COOKBOOKS GALORE

                                       We enjoyed our Silver Wedding Anniversary trip to Paris.        Didn't want to go to museums this time and I wanted to visit the big department stores in the Boulevard  Hausseman. This is the Galeries Lafayette. A fantastic dome. It's such a beautiful building. We went to the basement Food Hall and wow - what a feast for the eyes. These are a few of the delicious cakes on offer.  Some hams and sausages. And of course, the famous Poilane bread. We went on a tour of the area around our hotel with our friend's son, who lives in Paris. In one of the lovely glass topped arcades I found this shop selling biscuits - can't remember its name!  This is the famous Fauchon shop in the Plac...

This is a recipe from my friend Annick. I bought some frozen blueberries last week and made some muffins with them, but had half a bag left. What to do with them? This cake was the answer. You can serve it warm, with creme fraiche or cream as a dessert, or cold with a cuppa. Here's the recipe: 225g sr flour 1/2 spn salt 125g butter or margarine 175g granulated sugar 2 large eggs, beaten 2 large eating apples, cored and sliced 125g blueberries icing sugar Preheat oven 190C/170C fan/gas5 Grease and line a 20cm cake tin. Put the flour in a bowl with the salt; add the butter or marg and rub it in. Add 125g of the sugar and the eggs and mix together. Spread half of this mixture into your tin - I found this very difficult until I used a flat spatula. Layer the apples and blueberries on top and sprinkle with the rest of the sugar. Spoon in the rest of the mixture. Bake for about 45 mins [ my oven isn't very reliable and it took 40 mins] Coo...

We love teabreads and have a slice with a cuppa in the afternoon. Very British! This one is very moist and moreish. Try it! 225g dried cranberries 225g sultanas 350ml black tea [warm] preheat oven 160C/gas 3/325F soak the fruit in the tea for about an hour [I used earl grey tea and it was a lovely flavour] then add 250g wholemeal flour with 1 tspn baking powder added to it  2 tbspn brown or muscovado sugar 25g melted butter 1 beaten egg mix it all together with a spoon grease a 2lb cake tin and pour in the cake mixture and level the top bake for about an hour; cover the cake with foil for the first half hour then take it off test to see if it's cooked and if not, give it another 5-10 mins and then check again let the cake rest in the tin for 15 mins, then cool on a wire rack eat it with some nice butter! you can use any dried fruit that you have; I didn't have enough cranberries, so chopped up a few dried apricots to make up the weight you can also try ...