Fanouropita - Cake for lost things......

I found this recipe in Tessa Kiros' book 'Food from many greek kitchens'.
It is made in honour of Saint Fanourios whose name day is on August 27th. Saint Fanourios is the patron saint of lost things.
I see that many other recipes include chopped nuts and raisins and think that that would be even nicer. I think I will have to experiment a little.
It has a lovely soft taste of orange and cinnamon.

FANOUROPITA

360g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
160g sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
185ml light olive oil
185ml fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 190C. Brush a spring-form pan with oil and then flour it.

In a bowl, add the flour, baking powder, sugar, and cinnamon and mix.
Add the olive oil, orange juice, and vanilla, and mix with electric beaters until you have a thick mix.
Scrape the batter into your pan, and bake it for about 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Keeps well for 5 or 6 days in an airtight container.

Now I will wait and see if I find something I'd forgotten I'd lost!

Kalí óreksi!

Og nå en bok...........

Nadin Martinuzzi og Lene Aarnes Westerhaug på Kraft Byrå har jobbet med innholdet i denne boken i noen år og var så generøse at de innlemmet meg i prosjektet det siste året.
Resultatet er en bok full av deilige oppskrifter og fantastiske bilder basert på årstidene. Det er også fyldig informasjon om passende drikke til rettene i sesongene etter hvert kapittel.
Her er alt fra oppskrifter med ugress til tradisjonelle juleoppskrifter.
Bon appetit!

Toffee apples

Today I made 56 toffee apples!
Tried and failed but we now have the perfect recipe.

You will need:
8-10 apples depending on size
400g sugar
100ml water
1 tsp vinegar
2 tblsp light syrup
Food colouring
Sugar thermometer
Greaseproof paper

Put the sugar and water in a pan and bring to a boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the syrup and the vinegar and any food colouring you want.
Keep boiling until the sugar thermometer shows 140°c
Now you can dip the apples in the caramel and put on greaseproof paper to dry.

Wrap the apples in cellophane if you want to make them look pretty!!

DON'T do what I did and stick your fingers in boiling toffee.

My forgotten find!

I dug this out of the very back of my cupboard yesterday. I bought it in Torino a couple of years ago thinking it would make a good present for someone and forgot all about it.
Turns out I wanted it myself and the joy of watching it bubble up and spout out two lovely little espressos was happily repeated again and again.
It is from Bialetti and if I see one again I will buy one to give away this time!

Inspirational and endearing

Please please can someone do this for me when I reach my twilight years???
French photographer Sacha Goldberger realised his 91 year old grandmother was feeling lonely and depressed and decided to take some fun pictures of her - look at what this amazing twosome have cooked up together!!!


I can just imagine what fun they must have had, and what a totally unexpected difference and welcome change to her life this must have meant.

You can see lots lots more pictures on www.mamika.fr

Wibble wobble, wibble wobble.......

Jelly on a plate!
I love these brilliant orange jelly wedges for kids parties. Just split oranges in two lengthwise, scrape out all the flesh and fill with orange jelly. (I put mine in a baking tray filled with sugar to keep them steady while I poured in the jelly but imagine lentils, flour or anything similar would do.) When the jelly has stiffened you can cut them into smaller wedges. If you use a sharp knife that you run under really hot water it slides through easily.
P.S. I found that the jelly subsided a bit after it started to chill so I kept a bit over to top up with.

Naughty Santas christmas nibbles

Buy these saucy biscuit cutters here and cheer old Santa up after his umpteenth meal of biscuits and milk!!

Not very tempting.....

This is my ten year old daughters idea of a fun way to snack at the cinema!! Liquorice strings as shoelaces!! If only she could do it on one of her newer shoes. But in any case, I'm happy she has her own peculiar sense of style :-)