Be honest! How many recipe books do you have lurking in your cupboards? And how many recipes have you actually cooked from them? I have an addiction to recipe books, cue groan from Mr mak' Bread. I love to look at the pictures, read the ingredients and dream of serving this that and the other to an appreciative audience. But of course I only dream because the key ingredient can only be found in some metropolis far from here or the advance preparation takes six hours and the appreciative audience would much prefer pie, beans and chips anyway. Jamie Oliver seems to be quite fortunate that his family eats everything he serves up with gusto. But I digress. Last Christmas, that is the one a year ago, Mr m in a fit of 'what can I get her this year? panic bought me a Nigel Slater recipe book with all sorts of interesting ideas in it. It was good read and I marked all the potential dishes with little sticky papers. It looked very busy and I looked forward to beginning to work through them all. This would be one book which I could honestly say I earned its space on the shelf. I started well with Nigel's passion fruit and pistachio meringues (easy and tasty) and there it stopped, I'm afraid to say. The volume still sports its sticky paper index of untried recipes. I've decided to address that this year and make at least one recipe a month out of the book. Succeeded in January, fell off the rails in February and now back on track in March with these easy poppy seed flatbreads. I'd love to give you the recipe but it is Nigel's. You'll just have to get the book to add to your own collection! It has been sometime since I gave you a Top Tip from the mak'Bread kitchen. Now this is good news from my viewpoint because it means that I haven't had any major culinary disasters which would be of any educational value for you, dear reader. Not good from your point of view of course since you now believe that perfection reigns. In an attempt to assure that all does not always go well I offer you Top Tip #7. Check the flour before you chuck it in. Rather too quickly I grabbed the self raising flour container and mixed in my 250g. into my date and walnut muffin mix. After they went in the oven I discovered I'd picked up the plain flour (has mr m been reorganising my cupboards again?) so no light and fluffy muffins for breakfast this time round. Still they were edible if hard work and solid enough to lie in your stomach till after lunchtime so a bit of time saving at the end of the day. . And PS, an extra tip: I won't be using these cardboard cases to bake in again. They look cute but come out with greasy spots and burned top edges and everything smells of hot cardboard instead of cake.. They should tell you that on the tin!
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Hello, I'm Marianne. I live in Central Scotland with my husband, Jim, and an occasional rabbit. Glad you could join me :) Archives
November 2017
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