DODO GIZZARD

This is one of my absolute favourite Nigerian side dishes, seriously guys i could eat this by the bucketload! I just love the balance of flavours; it’s sweet from the very ripe plantains and spicy from the pepper sauce.

If you've ever been to a party in Nigerian party or get together you must have had or at least been offered dodo gizzard or gizdodo or gizdo or whatever name you call it.

You don't have to wait till your next party to have dodo gizzard, its pretty easy to make at home. I will admit that it does involve quite a few steps as it has three separate components but don't  let that put you off this because the outcome is so worth it.

Plus you could make the gizzard and the pepper sauce in advance and heat them up just before you mix it all together. Just make sure you fry the plantain when you need it, reheated plantain is HORRIBLE. 

COCONUT PECAN AND WHITE CHOCOLATE BLONDIES

My friend had the most gorgeous baby boy about three weeks ago and I went to see them this weekend. I just love babies, so cute, cuddly and they always smell so good. I didn’t get to carry him and play with him for as long as I wanted to because there were many grandmas and uncles and so on waiting to carry himas well and I didn’t want to seem like a baby hog even though I totally am.

Even before I had decided on when I was going to visit them, I had already decided to take these blondies with me. They are so so easy to make and chewy, moist , delicious................ just how I like my blondies.  

The base recipe for these blondies is from Smitten Kitchen; I love recipes like this that can be easily adapted to suit your tastes, whatever mix ins you decide to use is entirely up to you, the possibilities are endless!!!!!!!

COCONUT FILLED CHOCOLATE HEARTS

Here I am again with another sweet treat for your sweetheart or yourself this valentines day. ok ok not necessarily for valentines day, (I've eaten most of them and between me and you I doubt they will make it to valentines day) I just said that so you would think I was a super organised blogger that brought you recipes tailored to the time of year lol!

One of my favourite chocolates is bounty and I have been telling them for years (telepathically of-course) to make a white chocolate one, since they kept ignoring me I took matters into my own hands (cue super hero theme music) and boy am I glad I did!!!!!

These are so delicious and easy, they are everything I wanted my white chocolate bounty to taste like, I dressed them up a bit and added some dark chocolate for a pretty two toned effect but feel free to use any chocolate that you like. 

RED VELVET CHEESECAKE SWIRL BROWNIES

I have been wanting to make something with a cheesecake layer for a while and after making this I am so annoyed I waited this long! OK this recipe.....OMG so decandent, so rich and believe it or not ridiculously simple to make; seriously it will take you only about 15 minutes to get these into the oven. 

These brownies are good any time of the year but the vivid red makes it particularly fitting for valentines day, this recipe is from sallys baking addiction and she adapted it from a Sunny Anderson recipe. I prefer the sally's baking addiction recipe because using just the egg yolk makes the cheesecake layer thicker (which I love) but if you'd rather not have an egg white hanging around feel free to use the whole egg in the cheesecake layer.

Whenever I make anything red velvet (brownies, cakes, cookies, cheesecake etc) I use red gel food colouring instead of liquid colour as the liquid red food colouring sold in UK supermarkets never gives you the bright red you want. The brand I use the most is Home2bake professional icing colour which you can buy from Asda. You only get basic colours like green, yellow, blue so if you need any fancy tints and shades like paprika, primrose, ice blue and so on you will need to go to a sugarcraft store or buy online. 

Now back to these brownies, after eating 3 pieces sneaking a few nibbles, I put them in the freezer for about 40 minutes so that I could get neat slices to take pretty pictures and obviously a few more nibbles made it into my mouth. Let me tell you it tasted beyond amazing, like a red velvet cheesecake truffle!!!!!!!!!!

NIGERIAN CHAPMAN

Do you love valentine’s day? I'm actually kind of indifferent about  the holiday itself and the Mr and I don’t always celebrate it, but I love all the pink red and white stuff everywhere and anything that allows me to cook pink food is OK with me J.

Chapman is one of my favourite things to have when I go home to Nigeria and with its bright red colour and refreshing taste (Oh gosh, I sound like an advert) it will make a great valentine’s day drink for you and your sweetheart.

There are a lot of different versions of chapman out there; some people use blackcurrant ribena instead of grenadine, some use Campari instead of angustora bitters and there are even some recipes that add zobo (hibiscus tea) but after some trial and error, I’m definitely team grenadine, angustora bitters and DEFINITELY NO ZOBO!!!!  

CHOCOLATE COVERED PEANUT BUTTER PRETZEL STICKS

Valentines day is a just around the corner and as a food blogger I am required to bring you delicious treats most of which are white, red or pink and these pretzels definitely fit the bill.

These recipes came about because after I tried some peanut butter filled pretzel bites at wedding, OMG they were amazing. I ate so many of them I sure looked like a pig to everyone at the table. I was brainstorming ways to recreate those beauties and fill them with a whole array of other fillings cracking my head about how to make hollow pretzels and then fill them when I saw the pretzel sticks in my snack cupboard and eureka!  (if you get the eureka, you're a geek like me).

With just three ingredients, these pretzels are so easy to make. I love these pretzels because they can very easily be customised; peanut butter for any other nut butter or spread of your choice, dip in milk or dark chocolate or even a combination and decorate with whatever sweets or colours to match your event or holiday.