I Wanted...I bought...I made

 Friday - Valentines Day! After an early screening of Her we shall come home to supper of grilled steak and salad and a glass of serious red wine. food of lurrrrve!
Breakfast was juice - beetroot, pepper, orange leftover from the fruit loaf, carrots and a pear then yoghurt and rhubarb for the man and a slice of fruit loaf and coffee for me. Win/win! 

Dearie me but it's wet out. Stroke of sensible genius I wore my shiny pink raincoat to the market - just easier than wrangling umbrellas and bags and stuff. Borough was quietish in the wet, started at Neals Yard for milk and yoghurt - £3.90 Then Ginger Pig for eggs and a most magnificent piece of steak - £13.60 Across the other side I bought chocolates from L'Artisan - £2.50 and wanted smoked salmon paté but Muirren only had smoked salmon, bought some £5 At the Comte stall I bought a tub of rillette - it was so good last week and saw they had Mont D'Or and I could not resist - £15.50 - so Saturday supper will be this bliss of a *bucket* of melted cheese At Gastronomica all the heart shaped cheese was goat's milk - the man no like goat's milk cheese - so I bought a sizeable hunk of truffled Pecorino and a Bosina - £14 Wandering over to find Bread Ahead I noticed Northfields had homemade pork scratchings - I can never resist - £1.50 A raisin loaf and a sourdough stick when I got to the bread stall - £5 Watercress and mushrooms from Paul Wheeler veg stall - £4.40 and a hot scotch egg for my lunch from Roast - £3 - £68.40 but well spent for a Valentine feasting weekend!

Dinner was indeed the food of lurrrve!

Saturday - toast I guess, the man is working, stir fried noodles for supper
Porridge, yes! for breakfast with lots of coffee but late, so the man didn't work - YES!
Went to the market at Oval for carrots, radish and fennel for salad later - £2.90
Went to visit the lovely Anna in her new place at Stratford - Westfield was BUSY with people wandering about but in fact not that many people inside the actual shops - had lovely cake and nespresso then a plate of nibbles - rillettes, olives, truffle cheese on our return. Dinner was very simple - smoked salmon with a crisp salad dressed with peanut butter miso and lime, gorgeous

Sunday - more toast, I guess, the man is working, pot roasted beef with mash and veg
Had cut the raisin bread in two and stuck it in the freezer so rescued one half and had that with butter and coffee and papers for a leisurely start. The man disappeared to the office. Bought a cabbage, carrots, beetroot and peppers at Brixton £2.40 Went to the Canton for Sunday lunch, mega busy so waited ages for a very fine porchetta, roast potatoes and buttered leeks  Dinner later was a snack plate of olives rillettes etc

Monday fish cakes and salad
Muesli breakfast
I bought pears from Nour Stores £1 and a couple of bread rolls from Di Lieto - 60p - for lunch with peanut butter, dinner was beef and mushroom cobbler with the top rib beef from the freezer from before Christmas topped with Pecorino and thyme scented cobbler served with steamed carrots and buttered cabbage

Tuesday lamb curry from the freezer with rice and vegetable side dishes
Carrot, ginger, pears, pepper and beetroot juice, muesli and coffee for breakfast, the man took a small tub of cobbler and veg for lunch, I went to Borough for milk - £1.70, clementines and carrots from Paul Wheeler - £1.40 and had salami - £2.80 - from Gastronomica - on a roll from the freezer for my lunch.

Had a couple of unhappy bananas that needed using so made indulgent muffins with chocolate and peanut butter - gave them to the man for the office so no temptation for me!

Dinner was a repeat of last night as that was very good indeed

Wednesday I'm out so the man shall have a treat, possibly soup from the freezer and nice bread
Juice for breakfast with muesli and coffee, the man had more cobblers for lunch and I had grilled sausages from Moen - £1.70 - what can I say it was bleak and I fancied something I didn't have. Also went to Sainsburys and bought misshape carrots, anya potatoes and butter £4.19 Who says supermarkets are cheap?
Was home in the evening so for dinner I made a gorgeous tortilla with spinach and potato and served it with carrot and fennel salad dressed with the rest of the miso/peanut thing from Saturday

Thursday lentils and greens topped with a poached egg
Had no beetroot for juice so made it with pears, celery, ginger, lemon, carrots and the sole remaining pepper - gorgeous flavour but the man hated the colour - too orange.

Said it looked like school pasta sauce!

Muesli and coffee was fine. Steamed potatoes and carrots for the last of the cobbler for the man's lunch and we are off for an adventure for dinner tonight to try the new Camberwell Arms, pub reopened with food guidance from the Canton - have heard great things!

Spent a lot this week - £87.19 -  though still have the Mont D'Or - Friday supper sorted!

Essentially followed no plan at all past Friday - ie DAY ONE for the food week! Partly as a result of the random shop - had thought we'd do more nibbling but having the smoked salmon was a good nudge to try the peanut miso salad dressing which was a richly decadent treat. Had suggested beef and mushrooms with mash to the man but he said Cobblers! and he was right. Worked v well with steamed veg for a few days and it took a large piece of meat out of the freezer - can't believe I still haven't got to the end of the freezer treasure...

The tortilla was a good idea and used up the other half of the original veg to make a really pretty salad

This Week I Wanted...I Bought...I Made

Have decided to approach this regular weekly post in a slightly different fashion and post a menu list Thursday for the rest of the week - I do the main food shop Fridays, and keep track of what food bought and eaten when to see how the food evolves both weekly and over time. Will add in pricing as well just so I know where it's going and also where the idea for the food comes from to try and develop that into a broader or better thought through meal plan.

Friday there is smoked salmon in the fridge and eggs not eaten so that's dinner right there with a green salad and the rest of the soda bread toasted
Breakfast was muesli for the man who left very early and coffee and a slice of thickly buttered soda bread for me
Went to Borough in the morning and blow me down but the sun was shining - what a delight after all the rain. I swear everyone was cheerier than usual
I started at Neals Yard and bought 2 litres of milk, a large tub of yoghurt and a reduced price tub of clotted cream - £6.80
Then to Ginger Pig thinking I'd only get eggs but oooooh, temptation! they had 4 big thick gammon steaks for £10 and I could not resist - £13 with the dozen eggs
From Gastronomica I bought a thick slice of Pecorino and a bag of dried penne £12.80
At the place that sells the Comte I bought instead a tub of rillette for snacking - £5.50
Borough Olives have petit luque in, could not resist, £3.50 for a medium tub
Prosciutto di Parma from the parma ham and mozzarella stand £6.80
A warm scotch egg - something of a guilty pleasure for me - £3 from Roast takeaway - my lunch, the man took the rest of last night's leek and potato soup to be pinged in the microwave and eaten with a slice of soda bread
A most enormous cucumber from the used to be Booths and enquired about the price of the rhubarb - £5 a kilo, hmm I said, tell you what 4 quid'll do, okay I said and he pulled down all the rhubarb that was there - close to 2 kgs - and said have the lot, £3.50. Cheers - so £4.40 with the cucumber
Spent  £55.80

Snacks with a drink both green and black olives with a little rillette on a buttered cracker before dinner of smoked salmon, eggs, salad and very thin slices of hot toasted soda bread

Saturday porridge to bolster us against the rain, then sandwich for lunch as we are out in the evening to see Midsummer Night's Dream and so shall have an early supper at Comptoir Gascon
Almost none of that came true- had toasted soda bread with the man's mothers' fabulous marmalade with lashings of  fresh coffee at breakfast then rillette and olives, Hungarian salami from when we were in Budapest, cucumber and cheeses to snack on for a light lunch and a slightly under par tea at Comptoir Gascon - disappointing as I have eaten here on and off for years and it is generally really good - but not this time. Good production though - best Bottom ever!

Sunday a roast perhaps, some time since I made one
More soda bread toast and marmalade to start the day then, after Dallas Buyers Club at the Ritzy we mistimed arrival at The Canton and  waited a very long time indeed until we finally got a seat and had a seriously gorgeous roast  beef with potatoes and creamed leeks - perfect lunch
Back to snacks for supper after such a late lunch - the last of the rillettes with crackers, some parma ham and olives and cheese and cucumber

Monday tofu and noodles
Juice of carrots, peppers, pears, ginger and clementine with muesli for the man and coffee for me as breakfast

For lunch the man went out and I bought a couple of rolls from Di Lieto - 60p - and had the last of the parma ham
Went to Brixton Market and bought peppers and bananas - £1.70 and made a batch of coconut cookies from ingredients I already had in so practically free!
Dinner was creamy bowls of penne with fennel after a snack of macadamia nuts - I had fennel from last week that needed using and a tub of creme fraiche in the freezer that needed using

Tuesday carbonara as there is guincale in the freezer
Juice this morning from peppers, carrots, pears, a stick of celery, ginger and lime then a breakfast of yoghurt with stewed rhubarb and coffee for me, lunch was leftover pasta and the tin of coconut biscuits and a banana for the man, I bought salami from Camisa £2.80 and a couple of rolls from Di Lieto - 60p great combination
From Waitrose I bought butter - I love the French butter that is unsalted and then large crystals are added to give grainy little explosions of salt but it is not widely available. Often I buy waitrose own brand but it seems to have altered recently and has less salt so I was on a mission to find the real French version. Did so at John Lewis foodhall - the poshest of posh waitrose but still a supermarket - and bought 3 blocks of Buerre d'Isigny and a couple of blocks of President unsalted which was £8.77. A lot to pay just for butter but it will last the month so worth it for the pleasure of weekend eating. Also went to Brixton for veg - carrots, beetroot, parsley and pears - a much more reasonable £2.59
Dinner - after a beer and a few macadamia nuts - did indeed start from the freezer but it was a litre of stock and some leftover ham hock that went with wild mushrooms and lashings of butter and cheese for a very fine rich risotto

Wednesday lamb curry from the freezer with rice and some interesting sides
Juice today was deepest red - beetroot, carrots, celery stick, pears, ginger and a couple of red peppers then breakfast again was yoghurt and rhubarb, coffee. The man took the rest of the risotto and a banana for lunch, I had scrambled eggs
Dinner was chargrilled gammon steaks - technically from the freezer but only because that's where I put them Friday - with egg and chips. Bliss on a cold wet windy night

Thursday out to see Superior Donuts at Southwark Playhouse - it's a new play by Tracy Letts who wrote August: Osage County which I liked a lot in the cinema, unlike most reviewers!
Breakfast was juice same as yesterday's but no celery and less peppers, still gorgeous then yoghurt with rhubarb + coffee for me Lunch for the man was the rest of the risotto and the biscuit tin came home empty so made a fruit tea loaf for tomorrow and the weekend

Bought peppers, carrots, coriander, spinach, chillies, beetroot, celery, spring onions and an orange at Nour stores in Brixton - £5.44 - a mix of stuff to juice and make salad, the orange is for the tea loaf. Bought focaccia from Wild Caper - ~£2 and ham from Di Lieto - £2.50 for decadent lunch for me
 Quick early supper at home - spiced roasted chicken pieces with a quinoa salad - chicken from freezer with garlic, ginger, chilli rub - not a lot on offer round Elephant

I wanted ...I bought... I made

The only baking this week was my very first loaf of soda bread

Friday night we are out for birthday drinks and some fun. Went to Androuet in Spitalfields and it was very good indeed.

Saturday I think we might have takeaway Chinese for lunch for whatever reason! Decadently had another sit down meal - dim sum at Bright Courtyard after a decidedly unsuccessful attempt to buy a new duvet cover. I washed a pink shirt with the old - formerly white - duvet. Lunch was most fine, I had read about the restaurant in an article by Fuchsia Dunlop. Delighted to find a new place I'd never come across before, though Baker Street is not really a regular haunt.

Saturday night grilled pork chops - from the freezer - and lots of veg from the organics stall at Oval Market.

Sunday lunch at the Canton, gloriously fabulous porcetta in such enormous slices that we took the last of it home, though the man still managed a little cream topped chocolate pot. Mad a spinach pie for the evening - tentatively freezer related as I have some filo needs using. Bought more filo as well as spinach and spring onions in Brixton, feta and eggs from Borough, and a Spanish tomme from the new Lidl that's opened round the corner, which worked really well.

The spinach pie was a very fine dinner Sunday night but also great cold in lunchboxes with roasted peppers and fresh cucmber and lasted till Thursday quite happily.

Monday King Lear, started early so I made some roasted onions and peppers for serious sandwiches with the leftover porchetta and some fresh rocket. Felt underwhelmed by the production after expecting great things, didn't quite work.

Tuesday beef pot roast and mash - chinese takeaway and some good Cote du Rhone.

Wednesday I'm out so the man shall have a treat - was cancelled so we had salade nicoise by request of the man - bought lettuce in Brixton but otherwise had everything in, even some crusty bread in the freezer.

Thursday - soup and cheesy buns - actually soda bread that I made after being inspired by this week's perfect. Used yoghurt from the corner shop, not buttermilk as I couldn't find it anywhere. The rest of the stuff I had in the cupboard.

At the market I also bought coffee - sad to hear they currently have no Indonesian which I've been loving for the past few months - £13 for Costa Rican beans instead, bought Artisan chocolates for the lovely sister in law - £6,  eggs and one pork chop from Ginger Pig - £10 even, milk and half a St John fruit loaf from Neals Yard - they now stock very little St John bread so it was a real treat to snaffle even half a loaf for weekend breakfasts - £4.15. Also bought lots of veg from Brixton for the insatiable beast of a vegetable juicer - another £7 (approximate)

This Week... I Wanted, I Bought, I Made

And truth be told probably found it in the freezer or the drawer in need of using up. New Year, isn't it, and I really do need to clear the stockpile of  lovely bits and pieces, so for the next month at least they are my starting point. I am determined to be good.

So, Friday we shall have grilled pork chops (freezer) with mash and carrots and peas, a meal I really lovely for its simplicity and how gorgeous it is on the plate and in my mouth. Already this plan has gone to pot! Woke early with jetlag and changed my mind to Viet beef and noodles for Friday supper. Went to the market and Ginger Pig had sirloin on the bone for £8 each - as I asked for a slice of rump for noodles they offered me these instead - with the offer of cutting me rump if I really wanted some. Didn't! So I had nothing for dinner - remembered bacon and peas in the freezer so it was pasta - using tiny little ditali from the cupboard so very quick - with bacon, onions and peas with a little creme fraiche.

Saturday we may start the day with porridge as the man and I have been to Oz where the sun shines practically daily so our blood is warm and our bodies are surprised to find themselves back in the dark dank winter chill of  London. Off to Suffolk for the weekend, there was a change of plans so breakfast was toast from a loaf from the freezer and dinner will be the fabulous steaks with a simple salad. Still thinking dal - lentils in the cupboard - and rice with roasted spiced cauliflower when we get back Sunday night, as it's an easy thing to put together and works a treat cold for lunch. Even without going away it was a good idea, specially with the pretty purple rimmed  heritage carrots in lunchboxes.

Monday we're at the Royal Court to see the Beckett trilogy, so dinner out somewhere. Tuesday we shall have a Vietnamese style vegetable curry - I have tofu sheets in the cupboard and an open book on fresh veg as the fridge is post holiday bare. Actually had a little of the steak left from Saturday so made Viet herbed noodles topped with stir fried steak and it was gorgeous. I really enjoyed making this salad, actually called bun in Vietnam which I do find slightly confusing. The salad is a mix of shredded lettuce with sprouts and cucumber and herbs that goes into the bottom of the bowls undressed - no jokes please about naked buns!. The cooked fine rice noodles go on top and then the stirfried meat goes in on top of  that. I made a couple of little bowls of condiments which is what really made the meal - spring onion oil, toasted crushed peanuts and a bowl of nuoc cham, a hot/sweet/sour chilli sauce. Once all three were added you toss the whole lot together and it was amazing. Also made me realise what I should have been doing in Vietnamese restaurants when I've always felt slightly disappointed to be presented with this.

Wednesday omelette with black eye bean salsa - got a bag of beans already cooked and frozen. Bun was so good last night defrosted a chicken breast and cooked it with ginger and lemon grass and made the noodles again to use up the herbs and beansprouts I'd bought for last night, 

 Thursday I really fancy spaghetti with a simple tomato sauce with lots of Parmesan and a big salad. Instead it is vegetable curry to use the other half of the cauliflower and the last of the beansprouts and a tin of coconut milk from the cupboard.

At the market I bought coffee from Monmouth - £12.50 then went to Ginger Pig and bought the steaks and some eggs - £17.50. At L'Artisan du Chocolat I bought a bag of misshapes for the man £2.50 and, after asking a guide where to find them bought olives from the recently moved Fresh Olive stand £3.50. At Gastronomica I bought a lovely piece of Pecorino £9.20 - while I was being served a woman came and asked to try the provolone, I was amazed to see her simply stuff it in her mouth as she walked away without so much as a thank you. Milk and yoghurt at Neals Yard - £5.05 and I was done, except for the hot chorizo roll from Brindisa - a delight at £4.95

Bought more in the week, creme fraiche for the pasta at the Lidl newly opened round the corner. Lettuce and carrots from Oval farmers market, and cauliflower from Brixton farmers market as well as spinach and coriander, cucumber, lemons and limes, passionfruit, clementines, ginger, chillies, lemongrass, beansprouts and Thai basil from Brixton market.

Thursday I got a new vegetable juicer, possibly a mad notion given how difficult it is to buy decent veg but I've been hankering for juice lately. So went to Brixton again and bought beetroot, carrots, peppers, apples and more ginger, theplan being to have juice every evening when the man returns from hunting and gathering instead of beer. We'll see how that goes!

I made as well a chocolate mud cake from a recipe in the Graun only because, you understand, I had salted butter and lots of chocolate in the fridge. I used passionfruit instead of limes and it was gorgeous to eat and a big hit when the man took it into work. Think he may regret sharing so generously.

Halloween Chocolate & Prune Cake

I am fat fingered, cack handed, inept - useless basically - when it comes to doing fiddly things. Paint skirting boards? More on floor, walls and me than ever goes onto those strips of wood. Pretty cards with sprinkles, glitter and sticky on hearts and flowers? Fingers stuck together, glittery face, smudged card. Sew on a button? I once sewed a button onto the waistband of a pair of trousers, having lined it up with the hole - who says I never learn - and finished it without a single knot or tangle in the sewing thread. Can't tell you how thrilled I was till I tried them on and found the button was on the wrong side of the fabric.

So I'm at a bit of a loss to explain why I decided this week to decorate a cake.

I had some Agen prunes that I wanted to use, having opened the pack last week. I fancied cake and wanted chocolate, hoping for something dark and unctuous. I searched the internet for inspiration and was astounded how little there is to do with prunes. They have so little *love* that even the California Prunes site calls them ugly and acknowledges they're the butt of  many many jokes. Really guys? That is one odd marketing pitch. They are lovely things, richly flavoured, great texture, perfect amount of chewy, and they soak up liquids to replump into glorious fruit any time of  year. When I was a kid my mother made dessert pretty much every day and a regular one (snicker) was prunes soaked in cold tea and brown sugar overnight then served with cream or custard next evening that I just loved. A good starting point, I decided and set about adapting a couple of recipes I found till I arrived at this fab mousse like, brownie like, chocolate delight.

It's nearly Halloween, an event it's impossible to ignore these days with lots of creepy crawlies and fake spiders and ghoulies and goodness knows what adorning pretty much everything, and I suddenly thought I want to make it a creepy cake.So off I went  to buy black food colouring and something that could be legs or fangs or hairy appendages and came home with ready to roll black icing and a packet of Oreos. I was thinking I could crush the Oreos to make  a dirt topping then decided I didn't like the flavour of them enough to ruin my cake. I started to roll out long strips of icing - a fabulously messy process especially if you're me - and realised I could make worms to look like they were emerging from the holes I'd make testing the doneness of the cake. Deciding it looked brilliant - very life like - I made little bugs, like scarab beetles, cutting patterns into their backs with the blunt end of a butter knife. By this point my palms are black and sticky from rolling icing, the knife is black and sticky too and there's bits of discarded icing on the bench and stuck to the outside of my left elbow.

Has to be said I was having a lot of fun, really enjoying the way my 'design' was evolving. I had been thinking of making spiders entirely from icing but, in a flash of inspiration, remembered a half jar of rum soaked prunes in the cupboard from quite some time ago. Pure alcohol, basically. I melted a bit more dark chocolate and, using a couple of toothpicks, rolled my boozy prunes in it till they were well coated. I put a little pile of  popping candy (Waitrose sell it, Heston makes it) onto a sheet of baking parchment alongside another pile of those tiny coloured sticks and rolled my prunes around using increasingly encrusted toothpicks and sticky fingers everything - and I mean everything - was pretty much covered. Decidedly cack handed by now, I cut out some very unconvincing legs from a bit more of the icing and added them and some 'feelers' to my bugs. Didn't have enough legs so you'll have to believe there was some kind of terrible industrial accident in creepy crawly land and these were the lucky survivors. Dropped them onto the cake and - voila!

Be afraid....

Prune & Chocolate Cake

If the cake is to be eaten only by the grown ups, you can always soak the prunes in 5 tablespoons of rum or brandy rather than tea and sugar for an afternoon tea treat.

175g pitted prunes
1 tea bag
1 tablespoon brown sugar
100g butter, diced
150g dark chocolate
50g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
4 eggs, 2 separated
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
100g ground almonds
1 tablespoon plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
50g soft black icing
50g dark chocolate, extra
2 tablespoons brown and coloured edible popping candy

Put the prunes into a heatproof bowl with the teabag and the tablespoon of brown sugar and cover with boiling water. Leave to soak for a couple of hours or overnight then drain away any remaining liquid, set 3 whole prunes to one side, and then roughly chop the rest using a stick blender.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Line the base of a 23cm springform pan with baking parchment and grease the sides with butter. Break the chocolate into large chunks and put it into a heatproof bowl with the diced butter and heat over a pan of just simmering water. When it’s all melted take off the heat and add the chopped prunes.

In a separate bowl beat the 2 sugars with 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks for about 5 minutes till the mixture is pale and doubled in volume. Fold in the chocolate prune mixture and then add the combined ground almonds, plain flour and cocoa and fold in gently till just mixed.

Whisk the remaining 2 egg whites till stiff and lightly fold those through the cake mixture. Pour it into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes till the cake is just set. Leave it in the tin on a cooling rack till cold.

Decorate as described above, or simply eat unadorned, it's still fabulous.

 Eat more prunes.

Olive Oil Chocolate Sponge Cake

I love olive oil. Like garlic and salt I am never without some, it is one of my absolute must haves in the kitchen. Last week I emptied the last of my 3 litre tin into my 500ml bottle and felt a tiny bit anxious that I might run out before I had been to the market to buy another 3 litre tin. I don't really like using cheap olive oils, they don't bring enough to the food, particularly not to salad dressings.

You might think that's a slightly mad assertion but I went to a tasting of Spanish olive oils recently and it was fascinating how different the oils were and how much the flavour changed depending on what - if anything - was eaten with it. I used to associate olive oil exclusively with Italy but in fact Spain is the world's major olive oil produceer and the ones I tried were extraordinary in their diversity. The oils were poured out into wine glasses, first to be sniffed and then savoured in the mouth, swilling gently and breathing through the oil to really appreciate the full flavour. The oils ran the gamut of sweet, through bitter to incredibly spicy though interestingly the smell and the taste didn't always match. Surprised me! The other surprising thing I learnt was that one litre is the average annual consumption of olive oil here in the UK. Given that the man and I get through about 12 litres, I'm worrying there are people out there who are seriously missing out!

There was a time when I thought the microwaved chocolate cake, ready in minutes, was an internet joke gone viral. Turns out it really works - and I know that because I recently got my first oven which, amongst a gazillion other functions, microwaves things. If  I'm honest I am still a bit trepidatious around it, but I'm delighted to say that making this yummy little cake is a decidedly tasty way to get a grip!

Olive Oil Chocolate Sponge Cake

The olive oil makes the cake lovely and moist and the cocoa makes it lovely and chocolatey - definitely a good combination

4 tablespoons plain flour
4 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons olive oil
A tiny pinch of baking powder
A little cinnamon or vanilla, optional

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Grease the sides of a 400ml bowl or cup and pour the mixture in. Microwave at maximum power (800-1000 watts) for 3 minutes. Remove from the oven and tip the cake onto a plate. 

Consume immediately! A dollop of cream or jam is optional.

Cinnamon Wolfe Biscuits

I do love cinnamon. When I was a kid we used to go the local shopping plaza in Sydney, a place called Miranda Fair, built and owned by none other than Westfield, the very same people who have opened in White City and are currently building the largest shopping complex in Europe at Stratford. But I digress. Saturday mornings my father would drive the family to Miranda Fair and we'd be allowed to go off on our own on the condition that we met back at a specified time at the raindrop fountain, a magnificent thing that was fine threads guiding tiny water droplets that ran from the top of the central atrium to an enormous bowl on the ground floor, like a beautiful circular rain storm in the middle of all the shops. I loved wandering about, finding new things, sniffing perfume samples and looking in bookshops trying not to spend my pocket money. That resolve would last perhaps an hour and then there would be the siren call of the donut stand, that lovely smell filling the air. My favourite thing, without doubt, was blowing my hoarded pennies buying hot donuts liberally dipped in cinnamon sugar and wrapped in a napkin to be scoffed fast as possible. At that age, sharing was not my forté.

A variation on the theme, when I was a teenager and allowed to make my own way to the shops on a Saturday morning was to while away an hour in a café drinking bottomless cups of coffee and feasting on cinnamon toast. This was the bread version of those donuts - hot buttered toast generously sprinkled with a mix of cinnamon and granular sugar. Versions of it were made at home on occasions, but it's been a while since I saw such a delight on a menu. Peculiarly Oz thing perhaps.

My baking challenge this week was an easy one after I caught sight of this recipe in the Australian Women's Weekly Bake. All that childish pleasure ripe to be revisited. It is really quick and easy, even the rolling of dough in the coating. I'm pleased to say that cinnamon and sugar tastes as good in the mouth as it does in my mind.

Cinnamon Biscuits
Makes 40-50

Crispy edges with a chewy centre, these are a delightful biscuit with coffee

250g butter, softened
1 tspn vanilla extract
110g light brown sugar
220g caster sugar
2 eggs
410g plain flour
1 tspn bicarb of soda
1/2 tspn ground nutmeg
1 tbspn caster sugar, extra
2 tspns ground cinnamon

Beat the butter, vanilla and both brown and caster sugars in a small bowl with electric mixer until it is light and fluffy - about 7 or 8 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl then stir in the sifted flour, soda and nutmeg in two batches. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or longer.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Combine the extra caster sugar and cinnamon on a small plate. Roll about a tablespoon of dough into a ball then roll the ball in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Place the balls about 7cm/3 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake biscuits for about 12 minutes till golden and smelling gorgeous. Cool on trays.

And that's it - easy peasy and a total delight.

Pizza Muffins

Fusion food at its best - pizza muffins! Giant ones at that. I'm never entirely sure where in the day muffins are meant to be eaten. I cooked up a batch for dinner Sunday night as we'd been out for lunch and these are a delightfully savoury number. Definitely not a breakfast treat but lunch? I think so. Warm from the oven they made a fab supper.

I am in the process of teaching myself to bake in the hope of opening a cafe that sells all manner of lovely salads and cakes to go with seriously good coffee and juices. It's harder than it seems - there is a requirement for precision that is simply not relevant for casseroles and soups, noodles and risotto. When it's a success I find it fascinating, when it fails I find it hugely frustrating partly because I hate failing and partly because I have insufficient understanding of the process to know where I went wrong and how to fix it. So I'm baking a lot and gradually improving.

In my quest for baking brilliance I bought the Australian Women's Weekly 'Bake' which is ENORMOUS and full of interesting recipes, some old familiars from my childhood like melting moments and coconut slice and some new things like this muffin recipe. I have made those as well a coffee walnut cake, an orange yoghurt cake and a spiced banana cake. Mostly the man takes them to work to share and get a little feedback. He is becoming very popular.

Pizza Muffins

Makes 6 but to make them again I would use a smaller hole pan and make 12

1 small red pepper
375g self raising flour
1 egg
310ml milk
80ml olive oil
60g coarsely grated cheddar cheese
20g finely grated Parmesan
60g seeded black olives, halved
35g sun dried tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
2 tbspns basil, finely chopped
t tspns rosemary, sinely chopped
30g cheddar coarsely grated (extra)

Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 4. Grease a 6-hole texas (180ml) muffin pan.

Quarter the pepper, discard the seeds and membrane. Roast in a very hot oven, skin-side up, until the skin blisters and blackens. Put hot pepper into a bowl and cover tightlyw ith clingfilm for 5 minutes. Peel away the skin and then cut the flesh into strips.

Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the egg, milk, oil, cheeses, olives, tomatoes and herbs. Do not over mix, a bit lumpy is fine. Spoon mixture inot pan holes, top with the slices of roasted pepper and then the extra cheese.

Bake muffins for about 25 minutes. Stand muffins in pan for 5 minutes then turn out, top-side up, onto a wire rack to cool.

These tasted great. I am beginning to enjoy baking so there will definitely be more - there's a whole chapter on muffins alone!

They are bigger than they look in this picture!

Charcuterie Loaf

I was getting a bit jaded recently by our lunch boxes. The contents were almost invariably fabulous but they had also begun to default to roast something with a carb salad and some sugarsnaps, possibly raw carrots as well and it seemed a bit repetitive. The only variation being what meat was cooked. I fancied a change, the result possibly of the slight increase in temperature and the miniscule lengthening of the days that mean suddenly it is still light at the end of the day, almost till 6pm. Winter is over. Yay!Perhaps.

I'd bought a copy of the french - translated into english - book Pork & Sons recently and thoroughly enjoyed reading it - the combination of family tales of raising pigs and the array of recipes built up over time to use every bit of the pigs that resulted was an interesting way to spend an hour or two. I mentally bookmarked a couple of ideas to try.

One of them was this charcuterie loaf. The man and I both love all things ham and bacon and sausage like - saucisson, chorizo, salamis - the lot. This loaf involves making a batter with eggs and flour, then encompassing into that all manner of diced fabulous bits before baking it till risen and golden. A sort of glorified bacon and egg bread, that keeps fresh in the fridge.

What could be more perfect?

And wonderful it turned out to be. The only unexpected delight was the way the paprika from the chorizo stains the dough into glorious streaks of sunlight yellow, like full on summer has arrived. Joy in your lunchtime.

The Genuine Charcutier's Meatloaf

unsalted butter for greasing the pan

300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting the pan

4 tbspns olive oil

3 shallots, chopped roughly

1 1/2 tspns baking powder

4 eggs, lightly beaten

100ml white wine

200ml milk

100g smoked lardons, rindless, coarsely chopped

100g unsmoked ham, coarsely chopped

100g spicy chorizo, coarsely chopped

100g prosciutto or other air dried ham, coarsely chopped - you can buy an end piece cheaply

Preheat the oven to 160C/Gas 3. Grease a loaf tin with butter and dust with flour, tipping out any excess.

Heat 2 tablspoons of olive oil in a frying pan, add the shallots and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally for about ten minutes, until golden.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl - I just use a fine mesh sieve - add the eggs, white wine, milk and remaining olive oil and mix well. Stir in all the meat and the shallots. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. If the top gets too brown before the loaf is cooked, cover loosely with foil.

The loaf is cooked when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20 minutes or so before turning out of the tin. When it is cold, cover with foil and refrigerate if you're having it for lunches. Or slice generously and serve with salad for a great dinner.

Though it might take up to an hour to cook, it only takes ten minutes to prep. Perfect.