I know I'm a very lucky Mama Bear every day of my life, when I look at my family and around our cosy little home, and thank God for placing me here with them, but sometimes I get extra special little reminders of just how lucky I am from my sweet family, and Papa Bear's lovely gift of new cookery books, that he has started buying me regularly, is one of those reminders that I treasure especially. I love my Gooseberry Patch cookbook collection! Each book that Papa Bear gets me (they are all from, as these images are, Amazon.co.uk), is full of wonderful recipes that really inspire and excite me because I know that they are all going to be delicious and easy too, and it is so exciting to see what he has chosen for me this time around! I've said it before, I know, but I am definitely married to the most generous husband in all the whole world!
This time around Papa Bear picked out some books that have an extra-cosy theme to them! I love to sit and look through them, and bookmark the recipes that I plan to try out, as they are not only bursting with good ideas but so beautiful to look at.
We had the hamburger biscuit pie out of this book for our evening meal this last week, on Thursday - the recipe is not online unfortunately, but it is essentially a creamy ground beef dish baked in the oven with a biscuit crust. As you cannot get refrigerated biscuits here in England, I simply made a quick scone base (in England we call cookies "biscuits" and biscuits "scones") which could be even quicker if you wanted, by buying a mix from the supermarket. And yes, just as the sweet lady who sent in the recipe states, it is now one of my husband's favourites too! The rich savoury filling blends really well with the scones, and we only needed a salad with this for a complete meal.
Out of this book we have had the broccoli with lemon sauce (served with our Sunday roast chicken) which was absolutely delicious, and the turkey and broccoli alfredo, which was also scrummy - I substituted the leftover chicken for the turkey. It too was so scrummy - and quick too!
One of the things that makes Gooseberry patch cookbooks unique from others, and so special, is that as well as an abundance of really delicious, easy to create dishes, they also contain many hints and suggestions for creative ways to make gifts, decorate your home, and prepare for the holidays. They're really far more than just cookbooks. And no - I haven't got any affiliation to them, I just think they're so great I want to share my enthusiasm with everyone! I can't believe that if it were not for my sweet husband, I would never even have known about them! He said he found them quite by chance, when he was searching on Amazon for some new cookbooks for me - and what appealed to him was the recipes that looked so tasty! I'm so pleased to have my new cookbooks - and Papa Bear says there will be more coming, quite soon! He's building me a new bookshelf especially to keep them on too - isn't he generous? He says it's his way of saying thank you for all the yummy things I make him to eat - Papa Bear, if you never gave me anything, I'd still make you yummy things to eat - because I love you so much!
We're actually having another Gooseberry Patch dish as part of our evening meal today - Aunt Ruby's sweet potatoes, from "Autumn With Family And Friends" - when I saw the title of the recipe, I knew I just had to make it! And you can see that recipe here - we are going to enjoy them with spring greens, twice baked taties and baked gammon.
