Saturday means cooking to me, and this morning I had a large lentil soup on the stove, as well as a big chocolate cake and some cookies in the oven!

Monte gave me Nigella Lawson’s ‘Kitchen’ cook book for my birthday. I used her recipe to make these scrumptious cookies, which are crispy on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle. Perfect!

The recipe instructs you to use 1/4 cup scoop (eg ice cream scoop – I used a Tupperware tea strainer thing), so the cookies are large. They spread a bit on the baking tray, but they are still thick after cooking. My golly gosh they are yummy! I don’t think the batch of 18 will last the day in my house!

Sometimes it is tricky to cook in the esse, but I am managing it well enough now. When using the oven, I cannot see nor smell the cooking unless I open the door to peek in. Today the fire was burning very hot, which is not so good for baking sweet treats. I baked the cake in the bottom oven, which is about 100 degrees cooler than the top oven. I baked the cookies on the bottom shelf of the top oven, and I baked them quickly – 8 minutes or so. I could have waited for the fire to cool down a bit, but patience and I don’t do deals with each other very often.

Anyway, a great cook book! I have already put more of her books on my wish list!