Megsie's Shortbread - For Christmas and beyond...

I have many friends who are complete Goddesses in the kitchen. Megsie is an Australian Kitchen Witch - Check out her fantastic natural lifestyle blog Accidental Earth Mother >> Megsie has been making these little beauties for years, she claims she found the recipe in Aunty Barbar's Sunbeam Mixmaster Cookbook from 1961 - as she says... they are vintage gold.  

Dearly beloved we must gather together:
7 oz/ 200g butter
2 1/4 cups or 300g plain flour
1/2 cup or 65g corn flour or rice flour or potato starch
1/2 cup or 65g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Who'sa what now?
1. Beat butter and vanilla until soft on low speed. (If you are a lazy Maisie using equipment - otherwise get a kid to do it.)
2. Add icing sugar gradually on low speed. (Hmm now I'm thinking you might need yer magimixitupgood machine).
3. Increase speed and beat until light and creamy.
4. Fold in sifted flours on low speed.
5. Turn onto lightly floured board and roll out to 5mm thick (1/4″)
6. Cut with cookie cutters or cut into strips
7. Place on greased tray
8. Bake in barely moderate oven for 15-20 mins or until very light golden.
9. Cool and decorate.

Megsie's favourite addition to these gorgeous Shortbreads is dark chocolate, she makes them with heart shaped cookie cutters and dips one side in chocolate - which sounds like a damned good idea to me. Just enough time to make a few batches of these in time for Christmas.. y'all.

Oh no Emergency Soup Emergency!

Unlike her curvacious highness Lady N'gella I am often caught out by a badly timed Tesco delivery. Today found me heating up an emergency can of organic leak and potato soup. How desperate do you have to be to resort to tinned soup? Carrot free and two hours to delivery desperate, that's how much Nigella love - walk a week in my slippers lady.

Calamity! The soup started to make such a poppin' and a thwoppin' (it's a word!) noises in the microwave that I was forced to put on my specs and inspect the sell-by-date on the already recycled can. Oh NO! and Ahem. Dec 2008! Emergency. Soup Emergency...

By now I'm freezing, starving and going off my Larmin'* So here's what I did - those of an organic knit yer own knickers disposition look away now.

Rice and Cheese a la Louise.

• 1/2 packet of Tilda rice (I used the brown rice with corgette and red peppers, but you can use any and you can always, always make your own and add bits if you fancy it)
• smoked salmon bits (left over from indulgent breakfast plans that never quite came off this week)
• grated strong cheddar
• big blollop of fromage frais (you can use yogurt or creme freche too)

Rice and cheese and yogurt are wonderful together. So this lot all mixed up makes a delicious bowl of loveliness and if you've got some mange touts or beans or sugar snaps - you're really onto something... 

*derivation of this phrase in another post perhaps - particularly if the originatrix submits a tasty treat for us to try. She is the most bodacious of all cooks. Proper job too, not my nonsense madey up stuff.