Cookie's Corner ~ In Which I get A Loverly Pressie and Decide to Test Some Traditional Recipes

Welcome Me Loverlies To Woden's Day !!!

Here we are again at Cookie's Corner and today I have something rather special for you. This came from something rather special that was given to me by my Bootiful Cousin last week.

You see what happened was that she had found a rather loverly little book about old fashioned preserves and chutneys in the local charity shop and grabbed it for me. Which I thought was rather loverly to be honest and it had all the kind of recipes you never see anymore like Rose Petal Jam and other recipes that are old country recipes based on hedgerow ingredients for the most part. Elated I was with it, in fact it is now with the very special favourite books I keep next to the bed !!!

A couple of days later my Bootiful Cousin and I were having a sneaky peek around the Refurnish shop, like you do when youa re a foraging pixie like me and I spied some rather loverly hand-thrown pottery kitchen jars. A rather stunning set that I fell immediately in love with but unfortunately at that moment had about 50p to my name and they were a little bit more than that. So I toddled off to look further up the window and all of a sudden I saw my cousin in the shop and I was accosted by Himself who told me with a big grin on his face to go in cos I was wanted. So I did. My Bootiful Cousin whom I love dearly had bought the set of kitchen jars for me.

So here they are in all thier glory !!!!

Now these particular 3 were the ones I became rather inspired by to make my own.

Around here I make from scratch as much as I can and it has been a rather long time since I made mint sauce so that was the first one.

The second was the marmalade, which I tend to make rather more regularly especially when we have left over citrus fruit at the end of the fortnight. So that was easy enough, not Orange this time but tangerines so it made a rather more fluid offering but none the less yummy .

However for this week's offering I thought I would let you into the most incredible little recipe I found in the wonderful little recipe book from my cousin.

Parsely Honey

What the....!!??!! I hear you say. Yeap that is exactly what I said to. However the origins of this recipe are loverly and you know me always a sucker for a tradition and history of what I am making. So Parsley Honey was made during the Second World War as a substitute for the real thing as it was alot scarer than sugar at the time.

Now I have to tell I was rather sceptical about this but any book that has a recipe for Primrose Cordial has to know what it is talking about !!!

So I went for it and you know what it is AMAZING!!! it actually looks and tastes like runny Heather Honey!!! Strange but true!!!

So here is the recipe for you to try it out for yourself and I am using old measures because it is a tradional recipe and I think all parts of that should be preserved.

Parsely Honey

6oz fresh Parsley
1 1/2 Pints Water
1 lb Sugar
Juice of a small Lemon

-Wash the Parsely and chop it roughly even the stalks and put into a pan with the water.

-Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes and then strain and measure the resulting juice.

- Put the juice in a clean pot with the Lemon Juice and 1 lb Sugar for every pint of Parlsey Juice.

- Stir well over a low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved then bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes or so, until the mixture is clear and syrupy

- Pour into warm, sterilised jars, cover and seal whilst hot.

Now when I maede mine I ended up with a bit over 2 pints of Parsely Honey and I am quite proud of my large jar in the cupboard as well as the loverly jar on the bench in the kitchen.

The best bit was the faery princesses were visiting when I made it and they both loved it. I figure you can't ask for better than that !!!!

Time for me to toddle off now and get some sleep.

Have a wonderful rest of whatever you are doing.

If you would like to try any others of my recipes follow this link to my book Which is Which?

Which is Which ?

xox Love and Light xox

Cookie's Corner ~ Here come the Fae !!!

Hey Loverlies!!! Welcome to Woden's Day

Well the Edge of the Moors Faery Festival is only a couple of months away and we have decided to do most of the concessions ourselves. One of the things we have found we need to make and need lots of are fairy cakes. In fact we are having to make 300 of them to make sure we have enough to go around. What we also have to think about is those who are wheat and dairy free, so this evening I have decided to pop up the recipe we are going to use for the wheat and dairy free version.

This is a recipe that has been tried and tested on kids. You know the type of kids that will moan the first time they see something not quite right. To be honest I made 2 dozen and they evaporated out of the tin!!! Quickly enough that we couldn't grab the camera in time to get a pic so I will add one in when I make some ont he weekend.  So kids love then and to be honest that is the best way to know that a recipe will work!!!

So here we go :~

Wheat and Dairy Free Fairy Cakes

250g Soy Spread
250g Caster Sugar
1 tspn Vanilla Extract
250g Spelt Flour
4 Tbspns Soy Milk
3 tspns Baking Powder

~ Cream the Soy Spread and Sugar together until light and fluffy, add the vanilla and mix in.
~ Mix in the Flour and Baking Powder and add as much Soy Milk as you need to make a medium batter.
~Divide the mix between 24 muffin tins.
 ~Bake at  200°C Electric oven, Electric fan oven 180°C, Gas Mark 6 for 10 - 20 minutes until cooked and golden on top.

Don't overcook the fairy cakes otherwise they will dry out.

Cool on a wire rack

Top them anyway you feel fit to do so. Frosting or glaze and loads of different glittery toppings. Have fun with them and get the kids to join it!!

~~~~~~

 So there you go a loverly healthy recipe for the nommies that we Fae all love !!!

If you want to know more about  the Edge of the Moors Faey Festival follow the link below to the website:~

Edge of The Moors Faery Festival

I will be making more of these ont he Weekend and will add the pics then!!! if we can fight the kids of for long enough HAHAHAHAHA!!!! 

Have a wonderful rest of your Wednesday

xox Love and Light xox

Cookie's Corner ~ Soysages for Brekky

Morning !!! and a wonderful Woden's Day to you :D

Today I decided to do something a bit quick for brekky but something to cover me for later on since today is choc-a-block full of all sorts of things to get done, in so saying the chances of me forgetting to eat are pretty high. So since I already had some mix left from last nights dinner Soysages on toast it was.

Right so the ingredients :~

2 cups of soybeans (pre soaked or leftover grits from making soymilk)
1 cup of plain flour or spelt flour or potato flour works well too
1/2 cup soymilk (or milk if you prefer)
1 teaspoon of nigella seeds
1 teaspoon dried thyme or fresh if you have it
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 Tablespoons Tomato puree
(Extra flour of your choice for rolling them in)

To be completely honest you can use whatever flavourings you feel are best I use these because they happen to be on hand and I like the mix it has a nice earthy mix thats just enough spice without being too herby or hot and spicy.

Ok so What you do is this :~

Blitz it ALL in the food processor until it makes a paste or rather a medium dough type paste.

If you need to add more fluid because you feel the mix is far too dry then do but only a little at a time oherwise you will be on that perpetual rollercoaster of "Oh no now I need more flour" and then back to "Oh no now I need more liquid" be sensible with it. Once it looks like the consistancy of pate STOP!!!

Then you need to shape them. I choose to use teaspoons that way I can fool myself into thinking I am having 6 sausages all too myself when in reality I'm only having maybe the equivalent of 2 -3 much more reasonable!! Of course you can make them as large or small as you like and even shape them into meatballs which is just as good. Anyway you choose to do it, here is one I was making this morning :~

Once you have shaped your little soysages you need to roll them in the flour of your choice :~

And then they look like these little beauties :~

Now if they don't particularly look like this don't worry about it. (Martha Stewart would probably use a piping bag) We are all human and even mine are all over the place !!

In a hot pan start to fry them off, I prefer to use butter or a soy based spread but you can use what you want.

Turn them once they are golden but don't play with them too much or they will fall apart.

Then serve them up however you want :~

Mine of course are on homemade mini loaf toast but then i couldn't make up my mind on what sauces so I thought buggar it I'm having one of each !!!

For you canny lot that can count, you have probably noticed there is one missing. Yes there were 7 in the pan and only 6 on my plate. Just remember a good cook always has one left for quality control. I mean you want to make sure it is perfect before eating the rest!!!

Oh and for you more adventerous lot. This is the perfect recipe to play with. You can add grated veg to it like carrot and courgette and onion. You could even crumb coat them and deep fry them if you wanted. They don't however tend to do well in the oven they do tend to dry out unless they are in a sauce of some description. But have fun with it and I would love to know what you come up with.

For those who are interested in trying out more of my recipes take a look at my book Which is Which? It teaches people to modify thier favourite meaty dairy filled yummy recipes into vegan and wheat free ones.


Which is Which?



In the mean time have a safe and happy Wednesday !!!

xox Love and Light xox