Marie Cookpad

  I am a woman of many weaknesses, most of them being food related . . .  hand  me a slice of ice cold, trembling Lemon Meringue Pie, topped with billowing sweet golden meringue, and I am a gonner.   Likewise a square of nut filled good chocolate.  I love toasted almonds in milk chocolate as well as filberts, and a square of good dark chocolate can make me go positively weak at the knees  . . . and don't get me started on the finer points of fudge brownies, studded with toasted walnuts and gilded with a chocolate ganache frosting  . . .   I adore ice cold wedges of deep pink watermelon, or fresh pineapple spears, crisp black sweet grapes, crisp wedges of iceberg lettuce, drizzled with a blue cheese dressing and sprinkled with bacon.  Mmmm . . . a thick wedge of a Victoria Sponge cake, filled with vanilla butter cream and jam, or a slice of Coffee & Walnut Cake  . . . a fruit studded scone, tall and light, split and filled with clotte...

  I can't think of a better recipe to end the year on than this delicious and simple chicken recipe. Did you have Shake & Bake when you were growing up?  It was a favourite of my brother, sister's and mine!    And as a woman who worked outside the home, it was a favourite of my mother's also.  Not that we had chicken very often. We did not.    Chicken must have been really expensive back then.   Usually if we had chicken legs mom would use the shake and bake on them.  If we had chicken breasts, she did her Maryland Fried Chicken, which we thought was a REAL treat!   Bone-in chicken breasts, with the skin on, rolled in egg and cracker crumbs and fried in butter and oil. Oh boy but we thought it was magnificent.  We had it maybe once a year and we were all really pleased when we did!   This is not that, its not my mum's Maryland Fried Chicken, but I can tell you that it is even better than that.  That's why its call...

  After all of the excess of the last week or so I was craving something simple today that I could enjoy with a cup of herbal tea.  I confess I am fruit-caked and mince-pied OUT!  Actually in all reality Todd is the  one for the most part who eats those things.   I find them really sweet, and can only enjoy them in small amounts.  I prefer something more in-between sweet and savoury with my tea.   These fabulously moist and delicious muffins fit the bill perfectly.    They are sweetened naturally, with just maple syrup.  I can remember when I first moved here to the UK, I brought along a 2 litre can of Maple Syrup, right onto the plane! Remind me sometime I will tell you how much fun that was carrying it through the terminals with its wire handles. 😖 At the end a kind gentleman helped me out!   Back then maple syrup was very difficult to get ahold of here in the UK,  and if you did find it, it was super expensive.  Truth ...

  I've never been one much for going out on New Years Eve.  I'm pretty much a stay at home, have a few nibbles, watch the ball drop on the telly kind of a gal.  I suppose that comes from years of having a huge family and not being able to afford tickets to go out and a baby sitter!   I never minded much and as my children got older it got to be more fun. We would have a nibble buffet of finger foods, and watch some great things on the telly, or play a few board games, and then watch Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's Eve!   Because my ex was a Military Policeman, he used to have to work on New Years Eve anyways, so it was pretty much me and the children on our own celebrating!    We all had our favourite nibbles.  I would out a variety of crisps and cheese snacks, cheese and crackers, pickles . . .   Pretzels,  mini pizzas, dips and other nibbles and mocktails, of course!   These Sweet & Spicy Pepitas are really tasty.  They go...