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 By Jan Cheshire
I MUST admit I’m not all that excited about summertime, but I do enjoy finding recipes for salads, especially because we have lots of salad.vegies in the garden. Risoni is a type of pasta, a bit like rice.
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 By Jan Cheshire
GOODNESS, it’s almost Christmas again. Where did this year go? And let’s hope that 2021 will be a better year for us all! This year’s Christmas recipe is pinched from my husband Bert, who makes this pudding every Christmas.  By Jan Cheshire
THIS cake is light and airy and very delicious. You could make it with other berries, but the blueberries, which seem to be a bit cheaper this year, blend very well with the lemon curd. You can buy the lemon curd or make it. The recipe is very easy.  By Jan Cheshire
EVERY year nearing Christmas I make lots of small sausage rolls which usually get eaten before Christmas comes round. Recently I saw a picture of these giant sausage rolls on the computer. I decided to have a go that day because I could not fathom what to have for dinner that evening. They were a great BIG hit!  By Jan Cheshire
IT WILL soon be time for Halloween. When I lived in southern Ireland many years ago, October 31 (All Hallows Eve) was very popular with all the children in the village where we lived. After school was over, the local children would dress up as ghosts or monsters and go around knocking on doors and offering “trick or treat”. Of course I would have laid by a few bags of lollies, and when they ran out I would offer apples to the would-be scary creatures. It was a great deal of fun all round.  By Jan Cheshire
I GUESS like me you are all looking forward to some warmer weather very soon. I have been baking when I cannot get out in the garden because of the weather. This is a delicious and very easy cake. Blueberries are so good for you and at the moment they are reasonably priced and very delicious whether in a cake or a fruit bowl.  By Jan Cheshire
The first of the broad beans are appearing. Once the season is in full swing we will freeze some, along with the peas that Bert grew. They do freeze well and last a few months in the freezer. However, I really love them cooked then cooled and served in a salad. This one is especially nice.  By Jan Cheshire
I’M finding that fresh fish are getting too expensive in the supermarket for me these days. So, this week I decided to do a fish dinner with a large tin of tuna, and it was very delicious. I thought I would pass it on.  By Jan Cheshire
THE broccolini plants have not stopped producing. We really enjoy broccolini, but we don’t want to have it with every meal. However, I have found a delicious soup you can make with broccoli or broccolini, whichever takes your fancy. It’s called broccoli & blue cheese soup, but I reckon you could put any sort of cheese in it and it would still taste great.  By Jan Cheshire
I HOPE everyone is enjoying life as it is at the moment. As always, we have had lots of apples, so I’ve been busy trying to cook them up. We’ve also had a lot of large pumpkins this year and I have made lots of soup and cake etc. However, I thought I would try a recipe I have been looking at for a while, not entirely sure it would be okay. I tried it out on husband Bert and my son, Ben. I was happily surprised that they both loved it and so did I. Risottos are easy to make; you just add the stock regularly and “cream” the rice  By Jan Cheshire
THIS is a really old-fashioned soup that was very popular in Britain when I was growing up. I had forgotten all about it until recently when I had a large head of celery to use up. This is really a most delicious soup and very simple and cheap to make, especially if you have lots of celery in your garden.  By Jan Cheshire
On cold wintry nights, we need comfort foods to keep us warm. With plenty of leeks in our garden, this very delicious casserole was very easy to cook and even easier to eat.  By Jan Cheshire
At this time of the year, Bert and I really enjoy eating steamed or baked puddings – part of our English heritage, I suppose. When we were kids we always had a dessert after dinner, be it a tin of fruit and some evaporated milk, a stodgy rice pudding or a hot steaming pudding. These little puddings are a bit more sophisticated than the old “spotted dick” of my childhood, but they are very delicious and heart-warming – just what you need for a chilly winter’s evening.  By Jan Cheshire
EACH winter I look forward to making tasty, warming soups and slow-cooked stews. Each year I try out new ideas for soups and eventually come up with an outright winner for the year. Last year it was the celeriac and potato soup. Celeriacs are those strange, knobbly, slightly pear-shaped vegetables that look a bit like a goblin’s head with green hair.  By Jan Cheshire
WE’VE had amazing crops of pink lady and granny smith apples this year. I’ve been wracking my brains as what to do with them all. I have dried them, made cakes, tarts, crumbles, etc. I have even frozen them. The best thing I made was this lovely and easy cake from a book titled Now for Something Sweet by the Monday Morning Cooking Club. I hope you'll like it too.  By Jan Cheshire
WE’VE been enjoying lots of fresh figs this year. They are so versatile served either as a dessert, or our favourite fig dish, baked with blue cheese with a salad or as an entrée. The fig tree is thought to be the first crop to be domesticated for human consumption, well over 11,000 years ago. The fig was prominent in Greek, Egyptian and Roman culture, and of course, is famous for its association with Adam and Eve in the Bible.  By Jan Cheshire
I HOPE you are all staying well and enjoying life regardless of the weather and the government! Our garden has been good to us this year, with plenty of vegetables, apples and rhubarb. Quite honestly, we don’t water it or feed it and it still keeps us on our toes. I chose an easy recipe for this rhubarb cobbler. I hope you give it a go and enjoy it.  By Jan Cheshire
WITH all that rain, it's been a splendid apple season. I’ve been able to turn out the odd apple pie and crumble, but I especially like this German cake as it is so easy to make and does not require me to haul the mixer out of the cupboard. It is lovely served as a dessert with fresh cream or ice cream.
 Photo: awee_19/flickr creative commons By Jan Cheshire
IT’S autumn once more, my favourite time of the year, and it comes with all its goodies from the garden. Pumpkins, apples, figs, sweet corn, quince and one of our great favourites – mushrooms. I like the flavour of portobello mushrooms and they can be good just fried in oil or butter as an accompaniment to a main meal.  By Jan Cheshire
THE strawberries are finished now after a very good crop. Alas our blackberries were not so good this year. However, I really love raspberries. Although we don’t grow them in the garden at present, they have been so plentiful and cheap in the shops this year. I am sure you will like this very easy, delicious cake.  By Jan Cheshire
I’M not usually a fan of zucchini, but this pie is very nice and so easy to make. Zucchini is a funny plant to grow, you look one day, and the zucchinis are quite small, the next day they are ready to pick, so you have to keep an eye on them or they get very fat! This recipe comes from a book called Mix & Bake by Belinda Jeffery.  By Jan Cheshire
CHRISTMAS is nearly upon us again; I wasn’t sure I was ready for it until I saw this recipe. It’s very indulgent, really, but it tastes wonderful. You could use brandy if you don’t like Irish Cream or orange juice if you don’t want to use alcohol.  By Jan Cheshire
THIS is the season for salads! I love salads but sometimes I get a bit bored with making them and am always looking for a new recipe. This recipe is not new and, like me, you have probably eaten it in a restaurant or cafe before now. However, I have never made my own Caesar salad and I was delighted with it. I hope you will enjoy it too.  By Jan Cheshire
I’VE had this recipe for quite a few years, but for some reason or other I hadn't made it. Recently, I decided to try it and was very pleasantly surprised, it was really delicious and very easy to make. I hope you will try it too. |
