So, 2017

In 2017 I didn't make New Year's resolutions. Instead, I made of list of things I'd wanted to do in the year, and I purposely made it challenging. Not to make myself feel bad when I didn't "accomplish" everything, but to make me more intentional for the year.

Unfortunately, some health issues basically kicked my butt in 2017, so there were things I wanted to do that I just couldn't, but I AM NOT beating myself up about it.

I'm not going to list the things I didn't get done, but I am going to glory in the things I DID!

1. Make and attend all necessary medical and dental appointments.

Yep.

2. Do one thing I'm scared of.

I went to my first ever protest march.

3. Put a new raised bed in the garden.

I did!

4. Finish off one of my many half-done projects.

I painted and put back together a beautiful cast iron floor lamp that had been in pieces in the garage for years.

5. Make 12 favorite and 12 new recipes.

This one was fun.

Favorites

Most of these I made multiple times during the year, except the hot cross buns, which obviously I made a Easter; the pavlova, for a dinner party; and the mashed potato, which was for Christmas.

1.     Hot Cross Buns – The Pioneer Woman’s recipe. I halved the amount of currants and added the zest of one lemon and one orange (in lieu of the candied peel they have in them in England).

2.     Best Cinnamon Rolls – these no-knead rolls are the BEST! I did change the cream cheese frosting for a powdered sugar/cream/vanilla icing so David could eat them.

3.     Banana Bread – from my ever-handy Better Homes and Gardens recipe book (best wedding present ever).

4.     Peach Crumble - ditto

5.     Kombucha – My favorite flavoring for the second ferment has turned out to be Concord grape juice.

6.     Morning muffins – Also from BH&G

7.     Cornbread – and this.

8.     No-knead Bread – the famous recipe from The New York Times

9.     Pavlova with Lime Curd & Raspberries – this was a combination from a couple of different recipes and was amazing. I swirled the lime curd with whipped cream, topped with raspberries and sprinkled with chopped pistachios. Best pavlova ever.

10.  Peach Jam – one batch with yellow peaches, and one with white.

11.  Chili – basically throw tinned tomatoes, tinned beans, tomato paste, garlic, chili flakes, cumin, and balsamic vinegar in a pot and let it simmer for as long as possible.

12.  Mashed potatoes – this has been a bugbear for me, but I finally got it right this year. Thank you, Kitchen Conundrums.

New Recipes

Some of these were more successful than others, but we enjoyed all of them.

1.     Deconstructed Eton Mess – I didn’t really use a recipe for this. I made bite sized meringues and served it with a bowl of sliced and sugared strawberries and a choice of Chantilly Cream or Cashew Cream (see below).

2.     Cashew Cream – I made this from the recipe book we got from the Take 10 program we did in California a few years ago.

3.     Carob Brownies – I used this recipe and just used regular flour and added peanuts. They were gorgeous, and if I hadn’t known they were carob I probably wouldn’t have guessed.

4.     Curried Potatoes & Chickpeas

5.     Apple Butter – two batches, one with some gifted Red Delicious, which I’m not fond of  eating fresh (too mealy), and the other with Honey Crisp, which are gorgeous. I did it in the slow cooker with apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, whole cinnamon and cloves, and freshly grated nutmeg. I’m really pleased with how both batches turned out.

6.     Pickled Beets & Eggs – this was really fun and turned the eggs a lovely shade of magenta.

7.     Cherry Compote – I bought some cherries that looked gorgeous but tasted really disappointing. I didn’t want to waste them so I found this recipe and it turned out amazing. I ate it on everything.

8.     Refrigerator Pickles – from my home-grown cucumbers.

9.     Peach Ice Cream – It was OK, but I folded in too much fresh peach chunks at the end and it froze a bit grainy. Next time I’ll just use puree.

10.  Gluten free peach crisp – not bad but I used a rice flour topping which didn’t stay very crisp. I’ll have to work on this one again.

11.  Blood orange sorbet – absolutely bloody gorgeous.

12.  Carob cake with Swiss Buttercream – my crowning achievement in 2017. I made it for our Boxing Day dinner and it turned out perfect. And no one knew it wasn’t chocolate until they were halfway through. The red walnuts on top are from my parents' farm.  Tune in next time for This Year's Goals. Wendy

What to do with all that zucchini

I have six zucchini/courgette plants and two of them are presenting me with the cutest, tenderest squashes I've ever eaten.  Based on the number of blossoms on the other four, I'm going to be more than replete with squash this summer.  I'm trying to catch them when they are little but one sucker hid under the leaves and when I found it this morning it was rehearsing for a policeman's truncheon.  There was only one thing to do...make chocolate cake.

I've always been a little skeptical about cooking vegetables in desserts - even carrot cake is a little dodgy in my view, but I've been assured that you can't taste the zucchini in cake.  So I did a search and came up with this rather luscious sounding recipe on the aptly named Zucchini & Chocolate website.  Since allergy boy and vegan girl are away from home I thought I'd whip up a chocolate cake using real butter, eggs, cocoa and dark chocolate and see if it's enough to hide the squash.

The result - absolutely frickin' gorgeous.  Rich, moist, chocolaty and not a trace of zucchini to be found - it's just melted into the cake.  I made a powdered sugar glaze to top it with but it's kind of gilding the lily.  It doesn't need anything else.

[Sorry no pictures but Evie has my camera in DC - maybe next time]

Roasted Autumn Vegetables

When the nights start getting colder this is one of my favourite recipes for dinner - it's really easy and you can use whichever vegetables you like or have on hand.  Bear in mind that it can take a long time to cook so leave plenty of time to prepare the vegetables and then roast them.

I used:
salad potatoes, unpeeled (the largest cut in half)
sweet potatoes
parsnips
carrots
beets
leeks
(cut all these into large bite sized pieces)
several whole cloves of garlic
fresh sage, rosemary & thyme
salt

Drizzle olive oil and stir till veges are well coated and then add balsamic vinegar and stir.

Line a roasting pan with foil (to make cleaning up easier) and drizzle a little more olive oil in to coat the bottom, then just dump in the vegetables.  Ideally you should have a pan big enough that you will have a single layer but my pan is on the small size so I had 2-3 layers, which increases the cooking time.  Cover with foil for at least the first half of cooking (esp if more than a single layer of veges) and cook till tender.  Then take the foil off to let the vegetables brown a little.  I cooked mine for 1 1/2 hours on 450F and a further 20 mins on 400.

You could probably cut the time down by cooking it on a higher temperature to soften the veges but make sure you turn it down a bit when you take the foil off.  Personally I like them slow cooked so I make sure I have plenty of time - Sunday nights are perfect.