The other day, browsing the internet in a sleepy haze I discovered this Matcha Tea stuff. Apparently it will instantly elevate my mood and raise my energy.

It's a bright green, highly concentrated green tea powder full of antioxidents and nutrients, made from tea leaves grown in the shade (see the wikipedia page as to why). As well as for brewing up, it can also be used in things like cake and pastries, and mousses and ice cream.

My colleagues at work are aware that I'm a so called 'foodie', and 2 years on the trot they've bought me a book of recipes for my birthday. It's very generous of them, but I can't help but think it's just so I'll cook them treats :)
I'm fine with that!

One of my work mates has coeliac disease, and so every now and again I'm obliged to make something nice that doesn't have gluten in. So here is a really quick and moreish recipe called Coconut Pyramids, or coconut macaroons.

This evening I decided to try making these yummy haggis samosas (with a twist). As you can sea from the pic - they worked out just great!

I first heard about haggis samosas on The Hairy Bikers' latest series "Mum's know best". Apparently they're one of the featured mums' family favourites. The twist is: Instead of using the traditional samosa pastry, you use tortillas.

When I was in Canada in February 2009, one local delicacy I repeatedly bought was Maple Taffy. It's maple syrup (made in the local area), heated to boiling point and poured over snow in thin streams. A wooden skewer is then dipped in it, and once the syrup has hardened slightly it's rolled up. Thanks to the recent so called 'Big Freeze' in England, we were able to re-create this splendid treat!

I know what you're thinking; We're always told not to eat yellow snow, well this is an exception to the rule :)

A good friend of ours made a status update on Facebook saying she'd made Kopparberg cake. Intrigued, I  asked for the recipe, and she obliged by uploading a mobile-phone photograph of the recipe page.

Hannah, I have no idea where you got the recipe from, but it's really tasty! Especially with vanilla ice-cream. Thank you!

In fact, my attempt at the cake had to be eaten with ice-cream because, it wasn't really held-together enough to be eaten as a normal slice of cake. Hopefully future versions will be more refined!

The great thing about this recipe is all the ingredients pretty much just get bunged into one bowl and mixed together.