Bye Bye Baking Blues

I finally got a chance to test my gorgeous Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. I was hesitant to buy this at first because I already had most of the recipes scattered in a couple of dozen other books but at €5 I just couldn’t resist this mouth-watering masterpiece. Thanks to this book I baked decent cookies for the first time in my life. After countless attempts over the past few years I simply gave up as the result was always rock hard and semi-raw, don’t ask. But now, I was able to bake deliciously divine oatmeal and raisin cookies that actually looked and tasted like real (meaning store bought) cookies and not as some homemade mess. There are still a lot of recipes I want to try but if you love to bake, you can’t go wrong with this book seeing as these recipes are spot on!

Another new addition to my overflowing shelf of cookbooks is The Hairy Bikers' Family Cookbook which is filled with traditional British dishes combined with spicy oriental influences. I basically love their shows and their perpetual witty banter so I desperately wanted one of their books. I’m trying some recipes tomorrow but all I can say for now, is that the book looks great and is filled with charming anecdotes and funny photographs.

For those of you who don’t know the Hairy Bikers phenomenon, it’s slightly similar to the Two Fat Ladies show and it consists out of Dave Myers and Si King who have travelled the world and Britain on their motorcycles while cooking local dishes in the most unusual locations. This combination of cookery and travelogue is also just so darn funny!