Hot Pots ............Cool Smoothies

Let's just touch briefly on eating today.  

These short, dark days of winter, especially in January and February, I find myself craving wholesome food. Comfort food has been required on some chilly days recently, however the past several days have been unbelievably warm here, reaching mid-seventies - I even popped the A/C on for a short time on Friday evening as the house was hot upstairs!  However my kitchen has been busy - well I've been busy as I do not have a sous chef, just a dishwasher guy who resembles Bob!  He's a great help.

Bean and Winter Squash with Chili, Mint and Cream.

Last week I made my favorite winter 'hot pot', a term used more in the UK than here. Somewhere between a soup and a stew, these wholesome one-pot dishes of winter vegetables are meals in themselves. You can add meat - we are non-meat eaters - as the French often do in their 'potages', or stay strictly vegetarian. One pot actually cuts down on calls to that dishwasher guy as the sink doesn't fill with too many items during the prep..........and other than a couple of deep bowls and soup spoons there's not much cleanup after this comforting meal.

During the cooking period the ingredients simmer away in the pot, flavors enhanced as they bubble gently. You can taste test and add more seasoning if needed, and these sturdy recipes can even gain flavor when left to stand a while, and then enjoy a gentle reheat when mealtime arrives. Here, I must say, the leftovers are always extra delicious so make enough for another meal in a day or so! 

Hot pots are fun to make, nutritious and easy. Make them a complete meal when serving with a good crusty bread, a roll, warm naan, or topped with homemade crunchy croutons (I always use up leftover breads to make mine), a side salad, cheese and fresh fruit . . . . . . or skip the bread and use it later in a dessert!

Rummaging through a box of old recipes saved over the years - prior to shelves of fancy cookbooks and online versions - I discovered my mother's lovely handwritten recipe for "Bread & Butter Pudding". 

An often served dessert when I was growing up, left over buttered bread served with a meal was never thrown away. Times were tough and food was still rationed for several years after WWII was over. Desserts were sometimes made from first course savories such as Yorkshire Pudding (Popovers here in the States), always baked in a separate dish alongside a Sunday roast beef.  Remaining portions were given a spoonful of golden syrup (Tate & Lyle of course) and we children gobbled it up!  Needless to say we didn't count calories or watch our diets back in the 1950's, and we ate everything that was put in front of us. We did go out to play and walked everywhere which I'm sure helped.

Bread Pudding as it's called in the USA, seems especially popular here in southern restaurants, and there are plenty of recipes floating about online, however this time I decided to use a leftover from the holidays, an Italian Panettone bread.  Glad I did when despite it still being within "Best By" date, it was definitely rather stale.  Being bathed in a nice eggy vanilla custard and baked slowly to a crisp top was all it required. Try it if you have one hanging around, you'll be surprised. I served mine warm with a dash of heavy cream plus a splash of Chambord liqueur, delicious!

Panettone Bread Pudding

Full of Fruits Breakfast Smoothie 

Lastly, I'm back on a smoothie kick. This is the best way for me to eat fresh fruit. This particular one contained a small banana, blueberries I had frozen, fresh raspberries and strawberries, grated coconut, unsweetened almond milk. I usually eat/drink this meal mid-morning as I rarely eat lunch. Two meals a day are ample and since shedding over 25 pounds slowly during the past two years (no strict weight-loss diet, just smaller portions of healthy foods), I find I just can't eat anywhere near as much now.  Perhaps the older one gets the less food you require. It's more important that you eat healthy foods in smaller amounts. Just had annual lab work done, everything looks fine so far.  So have just returned to my plan from the pre-holiday weeks during which I slipped a bit when it came to snacking on the wrong/delicious Christmas goodies. A fruit laden smoothie yesterday, oatmeal today, and perhaps a hard boiled egg with a slice of avocado toast tomorrow.  Any ideas for easy breakfast/brunch goodies are welcomed as we all go forward into February. Thanks for checking in here. Stay well, eat healthy.

Healing with tea, nature and modern medicine!

January brings so many changes. Here, we've only just started having

 real cold winter weather and it will most likely stay chilly until spring.

I feel comfy. I feel satisfied. If I get my mobility back I am ready to

work at much that requires attention inside the cottage.

The garden is on hold until spring. The last 'leaf collection' by the city 

will arrive soon and Bob has raked and blown millions of them down to

the curb. Living in "The City of Oaks" is hard work once autumn arrives.

Bob has replaced that chore by starting on his major downsizing

 'paper chase' and the shredder is working overtime!  

Yesterday's visit to the hospital pain clinic went well. If the lumbar spine

 injections work I should start to have relief from the terrible nerve pain 

down my right leg in a few more days. Fingers are crossed!

Many thanks to everyone who sent good wishes and kind tips on how

 to handle chronic pain.

This is my favorite tea blend made my super friend Jeanne on her

 farm in New Hampshire. Many of you know this delightful, creative

 writer and photographer from my visits to Tahilla Farm, a most 

beautiful place, and from the many years I've followed her blog

Collage of Life 

when ex-pat Jeanne and her family lived in so many fabulous

 countries around the globe.

I saved much of the tea Jeanne shared with me last July when we last

 visited - one of only two trips away from North Carolina due to COVID - 

because I love hot tea on these winter afternoons and I knew

this would be a favorite. It brings back memories of Bob and I sipping 

it iced, at the farm, on a hot summer's afternoon with Jeanne

 and her charming husband Mr. H.

Yes, out come the favorite nature books at this time of year - along with

 cookbooks specializing in winter warming soups, veggie stews and

bowls - all making for interesting reading and menu planning.

My latest go-to cookbook for plant-based recipes is Laura Wright's

The FIRST MESS loaded with fabulous food for any time of day. 

Laura also has hundreds of amazing recipes on her blog HERE.

Yesterday we enjoyed Weeknight Root Vegetable Dal (from the

cookbook) and was delicious. There are so many dishes I want to try 

that my own "COVID stuck in the kitchen much of the time days"

will never be boring thanks to Laura!

Before I leave here and get moving on long overdue comments on your 

blog - just a quick look at the wildlife this morning outside the window. 

Because Bob melted the sheet of ice on the fountain, and scattered extra

 peanuts along the porch rails for the hungry birds, two squirrels decided 

to move in and grab breakfast!  Love them/dislike them but understand 

they're hungry too!

Note the gleam in its eye as I'm knocking on the window and

 shouting - stubborn little devils.

We replenished the nuts for the birds!

Have a great Saturday dear friends.

Dessert, bread, and a visitor!

 

Trying to cut back on carbs and sugar this week - so hard for a bread lover

and dessert maker!

We have been eating too much of both - only because there's not much else

to do.  No, that's a lie, there's plenty to do, but once 5 PM rolls around and 

the kitchen aromas of roasting and simmering ramp up, the fire crackles on

the hearth. . . . . . . .and the TV calls out "turn me on", our evenings seem

set and meals have been including crunchy bread and a sweet dessert

perhaps too often.

We've missed walking for few days as the rain and chilly air have been

miserable, and my sciatica painful.  Today the sun is back, the birds are

hungry, and a naughty squirrel has spent much of the morning on the

 front porch eating the birdseed we scattered for the birds!

Photos of the squirrel this morning - staring in the window and whom I'm

 sure would have a meaningful conversation with me if it could!!!

A different English Bakewell Tart. . . . . . . . .

The Bakewell Tart is an English traditional dessert often associated with the Derbyshire town of Bakewell, but there is no firm evidence it originated there.

Jane Garmey in her book Great British Cooking: A Well Kept Secret (Over 200 recipes-from meat pies to plum pudding-----adapted for American cooks) pub. by Random House in 1981, states the following -

"The story goes that the first Bakewell Tart was the result of a misunderstanding between Mrs. Greaves, the proprietress of the Rutford Arms Inn at Bakewell, and her cook. Mrs. Greaves requested a jam custard tart. However, instead of mixing in the jam with the custard, her cook spread it on the bottom separately. The incorrect tart was an instant success with Mrs. Greaves's guests and has been famous ever since."

As for this cookbook, it's one I purchased back in the eighties (prior to Internet access) as often I couldn't find favorite childhood recipes with British measurements. 

(FYI - and a real shock - I see my hardcover version of this book is still available on Amazon from $95 to $169!)

Well all that said, this is a new version of the standard, usually red jam, Bakewell Tart -

the Marmalade Bakewell Tart - found when thumbing through last year's January issue

 of the fabulous UK Country Living magazine.

Being a great lover of orange marmalade - best always from Scotland or England 
as not too sweet - I gave this one a try yesterday. With the dense ground almond
 frangipane filling and sliced almonds on top, it has to be somewhat nutritious also!!!

Baking something on a very cold January afternoon raises one's spirits and

warms the house. Anxiously awaiting cooling and slicing for the evening 

dessert, and wondering how it will taste, is all worthwhile. There's nothing better 

than the great feeling of making something tasty, and pretty, in one's kitchen. 

I was very pleased it turned out so well - and was not difficult to make as I cheated a

 bit by using a ready made rolled crust. Tucked into a French removable bottom
 metal tart pan, it baked to a perfect thin, flaky crust, very crisp edge and bottom, 
nothing soggy or burnt, always a big plus!

It was/is a really lovely dessert - yes, there's plenty remaining and should keep for

 a few days. . . . . .and I just went and tasted bit today and think it's even better than yesterday!

Here's the magazine version - let me know if you want the recipe later.

Happy baking and serving days this winter!

Prune, Apple & Brandy Cake-----------------------

This is such an easy, and I would say healthy cake, if cake can be good for you!

Prunes, apples, almonds, yum.

Prepare your prunes the night before so they soak up the brandy and become really

 soft, then mix everything together and bake in the morning. 

It's an English recipe and and a kitchen scale is best for measuring - or you can

 convert the ingredients to ounces online.

I've served warm with whipped cream for dessert, or cool as just a moist 

slice of cake with a nice cup of tea.

Don't tell, I'm actually having a little slice for breakfast with my coffee right now!

Winter Kitchen. . . . . . .

I made Irish soda bread from a mix, just to give it a try thinking it might be 

good to make another later for St. Patrick's Day!

 It was good warm straight from the oven, but much too crumbly and dry the next day. 

The garden birds are loving the remains!

Some people say not to feed birds bread and baked bits from the kitchen, to 

stick to that very expensive bagged seed. We do both and hope the birds

are picky enough to know what's good for them.

Do you throw out leftover bread for your garden visitors?

Now these carrot raisin muffins I will not be sharing with the wildlife, sorry sweet 

birds and voracious grey squirrels, you aren't getting a single crumb! 

There are never any leftovers after we eat our share, give away a few, and stash 

some in the freezer for next week!

Must admit I've been baking them often - a big batch every couple of 

weeks - because they are delicious and healthy. 

What are you whipping up in your Winter kitchen?  If, like me, you have a rather 

large stash of cookbooks, it's just a matter of picking a recipe where you have 

the ingredients at the ready - or make a special trip to the store if you're not 
buried in snow - here we've not had a flake all Winter.

I find so many great sounding dishes I want to make, however a lot of these 
new-fangled cook books, although stunning in presentation and full of creation, 
just have too many ingredients most us don't keep on our shelves as basics. 

Anyway, today I do have my basics on hand to cook up a nice pot of black bean 
vegetarian chili for the very cold night ahead. I'll serve it thick over rice today, 
then add more broth to turn the leftovers into a delicious liquescent black bean 
soup for another meal.

Happy Winter kitchen days. . . . . . the best, warmest, room in the house, right?