Cook Bake Teach

  This is my go-to for a tasty and easy dinner. The kids love it too, and the spices in the dish make it comforting and moreish. A spoonful of tasty Moroccan goodness! I came up with this recipe myself, after wanting a tagine one evening. We don't have a tagine pot though, so I took the elements and cooked it on the hob. It's much quicker, and as it's a veggie recipe, you really don't need it to be in a casserole dish/tagine in the oven for ages. It's not like you're trying to tenderise meat by a slow cook. So I came up with this. It's comforting, and rich with tomato and Moroccan spices. It's also adaptable. Traditionally though, I used butternut squash as the bulk of the stew, so that's what I've included in the recipe. If I don't have a squash I use sweet potato instead. As you can tell by the recipe, it's not exact and I tend to chuck whatever I've got in the fridge into it, and it always tastes good. Serve with couscous or pitta...

These cupcakes are a decadent little treat. Bursting with fresh raspberry and creamy white chocolate. It has to be said, we polished them off pretty sharpish....they were delicious. I was going to say how lovely these would be for a summer party, but none of us can have parties at the moment! You know what I mean though! Set the recipe to one side and use it when you do have a party. An epic end-of-lockdown party!! A lot of cupcake baking I've done in the past has been using my trusty vegan recipe (I used to have my own vegan cupcake business) so using a dairy recipe is actually venturing into the unknown for me! But for once, me and Miss L stuck to a recipe, and they came out perfect. I heartily recommend them! I did think the recipe would be lovely with strawberries instead of raspberries as well.

  Such addictive eating! Nom nom nom!! My good friend Elaine gave me her recipe for Irish Soda Bread and it. is. delicious. I don't feel like the picture does it justice. It's moreish, biscuit-y taste is good with savoury and sweet toppings and it has a lovely crumb. It's also easy and quick to make, which in my world is a BIG plus! Elaine has always baked this for friends and family, and as she says it should be served with LASHINGS of salted butter. When we made the bread, we didn't put any of the optional extras in, but plenty of linseeds and it turned out perfectly. We also didn't take the bread out of the tin early (we forgot!) to make it crusty all around, but actually it crusted up pretty nicely from doing the whole bake in the tin, so we were chuffed.