The last full moon had that late Autumn feeling...a harder, brighter look that comes with the onset of the colder seasons...time for some cosy dinners!
But first I wanted to show you the beautiful cake that my youngest sister baked for my birthday...and my youngest nephew (4 year old Will) decorated! Gorgeous marbled spongecake...buttercream icing...and you may be able to spot at the centre back amongst all the candles (ahem!) a plastic tyrannosaurus rex!! A must for any cake. The peanut M&Ms were, apparently, his eggs! So not only delicious, but a useful dinosaur incubator too....
The last Farmer's Market was cold & damp...perfect weather for this sticky oat & syrup parkin (the Yorkshire version of gingerbread) It's becoming a bestseller...and it keeps so incredibly well (in fact, you really need to make it at least 6 days before eating, so that it has a chance to mature and really get sticky!) Yum!
New to the stall were these Butterscotch Blondies...perfect for those who don't like too much chocolate (those poor, mad people.....!) and they sold out quickly too...but not as fast as...
my cheese scones. This time I added the last of the chives from our garden to the mixture. Each month I bake more...but it's never enough!
We've been eating more warming, comforting suppers too...making the most of the vegetable bounty around right now...
This baked mushroom rice was fabulous...I added some dried porcini to the rice for extra shroom-i-ness...really a baked risotto, but much easier & so good!
Butternut squash is another favourite...this one was scored and roasted with roquefort cheese & pine nuts...
the leftovers went into a lasagne later in the week....too good to waste!
Sometimes I cheat & buy ready-rolled puff pastry...if I've been baking all day, it can be hard to summon up the enthusiasm to put lots of hard rolling into dinner! But puff pastry has the magical ability to give the illusion of effort, without actually using much at all!
This open tart was full of tomatoes, fennel, courgettes, red onions, feta cheese...all those wonderful mediterranean ingredients that taste so good together!
Indian food is something we love...vegetable curries are infinite in their variety, but I wanted to make one containing okra, which can be gluey in texture...
thankfully, this one wasn't! Fresh, green, hot enough to squeeze the tongue but not to paralyse it...beautiful!
And the last of this treasury of vegetarian dinners was the aubergine, tomato & black-eyed bean stew that still makes my mouth water to think of it! I cooked the beans from scratch...not always necessary (tinned are so much easier!) but I think that black-eyes especially benefit from soaking & cooking at home as the tinned ones can be too mushy for my taste...
Served over brown basmati rice, this was just delightful and so hearty and warming!
I am currently cooking for a special lunch, which I'll tell you more about soon...but I have a question for you before I go!
I can't write them all here, but is there a recipe for one of the dishes in this post that you'd particularly like to have? If so, please leave me a comment and tell me which and I'll post the two most popular very soon!
I hope that you are enjoying some delicious food too, this November....there's so much that's good around this month!
Happy weekend xoxo
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