Wednesday 16 October 2024
Degustabox October 2024 review
Sunday 13 October 2024
What's Cooking At The Madhouse ? menu plan week 42
Wednesday 9 October 2024
BerryWorld partners with CoppaFeel! to raise awareness of breast cancer
Book review : Too Close For Comfort - Mike Martin
With the temperatures dropping outside, along with bone-chilling winds and constant drizzly rain leaving you feeling damp and dejected all day long, it was the perfect time to get my hands on the latest Sgt. Windflower mystery. Reading the stories of the permanently good-natured Mountie and his friends and family, it feels like the literary version of a soft blanket around the shoulders and a decadent mug of hot chocolate, topped with gooey marshmallows and cinnamon, to warm the cockles of your heart. His wife, Sheila, keeps busy looking after their home and providing Winston with delectable food, his fun-loving daughters Stella and Amelia Louise enjoy their new hobbies in their figure skating and dance classes, Dr Sanjay invites the family over for whisky tasting and an Indian feast, Eddie Tizzard is wrapped up in a bubble of domestic bliss with his wife Carrie and young children, ...
Despite the happy times and well-adjusted households, all is not well in Grand Bank though. A string of unexplained fires have been damaging some of the local properties and the finger of suspicion points in an unexpected direction. Worse still, a dead body is discovered in one of the ruined houses. Windflower cannot resist digging into every nook and cranny and ends up making a surprising discovery : traces of gold, presumably linked to a major gold heist on the mainland. With major criminals suddenly thrown into the mix, things take a turn for the worse, especially when Windflower receives a message from beyond, warning him that his friend and colleague Eddie Tizzard may find himself in danger. If only Eddie would believe the warnings from his good-hearted friend.
As always, the novel offers the perfect balance of dangerous and exciting work business and a happy and carefree home life. Windflower knows how to maintain the perfect equilibrium, working hard to keep everyone happy at home ad beyond.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : $24.95 CAD
Publisher : Ottawa Press and Publishing Mystery (1 Oct. 2024)
Language : English
Paperback : 430 pages
ISBN-10 : 1990896227
ISBN-13 : 978-1990896224
Dimensions : 15.24 x 2.74 x 22.86 cm
Available on amazon
Disclosure : I received a review copy in order to share my honest opinion.
Sunday 6 October 2024
What's Cooking At The Madhouse ? menu plan week 41
Sunday 29 September 2024
What's Cooking At The Madhouse ? menu plan week 40
Wednesday 25 September 2024
Cookery book review : Potato Total - Stefan Ekengren
When you need a quick meal and the cupboards and fridge are pretty much bare, if you stumble across a bag of potatoes, things instantly start looking up. The choices are almost limitless - boiled, mashed, roast, made into chips or wedges, sautéed, baked, ... You could get a bit more adventurous and knock up a cottage pie, potato fritters, loaded potatoes, fish pie, ... The book does start with these very basic ideas, giving you instructions on making simple side dishes like mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes or chips. A quick flick through the pages may give you the initial impression that it is too simple and way below your level of cooking. Don't give up though, it's definitely worth a closer look.
Chef Stefan Ekengren starts off with an in-depth look at his experience cooking potatoes, leading into a detailed run-through of the various varieties of potato that he likes the most and how they can best be used. It was interesting to read about how some potatoes are floury while others are waxy, but sadly the more in-depth look at some of the 5,000 varieties available ended up largely useless as he focuses on those available to him in Sweden. I'd never even heard of Folva, Snöball or Rättviks röd, let alone seen them on the shelves of the local supermarket.
His Nordic roots come into their own later in the book when he starts sharing recipes though. I'd never even heard of many of the family-friendly, fairly simple dishes that he explains but they really appeal to me. Lobscouse, which looks better than it sounds - a child-friendly mix of mashed potatoes and beef that I will be trying very soon. Löksälta, a very simple but delightful-sounding dish to share with the family. Pitepalt, or meat-filled dumplings. Pickled potatoes - gherkins, onions, even eggs, but potatoes? The idea had never even crossed my mind. Definitely all things that I would like to try.
Other dishes take us out of his Scandinavian homeland and further afield. Papas arragadas from the Canary Islands, potato focaccia from Puglia, Finnish potato casserole, tortilla vaga from Spain, ... So many things to try and you won't even need to use your passport !
Yet more dishes speak to my soul, leaving me wondering why I'd never thought of them. Pressed potatoes, a cheeky twist on roast potatoes that look and sound too good to ignore. Delicate potato roses that look magnificent but sound totally achievable. Salmon pudding, evocative of a delicate potato and fish sandwich that I'm sure the kids would love.
Even as someone who has been eating and cooking with potatoes since my earliest years, the 90-odd recipes in this book had me looking at potatoes in new ways, excited and intrigued about trying this store-cupboard basic in original and totally unimagined ways. With the cost-of-living crisis still biting hard, it's fabulous to find a book of recipes that uses basically everything you already have in the fridge or the cupboards. On the front cover of the book, it says "Timeless Recipes for Every Home Cook". Whatever your level of cooking skills and whoever you are cooking for, I think that's perfectly true.
star rating : 4.5/5
Editor: by Stefan Ekengren
Features: Full colour, hardcover, stitch bound, 192 pages
Format: 18 × 24 cm, 7 x 9 ½ inches
Price: € 35 (D) £ 30 $ 50 (US)
ISBN: 978-3-96704-164-4
@gestalten #gestaltenbooks
Also available on amazon here.
Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book in order to share my honest opinion.