Week 1
Cooking anything new just didn't happen, with work, hikes, and other activities - luckily the school holidays start next week.
Week 2
The first week of the school holidays, and it was on Friday I finally felt like cooking something new and interesting.
I tried a new muffin recipe from pinterest for a lunch time treat, Tasty Corn Muffins. I didn't have the chili paste, but chopped up 1 fresh red chili instead and added a smidgen of dried chili powder.
Verdict: They were nice, I felt they needed a little more salt, but possibly if I had used chili paste it may have given them a little more zing. I think these would be really nice with a bowl of tomato soup.
Week 3
One of my library books, The Caker by Jordan Rondel provided the inspiration for this weeks baking. There were three recipes I wanted to try, but settled on Nutella Banana Cake, because I had some ripe bananas that needed using up, and Chai Latte Cake with Condensed Milk Icing.
Verdict: Both yummy cakes, we especially liked that Nutella was spread over the top as icing. I was disappointed that the Chai Latte cake did not rise very much during cooking, still deliciously spicy, and I think should I ever make it again, I would make two cakes and use the icing in the middle as well. I would also recommend that the Chai Latte Cake was eaten the same day it was made, it seemed to go a little dry very quickly.
Week 4: I like to serve vegetarian meals at least once week to my family (The Scout has gotten used to this, but would probably still prefer a meal with meat). This week it was Chickpea Tikka Masala from the Revive Cafe 5 cookbook - another library book. This is a really easy curry to make, probably the most time consuming part, was peeling and chopping the kumara and dicing the onion.
Verdict: A creamy, spicy but not hot tomato sauce filled with chickpeas and kumara, made this a filling, warming winters meal. Definitely a make again, and I just have to remember to serve it with poppadoms for Mr J.
Another month without using my Annabel Langbein books!! I must be due to dust them off again for August's recipes.