Time for baking, but not for writing

With the onset of cooler weather, the amount of cooking and baking in my house has increased, if not the recent writing about it. It’s no longer torturously hot in our tiny kitchen if the oven is on and, as a result, I’ve gotten back into baking old reliables like Brown Soda Bread and our favourite Chocolate Flapjacks as well as trying out new recipes for Bill Granger‘s Coconut Loaf (especially good toasted), Peanut Butter Cookies (very moreish) from current favourite cookbook, Comfort by Michele Cranston and a zesty Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf that I decided to make in homage to the tasty muffins that I usually get in Dún Laoghaire from the California Market Bakery.

Weekend visitors have given me the opportunity to investigate some new vegetarian recipes, especially a Greek Bean and Pepper Stew using some enormous gigantes beans that nearly took over the kitchen after an overnight soaking, and our monthly bookclub is always a good time for thinking up a new soup idea and this time it’s a meaty, bulked up version of Harira. I hope to cover all these recipes on the site soon but the webmaster course that I’m doing, a fast-approaching business trip to Berlin and a concurrent house purchase seem to be eating far more time than they should!