Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - August and a recipe for rusks

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. The word usually is important here because this month I baked....nothing. That's right. Not a thing! I started working again at the beginning of the month and apparently it took away all my baking inspiration.

We weren't entirely without baked goods. My husband likes to occasionally make Rusks and so he made a big batch of those, so instead of my normal baking wrap up I am going to share the recipes for that.

We did have one foodie experience and that was high tea at the Ritz-Carlton here in Melbourne. The restaurant is on the 80th floor and has amazing views. The afternoon tea itself was nice. I loved the savoury course but the scones were a bit disappointing really. But that view!

  

52 Recipes Challenge

Here are the new recipes we tried this month. Both of these are recipes from Nagi Maehashi's cookbooks. We are very behind with this so not sure that we are going to get to 52 new recipes in the year but we will keep trying.

Cajun Chicken and Rice

Shanghai Noodles

Back to the rusks, which are a twice cooked biscuit. They are perfect for dunking in a cup of tea or coffee and I happen to know that some monkeys like packaged rusks. The first time I went to South Africa, we were staying in a chalet in Manyane camp in the Pilanesberg Game reserve. One morning, the kitchen door to the chalet was left ever so slightly ajar and quick as a flash a monkey came into the kitchen and stole a whole packet of rusks. It clearly wasn't his first time as he then gently peeled open the wrapping, even tapping the rusks on the ground to get rid of the loose crumbs. This is what the humans do to try and limit the amount of soggy crumbs that end up in the bottom of the cup after you dunk the rusks.

This recipe does make a large batch, and we made it in the evening so we could then just leave it in the oven overnight to completely dry out.

We have tried several different recipes now, but this one, which we found at Teach Me Mommy, is the best one so far and so I am posting it here so that we can always find it. Reminder that it is possible to make your own buttermilk  using milk and vinegar and self raising flour using plain flour and baking powder if you need to.

The picture below is what the rusk looked like after it came out of the over the first time.

South African Rusks 

7-8 cups (1.5kg) self-raising flour (or 7-8 cups of plain flour with 8 teaspoons of baking powder)
2 cups (500g) sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon (5ml) salt
500g butter (softened)
2 cups (500ml) buttermilk 

Add the flour to your large bowl. Mix the butter in with your fingers and then add the rest of the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl mix the eggs and buttermilk.

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. (The dough should be sticky but you can add more flour to make it easier to get into the trays.)

Flatten the dough onto your cookie trays and then bake for 30 minutes at 180'C or until golden brown and baked throughout.

Let it cool slightly and cut into rusk fingers. Place the rusks directly on the racks in your oven and bake again at 70 or 75'C for 5-6 hours until it is dry throughout. (leave your oven door open slightly)

Weekend Cooking posts from the last month

Blog Tour: A Place in the Sun by Jo Thomas

Afternoon Tea Diaries: The Tea Rooms at NGV

The Deadly Dispute by Amanda Hampson

The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida

The Midnight Bakery by Emma Davies

Sunday Salon: Three Mini Reviews for Women in Translation Month

Weekly Meals

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.

Weekly meals

Saturday - Butter chicken with roti
Sunday - 
Monday - Toast
Tuesday - Spanish Tuna Bake
Wednesday - Spicy Pork and Beef Noodles
Thursday - Mexican Chicken and Rice
Friday - Smash burgers with chips

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - June

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. 

I had big baking plans for June. The Lambs Ears Cook Book Club chose Emelia Jackson's latest book Some of My Best Friends are Cookies as the June selection, and I had selected a number of recipes to make as I already owned the book. But there is that saying about best laid plans and all that, and mine came crashing down when I got some kind of winter lurgy and I have been sick for the last couple of weeks. I am getting better but I sound terrible and when I cough...well... it's not pleasant.

So what did I make. 

The first thing that I decided to make from the book was traditional Scottish shortbread as it is Robert's favourite. I also saw that there was a variation which was Sour Cherry and Pistachio Shortbread. I have a bag of sour cherries in the pantry and so it was an opportunity for me to use some. I made both recipes from the same batch and both were delicious. I will make them again!

Speaking of pistachios, is it just in Melbourne, or is everyone going crazy for pistachios at the moment? Many years ago now, I had some friends come to visit us and we went to a night market and we had a conversation about why there was so much Nutella everywhere. Now, that conversation would be about pistachios. We recently had a new Costco open near us, and the thing that had everyone excited was a pistchio cheesecake. Now, I would love to try it but the reality is I can't justify buying one because we would never be able to eat it all, so it would be a waste.

That doesn't mean that I am averse to the pistachio craze. I mean, I used it in my own baking this month, and intend to make another recipe that has them as a garnish as well. And we did try these Pistachio Scrolls from our local cafe to see what all the fuss was about on their socials.

We did have a couple of very nice meals this month, before we got sick. It was my birthday in early June so we took a drive down the coast and had lunch at a beautiful winery which had great views and more importantly, great food! It was a pretty cold day, but it was still very enjoyable. I imagine this place is even more popular in summer.

We also had to take a quick trip up to Brisbane for our eldest daughter's 30th birthday celebration. We had dinner at a restaurant on the Skydeck at Star Casino, and the whole experience was exceptional. We were sitting outside on the deck, and it was a bit chilly but there were heaters which helped. The views over the city lights were fabulous, and the food....the food was spectacular. This is just some of the food which included a smoked carrot tartare, spanner crab served with tiny crumpets, a beautiful dry aged bistecca and a whole baked fish. 

Finally, I had to say farewell to my favourite pyjama pants this week. It's very sad. I had no option but to buy some super cute breakfast themed replacements, especially seeing as they were on sale!

52 Recipes Challenge

Here are the new recipes we tried this month.

Scottish shortbread

Sour Cherry and Pistachio Shortbread

Air-fried sweet potato cubes

Beef Casserole with Herb Dumplings

Given that we are halfway through the year, I thought I would see where we are up to with the 52 recipes challenge. If my count is correct, I think we have tried 23 new recipes this year so far. It does feel like it should be more, but it shouldn't be too hard to catch up. Famous last words

Weekend Cooking posts from the last month

In My Kitchen - May

Sticky Apricot Chicken Drumsticks

Everything is Indian by Justin Narayan

Blog Tour: The Girl From Normandy by Rachel Sweasey

Weekly Meals

Saturday - Takeaway
Sunday - Tuscan chicken pasta bake
Monday - Beef casserole with herb dumplings (new)
Tuesday - Tomato, Zucchini and Parmesan risotto
Wednesday - Pork Nachos
Thursday - Meatballs
Friday - Butter Chicken and Rice

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer

 

Audrey Sweetman-Brown has a pretty good life. She's in line to be promoted to Creative Director in the advertising agency where she has worked for the last twenty years, she has a good marriage and a beautiful home. Yes, she has faced some challenges, and some of those have left lasting impacts on her day to day life but she does her best to maintain her recovery every day.  She doesn't know it yet, but all of that is about to change, and not in a good way. By the end of the day, she is no longer employed, her marriage is over and she needs to get away to somewhere new quickly.

The only place she can think of is to head to Whitehaven Bay which is a small coastal town a couple of hours away from the city which is famous for its white sandy beach. It is somewhere that her mother used to take her as a child and that alone is enough to give comfort while she begins to sort her life out. And while she does that, she intends to bake up a storm. It is something that reminds her of her mother and bring her a little bit of joy.

There she meets a very colourful bunch of locals from Shez the wannabe business tycoon (who owns one small town motel) and her boyfriend Lem, Buddy who ends up being her landlord and who has a tendency to take his daily constitutional walk to the beach in the nude, Doctor Flood the handsome retired doctor and Billie, a non-binary teenager who seems to attract trouble wherever they go. And then there is Ruth, Billie's mother, who is a former judge and seems to be the only person that doesn't take to Audrey from day one.

Soon everyone is town is encouraging Audrey to start selling her delicious creations, but none of them expect her fortune cookies to go viral. Audrey hand makes her fortune cookies, impressing edible flowers into the cookies so they look beautiful. However, it is the fortunes inside that make these different. These are tell it like it is messages that say things like "Three can keep a secret....if you get rid of two." Suddenly, she has a start up business and she is struggling to keep up with demand.

Audrey is someone I related to. She is pretty much my age, and looking back on a career and wondering what step to take next, flirting with letting her hair go grey and more. I am very lucky as I don't need to face the same issues as she does in her marriage, but there were other aspects that I definitely recognised. Audrey doesn't always think everything through and as a result she doesn't always do the right thing, but she does try very hard to. 

I loved the secondary characters in this book. They all had their own secrets that they have managed to keep even in a small town when everyone knows everyone else's business. I think my favourite was Billie. They do seem to have the uncanny ability to bring trouble on themselves but the way that the author showed the struggle of not fitting in, not meeting their mother's expectation, of trying to do the things that they are passionate about and good at, and of just wanting to be seen for exactly who they are was written really well

Sometimes I am bit wary of a book where the back cover blurbs or the author recommendations tell you that a book is laugh out loud funny because a lot of the time, the book doesn't do that for me. This one absolutely did! There are a couple of times when there are some bikies from the Coffin Cheaters bikie gang turn up on the page and their parts, in particular, made me laugh out loud. And I also ended up reading those passages out loud to my husband!

You can tell that the baking in this book isn't something that the author has just shoe-horned in for story purposes. Greer is very clearly a baker, and she has very generously shared several recipes, most of which played an important part in the book. These include recipes for Cinnamon Buns with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chip, Chip, Hooray Cookies, Raspberry Shortbread Cookies with White Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Birthday Cake, the recipe for the fortune cookies and more. I read this book from the library but I am seriously tempted to buy the book just so I have some of these recipes. 

I thought I would make one of the recipes, but it was a challenge deciding which one. In the end I decided on the Raspberry Shortbread Cookies with White Chocolate and they are delicious. Every time he eats one my husband says something along the lines of these are so good!

This is Canadian-Australian Catherine Greer's first novel. She has written some kids books and some non fiction. I will definitely be looking forward to her next novel! 

I am sharing this review with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story and New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. 

Rating 4.5/5

Weekly meals

Saturday - Barbecued Honey Chicken, Rice and Broccolini
Sunday -  Beef Pepper Casserole
Monday - Chicken Schnitzel Chips and Gravy
Tuesday - One Pot Pastichio
Wednesday - Chicken Enchiladas
Thursday - Curry Roast chicken and Masala roast potatoes
Friday - Takeaway

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Advent by Anja Dunk

 

A while ago now I bought a book called Advent by Anja Dunk which was an early selection of the Jamie Oliver Cookbook Club . Actually, the full title  is Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas. So far, I am really loving this book which is separated into 24 different chapters (one for each day of Advent) with all different types of bakes for each chapter. 

The author talks about a Bunter Teller which translates as "colourful plate" and in this context means a colourful plate of Advent biscuits. She talks about how every German household would have a stock of baked goods at this time of year for when visitors arrive, and you then put out a selection of biscuits, and perhaps give some as a gift.

Part of the reason why the book is broken into these 24 different chapters is that there would be a specific order in which you bake the colourful array of biscuits. 

The order in which they are baked acts as a calendar; a countdown measured in biscuits. The butter-less biscuits, many of them old-fashioned varieties such as Lebkuchen, which keep the longest, are baked first, followed by nut biscuits, then macaroons and meringues. We bake butter-rich ones such as Vanillekipferl after all of the aforementioned, and finally the last things we make are all the sweets and truffles. The biscuit are usually stored in a towering stack of tins kept at the ready to plate a selection up whenever neighbours and friends pop round.

It's my kind of advent calendar, although not if I have to do ALL the cooking!!

As an idea, here are some of the different chapters. The second chapter is for several different versions of lebkuchen including how to make your own spice mix, lebkuchen hearts (filled and unfilled),  old-fashioned honey lebkuchen and more.I have made a soft gingerbread biscuit several times previously which is inspired by lebkuchen. I tend to take them to work to share with my colleagues and they are always a hit! I shared this recipe a few years ago! They are honey and orange-y morsels of goodness! However, in this chapter, you will find the real deal.

Chapter 8 is all about Stollen, from full cakes to Stollen bites. Chapter 10 is full of spiced biscuits, from Spekulatius to the famous Pfeffernusse. Did you know that pferffernusse can actually be either white or brown. The difference is the kind of pepper that you use. I swear I have only ever seen the white version. Chapter 16 is all about meringues, including very sweet meringue mice and chapter 22 is all about marzipan sweets. There was an earlier chapter about marzipan biscuits too.

Throughout the book, the chapter divides are Christmassy lithographs which the author created herself, and all the photos are her own as this book was created during lockdowns. As I flick through the book there are so many things which look utterly delicious. There are cakes, biscuits, desserts and more. It's a lovely book! And the cover is gorgeous too. It has a fabric cover with gilded word and decorations, and a lovely yellow ribbon for a book mark. I do love it when a cookbook one of those!

What I will say, is that, maybe unsurprisingly, there are a lot of nut heavy recipes in this book, so if you have any allergies in your house maybe this might be an issue. The big guy, who used to be referred to as the little chef many years ago on this blog, has a tree nut allergy, but most of the time he won't eat what I bake anyway, so I can get away with it a bit! Just have to make sure he knows not to eat any of them.

I chose to make two recipes out of the chapter that is titled Makronen (macaroons). The first was Schokokusschen, which are chocolate kisses. In effect they are not dissimilar to chocolate meringue kisses although you do add in some flour. The other recipe I have made is Kokosmakronen- coconut macaroons, which are super simple to make! These should both keep for a couple of weeks in an airtight container! 

Schcolkusschen (Anja Dunk)
Chocolate Kisses

2 egg whites

90g soft light brown sugar

Pinch of fine sea salt

1/2 vanilla extract

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)

1 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan forced/350F and line a large baking parchment.

Put the egg whites into the bowl of a free-standing electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or use a mixing bowl and electric hand-held whisk) and whisk for a couple of minutes on high speed until stiff peaks form. Turn the speed down and add the sugar one tablespoon at a time, whisking all the while, until it is all incorporated and you have a glossy meringue. Now add the salt and vanilla extract and whisk for a further couple of seconds before adding the remaining ingredients. Whisk for a final 30 seconds so the flour and spices are incorporated.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm/ 3/8 inch star shaped nozzle. Alternatively, use a plastic freezer bag, which you have snipped the corner off to leave the same size opening.

Pipe little peaks of 1.5cm /1/2 inch diameter onto the sheet; they don't spread all that much so you only need a little space between each one.

Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until firm to the touch but not browned. Cocoa powder does have a tendency to burn easily, so make sure you check them after 15 minutes. The longer you leave them in the oven the crisper they will be.

Allow to cool completely on the sheet before storing in an airtight container, where they will keep well for up to a month.

Weekly meals

Saturday - egg and chips
Sunday - Honey Pepper chicken
Monday - Sausage mash beans and gravy
Tuesday - Out for dinner
Wednesday - Nothing
Thursday -Baked Tuscan Chicken (new)
Friday - Takeaway

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking/Cook the Books: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

It's not often that I reread a book, with notable exceptions, but when this book was announced as the current selection for Cook the Books I was more than happy to revisit. I mean, last time I reviewed this book I used words like charming and delightful more than once!

When it came to creating this post, I thought that I had some thoughts to share but it turns out that the things I wanted to highlight were things that I highlighted last time, so I am going to re-share the majority of the review, and then add something new at the end.

This foodie memoir is a delight. Whilst there is still a hint of the precocious Lucy that we met in French Milk, it is much less of an obstacle to enjoyment, or at least it was for me. I think it also helps that rather than focusing on just one place (albeit Paris) for a very short period of only five weeks, this is an exploration of  a life long obsession with good food.

Knisley makes no apologies for the fact that she was introduced to really good food from a young age. Her mother is a chef and her father a foodie from way back and she spent her childhood years in the kitchens of restaurants. She remembers other kids bringing cupcakes to school for their birthdays but her mother would turn up with a blow torch to give the creme brulee a perfect crunchy top.

Lucy lived in New York with her parents until they divorced and Lucy and her mother moved to rural upstate New York - quite the shock to city girl Lucy. It wasn't long before Lucy's mother was involved in food again through farmers markets, catering companies and more, and therefore so was Lucy!

As well as talking about more exotic food and adventures, the author tells of her parents mortification at the fact that she still enjoys junk food like Maccas (McDonalds just in case you didn't get the Aussie vernacular), batches of chocolate chip cookies instead of anything more gourmet, of her shock at finding bits of marshmallows in breakfast cereals (I must confess I find this a bit shocking still!) and more.

We follow Lucy from New York to the country, to Japan, France and Mexico (which was a really fun story), to Chicago and then full circle back to New York. The one thing that stays constant is Lucy's love of good food, of being willing to try new foods, and of trying to recreate those foods. I loved the chapter where Lucy tried to recapture the elusive taste of a croissant that she bought in Venice to the point of being obsessed!

The thing that pleased me most as I was reading was how much it made me smile. In nearly every chapter there was some little quirky addition to the drawing or some tale that just made me happy to read. In one of the chapters, the author talks about going to Japan to visit friend and at the end of that chapter she gives a pictorial demonstration of how to make sushi rolls. In a very small corner, there are three pictures - one of a sushi mat furled, then unfurled and then worn as a hat. They are all tiny pictures, but it is the kind of detail that makes it worth the time to look at all the images closely!

As another example, there is a chapter about why Lucy Knisley doesn't feel guilty about eating foie gras. Let's just say it involves an incident with very aggressive geese. There were echoes of this story in my own family. My sister has a terrible fear of birds which has evolved over the years after being chased up a tree in our backyard by chooks, and then on another occasion being attacked by a black swan!

Now, I was somewhat determined to not cook something sweet to share with this review, but ... that's what ended up happening. I had asked my husband what he wanted to bake one weekend recently, and he said cookies. I had a new cookie recipe to try! So it was meant to be. 

Last time I reviewed this book I shared an image of the recipe for Carbonara. Today, I thought I would share an image related to Cookies, and then I would share what cookies would appear on this page if it was my story. Fair disclosure. I cannot draw to save myself so I am using photos instead. 

I've made....

Fudgy chocolate cookies from Nagi Maeheshi and Sugar Cookies

Melting Moments (Granny's recipe) and Chocolate and Pistachio Sable from Around the Table by Julia Busitil Nishimura

Ricciarelli from The Italian Pantry by Theo Randall and Giant Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies and Weekender Cornflake Biscuits

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies and Snickerdoodles

Soft Chocolate Gingerbread Biscuits and Florentines

Do you like the sound of any of these?

Finally, in case you are now in the mood for cookies, here is Lucy Knisley's recipe for her Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I now have two more of Lucy Knisley's books out from the library. I am looking forward to reading them soon!

Weekly meals

Saturday -  

Sunday -  Smash Burgers

Monday - Pork Chops, mash and beans

Tuesday - Spicy Pork and Beans Stirfry

Wednesday - Mexican Chicken and Rice

Thursday - Beef Stroganoff

Friday - Takeaway

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: The Message

At this time of year there are lot of messages for us all. Things like you need to spend a lot of money on gifts to have the perfect Christmas, or that the perfect Christmas needs to look and feel a certain way, that there are certain traditions that must be upheld. If we go back to the original Christmas story, there were the messages from the angels to Mary, to the shepherds. There's a lot of messages. This week, I have been getting my own message. And that message is ..... Lebkuchen.

Before I get to what exactly what lebkuchen is/are, I thought I would explain the how I am getting the message. 

Last week I was listening to Bill Bryson's Audible original The Secret History of Christmas, in which Bryson answers all the questions that you didn't even know you needed to ask about the history of Christmas. Examples might include how did a 4th century bishop from what is now modern day Turkey transform over time to become integral to so many Christmas stories around the world? Has Christmas always been the big deal it is now? Not really. Who are the biggest spenders when it comes to Christmas, and when did many of the things that we consider traditional now actually become traditional. The answer to that one may surprise you. There are things that are generally known that are debunked like the fact that Prince Albert bought the Christmas tree to England when he married Queen Victoria. 

As you would expect, there are lots of facts and stories about food, because let's face it, food is important in every holiday. He talks about what traditional foods are around the world. Actually I should say this is very European centric but I guess that is not wholly unexpected. There were a few things I learned. One I already knew was that it is now traditional in Japan for families to eat KFC at Christmas time. Another example was that it was traditional in some parts of Poland for the main meal to be carp which was kept in the bathtub until it was time to cook it so that it would be really fresh when cooked up. Without wanting to steal a joke from the book, it does make you wonder how fresh the family was!

This is a really short audiobook, around 3 hours, and it was really fun to listen to. I already listen to Hogfather by Terry Pratchett every year, but I could see myself listening to this again at some point. In fact, I just suggested to my husband that maybe we could listen to it in the car together while we are out and about, so I could be listening to it again as soon as this week.

I have also started reading to the Secret History of Christmas Baking by Linda Raedisch. Actually the full title is The Secret History of Christmas Baking: Recipes & Stories from Tomb Offerings to Gingerbread Boys, and from this you can possibly tell that this book is not all tinsel and mistletoe. In this book there has been quite a lot of material around the prevalence of honey cakes, all the way back to Egypt which have then morphed into some of the familiar flavours we are used to. The author is of German descent, and so the various different versions of lebkuchen throughout Europe is discussed. 

Some of the history is very interesting. For example, when I think of Christmas-y flavours things like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger come to mind, but these are flavours that had to be imported to Europe at some point. The author talks a bit about this, particular in the context of the actions of institutions such as The Dutch East Indies Company where there is evidence of the atrocities that were committed in the name of obtaining these spices.

The content is primarily food related but there are also some craft related activities interspersed in the pages.

I am looking forward to learning more!

The final prompt I have is because of a cookbook I bought a while ago called Advent by Anja Dunk. Again, this one has a full title which is Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas. So far, I am really loving this book which is separated into 24 different chapters (one for each day of Advent) with all different types of bakes for each chapter. The author talks about a Bunter Teller which translates as "colourful plate" and in this context means a colourful plate of Advent biscuits. Part of the reason why the book is broken into these different chapters is that there would be a specific order in which you bake the colourful array of biscuits. 

The order in which they are baked acts as a calendar; a countdown measured in biscuits. The butter-less biscuits, many of them old-fashioned varieties such as Lebkuchen, which keep the longest, are baked first, followed by nut biscuits, then macaroons and meringues. We bake butter-rich ones such as Vanillekipferl after all of the aforementioned, and finally the last things we make are all the sweets and truffles. The biscuit are usually stored in a towering stack of tins kept at the ready to plate a selection up whenever neighbours and friends pop round.

It's my kind of advent calendar, although not if I have to do ALL the cooking!!

The second chapter is for several different versions of lebkuchen including how to make your own spice mix, lebkuchen hearts (filled and unfilled),  old-fashioned honey lebkuchen and more.

I have made a soft gingerbread biscuit several times previously which is inspired by lebkuchen. I tend to take them to work to share with my colleagues and they are always a hit! I shared this recipe a few years ago! They are honey and orange-y morsels of goodness!

Throughout the book the chapter divides are Christmassy lithographs which the author created herself, and all the photos are her own as this book was created during lockdowns. As I flick through the book there are so many things which look utterly delicious. There are cakes, biscuits, desserts and more. It's a lovely book!

I can see myself spending a lot more time looking at this book. But only after I have decided which lebkuchen recipe (or inspired recipe as the case may be) I am going to bake this week.

I am sharing this post as part of the Virtual Advent Tour hosted by Sprite Writes

Weekly meals

Saturday -  Italian Meatballs

Sunday -  Out for dinner

Monday - Smash burgers

Tuesday - Pork chops, mash and veggies

Wednesday - Chicken parma and chips

Thursday - Zucchini risotto

Friday - Steak, baked potato and salad

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Granny's Melting Moments

A couple of weeks ago I was in my home town of Perth. One of my aunties had some recipes for me that my grandmother used to make. One of them was a recipe for Melting Moments, and it was written in my grandmother's handwriting. It gave me quite a jolt to see that as she died a couple of years ago now during COVID so we weren't able to go to her funeral. She had, however, been in care for a number of years now and as a result I hadn't read a letter from her for many years.

Last weekend, I invited my sister and her family around for Sunday afternoon. Ostensibly it was to celebrate my husband's birthday, but I thought it would be fun to make them for her, which is what I did! I also made some scones )lemonade and cream version) and a couple of loaves of banana bread. You can find the recipe for the scones here, and for the banana bread here. I added cream cheese frosting adapted from one of our favourites which is this Carrot, Walnut and Ginger cake. Instead of ginger juice I added lemon juice

Firstly though, here is the recipe that my grandmother used to make

For me though, I definitely need a filling for melting moments, so I went and found a filling which was 60 grams of butter, and around 80 grams of icing sugar mixture and a splash of lemon juice to give it a lemon zing. They were a big hit. Well, let's put it this way. There were no leftovers. Here are the finished product

As usual, not pretty but certainly tasty

This was the whole spread

Do you have any recipes that have been passed down to you?

Weekly meals

Saturday - Chicken enchilada

Sunday - Scrambled eggs on toast 

Monday - Sausages, mash and gravy

Tuesday - Mexican chicken and rice

Wednesday - Out for dinner

Thursday - Out for dinner

Friday - Canapes

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page