Strawberries on my mind

Before coming to the UK, I thought the only fruit and veg you could get here were potatoes, carrots, apples and pears. Boy was I wrong! The selection of fruit and veg is fantastic, even at the supermarkets and there is a great range of organic prduce too!



Summer is in full swing, and luckily for me, so is strawberry season! The selection of varieties available is fantastic and I have not yet been disappointed. I can walk in to some supermarkets and smell them from the door. We have been eating kilos and kilos of them and I'm sure the baby will be quite the strawberry fan too, given the amount of them I have been eating. They seem to come a lot smaller here than back in Melbourne, which I like as they're super sweet and picture perfect. This is a quick fruit dip that I whipped up to enjoy with some strawberries on a picnic.

Chocolate Hazelnut Dip for Fruit
makes about 2/3 cup

1/3 cup Nutella
100g fromage frais

Chocolate Healing

I was feeling a bit homesick lately, and nothing cures an emotional ailment quite like chocolate. I love the crunch of nuts or chocolate chips in brownies and when I couldn't find any choc chips, I went with walnuts. I have a standard brownie recipe that I always use, but I had never actually tried the recipe from Stephanie, so was keen to give it a go. Boy have I been missing out! These brownies were rich and chocolately, with a nice bitter tang from using cocoa instead of melted chocolate. I prefer to use cocoa, because I hate melting chocolate, but that's because I'm lazy. The walnuts provided a nice crunch to these gooey brownies. I have to admit that I didn't really follow the method for these, but they turned out great. This is now my go-to brownie recipe.

Walnut Brownies (Printable Recipe)
adapted from Stephanie's Double Chocolate Brownies, pg 311

180g butter
100g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup dutch cocoa
1 1/4 cups golden castor sugar (you can use regular castor sugar)
pinch salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups walnuts (you can use any nuts or choc chips)