Casserole or stew?

I'm much perplexed by what the Americans call a casserole. To me a casserole is a load of vegetables (and meat if you are inclined to eat such things) in some kind of gravy like sauce. An American casserole seems to run something along the lines of mixing grated vegetables in mayonnaise, adding some grated cheese and topping with breadcrumbs or crushed crisps. Not that American style casseroles aren't delicious, just that I would call them a bake.

I certainly can't grumble as I've tried some delicious recipes from American and Canadian cookbooks recently. My (almost) father-in-law kindly gave me lots of produce from his allotment when we saw him last. Hence I've enjoyed a variety of salad leaves, cucumber (great with peanut butter), aubergines, beetroot and chillies.

The beetroot I used to make Garden Vegetable Borscht from How it all vegan. It's utterly divine. Such a shame Holland and Barrett are out of Better than sour cream because that would really set this off a treat. It would also go nicely with tonight's tortilla chip soup (from the same source). The fresh chillies were marvellous in this. Just the thing to eat as the cold begins to set in, here in England.

Other 'interesting' cooking was Cobb nut and spelt fairy cakes. I shelled and roasted the nuts a few weeks ago. I was expecting friends for Shepherd's pie and mulled wine after fireworks on Saturday night. I needed to get organised on Friday night as I was expecting to spend most of Saturday carting wheelbarrows of manure around my allotment. Friday night I rolled up my sleeves ready for a few hours in the kitchen. I whizzed through the preparation for the Shepherds pie, stuck the oven on to bake some potatoes for dinner when it occurred to me that I needed to make some kind of dessert. I had a quick rummage in the bottom of the newspaper box and dug out this recipe. They didn't turn out quite perfect (I'm useless with desserts) but I renamed them chaos theory butterfly cakes and enjoyed icing while listening to Alice Cooper.

My preparation paid off and I was able to enjoy fireworks and serve dinner to my lovely friends despite spending all day behind a wheelbarrow. Next project: preparation for a Thanksgiving themed lunch.