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As mentioned in Day 30 of The Challenge I used to not be a fan of tapioca pudding. I didn't like the texture, and I had been served it cold which just accentuated the texture that I didn't like. And then my grandmother got sick and struggled with solids and had minimal appetite, so we made a lot of puddings, and I came around to it. Making it again for the first time since she died was bittersweet, but certainly a tasty dessert. And because we always make healthy decisions, we added a chocolate sauce... Happy eating! Ingredients: 1/2 c tapioca 1 1/2 c milk 1 c coconut milk 1/2 c raisins 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 c sugar 1 tbsp butter 2 tbsp cocoa powder 1/4 c coconut milk cinnamon for sprinkling 1) Heat the milk, coconut milk and tapioca in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly. Add vanilla, raisins and sugar and keep stirring until it thickens. If it glops at you, turn the heat down and stir. 2) Melt the butter in a small saucepan and slowly stir in the cocoa powder (personally I like dark cocoa powder, or baker's chocolate with a little sugar, but tweak it to how sweet you want it.) Once it has formed an even mass, add the coconut milk, and blend until smooth. 3) Portion out the tapioca and drizzle over the chocolate sauce, Sprinkle with cinnamon or cocoa spice and serve. Alternately, if you prefer, chill the tapioca and serve cold, with either hot or cold chocolate sauce. So many options! It took me a while to come back to this after my grandmother died, but now that I have, it might make it into more regular rotation again... I'm also wondering about a savoury version. Something to think about. I hope you enjoy and make your own memories with this!

The Challenge update: With 5 night shifts in the last 10 days, we needed either easy one pot meals, like Hoppin' John , or big meals that would give us left overs. On days off in between there were also some experimental recipes, like the pumpkin chilli, or tasty staples, like traditional local sausage with greens and barley. Lunches continue to be light, the only one of note being a chanterelle tart, and a tapioca pudding with chocolate sauce for dessert one night. And then there was tonight, the end of the week, end of the shifts Sunday fry-up, because, you know, healthy choices and all that... But for dinner, not breakfast (it's hard to bump porridge from the breakfast slot in my book). We've also been roasting a Georgia candy roaster pumpkin as dessert on its own, drizzled with olive oil before going into the oven then sprinkled with cinnamon (or more decadently with brown sugar and cream, but that is not necessary as this pumpkin is so sweet on its own!) As a side note, I have also discovered that dry cured ham spread with fresh cheese and honey and rolled up is quite delectable. Others at the table looked askance until the tried it and had to admit that running short of ham at that particular point in time was mildly tragic (on a very minor scale). I highly recommend it and will certainly do it again, either just to amuse my own gueule, as the French expression goes, or for a canapé board at some point. I would however tweak it by adding fresh thyme. I'm afraid for any of you keeping up with this challenge that days 37-44 will have to wait as we will be away on holiday for a week so I am stopping the counter until we get back, hopefully with tasty meals under our belts and some inspiration to share ;)

As mentioned in Day 34 of The Challenge Mushroom season is here now too! (I know, so many seasons... plums, pumpkins and now mushrooms, but that is the beauty of autumn and the harvest season. My tomatoes are coming in too, as are little cucumbers on my balcony garden). Chanterelles are ridiculously over priced most of the year, but suddenly in September and October they aren't! They are almost like a normal food! So we got a little wooden basket of them from the store and made... a tart! Ingredients: 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 (approximate) water Tart: 250g of fresh chanterelles 1 1/2 c fresh cheese (the eat with a spoon-fresh like quark or blanc battue) a few sprigs of fresh thyme 1 tsp of dried sage 1 tsp butter salt and pepper to taste 4 zucchini flowers 1/2 tsp dried mint 1 tbsp parmesan 1 tsp olive oil 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) Mix the fresh cheese, reserving 1/4 c of it, with the thyme, sage, salt and pepper. Add 1 tbsp of water. 4) Roll out the crust to approximately 1 cm thick and line the bottom of a pie plate with it, and stab with a fork to create breathing holes. 5) Spread the fresh cheese over the crust in a thin layer. 6) Sauté the chanterelles briefly in the butter to allow them to give up their liquid (we didn't the first time making a mushroom tart and it was tasty, but swimming), then drain them (reserve the liquid if you want for use elsewhere) and sprinkle them over the cheese layer. 7) Take the remaining fresh cheese and mix it with the mint and some salt and pepper. Using a teaspoon, gently fill the zucchini flowers with it. 8) Place these on top of the tart and drizzle the olive oil over them. 9) Salt and pepper to taste and bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes. Serve warm with a side salad. Light but warm, it made a good lunch for an early autumn day, and easy to assemble too.

As mentioned in Day 33 of The Challenge It is pumpkin season again! We picked up a big Georgia Candy Roaster Pumpkin from a road-side stand (also excellent as dessert just roasted with a little olive oil and cinnamon! If you want to be decadent add butter and brown sugar to the hot orange mess and pour cream over the top, but it honestly doesn't need it! I think this will be my dessert for as long as the pumpkin lasts.) As the evenings have turned cooler, we decided to make a pumpkin chilli, with pumpkin replacing the role of the tomato. It worked well but was missing something, so we added a bit of tomato to the leftovers the next night and it was beautiful. Sweet and hot with just the right touch of acidity to balance it, and the deeper flavour notes from the beans. Ingredients: 1/3 of a large pumpkin 3 tbsp of olive oil 3 cups of assorted beans, soaked and ready to go ( we used adzuki and pinto beans) 3 onions, chopped 2 heads of garlic, chopped 2 red peppers, chpped 2 spicy(ish) white pepper 4 chilli peppers, chopped 8 mushrooms, chopped 2 tsp orange curry powder (or another of your choice. This is an interesting one we picked up in a market) 1 tsp Aloha Spiced Cacao 2 tsp Urfa biber (Turkish black chili) 2 tbsp lime juice 2 tsp cumin 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp cloves 1 tsp ground ginger Salt and pepper to taste (500ml of tomato passata) 1) Roast the pumpkin chunks with 1 tbsp of olive oil at 200°C for about a half hour until soft. Mash with a fork and set aside. 2) Sauté onions and garlic in the remaining olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pot. Add spices and stir. 3)Add peppers and chilis and cook until almost tender. Pour in beans, pumpkin mash with all the roasting juices, the lime juice, and about a cup of water. if using tomato passata, now is the time to add it. Salt and pepper to taste. 4) Cook for an hour or more until flavours are married. Serve hot with corn bread or over rice. Garnish with fresh coriander if you have any. Served with fresh corn-muffins, it hit the spot both ways and was tasty, warming and satisfying but not overly heavy. We are just disappointed that with the Challenge in play, we won't be able to make this one again during pumpkin season (unless we cheat and call a time out). We kept this one mild as we were going to share with our 9 month old, so do feel free to spice it up further!

As mentioned in Day 21 of The Challenge Growing up, my dad made jambalaya a lot. I have never been to the South of the US, never been to New Orelans or had true creole food, but jambalaya is a comfort food for me, a childhood flavour. I have no idea how close mine approximates a true jambalaya, call it a faux jambalaya if you want, but it is tasty and filling, with few dishes and a warming flavour hitting all the right notes. It can be meaty or fishy or both, always with a bunch of vegetables. I cheated for this one and used the last of my homemade Thai red curry paste as it needed using. Ingredients: 1 spicy sausage, sliced (I used Turkish Suçuk) 2 pieces of chicken per person 2 tbsp olive oil 4 prawns per person, shelled and veined 6 medium onions, roughly chopped 2 heads of garlic, chopped 3 tbsp Thai red curry paste 2 red peppers, chopped 3 celery stalks, chopped 1 courgette, chopped a dozen okra, chopped Hot peppers - as many or as few as you like depending on taste and which ones you have. I used 5 or 6 little ones of medium heat 2 cups of rice (we used a wild rice mix for this) 1 cup red cooking wine 4 cups broth 2 stalks fresh thyme 2 stalks fresh oregano 2 tsp cayenne pepper (or sometimes I substitute tandoori powder as it has a different heat and a warmth to it) 1 tsp cumin salt and pepper to taste. 1) Brown the chicken pieces and sausage in the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Grind pepper over it while it cooks, add salt if you are going to, and add cayenne and cumin. Set aside. 2) Cook onions and garlic in the oil and sausage fats. When they change colour, add the curry paste and stir for a few minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables and allow them to start to soften slightly. 3) Add the cooking wine and cook further before adding the rice. (This allows the acid in the wine to react with the okra so they don't turn slimy). Stir until the rice turns translucent and add the broth. Stir the chicken and sausage back in, allowing them to cook alongside the rice, absorbing all the flavours now bubbling away. 4) Cook approximately 20 minutes until the rice is cooked and the liquid almost entirely absorbed. Tuck the shrimp into the rice 5 minutes before you are ready to serve and cook until they are just opaque. 5) Serve it hot, on its own, with mustard or hot sauce. Jambalaya is one of those dishes which never comes out the same way twice for me. The general lines of the dish are there, but the exact flavouring and final product depend on what meat and/or seafood I am in the mood for, what veg I have at home and what the sniff test around my spice cupboard reveals which might be of interest.... Play around with it, use whatever veg or meat you want, and tweak the spicing to suit you. Have fun!

As mentioned in Day 23 of The Challenge The concept of using cauliflower in such a way is one I was introduced to relatively recently. It is low in calories, but smooth and decadent tasting. The trick is to balance the flavours effectively: not too much garlic, enough acidity to bring out the cauliflower. Miso paste works well in this, as does balsamic vinegar. In this case I used lemon juice, and skipped the miso as I thought the spinach and bacon would give the dish the deeper notes otherwise provided by the miso. Ingredients: Half a head of Cauliflower hut into florets 3 cloves of garlic, peeled 1/2 c milk 1 tbsp lemon juice 2 handfuls of spinach 1 cup of mushrooms, sliced 4 rashers of thick cut bacon, cut into pieces Spaghetti for 2 Pepper and parmesan to taste 1) Steam the cauliflower florets for 5 minutes or until tender, then blend with the garlic, milk and lemon juice until silky smooth. If using miso, add it now, or feel free to swap out the lemon juice for another acid. This step can be done in advance and added to the other ingredients later. 2) Cook your spaghetti as per instructions, reserving a little pasta water when you drain it. 3)In a pan, cook your bacon until it has rendered its fat and it turning crispy. Set it aside on a kitchen towel to dry. 4) In the same pan, fry your mushrooms, then just wilt your spinach. 5) Toss all ingredients together in the pasta pot or in a bowl. If the sauce is too thick, add some lemon juice or the pasta water, depending on your taste test determinations. Pepper and cheese to taste. The sauce to this can be paired with a number of alternatives to the bacon. We have done it successfully with asparagus, for example. I plan on trying it with pumpkin. It was a surprise how rich and decadent this tastes, and while I still very much enjoy a classic carbonara with all the cream and eggs, this is a very worthy alternative.

As mentioned in Day 23 of The Challenge We tend to have a light meal for lunch, like soup or salad, and we live around the corner from a farm stall. This happened because of their phenomenal fresh carrots and kale. It took all of 15 minutes to get on the table, as well as prepping for the cauliflower carbonara for dinner, it was packed full of flavours, textures, and colours while being light and easy. I highly recommend this! Just skip the eggs to make this salad vegan. Ingredients: 2 onions, spiralised 2 normal carrots (or one huge one), spiralised on the ribbon setting Kale 2 tbsp olive oil 3 tsp honey 1 tsp nigella seeds a handful of walnuts a handful of sage leaves 2 eggs 1 red pepper 2 stalks of celery 4 sundried tomatoes 1 tsp balsamic vinegar Salt and pepper to taste 1) Cut kale into thirds and steam for a few minutes, until the leaves just start to change colour - not too long as you want to retain some crunch. Place on plates. 2) thinly slice the red pepper and plate with the kale. 3) Heat half of the olive oil into a pan. When it is shimmering, add the onions and sauté until tender and starting to brown. Add nigela seeds and cook for a few more minutes before adding to the kale. 4) Meanwhile heat the rest of the oil in a second pan and sauté the carrots. Add the balsamic and the honey and the sage leaves. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, and plate up. 5) Poach the eggs for 4 minutes, then carefully extract them and place them on top of the salad. Add walnuts, celery sticks and sun-dried tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste and serve. We had this with grapes and tasty bread and local cheese, as well as a home-made mayonnaise. My husband declares to be one of his favourite things I've made.

The Challenge update: So last week was a busy one, with a couple of nights shifts and other bits going on, so we needed a big meal that would give us leftovers for the week - the jambalaya - and something easy to prep ahead then assemble quickly - the carbonara. The jackets and salad were a lunch and a quick dinner on getting back home tonight. For the rest, it was a week of leftovers or of being away. Here is the recipe for the kale and honey carrot salad, and here is the one for the carbonara. Recipe for the jambalaya coming soon!

As mentioned in Day 20 of The Challenge There are a number of different ways of doing this recipe, but many of those ways seem heavy on stodge and light on veg, so we tweaked a bit. It was filling but not too heavy, perfect for an early autumn supper! Ingredients: 6 big cabbage leaves 6 medium potatoes, boiled and mashed 1 c of peas 1/4 head of broccoli 2 c of spinach, blanched, or 2 cubes of defrosted frozen spinach 1/4 summer squash, chopped 3 eggs 1/2 c cheese of your choice (we used a local soft cheese) 2 TBSP of butter 2 TBSP of chutney of your choice ( we used our freshly made plum chutney) 2 tsp fresh thyme 2 tsp fresh oregano 1 tsp mustard Salt and Pepper 1) Steam the cabbage leaves for 5 minutes. Roast the squash for 10 minutes at 180°C in 1 tbsp of butter in the oven proof dish you will be using for the pie. 2) Mix mashed potatoes, peas, spinach, broccoli, cheese and eggs together in a bowl. Add the thyme, oregano, mustard, salt and pepper and mix well. 3) Add the squash to the potato mixture and make sure that the butter spreads around the whole dish. Line the pie dish with the cabbage leaves, leaving one for the top. 4) Fill the pie, spread chutney over the top and close the cabbage leaves over the pie filling. Dot the top with butter, and bake for a half hour until the top is golden brown. Serve with chutney, mustard or on its own. This was very tasty, I had meant to add carrots, but being the entertainment part of the Dinner and a Show for my baby got to me and I forgot the carrots. It also could have used a touch more salt, but other than that, this one was definitely a keeper. As with most things, I will play around with veg, add bacon occasionally, and maybe alter the seasoning, and I recommend that you do the same. Make it yours!

Challenge update: I've seen a variety of versions of this in recipes, but they always seem too heavy and lacking in veg, but I liked the idea of a pie with a cabbage crust instead of a pie shell. It had potatoes and cheese to act as the food glue, but we also had a lot of veg in there to lighten it up, with spinach, peas, broccoli and squash. It was moreish and filling, good for an evening at the start of the autumn! Recipe here!