Cook the Books- January

Week One:
I was given a large bag of grapefruit just before Christmas, and thought I had better use them.  Not wanting to make marmalade, I went searching the Internet for a Grapefruit Sorbet recipe.  A lot of them require an ice cream churn, luckily this one  - Grapefruit and Mint Sorbet, only needed a food processor.    A reasonably quick sorbet to make, I doubled the quantities which may be why it took a little while to set.  I would also advise tasting your grapefruit juice prior to making it, mine were rather sweet as I discovered after I had mixed the mint syrup into the juice, so I possibly could have reduced the sugar or maybe added a little lemon juice to give it a little more tang. I also removed all the mint leaves from the syrup, rather than pureeing them up.

Verdict:  Very refreshing, you get a subtle grapefruit finish after the initial mint taste. I am quite glad my family are away this week and I get to enjoy it all to myself.

Week Two:
Requiring sustenance for our hike, I made Banana Blueberry Muffins from my old faithful Alison Holst Muffin Cookbook.  I have often made blueberry muffins or banana choc chip muffins from this book.

Verdict: A moist muffin they were a perfect energy boost after all those steps, still think I prefer plain Blueberry muffins though.

Week Three:
Looking for ways to use the glut of cucumbers I had just picked and freshly harvested beetroot, I resorted to some recipes from my pinterest board.  This Thai Cucumber Salad was an easy salad to make, and luckily I had all the ingredients on hand.   The  Raw Energy Beetroot Salad was an easy make, my only gripe was the recipe didn't state how many servings, so The Scout and I have had it for a few meals.

Verdict:  The Cucumber Salad was a perfect accompaniment to the Thai Chicken Curry and rice we had for dinner that night. Refreshing after the heat of the curry.  Definitely a make again. Yes I will make the beetroot salad again, just when I have a lot of people over for dinner to use it up.

Week Four:
I'm going to cheat here,  and use a meal The Scout cooked while we were away camping from his book New Zealand Back Country Cooking.  He made a delicious Kransky and Pumpkin Risotto from scratch, with a lot of stirring done by the rest of us.

Verdict:   Filling, warming and very tasty, definitely a must have on regular hiking/tramping trips.

This month I am introducing a linky, so that you can link up your Cook the Book endeavours. Simply create your blog post, hop back here and add your link, and remember to link it in your blog too. Looking forward to seeing what you have concocted in your kitchens.

An InLinkz Link-up