Speed baking

I've not been at all organised today. We have family tea and the bread isn't going to be ready on time and the cake looks like it will be a bit warm. It's cooling by an open window in the hope that it will be set and edible by tea time. As for the bread, plan B was required. Fortunately I have some sourdough fruit bread in the freezer, very much in the Blue Peter style of "Here's one I prepared earlier". This is undergoing some defrosting on the warm oven. Whatever happens with tea, it certainly smells really nice in here. 

orange raisin flapjack

*Family tea update* The cake should have been lemon raisin flapjack but I didn't have any lemons so it became orange instead. It has a flapjack base which is cooked for 3 mins in the microwave. you leave this to cool while you make the cakey topping from eggs, sugar, raisins, melted butter and orange juice and zest. This is spread over the flapjack base then baked for about 20 mins. It was a bit soft and wobbly when it came out of the oven  but it set when it cooled. And it tasted fab😀. The bread came out nicely, but has been divided up and taken away by the kids so I'm afraid there's no photographic evidence.

Cheese and Corn bread

Cheesy corn bread makes an ideal addition to a salad; it adds a  bit of stodge and makes a nice change from bread or baked potatoes. It is also really easy to make, which is an added advantage. The recipe I used was from the River Cottage Everyday book. I've tried a lot of the recipes in this book and have enjoyed many of them. They don't include loads of hard to find ingredients and a lot of it is 'store cupboard' type recipes which are my favourite sort because I'm more of an impromptu type of cook, usually starting with a rummage through the fridge and thinking 'we need to use this up so what can I make from it?'. Having a flour mill helps because it means that I can keep a variety of grains eg spelt, barley, maize, wheat, rye, oat groats, millet, buckwheat, and quinoa in the cupboard and they have a much longer shelf life as grains instead of flour or polenta. The corn bread was made from maize and spelt with the addition of eggs, milk and cheese and bicarb of soda. It's really like a giant scone and made a very tasty bit of stodge, if I say so myself!

On an entirely unrelated subject I am absolutely amazed that my two remaining house plants (after moving house) are actually thriving and both in bloom. I've never had such success with either the Christmas or the Easter cactus, but they must like it here in our bijou temporary home as the Christmas cactus is flowering for the second time this winter.