Karen Karn

I haven't read this book, I haven't even read what it's about, but the title, I love. We were raised with no culture of food, no routine of eating at all, much less a meal served at a table. One of my healthy eating strategies is to eat seated. It's as simple as that. If ever I notice that I'm standing and eating, I know there's something wrong. I'm not being mindful, I'm not even being conscious. Julian Baggini is a journalist and philosopher who studies the complexities of personal identity. He is the editor-in-chief of the Philosophers' Magazine. See also: Why dieting doesn't usually work by Sandra Aamodt

I've always like cinnamon, but lately, I've been hooked on it! Here's my latest creation - Cinnamon Bread Make the bread. This is my basic bread recipe, to which can be added all kind of extar ingredients. In this case, we're going to stick to the basic recipe, but note that extra sweetening, spices, or other ingredients can be added at the dry mix stage. note: 1 metric cup is 250mls. Also, this bread recipe is for standard bread.  If you want the bread sweeter add an extra 1/4 cup of sweetening agent, such as honey, syrup or sugar.  DRY:  In a large mixing bowl add 1.5 cups  all purpose, plain flour 1.5 cups rolled/porridge oats 3 cups whole spelt flour (course ground and finely ground, 50/50, if applicable) 1 packet/12g dried yeast or 50g fresh yeast You can add  1-2 cups of dried fruit or chopped nuts here. You can also any spices you might want to use -  to taste, cinnamon, cardemom, anis, ginger, etc....

When I was very young, my sister had a friend who was a proper hippy. She was married to a Sri Lankan man and had some kids. Her hair was long, unmanaged and slightly transparent. She wore corduroy jeans and cheesecloth tops. She was of the tradition of never arriving at someone's house empty handed. One day, she came with a book. the Tassajara Bread Book. Since then, the book has been in my possession. Well loved and well utilised. Here's a short excerpt from the film How to Cook Your Life, featuring the book's author, Edward Espe Brown. "It turns out that we'll pay a lot of money not to cook, not to actually confront a half a potato."

I meant to take a picture of my dinner,  because it looked so delicious,  but I tasted it... and that was that.

Ingredients 4 chicken thighs One large onion 1 bulb garlic 4 pieces of sundried tomato Olive oil Herbs Spices Salt and pepper I also add fresh ginger. Method Turn the oven on to 250°C. Put the thighs  a roasting tin. The tin needs to be just big enough for the thighs to lie flat, but not so big that they move around. Roughly chop the onion into eight. No need to worry about removal ng every bit of skin. Place the onion in any gaps between the thighs. You can also put some pieces underneath the thighs. Separate the garlic cloves - how much you use is up to you. Throw the cloves in with the thighs as they are - whole, uncut, unpeeled. Place a piece of sundried tomato under each thigh. (Here you can add any chopped root veg, if you want) Sprinkle/drizzle the contents of the tin with olive oil, salt and pepper,  paprika, a pinch of nutmeg, some anis seeds, ginger, sprigs of thyme and/rosemary and any other herbs and spices you like with chicken. You ca...

Vegan is in inverted commas because I used butter in the recipe, but no eggs. Butter can be substituted with whatever fat you use instead. Ingredients 1.5 cups coarse ground spelt flour 1.5 cups white spelt flour 200g butter 2 heaped Tbsps muscavado sugar 1 level Tbsp vanilla sugar 1 fat squeeze of runny honey (about a tablespoon) 2 tsps baking powder 1.5 tsp baking soda Pinch of salt About 3/4 cup cold water Method Heat the oven to 175°C. In a medium sized pan, melt together the butter, muscavado and honey. In a large bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder and soda, vanilla sugar and salt. Add the cold water to the butter mix and stir quickly until homogeneous. Add to the dry mix and mix just enough to combine. Line a 20cm square tin. Spread the mix into the corners and flatten out. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Turn onto a cooling tray and allow to cool for a few minutes. Serve warm with or without jam and butter. ...

Ingredients  for 12 large 20 medium biscuits 2 cups wholemeal spelt flour 1/2 cup raw cane sugar 1/4 cup muscavado sugar 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar* 160g salted butter, softened/room temperature** 1 tsp baking powder Method Cream butter and sugars Add flour and baking powder Knead and roll into a sausage shape. The diameter will me the size of the biscuits. Now, either  chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, then  cut off slices and lay on a tray, or,  cut off slices and lay on a tray, then chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to  150 o C . Cut the sausage into discs and lay on a tray. Flatten and re-shape if necessary. Allow a 2cm space around each biscuit. Bake for 20 minutes. Let them sit on the hot tray for about five minutes before attempting to transfer them to the cooling tray. This makes them easier to handle without them crumbling apart. Allow to cool completely before eating - they...

After over a month without wheat, of any kind of wheat substitute (nor any junk or dairy!!!), today I just had to have pancakes! I bought a packet of this... I used about half the packet, added a pinch of salt a spoon of vanilla sugar, a spoon of dark brown sugar ( farin ) and about 20g of melted butter. I also added about half a spoon of ground nutmeg and enough water to form a decent batter. I added about a spoon of baking powder, but that was a bit too much - half would do. Plus, one over-ripe mashed banana! I then let it stand at room temperature for about a couple of hours (not sure exactly how long - I was playing JewelStar, so I lost track of time). Heat a pan and away you go! This amount made 5 good size pancakes. Thanks to my cousin Julie for the inspiration! X

Due to the snow storms, and living where we live, I couldn't pop out and buy sugar, so I had to substitute the sugar with light syrup. I substituted the milk for water, as I always do. Also, you'll notice that the measurements in the original recipe (also at the bottom of the post) are given in decilitres - this is what they do here in Norway. It's taken me a good few years to fathom out how to convert, quickly, dls into something I can work with. So here's my recipe: Ingredients 3 eggs, room temperature* 100mls syrup 100mls water, approx, cold/room temperature 450mls spelt flour (+ half a cup, if too wet, which mine was) 100g butter 2.5 tsp baking powder 3(5 if layering) medium eating apples 1tsp cinnamon pinch of salt cinnamon + sugar for sprinkling on the top Melt the butter and add the syrup to it while it's still warm. Stir until it's a uniform consistency. Leave to cool while you beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add the water...

I'm making this tomorrow, for Kenneth's birthday. I might have to make myself some kind of pie... I made carrot tart once, which was delicious. Or I could make scones. With the weather the way it is, I'll be surprised if I get any sleep, so I'll need the carbs to keep me sane/happy! :D Here's the recipe, and the picture that went with it... If it's a success, I'll post the English version with my own photo. Eplekake i langpanne 3 egg 3,5 dl sukker 100 g smør 1,5 dl melk 4,5 dl hvetemel 2,5 ts bakepulver 5-6 epler kanel og sukker til å strø på toppen Visp eggedosis av egg og sukker. Smelt smøret, ha i melk og hell i eggedosisen. Rør om og sikt inn mel og bakepulver, og bland godt. Ha røren i en smurt eller papirkledd langpanne. Skrell eplene, ta ut kjernehuset og del dem i passende skiver/båter. Stikk eplebitene tett i tett ned i deigen. Strø kanel og sukker over toppen. Stek kaken i ca 30 min, på 180 grader. See the original post here .