Slugs on the Refrigerator

Lucky Escapes

In our young and childless days, Kevin and I lived in Windsor. For anyone whose travels have not taken them to this well-trodden tourist town on the outskirts of London, it is a delight to visit:

:: The way the castle towers over the small and bustling town centre

:: The plethora of delightful shops and restaurants

:: The huge amount of greenery and park land that surrounds the town

:: The pomp and circumstance, activity and sheer people-watching joy that you find anywhere that tourists, wealthy commuters and royalty meet.

For most of our time there, we lived in a converted attic of the old guards housing, directly overlooking Windsor castle.  The building itself was hundreds of years old, black beams, low and lopsided doorways and walls, huge open fireplace. Our lives were so full of history, we couldn't even put the garbage bins out in the summer because they were a security risk when the changing of the guards would march past our front door.

Our lives were busy. When we weren't commuting, we were eating out, going out, drinking out and spending out our bank accounts and London salaries. A different life.

Most Saturdays, one or both of us would wander down the main street to the local coffee shop for 2 hazelnut lattes. We would sit for ages, reading newspapers nibbling biscotti and bagels, smiling at our "lucky escape" as we watched couples struggle with toddlers and babies.

Five years and almost 2 children later, life couldn't be more different. Lucrative jobs gave way to meaningful ones. Nights out on the town have turned into nights in with the needles. Where I used to boast about my ability to hold my weight in alcohol, I now make similar statements about tea consumption (though my pelvic floor does play a factor in my ability to hold it in). Life is simple, small and centred on someone other than ourselves.

And even when life changes beyond recognition, some things still stay the same. I love the crisp almondy taste of a biscotti nibbled with a cup of (cold) coffee. And every time I make a batch, I thank my stars for my "lucky escape".

Nigella's Breakfast Biscotti from Feast

1 egg

100g (just less than half a cup) sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

few drops of almond essence

125g (1 cup) plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

50g shelled almonds (optional)

75g dark chocolate (optional - I prefer mine without chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 180c/360F

Whisk the egg and sugar together until frothy and thick.

Beat in the vanilla and almond essense and then fold in the flour, baking powder and salt.  It should form a firm-ish dough.  You may need a bit more flour at this stage, depending on the size of the egg.

Fold in the slmonds and chocolate if using.  Form into a loaf-like log, about 25x5cm (10x2in).

Place on a piece of waxed paper/baking parchment and bake for 25 minutes until pale brown.  Take out of oven and let cool for about 5 minutes to firm up.

Cut diagonal slants, about 1cm (0.5 in) thick.  Put these back in the oven on the waxed paper for another 10 minutes or so.  Turn biscotti over and bake for another 5 minutes.  Let them cool and then dunk away.

These keep quite well and make lovely gifts, wrapped up with fancy paper or a dressed up jar or tin.

I am NOT a Carrot

Ellis is very big into categorisation.  For example, throughout the course of the day, I am often told that I am a:

Mama

Mama Goldin

Girl

Big Girl

Whilst Ellis is a:

Boy

Big Boy

Harrison-Goldin

Train Driver

Cat

In the midst of (yet another) discussion about what we all are, I accused Ellis of being a carrot, just to check he was listening.  His immediate reply, "I am NOT a carrot, mama.  I am a boy."

That was me told.

And while we are all now sure that Ellis is that particular brand of root vegetable, we are no longer certain that the baby may not come out orange.  Not normally one to have cravings (except for cake, who doesn't crave cake?), I can not get enough of the following salad, stolen adapted from So Wabi Sabi. I want to eat it all the time.  When I am not thinking about knitting or how I persuade Ellis to make me a cup of tea, my remaining brain cell is craving this lovely concoction. I now have no carrots in my house for the first time in years and have been pacing at the window waiting for the veg man. 

Mess with the proportions of this as you like.  The following serves 2.

2-3 grated carrots

1 large grated eating apple

A large handful of raisins or dried cranberries

A large handful of chopped pecans

2 tablespoon of olive oil

1.5 tablespoons of cider vinegar

1 T orange juice

Mix and enjoy.

Last Minute Substitution

You know how it is...you see a recipe in a cookbook that you want to try.  You go and get the ingredients only to realise that in fact you are missing a key piece of this particular culinary puzzle. 

Since reading A Homemade Life a few weeks ago, I'd been desperate to try Molly Wizenberg's Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger.  I'd bought in stem ginger especially and a slab of plain chocolate had been lurking in my cupboard just waiting for such a recipe.  This morning, I woke up with the plan that today was the day and Banana Bread would make a perfect mid-morning snack for E and I.

Except...no bananas.  We buy bananas by the bunches, but they rarely survive more than a few days around here as Ellis and I love them.  We'd happily eat 2 or 3 a day each if we could.  So the banana bread blan was just not to be.

Hunting through the fridge for a suitable cake-like alternative, I spied my drawer full of carrots.  You see, we have carrots coming out of our ears around here.  They are delivered weekly in our vegetable box and I barely manage to get through half of one lot before next Thursday rolls around and half a dozen more are delivered.

And so a plan was born...Carrot, Chocolate and Ginger Cake has now become my favourite carrot cake recipe of all time (and I have tried a lot!!). The best part of it--it uses 3 carrots just like that. Its moist, fresh with a bit of orange zest and not too sweet (I reduced the sugar from the original recipe by two thirds)...oh and terribly moreish. 

Carrot, Chocolate and Ginger Cake

6 tablespoon (85g) melted butter

2 cups (250g) white flour

1/4 cup (56g) sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda (bicarb)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (aprox 150g) chopped plain chocolate

1/3 cup (aprox 100g) finely chopped stem/cystallized ginger

2 eggs

1.5 cups (aprox 180g) grated carrot (about 3 medium carrots)

1/4 cup plain yoghurt

Grated zest of one orange

-----------

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Mix together flour, sugar, baking soda (bicarb) and salt. Mix in the chocolate and the ginger.  Set Aside.

In another bowl, beat eggs and add the carrots, youghurt, melted butter and orange zest.  Pour the wet mix into theh dry mix and stir thoroughly.

Place batter into a greased loaf pan (9x5 or 2 pound loaf tin works great for this).  Bake until golden brown and a knife comes out clean, aprox 45-55 minutes.

Don't Make These Cinnamon Rolls

Now I am serious.  I can't be held responsible for what follows, because I warn you they are deadly...just look at the ingredients.  Cinn-ful.  Just making them makes you put on weight through your pores.  You think I am kidding, but look at this:

All cinnamon roll, I tell you.

However, I understand that you are a risk-taking crowd, thrill seekers and the like, so I will enable you.  When your family gathers for your intervention, you can blame me, I suppose.  But like McDonald's and their stupid "Caution: Hot Coffee" labels on their hot coffee, I will be absolved of all responsibility because, I told you so.

And so if your arteries spontaneously combust from the fat, a specialist cleaning crew has to be hired and you become a case study about the dangers of a high-fat diet in a tabloid magazine, please remember you were duly warned.

 

Ridiculously Bad for You Cinnamon Rolls

Rolls:

½ cup (120 ml) warm water

2 tablespoons yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

2 cups (475 ml) pre-made custard (or vanilla pudding...a normal jello packet of pudding makes about this amount)

½ cup (120ml) melted butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

6 cups (750 gr)  flour

Filling:

2 cups (400g) brown sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 cup (250g)  softened butter

Frosting:
8 ounces (300g) cream cheese

½ cup (125g) softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.5 cups (190g) powdered/icing sugar

2-3 tablespoons milk

Combine the water, yeast and sugar in a large bowl.  Stir to dissolve and let sit until foaming.  Add the custard, butter and eggs and mix well.  Gradually add the flour until the mixture forms a soft, but not sticky dough.  Knead until smooth.  Set aside until its doubled (an hour or so)

Mix filling ingredients together. Cut dough in half and roll out each half separately to a rectangle roughly 9x13 inches on a floured surface.  Spread half of the filling across the dough.  Roll up as tightly as you can.  Cut slabs of the dough roughly 1.5-2 inches in width.  Place on a baking sheet or in a round pie pan. 

****You can now freeze the dough if you like for use later.  I put mine on a cookie sheet spaced out in the freezer for 3-4 hours and then bag them up for later.  To use frozen dough, I just toss them in a pan on the counter and let thaw for a couple of hours.*****

Before baking, let the dough rise for about 45 minutes.  Bake at 350F/180C for about 15-20 minutes.

Mix up the cream cheese frosting (I mean you could use icing, but at this stage, there is no point in saving yourself the cholesterol). Frost the warm rolls and enjoy them like they are your last...they may be.

For what its worth, I have actually survived consumption of this recipe on several occasions. In fact it has travelled with me around the world on several occasions and has not been confiscated by customs.  However, I am not a size 0 model and these rolls (along with genetics and the bacon rolls I enjoy so much) may have something to do with it.

Me Want A Cookie

Is there anything more divine than a cookie, warm out of the oven, eaten with coffee or milk? 

Well, maybe cake.  But other than cake, is there anything better than a than a cookie, warm out of the oven, eaten with coffee or milk?

Oh, perhaps pie...with custard.  But other than pie and cake is there anything more delicious than a cookie, warm out of the oven, eaten with coffee or milk?

Maybe those caramel shortbread slices...

Well, OK, so there MIGHT be other things, but these cookies give all those others a run for their money on a cold late autumn day.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup (170g) softened butter

1/2 cup (100g) white sugar

3/4 cup (165g) dark brown sugar (or dark muscavado if you can get it)

2 eggs

1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups (150g) self raising flour (or 1 1/14 cups (150g) plain flour + 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon cinnamon (or more, I love cinnamon)

2 cups (165g) rolled oats or porridge oats

1 1/2 cups (220g) of dried cranberries

Place on cookie sheets and bake at 180C/350F for 6-8 minutes.  You want them just barely done so they are nice and chewy.

If you have a child/husband/chef that don't eat the batter, you're looking at 24 cookies...this is not the case in our house and we had 18. 

Pumpkin Lovin': Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread

This bread is just delicious and perfect for the dark nights that are creeping into our lives.  Eaten plain or with butter or with cranberry jam it is the quintessential autumn not-too-sweet bread.

Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread (with Cranberries and Pumpkin Seeds)

Adapted from ARTISAN BREAD IN 5 MINUTES A DAY

1/2 cup pureed pie pumpkin (often called 'culinary pumpkin'...smaller and not as watery as their bloated Jack-o-Lantern cousins.  You can get tins of pumpkin puree at Waitrose, according to Violet Posy, or roast your own, by cutting in half stem wise and roasting in a hot oven until soft.  When cooked, allow to cool a bit, scoop out the seeds and pulp and discard.  Peel off the skin and mash or puree the pumpkin flesh.  One small pumpkin yields about 2 cups of puree)

1 cup warm water

2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast (one packet)

1 teaspoon of salt

2.5 Tablespoons of melted butter

1/4 cup of honey

1/4 cup of prorridge oats

3/4 cup wholewheat or brown flour

2 cups plain flour

Optional:

1/4 cup of dried cranberries

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1. Mix the yeast, salt water melted butter and honey in a large bowl

2. Mix in the rest of the ingredients

3. Cover and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours (At this stage the dough can be refrigerated for up to a week)

4. Optional: On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle and sprinkle 1/4 cup of dried cranberries and 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds over the surface.  Use just enough flour on the dough when handling it so that it doesn't stick. When the seeds are spread, fold the dough over and work the seeds into the dough.

5. Let it rise for 40 minutes. (If you are using refrigerated dough, the dough will need to rest for about 2 hours at room temperature before you bake it.)

6.When you are ready to bake, grease a 2lb bread loaf tin and heat the oven to 350F/180C Bake for 40-50 minutes.  For an extra crunchy crust, place a baking pan in the bottom of the oven when preheating.  After you put the bread in, pour a cup of hot water in the broiler pan to help steam the bread.

Enjoy and have a nice weekend!

A Different Kind of Loafing - A Guest Blog

I used to be unemployed. When I first came to Scotland, it was six months after Kat moved up and six months before I found a job. I decided to fill my time with a few of the things I never had time for when working. I discovered the unique satisfaction of daily bread-making. 

There is nothing to come home to than a clean house and freshly baked bread and I provided the latter on a record basis. I was kitted out with apron, a silicone baking mat that promised never to fail and loaf after loaf of yeasty warm bread, consumed with as much butter as vigour. I only broke one spatula in the proceedings.

There was the sense of pride in creating something that everyone could enjoy on the most basic level and the confidence that grew from producing something so often that you stopped looking at recipes and instructions. It took time and care and there is nothing more therapeutic in my mind than kneading the hell out of dough.

And then I found work...

Three years, 2 slugs, an additional cat and a toddler later, I had all but forgotten that time, as isolating and demoralising as being unemployed could be, I still had the fond memory of that process, of being involved and engaged in something that was just satisfying and practical. Nostalgia aside, where could I possibly find the time or patience to put into baking bread again?  Kat was tired of hearing me whine and decided to take action to get me baking again.

Last week a book arrived for me by post. Now Kat is a bit of a book fiend, she gets through them in seconds, literally consuming them. I used to have that passion, but now approach books quite cold. I need to be wooed to engage in a book. I am happy to dip in and flick through sure, but to really throw myself in and immerse requires a special book and Kat's present was more than that, it was a godsend.

Below is the result, just one of three breads I was able to produce this weekend, in this case decadent pecan cinamon rolls, that were lashed in cream cheese frosting (thanks to Kat).

So why the inspiration? Well, it was simple really. A concept that a cook and a scientist explored and tested, a concept that eliminates time from breadmaking in an extraordinary way, and a concept that produces better bread than I have EVER made before. The title:ARTISAN BREAD IN 5 MINUTES A DAY

The book shook many assumptions I made about bread making and vividly and clearly showed the way to produce, in my mind anyway, beautiful and tasty bread. Below is my first attempt at a Couronne crown-shaped French loaf, perfectly complemented by some of Kat's vegetable soup with freshly homemade egg noodles.

And below again was my first attempt, the French Boule, the most basic recipe.

My one sadness in this all, is the loss of kneading as a part of the process. And yes, you heard right, there is no kneading, no waiting for the yeast to rise at the beginning of the process.

I feel a rush of creativity emerging as one batch of dough can make all sorts o breads, from baguettes, to loaves to sweet breads, and there is much more to try and learn. The bread has lost the overly yeasty flavour, the outside is appealing and crisp while the inside is fresh and chewy. My book of the year for sure. And it only takes a few minutes to mix, with more than half the steps of preparation gone. Magic.

Not That Good For You, but At Least They Are Sugar Free Apricot Cereal Bars

I have a new love in my life.  Its gooey and crumbly, sweet and tangy.  If I could eat ice cream it would be perfect with it...

 

When Kev and I lived in London, we had a weekend tradition of taking the Tube down to Kew Gardens.  While of course we would go to see the glory that is the royal botanics, our path would more often than not meander through the quaint wee streets of Kew, collecting a range of picnic ingredients on our way. 

 

Ahh the luxury of time in those days.  Picking over exotic picnic items, stopping at the Kew Gardener cafe for a pit stop on our arduous journey.  Eating scones the size of grapefruits and reading thick wedges of newspaper. There was a lovely health food shop, called Oliver's, the magnetic pull of which was just too hard to resist.  We never left without two things...I always needed a tub of the lightest, fluffiest hummous I have ever found and a sugar free apricot slice from their deli.

 

How I loved those apricot slices. They were deliciously sticky and not overly sweet.  I have thought of them so many times since moving up North of the Border. Well, a recurring health issue has meant that I  no longer eat refined wheat or sugar.  After two weeks of my sugar free life, I found myself with a hankering for something sweet that could not be met with the various pieces of fruit we had in the house.  I needed...an apricot bar.

 

Digging through the internet, I couldn't find a recipe I liked, so I made one up.  And its delicious and crumbly and sweet and tangy and very very more-ish...

 

 

Not That Good For You, but At Least They Are Sugar Free Apricot Cereal Bars

 

Ingredients:

Filling:

2 cups dried apricots (unsulphered if you can get them)

2 cups water

 

Crumble:

1.5 cups of porridge oats

1.5 cups of brown or spelt flour

150g (3/4 cup) of softened butter or margerine 

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup of Agave syrup (or more if you really like things sweet)

1T of Vanilla extract

1T of Almond extract

 

1. Simmer apricots and water on a medium heat for about 15 minutes or until the apricots are really soft.  There shouldn't be much water left in the pan.  Purée.

 

2. Mix crumble ingredients until it forms a dough. 

 

3. Spread 1/2 of the dough mix on the bottom of the pan.  Then spread the apricot purée over the top.  Cover the apricot layer with the rest of the dough (you kind of pat out wee rounds of the dough and lay them across the jammy bit.

 

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 360F/180C

Taking Lemons and Making Lemonade

Life has a tendency to hand us lemons.  Everyday I could list to you a thousand things that just don't work.  I am great at wallowing.  Stomping, beating myself up, whining, moping are also skills I posess.  However, years of impatience leading to catastrophe have left me with a fantastic ability for salvage. 

My skills were but to the test this morning when a huge batch of strawberry jam failed. The recent rains meant my berries were laden with water and would not firm up. While strawberry soup for dinner was appealing, a better thought struck my mind.

Strawberry and Soda and Rum Punch

I didn't measure anything, just put in a couple tablespoons of failed jam/strawberry syrup and some soda water plus a dash of rum (of course you could leave out the rum).  Lovely.  I doubt there will be much left over for pancakes (thanks, S!)...oh well.

I thought it was genius, particularly after my third glass! Cheers to failure!

The Page Your Cookbook Falls Open To

Like a well worn path, my cookbooks show you the way to my favourite things to cook and eat.

The new Basic Biscuit (American Biscuits, like scones) recipe is one of the them.  These are my go-to comfort food.  When cupboards are empty and the fridge is bare, I can usually scrape together the ingredients to whip these up as a base for something deeply satisfying.  Sometimes they are eaten warm with butter and jam.  Sometimes they stretch as far as strawberry shortcake.  In winter they get some dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds mixed in.  In autumn, fresh blackberry jam is the topping of choice.  Hazelnuts, chocolate pieces, cheese and ham have all at various times studded the crumbly goodness of these delicious scones.

I don't even need to look for the page.  The well-worn pages of my cookbook just fall open to the simple recipe and magic and comfort can begin.

New Basics Biscuits (adapted)
5T Butter, cold
1T, Baking Powder
2T Sugar (optional for sweet varieties)
1 cup plain white flour
1 cup brown/wholemeal flour
3/4 single cream  or milk

The book offers step by step instructions, but I essentially bang the butter, flours, sugar (if you are using it) and baking powder in my food processor and blitz it.  Mix in any other ingredients you'd like and then add the cream and mix until doughy. Scoop out and plop into tomato sized heaps. Of course you can roll them out and cut them, but that is really unnecessary mess and effort. Bake at 180C/360F for about 10 minutes or until golden.   

***************
Thank you all so much for your good wishes yesterday.  It was a better day. Sometimes better is all you need (plus I had biscuits).