Apple Cinnamon Muffins

• 
  
• Apple Cinnamon Muffins
• Adapted from Allrecipes
• 
  
• Ingredients for muffins:
• 
  
• 1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (70 g) whole wheat flour
• 2/5 cup (75 g) white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup (75 g) vegetable oil
• 1 egg

1/3 cup (82 g) milk

• 2 apples - cored and chopped
• 
  
• Ingredients for topping:
• 
  
• 1/4 cup (25 g) white sugar
• 1/4 cup (35 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup (57 g) butter, cubed
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups.
2. From the list of ingredients for muffins, stir together all-purpose and whole wheat flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix in oil, egg and milk. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, stir together ingredients for the topping: sugar, flour, butter and  cinnamon. Mix together with fork and sprinkle over unbaked muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

I made a lot of adjustments from the original recipe - swapping out some whole wheat flour for white, cutting the sugar in the muffins, leaving the apple peels on, and halving the amount of topping. This makes muffins that are just sweet enough to be dessert, but could also be happily eaten for breakfast without feeling too guilty...

Jessica Koslow’s Carrot-Ginger Sesame Loaf

So A and I went to Squirl in LA in January, and really enjoyed the couple of things we ate there. I'm not sure I'd wait in a long line, but that might be due to my strong aversion to waiting for food. Anyway - spotted this cake and realised I had all the ingredients at home, aside from applesauce, so once that was obtained, we were ready to go! I used normal milk, but the original recipe said almond milk, making a vegan cake.

Jessica Koslow’s Carrot-Ginger (Black) Sesame Loaf

Adapted from Food52

Ingredients

1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil, plus more for the pan
250g all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
135g granulated sugar
145g packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (120ml) unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup (80ml) milk
5cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 large carrots (200g total), coarsely grated
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds, plus more as needed (I used natural sesame seeds)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Brush the inside surfaces of an 8½ by 4½–inch (21.5 by 11–cm) loaf pan with a little oil. Dust with flour, tapping out any excess.
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, applesauce, almond milk, ginger, vanilla, and salt. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture, followed by the carrots, and finally the oil.
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the top with the sesame seeds. You want it to be completely covered in seeds. Bake until the middle of the loaf has puffed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes.
5. Let cool completely in the pan before slicing. Store, tightly wrapped, at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Coconut tahini cookies with candied ginger

I have all these ingredients on hand that I buy because certain food people tell me they are wonderful (coconut oil, tahini, etc.) and then I put them on my shelves and stare at them and am totally unclear on how to incorporate them into the every day food I make.

Thankfully, I read enough food blogs to get inspiration every once in a while - and Molly's blog on Coconut tahini monster cookies (with chocolate chips instead of ginger) made me run to my cabinets and check yup, I had everything except for the chocolate chips and toppings. A quick substitute of candied ginger and here we were, ready with cookies as a gift to our old neighbors in their new house. These are cakey cookies - lovely and soft and chewy. Next time I think I could cut the sugar a bit as I really don't have a sweet tooth, but they're pretty awesome as is, too.

Coconut tahini cookies with candied ginger
Adapted from My name is yeh

Ingredients

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 c melted virgin coconut oil, slightly cooled
1/2 c tahini
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tb vanilla extract
3/4 c candied ginger, chopped
1/2 c flaked unsweetened coconut (optional)
sprinkles, optional

Method

Preheat the oven to 350ºf and line a baking sheet with parchment. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl.

In another bowl, combine coconut oil and tahini. Whisk in sugar until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then mix in extracts. Finally, stir the flour mixture into the tahini mixture along with candied ginger.

Scoop cookie dough onto lined baking sheets, leaving a few inches between them for the cookies to spread. Top the dough with coconut and sprinkles if using.

Bake until the bottoms are lightly browned and the coconut is toasty, begin checking for doneness at 15 minutes. Let cool on the pans for 5 minutes, and then remove to a rack to cool completely, or eat them warm.

Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake in One Bowl

I love the UK method of doing most baking recipes by weight as you can just add ingredients straight into the bowl without dirtying loads of measuring cups and whatnot.

A requested a yogurt cake, he has fond memories of this one, but as soon as I saw the Barefoot Contessa had a recipe I had to try that one out.

So here we go:

Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake in One Bowl
Adapted from Food Network

Makes one loaf sized cake

Ingredients

210g all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
245g plain whole-milk yogurt
225g sugar for cake, plus 1/3 cup sugar for syrup
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
75g vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze (optional):
1 cup confectioners' (or icing) sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 350F / 180C. Grease a loaf tin. You can line with parchment paper if you like, but I use a silicone tin so never bother with that step.

Combine yogurt, 225g sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a bowl and whisk well until smooth. Add flour, baking powder and salt and whisk well to combine until smooth. Fold in vegetable oil until combined.

Pour batter into loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

Meanwhile, make the lemon syrup - combine 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup lemon juice in a small pan (that was roughly 2 lemons worth of juice, which works well with the number needed for zesting). Heat and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.

Let cake cool for about 10 minutes, but while it is still warm, poke some holes in the cake with a tester or skewer, pour the lemon syrup over the cake and let it soak in. Cool completely.

For the glaze, which is optional, combine icing sugar and lemon juice, then drizzle over the cake.

Van Kerkwijk

Nes 41

1012 KC 

Amsterdam, Netherlands

In case you couldn't tell from the name, this place is in Amsterdam. It is frickin' awesome (except for the no reservations thing). The starters are a mix of lots of different little things - you don't pick, they just come like that, and then the waiter comes by and tells you what they have on offer at the moment for mains, and you choose one of the four or five options (PaulyG and I went for steak, PattyG had some crazy good Indonesian chicken I think) and wine is ordered and everything is just warm and convivial and great, and then you get two or three options for dessert, which is also fabulous, and then you stumble out into the street, full and merry and you meet your Dutch friend's friend who comes screeching up on her bike, tries to park it but instead ends up shoving it over while shouting "I'm so drunk!" and then you get invited to an electro techno DJ party that everyone you are with says HELL NO to and then you go home for a sleep.

Rotorino

434 Kingsland Rd
London
E8 4AA

Not to sound like completely smug jerks, but A and I found ourselves having a conversation about how amazing our neighbourhood has turned out to be since we moved in almost six years ago. Neither of us were familiar with it when we decided to take a small leap of faith and just go for it, and in the years since we have seen a huge number of restaurants, bars, and shops open up, almost all pretty much designed to be right up our alley of interests.

Smug jerk-ness aside, we now have a restaurant at the end of our road that has a chef that is well known and well awarded. Rotorino, which didn't have a sign up when we went (but I think that has now changed) is a gem of a neighbourhood restaurant. We went on a Sunday evening, so things were pretty chill. I had my sleb spot early on, helped by the fact that we'd just watched Broadchurch in the couple of weeks before visiting Rotorino, so hi Nigel! 

As soon as I saw a starter of pig face, I had to get it. A was much less enthusiastic about that decision, but gamely tried one piece. My counterargument is who doesn't love breaded, deep fried bits of juicy pork? Who cares if it comes from the pig's face, or leg, or tummy?

We then shared some ricotta gnudi - one of the richest pasta dishes I have ever tasted but in such a delightful way, though I'm glad we shared. The roast chicken (whoops, there was ricotta stuffed under its skin as well) was fought over eagerly by the two of us and went perfectly with a side of roast new potatoes. 

The meal only stumbled when we got to desserts. We went for a three-peat on ricotta with the fried ravioli, but the dough was bland and it was less a ravioli and more a stodgy filled pocket of dough. While the savory-sweet description sounded nice, it didn't really work in practice and I wouldn't get it again.

That said, we loved Rotorino enough to talk about it constantly, plotting our next trip there - so we'll be back soon and ready to try more of the short but elegant menu.

Lemon Almond and Polenta Cake

Yet another cake recipe that makes use of bits I have floating around the cupboards, such as ground almonds and cornmeal/polenta. Nigella's recipes haven't failed me yet - she's brilliant for the home cook. While I made the stupid mistake of leaving out the lemon zest from the cake batter, I just stirred it into the lemon syrup at the end and think everything still turned out alright, though I'd recommend sticking with the original recipe here.

Lemon Almond and Polenta Cake
Adapted from Nigella.com
 
Ingredients

for the cake
200 grams soft unsalted butter 
200 grams caster sugar
200 grams ground almonds
100 grams fine polenta (or cornmeal)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 
3 large eggs
 
for the syrup 
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 2 lemons
100 grams icing sugar (originally calls for 125 but I only had 100 and it was sweet enough)
 
Method

1. Line the base of a 23cm / 9inch springform cake tin with baking parchment and grease its sides lightly with butter. I used a 10 inch silicone round cake tin as it's what I had.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F.
3. Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
4. Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
5. Finally, beat in the lemon zest* and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. (If you use smaller tin, and your cake is thicker, it may be closer to 40 minutes, as in original recipe.)
6. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin.
7. Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon zest*, lemon juice and icing sugar in a smallish saucepan.
8. Once the icing sugar’s dissolved into the juice, you’re done.
9. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin.

*As mentioned, I would include the lemon zest in the batter in step 5 rather than in the syrup in step 7. But when I made it, I had to put the zest in step 7 due to my earlier mistake, which is why it is written out this way.

Moist Apple Loaf Cake

Our neighbors have a massive apple tree that always has a few branches drooping into our yard. I grabbed two apples today and wanted to make something not-too-sweet-just-sweet-enough, that was more apples than not. Also, I'm always on the lookout for one bowl recipes. This fit the bill perfectly, and was exactly what I wanted, especially after a few tweaks. I added a bit of cornmeal for texture in the loaf, and subbed golden caster sugar for the mix of brown and white that the original recipe called for. And voila, a moist full-of-apple loaf that is also a cake.

Moist Apple Loaf Cake

Adapted from Bestrecipes

Ingredients
1½ cups self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon cinnamon
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup golden caster sugar
2 large or 3 medium apples, diced (I left the peel on)
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Method

1. Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda and spice together and stir through sugar. Make a well in centre, add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly.

2. Pour into a greased round cake tin.

3. Cook at 180°C for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

The Sun Tea Rooms

High Street, next to the Sun Pub

Hawkshead, UK

If you're walking through Hawkshead, you won't be able to miss The Sun Tea Rooms with its giant display of cakes in the front window. We all gaped at the sheer massive size of the cakes, and then when we had a chance to sit down and order them, we did - lemon blueberry, chocolate and strawberry and carrot cake. My favorite was the chocolate, I think - but I will be a little harsh and say that they look more tempting than they taste (I am not a sweets person so this may have a bit to do with it). Still, if you get a table in the sunshine and want a piece of cake that is larger than your head, this is a good pitstop in Hawkshead.

Almond, polenta, orange and cardamom cake with honey and citrus syrup

A's brother T got married in Wales, and as part of the festivities guests were asked to supply cakes for a cake table. I needed something that would travel well and keep for a couple of days as I wasn't sure I'd have time to bake something on the day. This looked perfect for the gluten-free guests - a dense cake with some interesting spice to it (a little nod to T's time in India) and with the delicious nubbly crumb that almonds and polenta create. It's not the most beautiful cake to look at, but its fine eating qualities make up for it!

Almond, polenta, orange and cardamom cake with honey and citrus syrup
Adapted from Dan’s recipe which is in turn adapted from Nigel Slater‘s recipe in the Observer

Ingredients

220 g butter
220 g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
zest and juice of a unwaxed orange
300 g ground almonds
150 g polenta
1 tsp baking powder
12 green cardamom pods
for the glaze: juice of two oranges, two lemons and 4 tablespoons of honey

Method

Line the base of the cake tin with a piece of baking parchment. Set the oven at 180° C/350 F.

Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. You can do this by hand or in a mixer. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them lightly with a fork, then stir into the mixture. Carefully grate the zest and then squeeze the juice from the orange. Add both the zest and the juice to the mixture. Mix the ground almonds, polenta and baking powder together, then fold into the mixture.

Crush the cardamom pods and extract the little black seeds, grinding them to a fine powder. Add the spice to the cake mixture.

Transfer the cake mixture to the lined tin and smooth the top level. Bake for 30 minutes, turn down the heat to 160 C for a further 25 minutes or until the cake is firm.

To make the syrup, squeeze the lemon and orange juice into a stainless steel saucepan, bring to the boil and dissolve in the honey. Keep the liquid boiling until it has formed a thin syrup (4-5 minutes).

Spike holes into the top of the cake (still warm and in its tin) with a skewer then spoon over the hot citrus syrup. Leave to cool, then lift out of the tin.

Bread Pudding

For a New Orleans-themed dinner, I did a bit of searching through cooking sites and found one dedicated to recipes from some of New Orleans' finest restaurants. This bread pudding recipe by Pascal's Manale sounded exactly right as a finish to the menu, but it made enough to serve 15, so I cut it in half and also threw in some dried cranberries when I didn't have quite enough raisins. It was absolutely devoured (especially by S, who said bread pudding was his favorite dessert ever), even though we were all stuffed from the main course, so I'm going to call it a massive success. 

Bread Pudding
Adapted from Pascal's Manale

Ingredients

1.5 Loaves French Bread
215g Raisins
950ml Whole Milk
115g Sugar
5 Eggs
115g Melted Butter
3 tbs Vanilla Extract

Method

Cut French bread into cubes. Pour milk on French bread. Let milk soak into bread. Add the remaining ingredients to French bread mixture. Mix with hand until blended evenly. Pour mixture into ungreased pan.

Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Makes 15 or more servings.


Brandy Butter Topping

Ingredients

3 tbs Brandy
225g butter
225g sugar
1 tbs vanilla extract

Method

Let butter sit at room temperature until very soft. Add the remaining ingredients and blend with mixer until smooth. Pour over bread pudding.

Chewy Coconut Macaroons

For some reason I bought a giant bag of desiccated, unsweetened coconut a while back. Every time I looked at my baking shelf, it was there staring at me, so I finally did something about it and made macaroons. If you like chewy, sweet cookies that seem to be entirely made out of coconut, then these are for you. I found them a tad sweet so would probably reduce the amount of sugar next time around.

Chewy Coconut Macaroons

Adapted from Baking Bites

Ingredients

3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 325F / 160C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread your shredded coconut on a cutting board and coarsely chop it with a knife to break up the larger shreds of coconut.

In a medium bowl, whisk together egg whites, sugar and vanilla until well blended. Add in shredded coconut and stir with a spatula until well moistened.

Place level 1/4 cup scoops of the coconut mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Pack the macaroons together with your fingers (forming the mix into pyramid shapes is very attractive, but mounds of macaroon are just as tasty!)

Bake for about 20 minutes, until macaroons are golden brown around the edges (time will vary slightly by size of the cookies). Cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes 10 large macaroons.

Mamounia Lounge

136 Brompton Road 
Knightsbridge
London
SW3 1HY

I'll be honest and say that Knightsbridge is not one of my usual haunts, but when I was invited to come to Mamounia Lounge to check out their Moroccan and Lebanese menu, it seemed like a good reason to expand the horizons a bit. A short walk from Knightsbridge station, Mamounia Lounge is decked out more like a bar/club than restaurant, and I probably wouldn't have thought about it as a place for dinner if I was just walking past. Inside, it's all dim lighting and dark, intense colors. We started with the long cocktail list, and I tried a Gold Digger cocktail (passion fruit, vanilla, vodka, champagne) and A had the Mamounia Old Fashioned with Flor de Cana 21 rum. They were both well balanced, though A did realize he'd chosen an after-dinner drink for his pre-dinner drink. 

To start we had the incredibly creamy Hommus Shawarma (topped with grilled lamb), and deep fried squid which managed to be both crispy and tender. The mixed grill and lamb shank tagine mains also showed off the skills of the kitchen - I'm not sure I've ever had a chicken kebab that was so juicy and full of chickeny flavor, and the lamb shank was braised to a fall-apart consistency that just needed gentle prodding with a fork. 

Desserts were not as stellar as the savory dishes though - the Mahalabia, an Arabic pudding garnished with pistachios, tasted mostly of roses to me, which was unexpected as I'd never had the dish before and there was no mention of that flavor on the menu. The fig tart had a rather thick, stodgy pastry, but it was saved by the fabulous cinnamon ice cream. This is going to sound disgustingly greedy, but our waiter was insistent that we try the chocolate fondant and brought it out for our third dessert, and to be fair it was the best of the three. 

For something sweet after a meal that won't stuff you even further, I'd suggest going outside for a shisha - we had the mixed fruit tobacco pumped through mango juice, and it was a more unique, fun experience than the dessert menu. That's a popular option though and there isn't much space outside, so you do need to book in advance.

Since we were there on a Friday night, a stunning belly dancer performed after dinner - a bit of extra entertainment if you're looking for it! It seems to fit the neighborhood well - I would hesitate a bit at the prices, especially as I live close to Dalston where meals like this would be half the cost, but you do get a more glamorous presentation in return, and there are certainly many comparably priced places in Knightsbridge without the quality cooking seen here.

Goodfoodetc was invited to review Mamounia Lounge.

Tierra Peru

164 Essex Road  

London 

N1 8LY

I am late to the party, but there has been a sudden appearance of Peruvian restaurants in London. One opened up just down the street from where I live, so J and I arranged to meet up there to give it a try. She has a Taste Card which entitled us to 50% off, making the meal a bargain. Of course we had to start with Pisco Sours - one traditional and one with the addition of algarrobina syrup (apparently made from some kind of desert fruit). They were refreshing but quite sweet - I'll need to try some more before I determine whether or not a Pisco Sour is better for after dinner rather than before.

Onwards to the starters - Anticuchos de Corazon de res (beef heart skewers) and Cebiche de pescado (marinated fish). While I love all weird cuts of meat, I have to say I preferred the cebiche as it was lighter and easier to eat more of. J went for additional seafood in her main - the Picante de mariscos which is described as fresh seafood cooked in a sauce of aji panca, aji Amarillo & fish stock served with steamed white rice and fried potato medallions. It was tangy and fresh and a good counterpoint to my very rich main, the Chicharrones de cerdo con chifles de camote frito y salsa criolla, which was basically deep fried slices of pork belly. Thankfully I adore pork belly, and managed to finish the plate which is pretty amazing given that the pieces of pork were enormous. We were stuffed but couldn't resist a traditional Peruvian dessert, Suspiro a la limeña, which is made of sweet milk and caramel topped with soft meringue. I'm not much of a sweets person and this was way too sugary for me, though of course as we sat there chatting, we found ourselves dipping our spoons in, even though each bite made me grimace a bit with the tooth-shocking sweetness.

Atmosphere is not the strong point here, but the food was tasty enough (and interesting enough) for me to go back - I'd say, based on what we had, that the seafood dishes are their strengths, and I'd skip dessert next time.

Bob Bob Ricard

1 Upper James St

London

W1F 9DF

My lovely (and very generous) friend C took me out for a birthday dinner at Bob Bob Ricard, which is the perfect place to snuggle into a booth with someone you really like hanging out with - the drinks, food and luxurious coziness of the whole place makes it one of my favorite meals in recent memory. The "Push for champagne" button at each table sets the tone for the whole place - whatever you want, whenever you want it, delivered with charm! Due to the multiple drinks and courses, my memory is not the clearest, but I definitely remember having the truffled potato and porcini vareniki pictured above, each topped with a tiny onion ring. For mains we tore apart an Old Bay Crispy Chicken, which made good use of one of my favorite seasonings and paired it with the tenderness of a baby chicken. There was also a Veal Fillet Holstein, which was essentially a schnitzel topped with a tiny fried quail's egg and sitting in an incredible sauce. A shoutout to the truffled mashed potato as well, which we polished off easily, before moving on to the weirdest dessert order ever - macaroni and cheese (don't look at us that way!) and the BBR Signature Chocolate Glory, which had a beautiful dome of gilded chocolate that was then melted by the hot chocolate sauce the waiter poured over it. And of course, being extra thoughtful, my friend had also arranged for a specially decorated mini-birthday cake to appear. I am now slightly embarrassed as I read through everything we ate (and I've missed off some other bits too) - but anyone that knows me knows that feeding me is the best way to celebrate, and this is a meal I'll remember for ages.

Scotland Day 7 - The Tallest Tree in Britain, More Ospreys, Police, Howie's Bistro

We woke up to a grey and drizzly morning in Dunkeld. After another hearty breakfast, we decided to go for a walk before the rain got any heavier, so we headed off to the Hermitage. Thankfully, the thick covering of trees meant that very little rain actually landed on us, and as we walked past a bubbling stream and some mini-waterfalls, we came across what was listed as the tallest tree in Britain.

Is this really the tallest tree in Britain?

More interestingly, I read later at Dunkeld Cathedral that the reason why this area is covered in Douglas firs is that one of the previous Dukes of Atholl decided to put seeds into cannons and blasted the surrounding area with them. So now, hundreds of years later, there are incredibly tall fir trees all over the place.

After our walk we went to Dunkeld Cathedral which was pretty, and more importantly, dry inside. The rain was really getting heavy at this point so after our very thorough inspection of the cathedral (and an eclectic antiques store nearby), we went back to the B&B for a little snack consisting of some Scottish cheese and crackers we picked up at The Scottish Deli. 

A and his mom were feeling a little under the weather so we left them to rest at the B&B and headed out to Loch of the Lowes. While checking out the hides on the loch, where you can watch birds and wildlife from the comfort of a shelter, we bumped into loads of friendly birdwatchers who were very helpful at directing us where to look to see all the interesting sights. There are ospreys there, too, and I actually saw this osprey swoop into the water, catch a massive fish (which you can see on the right side of the photo) and drag it up to the top of a very tall tree where her nest is. She's the oldest breeding osprey they know of - apparently almost three times as old as your average osprey.

This osprey will mess you up.

After that, we found a trail that headed toward Dunkeld and went for a wander.

Picturesque moss.

The wander found us going down a rather steep hill all the way into Dunkeld, and we popped out right in from the The Scottish Deli again. What goes down must come up(!) so we trekked back up like the valiant hill walkers we are, and were very proud of ourselves when we made it back to Loch of the Lowes.

By this point it was dinner time again, and Kate, the owner of the B&B, had recommended Howie's Bistro to us. We arrived and proceeded to have one of the best meals of our Scottish trip. A and my dad ordered the Perthshire spring lamb, redcurrant & leek casserole, and the noises my dad made while eating this indicated that he was not going to share. I had Howie’s own lasagne with potato wedges & dressed salad, which was rich and warming and perfect for the chilly, wet weather. Shockingly, my mom's dish, which sounded boring: Leek, mushroom & pannchetta penne pasta topped with a garlic butterflied chicken breast, was anything but - I basically licked her bowl clean when she couldn't finish it, since the mushroom flavor was so intense and creamy. And A's mom's pan seared sea bass had a crisp, savory skin and was cooked just right.

LAMB.

Lasagne (but the chips let you know you're still in the UK)

We shared the lime cheesecake with chocolate ice cream for dessert, which made the cheesecake lovers and chocolate lovers all very happy. When we got back to the B&B, we found out that Howie's Bistro is owned by Kate's two sons - so thankfully we really enjoyed our meal or else that could have been an awkward situation...
Anyway - Dunkeld is a small place, so I was surprised to find such a great place for dinner, but that seemed to be the trend in Scotland, finding really outstanding food in out of the way places.

Scotland Day 6 - Castle, Whisky, Gorge, Waterfalls, Loch Tay

We were sad to leave the Boat Hotel, but at least the drive through the rest of the Cairngorms was picturesque enough to alleviate some of the pain. Our first destination was Blair Castle, which is a giant white washed castle with some pretty amazing grounds. We were still fondly remembering Eilean Donan though so instead of going inside this castle, we just got tickets for the gardens and had a stroll around. This worked out well, especially when we came across these:

Highland cow! The best part about Blair Castle.

That's my favorite picture, but there were actually 5 or 6 of the cows scattered around. They are as adorable as can be, with their shaggy bangs and dopey personalities. The walled garden was worth a look as well, except for the vicious swans standing guard over their babies (I stayed far far away).

Another brief stop was made at Killiecrankie Gorge as it was on our way to Edradour. We didn't spend a lot of time there, but did walk down to get a view of Soldier's Leap, where the story has it a solder jumped across the River Garry while being pursued.

A was clearly distracted by the thought of whisky though so he hurried us along to "Scotland's smallest distillery" which turned out to be informative and charming (though it didn't change my mind about how foul the actual drink is).

This is worth a lot of money. Don't ask me why.

Wee car!

After a tour and tasting (and a souvenir whisky glass each) we went to Pitlochry to have a look around. I'd heard a lot about the fish ladder from the guidebook, so we set off on foot to find it. But before we got there, we met this guy and his dogs:

Huh.

He pointed us in the right direction and so we managed to find it, but didn't see any salmon swimming upstream (though others claimed they had seen some large ones just a little before we got there). Pitlochry's main street was attractive and lined with shops selling tourist stuff. But soon our parking time was up, and we decided to go to the Falls of Acharn for a walk before dinner. It's a lovely, one hour circular walk (but be warned, it is quite steep uphill for half of it). The best place to get a view of the waterfall is actually through the Hermit's Cave (so don't just poke your head in and then walk past it like I did).

Waterfalls are always better in real life

Acharn is conveniently located next to Kenmore, a beautiful village on Loch Tay. A had gotten a recommendation for the Kenmore Hotel (and our tour arranger Nigel also mentioned that it's one of his favorite places) so we decided to have dinner there. You can see from the picture below how lovely it would be to have a drink in the sun. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't really sunny so after a quick huddle outside with some drinks, we headed into the much cozier pub area for dinner.

This picture makes the weather look better than it was

I ordered a burger and A had fish and chips, and he definitely fared better than me, so it was a good thing we were sharing! My dad and A's mom had mussels which they both really enjoyed again, and my mom had a bowl of cullen skink, which is basically a very rich seafood chowder.

Burger not worth speaking of

Thank goodness for fish and chips

I believe there was another sticky toffee pudding for dessert here, which was delightfully nut-free, making it perfect for me. I clearly needed a walk after all that food, so my parents and I headed off for a small jaunt on the banks of Loch Tay.

Spot the crannog

As we piled into the car and drove away from Kenmore, the sun broke through the clouds, which almost made us turn back around to see Loch Tay in the dazzling sunshine, but alas, I knew we had some miles to go before we reached Hatton Grange B&B so we continued on, wishing our timing was slightly better.

Scotland Day 4 - Castles, Loch Ness, Cairngorms

Another outrageously large breakfast at Fernlea greeted us in the morning, along with blue skies!

The view from our bedroom window at Fernlea

 We got an early start and stopped in Plockton, which rather unusually has a lot of palm trees in people's gardens. A's mom had been here years ago and her fond memories were reinforced by our stroll around the village, including a stop at the open air church which is now completely overgrown but you could still pick out where people might have sat to listen to a sermon.

Plockton

Next was Eilean Donan castle which is indeed as picturesque as all the guide books would make you believe. In between our photo frenzies, we also enjoyed the exhibits inside (I especially liked the very realistic fake food in the kitchen, along with explanations of what the life of a scullery maid was like).

Eilean Donan Castle - just helping to make it the most photographed castle in Scotland

Sadly for Urquhart Castle, we were too impressed with Eilean Donan to care very much about ruins, so we stopped in the car park for a look and then decided to head off to see Loch Ness, up close and personal, instead.

Sneaky picture of Urquhart Castle from over the wall

We paused in Drumnadrochit to ask the tourist information people where we should go for a short walk, and they suggested the Woodland Walk that goes very close to Loch Ness. Of course, while we were on the walk, we bumped into a a guy and his dog and asked whether it was possible to actually get to Loch Ness, and he gave us a tip that involved a bit of scrambling over a fallen tree (and a tense moment when A thought he might cause my mom to fall into the creek!) but aside from that obstacle, it wasn't much farther to Loch Ness itself, and we found ourselves on the banks, completely alone. I love it when that happens. On our way back we got lost, of course, since none of us are very good at finding trails / remembering where we came from, but we did find our way back to the car eventually.

Woodland walk

Now this is where A was really looking forward to trying to ridiculously long whisky list at the Fiddlers, going so far as to call the day before to check when they served food. So when they said 12-2.30 and 6.30-8.30, we knew we wouldn't get any food, but we failed to realise that they aren't open at all in the afternoon! A was devastated, and the day was only saved when our next destination turned out to be so amazing that no one could ever be depressed there.

The Dores Inn - this could be heaven

A's uncle R had recommended The Dores Inn (Loch Ness, IV2 6TR) and we are so glad we made the effort to go.

Silvery sardines

Lamb and pancetta cassoulet

We ordered what seems like the majority of the menu and every single dish was really well prepared. We started with sardines, stuffed mushrooms, and mussels - and as soon as we started eating, we were getting excited for the mains. I had the lamb and pancetta cassoulet, and in a recurring theme, despite my parents saying that they don't like lamb, they tried it and changed their minds. It was meltingly tender and jam-packed with different flavors. A's haggis was scarfed down, as was his mom's fish and chips (again, enormous, and fried just right).  My dad's sea bass and mom's scallops and chorizo salad went quickly as well - we basically ate and grinned at each other happily through dinner. A warm bourbon mud cake to finish was the final achievement, and we joked around about coming back the next night even though we were not going to be anywhere close.

Reluctantly, we left The Dores Inn to head to The Boat Hotel in the Cairngorms - and once I saw the old fashioned bar I was thrilled - more about it in the next installment.

Spiced Fresh Orange and Honey Sorbet

With a new ice cream maker, I've been looking up interesting frozen dessert recipes. We started by just throwing a carton of coconut yogurt into the ice cream maker, which resulted in a lovely, slightly tart frozen yogurt with flakes of coconut. After that success, I wanted to try something a little more interesting, and a look at the spice rack showed me that I have not been very good about using my cardamom pods. So here's something that does use them! I halved the original recipe but decided to include both star anise and cardamom, and the original amount of ginger because I love ginger. Next time I would skip the sugar, and just use loads of fresh ginger instead of ginger conserve, as I think the orange juice and honey were sweet enough.

Spiced Fresh Orange and Honey Sorbet

Adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

1.5 cups water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup clover honey
1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel
1/4 cup ginger conserve
1 whole star anise

1 cardamom pod
1 whole clove
1 small bay leaf
1 cups chilled fresh orange juice
1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Method

Combine first 9 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until syrup is thick and mixture is reduced to 1 cups, about 12 minutes. Discard bay leaf; cool syrup.

Strain syrup into medium bowl. Add orange juice and lemon juice. Transfer to ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer sorbet to container, cover, and freeze until firm, at least 6 hours and up to 3 days.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

There are not that many English desserts that I think are that great, but sticky toffee pudding makes up for all the rest. The only problem is that I feel too guilty to make an entire one for just me and A, so it usually only comes out when we have guests over. It was scarfed down quickly on the last few evenings I presented it at, so I think this recipe is a keeper.

Sticky Toffee Pudding
From BBC Food

Ingredients

For the pudding

150g/5oz dates, stones removed, chopped
250ml/9fl oz hot water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g/2¼ oz butter, softened
60g/2¼ oz caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
150g/5oz plain flour

For the toffee sauce (I usually only make half of this recipe - it seems to be plenty to drench each slice)

200g/7oz butter
400g/14oz brown sugar
vanilla pod, split (I subbed a good splash of high-quality vanilla extract)
250ml/9fl oz double cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/370F/Gas 4.

Mix the dates, bicarbonate of soda and the water together in a bowl and leave to soak for ten minutes. (I pureed this mixture after the dates were soft when I made this the second time because there were chunks of dates in my first attempt, which weren't bad, but apparently aren't very traditional.)

In a clean bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Still stirring the butter mixture, gradually add the eggs, making sure they are well mixed in.

Still stirring, gradually add the flour, then add the date mixture.

Pour the mixture into a 20cm/8in square cake tin. Place into the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a thick bottomed pan over a medium heat.

Add the brown sugar, vanilla pod and cream and stir well. Simmer for five minutes.

To serve, spoon out a portion of the pudding onto a plate and pour over the hot toffee sauce.