I have a confession to make.

This post took me this long to write because I was thinking, crazily, that I’d stop posting for a while. Because I make the same things all the time, because I’m not all that creative on a budget. Because I want to be able to make insanely delicious things and tell you all about them, but I don’t want to tell you about the dull stuff, like how I make cabbage at least once a week. But then I thought about making a quiche over the weekend, and maybe a lovely milk tart as well, and I realised that I wanted to write about those. It kind of sucks not to share delicious food. So I’ll tell you about the one or two meals a week on which I spend most of the food budget. And about bread. Because boy, do I have some plans for bread. And I’ll tell you, occasionally, about the cabbage and the mushrooms and the carrots that I make as side dishes. Because a good side dish is a wonderful thing to be able to make.

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So… we made pizza last night. I kneaded some dough, made a tomato sauce, and waited for the dough to rise. Then boyfriend helped me to make them.

We stretched out the dough:

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Tags: cheese, comfort food, junk food, pizza

These are everyday cookies. They’re not fancy. They’re not difficult to make, their recipe isn’t intricate, they don’t contain anything expensive or difficult to come by. They aren’t delicate. They are, however, just sweet enough. A little bit tart from the jam. Crumbly and buttery in your mouth. They’re simple to make, delicious straight out of the oven, and they’re just generally the cookie equivalent of a warm, hearty bowl of stew. They’re the simplest way to produce enough sweet snacks for a few days. I’m sure they could serve two for a week in a normal household, but we aren’t all that good at not gobbling them up straight away.

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Tags: baked, cookies, sweet

Autumn is here. The days are cooling down, I’m drinking a whole lot of coffee, and our fan is gathering dust. The cat spends her days searching for a warm lap to sleep in, or a spot in the sun. While I’m reading all sorts of lovely spring and summer recipes on most of my favourite food blogs, I go through their archives for comfort food. I want pasta and soup; rich, hearty foods.I dream about a slice of lasagne, oozing, steaming, the cheese on top beautifully golden brown, on a plate, next to a slice of buttered ciabatta (I really need to make that, and soon). I make that lovely garlic soup every single week if I have the chance. I serve up plates of chorizo risotto.

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Tags: comfort food, lamb, stew, tomato

So, as you should all know, boyfriend’s birthday was on Saturday. So I baked a cake on Friday, with an admonition from boyfriend that I should take pictures of every step and not get distracted. For the most part, I managed this, taking pictures of the ingredients in prep bowls (OK, they’re usually soup bowls):

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Tags: bat, birthday, cake, chocolate