The Substitution Game

For the past few weeks, my husband, Lunch Hour Waffle has made me breakfast in bed on my Sunday morning lie in. I am under no illusions - this is part generous gesture on his behalf, and part "it's time to get up because I need to go out". Never the less, it is greatly appreciated by me. Sometimes we have homemade pancakes, sometimes we have rolls and sausage, occasionally croissants, usually orange juice. Homespun or not (the pancakes are by far my favourite) and regardless of the whys and wherefores, I love that he thinks to do this for me. I am realising that I am luckier than I previously thought in having him as my other half.

With this in mind, last week I decided it was high time I rustled up some Saturday morning breakfast goodies of my own. I often organise sausages from our local butcher, but I fancied something with a little more input than switching on the hob. My latest fixation is baking, so I hunted for a muffin recipe and found a recipe for Apple and Cinnamon muffins. Perfect - two of his favourite things and family friendly too. I made them last week, they were a big hit with all tasters, and so I wanted to make them again this week, full on Nigella style, in my dressing gown. Having mixed up the dry ingredients in a bowl, and most of the wet ingredients in a jug I realised I was missing something: yoghurt. Disaster? No. A sift through my fridge offered me the first of what would turn out to be FOUR subs! Sour cream for yoghurt, pecan nuts for almonds, dark brown sugar for light brown and apple sauce for apples (since when do I not have apples in my fruit bowl?) and you know what? They are perfect. Possibly slightly more dense than batch one but otherwise absolutely splendid. That's not very modest, is it?

Anyway the point is this - don't stress too much if you don't have the exact right ingredients in your cupboard for your chosen dish. If you have a well stocked store cupboard the chances are you've got something which will act as a substitute, and the more you cook, the better selection of ingredients your store cupboard will have to choose from. Sometimes the subs work brilliantly and sometimes they just about work and no more, but the fun is in the finding out.