Peanut butter & white chocolate blondies/ Cottage pie

So to begin! After much head scratching, and wondering quite where to begin, I conducted a survey among my Facebook friends. . I asked the question "what is your favourite cake/ baked treat?" Out of 32 replies, there was an interesting variety of answers. But chocolate brownies were the definite winner! So, that was my starting point. Well, blondies actually... the white chocolate version of Brownies. A nice easy start too! You may notice from the picture that some were darker than others.  This was due to me only having dark brown sugar,  not light brown as Rachel specified. It worked, although they were more 'brunette' than 'blondie'! Wanting to do this properly though, I bought some light brown sugar and made a second batch.These were definitely better, with a much lighter texture and flavour.

Lesson learned from a previous brownie making session... when they are cooked they feel quite underdone in the middle, just crispy around the outside. I cooked these for 25 minutes, the minimum that Rachel specifies. I wasnt quite sure that they were cooked after that, but decided to be brave. In the end they firmed up a lot, I think I could have cooked them even less as they were quite crispy. Delicious though! We had the in-laws round for dinner on Friday evening, served these as pudding with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce. Fantastic!

This evening, I tried out the cottage pie recipe from the 'Baked Meals' section of the book. It's a pretty standard cottage pie recipe,  apart from the garlic butter added after cooking, which melts into the hot potato. Sounded interesting, but I'm not sure how much it added. Nigel declared that he preferred my version, with added baked beans. A compliment indeed! Sorry Rachel, I'm being critical already and that wasn't my intention!

On a personal note, we have reached a milestone in the French household today. Megan has reached the grand age of 3 months! This means that she is big enough for her door bouncer. I mention this as Evan adored the bouncer from about 3-9 months.  We had a nice routine where I'd put him in it on the kitchen door, while I cooked tea. Simon Mayo on the radio, he'd bounce happily while I cooked and sung along. Hoping it's as much of a hit with Megan, so I can crack on with this project. Looking good so far!