Mushroom Macaroons

I feel like I invented these. I probably didn't.

It all started when I wanted to encrust a vegetable rather than a meat for dinner because I am trying to eat more plants and less animals. I decided on the mushroom which Wikipedia now informs me is not biologically a plant. I already knew that but I previously chose to ignore it. I wish I could go back.

It may sound weird to encase a mushroom with dessicated coconut but it works! I think you can trust me on this. It makes a crunchy shell and once they're all done,  you have little delights to dip into sweet chilli sauce at a party. I would serve these as an appetizer or with a vegetarian stir fry if we're going main meal.

Busy Line!

The song is 'Busy Line' by Rose Murphy. This is the song they play when we call work and they put us on hold. We're all very fond of it.

Soft Chewy Ginger Cookies

My dad loves those rolls of Ginger Snap cookies that you get at the supermarket.
He eats the biscuits one by one with a bit of butter (or more recently margarine because he is making bad life choices) and sneaks back in and out of the kitchen until there are none left.
I understand. They do make a very satisfying crunch.

However, I'm not so much a snap-cookie eater as a chewy-cookie eater (so many binaries in life!) and even though Christmas has come and gone there is always space in one's heart and stomach for a spicy cookie. Especially this one. This one is very, very chewy. The molasses does that. 

Whenever I use molasses in cooking I feel like an American pioneer woman. I'm not sure why but I like it. 

On another note, I'm sorry for not posting sooner. My pitiful excuse is that there was a debacle with a New York Cheesecake in my recent past that discouraged me from baking for a time. Once you stop its just so hard to start up again isn't it?

'Inertia' is not a river in Africa.

Anyway, I am back now and I am wiser. And the New York Cheesecake will be beaten (POW!)

Until then, let's make some cookies!

Colourful Bean Ratatouille with Fresh Mango

I can get rather depressed when I eat colourless food. No one wants to feel like Oliver at the beginning of the film.

That is not going to happen with this meal.

There is also no need for it to be winter on your plate (or in your heart) even if the sky is lead and clay and temperatures have fallen below zero.

I decided I needed a big batch of something good to keep in the fridge as a healthy alternative to returning home ravenous after a day of work and eating a whole baguette before table time.

This does very nicely!

I also did it up with some avocado for dinner instead of the mango and that was equally delicious and pretty.

Nutella, broken down into its rightful components

This is not so much a recipe as a very good idea. Recently my favourite breakfast has been some good baguette eaten along with a handful of hazelnuts and a block of chocolate.

Afterall, there is no need for hazelnuts and chocolate to be spreadable. I quite enjoy the different textures of them all together. Far more complicated.

I like the hazelnuts to be roasted and if you would like to do the same simply pop them into a preheated oven at 180C/360F for 5 minutes and take them out again.

It'll all feel very rustic. I say go with it.

Arch Crime

The song is Teenage Crime by Adrian Lux
This is dedicated to Mac Arch ibald

Chocolate Cashew Truffles

These truffles remind me of Christmas which is great because that's where we're headed! The little white cashew bits look a bit like fairy lights to me which are my favourite thing about Christmas.

I don't know why we don't just keep fairy lights on buildings and trees forever. I don't think I'd ever get sick of them.

If you'd like to eat a fairy light you've come to the right place.

This is a raw recipe so even though the truffles special and chocolatey they're really quite healthy and rather than having to to go to sleep after a few of them you might prefer instead to go for a walk in the snow.

That's why I like raw desserts. Do you know of any other good ones?