Food, glorious food

Whenever I get a new cookbook (you'll be amazed to hear that's temporarily a thing of the past since we're in Super Saving Mode), I aim to try, if not all, at least a couple of handfuls of recipes from it. Usually, I fail miserably and stick to the two or three that really catch my eye. But I'm pleased to say I've been happily trying recipe after recipe after recipe in The Perfect Scoop, all of them wonderful. I'm hard pressed, even, to say which one I like best. I adore the honey and lavender ice cream, the vanilla is beautiful, the dark chocolate sorbet divine, the fresh fruit ice creams delicious, and the blood orange sorbet was a staple for the few weeks they were in season and available at the Borough Markets. Most recently, though, I've been using the chocolate ice cream recipe, using whatever chocolate I happened to have around. I made a choc orange ice cream last night, using Valrhona cocoa, Terry's chocolate orange and a few drops of orange oil. I'm pretty sure my father-in-law went back for thirds. I'm now longing to try David's salted butter caramel ice cream. I think it will follow nicely from one of my favourite meals:

Pan-fried Scallops with Sweet Potato Mash
Roast, mash and plate a small sweet potato, adding butter and S&P to taste.
Slice 4-6 scallops in half so the discs are less thick. With a small amount of butter in the pan, fry for about 30 seconds each, until just cooked. Place next to the mash and top with a sprinkling of vanilla salt. Serve with a small side salad.

Oh, the happiness!

Only a month after I ordered it (5-10 days delivery time, my foot!) I'm the happy recipient of a bag of cocoa. Lovely, lovely cocoa.

This being our first weekend to ourselves in several weeks, we've declared it Hibernation Weekend. We're not going anywhere or seeing anyone. It's going to be great. I'll do the grocery shopping on the way home tonight and cook my little heart out tomorrow, when it's supposed to be beautifully grey and rainy. Perfect weather for baking. And making gelato. And finishing the jigsaw puzzle that's been rendering our coffee table unuseable for the last month.

Count down

The calendar barely grazes August usually when I start getting excited about my birthday, but now that it's September and the month of my day is upon us, I'm just about beside myself. I'm on draft three of the birthday menu already and there'll almost certainly be at least another two. Really, I'm not sure it's possible to have A SINGULAR favourite cake. I have LOTS of favourite cakes. And that's before (of course) I even consider entrees and mains. No wonder I love degustation menus. I just don't have the patience to cook them myself.

I'm also looking forward to cooking for my birthday party - please let me know if you're coming and what your favourite food is! I'm going to spend some quality time with my favourite cookbooks this weekend and put together my shopping list.

I love birthdays!