Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Coming soon

I am desperate to make Christmas cookies, fudge and chocolate truffles, unfortunately I have essays to write and college work to finish before Christmas can truly start. However I will be making these very soon and the recipes will be up here. So apologies for the Sundays that I have missed but I'm doing my best to get an education, which is harder than it should be, and I am looking forward to baking asap.

In the mean time here is another wintery/Christmasy picture I took during the snowy week.


Saturday, December 4, 2010

The weather outisde is frightful, tea and scones to warm up with

It's December which means two things right now. Winter weather outside, and essays due in for the end of term. Did you think I was going to say Christmas? I wish  I could, but Christmas can't officially start for me until I have submitted all of these horrible essays. So as much as I wish that I could start my Christmas cookies, Christmas cake and pudding making etc, it will have to wait until after the 17th to start, which is way too late for my liking.



 Essays are the most boring and painful things to write so I do think I deserve a little treat even if it's not a Christmas treat. This morning I was watching Nigella make buttermilk scones and I was inspired to make scones to eat while I work.



White Scones with Butter

1 Cup self-raising flour
1 Cup plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 Cup of brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 stick butter melted
200ml milk

preheat the oven to 400'F/200' C. Sieve together the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl mix together the milk and melted butter. If you like raisins then this would be the point to add them and coat them in the flour mixture. In the center of the bowl make a hollow and break the egg into the bowl, add 1/2 of the milk and butter mixture and stir to combine. Continue to add the milk and butter mixture until the dough is springy and moist but not overly wet or dry. There may be some residual flour in the bottom of the bowl but this will be incorporated in the kneading. Knead the dough in the bowl for 5-10 minutes. Until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is very springy and there are no visible cracks in the ball of dough.
Split the dough into balls about 2-3" in diameter. Place the scones at least 3" apart from each other on a cookie tray and bake for 10 minutes or until firm, brown and hollow sounding to tap.
Serve with butter or jam and enjoy.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Cornbread- A Thanksgiving treat in Ireland

I could apologize for my absence but instead I will say in form of explanation that Christmas is approaching and therefore so are my semester end assignments.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow though and therefore even as a novice food blogger I feel that it is my duty to report at Thanksgiving recipe. Even if it weren't I have to say I thoroughly enjoy Thanksgiving. I have celebrated it many times in America and with Americans in other countries. There are many elements of this holiday that I enjoy, namely the many varieties of  pie, but by far my favourite part of the thanksgiving meal has to be the cornbread. I love cornbread. Since the day I discovered that the genius people in America found a way to serve cake as part of the main meal I have devour it at every available opportunity. However in Ireland these opportunities are few and far between, so I make my own!!




Cornbread (irishstyle)

250g Polenta
175g Self -raising Flour, + 1tsp baking powder sieved together
150g Demerara Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 eggs
250ml Butter/whole fat Milk (if you choose the Butter milk the double the salt and add more sugar to taste)
150ml vegetable oil or butter

Sieve together the dry ingredients and whisk together the wet ingredients. Then using the hollow in the centre method combine the wet ingredients into the dry. Only mix until everything is combined not until completely smooth, i.e. don't over mix the batter or it will be a tough bread. Place your mixture into a parchment lined tina and bake at 175 degrees for 15-20 mins
Cool and enjoy with chili or just a smidge of butter or maple syrup.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Cinnamon Bread Pudding

One of the best desserts my mother ever showed me was Bread and Butter Pudding. It was something that she made very rarely but she made very well. I have very fond memories of seeing her puddings in the oven, smelling the beautiful aroma and the excitement that accompanied that.
This week we did not touch our bread and this morning I realized that it was an eat now or dump situation. So I decided to whip out the old bread and butter pudding recipe, this time however with a change. It's November and the Christmas season is well and truly alive in the shops around me. This inspired me to use cinnamon butter instead of butter and raisins. It is of course possible to include raisins here and probably delicious.

Cinnamon Bread Pudding

1 Loaf Bread of choice, we had a seeded bread but white/light brown would work
1.5L milk
4eggs
100g butter
50g Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
Icing sugar to decorate

Lay your bread in a layer on the bottom of a roasting dish. Mix your room temperature butter, sugar and cinnamon to make a paste and spread this on the bread, then add another layer of bread, spread more paste and so on and so forth until the dish is full or your bread it gone.
Ina jug whisk your eggs and add milk. Pour this mixture over the bread and push the bread into the liquid until it is soaked. Store this in the fridge for 1 hour. Then bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes or until brown
Let this cool and then decorate with icing sugar.

Enjoy with ice-cream and a smile!

Monday, November 1, 2010

A failed attempt at caramel apples and It's a Spicy meatball

For every great success there are a number of unmentionable failures and well in this post I intend to mention one of these and at least someone can learn from my mistakes and possibly advise me on what I am doing wrong.

Every year at Halloween I intend or attempt to make Caramel Apples. I hate how they taste but the idea of them appeal to me for some reason I cannot explain. Perhaps it is the all american-ness, perhaps it feels like the only pg13 adult way to enjoy the holiday. However every year they evade me and then I vow to do better next year. So far I have yet to succeed.
I make beautiful caramel, this sounds so modest but I think I must defend myself on this element of the recipe. I have tried changing this caramel to suit the apples, thicker, thinner, hotter, colder. It never sticks Every time I try these the caramel runs off. I have tried washing the apples, cooling the apples and it never works. I have tried applying a thin layer of caramel and then adding to it but the new caramel heats the old caramel and pulls it away from the apple.



This year I came close. I had a delicious recipe with Burnt Caramel, and salty toasted almonds to coat. however despite my preparation and consideration I ended up with this -



Clearly this is not what I was hoping to achieve and as you can see even after the caramel had set on the apples the weight of the toasted almonds dragged the caramel to a pool on the bottom of the apples.




Therefore Caramel apples was not an option for the blog. I wanted something else seasonal so I made toasted vanilla pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin we carved. However these were apparently so delicious that they were all consumed before I had a chance to photograph the, brilliant!! At that point i gave up on my Halloween baking and then I made these delicious little fellas - 


Admittedly they are not baking products persay, however they are spicy, slightly sweet and they are baked in the oven.












Halloween Spicy Turkey Meatballs.

500g Lean Minced Turkey
2 eggs
200g Barn Brack Crumbs
100g finely grated Emmenthal or other strong cheese.

Mix All of your ingredients in a bowl and then use a spoon or your hands to form balls. bake these in the over for 20mins or until the turkey exceeds 79'.
Cover with your tomato sauce of choice and eat with noodles, linguine, spaghetti, in a sub, your choice. The meatballs are beautifully moist and the barn brack adds a spicy flavour that really puts one in the mood for the start of winter and the many holidays that go with it. The sweetness of the cake also counteracts the strong cheese and the overall experience is one that I will enjoy many times over the rest of the winter.


Thursday, October 28, 2010

My Thoughts on Parenthood, I laugh, I cry, I get emotional and my boyfriend walks out

I made cookies on Saturday but was working Sunday and somehow all my cookies disappeared and the second batch was not as good, so no post. Sorry =(

However I have decided to talk about a TV show that I am loving right now. Parenthood!!

I was waiting for this show since about February of last year. I have a secret, I love, love The Gilmore Girls, actually if you know me this is not a secret, not at all!! I have every episode on my laptop and have followed the rest of lauren Graham's work since. So when I heard that she would be a main character in Parenthood, well I checked for a release date every other day until it was announced. There was some controversy surronding the premiere of this show and according to wikipedia Maura Tierney was due to play the part of Sarah Braverman. Now I must state that I am in no way glad or happy that Maura got cancer, and was unable to do this show, I do hope she is doing well and that she is getting loads of work. However, that said, no-one could play Sarah Braverman better than Lauren Graham. She has this incredible ability to play a single mom who has made some mistakes but works hard. She manages to come of as  both extremely intelligent and deserving of your respect while simultaneously silly, funny, unorganized and accident prone. If you are thinking, that sounds suspiciously like the character of Loreli Gilmore, well you're right but I say 'If it aint broke.....'

The show itself centres around the Braverman family and is a television spin off of the 80's movie. (FYI this is the second spin off but by far the best). The family includes the Grandparents; Zeek and Camille; siblings Adam, Sarah, Crosbie and Julia; and their respective partners and children. The drama in this show comes from the interpersonal relationships, as well as the trials of life inside the family and out. The first season deputed on march 2 2010 and included 13 episodes. Season 2 started in September and we are currently up to episode 7. I really hope that they are going to make a full 24 episode series, but it does not look promising because IMDB only shows up to 2.13. So we will see.

I personally enjoy this show. As a girl the relationships and love interests enthrall  me and as a young adult, stuck between the angst of being a teenager and the responsibilty of being a parent, I like the interpersonal dynamics and I fell like I can see from both sides. The show has a large target audience. I would compare it to something like 'Brothers and Sisters,' but for a younger audience. Teenagers will find story lines that affect them and adults will understand more fully the delicate balance between strict parenting and relating to your children.
My personal favourite Characters are Sarah Braverman, (obviously!)  and jabar (Crosbie's 5 year old son, who Crosbie never knew existed until the mother walked back into his life, unexpectedly). (Also side note for any GG fans - Luke's Daughter has a camio role in S2 episode 4, mirroring the Crosbie storyline).

Honestly my only criticism of this show is that it can be slow moving at times. As a trainee Psychologist, and a girl, I thoroughly enjoy all the conversations, the interactions and intricate dynamics of the inter-familial relationships. However I don't think these are enough to entertain the males in my life. In point of fact my boyfriend actually walked away when I tried to show him. He enjoyed the male bonding scenes over roof-top reconstruction, but once that was over, so was his interest. They say you cannot please all of the people all of the time and this is certainly true for Parenthood (2010). However for my tastes this show is just right!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Mini Cookies

I've had a long week and next week is due to be even longer and harder. I think we all know how this feels. Well half way through the week I was looking through Tastespotting and I discovered this lovely blog, with it's beautiful pictures - http://twopeasandtheirpod.com/mini-chocolate-chip-cookies/ 
These cookies reminded me of the delicious mini cookies I used to buy from Wawa, when I was living in PA, and thus the cravings began. The BF will attest to the fact that I spent the rest of the night moaning about how much i wanted these cookies, nothing, nothing looked as good as these cookies did. I knew then exactly what I would be baking for this week's blog.I adapted this recipe from the Chewy one cookie recipe of Alton Brown's Good Eats fame. I have done this recipe a few times and it needs special adaptation for size in my opinion. Hence my choices below















Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies


150g Butter melted
125g Demerara Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract
200g Plain Flour/bread Flour(ala Alton Brown's Chewy one)
1tsp salt
2 egg yolks beaten with 2tsp of milk

Mix your melted butter and your sugar together until you have a paste consistency. Add the vanilla extract at this point. Then add your egg mixture, flour and salt slowly stirring constantly. Chill this mixture in the fridge for an hour.
Remove the mixture from the fridge and preheat your oven to 200'. Allow the mixture 10 mins or so to soften as the oven heats up and then use either a melon baller or your fingers to make tiny balls about half an inch in diameter. I put these balls directly onto the grease-lined cookie tray, without squashing them. As in my last cookie recipe this comes later.





The difficult part of this recipe is the cooking time. I could recommend 8 minutes but it all depends on your cookie size. You really, really have to watch these cookies and the minute they appear browned around the edges and solid in the middle take them out. Leave them on the cookie sheet for an extra 3-4 minutes and squash them down. After 5 minutes move them to a cooling rack.

Then enjoy them with milk, tea, or coffee.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Sick day of sorts!!

I have had a rough couple of nights this week. In fact it'd be safe to say that for a number of reasons I haven't slept since Wednesday. This has left me exhausted and sore. Therefore try as I might to bake something today, my heart was not in it. Naturally this lead to a less than worthy recipe and another week without posting on Sunday. I suck. I did make some food today and it was not sweet or baked, but it is delicious.
I am therefore breaking from the sort lived tradition of baked goods on this blog and including one dinner recipe that I will be eating all winter and I hope to use as a cold and flu deterrent. Broccoli soup! I love this soup, I discovered it last year and ate it throughout the tough winter that we had here. This Autumn as the leaves are changing colour and the cold season begins I decided it was high time to resurrect the recipe and today I made my first batch.

The soup is simple and does not call for any milk or butter, yet has a deliciously creamy texture and taste.

Ingredients

2 Heads and stalks of broccoli
2 onions, roughly chopped
1 lg Sweet Potato
2 sticks of celery (optional)
3 Cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
1 Vegetable stock cube
2L Boiling water
Basil

Make up the stock as directed. Chop up all your vegetables. They need not be very small, this will all be blended later. Heat the onion and olive oil in a large pot. Add the rest of the ingredients with the stock and the rest of the boiling water. Cook this until the potato and the broccoli are soft. Then blend. Simples!

If you desire more seasoning, salt, pepper and other herbs of your choosing can be added. I prefer this to be slightly bland as I find the flavour of the garlic and the broccoli is enough. You can also add a drop of milk if you like. However this will shorten the shelf life and it really is not needed. The potato is enough here.
I will endeavor to post a proper baking recipe next week. But for the moment I will be enjoying my soup.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

A mid-week recipe and a story from my childhood

I missed posting on Sunday due to work commitments. I did try to compose a television review but that was unrealistic because I had no research or preparation done. Therefore I broke my good streak of updating every Sunday.
Instead I made something mid-week, and then went to the park and did not watch tv.

This recipe was made out of neccessity because we had a whole box of pears that were gonna go



off and I felt the need to bake.














Since the peanut butter cup cupcakes we both decided that we needed something slightly more healthy. I had planned on making a walnut bread but decided to makes something to use up the pears.

When I was a teenager I fell off my bike pretty badly one day and broke my ankle. I was stuck in my house for weeks and my parents forced me to study. During this time I became obsessed with making miny versions of food, I ate my way through packs and packs of mini pizzas and also invented my original version of the single serving apple crumble. Needless to say I gained a few popunds during that time and now that I am a little older and a little more health conscious, I am revisiting the mini crumble and revamped it in a healthy way. (But trust me you wouldn't know from the taste!)

Pear and Almond Crumble

6 Pears, peeled and chopped
50g Ground almonds
1tbsp Brown Sugar, keep seperate

Crumble
300g Jumbo Porridge Oats
50g Flaked almonds
2 tsp Agave nectar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup Milk
25g broken oatcake crackers(these are optional)
Icing Sugar to dust

1 Cup = 125g flour
(I say this because I know that I mix my measurement styles sometimes.)

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.
Peel and chop your pears into cubes. Put these cubes into a bowl and then add 50g ground almonds and 1 tbsp brown sugar. Mix and put aside. Then mix together your porridge oats, flaked almonds and sugar and broken oatcakes if you choose. In a separate bowl mix your milk eggs and agave nectar. Mix these together. The mixture should be sticky but not wet.

Grease your silicone muffin cases or souffle dishs slightly with spray. Fill them half way with the pear mixture and press the crumble onto the top. Bake for 15-20mins or until the crumble is browned all over. Wait until they are cooled slightly and then dust with icing sugar.


This very quickly turns to this.....


Sunday, September 26, 2010

Peanutbutter cup cupcakes and the boyfriend's birthday

It's my boyfriend's birthday this week and therefore I have a very very good excuse to bake, probably the best excuse other than Christmas. My BF knows how much I like to bake and since he knew I would probably bake him something he came to me a week ago with a picture of peanutbutter cupcakes and said 'these please!' This started my week worth of recipe design and the ultimate decision was to go for the classic peanut butter and chocolate combo.
If nothing else I am an original!

















Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

2 1/2 Cups self raising flour
1tsp baking soda
200g Butter
200g brown sugar
4 eggs
2 Cups peanut butter, I choose crunchy but it's up to you.
1/2 cup milk
1 Cup Chocolate spread

Chocolate icing, i'm not going to lie I stole this one from Betty Croker as I am quite busy ATM
Decorate with peanut candy

First scoop small amounts of chocolate spread onto some greaseproof paper with a melon baller. Put this into the freezer to chill while you work. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Cream your butter and sugar. Sieve together your flour and baking soda. Then add your eggs one at time and 3/4 of your flour mixture alternating between the two and mixing thoroughly. Mix your peanut butter with the milk to smooth it out and then add this to the mixture with the remaining 1/4 of your flour until you have a cake like batter.

Line your muffin tin with paper muffin cases. Scoop some batter into each muffin case until they are 1/3 full. Insert your frozen chocolate spread nugget into this and then scoop in more batter until each case is 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20mins on 180' or until browned and set. Turn your tin if necessary.

Cool them on a wire wrack and then decorate with your chocolate icing and peanut candy. I used my beautiful Masterclass icing set that my wonderful sister gave to me last Christmas and which I have not used nearly enough for my liking.
Then enjoy, with caution because they are a tad addictive. ; )



'No Ordinary Family,' Review

I had my hopes set to reasonably high for this show. I have a lot of time for Julie Benz, she did an excellent job on Dexter, in Angel and Buffy and even in Desperate Housewives she brought her characters to life in a way that many of the female supporting actors don't. So when she left dexter I kept my eyes open for her next project - 'No Ordinary Family.'

Lets look at the other characters, Michael Chiklis. I have never seen 'The Shield,' but from what I have read about it, the character he plays in NOF is drastically different from that of Vic Mackley, which is usually the sign of a quality actor. Kay Panabaker, Disney Kid! Disney does a number of things right, fostering good child actors is not one of them. Every disney kid I have ever seen annoys me and Miss Panabaker is no exception.Jimmy Bennett is unoffensive but in the pilot episode plays a background role.(Spoiler, I love the fact that his super power is not being retarded anymore, magic!!)

My initial impression of this show was something between the first season of 'Heros,' and family values elements of 'The Incredibles.' This premise is not altogether unappealing to me. Unfortunately the pilot of No Ordinary Family disappoints.

The story telling style is interesting but completely inappropriate for this particular show. This is a spoiler but the narrative is generated from the stories that the couple are telling their therapist. Having worked with many therapists in the past I know for a fact that if someone came to you with a story of super powers obtained after a near fatal accident, it would be your duty to report this to the authorities or at the very least another medical professional. For the sake of those connected with this situation as well as their health. Maybe that is something they will explore in further episodes, maybe not but it seems like a stupid idea on the part of the main characters.
The thing that disappointed me the most here was the dialogue. I feel for the underpaid and unappreciated writers of Hollywood but the talented writers on this show need to take another look at the script before they send it to producers. There are a number of good actors on this show and yet they are crippled by this terrible script. I watched the final scenes of the show in disgust as the main characters exchanged cliche platitudes of love. I imagine that they felt as stupid as they looked saying these lines.
So will I watch this show again? Well I believe in second chances but I'll probably record it and watch it when there is literally nothing else on.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Secondly, cookies!!!


Since this blog is entitled TV and Cookies it seems only right that the first recipe should be cookies, well sorry but the second one is. My favourite type of cookies are the gooey, chewy ones. The cookies in M&S are a perfect example. It have been searching for years to find the right recipe though.
On the one end there are the overly fatty gooey cookies, they feel greasy and taste of butter. The other end is the cakey cookie; airy, dry and to my tastes, disgusting.
I recently made another oatmeal cookie that called for baking soda dissolved in hot water, which I wasn't used to using, surely this would raise the cookie, not in small amounts though. Those oatmeal cookies are now famous among my bf's friends, or infamous for being too irresistible.
I decided to attempt a chocolate chip cookie with the baking soda and the results were interesting.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (1), yes I plan on doing multiple versions of these

250g Brown/Demerara sugar
300g Plain floor
Pinch of salt
1tsp Baking Powder dissolved in 2tbsp warm water
250g Butter melted
2 egg yolks
100ml Milk
1 tsp Vanilla extract
150g Chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Mix together your flour,salt and sugar. Add the melted butter, eggs, milk and vanilla extract and stir to combine. Then add your baking soda water mixture, stir and let this sit for a few minutes before adding your chocolate chips. Spoon the mixture on to a greased cooking sheet. I like to use an ice-cream scoop to ensure the cookies are even, plus it's what they do on the food network ; )
Bake the cookies for 8 -12mins but keep a close eye on them. As soon as the cookies have browned remove them from the oven and put the cooking sheet on a wire rack. Some recipes call for the cookies to be immediately removed from the sheet but I like to let these ones sit for up to 8 minutes for a little extra cooking on a lower heat.There is also the crucial stage. For these cookies I let them cool for 3 - 4 minutes and then squash them with the back of a spatula. The crispy upper layer will split slightly to reveal the gooey deliciousness inside.
That's it and then the only difficult part is dealing with the complaints from people who can't stop eating your cookies and blame you for this. Enjoy....

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Silicone Muffin cases - answer to my low fat muffin?


For the last few months I have been collecting various AGA merchandise, one of these items was a muffin tin. So I set about making muffins and cupcakes galore. The only problem was low-fat muffins. I found that if the muffin was fat free it stuck to the paper case or the muffin tin, despite the use of non-stick spray. Then I bought these silicone muffin cases and it occurred to me that these might be the solution, so I invested and the results were brilliant. I only had to use a small amount of olive oil spray and they came away from the cases with ease.

(I apologize that it looks like an 80s cookbook photo, my camera is not great.)

So my first recipe is for wholemeal, low fat hemp seed muffins -

2 cups wholemeal pastry flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds
1/8 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup fat free milk
2 eggs whites, one egg yolk
3 tbsp honey
200g apple sauce

The method is simple you sieve together your flour baking powder then add your sugar(optional). Grind down your hemp seeds until they are as fine as possible and then whisk into you dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk together the milk and honey with your egg yolk. Rinse off your whisk before you whisk your egg whites til they are frothy. Add the milk and honey to the dry ingredients and then fold in your egg whites. The mixture should be quite aerated at this point and over mixing is dangerous.
Spray your silicone muffin cases with a very small amount of oil and then spoon in you mixture. Then cook in a 220' oven for 15 - 20 mins. or until browned and solid.
From the picture you can see what mine looked like and also how bubbly and light they are. I thoroughly enjoyed them but so did my boyfriend and his parents, none of whom are health freaks. In fact they liked them so much that there were only two left to photograph.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Television review - The hard times of RJ Berger

MTV shows have never really had a massive appeal for me, well not since Daria. So I was hesitant to watch RJ Berger but some friends were laughing about it and quoting it so I decided to give it a go. Possibly review it, I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I watched all ten episodes but I'll get to that.
In that it's an MTV show it is a prerequisite for it to be overly sexual and vulgar. However I had hoped that this excessive sexual content would not interfere with the storyline. I guess it was too much to expect. From the very first episode it becomes obvious that this RJ lives in an unnatural environment filled with adults who are unashamedly over sexed. His parents and their friends talk explicitly around him and his parents have a sex room next to his. So.......that's...............................healthy!
The title implies a difficult school life, but by the end of the first episode we discover that it simply refers to his apparently enormous member when it's in full force.
In the first few episodes this seems to be a source of great power for the young man, then they appear to change the tone and decide that this 'gift,' is also a curse, a cross to bear, like his giant penis symbolizes the weight of his virginity. Towards the end of the show they make little reference, other than in passing, to the incredible large thing that initially set the premise for the whole series.
Other than the sexual content, this show could pass for any other teenage dramatic comedy, boy loves girl, boy can't have girl, boy jumps through several hoops to try to get her.......and you know the rest.
So why did I watch all 10 episodes?! Well I must admit that the show does have some slightly addictive appeal, each episode ends with a review of whats coming next week and although this section is tediously long and seemingly unnecessary, it highlights unexpected elements in the coming episode and leaves the viewer thinking 'ok that one might be interesting!' Needless to say, it lies. Although I fell for this obvious ploy 9 times so I have to give it some credit and a whopping 3 out of 10. Alright if there is really nothing else on.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Cat starts a blog

Hi,
My name is Cat. I am an amateur baker and a fanatic Food Network watcher. Therefore I have decided to start a blog, partially because I thoroughly enjoy reading other people's food blogs and mostly because it gives me a rather wonderful excuse to bake on a regular basis.
Once, or twice a week if I'm very lucky, I get a night where I bake/cook something delicious and sit down to enjoy some of the many television shows I have recorded on my DVR box. I think that watching television with some freshly baked cookies (especially when I have friends to share them with) is pretty much the best night of the working week. I would like to share this experience with others so here I am, TV and Cookies the blog.
Ok so the basis of the blog is this a weekly update where I will either describe a recipe or give a review of the shows I'm watching, maybe both, and I do hope someone else likes it but if not I'll still have fun writing and baking.
Cat

Protein Cheesecake for every weeknight dessert

 I've been making this recipe for a while, think 3-4 years in various iterations and adapted it a number of times. This is my favourite,...