Baked Cod with lentils and lardons

There has been the odd recipe posted on this website claiming to be “brain food” – as a student brain food is very important to me and as we’re getting closer to the end of term and the inevitable horrifying 2 months that is “exam period” I can do with all the help I can get!

When my sister and I started taking important exams like GCSE’s (SAT’s didn’t count!) my Mum started giving us a type of Omega 3 tablet called “Eye-Q” (at least that’s what my memory tells me it was called…). The idea is that these tablets boost your brain power! Seeing as I achieved 6 A*’s, 3 A’s and 2 B’s in my GCSE’s we figured they worked…along came A Levels and what do you know 3 A’s – some of my module results were even 100%! So…fishy oils = brain power right?! The idea that fish is brain food can’t be wrong can it!?

I thought I would do a little research into this long standing idea! After watching a programme on television the other day that dispelled lots of cooking myths (E.g. a glass of wine in a spag bol will get burnt off during the cooking process and meringue can be made if a little egg yolk gets into your egg whites) I thought I’d find out if fish really is brain food!

After a little time spent on Google there is a whole RANGE of evidence that suggests the claim is really true!

Blueberry and Lemon Curd Muffins

I love cake as much as the next woman: big cakes, littlecakes, chocolate cakes, coffee cakes, butterfly cakes, fairy cakes and even cake pops. I wouldn’t be surprised if 50% of my posts were about cake in some way!

I was surprised however when I was going back over my posts in the last year that I did not have a basic muffin recipe! In the past I posted a recipe for cheese muffins and one for banana and chocolate, but I don’t have a double chocolate or blueberry recipe on here! I do surprise myself sometimes.

So, here, at last is an American-style blueberry muffin recipe, but, there is a twist!

I love the sweet syrupy goodness of a big fat blueberry but there is such thing as too much of a good thing, so my muffin recipe has a hidden surprise; a gooey centre of sharp lemon curd to cut those blueberries down to size.

Twice Baked Sweet Potato

I do love a good jacket potato don’t you? There are endless topping choices from coleslaw to cheese, from chilli to beans and so much more! Even a simple dollop of butter will do.

But...they can get a bit boring...

Being a student I most definitely eat my fare share of jacket potatoes! In the winter I can easily eat 4 in a week and it can get extremely repetitive! So, I was determined to come up with a jacket potato with a twist, something new and exciting and perhaps more appropriate for a light dinner as winter moves into spring.

The rather delicious sweet potato was my starting point. I love its soft sweet flesh whether its mashed or turned into wedges, but I’d never actually had it quite simply as a baked potato.

The Rainbow Cookbook: Raspberry Tart

As many of my followers on twitter and facebook will probably know I’ve been in the kitchen experimenting with pink recipes all weekend! And I can now reveal what I have been SLAVING over!

A no-bake Raspberry tart!

So why have I been experimenting with pink recipes? I am one of six bloggers who is taking part in the Appliances British Ovens Rainbow Cookbook, where, along with six other bloggers we will be blogging different recipes relating to a colour of the rainbow. My colour is pink and my pink ingredient is raspberries!

This recipe is extremely simple and EXTREMELY tasty!

Here’s the recipe:

Currently Craving: Bread!

As promised every month I am writing a post on something I am currently craving.
Last month it was the delicious botanically brewed drinks from Fentinmans, this week it’s something a little more simple...BREAD!

There is NOTHING like the smell of freshly baked bread wafting from your kitchen. I’m doubly fortunate as not only do I bake bread quite often, my parent’s home down south is near a bread factory [enter a brand like Warburtons/Kingsmill here, I’m not sure which one!] and although one of their loaves can’t beat a homemade loaf any day, I love it in the summer when the breeze blows the right way and you get a waft of freshly baked bread as you’re lazing in the back garden!

I first learnt to cook bread in a “Food Tech” class, I was in year 8 and we were given a basic white loaf recipe and we had to tweak it in some way to come up with our own. This could be using wholemeal flour instead, adding various ingredients such as cheese, bacon, onion etc, or playing around with the shape of our loaf!

I made an Italian herb bread which I made out of 6 roll sized balls of dough which fused together in a round tin when they cooked! Very pretty looking!

It wasn’t bad for a first go! Though I took my food tech lessons for granted back then. It was gobbled up by that evening and I thought nothing more until a few years ago.

Cardamom Cake with Rose and White Chocolate Buttercream

Last week I introduced you to Lee Rosy's a wonderful tea shop in the back streets of Nottingham City Centre. It's one of our best kept secrets!

I also wrote about a cardamom cake that I had while I was there. I wasn't brave enough to go and ask for the recipe but I was pretty confidant I could put my own spin on the cake and come up with something delicious to treat my family to on a visit home.

The cake went down so well that my Mum has commissioned another cardamom cake for Easter, but the decoration is yet to be confirmed!

Last year I went for an Easter bunny, perhaps this year the cake won't be so kitsch!

Anyway...back to my cardamom cake!