I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, I am still spending some time with my parents. This however means that more new posts might be thin on the ground for a little while – I haven’t done any cooking or baking in 5 days!

This is a soup I made just before Christmas and it was wonderfully tasty, and so simple. As with lots of good things it came from the necessity to use up things I had to hand and from no specific recipe. The week before Christmas, for me, is a time to try to use up anything left in the fridge or from the veggie box. I still had a plentiful supply of the soup basics: onions, leeks and carrots. Add to this fresh black kale, a tin of tomatoes and some leftover crispy bacon, and you have the makings of the perfect winter warmer.

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Last Friday night I made a light dinner, this would be perfect for a main course of a large meal, or as a lunch. I didn’t immediately think that the orange would work with curry spices but it really was a fantastic flavour combination. And super healthy.

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In keeping with the Japanese theme this month, I am going to be going all minimalist on you and keeping the words short. And yes it has everything to do with me running late, and my blog being rather temperamental these days.

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

More details on the recipe can be found at the Daring Kitchen Sushi [PDF].

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Cock-a-leekie is a traditional Scottish soup, so much so that I rather OD’d on it as a kid and for years afterward I couldn’t face the sight of a tin of Baxter’s Cock-a-leekie soup. However recently I have come to realise that

1. Just because I didn’t like something as a child, does not mean I won’t like it now.
2. Just because I don’t like something that’s mass produced doesn’t mean I won’t like it when I make it.

So I decided it was time to give this old Scottish favourite a go myself. Cock-a-leekie isn’t a particularly attractive soup, getting nice photos of it I think is difficult, with my photography skills it’s an impossibility, but I gave it a shot anyway.

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Not revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination, but this a quick dish that uses mainly store cupboard ingredients but can use up leftover meats and vegetables.

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Pomegranates always make me think of nights when it is pitch black outside, the fire is on, and I’m sitting in the living room with my mum and sister watching ER. My mum would sit with a pomegranate and divide it up passing over chunks of the bejewelled fruit to each of us.

Seeing pomegranates in stores always provokes that memory but it has been years since I’ve actually bought one, yesterday I finally took the plunge and bought two.

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I read this recipe on potato crust quiche and something in my head just snapped into place. I love quiche, but I dislike the ones I buy in supermarkets. I’ve made my own quiche once and while it was good, the shortcrust pastry didn’t exactly go to plan.

Seeing the potato crust idea was like aligning the stars, I could have homemade quiche without the extra hassle. It is also generally healthier using potatoes rather than pastry
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The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

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This week when I peaked inside my organic box and saw another bag of chard I groaned. It’s that small feeling of disappointment knowing of all the vegetables in the world – they keep sending me this. I could just ask them to never send me it again, but that feels like giving up. Admitting that this green and rainbow coloured leafy vegetable has defeated me.

It’s not that the vegetable doesn’t look pretty, it does, its pink, yellow and red stems look beautiful on a plate but it tastes metallic and bitter. Usually I sauté it and have it as a side, but in my vain attempts to make it taste better I over cook it and it becomes a green goo. But oh no, not this time.

A beautiful light colourful lunch

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This week I wanted to do something exciting with my Broccoli, something that wasn’t a stir-fry or simple side.

Isn't this cupcake bowl the cutest thing?

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