Forever Nigella - A New Blogging Event

Well here we are, two weeks into the new year already. I've taken a couple of weeks off from blogging while I tidied away all the seasonal bits and bobs and generally cleared my head ready for the year ahead but now I'm ready and raring to go again.

So, I'm kickstarting the new blogging year by participating in a new blogging event. While looking through the UK Food Blogger Association forums I was delighted to discover that Sarah from Maison Cupcake had made the excellent decision to start up a monthly challenge to celebrate Nigella Lawson's recipes called Forever Nigella.

It's no secret that I am a big Nigella fan and one who loves her books AND her television programmes. OK so a lot of people think that her shows are just too OTT for words and I admit that a black satin dressing gown wouldn't be the first choice of kitchen attire for most people but who cares? Her recipes WORK.

Each month a theme will be set, and for the first month of this blogging challenge the theme is "Seasonal Sensations". Hmmm, well I discovered the Forever Nigella challenge about a week ago so unfortunately my desire to bake something Christmassy has been packed away with the tinsel and all the leftovers have been eaten. No matter though - I have stuck to the theme by taking two recipes from Nigella's Christmas book but they are just the sort of thing I want to eat at this time of year when excess is something I'm trying to avoid.

The first recipe is a fairly simple one - Antioxidant Fruit Salad. Sometimes simple is good though and this combination of mango, blueberries, pomegranate and lime juice is wonderfully refreshing and full of flavour. This is delicious for breakfast with some natural or greek yoghurt or with something a little more substantial, which leads me on to my second recipe.

The second thing I made (and I decided to make both as they are both simple recipes but go so well together) is a Cranberry, Almond and Honey Granola. I love granola and make it often and this one caught my eye I because of the dried cranberries which are my favourite dried fruit. The warm flavours from the cinnamon and honey are complemented by the slight sharpness of the dried cranberries and the almonds and seeds provide great texture.

Now I'm afraid that the rules of this challenge are such that I'm not allowed to post the recipes being used unless I've changed more than two of the ingredients (which I haven't). This is to encourage as many people as possible to go out a buy Nigella's books - an idea I heartily endorse!

Thanks again to Sarah for hosting this new challenge. I'm already looking forward to next month's.

My Big Fat Greek Yoghurt Experiment

I have recently been given the opportunity to sample some Greek yoghurt, thanks to the lovely people at Total. I was more than happy to take them up on their offer and awaited my samples with much excitement. And boy did I get some samples! 20 pots no less, some of which you can see below.

My delivery included Total's 10% fat yoghurt, 0% fat yoghurt and their 2% yoghurt with honey. For more information and loads of yoghurty recipes you might want to take a look at Total's website which you can find here.

So, I've started my experiment with a few simple dessert/sweet recipes.

For me, one of the best uses for yoghurt is served simply with some fruit and, as shown in the picture below, with some granola or museli. You can find the recipe for the granola in the picture here.

Next up, a simple pudding made with layers of rhubarb and yoghurt and topped with some crumbled biscuits. Very nice too, although I could have been more generous with the sugar in the stewed rhubarb.

The following is a Berry Yoghurt Bake - a recipe I had pulled out of a delicious magazine some years ago and put aside in my "to make" file. Quite unusual this one but lovely nonetheless. I liked it warm rather than hot from the oven and Mr Half a Pot said it went down very well with some ice cream on the side.

Berry Yoghurt Bake

(adapted from delicious magazine)

4 medium eggs, beaten

70g clear honey

250g think Greek yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp cornflour

200g mixed fresh raspberries and blueberries

Icing sugar, to dust

1) Preheat the oven to 160c/fan 140c/ gas 3

2) Whisk the eggs, honey, yoghurt, vanilla and cornflour together in a bowl.

3) Put half the berries in a 23cm round baking dish and top with the yoghurt mixture. Sprinkle the rest of the berries over the top, then bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until just set. Dust with icing sugar and serve hot or warm.

Serves 4

This final recipe for Mango and Greek Yoghurt Mousse comes from the Total website itself. These little mousse's would make a lovely light summery pudding when you don't want anything too filling. A word of warning though - don't make them too far in advance as I found mine tended to separate a bit after a couple of days.

You can find the recipe here.