Date with yum

21/12/2024

🇮🇹🌲Recipe: Delicious ITALIAN ALMOND BISCUITS (with a cherry on top!)🌲🇮🇹

Hello beautiful friends 👋 I bake these scrummy biscuits each year (except this year😉) at Christmas time because we love them, and because they also make perfect gifts for friends, family and neighbours. The last few times I’ve made these I have added a little cherry jewel to each, which adds another yummy element.

Their texture can be best described as a cross between a macaroon and a macaron. Exceptionally delicious and addictive👌

Are you ready to bake?

🎄In a bowl mix together 190g of almond meal, 150g of caster sugar, and an 1/8th tsp of salt. Add the zest of one lemon.

🎄In a separate bowl whisk together 2 egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract and a few drops of almond extract.

🎄Gently fold the egg whites mixture into the almond meal mixture. Mix until a smooth paste forms.

🎄Roll the mixture into around 16 balls, and roll into icing sugar (put 3-4 tbs of icing sugar onto a tray and roll the biscuits in this).

🎄Using your thumb, make an indent into the middle of each biscuit, and spoon in a little cherry jam.
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🎄Put onto a tray lined with baking paper, spacing them about 3cm apart.

🎄Bake in a 175C oven for around 20 mins. Take out, rest on the tray for 5 mins, then transfer to a cooling rack.

❤️🩷Enjoy all the goodness of the season, dear friends🩷❤️

20/12/2024

🎄❤️Another Random Act of Kindness❤️🎄

What a lovely surprise when my beautiful friend Harriet dropped around to deliver one of her delicious home made Christmas fruitcakes. The cake is so delicious; moist, flavourful and with the perfect amount of alcohol. It is definitely Christmas in your mouth! Thank you Harriet for bringing some festive cheer along with your bubbly, positive vibe, I so appreciate you🙏🏻🙏🏻🧑‍🎄🧑‍🎄🎄🎄

Do you have any Christmas baking traditions? I need to live vicariously through you this year, so please share, I’d love to hear all about it!

Love and light, beautiful friends❤️❤️❤️

18/12/2024

💥❤️Tanya’s MUJADARA (LEBANESE RICE & LENTILS) with SALAD & LABNEH❤️💥

🧚🏻‍♀️Another beautiful book club fairy made this amazing meal appear on my doorstep as if by magic, along with a vase of gorgeous pink roses🪄🪄✨✨

Little did the lovely Tanya, know that this is one of my favourite meals, and I felt it doing me good with each mouthful. This dish is popular throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The rice and lentils are cooked with beautiful spices and topped with fried onions. Combined with salad and labneh, it makes a beautiful meat free meal. Tanya supplied every element, down to the salad dressing; thanks Tanya for your incredible kindness, I so appreciate it🙏😘

Friends, as you’ll appreciate, I have good and bad days. It’s a little unpredictable as to when these will be, but there will be times when I’m absent for a bit, which I’m sure you’ll understand.

I do have a backlog of dishes I cooked before becoming unwell so I plan to post some of these on my good days, maybe along with some Christmas baking from previous years.

Thanks again everyone for being there for me, I can’t say how much it means to me🩷🩷🙏🙏

14/12/2024

💥❤️Jo’s Fabulous RICOTTA & SPINACH CANNELONI❤️💥

Hello my dear friends. Firstly, thank you all for your beautiful messages of support. Your words and sentiments truly lift my spirits and remind me how blessed I be part of such an extraordinary community. You mean more to me than I can express, and I’m so grateful for your care and encouragement. In my next post, I’ll provide a bit of an update on how I’ve been going these last couple of weeks.

Since my cancer diagnosis I have benefited from so many acts of kindness, and I’m reminded daily of the innate compassion and kindness that lives within many of us.

One amazing example relates to this delicious meal. A few months ago I joined my second book club. This wonderful group have arranged to cook and deliver meals to me each week over the next few months; how beautiful is that? Tonight I enjoyed the first of these, this delicious ricotta and spinach cannelloni by the wonderful Jo .kuo.16. As I’m feeling better this week, I was able to truly enjoy and savour this delicious meal, to the very last bite! Thank you Jo for arranging the meal roster and for this wonderful nourishing dish🙏🙏🙏

I hope you’re all enjoying this festive time of the year - I will say I’m missing doing my Christmas baking, but I’ll
make up for it next year!

Love and light always, Julie ###

12/11/2024

💥🦆New Recipe: PEANUT, CHOCOLATE & DUCK FAT COOKIES🦆💥

Hello friends🩷. Duck fat, in cookies! Nooooooooo! I beg to differ. I can’t begin to describe how delicious these cookies are. The duck fat provides a beautiful crispy crumb, and an almost umami contrast to the sweetness. Combined with the chocolate, peanuts and oats, these sweet treats are in the superstar category🎥✨🌟They are definitely up there with my top 5 favourite cookies. I have included the recipe, you can thank me later 😊😊

This is my first November entry for the collaboration generously hosted by Gio and Niki . My book choice this month is “Let it Simmer” published in 2006 by Australian chef and restaurateur .

Sean Moran is a Sydney chef whose restaurant, Sean’s Bondi, is one of Sydney’s glistening jewels. Located on Sydney’s Bondi Beach it offers a warm, inviting ambiance with a relaxed coastal charm and beautiful sea views. The interior, with its linen tablecloths, seashell decor and beautiful art creates a sense that you’re dining at a friend’s seaside cottage. Sean’s commitment to fresh, seasonal ingredients enhances the experience, making it a beloved destination for local and visiting foodies. Do visit if you’re ever in Sydney👍

This recipe is also an entry in the hosted by the lovely Claudia, where this month we celebrate recipes that bring us joy and happiness. A perfect cookie, with a glass of milk or hot beverage, can definitely be a moment of joy for me - do you feel the same?

❤️🩷Wishing you sweet moments and cosy cookie filled days, my friends🩷❤️

06/11/2024

🌸🌿New Recipe: THE JOY OF A SPRING SALAD🌿🌸

It gets exhausting, doesn’t it, constantly explaining how busy you are—turning every post or conversation into reasons why you’re barely keeping up. I feel there’s a hollowness to regularly asking you to understand why I often can’t be present. This time, I’m skipping it; I’ll just say that I’ve been absent because life is bustling, as it often is for all of us, and leave it at that. I’d rather just focus on being here, no matter how briefly, in this moment with you, my friends.

So today I thought I’d share this little salad of mine. I always feel that a Spring salad is a celebration of renewal, each ingredient brimming with freshness and colour. Here, the delicate crunch of baby spinach mingles with the earthiness of beetroot, the juicyness of roasted tomatoes and the sweetness of honey roasted pumpkin. Add cubes of sauteed halloumi and you have delicious pleasantly chewy bursts of umami. All of this is complemented by a beautiful creamy mint and lime dressing.

As you lift a forkful, you can almost taste the sunlight; this simple dish captures spring in its essence—bright, joyful, and alive. I do hope you save to give it a try.

(If you’d like the recipe for the dressing, just let me know in the comments or dm me).

29/10/2024

💥🇲🇽New Recipe: MEXICAN GLAZED SALMON with MANGO SALSA🇲🇽💥

Hello friends🩷. As October has an extra Tuesday I offer this my fourth entry for the October collaboration hosted by Gio and co-hosted this month by the lovely Alessandra . As mentioned previously my book choice this month is “Wholesome by Sarah”, , authored by Australian nutritionist Sarah Pound. I also cooked from this book for last month’s collaboration but as it’s such a great book - I think I’ve cooked around ten recipes from it now! This is also an entry in the hosted by the lovely Claudia .

So, to this meal. It was kind of embarrassing to see the hungry mouths around the table demolishing this🙀🫣🤭. And, I might have just grabbed the second bowl of the salsa and devoured it on its own. It’s insanely good👌😋

The salsa contains mango, corn, coriander, red onion, chilli, avocado, olive oil, honey, lime juice and sea salt. A beautiful rub is massaged onto the salmon, and it’s then pan fried in olive oil until reaching a moist flaky deliciousness. If you’d like the full recipe, for the salmon and the salsa, just let me know📝

Time for me now to browse my bookshelves to choose my next book for November’s recipes. Too many decisions!

❤️🩷Here’s to discovering flavours that make life a little richer, my friends🩷❤️

28/10/2024

💥🇲🇩New Recipe: MOLDOVAN LAMB SHORPA🇲🇩💥

This month for the collaboration, we travel to the Republic of Moldova, a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, on the northeastern corner of the Balkans, bordering Ukraine and Romania. The local cuisine is very similar to Romanian cuisine and also draws inspiration and elements from other cuisines in the region, including Greek, Polish, Ukrainian and with a great influence left by the Ottoman’s too.

Popular among the Gagauz population of Moldova, Shorpa is the local version of the dish known as shurpa in Uzbekistan and Central Asia. The soup consists of tender chunks of meat (with lamb being the most common choice), vegetables, and a fragrant bouquet of herbs. Often enjoyed during colder months, shorpa is usually paired up with a side of crusty bread perfect for dipping👌

Funnily enough, it is very similar to a dish I grew up with, Pot Eu Feur, a French beef soup / stew, so it really wasn’t too big a stretch for me to make this, I should confess😊. Basically lamb on the bone is slowly simmered in water or vegetable stock until the lamb is tender, skimming and debris that rises to the top as you go. Vegetables (carrots, carrots, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes) are the either cooked separately or added to the soup to cook in the broth. I added some macaroni to the soup, rather than potato, but that’s just my preference. Fresh herbs can be added during the simmering or added at the end for freshness. It’s a beautiful soup that is truly satisfying.

If you’d like to join this fun collab, (this month co-hosted by Stevie the 🐶🐾!) just let the lovely host Claire know.

26/10/2024

💥❤️New Recipe: SPICED WINGS n THINGS❤️💥

Happy Saturday, friends🩷 Here is a super simple, casual meal idea that is packed with yumminess. The wings are so flavoursome, succulent and juicy, the coleslaw a perfect creamy coolness with crunch, and crinkle cut fries with chicken salt, well, say no more😋😊. A true family favourite!

Here’s my full-proof wing recipe that always guarantees a scrumptious bite👇

🍗To make a batch of spice rub combine: 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tbsps of paprika, 1 tbsp of smoked paprika, 1 tbsp of black pepper, 1 tbsp of salt, 1 tbsp of garlic powder, 1 tbp of onion powder, 1 tsp of mustard powder, and ½ tsp of cayenne pepper. (You’ll have leftovers to keep in the pantry for another time)

🍗 Line a baking pan with foil and place an oven safe rack on top of the foil. Coat the rack with cooking spray.

🍗 Add 1/3 cup of the spice rub to a large bowl and combine with 3 tbsps of vegetable oil. Put the wings and drumettes into the bowl and toss until the wings are all coated.

🍗 Arrange the chicken wings in a single layer on the rack and bake for 45 mins in a 190-200C oven. Dive in and enjoy!

❤️🩷Wishing you a weekend with just a little bit of spice🩷❤️

27/08/2024