Cook Book Addict Creates

Almond Crumble-Topped Mince Pies Recipe Book: Mary Berry Cooks Up A Feast Review: 5 stars for this one! Ooooooh! You know when you really want a mince pie? Well yesterday was it for me. These had been on my mind since I picked up this book on Tuesday in Costco. They certainly didn't disappoint. Very quick and easy to make. I made the full recipe. I didn't manage to get 24 out of the mixture...maybe I rolled the pastry bases out too thick, but they turned out delicious anyway, sweet delicious pastry, lovely mincemeat and sweet and crunchy topping...Mmmmmmm. Aga conversion: Looks like Mary has decided to include Aga instructions in this book. See photo. I did 16 minutes in my Aga and didn't check them any earlier, so mine were just a touch too brown. Will I make this again? Absolutely. Buy the book here  Buy the Kindle Version

Chocolate, Dulce De Leche, Cantucci Recipe Book: Nigel Slater's Greenfeast (Autumn/Winter) The latest one! Review: 5 stars for this one! Finally something that actually did turn out for me this week. It's very rich, it's a chocolately heaven and both my son and I couldn't eat it all in one sitting. Oh, but how happy did eating this pudding make me? VERY happy I can say with all honesty. Didn't help my healthy eating, but never mind It's easy enough to make, I used my Kenwood Chef Major to do the whisking and all in all only took about 30 minutes to make. Aga conversion: Pop the chocolate in a bowl and place it on the top of the Aga to melt while you prep and weigh everything else, when you've got it in the ramekins pop it on the grid shelf on the floor of the baking oven for 20 minutes. Perfection in a pot. Will I make this again? Absolutely. Buy the book here  Buy the Kindle Version

New Potatoes, Garlic, Peppers. Recipe Book: Nigel Slater's Greenfeast (Spring/Summer)  Review: 4 stars for this one! It was really tasty but didn't blow us away. Finally managed to get hold of some Romano Peppers for this one - Aldi to the rescue! I think I should've just stopped cooking last week, it seemed like I had a mare with most of the recipes I attempted. So this is how this one went... 700g new potatoes sliced thinly - I used my mandolin on its thickest setting, prepped everything and started cooking... Using my nice new shallow cast iron casserole pan I started on the peppers - nicely done - now on to the potatoes 'cooking them in one layer if possible' Bloody hell! How am I supposed to do that I've got blinking millions of them because you said to slice them thinly Nigel!!! So my nice thin new potatoes did not go nice and brown and then just get turned over, they got cooked and cooked and cooked in the hopes of them eventually going

Cauliflower Cheese Pizza Pie (872 calories) Recipe Book: Jamie Oliver Veg (the latest book)  Review: 3-4 Stars! We had such high hopes for this one. This one wasn't quite as straight forward as I though it was going to be... I think last week I just had too much stuff on the go all at once.  The husband wasn't over keen on this one, for him he said the pizza base reminded him of Yorkshire Puddings. For some reason my sauce seemed to go runnier not thicker (it was thick when it went into the base) after I put it in the oven so mine did not come out in nice neat slices, it sort of cut with a nice crispy cut and then ran out everywhere whilst I'm rapidly trying to get it onto a plate. Has this happened to anyone else or is it just me? My opinion: as an entire dish that kind of fell apart - 3 stars - as separate parts - Cauliflower cheese...good....pizza base...good - 4 stars. Aga conversion: I used my 28cm saute pan to make this. I mainly used the simm

Orzo, Peppers. Recipe Book: Nigel Slater's Greenfeast (Spring/Summer)  Review: 4 stars for this one! It was really good. A bit different from your usual shapes of pasta. I can only describe Orzo as a very smooth pasta shaped like rice, it's bizarre, you sort of look at it thinking its going to be like rice, but its not. This recipe produced way too big of a portion, of which I had already realised that it would just based on me tapping the ingredients into MyFitnessPal for some calorie counts. cooked and eaten as a serves 2 it comes in at around 966 calories, so straight away I figured I'd divide into 3 to reduce that down to a healthier 644! I couldn't get hold of any Romano peppers in Asda so I had to opt for regular red peppers and it tasted fine. I also shoved a load of parmesan on the top, as I do love parmesan on my Pasta. Aga conversion: I roasted my peppers in the roasting oven (2nd set of runners) on a baking tray for the 30 minutes and then tr