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Challenge Update: What with getting sick and staying on top of things with a ten month old playing bumper trollies as often as he can, it's been a little while since I posted a challenge update, but that doesn't mean it hasn't continued! Still going strong with some new, some old and some experimental dishes, of sweet, savoury and soupy varieties. Here they are, recipes to some will be following soon (if there is one you might be particularly interested in but that I haven't posted a recipe for, just shoot me a message!). In terms of soups, we had a Butternut and Chestnut Cream Soup. I had seen the title of the recipe somewhere, got excited and then couldn't figure out where I had seen it and so made it up. And I am so glad I did! It was most tasty. We also had an old favourite, our Onion Tart for lunch, which is quick and easy but always satisfying. Another easy but tasty lunch is our take on a Persian Beet Borani. For mains, we tried a new twist on an oldie, making a Croûte au Fromage with apples, following a recipe my dad found, and it was delightful. We will definitely be revisiting that one! We made old stand-bys of chilli and Thai(ish) green curry. The new addition was the Rosehip and Chestnut Chicken Stew, which is delectable and I highly recommend! Dessert-wise, we played around some more with the new Orange-Date Cookie recipe, trying variations, and also made Quince Tapioca Pudding. I hope you enjoy these! As ever, comments are welcome...

As mentioned in Day 79 of The Challenge This was a hunch that I decided to follow and I am delighted I did. Both rosehips and pumpkins are in season just now and we have quite an abundance of both at the moment, so I decided to pair them up. I love traditional pumpkin pie (and will be making one soon), but wanted to try something different first. We had this with a dollop of plain yogurt and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. Ingredients: For the crust:(you can use a store bought crust if you want, but this is also very quick and easy, I promise! It is better if you have a half hour to let it chill before rolling it out, but it still works if you don't) 3/4 c flour 1/2 c cold butter, cut into pieces 1/4 c (approximate) milk 1 tsp of cinnamon sugar 1 small pumpkin, cut into 1.5cm thick arcs 2 c rosehip purée (made by simmering in boiling water then passing through a food mill or a sieve) 2 tbsp honey 1 tsp tandoori powder a pinch of salt 2 tsp cocoa spice 2 tsp of cinnamon sugar 1 tbsp butter, cut into pieces 1) To make crust, mix flour and salt. Cut in pieces of butter and mix together with fingertips until it forms a crumb like texture. Add water and mix with a fork, then knead into a soft dough. 2) Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. 3) Roll out the pastry and line a pie dish with it, and stab it with a fork. 4) Mix the rosehip purée with the honey, tandoori powder, salt and cocoa spice. Spread on the pastry base. 5) Arrange the pumpkin on the rosehip mix, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar and dot with the butter. Bake at 200°C for 35-40 minutes. This came out very well and just as I had pictured, except for the pumpkin I picked. It was less sweet than many of the others we have had recently. With the non-sweet pumpkin, the tart was tasty but it couldn't seem to decide whether it was lunch or dessert. My husband declares though that pumpkin or no he would eat an entire tart of the rosehip mix. It is quite an adult flavour (Not for a kid's birthday party, nor, it would seem, for my little sister), but a subtle and satisfying interplay of flavours.

Challenge Update: As ever this week, there were some old favourites, like the Honey-Mustard Glazed Chicken and Fondue, and new recipes like the Pumpkin Ginger Soup, the Butternut Bulgar Pilaf or the Carrot and Quince Soup. Some were experiments pure and simple, like the Apple Corn Muffins or the Pumpkin and Rosehip Tart. I say recipes, but they were all unwritten, only imaginings and musings of my own, sometimes shot through with inspiration from my dad, hubby or sister, and all tasty, although some could use a bit of tweaking.

As mentioned in Day 74 of The Challenge Have I mentioned that it's pumpkin season? Once or twice maybe... Here is a another new twist on pumpkin soup. This time it was smooth rather than chunky, but sweet and gingery. Tasty and warming, it made for an excellent lunch. Ingredients: 1 small pumpkin, chopped 2 parsnips, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 onions, chopped A 6 cm chunk of ginger (approx), peeled and diced 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 c vinegar 1/2 c red cooking wine 1 tsp urfa biber (Turkish black chilli) 1 tsp fenugreek seeds Salt and Pepper to taste 1) Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot and sauté onions with the fenugreek seeds until the onions are translucent. Add ginger and cook for a few minutes until fragrant (you should be smelling the fenugreek by now too!) 2) Add the vegetables to the pot and cook for a couple of minutes before adding enough water to just cover the vegetables. Simmer until the vegetables are tender (I put my pot in my Wonderbag slow cooker once it had come to a simmer and went out for a walk in the meantime.) 3) Blitz the soup until smooth. Serve with crusty bread. So tasty and a beautiful variant to the traditional pumpkin spice soup. The carrots and parsnips add some sweetness and the ginger brings a nice heat, while the fenugreek (yes, more adventures in fenugreek exploration!) brings a warm fragrance to the soup. I do like the traditional one, but this one will be sticking around too.

As mentioned in Day 77 of The Challenge These were experimental, and came out very well. I wanted bread to go with our lunch. But we were out of bread, so I was going to make baking powder biscuits. But I was out of butter, so I decided to make corn muffins, but then realised that I had used the last of the eggs and milk already. So I made corn muffins with what I had - Apple sauce and apple juice instead of the eggs and milk. They were a bit sweeter than normal, and a little moister, but they worked! Ingredients: 1 c flour 1 c cornmeal 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 c sugar 2 eggs 1/4 c sunflower oil 3/4 c apple juice 3/4 c apple sauce 1) Mix together the dry ingredients. Gradually add the wet ingredients, mixing well to prevent lumps. 2) Spoon into muffin cups or into a prepared cake tin. 3) Bake at 200°C for 25-30 minutes. These worked very well? They are certainly more sweet than savoury, and worked best with just butter, no jam or chutney really did justice or had its own justice done on these muffins, but they were tasty never-the-less. In future, I might use a little less apple sauce, and probably cut the sugar a little. Definitely worth a try for a bit of variety though!

As mentioned in Day 57 of The Challenge Rotkohl, literally red cabbage, is a stewed cabbage dish traditionally eaten in Germany and German-speaking Switzerland alongside sausages or other meat. You can get them ready made in tins, or you can make it yourself, pretty easily too. This batch came out particularly well, but the key, really, is time. I got this ready early in the day, before lunch, and stashed it in my Wonderbag slow cooker for the rest of the day until dinner, thus giving it plenty of time to stew. I also added a couple of first-time innovations which worked out scrumptiously. Ingredients: 1 half of a red cabbage, chopped 2 apples, chopped 1 c raisins 2 tsp orange peel 1/4-1/2 nutmeg, freshly grated 1 c apple cider vinegar 1 c apple juice Pepper 1) Place all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a simmer and stew covered at low temperature for at least 45 minutes (the longer the better). A slow cooker works wonders, but you can do it over the stove if need be. I love this dish! It works as a side for all sorts of meals, it is dead simple, and so so satisfying! Please try this! EDIT: I tried this again recently and made it with dried grapefruit peel instead or orange. It worked well, but there was a little more bitterness. A pinch of salt sorted that out though! Certainly an alternative to bear in mind!

As mentioned in Day 67 of The Challenge This was a pre-night shift dinner for me by my husband and went over very well with all of us, including Little One who has started making definite preferences known. It is a bit of a multi-step process, but so worth it! Warm and filling, it is the ultimate comfort food. Ingredients: 2 eggs 500 g of ziti, penne or other tubular pasta 1 head of garlic, crushed 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tins (800g) tomatoes 2 c (800g) of cottage cheese 600g mozzarella, shredded 1 c milk 1 tsp sugar 2 tsp basil 2 tsp oregano 3/4 tsp cornstarch 1/2 c red cooking wine Salt and pepper to taste 1) Heat olive oil with garlic in a heavy bottomed sauce pan, allowing the garlic to infuse gently. Add tomatoes and wine and bring to a simmer. Add basil and oregano. 2) Once the sauce has thickened, add the sugar. 3) Beat eggs, and add cottage cheese and half the mozzarella to them, whisking again. 4) Cook pasta 3/4 of the way there - it still must have some bite to it as it will continue cooking in the oven! Put in a casserole dish and set aside. 5) In a saucepan, combine cornstarch and milk, stirring and heating slowly until they thicken, then remove from the heat. 6) Add the cottage cheese mixture and 1 c of tomato sauce to the milk mix. Add this resulting triple mix to the pasta and stir well to coat all of those little tubes in gooey goodness. 7) Mix remaining tomato sauce with the pasta gooey-ness, and stir in the mozzarella to melt through. 8) Bake at 180°C for 45 minutes until the top is golden (and has a few crispy bits as these are amazing!) So tasty, and almost better as leftovers. I definitely recommend this. Hubby's been promising/threatening to make this for years, and never having even heard of this until he mentioned it, I had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least, and (after the challenge) this will be making it into regular rotation!

As mentioned in Day 69 of The Challenge Pumpkin season is still in full swing, so what better for a light lunch than a savoury pumpkin tart? It can easily be made without the bacon to be vegetarian. Super easy, quick to assemble and very tasty, this is a must while pumpkins last! Ingredients: For the crust:(you can use a store bought crust if you want, but this is also very quick and easy, I promise! It is better if you have a half hour to let it chill before rolling it out, but it still works if you don't) 3/4 c flour 1/2 c cold butter, cut into pieces pinch of salt 1/4 c (approximate) milk 1 1/2 tsp thyme Salt and pepper to taste 1 small pumpkin or about 1/5 normal pumpkin (approx 600g), cut into chunks 1 onion, chopped 1/3 c of bacon bits 1 tsp sage 1 tsp thyme Scant 1/2 c of cream 1/4 c Gruyère or other mature cheese Salt and pepper to taste 1) To make crust, mix flour and salt. Cut in pieces of butter and mix together with fingertips until it forms a crumb like texture. Add water and mix with a fork, then knead into a soft dough. 2) Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. 3) Roll out the pastry and line a pie dish with it, and stab it with a fork. 4) Mix together pumpkin, onion, bacon and herbs. Spread in the pie plate, then pour the cream over the mixture evenly and sprinkle cheese over the top. Pepper generously. 5) Bake 25-30 minutes at 200°C until the cheese is golden. Serve warm. This was incredibly satisfying, hitting all the taste notes, and balancing beautifully. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

As mentioned in Day 72 of The Challenge Guest starring my dad! This was a twist on a classic cheese tart, and the first time we had tried this variant before. A simple cheese tart is a big favourite in our family, easily tweaked to include spinach, onion, tomato, ham or broccoli, for example. This time we included sliced apples and it was scrumptious! Maybe a little further tweaking to perfect it, but certainly good enough to share! Ingredients: Shell for 1 pie crust (For crust recipe see here) 400g of L'Etivaz or Gruyère (or a similarly mature cheese), grated 400 ml milk 4 heaped tbsp of flour 4 eggs 1/4 nutmeg, grated 2 1/2 apples, sliced 4-5 rashers of bacon, fried and crumbled Pepper to taste 1) Line a pie plate with crust. Arrange apple slices over it in a single layer, then sprinkle over the grated cheese. 2) Beat eggs. Add flour and whisk together, then add milk, mixing well. Grate in nutmeg and stir. 3) Pour egg mix evenly over the cheese and apples. Grind pepper over the top and sprinkle over the crumbled bacon. 4) Bake at 200°C for 35-40 minutes until golden brown on top and the tart has risen. So very tasty, and it paired well with chunky veggie soup and a glass (or two) of wine for dinner. The tart seemed unable to decide fully whether it was dinner or dessert, but turned out to be the perfect middle ground. Next time though we thought of swapping out the bacon for prosciutto as it has a more delicate flavour. We also would like to try standing up the apple slices in the cheese to allow the skins to caramelise. EDIT: We made this again, standing up the apple slices in the cheese and it worked very nicely :)

Challenge Update: This was another busy night-shift week, but not too busy to have some tasty foods continuing the challenge, as well as some leftovers. We had a couple of tarts, apple cheese tart and pumpkin tart, Faussobuco (ossobuco with ham hocks instead of veal) and Baked Ziti. Baked veg, our old standby, also made an appearance with some tasty fresh veg from a local farmer, and raclette, that old Swiss classic, with my parents at the week-end.