A couple of recipe ideas

... (click on any photo to see a larger version)

Are you're like us? Do you save recipes you see in the
weekend colour supplements, together with the photos that
make the recipes look more tempting?

I think we all need photos of the end-product to tempt us to
have a go, otherwise we wouldn't bother. Having said that,
Mrs C and I tend to stockpile these magazine cuttings without
trying out the recipes.

"Oh, that looks very interesting ~ must try this recipe out
sometime." ~ sometime, never.

Well, Mrs C was in a "spring-cleaning" phase last week, and
set to, pruning out all the unwanted recipes in our untidy
folder. When I say "unwanted recipes", I mean those we most
likely wouldn't have a go at. I feel comfortable with
delegating a job like this to Mrs C., partly as I think her
judgement in culinary matters is superior to mine, but also
I think that I'd never get round to doing the job myself.
Also, if I were to toss a recipe into the recycle bin,
without consultating with Mrs C., she might end up searching
for it fruitlessly at a later date.

Fruitlessly is a good pun, don't you think?

Anyway, I'm getting round to telling you that Mrs C tried out
a couple of recipes over the weekend, one from a newpaper
cutting she found, and one from Martin Dwyer's blogsite.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's chestnut chocolate fridge cake,
pictured above, is absolutely delicious ~ bitter dark chocolate
with a hint of sweetness from the other ingredients plus a
wham of brandy flavour at the back of the throat. I think
some of this would make a marvellous Xmas present to give to
someone ~ and it's a zero-calorie treat (as if!).

Yum-yum!

I've found the recipe online ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/nov/18/recipes.dessert

Sainsbury sell the cooked chestnuts under the Merchant Gourmet
label, if you can't be arsed to roast and peel the chestnuts
yourself.

We make our own bread with the help of a Panasonic breadmaker,
using strong wholemeal flour, with some strong white flour in
addition to get a better rise and a softer texture. I do the
baking mainly ~ well, there's nothing to it really. I just pop
the ingredients into the pan before bedtime, set the timer to
finish the baking at around 7am, and then we get up the next
morning to the fabulous smell of freshly baked bread.

Mmmmm ... mmmm.

When the bread is cool, we slice it up and freeze the bread we're
not using that day.

I was browsing through Martin Dwyer's blogsite when I spotted this
gorgeous photo of baked bread and his recipe on how to make it ...

http://martindwyer.com/m/archives/archive.php?f=002751.html

Mrs C had a go at making this while I was out of the house,
attending a meeting in Newark the other day.

It's got an interesting flavour and texture ~ it tastes like a
cross between eating wholemeal bread and muesli, and it's very
filling. Mrs C made it in our new Remoska cooker, which is another
story to tell you about sometime.

The recipe for this bread includes a generous measure of pumpkin
seeds, which I recall is recommended along with other seeds for
relieving menopausal hot flushes. They must contain naturally
occurring oestrogens (plant/phyto-oestrogens). I'll let you know
if I start to develop man-boobs while eating this stuff.