COOKBOOKS GALORE

If you read this blog, you'll know that we love teabreads. Wanted to try a new recipe, so found this one on the BBC Good Food site. You'll find it   here . I tweaked the spices and used some 'quatre epices' which is much like mixed spice in the UK. I found it rather sweet so maybe less sugar next time. I like the sliced apple on top; it gave the cooked teabread  an interesting look. We had a slice of it with a cuppa.

This is a lovely moist cake with a soft, dense texture. Make sure, if you do try it, that you grease the cake tin well, as I used my 2lb silicone loaf mould and even thought I did grease it, the cake still stuck to the bottom. Apple puree cake 100g butter or margarine, softened 225g soft brown sugar [I used light brown muscovado sugar and it gave the cake a lovely flavour] 2 eggs, lightly beaten 225g plain flour 1 tspn ground cinnamon ½ tspn grated nutmeg 100g apple puree 1 tspn bicarb. 2 tbspn hot water Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F Grease a 2lb loaf tin well Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy Beat in eggs and stir in flour, spices and apple puree. Mix the bicarb. with the hot water then stir it into the mixture. Spoon into tin and bake for about 50mins. Test with skewer to see if it’s cooked.

This a recipe I've used before and it's a lovely moist cake and it keeps well too [if there's any left!!]. 275g sr flour 3 level tbspns cocoa 175g caster sugar 1 level tspn bicarbonate os soda 300ml milk 150ml corn oil 3 tbspns golden syrup 1/2 tspn vanilla essence icing: 25g cocoa 3-4 tbspns hot water 25g soft butter 100g icing sugar [sieved] Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F Grease and line 2x20cm sandwich tin or a 20cm springform tin Sift flour, cocoa a nd sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the middle. Dissolve the bicarb in 1 tbspn of the milk and then pour into the flour with the rest of the milk, oil, syrup and vanilla essence. Beat well till a smooth batter. Pour into tin/tins and bake for about 35-40 mins till the cakes spring back when pressed with fingertip. Turn on wire rack to cool. Make the icing - put the cocoa in a bowl with the hot water and butter and beat till smooth and butter is blended in. Beat in the icing sugar and then sandwich ...

Inspired by my friend Lynn on http://www.lynnscookingblog.com/ I decided to make a cake. This is a recipe from my Mum's handwritten notebook and is in ounces. Here's the recipe: 4oz butter 6oz caster sugar 3 eggs finely grated lemon zest 6floz natural yoghurt 8oz sr flour 2oz chopped dried apricots preheat oven 325F/160C.gas 3 grease a 2 lb loaf tin Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well between each. Gently fold in the lemon zest, flour and apricots. Spoon into the tin and bake for about 35 - 40 mins rill golden. Cool on a wire rack. This is delicious with a yoghurt topping - mix 1 tbspn natural yoghurt with 3 oz icing sugar. Spread over top of cake when cold and sprinkle with some more grated lemon rind. I found this icing very thin and it ran down the sides of the cake. Think I'd use more icing sugar next time. Talking of icing sugar, this is my French icing sugar. I love the container. They make a spec...

I'm not very imaginative when it comes to cooking fish. I had some hake and wanted a good recipe so tried this one here  ; it was very tasty and an ususual blend of flavours.  I didn't have any broad beans so left them out. Luckily I had some chorizo left over from a pizza. I'm surprised that the parsley in my garden is still growing after the cold winter we've had. I like Simon Rimmer on 'Something for the Weekend'. but this is the first recipe of his I've tried.

Over the years I've enjoyed doing embroidery of all sorts. In the UK, my friend and I went to Evening class and we were lucky that our teacher was doing a City and Guilds in Crafts and taught us lots of different types of work such as shadow, drawn thread, Florentine etc. The only snag was that she taught a new skill every few weeks, not enought time to complete the previous one, as I was teaching full time and had 2 children, so little time to catch-up at home. I saved it all 'for when I retired', but I still don't seem to have enough time to finish those projects! This is a cushion I made for our bedroom. I've done lots of birth samplers, one for each grandchild, wedding cushions etc I made this Kaffe Fassett 'Victorian Cats' cushion for my daughter, supposedly for her 21st birthday, but actually got finished for her 30th! This is the kit before I started. All the shades of the cats were so difficult to see in the evening. I'm making my son ...

We didn't want any presents for our Silver Wedding anniversary, but I wanted to do something as a keepsake, so I've decided to do a sampler. My favourite flowers are lilies and we received a lovely bouquet of them for our anniversary. So I decided to design a sampler with a lily like this one as a centrepiece. Am in the throes of designing the chart, so will update this as I go along.