
LIME SHORTBREAD COOKIES…Stringing them along for Xmas!!
‘Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold.’ Judith Olney LIME SHORTBREAD COOKIES A variation of Orange Shortbread Fingers from the ‘Great Big Cookie Book’…an exciting book with over 200 recipes. A crisp, buttery cookie with a twang of lime! I used lime juice & rind to make this cookie; gave it a nice zesty/citrus flavour-FRESH!! Decided to go a step further later in the day, and sandwiched some with a chocolate ganache. This made it even more interesting, and a bigger hit with the kids. Here’s my version of the recipe which is a very simple…
-
BLACK FOREST GATEAU…a southern German dessert cake to die for!
“Man cannot live on chocolate alone, but woman sure can.”Author Unknown Black Forest Gateau… The Black Forest region (‘Schwarzwald‘) in Germany is essentially known for three distinctive features: its highlands, scenery and woods, the traditional cuckoo-clock, & the typical southern German dessert- ‘Black Forest Gateau’ or ‘Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte‘ ( literally “Black Forest cherry cake”) . Hmmmm…a peek into the insides!! The Black Forest gateau consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. Here’s the one I baked for my mother’s birthday over the weekend. We don’t get maraschino cherries…
-
STAINED GLASS COOKIES…Hold ’em against the light!!
‘Cookies are made of butter and love’. Norwegian Proverb Festive, fascinating & delicious cookies! A cut-out cookie made out of my favourite basic sugar cookie dough. Then smaller bits are cut-out and filled with broken pieces of hard-boiled candy, and put in to bake. In a while you can see the candy melting beautifully into the cut-outs & the cookie baking to a perfect brown. I make these a couple of times in the winter months; in summer they tend to get sticky due to humidity levels being high. They involve an extra bit of effort, otherwise would love to make them more often! Ingredients: Butter – ¾ cup (room…
-
ITALIAN CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES…food-as-a-gift for Christmas!
‘There’s nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate.’ Linda Grayson, “The Pickwick Papers“ Up, Close & Chocolicious! Italian Almond Chocolate Truffles… I had an old truffle recipe, which I played around with a bit, and made these for the first time a few weeks ago. These Italian Chocolate Truffles tasted divine, and make a lovely gift, especially after the dressing up. They are very easy to make & have an lovely almond flavour. I’ve made the little boxes with handmade paper & the magical glue gun. Once the boxes are filled, I wrap them in cellophane, add some ribbon & a little card, & they’re…
- Uncategorized
NATURE NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE…a pallette of colours!
‘Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.’ Motto of the Baltimore Grotto, a caving society The ‘Peacock‘ butterfly I think…this lovely creature visited us a couple of days ago. The colours were simply amazing, & so I had to chase DH to chase the butterfly to take a picture as it was far too high for me. Just couldn’t believe the beauty and balance of such a perfect,little creature. “Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.” Hans Christian Anderson And then came along this little yellow one, like a burst of sunshine! And how could…
