Candied Ginger and Lemon Cornmeal Scones

Between the lemon curd and the marmalade, I had visions of a Sunday tea with scones and crustless sandwiches and pinky fingers in the air as we sip from our china tea cups.

Roasted Carrot, Carmelized Onion and Ginger Soup

Generally speaking, I can made it through one, maybe two, meals of leftovers before I am ready to pull my hair out. This soup, and the two that will follow, have made this one meal stretch through more than a week and have definitely eliminated that guilty task of ridding the refrigerator of the ghosts of dinners past.

This one is for Val, who has yet to test out one of these recipes on her own but pledges that she "could do this one." Fingers crossed. ;)

Chocolate Gingerbread

It is no secret that, in terms of chefs, I am completely in awe of Nigella Lawson. She is quite striking herself and makes no bones about her love affair with food, which I quite enjoy. Her food is comforting and delicious and she treats it all with a slight dash of eccentricity.


Now, I haven't made a cake or anything along those lines in quite some time... and, after making this cake, I know why... you could easily stand over the kitchen sink in a very Miranda Hobbes versus the chocolate cake battle, eating slice after slice, completely forgoing the plate and even the fork.


Here is Nigella's Chocolate Gingerbread... courtesy of her cookbook, Feast. It is wonderfully complex with the ginger warmth and chocolate sweet.


I reduced the amount of chocolate chips and used the mini ones. A) Because it was all that I had but B) that, for me, was the perfect amount of chocolate. I also reduced the cooking time by 5 minutes... I think the cake would have been dry otherwise, so keep an eye on it around the 40 minute mark.

One substitution... I did not have any ginger ale and wasn't braving the cold for a mere 60 mLs, so I used 60 mLs of sparkling water with a scant 1/2 tsp of powdered ginger dissolved into it. Seemed to work just fine!

Other than that, the recipe uses a frightening amount of sugar, so just forget that and enjoy the treat, remembering that you don't do this that often... ;)