Happy New Year everyone! Thank-you for visiting A Spoonful of Sugar--especially those readers who have stuck with me though my all-too-frequent absences--and for all your kind comments and questions. I really appreciate them. As I skipped out on blogging...
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It is possible that I am the cruellest woman in the world. At the very least, I'm definitely the cruellest woman in our house, admittedly this is an easy crown to claim as I'm the only woman in our...
Continue reading "Roasted Onion Fougasse" »
It's always a good sign when the very first recipe in a cookbook has me champing at the bit to get into the kitchen. Rachel Allen is Ireland's answer (or indeed antidote) to Nigella Lawson. She's fresh, natural and...
Continue reading "Rachel's Favourite Food for Living: A Cookbook Review" »
I eat a lot of ice-cream (a slight understatement, you understand) but I rarely get around to making my own. In fact, my poor ice-cream machine has been shoved to the back of a cupboard since we moved house...
Continue reading "Banana-Rum Gelato" »
I'm a huge fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, and so, when "Nanny Ogg's Cookbook" was published in 1999 I squealed and jumped around madly. Nanny Ogg is simply wonderful. I want to be just like her when I...
Continue reading "Genuine Howondaland Curry" »
It's been a rather long time since I've baked any bread. To correct this oversight I embarked on a baking adventure on Friday.... I've owned a copy of Rose Levy Beranbaum's "The Bread Bible" for a few months but...
Continue reading "Cinnamon Raisin Bread" »
For some time now, I've been trying to acquire a copy of Alice Medrich's "Chocolate and The Art of Low-Fat Desserts" (a mouthful of a title, if I ever heard one!), but with no success. Renee has baked several...
Continue reading "Semi-Disastrous Chocolate Pound Cake" »
I've been planning to make peperonata all week, but somehow I just haven't managed to get around to it. As you can see, tonight I finally managed to make time and all I can say is that the wait...
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What do you do with a bunch of over-ripe bananas? Do you stash them in the freezer and eventually make some yummy (calorific!) banana bread, turn them into ice-cream or make them into a banana split? This was my...
Continue reading "Banana Muffins" »
This is my ultimate cheesecake. A veritable tower of smooth ivory satin.... Perfect on its own, but also equally as nice with a fruit coulis. Unbelievably this cheesecake is low-fat (doesn't look it, eh?) and hails from Sue Kreitzman's...
Continue reading "New York Cheesecake" »
Having guests for the weekend is always a fantastic excuse for baking, and this weekend was no exception. I flicked through How To Be A Domestic Goddess for some inspiration and as usual, ended up drooling over Nigella's Boston...
Continue reading "Triple Butterscotch Boston Cream Pie" »
This is my new favourite way to eat chicken. Moist, succulent and with a spicy-sweet glaze. Very, very yummy and best of all it's seriously quick to prepare. The recipe comes from Cooking Light 2004 (my new best friend)....
Continue reading "Hoisin Barbequed Chicken" »
Stuffed peppers have always appealed to me, however, I've never actually gotten sufficiently organised to make them. Whilst flicking through my new Cooking Light Annual, I came across a recipe which stuffs peppers with a mixture of beef and...
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Yes, yet another cheesecake! I'm going through a definite cheesecake phase just now.... This one is also low-fat and my very first cheesecake with topping (although, it is the easiest topping in the world). The unique thing about this...
Continue reading "Apple-Topped Cheesecake" »
I'm a big fan of traditional snacks like flapjacks, however they don't fit very easily into a low-fat diet. Even WeightWatchers flapjacks use a hefty amount of butter and thus become treats rather than snacks. I decided to defat...
Continue reading "Orange and Sesame Flapjacks" »
Dieting is so often a dismal business, but occasionally you do find a ray of hope. For the past few years, my occasional diets have been cheered considerably by my discovery of Sue Kreitzman's low-fat cookbooks. She may be...
Continue reading "Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake" »
I always admire the dumpling pictures that Renee shows us on her Shiokadelicious! blog, but I've never actually dared to try any whilst out to dinner. So, when I spotted a really rather simple recipe for steamed dumplings in...
Continue reading "Himalayan Steamed Dumplings" »
I recently indulged in a little spending spree at my favourite bookshop. Amongst the treasure I brought home was a book that I've been ogling for some time - HomeBaking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. The only reason...
Continue reading "Jamaican Coconut Pie" »
My previous attempts at low-fat baking haven't been entirely successful. I can make a deliciously fudgy and intense chocolate cake but my attempt at a ultra low-fat mocha cake last month was disastrous to say the least. Evaporated milk...
Continue reading "Lime and Coconut Cake" »
I've been feeling a bit bloated recently; well, more than just bloated. I feel like a hippo. A hippo with cute reddish hair (hair dye is my new addiction), but still very hippo-esque. So, to try and combat this...
Continue reading "Garlic and Spinach Pilaf with Lamb Chops" »
It is hot. Too damn hot. So, in response to the unseasonably hot weather we're suffering through just now, tonights dinner was a salad. I think this is probably the first time I've made a warm salad for dinner,...
Continue reading "Gingery-Hot Duck Salad" »
I've had my eye on these Pistachio Macaroons since I first received my copy of Nigella's "How To Be A Domestic Goddess". They just looked so delicate and unusual, especially as I hadn't encountered the delights of French macarons...
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This fresh tasting salad was today's lunch, and very nice it was too. The recipe comes from "Lunchbox - Bright Ideas for Movable Feasts", by Amanda Grant (unfortunately, now out of print). This isn't a book of kiddies lunchbox...
Continue reading "Caramelised Onions, Chickpeas, Feta and Mint Salad" »
Despite the slightly twee name, this soup really does lift the spirits. Well, it has that effect on Nigella and myself; I can't guarantee that it will cheer anyone else up though! The soup is very quick and simple...
Continue reading "Happiness Soup" »
Tonight, Friends airs its final episode in the States. Thankfully the UK is a couple of episodes behind, so I shan't burst into tears for a few more weeks... I've been a huge fan of Friends since the beginning...
Continue reading "Pecan Coffee Cake" »
This shapely ring of bread is a Kugelhopf. As far as I can tell, both Austria and Germany claim that the Kugelhopf was invented there and hence the poor bread has various weird and wonderful spellings of its name...
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This rather unassuming looking cake is one of my all-time favourite Nigella Lawson recipes. I've made it on a yearly basis since How To Be A Domestic Goddess was first published, sometimes twice even twice. This year I've made...
Continue reading "Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake" »
I've realised that I only tend to blog about pretty food; food that is actually photogenic as well as being tasty. What about the slightly less attractive, but still just as tasty food? Well, without further ado, here is...
Continue reading "Beef and Carrot Stew" »
I had a craving for marzipan the other day. But as I tend to gorge on marzipan whenever it enters the house, I needed a half-decent excuse to go and buy some. After trawling my cookbook shelves I found...
Continue reading "Chocolate Marzipan Cookies" »
Hot Cross Buns are traditional Easter fare in England. Usually, we just buy them from the supermarket, but as I had plenty of time to spare I decided to make my own this year. The nicest thing about making...
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Don't panic! Mincemeat is a sweet English concoction of dried fruits, apples, spices, sugar, rum, brandy and (depending on personal preferences) suet. In Ye Olden Days, it did contain beef mince (ground beef), but over the years this has...
Continue reading "Mincemeat Sultana Muffins" »
Renee recently posted an article about kaya - a Malay coconut spread. This really piqued my interest as I'd previously made a coconut curd which had similar ingredients, but which was billed as a European recipe. I searched for...
Continue reading "Coconut Honey Curd" »
I'm back! (At long last, I might add.) Almost all of our boxes have been unpacked and I'm now the proud owner of a beautiful, shiney and safe(!!) gas cooker. The kitchen is still a bit of a mess,...
Continue reading "Chris' birthday cake" »
Inspired by Clotilde's Valentines Day macaron, I opted to spend my Sunday afternoon in the kitchen making Pierre Herm�'s Chocolate Macaroons from his wonderful chocolate dessert book which I bought a couple of weeks ago....
Continue reading "Chocolate Macaroon" »
In a spur of the moment decision, I hitched a lift with Dave this morning to London to visit the hallowed halls of "Books For Cooks" in Notting Hill. I've wanted to go there for some years now, but...
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Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine has published in their February issue, a list of their 25 Greatest Cookbooks of All Time. I'm not entirely sure that I agree with their listing. Reading through the list, however, started me thinking... I probably...
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