So here we are – the final round-up in the Recipes for Life challenge. It really doesn’t seem like seven months ago since I kicked it off in partnership with SWALLOW, an amazing charity in Somerset supporting adults with learning disabilities to lead more independent lives.
The idea of the challenge was to find easy, wholesome dishes for members of their cookery club to try out and also to appear in their new fundraising cookbook. And each month food bloggers have done us proud, posting the most incredibly diverse and delicious range of recipes, based each time on just three simple, core ingredients.
Tracey O’Leary, SWALLOW’s cookery tutor says: “Thank you to all of the entrants of Recipes for Life. We have been amazed by the variety of recipes that have been submitted. It has also provided us with a good stock of simple, tasty and nutritious meals for our group to learn to make over the coming weeks and months!”
And Stephanie one of SWALLOW’s members, adds: “I have really enjoyed cooking, and eating, the winning recipes.”
This month, as well as announcing the winner of August’s challenge, we’re also naming one overall winner of the whole Recipes for Life challenge, who will receive a copy of Yeo Valley’s rather splendid Great British Farmhouse Cookbook by Sarah Mayor. I got hold of this book recently and it’s rapidly become one of my favourite cookbooks.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the entries to August’s challenge. I must apologise for taking so long to post this round-up – work has been frantic the last couple of weeks, and the blog simply hasn’t had a look in. But better late than never, eh? The trio of ingredients for August were eggs, milk and flour, possibly the most rudimentary of ingredient combinations you can get. As ever, food bloggers came up with a sensational selection of both sweet and savoury dishes, starting with…
…Mabintu of Recipes From a Pantry who gave us not one, not two, but three tempting pancake recipes: fluffy golden pancakes, gingerbread pancakes and banana pancakes. The latter are a personal favourite of mine; they remind me of lazy Sunday mornings and of course that classic Jack Johnson song.
Sylvia from Happiness is Homemade also brought us pancakes, accompanied by her gorgeous photography. Don’t these pancakes with raspberries and chocolate chip pancakes make you just want to reach into the screen and grab a spoonful?
One of Recipes for Life’s most loyal supporters from the outset has been Helen from The Crazy Kitchen, and in the final month she rustled up a couple of beauties: a deliciously simple ham and tomato pancake pizza and some very tempting white chocolate and cherry muffins.
I hadn’t heard of Königsberger klopse before but I really like the look of these German meatballs entered by Carolin at Mummy Alarm, and intend to try them out on my lot very soon. They are a traditional German meal, usually made from veal but Carolin created hers with beef mince in her family-friendly, budget version.
Claire from Under the Blue Gum Tree decided not to enter a clafoutis after “one too many claggy-clafoutis attempts” but to be honest I’m rather pleased she entered her Flammkuchen instead, as this is just the kind of food my family adores. It’s a bacon and creme fraiche tart, which originally comes from the Alsace region of France. Tasty and rather good-looking to boot. Ticks all my boxes!
Next up are these gorgeous Pea-nut-ella Rolls from Cutchi Kitchen, which I think would go down well at breakfast time or as an after-school snack. Anyone who likes Reese’s peanut butter cups will know how well peanut butter and chocolate go together and the thought of them together in a warm roll is making my stomach growl…
Sarah at the Garden Deli has been another regular entrant in the Recipes for Life challenge, and I’m really pleased she made it just in time with her summery Pizza Pancakes, filled with the essentials of a good pizza topping – tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. Simply delicious and so quick and easy to rustle up.
I left it to the very last minute to get my entry in. I made my first Tarte Tatin while we were on holiday in France and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make. I tried a Nigella Lawson recipe using Danish pastry, which works really well and is just as good eaten cold the next day.
There you go, that’s the final round-up and didn’t we do well? But who, I hear you ask, is August’s winner? Well…
* drum roll *
I’m very pleased to announce that August’s winner is Claire from Under the Blue Gum Tree for her scrummy Flammkuchen. The team at SWALLOW loved the fact it was a little bit different yet still very easy for their members to make themselves. So huge congratulations to Claire on her very well deserved win! A little gift from SWALLOW will be on its way via airmail to you very soon.
But of course, there’s still one more announcement to go. Who will take the prestigious title of overall winner of the Recipes for Life challenge? To be honest, it was an obvious choice. It just had to be Helen from The Crazy Kitchen for her sheer dedication to the cause. She has won the monthly challenges no less than three times – and in a row too – and has entered a CRAZY number of recipes, each and every one of them fulfilling our brief for tasty, wholesome and easy-to-make dishes.
Helen will receive a copy of the Great British Farmhouse Cookbook from Yeo Valley, who incidentally are also based right here in Somerset. We hope you like it!
So that’s it. The Recipes for Life bloggers challenge is over. But watch this space for news of SWALLOW’s new cookbook, featuring many of the recipes entered over the last seven months. And also watch this space for news of a another cookery challenge I will be launching very, very soon.
Thanks again to everyone that has taken part – both the team at SWALLOW and I are very grateful for all your support!
Bangers & Mash 