Today I baked some kiwi muffins following [mostly] the Kiweasy recipe on the Abel & Cole website. Not only did I bake and cook for the second day in a row, but I also did something I mentioned in the previous post so it’s pretty much a double achievement!

I modified the recipe by using eight muffin cases rather than a muffin tray which I do not have and I also mixed all the ingredients in one bowl starting with the wet ingredients before adding the dry ones starting with sugar. The mixing was done by a housemate which was great seeing the mixture was rather worryingly thick.

Preparation was about ten minutes and the time in the oven was bang on 25 minutes.

The final result was amazing. The muffins were crunchy sweet on the top and broke open slightly during the baking. The inside was fluffy and the kiwi really complimented the muffin. My brain kept telling me that I’m eating an apple and cinnamon muffin and it was uncanny just how similar the kiwis tasted. The whole muffin had a rather balanced taste to it, it wasn’t too sweet, but just right.

Seeing I have enough ingredients left I’m very tempted to make another batch tomorrow!

Unrelated – I have watched a lot of films today:

• Poirot’s Mystery of the Blue Train
• Galaxy Quest [brilliant as ever]
• Van Helsing [which will always remind me of the game]
• The Green Hornet [much better than I expected]
• The Rock [also brilliant as ever]

I came across the recipe for the Broccoli and peanut butter soup a few weeks ago when I was trying to satisfy my peanut butter addiction and I’d had enough of just sandwiches. I finally made the soup the other day, albeit with some modifications and it was very delicious!

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Broccoli and Peanut Butter soup:

• 400g fresh broccoli or sprouting broccoli
• 1 large onion
• 1 pint of milk
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1 tablespoon crunchy peanut butter
• black pepper
• nutmeg

1. Finely dice the onion and fry it in a pan with the olive oil for about five minutes.
2. Cut the broccoli into bitesize pieces. I used frozen broccoli for this and it was fine.
3. Add the stock cube, milk and broccoli to the onion.
4. Add nutmeg and black pepper. I love the taste of nutmeg and realised that it works very well with broccoli years ago. As for black pepper, well, anything I cook has plenty of that in it!
5. Leave to cook for about 20 mins whilst checking on it regularly! Mine ended up spilling over due to me forgetting that anything milk based always tends to do that with me. Cleaning up wasn’t so much fun!
6. Towards the end of the cooking stir the peanut butter into the soup. It should turn liquid fairly quickly.

Now at this point the original recipe calls for a liquidiser, but seeing I don’t own one and I don’t like smooth soup all that much I skipped that part. I was left with a milky soup with broccoli chunks which is what I wanted. The soup has a very different taste to it and it reminded me a lot of Chinese style chicken satay though less spicy. And it contains a lot of broccoli which, besides being one of my favourite vegetables, is also very healthy! Up on my list is trying this recipe with spinach.

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Banana pancakes:

Yesterday was pancake day otherwise perhaps better known as Shrove Tuesday and even though I’ve definitely been in the UK long enough, I’ve never actually had a pancake on pancake day! So when Jamie Oliver tweeted about his pancake recipes I knew I just had to try the Banana pancakes!

I pretty much followed the recipe as listed on the website though only used three bananas and added plenty of cinnamon to them. Delicious!

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Next up on my list are any of the recipes in this post from 2007!

This is why I asked for recipes that are fairly simple and don’t involve fish or mushrooms. I originally intended to cook something different every day in the first two weeks in December, however as my health is still recovering I’ve been unable to buy ingredients, so it’s been delayed a little.

I do have to say a big thank you to you all though, specifically Timethief for all her suggestions and Ellaella for simply having her blog. Just looking through all the different recipes is amazing and if you’re ever stuck for anything, go over there and have a look.

Another thank you to Fireweaver who recommended this forum site to me. It’s a big and busy forum full with recipes and help for cooking and everything related.

In the meantime, I’m still collecting recipes and this is a list of the ones I have so far:

Via BROOD:

• Creamy Chicken and Broccoli

Via From Scratch:

• Grownup mac and cheese
• Lemon garlic chops
• Lucia and Georgie chicken
• Pizza from scratch
• Spinach tortellini soup

Via Geekwrestler:

• Kanda Bhaji

Via got not milk:

• Fruit dream cream « got no milk

From raincoaster:

• Butternut squash soup

Via Sweetrosie’s Weblog:

• A lovely hot-pot
• White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

From Timethief:

• Shrimp or Chicken Pancakes
• Humous
• Potato Pancakes

Via other sites:

• Oreo Cheesecake Recipe | Recipezaar
• RecipeSource: Creamy Spam Broccoli Casserole

Any more suggestions are more than welcome. :)

Cat