I really like classic combination of salty peanut butter and sweet jam. I try not to eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches because unfortunately once I start, I cannot stop. One, two, three sandwiches is never enough and although my brain knows the limit, my stomach doesn't. So, I rarely allow myself to have this simple and tasty treat. Almost a year ago I saw this recipe on a food network show and I instantly knew that I had to make it. Finally, a few weeks ago I got around to baking this delicious bread pudding for breakfast. It tasted really good, like a warm peanut butter and jam sandwich with custard. This custard, however, was also something that bothered me a little bit in this dessert. The top crusty layer of the dish was divine, whereas the custard was... well... custardy. I think that next time I'll take a bigger dish and pour the mixture in single layer so that there's less custard bits and more crunchy parts. I used soy milk in this pudding but it can be made with whole milk instead.

recipe adapted from an episode of Fresh with Anna Olson

for 6-8 servings

• Unsalted butter- 3 tablespoons
• Peanut butter- 2/3 cup
• Soy milk at room temperature- 1-3/4 cup
• Eggs at room temperature- 3 large
• Sugar - 1/3 cup
• Vanilla extract- 1 teaspoon
• Cubed baguette - 6 cups
• Raspberry jam or other fruit jam- 2/3 cup

- Preheat oven to 350°F (180C).
- Melt butter and brush pan with some of it.
- Add peanut butter to remaining melted butter and heat over low heat until fluid.
- Remove from heat and whisk in soy milk, then whisk in eggs, sugar and vanilla.
- Toss mixture with diced bread and let sit 10 minutes.
- Spoon mixture into prepared pan and dollop jam over bread, pressing in slightly to incorporate just a touch.
- Place pan in a larger dish and fill it with an inch of hot tap water.
- Bake for about 50 minutes, until golden on top and set.
- Let pudding sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.
- Pudding can be served warm or chilled.

Comments
- As I mentioned above, I think it would taste better in a bigger dish with bread cubes spread in an even layer.
- Also, one more cup of bread would be fine to add to this amount of custard.
- The result is intensely peanut-buttery.
- The pudding tastes better the next day reheated.

I love chili, but surprisingly I only had it a few times in my life. I am not a chili aficionado or purist, I don't have a favourite recipe, I don't have any rules about only eating it the next day and/or cooking it in a certain way. It was my first time making chili and I loved it. It was savoury, spicy and, oh, so satisfying. At the beginning I felt like the cornbread topping was overpowering chili, but then after microwaving (yes, I do use microwave from time to time and I am not ashamed to admit it) one of the little pots, the cornbread got steamed a little bit and the combination of soft and a little bit bland cornbread soaked in flavourful chili was excellent. However, the topping can be omitted or even baked separately.

recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson Feast

For about 8-10 servings

Chili

• Onion - 2 medium
• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Olive oil - 1.5 tablespoons
• Red chili flakes - 1 tablespoon (more or less depending on how spicy you want the final product to be)
• Ground coriander - 1 teaspoon
• Cardamom pods, crushed - 3
• Red pepper - 1
• Ground beef - 700 g
• Chopped tomatoes - 1 can (540 ml)
• Ketchup - 4 tablespoons
• Tomato paste - 4 tablespoons
• Water - 125 ml
• Kidney beans - 1/2 can (200-250 ml)
• Refried Beans with Chipotle - 2 cans (455 ml each can)
• Cocoa powder - 1 tablespoon
• Salt, pepper to taste

Cornbread

• Salt - 3/4 teaspoons
• Cornmeal - 325 g
• All-purpose flour - 2 tablespoons
• Baking powder - 3 teaspoons
• Kefir or Buttermilk - 375 ml
• Eggs - 2 
• Maple syrup - 1 tablespoon
• Vegetable oil - 2tablespoons 
• Cheddar, grated - 75 g

For chili
- In a processor, finely mince the onion and garlic. Or mince it by hand.
- Heat the olive oil in a very large pan.
- Fry the onion and garlic until they begin to soften.
- Add the red chili flakes, ground coriander and crushed cardamom pods to the pan, stir.
- Deseed and finely dice the red pepper. Add to the pan.
- Break up the ground beef into the pan and brown it well. Keep turning it to separate while it browns.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, both types of bean, ketchup, tomato paste and water to the meat and onion mixture. Mix well.
- Bring the chili to boil, sprinkle the cocoa powder and stir.
- Reduce the heat and simmer it partially covered for  1.5 hours.
- Careful not to let the chili burn. The mixture has a lot of sugar from tomatoes and ketchup and it tends to burn a little.
- After 1.5 hours the chili can be cooled and frozen or kept in the fridge overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 220C (430F).
- If chili was chilled, then warm it on the stove.
- Pour the chili into a large ovenproof dish.
- Top the chili with cornbread and sprinkle with grated cheddar.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the cornbread is risen and golden brown.
- Let cool for a few minutes, serve with sour cream, cilantro and avocado.

For cornbread
- Combine the salt, cornmeal, flour and baking powder in a bowl.
- In another large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk/kefir, eggs, maple syrup and vegetable oil.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine to get a wet batter.

This is the Refried Beans that I used. I really liked them in the chili as they were mostly mashed but still some of the beans were whole. The texture worked really well for this recipe.

It's been quite a long time since my last post here. I haven't been cooking much, but I recently started to get back into the groove. I made a few things and they turned out pretty great. I also got a new camera - Nikon D700, so I am extremely excited and can't wait to start cooking and taking pictures again.

I got this book called "Cakes & Loaves" a few months ago. I fell in love with the pictures of the cakes - so simple, so bright, so inviting and delicious. Later, while browsing through the recipes I was a little bit disappointed - it seemed like there were just a couple of basic recipes and the rest were just multiple variations of the same idea, just different additions and flavourings. I thought about returning the book, but the pictures were too inspirational and I left it on my shelf. That was more than six months ago and I completely forgot about this gem until last week. I picked up the book and rediscovered all the beautiful cakes again. One of them just screamed my name. Blue Cheese, Pear and Walnuts - what a perfect  and classic combination of ingredients. Salty, spicy cheese combined with soft, sweet pear and crunchy, earthy nuts. On top of all that, the cake is very easy to make, all the ingredients just need to be combined and baked - no whipping, melting, resting, separating, etc. needed.

recipe adapted from "Cakes & Loaves" by Ilona Chovancova

• Blue cheese, crumbled (such as Roquefort) - 125 g
• Pear, peeled and chopped into 1x1cm cubes - 1 
• Walnuts, coarsely chopped - 60 g
• Eggs - 3
• Milk - 100 ml
• Walnut oil - 3 tablespoons
• Olive oil - 3 tablespoons
• Flour - 1 1/2 cups
• Baking powder - 1 tablespoon
• Sugar - 2 teaspoons
• Mild Cheddar, grated - 100 g
• Salt, pepper

- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
- Butter and flour the cake pan.
- In a big bowl mix together eggs, milk and both oils.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix just until it all comes together and no flour is visible. make sure that the filling is evenly distributed through the batter.
- Transfer the batter into the cake pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean with no crumbs.
- Cool the cake in the pan.

Comments
- You may omit the sugar, I just like the combination of salty and sweet and I think the batter becomes to plain without it.
- Blue cheese should be strong since there are so many other ingredients in the cake. Milk blue cheese would be lost in it.
- This cake goes amazingly well with Strong Cider.

It took me not once, not twice, but three times to figure out a secret to making those tortillas. And the secret is... ta-da... flour!! Yep! Just plain old flour and those tortillas need a lot of it and I mean a lot!!! The first time I made them I thought I'd go crazy from rolling them. The tortillas stuck to the rolling pin and to the surface, they refused to even resemble something close to a circle and they just wouldn't become thin at all. It was a nightmare. Sure, they tasted good, but the effort just wasn't worth it. Then I tried it the second time and... same result. It took me about two years to get over the drama of making those tortillas and I thought that maybe, just maybe, third time would be a charm and finally I was right. And it turned out to be so easy - just put lots, lots, lots of flour while rolling them. I think I used way more than a cup of flour for the surface and the rolling pin. The tortillas finally were very thin and they even remotely resembled a circle. So, yes, it's worth it. They are amazingly tasty, light, soft and crispy at the same time and buttery.

You can easily make a vegan version of these and actually the original recipe was vegan and it called for shortening, but I don't use that ingredient in my cooking, so I substituted it for room temperature butter, but feel free to use non-hydrogenated margarine for a vegan treat.

recipe adapted from The Big Book of Bread by Anne Sheasby

for 12 tortillas

• All-purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups (plus a lot more for rolling)
• Salt - 1 teaspoon
• Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
• Butter, room temperature - 3 tablespoon
• Warm water - 2/3 cups

- Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.
- Lightly rub in the butter.
- Make a well in the center, then add enough water, mixing to form a soft dough.
- Knead the dough lightly for 1-2 minutes, then cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal portions.
- Roll out each portion on a heavily floured surface to form a very thin round.
- Brush out the excess of flour from the tortilla.
- Heat a large non-stick pan until very hot, then add a tortilla and cook for 1.5-2 minutes or until the surface starts to bubble and the underside is speckled brown.
- Turn the tortilla over and brown the other side for about 30 seconds.
- While the tortilla is cooking, roll out another round and repeat.
- You might need to brush away some burned flour from the pan in between cooking the tortillas.
- To re-heat, wrap them in foil and place in a preheated oven at 180C (350F) for about 5 minutes.

I decided to participate in a Homemade Tortillas Challenge on What's Cooking? site

I love making breads. It's something about the magic of combining just a few simple ingredients such as flour, yeast, suger and water and making something tasty, chewey, light, crusty, soft, airy, etc, etc, etc. The magic of rising dough amazes me every single time. How it rises in a few hours, how it becomes alive, how it feels under my hands. This recipe is really good. The resulting panetonne has a very nice crumb and texture. It's flavourful and full of tasty fruity goodness.

recipe adapted from The Essential Christmas Cookbook

• Sultanas and/or other type of raisins - 1/2 cup
• Dried apricots, chopped in raisin size pieces - 1/2 cup
• Brandy or rum - 1 tablespoon
• Dried yeast - 7 g
• Warm milk - 220 ml
• Sugar - 1/4 cup
• White bread flour - 3 1/4 cup
• Eggs - 2
• Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
• Butter, room temperature - 150 g
• Butter, melted, to glaze - 20 g