Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 23

Following a very frantic Friday evening, I awoke on Saturday feeling quite pleased that I’d made the effort as now the whole weekend stretched ahead of me and the most effort I had to put in from that point was to whip some cream. I had, the night before, baked the Amaretto Cream Cake from The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook and now had to simply whip the cream, add the amaretto and sandwich the cake together. I dusted the top liberally with cocoa powder and tried not to eat it right then and there! I loved this cake, the amaretto in the cream was not in the least bit over powering and neither was it too sweet. The perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea of a Saturday morning! I did have to reign myself in from snacking on the leftover amaretto biscuits though, there are just enough left to make another cake from the same book, so no leftovers for me.

A pattern has begun to emerge over the past few weeks in that I don’t seem to do any cooking at the weekends, it’s not through choice per se, just that we’ve been very busy and away from home. With that in mind we spent a very enjoyable afternoon and evening out with friends, sampling the delights of several pubs in the Thame area – catching the train to the pub is definitely the way forward. Our dinner that night consisted of a hog roast sandwich, and some lovely snacks procured by my friend from the local farmers market that morning…and possibly a sneaky portion of chips on the way home!


In an attempt to get back to the post-holiday detox my other new recipe for the week was Salmon & Lentils with Chorizo, Asparagus and Balsamic Dressing from Lorraine Pascale’s Fast Fresh & Easy. Now I didn’t have a tin of green lentils so before I started the rest of the prep I quickly popped some dried ones on to cook while I got everything else ready. Believe it or not this is the first time I’ve cooked asparagus so far this year, I’ve only actually eaten it on a handful of occasions too – the weather has delayed it for too long! This was an absolute delight of a dish, the salmon was lovely and moist, the chorizo and asparagus really adding flavour to the lentils and the dressing was a nice touch of sweetness. It might have been slightly on the expensive side, but we all deserve a splurge now and then!

Recipe Count: 70
New Target: 104