Marie Cookpad

  We were very grateful to have been able to get our hands on a fruit and vegetable box last week.  It was filled with all sorts of lovely things and I have been making sure that I make the most of everything that was in the box.   I have been enjoying eating the apples out of hand, and Todd has been enjoying the bananas.  One night I made us a cut fruit salad with some of the bananas, some cut up oranges, a kiwi and some coconut.   And of course we have been enjoying the potatoes, onions, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower in the box.  I still have parsnips and a butternut squash to make use of.  Not a problem.   There was a quantity of Conference pears, which can be awfully hard to eat out of hand, but they are beautiful for cooking with as they hold their shape well.    Conference pears are a medium-sized pear with an elongated bottle aand are quite similar in appearance to the 'Bosc pear'. A table pear, it is suitable for fresh-cut pr...

  My mother, God bless her, loved cheesecake.  It was one of her favourite desserts. She was only the size of a bird, so tiny that a good breeze could have easily blown her over, but she did like to eat.  I don't know what her secret was to keeping her slim figure.  I remember her asking me about seven or 8  years back did I have a good cheesecake recipe.  I did and so I shared it with her.  I don't know if she ever made it or not. I like to think that she did, and that she enjoyed it.   Of course with her lung cancer operation and all of the complications she had afterwards, her days of cooking were pretty much over, although by all counts she did have a fairly healthy appetite right up until she passed.  Her tastes had changed however and the things she liked to eat before, she no longer enjoyed.  Funny how that goes.  I suppose it was the dementia.   Cheesecake is not something I make really often.  With there only bein...

  These Little Blueberry Puddings are destined to become a family favourite.  Served warm with cream or ice cream, they go down really well.    They are also very simple to make, using simple ingredients that you probably already have in your home, with perhaps the exception of some Wild Blueberry Conserve.    But take heart, if you don't have any of that, you can also use lemon curd, or even orange marmalade!   All are delicious!  Trust me on this.    You make a simple batter, lightly flavoured with vanilla and fresh lemon zest, into which you fold some fresh berries.  I have never used frozen, so I can't say with any authority how well they would work.    You then divide the batter between six paper lined muffin cups.  Why the paper?  Because jam sinks and it sticks.  You will be glad that you used them.  Trust me on this also!    Once you have filled the papers you swirl a teaspoon of ...

  I had been going to make us a coconut cream pie for dessert this Easter along with a Robin's Egg Blue iced cake roll (filled with lemon curd).  I bought the food colouring and everything, but alas . . .  without a reliable oven, this idea was a total bust!!  What to do instead???   I had spied a recipe for a Creamy Rice Pudding with Cinnamon Sugar in that same cookery book I got the chocolate pudding recipe from the other day and decided that since Rice Pudding is Todd's favourite thing on earth, I would make it for him.   How hard could it be?  Not hard at all, that's the answer!    Everything simply gets mixed together in a slow cooker and the slow cooker(crockpot) does all the work.  You do have to stir it several times during the cooking process . . .  but that's not much of a hardship really . . .   It leaves you hands and stove-free to prepare the rest of your meal with perfect ease!  No fuss no muss!   On a s...