For 2025 I have decided to have a go at Spell the Month in Books which is hosted at Reviews From the Stacks. The link party opens on the first Saturday of the month, but I won't be posting until after that as I already have other things scheduled every Saturday and for the first two Sundays of the month. I will be sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz.
The theme for this month is Giftable. The biggest challenge is finding three E books!
D - Dinner by Nagi Maehashi - We have been cooking out of this cook book for more than a year every week and I am sure anyone could find recipes to cook out!
E - Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - This book is funny, irreverent and the start of a series, so you could give someone the next book next year as well! (my review)
C - I am cheating with this one but picked it because it is a lot of fun and is now part of my Christmas tradition. I think I totally get away with it because after all the C in December sounds like an S anyway! Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson
E - Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - This is an older book but it was on that gives you all the feels. It is also a YA book so would work for a range of giftees. (my review)
M - Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - Another book with all the feels. I have read, and loved, this a few times now! (my review)
B - Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - This might be something a little different but it gives Japanese foodie charm vibes. (my review)
E - Emma by Jane Austen - maybe a lovely special edition in honour of Jane Austen's 250th birthday.
R - Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt - I would recommend the audio of this one. The guy who does the voice of the octopus was exceptional and he is voicing in it the upcoming movie!
I hope that you all get the books you want as gifts this year!
Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. It has been a busy month in our kitchen with lots of baking and new recipes tries!
However, before we talk about this, I shamelessly stole the above pic from Jackie at Junkboat Travel because I feel seen! Often if I am baking I say to my husband that I am creating lots of washing up and the side outcome is something delicious to eat!
Speaking of baking here's what I did make this month
Raspberry Shortbread Cookies with White Chocolate - I made this after reading The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer. I reviewed the book and shared the recipe, which is a family recipe, here.
Chocolate Eclairs - My husband had been asking me to make eclairs for a while but I kept on putting it off as I was a bit intimidated by it! However, once I decided to make it, it is doable. The recipe, which I shared as part of my Cook the Books contribution a couple of weeks ago, makes a lot so I still have some in the freezer. When I first filled the eclairs, I made it with a chocolate glaze and chantilly cream filling. The next time, I refreshed the shells in the oven, and then used the passionfruit and milk chocolate ganache from the macarons as the glaze and chocolate cream
Curry sausage rolls - Yes, this is a rare savoury bake, and it was delicious! The recipe comes from Justin Narayan's Everything in Indian.
Passionfruit and Milk Chocolate Macarons - My friend and I went and did a class to learn how to make macarons! It was such a great day. I shared about this experience here.
Chocolate Brownie - It's been an age since I made my favourite chocolate brownie recipe by Bill Granger! It went down a treat!
I haven't bought many cook books this year. When this book, Everything is Indian, was announced as the cook book for Lambs Ear Cook Book Club, I borrowed it from the library. After cooking a few things from it, we agreed that we needed to own it! I am planning to share something about this book in the next couple of weeks. I also got Taverna by Georgina Hayden out from the library. We really liked her book Greekish, so I need to find some time to look through the book before it has to go back to the library!
My most useful purchase this month was two storage containers which are the perfect shape for sheets of premade pastry and things like wraps or rotis. I don't know how I lived without them! I keep on finding new ways to use it, but at this stage, I am resisting the urge to buy any more.
We did have a very nice French dinner a couple of weeks ago. In fact, we had a very French weekend. I had already made eclairs, then we had the dinner before we went to see the arena version of Les Miserables which was amazing, and then I made macarons the next day. I wasn't sure what to expect of the dinner. It was a fixed price menu in the restaurant at the arena, and to be honest I kind of expected to walk away thinking that it was an okay dinner, potentially overpriced but worth it for the convenience of already being in the stadium. It turned out the dinner was delicious, the portions were generous and it was well worth doing!
I had crab tart, mushroom pithivier and potato gratin. In theory, the dessert came boxed up so that you could take it into the show with you to eat later, but we ate it in the restaurant. It was a gingernut base with layers of strawberry and rhubarb.
52 Recipes Challenge
Here are the new recipes we tried this month.
Raspberry and white chocolate shortbread cookies
Curry Roast Chicken, Masala roast potatoes and Raita - from Everything in Indian
Curry Sausage rolls - Another recipe from Everything in Indian. This one got rave reviews from Robert.
Spicy Prawn Noodles - My son was away for a few days so we had prawns. We don't cook these when he is home.
Spicy Beef Noodles - This came from Dominique's Kitchen and we tried this because it was a two person recipes
Chocolate eclairs
Potato Gratin - I had a craving for potato bake. This recipe came from RecipeTin Eats
Cottage Pie - Another recipe from the RecipeTin Eats site.
Sausage and veggie gravy traybake - And yes, another RecipeTin Eats recipe.
Before next month I should check to see what the tally is and how close I am
Saturday - Schnitzel, chips, broccoli, mushroom sauce Sunday - Sausages and potato gratin Monday - Beef and broccoli noodles Tuesday - Cottage Pie Wednesday - Sausage, vegetable and gravy traybake Thursday - Chilli Con Carne Friday - Out for dinner
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
Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. Here's what I made in February.
A while ago now I tried to make New York Cookies using a video recipe from Brooke Bellamy. In the instructions it talks about putting the cookie dough balls in the fridge so that they don't spread too much. Well, that wasn't a problem as they didn't spread at all and I ended up with giant balls of cookiee dough which had a bit of a crispy shell and then uncooked dough in the middle.
I got the book Bake with Brooki for Christmas and noticed that the recipe was different and so I decided to try and make them again! They turned out exactly right! The day I made these we had brunch at a cafe we love and they had some of these cookies for sale for $8. Given how big they are, I do get how they are that expensive but still. They are delicious but they are too big, so when I make them again I will need to make the cookies half the size, and maybe half the batch.
We had been talking about having scones for a couple of weeks, and we took the opportunity to make them when my sister and her husband came around for afternoon tea. I made a half batch of lemonade scones but they just didn't work, so then I grabbed an older cook book that I have had on my shelf for years called Merle's Kitchen and made the more traditional recipe and they turned out nicely!
When my sister and her husband visited they bought us a heap of lemons, so then I had to come up with something to use them. We had some people coming for dinner on Sunday night and so I made Lemon Angel Food Cake using this recipe. One of the things I like about this recipe is that you use all the egg yolks to make curd, and there is lots of curd left over, so this weekend I am thinking of some ways to use yet more lemons and some of the curd.
Outside of the kitchen, we went for a lovely lunch at a winery which I posted about here.
I did go and here Australian historical fiction author Mary-Lou Stephens talk about her new book The Jam Maker. I started reading it this week so hopefully I will have a review of it at some point during March!
52 Recipes Challenge
We only tried a couple of new recipes this month.
Hunters Chicken (Chicken Cacciatore) - Gennaro Contaldo's book Slow was the Jamie Oliver cookbook of the month for January. Whilst we didn't want to buy the book I did try this which was one of the taster recipes. It was tasty.
One Pot Cajun Chicken and rice - This is a Nagi Maehashi recipe. I think I had gone out this night and my husband and son ate it.
Saturday - Out for dinner Sunday - Baked Tuscan Chicken and Rice Monday - Beef and Broccoli Noodles Tuesday - Normandy pork and mash Wednesday - Take away Thursday - Swedish meatballs, mash and broccoli Friday - Out for dinner
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
Last year, I decided it was a good idea to start doing an annual post at the end of the year where I would announce what my cookbook of the year was, and the recipe of the year.
Last year, that was easy for both catgories. There was one clear winner when it came to the book that we had cooked the most out of. The big issue for me this year is that if you asked me the question again of what was the cook book you used the most during 2024, then the answer is...the same book, which is Dinner by Nagi Maehashi.
There was a new cookbook from Nagi (yes, we call her just her first name in our house) during 2024, and we have cooked quite a bit from that one since we got it, so I thought for my Best of 2024, that would be the book that I chose, but as you can see from the picture, it really is about both of the books
I haven't shared any thoughts about Tonight yet, so I thought I would take this opportunity to do so! We were very excited when news broke off a new Nagi cookbook, and I was very interested to see what she would come up with. Interestingly, all the recipes in this book are new, with the exception of one which was the very first recipe she ever put up at the Recipetineats website, which is the Sticky Pantry Chicken. We liked that recipe. Her first cookbooks was a mixture of website and new recipes
The idea behind this book is that when you get the question What's for dinner tonight then you should be able to use this book to find something that you have the ingredients for in your pantry and that will be easy and delicious. What you do get in this book are options. For example, there is a recipe for Veitnamese Coconut Lemongrass Pulled Pork where there are four different ways to serve it.
The book is broken up in to the follow chapters
What I Crave
The Fastest Recipes
My Favourites Made Easier
What You've Got on Hand
Charlie
One
Salads I Love
I love Roasted Veg
Sunday Suppers
Sweets
Sides.
The chapter I was most interested in when we first started hearing about the book was the Charlie chapter. Charlie is what Nagi calls her base stir fry sauce and now, if we are making her stir fry, we always make a batch and have some in the fridge for using next time. I was therefore interested to see what the other recipes were that she used it for. Our favourite recipe in this chapter is Honey Pepper Chicken. It's so good!
I think that the recipe that we have cooked most out Dinner is an Indian Coconut Prawn Curry. Think butter chicken but with prawns. It's pretty quick and easy and delicious. We do have to wait for my son not to be home as he won't eat prawns.
Other recipes we have tried including Normandy Pork Chops, One Pan Chorizo Couscous, Every Day Stir Fry, Chicken and Tomato Pasta and an Orange and Poppy Seed Loaf. There is still plenty left for us to explore!
Oh, and the other thing to mention is that they fixed the index so that it is much easier to use than the one in Dinner!
What about the best recipe for 2024? Again, not as clear cut as last year. The recipes that we cooked the most this year were from Nagi with the one that we made over and over again being this one for Spicy Pork Noodles.
I have, however, chosen the single recipe that I got the best reaction for and that I spoke to people about most. If the subject of cheesecake comes up, I can't help myself. I have to talk about the recipe for Baklava Cheesecake from Georgina Hayden's book, Greek-ish. I even talked about it to an American lady who was on our Scotland tour about it. She was very keen to go home and make it! The full title of the recipe is actually Baklava Cheesecake, I Love You! and I have to say I love it too! I loved the idea of using filo pastry for the base, and the baklava flavours with the white chocolate cheesecake are so delicious!
Baklava Cheesecake, I Love You - Georgina Hayden
225g caster sugar 1 lemon 1Tbspn rose water 60g unsalted butter 100g walnuts 1 tspn ground cinnamon 250g filo 200g white chocolate 200g feta 280g full-fat cream cheese 200ml double cream 3 Tbspn honey Chopped pistachios, to serve
First, make a syrup.Place 100g of the caster sugar in a small saucepan with 125ml of water and two strips of lemon zest (use a peeler for this). Bring to the boil on a medium heat, swirl to dissolve the sugar, then reduce the heat a little. Simmer for 5–8 minutes, until you have a thick, but not coloured syrup. Stir in the rose water and leave to cool completely.
Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6. Grease a 20cm springform cake tin with a little of the butter. Place the walnuts in a dry frying pan and toast for a few minutes on a medium heat. Once they start to smell nutty, stir in the ground cinnamon and 25g of the caster sugar. Let the sugar caramelise slightly, then tip the nuts out onto a chopping board. When they’re cool enough to handle, finely chop.
Melt the rest of the butter in a small pan. Lay two sheets of filo over the cake tin, overlapping slightly, so they completely cover the base and sides, then brush all over with the melted butter. Sprinkle a quarter of the chopped walnuts over the bottom, and repeat the process twice more with filo then butter and walnuts (keep the remaining walnuts aside). Top with a final layer of filo, really push it in to the bottom and sides, then brush with butter. Trim off any excess pastry around the top with scissors and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, until crisp and golden.
When the filo shell is ready, remove from the oven and drizzle the cold syrup over the hot pastry, particularly down the sides. Leave to cool.
For the cheesecake filling, break the white chocolate into small, even pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Either melt in a microwave or over a pan of simmering water — be careful that the bowl doesn’t touch the water in the pan or the chocolate will seize up. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is just melted.
Meanwhile, break the feta into pieces into a large bowl. Add the remaining 100g of caster sugar and blitz with a stick blender till smooth. Add the cream cheese and finely grate in the remaining lemon zest. Beat with a whisk, not a stick blender, until smooth (electric beaters would be best if you can handle more washing up). Add the double cream, whisk until light and then finally stir in the melted white chocolate.
Spoon the filling into the baked and cooled filo case, loosely cover and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, overnight if possible. Just before serving, drizzle with a little honey and scatter over the reserved walnuts, and some chopped pistachios for a pop of colour.
And finally, for this year these are the cookbooks that I accumulate throughout the year! Do you own any of these?
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
Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. I did try a couple of new things this month!
The first treat I made this month was Orange Poppyseed Loaf which was from Nagi Maehashi's new cookbook called Tonight. This was a big winner, especially the cream cheese frosting. I love it when a recipe includes cream cheese frosting. It's a shame that you can't put it on everything!
My next bake is called Plum and Mascarpone Karpatka, which is also known as Polish mountain cake. The recipe comes from the cookbook Sift by Nicola Lamb, which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. I also shared the recipe. This was a delicious cake, consisting of two layers of choux pastry, filled with a mascarpone custard and a plum jam!
We had a 13 people around for lunch last weekend. My husband cooked a barbecue and made pap and gravy (which is a South African dish), the guests bought the salads, and I did two different types of dessert. The first dessert was a pavlova board. I made the pavlova nests, but like last month, it took two attempts. I had made the nests on the Thursday and they were in the oven drying out. When my step daughter was asked to put the oven on for dinner, she didn't check and so it was only when she smelt sugar burning that she realised they were in the oven! I therefore had to remake them. That's five lots of meringue over the last two months for various reasons!
I can't, however, take credit for the presentation of the pavlova board. When I made one a few years ago, my fruit was just all mixed up, but Ash did a great job of making the board look pretty. The sauces are a salted caramel sauce, a chocolate sauce and a raspberry sauce which I made.
The other dessert was a Coffee Cream Cake. This is one of my husband's favourites, and now, it is one of his friend's favourite as well! I have shared the recipe for this one before.
I went to Aldi the other day. Even though I do my best to resist the lure of the centre aisle, I wasn't strong enough to not buy this 3D Christmas tree cake pan. I am planning just to do a very simple vanilla cake and then decorate it for our family Christmas lunch in a couple of weeks time. Hopefully it will look okay! I think that the other dessert will be a Peppermint Crisp Tart which my husband makes so it would appear that I won't have too much to do for the family Christmas lunch.
We visited the French Christmas Market last weekend. Whilst I didn't think it was particularly Christmassy, I was very excited when I saw that there was a company there selling baking kits. There were four different varieties available including canneles, madeleines and two different flavours of macarons. I chose Salted Caramel Macarons, but I fully expect that I will buy the other kits at some point. It reminds me of the Bake It Boxes that I used to love so much in that it has everything you need in it, except for the eggs.
We also picked up what was being advertised as the best pate in Melbourne. We had had this brand of pate before, so this time we picked up a terrine as well.
The other new thing for me this week was going to a very popular cheesecake shop called Lulu & Me. This is a place where they only sell several different varieties of cheesecake each day, and you can either buy a whole one, or by weight. So if you only want a small slice, say 100g, you can just buy that amount. I bought home some of the basque cheesecake and some of the Passionfruit and Hazelnut cheesecake which was delicious. I would be more likely to buy some of the flavoured cheesecakes because I know that I can make basque cheesecake at any time. It's a pretty easy recipe!
New Recipes
We have tried a few new recipes in the last month.
Indian Coconut Prawn Curry (Nagi Maehashi)
Honey Pepper Chicken (Nagi Maehashi)
Japanese Chicken Curry with Vegetables, Udon Noodles (Atlas)
Chicken Nanban with Stir Fried Asian Greens and Roast Potatoes
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
Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. This month it feels like there has been quite a bit of baking with only one big result for the whole month. Let me explain.
Early in the month I decided to participate in a group bake to make a layered celebration cake. The idea was that over the course of a week you would do something each day and then by the end of a week, you would have a cake. The first two days were shopping and preparation, then on each subsequent day make meringue kisses and compote, then make the swiss meringue buttercream, then the cake and then on the final day put it all together. Well that was the plan at least. I fell at the first baking hurdle.
I started making the meringue kisses on a Wednesday night, which was probably a bit late in the day anyway, but I made the syrup then whisked it all up but I was absolutely convinced that the meringue hadn't worked properly so I threw it out. I did make the raspberry compote and knew that would last a few days in the fridge. I therefore waited until I had some more time before I tried again to make meringue again. It looked exactly the same as the first time I made them so I thought I would try baking them and see what happened. It turns out that when you mix up the temperatures for fan ovens and non-fan ovens, they don't quite turn out. I mean they were a bit overcooked so not usable for the cake but they were delicious with berries and cream. Oh, and the first mix would have been fine.
So by the time I made the third batch of meringues, I needed to remake the compote. This time I had to use a mixture of frozen raspberries and mixed frozen berries as I didn't have enough raspberries left. I made the cakes, but I had to go out so I asked my son to take the cakes out of the oven. Unfortunately two of the cakes were taken out but the third was still in there 2 hours later as he didn't realise that there were three in the oven, so that was inedible. I've put those two layers in the freezer and will use it to make trifle at some point.
Finally, the meringue kisses were ready, the compote was ready, the cakes were remade and the swiss meringue buttercream was ready (although I did use salted butter by accident), so it was time to put it all together. So here is my White Chocolate and Coconut Celebration Cake.
So was it worth it? It is delicious, especially that swiss meringue buttercream! That is so smooth and delicious!
Hopefully I will find some things to make this month! I have a couple of ideas and, in theory, I have a lot of time as I am not working at the moment.
I did get a couple of new cookbooks this month. First was the new Nagi Maehashi cookbook, Tonight. We've tried a couple of recipes so far, but I haven't studied it thoroughly yet. Once we have tried a few more recipes I'll review it. My first impressions are that it is really good though!
The other cookbook that I bought was Sift by Nicola Lamb. I love the cover on this one! It's a very interesting cookbook. The first third is just information about different ingredients, techniques etc and then the recipes start. Again, I need to spend some time going through it to find some recipes!
We went to see the new movie called Widow Cliquot about the widow Cliquot who gives her name to the Veuve Cliquot champagne house. I will probably review this next week.
We also went out for a fancy dinner for our wedding anniversary. Everything was so good!
Photo credit - Daniel Halksworth
My final, random share for this month is about a guy called Daniel Halksworth. He is an artist who I stumbled across on Instagram this month. They fry eggs and then Daniel paints them and sells them! He started doing this for fun during the pandemic but now he is continuing to do this. The paintings are really cool!
New Recipes
We have tried a few new recipes in the last month.
Sausage and Pasta (Nagi Maehashi)
Murg Makhani (Butter Chicken) (Romy Gill)
Sticky Chicken with Mash (Nagi Maehashi)
One Pot Chicken Tomato Pasta (Nagi Maehashi)
Aloo Gobi (Romy Gill)
White Chocolate and Coconut Layer Cake (Anneka Manning)
Saturday -Out for dinner Sunday - Steak and salads Monday - Pizza Tuesday - Aloo Gobi Wednesday - Out for dinner Thursday -Normandy Pork Chops Friday - Anniversary Dinner
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
Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. I missed last month as we were on holidays so there wasn't a lot of baking happening. There also hasn't been a lot of baking happening since we got home either!
I did make a Raspberry Swirl Pavlova Wreath which came from Donna Hay's Christmas cookbook. No, I haven't decided to celebrate Christmas early. One of our friend's daughters lives in Dubai and was bringing her British boyfriend back to Australia for the first time. Our friends are originally from South Africa and so we had a South African/Australian barbecue to welcome him, and, as one of the few born and bred Aussies in the group, this was my contribution.
In theory, I was joining in on a baking class this week to make a celebration cake. The idea was that every day you would receive instructions and several day there was a live class online that you could cook along with. The first cooking step was to make meringue kisses using the Swiss Meringue method and mine didn't end up working so I am a bit behind. We now have guests all weekend, so I might just need to make it myself just by following the written instructions. The only element that I do have made so far is the raspberry compote.
We did pick up a few trinkets on our travels. We picked up this platter as we were flying out of Johannesburg. We didn't really intend to buy any souvenirs from South Africa, other than Dino, but we ended up seeing a few things we liked at the airport. We really liked how colourful this plate is, and the representation of the boabab tree and animals.
Have you ever heard of a spurtle which you use for making porridge? We bought this one at Mary Queen of Scotts house in the small border town of Jedburgh in Scotland. The woman in the shop insisted that our porridge will taste even better than they normally do. We'll see!
My husband doesn't say that he wants something we he insisted that we needed these salt and pepper shaker, just as a bit of fun! Now to fill them up with salt and pepper and start using them!
I also bought my team some Percy Pigs from Marks and Spencers in the UK, but I forgot to take picture.
The final thing that we bought in Scotland was this glass globe filled with whisky. We aren't really whisky drinkers, so there is every chance that this will just sit on the shelf looking pretty but I am okay with that!
If you would like to see more about our travels check out the posts that I have linked below.
We picked up this book of WWII recipes from the Imperial War Museum in London. Such an interesting place to visit. There were a few different options as far as cook books go, but this was the first one I saw so it is the one that I ended up buying.
I have also acquired two new cook books. The first is Kin by Marie Mitchell and the second is Romy Gill's India by Romy Gill. I am also counting down the days until we receive the new Nagi Maehashi cook book which should be here in a couple of weeks. Can't wait.
We have had some foodie adventures since we got home. Last weekend we did a fancy afternoon tea at Koi Dessert Bar, which I will hopefully post about soon.
New Recipes
We have tried a few new recipes in the last month. All of them are from Nagi Maehashi. Two are from her cookbook, Dinner, but the Honey Garlic Chicken is from her website.
Saturday - Sunday - Grilled cheese on toast Monday - Tuesday -Spicy Pork and Bean Noodles Wednesday - Pork Chops with mash and broccoli Thursday - Ice cream with Nutella Friday - Smash burgers
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
The first Saturday of the month is when I share all the things that I baked in the previous month. I have cut back on what I am making, and I miss it! There's still a lot of things I want to make but I have also need to be careful on what I make and eat. I will figure out how to get the balance right eventually, so that I can make fun things without feeling too bad about it.
Let's start with what I did make
Lemon cake with streusel topping - This recipe came from Anna Jones' book Easy Wins. I found this recipe a bit confusing. The ingredients list says you need 4 lemons, but for the life of me I couldn't work out where they all went in the recipe. The streusel was a bit overdone but that is my fault - I should have covered it for the last few minutes, but I was running out of time before we went out for lunch.
Maple Butter Date Loaf - I made this for my Cook the Books post where we read Family Tree by Susan Wiggs.
One exciting thing this month was that Nagi Maehashi has announced that she has a new book coming out in October. I have already pre-ordered. Another book I have pre-ordered is the audio version of Stanley Tucci's What I Ate in One Year, which is also out in October
I did buy a new cookbook this month - Greekish: Everyday recipes with Greek roots by Georgina Hayden. I have already chosen a couple of recipes to try - one of which is a very interesting cookie recipe. That may well be the first thing I make from this book, although I do also have my eye on a Pasticchio recipe too.
Earlier in June, I posted about going to dinner at Alumni. This is a pop up restaurant that features former contestants from Masterchef. We had a lovely dinner, but I was surprised by the fact that we got a tea towel each to bring home!
New recipes
I think that the news that Nagi has a new cookbook coming inspired me to try some of the recipes that we had bookmarked from Dinner - all of these recipes except for the first one are from that book.
Lemon Cake with Streusel topping
Swedish Meatballs - So good!
Korean Pancakes - I think that my husband would like to have another go at these. Pictured below with a glimpse of Max in the background!
Fried Cabbage, Bacon and Noodles - Pretty simple but delicious.
Vietnamese Shaking Beef - If you don't count the marinading time, this is super quick to make.
Mexican Shredded Beef with Red Rice - The beef was great, but the real revelation was the red rice. Definitely going to make this again!
I am sharing this recipe with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings
Weekly meals
Saturday - Pasta bake Sunday - Beef Rioja Monday - Chicken Stir Fry with Rice Tuesday - Beef Broccoli Noodles Wednesday - Not fried chicken, mash, veggies, gravy Thursday - Egg on toast Friday - Pork Chops, pasta, veggies
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
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2024
Let's get started!
Dirrayawadha by Anita Heiss (July) - I really enjoyed this authors last book, and after meeting her in person last weekend, I am definitely even more keen to read this one.
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (August) - I only heard about this last week but I immediately added this to my list. I loved her last book and this one sounds just as good!
A Love Letter to Paris by Rebecca Raisin (July) - I have this book to read in the next couple of weeks, perfect for a post for Paris in July!
The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley (August) - OMG! A new Susanna Kearsley book. I am ready!
Tonight by Nagi Maehashi (October) - Nagi's first cookbook, Dinner, was my cookbook of the year for 2023 and we still cook at least one thing from it every week, if not more. I am already saying that I expect this new cookbook to take that honour this year!
Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (September) - I went and listened to Toshikazu Kawaguchi speak at Melbourne Writers Festival last month. He announced that this book was coming so I immediately pre-ordered the audiobook. I have listened to the previous books in the series on audio so there was no reason to do otherwise with this new book.
What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci (October) - Remember last February when I went a bit crazy over Stanley Tucci? Of course I have pre-ordered the audio of this book! When I listened to Taste, it was almost like he was whispering in my year!
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai (October) - I really enjoyed the first book in this series and can't wait to read this one!
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T J Klune (September) - I suspect that this book might appear on a few lists this week!
A Certain Kind of Starlight by Heather Webber (July) - I really enjoy Heather Webber's books so I am hoping to get to this book soon!
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