Mango Stilton Cheese Muffins

Making savory muffins is one of the easiest fancy, light accompaniments you could prepare. The batter can even be prepared in advance. This time around, I flavored the muffins with mild stilton cheese, dried mango and fresh ginger.

I prepared a full platter of mini muffins and served them with a salad of mixed greens and another platter of rolled smoked salmon (cold sliced meat would work fine as well), crème fraîche and slices of lemons. The weather is getting warmer, so a light lunch along with sweet treats and fresh cold drinks was really satisfying.

Savory Muffin Recipe: Mushroom Cream Cheese Muffins

This morning, I prepared a batch of savory cake batter. I flavored it with fresh herbs from the garden, goat cheese, cream cheese, garlic and shiitake mushrooms. I baked them later in the day and had already prepared a garlic herb goat cheese spread to go along with the savory treats. It was "un délicieux en-cas", which literally means in French a "delicious in case of [I get hungry]"!

Cheddar Cheese Muffins (Savory Cake Recipe)

Cheddar cheese muffins are one easy appetizer. I followed a usual cake batter recipe but instead of making it sweet, I flavored it with both jalapeño Cheddar cheese and smoked cheddar cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and chopped walnuts. As a reminder of the flavors, I topped each muffin with sun-dried tomato pesto.

Today, the girls were in charge of the barbeque lunch. They grilled several vegetables, sausages for hot dogs and finally placed a few sweet potatoes in the ashes. I didn't want to interfere with their menu, so all I did was a few of these easy, cheesy appetizers. I'm sure they didn't mind!

Ginger Honey Cornbread Recipe

I am a big fan of both gingerbread and cornbread. I thought it would be fun to combine the flavors of the two, and so my ginger honey cornbread was born. I decided to go all out with intense ginger flavor, so I used freshly grated ginger, candied ginger, root beer and last but not least ginger honey.

The result is a strong, mildly spicy cornbread, which we absolutely loved. It's fairly simple to make, easy to transport and can be made a day in advance.

Yorkshire Pudding (Popover)

Yorkshire pudding batter contains very basic ingredients that I'm sure are already in your kitchen; eggs, milk, flour and oil (or fat drippings). The final product is greater than the sum of its parts, and there are few things more dramatic than a basket full of Yorkshire pudding.

Food has an incredible ability to evoke memories, and for me, Yorkshire pudding really takes me back in time to my childhood vacations in England. I stayed 2 years in a row at Tracy's house during Easter break in 1989 and 1990. It's been almost 20 years since the last time we met but we've kept in touch ever since. Tracy is an amazing cook, and I have fond memories of her delicious meals. A typical dinner would be roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, some greens and carrots and a wonderful banana mousse. Tracy, if you're reading, send my love to your lovely girls Emily and Alice!