Madeleines
on Nov 14, 2009 in cakes snack baking French books Last Christmas, I got a madeleine tin. I was excited to have such a one-purpose piece of kitchenalia, but there was a problem. The problem was, I had never really "got" madeleines.Everyone else seems to be a madeleine fan, judging by how often I see...

Borscht
on Nov 11, 2009 in starter fail healthy(ish) beetroot pork lunch soup After my recent trip to Russia, I have been craving borscht. I've made it once before a few years ago (and stained practically everything I owned red in the process) but it wasn't as good as the stuff I had in Russia.After reading multiple recipes, a...

Italian Bread
on Nov 9, 2009 in snack side dish yeast baking bread After taking T's brother and his girlfriend to a couple of restaurants over the long weekend, we decided that Saturday night should be a bit quieter (and cheaper!). We decided on a games night, with pizzas, beers, and perhaps even a bit of X-Factor t...

Korova Cookies
on Nov 5, 2009 in biscuits baking books chocolate recipes This is a bit of a landmark here - my 100th post! Although really two of them don't count as the introduction and links should be on pages rather than posts... but anyway. I have filled this blogger text box out 100 times. Who knew I was that dedicat...

Cappuccino Cupcakes
on Nov 1, 2009 in cakes coffee baking healthy(ish) books desserts recipes I decided that making the millionaire shortbread from "Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache" was not a good test of the book, as it is about the only recipe in there that doesn't use some kind of vegetable in place of butter. The anthropomorphic desc...

Daring Baker's October - Macarons
on Oct 27, 2009 in biscuits Daring Bakers fail baking I first discovered the macaron in March 2008, when I went to to visit H, who was doing her year abroad in Paris. We went to all the usual places, and eventually ended up in Fauchon. H told me I should get the lemon macaron. I did. It was yummy. I've...

Lemon Sundae
on Oct 24, 2009 in fruit biscuits fail baking desserts Generally I am fairly organised in the kitchen, and like to have all my ingredients and equipment out before I begin. I found some lemons in the cupboard that were on their last legs, so I decided to give recipe for lemon biscuits a go. As I'd never...

St Petersburg
on Oct 20, 2009 in travels soup It's been quiet around here as I had a fun weekend in St Petersburg. The city was founded in 1703, but already it's racked up quite a bit of history. We saw the palace where Rasputin was murdered, the graves of the last Romanovs, and the battleship t...

Scotch Eggs
on Oct 13, 2009 in snack leftovers science pork lunch recipes A while back, my dad spent quite a while telling me that the perfect boiled egg was all about heating the white to a certain temperature, and that if you kept it at that temperature, it would never over-cook. As I've been reading more about the scien...

Millionaire Shortbread with Salted Caramel
on Oct 11, 2009 in snack baking books desserts chocolate caramel When I was at primary school, my class was selected for an academic survey. We had to fill out a questionnaire detailing our parents' level of education and various other lifestyle questions. I guess this was then correlated with our academic achieve...