I made some bread this week which is a first and I consider myself to be a good (ish!) cook so I'm surprised I've not tried this sooner. It was parmesan, onion and herb rolls (or breadcakes/cobs whatever) and they were divine. Cost hardley anything, made 10 big ones, and tasted amazing.

Anyone made something recently new to them?

I recently made an onion,pepper & mushroom soup,Delish:cool:

Nothing :( Could do with some new recipes for nice things....

I made ginger biscuits the other day for the first time, was supposed to be gingerbread men, but only had a round cutter (which has never been used before) and I'm hoping to have a go at hand baking bread in the next few days and a lemon meringue pie.

i made lemon self saucing pudding last week for some friends and they loved it.

i made lemon self saucing pudding last week for some friends and they loved it.

That sounds nice; fancy sharing the recipe or link to it?

its unbelieveably lemoney :) hope you enjoy it (there are some comments at the bottom from other people who have made / tweaked the recipe which are quite useful).

lemon pudding (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5781/lemon-selfsaucing-pudding)

I made a dead quick and easy AND rather yummy desert today, dont know what its called cos I kind of just threw it together, no baking- heres what i did though

4 croissants
butter/margarine
packet of custard
4 bananas
brown sugar
Chocolate spread
rasins

Get a dish (I use a pyrex rectangular one), slice the croissants in half so you have 8 croissant halves. butter each of the halves, then cover them in chocolate spread. Put a layer of croissant halves in the bottom of the dish, then put a layer of sliced banana on top. Sprinkle over some brown sugar and throw in some raisins. Make another layer and do exactly the same on top of the first layer- a layer of croissants and a layer of banana slices, sugar, and raisins. Make up the packet mix of custard and pour over. Put in fridge for an hour or so, to cool and thicken. When its ready, pop a portion in the microwave for 40 seconds and serve warm- delicious!

Parkin. Made 2 lots; one from Gary Rhodes New British Classics and the other from Farmhouse Kitchen (80s TV series). Both lovely, and all moist and sticky now after 2 weeks in t'tin! Gary's has a sort of liquoricey smell and (slight) falvour, due to the black treacle and spices in it.

Made tomato ketchup and tomato and chilli jam at the weekend, my first forays into preserving!

Also tried to make nougat - was more tricky than the recipe indicated, but I have an idea where it went wrong so when I get the burnt sugar off the pan I shall try again!

Oh, and have been making my own brown sauce. Even published my recipe on Jamie Oliver's forum!

Oh, and have been making my own brown sauce. Even published my recipe on Jamie Oliver's forum!

any chance of a linky?

The Brown Sauce of Brian T.
A traditional British condiment for meat on barbies, chip butties (chip sandwiches) and fish and chips. Also fish finger sandwiches.
Ingredients:
1 pint malt vinegar
1 bottle passata
2 tablespoons black treacle
50gm stoned dates
125gm muscovado sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons cornflour
1 small onion
1 teaspoon mace
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
½ teaspoon allspice
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon tamarind extract
1 x 500gm jar apple sauce or apple puree (in england this is unsweetened.)

Method:

1. Put vinegar, passata, apple puree, sugar and treacle into a pan. Stir to dissolve. Bring to boil
2. Put all other ingredients into blender. Add some liquid from the pan. Blend until smooth. Add to pan.
3. Cook until thick.
4. Taste and adjust salt content / sweetness (glucose syrup) / spiciness (you could add chilli, ground cloves or ground black cardamom.)
5. When it tastes good, bottle in hot dry bottles or jars (sterilised in the oven.)


You might want to use a bit more allspice (a key flavouring), depending how you like it and how powerful your allspice is (it fades a bit with age).

Also, you can leave the apple sauce out if you like, which makes it less fruity, and if you want it sharper and less 'sweet' leave out the dates or some of the sugar.

I thickened mine with a little cornflour as well.

The Brown Sauce of Brian T.
A traditional British condiment for meat on barbies, chip butties (chip sandwiches) and fish and chips. Also fish finger sandwiches.
Ingredients:
1 pint malt vinegar
1 bottle passata
2 tablespoons black treacle
50gm stoned dates
125gm muscovado sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons cornflour
1 small onion
1 teaspoon mace
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
½ teaspoon allspice
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon tamarind extract
1 x 500gm jar apple sauce or apple puree (in england this is unsweetened.)

Method:

1. Put vinegar, passata, apple puree, sugar and treacle into a pan. Stir to dissolve. Bring to boil
2. Put all other ingredients into blender. Add some liquid from the pan. Blend until smooth. Add to pan.
3. Cook until thick.
4. Taste and adjust salt content / sweetness (glucose syrup) / spiciness (you could add chilli, ground cloves or ground black cardamom.)
5. When it tastes good, bottle in hot dry bottles or jars (sterilised in the oven.)


You might want to use a bit more allspice (a key flavouring), depending how you like it and how powerful your allspice is (it fades a bit with age).

Also, you can leave the apple sauce out if you like, which makes it less fruity, and if you want it sharper and less 'sweet' leave out the dates or some of the sugar.

I thickened mine with a little cornflour as well.

Sounds good, may give it a bash to go with my ketchup!