COOKBOOKS GALORE

Yes, another easy loaf! I'm now trying to use up the contents of my food cupboard. There were a few dried apricots, sultanas and walnuts left, so this was the perfect recipe. 300g plain flour 21/2 tspn baking powder 11/2 tspn mixed spice 90g diced butter 90g soft brown sugar 200g dried apricots 125g sultanas 90g chopped walnuts 210 ml milk 1 beaten egg Preheat ovem 180C/350F/gas4 Grease a 900g [2lb] loaf tin Sift flour, spice and baking powder into a bowl and rub in the butter. Add the sugar, fruit and walnuts and mix together. Add the milk and egg and mix well. Put into tin and bake for 45-50 mins till golden. Cool on a wire rack.                                     I didn't have enough apricots so I also added some dried apple.

We were busy packing boxes this afternoon when the doorbell rang. There were 3 ladies standing outside grinning at us. They were 3 of our lovely neighbours, and when invited in, they produced a package and said it was a souvenir of our time here. We were so moved that they'd thought of doing this. On opening the present, we found a lovely watercolour, done by a local artist, of La Garette, a pretty village in the Marais Poitevin, our area. It's not framed as they wanted us to choose what we wanted. What lovely people we have as neighbours; everyone, without exception, has been so kind to us. Our little hamlet has about 20 houses and we belong to a big village. The Marais Poitevin is beautiful. It's now an inter-regional park. It's not well known to the Brits and is still unspoilt. It has a variety of scenery, from marshes to the coast. We live in the lovely marsh area with lots of alder trees. Have a look here . The black flat-bottomed boat is known as a barque...

Thought I'd just finish off the post that I did the other day about tomatoes. I'd roasted a tray of tomatoes ready for soup. It's been too hot to even contemplate soup, but the weather is now cooler so we had some for lunch today. It was really tasty. What did I do? I sauteed an onion in a little evo till translucent, added a few chopped cloves of garlic and some chopped  oregano from the garden. Cooked this a little longer, then added the tomatoes and 300ml of vegetable stock. [I used a good veg.stock cube].  I simmered it for about 10 mins then blended it. I checked the seasoning, then we ate it with big chunks of multigrain homemade bread.

We planted a couple of Chasselas grapevines a couple of years ago, and we've just picked our first fruit.                                  For a small vine we picked quite a lot, and there's more to pick. Then our friends arrived this morning to bring us some lovely plums from their garden! We still have yesterday's blackcurrant loaf to eat, we picked a lot of Bramleys from our trees [which I've stewed to eat with my porridge] and now plums..! I'm going to really miss this garden when we move. It's not huge, but we've become almost self-sufficient in veg.

I'm desperately trying to use up the contents of the freezer before we move. Just before we came here, I ended up running down the road to my friend with an enormous plastic bag full of food from the freezer! I want to do a better job this time, so it's 'use up some blackcurrants' day! I love teabreads and loafcakes, so was very pleased to find this recipe in a little book I bought ages ago from a NT shop. There's no author's name, and the book is called 'Favourite family teabreads and other delights'. Here's the recipe which I've adapted. 100g fresh blackcurrants 275g sr flour [plus a bit for tossing the blackcurrants] 100g butter or margarine 100g caster sugar [and a bit for sprinkling on the top] 2 large eggs, beaten a little milk Preheat oven 160 fan/180C/350F/gas4 Grease a 900g [2lb] loaf tin Rub the fat into the flour. Add the sugar then the eggs and stir together. The mixture should be fairly dry, but if it won't come ...

I don't plant tomatoes from seed as I only need 6 plants, so this year we bought a tray of 6 mixed varieties. These were - cherry tomatoes, vine cherry tomatoes, beef tomatoes, plum tomatoes, vine plum tomatoes and a round tomato I've forgotten the name of! As we've had so much hot weather, they've been prolific and they've had a wonderful flavour. They've lacked water, and we've got a hosepipe ban, so I've been using the 3 water butts, now they've run out! Bob picked yet more today, so I decided to make some soup with some and I made a starter with a few more. These are some lovely plum tomatoes going into the oven to be roasted, just drizzled with olive oil. These will be for the soup. This is the starter. It's not a good picture as it's from a French magazine. It's mozzarella tomato gratin. for 4 people you need: 6 tomatoes, 1 ball of mozzarella [125g], 4 tbns grated parmesan, 1 clove of garlic 4 stems of parsley, 4 stems ...

I've seen a lot in magazines and online about whoopie pies so as I had some marshmallows in the cupboard, I thought I'd have a go at some. This recipe comes from the June edition of Sainsbury magazine and is by Dan Lepard, one of my favourite bakers. You'll find the recipe on Dan's forum here  . The recipe makes a lot of pies so I halved it. I think the pie is a cross between a biscuit and a cake. As there's no raising agent in the recipe, they don't rise very much. I just spooned the mixture on, but if you want a really good shape, you need to pipe them. Oh, and I added some grated lemon rind to the mixture. The mixture for the pies is quite thick, thicker than the normal cake mixture. The marshmallow were big ones, but they melted easily.                            This is the melted mixture. One very important thing...

My Mum used to make this when I was young, but I'd forgotten about it till I was looking in her recipe book the other day. I thought it was magic because the mixture goes in mixed together and comes out as a sponge top and a lovely lemon sauce underneath. As I had a few lemons to use up it was the perfect pudd. for today. My husband  thought it was too sweet, and it does have a lot of sugar in it. Maybe I would use less another time. 3oz/90g soft margarine or softened butter 9oz/275g caster sugar 3 eggs, separated 3oz/90g sr flour grated rind and juice of 2 lemons 3/4pt/425ml milk Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F Grease a 2 pt/just over a litre pie dish. In a big bowl beat together the margarine or butter, sugar, egg yolks, flour, rind and juice and the milk. It might look curdled, but don't worry, all will be well. Mine wasn't curdled and I wondered what I'd done wrong! Whisk the egg whites till they form soft peaks and fold this gently into the lemon mix...

Yet another apple recipe!  Am making the most of the Bramleys before we leave. This is a nice easy recipe that you can make in a few minutes, if you need a cake in a hurry. It's another one from Mum's old handwritten book. 4oz/125g sr flour and 4oz/125g sr wholemeal flour 1 tspn baking powder 2oz/60g soft brown or demerara sugar 11/2 oz/45g diced butter or margarine 1 tspn cinnamon 1 medium Bramley apple [about 10oz/300g before peeling] peeled, cored and chopped 3-4 tbspn milk extra demerara sugar for the top Preheat oven 200C/gas6/400F Grease a baking sheet. Sift the flours into a bowl and rub in the fat. Stir in the sugar and cinnamon and then add the chopped apple. You can, if you like, grate the apple, but I prefer it in chunks. Mix it all together then stir in enough milk to make a soft dough. Turn onto a floured board and shape into a 7"/ about 18cm round. Mark it into 8 and then sprinkle the top with denerara sugar. Bake it for about 25-30 m...

Yes, another apple cake! The apples are falling off the Bramley trees as there are so many of them, and it's been so hot. I found this recipe in one of my Mum's old cookbooks. It was called a 'crunchy' topped cake, but it's not at all crunchy on top. It's not a spongecake base this time - more of a sweet pastry. 75g butter or margarine 175g sr flour 50g caster sugar 1 egg 75ml water 3 apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges topping 75g dark brown sugar 2 tspn cinnamon 25g butter of margarine Preheat oven to 180C/gas4/350F Grease and line a 20cm cake tin. Rub fat into flour till it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and mix in the egg and water to make a soft dough. Spread this dough into the base of the tin. Press the apple wedges into the dough and sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon. Dot with pieces of butter of margarine. Bake for about 30 mins till firm. It's difficult to decide of the base is cooked as the...