Claires Cake Bake

I've moved!!

2008-04-11T18:13:00.004+01:00

As many of you will know we've had a new design in progress for a few months and I am very excited and happy to unveil it at clairescakebake.co.uk - please click the link to come & visit :)

See you soon,

Claire

Leftovers for lunch and burgers for dinner

2008-03-23T10:43:00.003Z

We still have some of the cooked salmon in the fridge. I enjoyed a slice of it for lunch yesterday on a slice of toasted chilli bread...

For dinner we couldn't decide what to have. It was one of those days when you know what you do not want. So we ruled out pasta (had too much recently), rice, fish & chicken. I flicked through some books for inspiration and came across the LA Burger in Bill Granger's - Every Day.

Easy and quick to make, but very nice...

Ingredients (for 4)
500g lean minced pork
1/2 onion, grated
1/2 teaspoon toasted fennel seeds, crushed
40g breadcrumbs
1 egg lightly beaten
salt
pepper

Combined all ingredients together in a bowl.
Shape into 4 small burgers. Cover & leave in fridge for 30minutes.
Heat non-stick frying pan & cook burgers for about 5 minutes on each side.
Serve on a bun of your choice with a handful of rocket and thinly sliced red onion.

And we also made some crispy cakes for Easter!

A Good Friday Feast

2008-03-22T12:58:00.003Z

Yesterday I started off by making Nigella's Hot Cross Buns. The texture is actually more of a scone type bun than a shop bought one, but rather tasty and delicious when toasted.

After the buns were cooked I started on preparing a three course dinner as we had invited my parents around. Inspiration for the dinner came courtesy of Delicious Magazine.

For starters we had roasted parsnip and parmesan soup:

Followed by pancetta-wrapped salmon with saffron and herb rice, served with crushed new potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli:

The salmon was surprisingly easy to make despite having to skin the whole side of a fish! & it looked rather impressive before and after cooking:

Those sticking to Good Friday traditions didn't eat the pancetta & I substituted all chicken stocks for vegetable stock.

And we finished with Nigella's molten chocolate baby cakes:

Chilli Bread

2008-03-10T20:30:00.002Z

I first made this a few weeks back but I didn't blog about it after taking the photos. Tonight I've made another loaf so here is the recipe but as my loaf is in the oven the pictures are from last time.

Chilli Loaf
375g wholemeal strong flour
375g white strong flour
3 teaspoons salt
2-3 teaspoons chilli flakes (I used 2 & that provided a good heat without going OTT)
7g sachet of dry yeast

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl
Add 450ml water (at room temperature)
Combine into dough & knead until elastic - around 5/10 minutes
Leave to rise in bowl (cover with damp cloth) for 2 hours
Knock back & shape into 'tin' shaped & pop in a floured tin
Leave to rise again for 45 minutes
Cook for 15 minutes at 230 ° c then for 20/25 minutes at 200 ° c until cooked
Leave to cool on rack

Butteries and Morning Rolls

2008-03-09T20:49:00.004Z

Last time we went to Scotland we came back with a few bags of Butteries (or Morning Rolls as they are also known). Having some Scottish blood I would say it is only natural for my family to be hankering after these naughty treats.

They are a speciality to Northern Scotland - so with some of my family roots being in Elgin it is something my Gran & Grandad would have enjoyed on a more regular basis. We bought most of ours from the bakers in Aviemore but they have to be eaten fresh, so when we got back last Saturday eveing I took a quick drive round to my mum & dads so they could be enjoyed the next morning.

We froze the ones we kept and enjoyed them for a leisurely breakfast this morning. Served warm with marmalde and a nice cup of tea.

Oh, and Ginger, if you read this - you asked what I was talking about last time so I hope this now explains!

A creamy indulgent dinner

2008-03-09T20:14:00.004Z

Last night we made the chicken and tarragon pie I had been meaning to do earlier in the week. But before we enjoyed this we used up the left over asparagus.

I say we, but it was Anthony that cooked up a delicious starter. Steamed asparagus spears with quick hollandaise sauce. This sauce is not a traditional way of making hollandaise but is lower fat and much easier and to be honest, tasted just as good:

Quick Hollandaise Sauce
1 egg yolk
1/2 tablespoon cornflour
1 1/2 rounded tablespoon creme fraiche
5ml white wine vinegar
1/4 tablespoon lemon juice
25g butter

Basically you put everything except the butter in a small pan. Whisk together and heat over a medium heat until simmering - whisking all the time. Take off heat & whisk in the butter.

Serve with steamed asparagus tips.

After enjoyed the asparagus I got on with the pie. And as it was Saturday evening I thought I'd use the potatoes I picked up for mash to make dauphinoise potatoes. This is something I've had in the back of my mind to try for a very long time and I searched on the internet for a recipe that suited what we had in. The link takes you through to the recipe I used from the bbc website.

We served the pie, dauphinoise with some steamed kale.

It is certainly a dinner to enjoy once every few months as it oozed lots of creaminess. But it went down very well with a nice cold white wine.

Getting back

2008-03-08T16:33:00.004Z

We have been back home for a week now. A week of work and it feels like our holiday was a very distant memory. I hate that about holidays.

I was going to post some more about our adventures in Scotland but Hubby posted about it a few days ago.

To be honest, I haven't cooked anything very exciting this week. I rustled up a tasty pasta bake on Wednesday with a tin of tomatoes, an onion, a green chilli & a clove of garlic - then mixing it through with some par-cooked pasta & mozzarella. Baked for 10 minutes and hey-presto. It was lovely & I quite enjoy it when I just throw stuff together that takes no more than 20 minutes.

Other than that we've not had anything exciting really. My enthusiasm has dipped a bit.

But I will get back & up running soon. In fact here is my list of 'must cook soon':

Hot cross buns - after Jules posted her pics a year ago, I've been waiting for Easter to come back around!
Cupcakes & shortbread - it's sport relief next week so I assume work will want some baking to sell for measly prices! Bah. But I love doing it :)
Pancetta-wrapped salmon for the new delicious magazine
Roasted parsnip & Parmesan soup, again from delicious
Bread - I did make a rather nice chilli loaf a couple of weeks back but didn't blog it
Lamb & rosemary burgers from Sarah Ravens book

Tonight I think we'll be having a creamy chicken & tarragon pie which has featured here at least once with steamed kale & maybe dauphinoise potatoes - something that's been on my 'to cook' list for ages. I had intended on making a chicken & asparagus pie in the week but ended up with asparagus risotto so I may use the last of the asparagus up with a 'quick' hollandaise sauce as a started - again a new one for me to try!

I am really keen to kick start my cooking again & I cant wait to move over to my new look blog - Hubby has been busy with things so it had to take a back seat for a while but I promise it is coming soon!!

Review: The Cross, Kingussie, The Highlands

2008-02-29T17:09:00.010Z

"For a special occasion, this is somewhere to go for a treat" This was how The Cross was described in the welcome booklet we found at our accommodation in Aviemore.

As you will know, we came to Aviemore to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and for a couple of weeks before I had been googling various ideas to find somewhere special to enjoy a meal. I had found a few ideas before getting up here but nothing that jumped out at me. So when I read the above review in the booklet I had to Google it and was very pleasantly surprised. The Cross entices you by telling you that 'Dinners are served by an open fire in the stone walled and wood beamed restaurant. Menus feature carefully prepared fresh and seasonal produce and the wine list is one of the best in the UK' it continues 'The Good Food Guide has rated The Cross as one of the six best places to eat in the Scottish Highlands and Trip Advisor ranks The Cross as #1 in the area. Recommended in all other independent guidebooks, including Michelin, The Good Hotel Guide, Scotland the Best (upgraded to two ticks for 2008!), Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, and Fromers'

Further, it comments that 'we use only the finest fresh produce, locally sourced where possible. Game from local estates, Highland beef, Shetland lamb, prime fish from Scrabster, and shellfish from Skye. Wild mushrooms picked locally, soft fruits from Alvie Estate and cheeses from Mull and Galloway'

The only downside was that it doesn't open on a Sunday or Monday and our anniversary was the Sunday, so whilst we went out for a nice meal on our anniversary itself we also booked a table for two at The Cross for Thursday evening.

When we arrived we were very warmly welcomed and thus started a truly special meal.

The whole service was provided by the owners who were assisted by a couple of chefs back in the kitchen. We started with olives whilst pondering the menu. The olives were the best we've tasted in some time, slightly flavoured with rosemary. We were then given some homemade sour dough bread and unsalted butter.

Whilst enjoying these nibbles we were enjoying the quiet surroundings and a warming log fire quietly crackling away in the background. There was only one other couple dining and a chap on his own who we thought may have been reviewing the food as he was scribbling in his notebook the whole time!
Next to arrive was the appetiser - a small cappuccino cup full of Jerusalem artichoke soup with a drizzle of truffle oil. It may have been small but it was truly delicious and warming - I could have enjoyed a whole bowl of the soup on its own and been a very happy lass but it just kept getting better...

Next was our first course. I had chosen the tian of kyle of lochalsh langoustines, avocado & vine tomato and Anthony chose the seared breast of scottish woodpigeon, date puree and goats cheese emulsion.

I really enjoyed the fresh langoustines and had a small taste of the woodpigeon and goats cheese emulsion, which just melted in your mouth. I dont think I could eat much of the pigeon myself, but Anthony really enjoyed every mouthful and said he would pick it again.

Onto the mains, we both chose roast breast of organic highland chicken, vine tomato fondue, leeks and peas with garlic mash. The chicken melted in your mouth it was just perfectly cooked. The tomato fondue was simple but the flavour was really rich. The garlic mash, again, just melted in your mouth - this is one mash I will by trying to recreate at home soon!

For dessert, Anthony had to try the hot chocolate fondant with chilli ice cream. He seems to have been craving chilli chocolate recently so this definitely put a smile on his face.

I, on the other hand, couldn't resist the creme caramel, caramelised spiced bananas with creme brulee ice cream. Not being a huge fan of banana I was very pleasantly surprised, they were very lightly spiced and truly delicious. The creme caramel and crunchy creme brulee ice cream were really creamy.

The portion sizes throughout the meal were absolutely spot on. We both finished each plateful and as we finished the meal with coffee and petit fours we decided that we were just nicely full. And as I mentioned earlier, the service through out was just right. Food and service arriving just at the right time, food was introduced to us at each course and both proprietors knew everything about the food and where it came from.

At £45 per person we felt that we got extremely good value for money. The only down side being that the credit card machine didn't have an option for service which we would have most gladly left. However the menu did state that the cost per person included service and tax. Either way we came away knowing that we will return at the drop of a hat next time we are up here, whenever that will be!

It was most definately one of the best meals we have devoured and would both heartily recommend it to anyone looking for genuinely good, well sourced food by people who obviously love it even more.

Ps. Again, apologies for lack of food pictures - I really wish we'd taken the camera with us.

More of Aviemore

2008-02-26T17:02:00.004Z

As I said last week, we have travelled North for a weeks holiday. Our first stop was an overnight stay at the Q Hotel just North of Glasgow, The Westerwood. Anthony treated us to a Suite and the price included Dinner & Breakfast. The dinner was lovely - unfortunately I didn't get any photos but I enjoyed some Pollock from Peterhead served on a potato rosti with wilted spinach and a rather lovely creamy but light sauce.

On Saturday we carried on North and up into the Highlands, arriving at our accomodation after a leg stretching walk around Loch an Eilein. We are self catering in a very nice house towards the Northern end of the town. A view of a snowy topped Cairngorm can be found from the kitchen window.

Sunday was our first wedding anniversary and we spent some of it near the top of Cairngorm where we found some snow!

After wandering around and taking photos we grabbed a warming cup of hot chocolate & coffee before heading back down. In the evening we enjoyed a very pleasant meal at The Old Bridge Inn - it even started snowing whilst we sat enjoying our food. Proper big flakes of snow. Bliss. I enjoyed scallops to start - they were served in a light sauce flavoured with lemongrass and honey. For mains, I thoroughly enjoyed braised monkfish served with asparagus and seasonal vegetables. Anthony sampled some bruchetta followed by a venison steak (no photos again sorry!)

Yesterday we drove over to Aberdeen. If I am completely honest it was a miserable day weather wise. We kind of wish we hadn't bothered with the 2 1/2 hour (each way) journey. You live & learn! On the positive side, we came back via the scenic route & literally came face to face with the most magnificent deer, possibly a stag. It was huge. I had put the camera on the back seat but was too slow in turning round to get it!

Today we ventured out for another walk, in the drizzly rain. After stopping off to get Anthony some more water resistant trousers. We climbed from Glenmore up to the valley in between
Creagan Gorm and Meall a'Bhuachaille. The views were beautiful. Lake Morlich shining in the grey light, snowy topped mountains and pine trees. By the time we reached the top the weather took a turn, the wind got up, the drizzle turned to hail and there was nowhere to shelter so we did a quick about turn and started back down the same route we had walked up.

Through the valley...
Views from near the top...

After getting back to the car we travelled a few miles back down towards Aviemore and stopped at the Ord Barn for a heart warming Parsnip & Honey soup served with homemade bread and a hot cup of coffee. Delicious. If I was to open up a cafe it would be something just like this... hot drinks with lots of homemade soups, sandwiches and cakes. Mmmmm.

Meme'd by the lovely Rosie

2008-02-21T22:53:00.003Z

Rosie has meme'd me. But at the moment we are in the midst of packing for our holiday, but I did notice that one of the meme'd questions was 'what were you doing a year ago?'

Well, I can't resist quickly telling you the answer - and that, my friends, is running around like a mad hatter, bursting into tears at the drop of a hat, packing lots of bikini's and shorts into large suitcases and putting the finishing touches to our wedding!!

I really can't believe how quickly the last twelve months have flown by.

So I shall run off again now. But I will post the rest of my answers to the meme'd when we return from the Bonny Highlands. I hope you'll let me off Rosie :)

Quiet Times

2008-02-11T21:58:00.000Z

I haven't really got an excuse for my lack of blogging over the last week or so. I just haven't felt our food worthy of blogging I suppose - it's been quite normal and we haven't really tried anything new... but here is a quick update!

Pancake Day
I made some pancakes last Tuesday. Hubby doesn't like pancakes (except for Little Chef ones apparently, but I think that is more of a rekindled memory as he hasn't been to a Little Chef for a very long time). Every year I make myself a couple of pancakes with lemon and brown sugar and try to tempt him into trying them to no avail. This year I think I won. Well, I won him over with the filling - ice cream and Dulce de Leche (sickly toffee sauce). I stuck to my lemon and sugar combination but here is Hubbys sickly sweet pancake...

Rhosneigr
On Saturday we took a day trip to the lovely beachside village that is Rhosneigr on Anglesey - it was a beautifully sunny day and it really did not feel like February. The kite surfers were out in force enjoying the good weather...

And we quickly visited the South Stack in Holyhead before heading home...

Sausages and Mash with Jamies O's Red Onion Gravy
We spent most of yesterday having a good clean and clear out. I had intended on sitting down at some point in the day and deciding on the weeks menu's but left it far too late. In fact we only just managed to get to a Sainsbury's about 20 minutes before closing. With the rushing around we ended up with a rather satisfying dinner - chilli & corriander sausages with mash, purple sprouting broccoli and my trusty red onion gravy...

Red onion Gravy (for 2)
1 red onion, finely sliced
1 clove garlic, finely sliced (can be left out)
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
hot water & vegetable stock cube

Fry onions & garlic gently for 5 minutes
Add balsamic vinegar & reduce by half
Crumble in a little stock cube & add hot water - keep simmering & add water as required to consistency you require

Lemony Syllabub

2008-02-02T22:48:00.000Z

Last weekend we went round to my mum & dads for a Jamie Oliver curry, a kind of belated birthday dinner for my brother as he was poorly the first time round. I offered to make pudding and decided something palette cleansing was in order.

I hadn't made or even eaten syllabub before but had been inspired after seeing the Tequila syllabub on Masterchef the other week (made by an online acquaintance). It was easy to make, though it started the evening before when I had to infuse some sugar, dessert white wine, lemon & lime juice. Served with some of the lovely Three Chimneys Shortbread it was quite pleasant. Though next time I'd put more lemon juice in as the sweetness took some of the flavour away.

Makes 6 servings
75g caster sugar
100ml sweet white wine
1 lemon
1 lime
300ml double cream, whipped

The night before - thinly pare the lemon and lime and squeeze out the juice. Put this in a bowl together with the wine and sugar. Leave to infuse overnight before straining into a bowl.

Fold in the cream and pour the syllabub into martini glasses or small pots.

Serve with homemade shortbread biscuits.

Tuna Burgers

2008-01-23T19:31:00.000Z

This evening I made Tuna Burgers. You may remember I did make them last year, adapting a Simon Rimmer recipe for Salmon burgers. Anyway when I went to retrieve the recipe it was not on my blog so here goes - a slightly further adapted recipe:

250g - 300g Tuna Steaks
2 slices brown bread, crusts off (& magimixed into bread crumbs)
1/2 egg white
1 shallot or small chunk of red onion
Tablespoon dill
Salt & Pepper

1. Put bread into magimix & made breadcrumbs
2. Add red onion, and dill & blitz
3. Season
4. Add tuna (cut into chunks) & egg white - pulse magimix so small pieces of tuna remain

Turn the mixture out & shape into 2 'burgers' - cover them up and pop them in the fridge for 1/2 hour

Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan and lightly fry for around 3 or 4 minutes (depending on the thickness) on either side until cooked through in the middle

We served this with some organic mayonnaise flavoured with a little garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice & touch more dill.

We also had some homemade chips courtesy of 'Cook with Gordon' -
2 Desiree potatoes scrubbed (skin left on) cut into eighths & parboiled for 3 minutes. Season, add a touch of olive oil & chilli flakes & pop on a hot baking tray in the oven set to 200°c for around 40 minutes until crisp.

The Results

2008-01-19T11:21:00.001Z

It is an impossible task to cook, photograph & blog all at the same time. Especially when Gordon cooks so quickly! But we managed, just about, to keep up with the cooking & here are the very tasty results - even the steak was delicious...

Scallops with a warm tomato & olive salsa

Sirloin Steak with homemade chips & a rocket salad

The rocket dressing was simply 1 part white wine vinegar to 3 parts extra virgin olive oil but it was really, really lovely

And finally Chocolate Mousse

Mmmmmmm. Thanks Gordon.

Cooking with Gordon

2008-01-18T20:43:00.001Z

I think I'm just about set... I'm taking up the challenge tonight on two fronts.

Firstly, I am Cooking With Gordon - after getting ready Hubby will hopefully be updating my Flickr set as we go along -click here if you'd like a nosey

Secondly, and part of cooking with Gordon, I will be cooking and eating meat. Eeeek is all I can say. I am trying to re-introduce it so why not jump in the deep end with a Sirloin Steak!

Wish me luck!

A rather busy weekend

2008-01-13T23:21:00.000Z

I cant believe it's time for bed on Sunday night already. The weekend has flown by.

On Friday evening a made a rather enjoyable dinner of sole goujons with dill mayonnaise and a buttery jacket potato. It was surprisinglyeasy to make - the sole goujon recipe is from Nigella Express.

On Saturday evening we ate out at Est Est Est at the Albert Dock. We had reasonably high expectations as we spent 06/07 New Year's Eve there & it was really nice. Unfortunately last night the staff & food let the lovely surroundings down. My porcini risotto was a very small portion, in the largest ever bowl & Hubby's pizza came covered in mushrooms - which it did not mention on the menu but we were out for a friends birthday & having everyone together was really nice. Afterwards we just about managed to grab a seat at the Pump House pub as we seemed to finish the meal at the same time as Ringo & Co. who had officially opened the Liverpool Echo Arena next door.

Tonight we ate at my parents again as its my brothers birthday tomorrow - but unfortunately he has been poorly so we ended up enjoying a creamy chicken & tarragon pie followed by marmalade pudding without him :( (Happy Birthday for tomorrow Michael xx)

Good Intentions

2008-01-06T21:36:00.000Z

We did our first weekly shop of '08 today and I did feel very proud of our trolley whilst walking around Tesco - 23 out of the 43 items were from the fresh fruit 'n' veg section. Hopefully we'll start purchasing more of this produce from a local farm but today it just wasn't viable.

On top of all our fresh fruit and veg we bought two lots of fish and some chicken breasts. And the rest was all healthy & wholesome breads, milk, pasta, lentils & teabags etc.!

It's a start anyway. Now we have to use it all up.

Tonight I made a courgette & dill soup (for dinner tomorrow & a batch to be frozen) and then I made some Herb Crusted Tuna served with green beans & tagliatelle. It was really delicious and light.

Herb Crusted Tuna
2 fresh Tuna steaks
1 tablespoon chopped of each - dill, parsley & spring onion
1 tomato (pips discarded, skin chopped up)
1 tablespoon low-fat fromage frais
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
30g brown breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 190°c

Rinse & pat dry the tuna steaks. Put them on a baking tray (I put them on a sheet of tin foil too) and season with salt & pepper.

Next, combine all the other ingredients in a bowl & then spoon this on top of each tuna steak.
Cook for 20 minutes & serve (I put the water on to boil for the beans & pasta at this point and then put the pasta & beans into the water at the 10 minute mark & it was all pretty much ready at the same time).

The Three Chimneys

2008-01-03T23:15:00.000Z

For Christmas I bought my mum & dad a recipe book called The Three Chimneys, Recipes & Reflections from the Isle of Skye's World Famous Restaurant. Hubby & I came across the beautiful book when we were in the Spey Larder, Aberlour. My mum & dad where in the shop at the same time so we didn't get long to look through it, but we instinctively knew (well, we hoped) it would make a great present.

To go with the book, I decided to make their recipe for Scottish Shortbread as an extra present and I am soooooooo glad I did. After trying to make vanilla shortbread a while back from a BBC GoodFood recipe which was nothing short of disappointing (they were vanilla biscuits, not shortbread). This new recipe was nothing short of fabulous. I think the main difference was that T3C recipe called for rice flour.

Now two days before Christmas (yes, it was a Sunday too), in a Tesco Extra the size of, erm, something very large with two floors I didn't think this would cause me too much of a problem. After failing on my first visit, Hubby reluctantly came back with me after I got home & found out rice flour is gluten free. Disappointingly I still couldn't find any. So we drove to Sainsbury's. Nope, no rice flour. So we tried the larger Sainsbury's - that had closed 5 minutes before we arrived. Gah.

Christmas Eve arrived and I was in work but Hubby had a list of things that we still needed to get so he tried a smaller (not small) Tesco in Chester & found me a packet of all that is light and crumbly, rice flour.

I made 3 trays full of biscuits on Christmas Eve and threw away a lot of dough. Everyone who tasted the biscuit the next day were very complimentary, even though they were made with Danish butter! A few biscuits were more golden than the others but here is a couple of wee photos...
My mum & dad seemed very happy with their new cookbook and after leafing through, my dad decided to tackle T3C famous Marmalade Pudding (which even has it's own club) on New Years Day. It was simply fantastic...
I'd love to visit T3C restaurant one day soon and if we were ever to have a few hundred pounds to spare it would to be great to spend a night. Another thing to add to my A girl can dream To Do list!

The New Year

2008-01-01T13:18:00.000Z

Happy New Year to you all

As the Zutons sing 'this is just a night in the city of culture'. Well it is now. 2008 is finely upon us. For some it may just be another year but for us up here in the Northwest it is a date that has been slowly dawning for nearly 5 years - I even remember hearing the announcement that Liverpool had won the badge for '08 on Radio Merseyside! I digress...

Anyway, ever since the announcement, the construction world in Liverpool has gone crazy mad. The skyline shows the splendid waterfront interspersed with huge cranes. Liverpool One is well on its way to being opened in the Spring. It should be great with lots of new shops & I believe a new flagship store for John Lewis!

As you probably already know we don't live in the City of Culture but we do have a rather grand view from our flat & it was here that we welcomed in the New Year. Despite being told that there were no fireworks display for the Capital of Culture, there was a service at the Catholic Cathedral & at midnight they did have some lovely fireworks - together with a lit up 2008 sign. As we weren't expecting any, we didn't have the camera ready but here are a couple of pics we managed to get...
So, its the new year and that means lots of resolutions. Here are a couple of foodie ones I'd like to share:

Cook new recipes more often - try something new each week
Eat more healthy foods - we are hoping to sort out a weekly veggie box
Eat at Simon Rimmers restaurant

I hope 2008 is a good year for you all.

Our Christmas Dinner (just the two of us)

2007-12-30T21:47:00.000Z

Since we moved into our flat (3 years ago now) we have eaten Christmas dinner at my parents but then cooked our own dinner for two a few days later. Unfortunately I was working Thursday & Friday so didn't get a chance to do it until tonight. It was really nice, even if I have spent the majority of the day in the kitchen...

To start, we enjoyed some Champagne & Sloe Gin Cocktails We then enjoyed some simple tomato & basil bruschetta care of a Jamie Olive recipe - it was really delicious...
Followed by a traditional Christmas dinner: Turkey, The Best Ever Stuffing ™, pigs in blankets, roasted potatoes and parsnips (in goose fat, again) and some glazed carrots with caraway seeds. Of course we also had some gravy (the best I've made yet!) and my homemade cranberry sauce which was fantastic... the photo doesn't really do it justice as the battery went...For dessert I made Simon Rimmers Bounty Profiteroles. Need I say any more...
Hubby quite simply said that if we weren't already married, he'd ask me there & then after sampling this pudding (if only I'd have known that years ago ;o))

We finished off with an espresso made in our new espresso pot, the rest of the Moet and maybe a dash of Viognier.

Mmmmm. I love Christmas dinner.

The post-Christmas review

2007-12-27T18:13:00.000Z

What a mad few days! I really don't know where to begin.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and Santa brought you some nice gifts. He certainly stopped here as I am now overwhelmed by lots of glorious & mostly foodie presents. To mention, but a few, I am now the proud owner of Simon Rimmers the accidental vegetarian which I cant wait to use. I also have (having arrived today!) the Best-kept Secrets of the Women's Institute Jams, Pickles & Chutneys. I have a spoon rest, a new super-dooper set of scales, a years subscription to Delicous magazine, the very large & new Gordon Ramsey book and a beautiful Nigella cake stand in cream.

I also got my very own website which I will be moving to soon (I very much hope you'll join me there). All I can say for now is Hubby is a lovely and very talented man - I have a new logo already - we just need to work on the website layout & content. So keep your eyes peeled for that!

Food-wise, we enjoyed a fantastic (as usual) Christmas day dinner at my mum & dads. We had smoked salmon blini with avocado, mango & chilli salsa. It was really really nice. Hubby had a sausage (its a long term joke in our family) as he doesn't really like smoked salmon.

The main meal was Turkey with sausages, the-bestest-ever-stuffing (this is my favouritest part), roasted potatoes & roasted parsnips (in goose fat) so they were really crispy, carrots, sprouts (or for me, just one for tradition, I'm really not keen), bread sauce & cranberry sauce (i forgot to take mine, duh!).

Pudding was either Christmas pudding & brandy sauce or my mums triffle - loaded with sherry.

I will be making a smaller version of our feast, hopefully, at the weekend just for Hubby & I.

Oh, and our main present between ourselves was our lovely new digital SLR camera. My Gran was amused as I just took photos of anything that didn't move all day long! So here are some of our snaps...

My First Christmas Cake - Part II (The Decorating)

2007-12-18T21:58:00.000Z

Following this post a few weeks ago I have today finished decorating my first ever Christmas cake.

Decorating officially started yesterday when I marzipaned it:
And today I iced and decorated. I stupidly started before having any dinner as I under-estimated how long it would take.

I am quite proud of my first Christmas cake & my first ever iced cake with proper icing decorations but please do let me know what you think!!
I am just keeping my fingers crossed that it survives until Christmas day in the same condition and that it tastes ok! I'll report back next week!

Cranberry & Sloe Gin Sauce

2007-12-09T09:22:00.000Z

The second part of my pre-Christmas cooking started yesterday with Cranberry & Sloe Gin Sauce - a recipe I found on The Cottage Smallholder.

You'll need:

300g cranberries
4 clementines - squeezed with some pulp
120g granulated white sugar
25ml Sloe Gin

Wash the cranberries thoroughly - taking out any soft fruit
Wash the clementines and then squeeze the juice out of them (i did this by hand quite easily)
Put the cranberries in a large pan together with the sugar and clementine juice and pulp - mix around
Turn the heat on under the pan to allow the mixture to come up to a simmer then taste for sweetness, adding extra sugar if you desire
Pop the lid on the pan and let it simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until all berries have burst and it resembles a jam type consistency
Take off the heat and stir in the sloe gin
Decant into warm sterilised jars

Ps: Just wanted to say a quick hello to anyone popping by here after following the C4 food website link :)

Highlights from the Good Food Show Birmingham

2007-12-02T11:35:00.000Z

As the title says, these are our highlights from our first Good Food Show:

Jamie Oliver in the Supertheatre
We were quite lucky with our seats - very central & not too far back considering the number of seats they cram in! Anyway, the show was great. Jamie was very funny & there was lots of crowd interaction. He made three dishes. The first was hot smoked salmon in the biscuit tin - the smell of the salmon cooking was really fabulous. He then went on to make a warm chicken Cesar salad which looked divine. To top this off he made a beef stroganoff with mushrooms with a little help from his mushroom hero Gennaro Contaldo.

We also came across Gordon Ramsay, Rachel Allen, the Hairy Bikers, Angela Hartnett, Matt Skinner and Brian Turner.
We went on a wine masterclass - by mistake we booked one held by the Ian Harvey of the Birmingham Post Wine Club when we had wanted to go to the Matt Skinner one - but it turned out well & we tasted six South American wines. Hubby enjoyed this bit the most. I think he see's himself becoming a wine connoisseur.

Tasting highlights
These included a pork pattie care of Jimmy's Farm. Coming from a not-really-a-meat-eater I have to hold my hands up and say it was delicious. And thanks to Jules we may just have to order some from the online shop.

I also tasted a veggie pie & mash from Blenheim House - this was nice but the gravy was delicious. And we both had a 'Duo of rich Belgian truffle' which didn't last more than 60 seconds - hence the half eaten one in the photograph!
We sampled some of Walkers warm, freshly cooked crisps. You added you own toppings - salt, pepper, chilli & rosemary etc.

I've also found a soft spot for Sloe Gin. We will hopefully be purchasing some of this soon to make cranberry sauce.

It was also very nice to see Gordon & Macphail of Elgin at the show. The shop in Elgin is really lovely with a room dedicated to whisky and then a room full of wines and spirits and a third room with delicatessen type goods.

Overall it was a really lovely day out & we may have to go back another year.

Excuses, excuses, excuses

2007-11-25T17:11:00.000Z

I can't believe it's nearly been two whole weeks since I last posted. Where is the time going?

We(*) have been quite busy recently though so if you'll allow me, I'm using that as my excuse. You see we moved into our two bedroom flat just over two and a half years ago. But until now it's really been a one bedroom flat with a spare room so full of junk you couldn't move in it. So we've emptied it, bought some carpet, have had a trip to Ikea, built some furniture, put pictures & blinds up and generally had a big clear out and have then (in a tidy manner, of course) have put back in what we need.

Its a really nice room now, even if I do say so myself. There is just one thing that's missing and that's a small 2 seater sofa. So another trip to Ikea is needed but we just need a vehicle bigger than out ickle C2.

(*) I say we but I'm sure Hubby will disagree. But seriously, nothing ever gets done with out a project manager/supervisor/general all round bossy boots ;)

Since making the christmas cake I have cooked, I just haven't had enough time to blog about it. So here is a little summary with pictures:

My first ever Toad In The Hole (Jamie recipe) - severed with the suggested red onion gravy it was delicious and I was very proud of my yorkshire pudding.
We followed this up with some Toffee Apple Crumble - in fact we've had this twice. Once made with normal eating apples and once with bramleys (rather than the 50/50 mix suggested by Simon Rimmer). We both much preferred the bramley only one as the sweet sauce is more than enough sugar to match the tangy bramleys.
I also turned this pile of chopped vegetables...
into one of our favourite soups - Lentil and Chestnut Soup
Ingredients
1 small onion
half leek
1 carrot
1 stick celery
2 tablespoons olive oil
225g red lentils
1.5 litres vegetable stock
225g cooked chestnuts

double cream to serve (optional & not really needed)

Finely chop the onion, leek, carrot and celery.
Heat the oil in the pan, add the chopped vegetables and let sweat until soft.
Add the lentils and stir, then add the stock.
Bring to the boil and simmer until the lentils are very soft (about 40 minutes).
Add the chestnuts and simmer for a further 20 minutes or so.
Liquidise (I used my hand blender) until smooth.
Sprinkle each full bowl of soup with parsley and lace with cream as required.

Consume with lots of crusty bread and butter.

Its truly delicious.

Whilst I've been AWOL we also had Children In Need day at work and that means one thing - cakes, cakes and more cakes. I made my cupcakes with pink & white icing with flowers and I also tried some vanilla shortbreads - they were ok but a little soft & not quite as nice as I'd expected. Here they are among some of the other cakes brought in by my colleagues...
And last, but not least. Here is a lovely sunrise we had the week before last.

My first Christmas cake

2007-11-12T20:59:00.000Z

I will 'fess up now. I'm not a fan of Christmas cake but I really wanted to make one! So this weekend I jumped in the deep end...

The recipe - wow, there are so many to choose from! I ended up going with one from my mum's Good Housekeeping magazine - November 2007 - Christmas Cake with a Hint of Dark Chocolate

Ingredients
250g sultanas
250g raisins
125g Agen prunes, chopped
125g ready to eat Apricots, chopped
150ml Dark Rum + 1 tablespoon for feeding the cake (we used original Antiguan rum from our honeymoon)
Zest and juice of 1 orange
175g dark muscavado sugar
175g softened butter
4 medium eggs
125g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 level teaspoon cinnamon
75g Green & Black's Dark 85% chocolate, finely grated
100g lightly toasted flaked almonds

Greaseproof paper
Clingfilm
Tinfoil
Brown paper
Cotton
8" tin

Start the night before you will make the cake
Put the rum and orange juice & zest in a large pan
Add the dried fruit and bring to the boil, then turn off the heat, cover and leave to soak overnight
The next day
Preheat the oven to 150 °c (130 °c fan)
Grease and double line the baking tin with greaseproof paper, allow it to stand proud at the top
In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light & fluffy - I used an electric hand mixer for about 5 minutesAdd the eggs one at a time, making sure the mixture doesn't curdle (if it does add a little of the flour)
Gently fold in the flour, mixed spice & cinnamon
Next, fold in the chocolate and almond flakes
Lastly add the fruit and carefully mix through

Pour the mixture into the tin, taking care not to catch & pull the greaseproof paper off the sides of the tin
Level the surface of the cake
Wrap 2 layers of brown paper around the outside of the tin leaving a good inch above the top of the tin. Use the cotton to secure this.

Pop in the oven for 3 to 31/2 hours. Use a skewer to make sure the centre is cooked through.

Once cooked leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then take the cake out (leaving it in the greaseproof) and let it cool on a cake rack.
Once cold, wrap in clingfilm and then tinfoil and pop it in an airtight container.

After 2 weeks add the tablespoon of rum & re-wrap the cake. It will last for up to 3 months.

Tuna-balls

2007-11-10T17:52:00.000Z

Regular readers amongst you have probably noticed I don't cook or eat much red meat. I've never been a big fan partly because of the taste. But the worst part for me is the smell of cooking meat, especially the browning part. It turns my stomach. So at home I stick to chicken which I can just about deal with and fish when Mr C approves!

To cut this story short, I was leafing through Jamie's Italy earlier in the week and hit a small jackpot - tuna meatballs!

I made them last night and they were surprisingly pleasant. The cinnamon on the tuna was a great mix.

Le migliori polpette di tonna
(Serves 4)

For the tomato sauce
olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 x 400g tin plum tomatoes
red wine vinegar

For the meatballs
400g steak tuna
olive oil
55g pinenuts
1 level teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried oregano
handful chopped fresh parsley
100g stale breadcrumbs
55g Parmesan
2 eggs
juice of 1 lemon

Chop the tuna in 1" squares
Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan
Add the tuna, cinnamon and pinenuts. Season with salt & pepper and cook until tuna has browned on all sides
Tip the tuna mixture into a big bowl and leave to cool for 5 minutes
Once cooled, add the other ingredients and using your hands mix together
Squeeze the mixture into small balls (slightly smaller than a golf ball)
Pop the meatballs on an oiled baking tray and leave them in the fridge for an hour
As soon as the meatballs go in the fridge, start the tomato sauce -

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil on pan and gently fry the onion and garlic until soft
Add the oregano, tomatoes and season with salt & pepper
Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes
Then using a hand held blender liquidise until smooth
Taste for seasoning & add a dash of red wine vinegar if needed

Once out of the fridge, heat oil in the same frying pan as before and gently fry the meatballs until golden all over - be careful as my first batch crumbled away into lots of bits!

Serve with the tomato sauce and spaggetti

I made 1/2 the tuna amount but the full amount of tomato sauce and have frozen it for next time - or another pasta dish.

Frosting

2007-11-08T22:36:00.000Z

Little cupcakes with buttercream frosting. Better after 20 minutes in the fridge to firm the frosting up.

But I'm sure that there is a better frosting out there somewhere... please let me know if you have any icing suggestions to help me out here!

A big catch up...

2007-11-04T17:13:00.000Z

This is my catch up post as I've been lazy! Over the last two weeks I have made a tomato curry, took my first (self-taught) lesson in sugar craft, made more soup (roasted tomato and pepper with tarragon) and made up a claire original butternut squash tart. So here goes...

Tomato Curry - it turned out ok but definitely needed more sauce to it...
I made the curry on a Friday night & I will add the recipe when I can lay my hands on it. It was tasty just a bit too dry.

Cake Art - this is something I hope to play with more over the coming months. I'd really like to be a able to bake and decorate some really nice cakes. Anyway this was my first attempt at icing sugar paste and making flowers...
And the final product... (they did taste good!)

Next on my list of accomplishments is another soup (sorry if I'm getting boring here, but it's that time of year). This time it was Slow-roasted tomato and red pepper soup - it was really tasty & we have 2 servings in the freezer...

Serves 4
4 Red Peppers, halved lengthways & deseeded
3 tbspn extra virgin olive oil
1kg vine tomatoes
2 garlic bulbs - halved horizontally
1 medium red onion, chopped
400ml vegetable stock, hot
1 tbspn sundried tomato paste
1 tbspn chopped fresh tarragon

Serving suggestion - toasted baguette with a slightly melted topping of Crottin de Chavignol AOC (Goats Cheese)

Preheat oven to 200 °c
Put peppers in a roasting tin & drizzle with 1 tbspn oil
Put tomatoes and garlic in another roasting tin, drizzle 1 tbspn oil & season
Put peppers on top shelf of oven with tomatoes & garlic underneath - roast for 30 minutes
Transfer the peppers to a plastic bag, seal & leave for a few minutes to allow the skins to peel off
Heat remaining oil in a large pan, add onion and gently fry for 5 minutes
Squeeze in the roasted garlic and add the tomatoes
Discard the pepper skins & add the flesh to the pan
Add the stock, sundried tomato paste and tarragon - bring to the boil & then reduce the heat

We served with crusty bread & butter.
The tarragon added a creamy sort of taste - it really was very nice. Possibly one of my favourite tomato soups.

Lastly we have my original Butternut Squash Tart... based on Simon Rimmers Feta & Spinach Free-form pie in Septembers Delicious Magazine. I made it to use up the left over butternut squash from the soup the other day.

Serves 4
1/2 packet of filo pastry
3 tbspn melted butter
1 butternut squash
1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped
1 tbspn olive oil
100g feta
5 shallots, cut into quarters
3 tbsn balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 °c
Cut the butternut squash into about 8 large chunks (spooning out the seeds)
Place the pieces of squash on a baking tray, drizzle with the oil & sprinkle over the rosemary + a pinch of salt
Roast the squash for 45 minutes then take it out & leave it to cool down
Once cool, scoop of the flesh & cut into smaller sized chunks
Mix the butternut squash with 2/3 feta cheese, season with pepper
Meanwhile 1tbspn melt the butter in a small saucepan & add the shallots
Once the shallots are glossy and starting to warm through add the sugar
Leave for 2 minutes but keep an eye on them and mix them about
Throw in 2 tbspn of balsamic & keep the shallot pieces moving until the balsamic has thickened to a glossy coating
Put the shallot pieces in with the main mixture & add the last tbspn of balsamic vinegar. Put to one side.
Heat up 2 tbspn butter
Using a loose bottom cake tin - firstly brush the tin with melted butter, then add a layer of filo pastry brushing on butter in between each layer
Add the butternut squash mixture & crumble the remaining feta over the top.
Lift the overhanging pastry on top of the tart & scrunch it up
Cook for 20-25 minutes

Another Butternut Squash Soup

2007-10-29T21:25:00.000Z

Today it was dark when we got home. How depressing.

To cheer us up I made the Pumpkin Soup from the November Sainsbury magazine - a recipe by Tana Ramsay. The recipe says that you can you use any squash so we picked up two butternut squashes - I think all the pumpkins must have gone to good homes in time for Halloween.

Serves 6
1 tablespoon olive oil
10g butter
2kg (4lb 8oz) squash of your choice - diced
3 sprigs rosemary
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 litre chicken stock

optional - 2 Parmesan rinds

Heat oil & butter in large pan
Add garlic & rosemary
Add the squash and let it cook for a few minutes until the squash starts to colour
(If you are adding the Parmesan rind pop it in at this stage and let it melt a little bit)
Add stock & a pinch of salt
Let everything simmer for 25 minutes - the squash will be soft
Cool slightly then remove the stalks from the rosemary and the Parmesan rind
Using a liquidiser or hand held blender blend until smooth
Warm the soup back up & serve with crusty bread
I have to hold my hands up & say I ended up making half the quantity above, cutting a raw butternut squash is blumin' hard work!

Now I need to find a recipe that calls for roasted squash - I think I've seen one with feta cheese lying around here somewhere...

Breakfast Eggs

2007-10-28T10:03:00.000Z

It may be the onset of Autumn but for the last few weekends I've been hankering after a Sunday morning breakfast of eggs. So far we've had boiled, poached and today we had Oeufs en Cocotte.

Last weeks poached egg were two of the best poached eggs I've cooked. We invested in these contraptions a few weeks ago & they do help the egg stay together - but it confuses me just how you get the egg in the holder & then in the water without the whites running through the holes?!
Last week I kind of positioned the holder on the side of the pan, cracked the egg & in the midst of throwing the shell down, I gently maneuvered the holder to the bottom of the pan. Anyway, the result, as I say was not too bad. the only problem was we only had a white loaf (albeit organic) in the freezer...
Today I tried to make Oeufs en Cocotte from Nigella Express. Basically you butter a ramekin & crack your egg into it. Sprinkle with salt & add a tablespoon of double cream. You then pop the ramekins in a dish & top up half way with water - pop in the oven for 15 minutes at 190 °c and you get this (sorry the photo does it no justice at all and it's blurry) -
Yes it was ok, too salty & next time I don't think it needs the cream. Nigella suggest 1/4 teaspoon of truffle oil on top before cooking but she does serve hers for a starter!! However with a few soldiers dipped in it went down with a nice cup of Yorkshire tea.

We may try it again without the cream - but I'm still in search of the perfect way of cooking an egg to achieve a really dippy yolk but cooked white.

However next week we may just have to have a bacon buttie after reading Wendy's post this morning!

Dinner to watch rugby by...

2007-10-21T14:22:00.001+01:00

One of my brothers is quite superstitious when it comes to watching sport and the Rugby World Cup was no different. I mean, this time around once he'd watched England win he had to do the same thing the next time they were playing - just for good luck. Whilst his luck ran out last night, I hope it wasn't because of my cooking.

This years rituals included eating dinner at our parents house, drinking wine from the home of the opposition and sitting in the same seat. My parents were away this weekend but that didn't stop us all piling round there for food & drink before sitting down to enjoy the match.

I had offered to cook - but then I realised it would be for 6 people, including my brothers who prefer their meat. I don't eat much meat & really cant bear the smell of red meat cooking so I opted for a cheeky Cornbread Topped Vegetarian Chilli served with homemade Guacamole, Sour Cream & Grated Cheese.

The recipe I took from Nigella's book Feast.
Serves 10 (0r 6 hungry peeps + leftovers for freezing)
Chilli
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 red peppers, finely chopped
2 teaspoons dried chilli flakes
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 cardamon pods, crushed
300g red lentils
2 x 400g chopped tomatoes
750ml water
2 x 400g kidney beans
4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
4 tablespoons tomato puree
1 tablespoon cocoa

1. In a VERY large pan - heat oil & fry onion, garlic and pepper until soft
2. Throw in the spices - chilli, coriander, cumin and cardamon pods. Stir
3. Add lentils. Stir
4. Next, add the other ingredients - water, tomatoes, kidney beans, ketchup, tomato puree & cocoa.
5. Bring this mixture to the boil and simmer (with lid on) for 45 minutes - though check & stir regularly.
6. At this point you can proceed to cook or pop it in the fridge until your ready for the next stage (or cool it down and freeze it). It was at this point I packed everything up & took it to my parents house to finish.

Cornbread Topping
3/4 teaspoon salt
325g Cornmeal (I used ground corn as this was the nearest we could find - in Sainsburys)
3 tablespoons plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
375ml buttermilk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
75g cheese

7. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl - salt, cornmeal, plain flour, baking powder & cinnamon
8. In a jug, whisk the wet ingredients - milk, oil, eggs & honey
9. Throw the liquid into the dry mixture & whisk to a batter NB. mine was more like a thick dough, maybe caused by measuring problems, but it worked.
10. Put you chilli mixture in a large dish (Nigella suggests 23cm x 32cm with a 7.5cm height)
11. Pour (or scoop) the batter on top of the chilli
12. Top with grated cheese.

Cook for 25 minutes at 220°c

Serve with guacamole, grated cheese & sour cream.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo in the rush to get warm food on the table. I do have a photo of the left overs though!
For pudding a quickly made some Passion Fruit Creme Brulee's - a recipe from Delias website which can be found by clicking here.

The before cooking stage:
And the readyto eat stage:

Unfortunately England played well but couldn't manage a win against those pesky Sarf Africans - nevermind. Maybe in another 4 years ;)

Magi-mixing

2007-10-14T20:07:00.000+01:00

I am loving my magimix -its letting me make and try new things and it speeds up others. For example:

New things
I quite like fish, but don't eat much of it - with the reason mostly being that Mr C doesn't really like fishy fish. He enjoys the Tuna Burgers I make but has never really enjoyed any of the salmon dishes I have tried.

Today, however, with the help of a fish booklet that fell out of Delicious Magazine we may now have a salmon dish to add to our menu. The salmon fillet is coated in a Chermoula which was very tasty and served with a light accompaniment of couscous...

For 2
2 salmon fillets

Chermoula
1 small garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
just less than 1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp chopped red chili
Pinch saffron strands
1/2 tbspn lemon juice
small handful coriander & same of mint
1 tbspn olive oil
small pinch salt

Couscous
1 red pepper
175ml chicken stock
140g couscous
1 tbspn extra-virgin olive oil
1 knob of butter
1/2 lemon juice
1 tbspn chopped mint

Pre-heat oven to 200°c (fan)
Roast pepper for 30 mins & the pop in bag to cool - once cool remove skin seeds - chop finely
Once pepper is cooked tun oven up to 210°
Make the chermoula - put all chermoula ingredients into magimix & blend
Line baking tray with baking paper.
Season skin side of salmon with salt & pepper then spread with some chermoula.
Turn fillet over, season again and add chermoula.
Cover the baking tray with tin foil - seal tightly
Pop salmon in over & set timer for 12 minutes
As soon a s salmon goes in the oven, make sure the stock is in a pan & boiling. Take it off the heat, add the couscous & cover (keeping it off the heat).
After 5 mins, fluff up the couscous, add butter & olive oil and mix well - popping back on heat briefly to ensure its warm through.
Take off heat again and add lemon juice, roasted pepper, chopped mint and season well.
Serve couscous and salmon for a very tasty meal...

Speedy things
I've used the magimix to make cakes twice. The first time we weren't impressed by it but yesterday, due to time constraints, I used it to make some cupcakes and they worked much better. I did take a photo but the camera isn't brilliant so you'll have to wait until next time ;)

Its Mr C's birthday on Tuesday though so I will be baking again but I think I'll stick to my Dualit hand mixer for that!

Today I made some more bread & the magimix comes with a dough hook so I thought it silly not to give it a go. The outcome was a tasty fresh loaf and hardly any mess. All the ingredients are thrown in the magimix, it forms a dough ball and then you leave it in situ for half an hour. After this time you need to pulse the magimix 3 or 4 times and effectively, knock the dough back. The mixture then gets transferred to a big bowl and left to rise for 2 hours in the airing cupboard.

After two hours the dough is tipped out, gently moulded into a rectangle and placed in a loaf tin. I left it settle and rise again for 10 minutes whilst the oven heated up to 200°c. It cooked for about 35 minutes and produced a really nice loaf...

Soupalicious

2007-10-08T21:12:00.000+01:00

The nights are drawing in and soup is most definitely the order of the day. This years soup making started up in Scotland when I made a hearty pan of Yellow Split Pea Soup - it was thick and filling and extremely tasty.

I think one of the best things about soup is that simple ingredients produce flavours that normally exceed your expectations. For example tonight I made Butternut Squash & Rosemary soup:

Serves 4

1 Butternut Squash
Few sprigs Rosemary
150g well rinsed red lentils
1 onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 Pint Vegetable Stock
salt & pepper

Set oven to 200 °c
Halve squash - scoop out the seeds & fibrous flesh, then cut squash into large chunks
Put squash pieces on baking tray, season with salt & pepper and sprinkle with rosemary
Cook for 45 minutes

Whilst the squash is in the oven -
Rinse lentils well then put in a pan & cover with water - boil rapidly for 10 mins. Drain well
Wash out pan & then put lentils back in with the chopped onion and vegetable stock
Simmer for 5 minutes

When squash is cooked, carefully scoop out the flesh & mash with a fork.
Add squash to soup & simmer for 25 minutes

Serve with crusty bread.
We both had a hearty bowlful for tea and now there should be enough left to take to work for lunch.

Since we have been back from Scotland I've made soup at least four times & I've made enough to take for a lunch. We bought some cheap flasks from Tesco & so far they work very well. I may even invest in something a little more substantial as 'real soup' makes such a difference to a 'cup-a-soup' which is what I have resorted to in the past.

I'll post some more recipes soon, but so far we have tried & thoroughly enjoyed the Yellow Split Pea soup and Fennel & Lemon soup.

I also have quite a few parsnips in the cupboard which I need to use up, so if you have any good parsnip soup ideas let me know!

Saturday Evening Feast

2007-10-01T21:48:00.000+01:00

As part of the 'bags weekly challenge I decided to cook scallops this weekend. Now this is something I've been wanting to try for ages and ages but Mr C is not a fishy man at all but I persuaded him with a starter sized portion and combining it Nigella style with Chorizo. Very quick & simple - I enjoyed it & would love to try scallops again.
For mains I cooked something that was on my To Do list - Spicy Chicken with Aubergine and Naans:

Ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
1/2 lime, juice only
salt and pepper
2 chicken breasts, boned, skinned, halved horizontally and flattened slightly
1 small aubergine, sliced horizontally into eight
Natural low fat yoghurt (we used a small pot)
1in piece cucumber, diced
1/2 tsp mint, chopped
4 mini naan breads (or 2 normal sized)
fresh coriander
lime wedges to garnish

Method
1. To make the marinade, combine the oil, cumin, ground coriander, ginger, chopped coriander, lime juice, salt and pepper.
2. Pour the marinade over the chicken and chill for 15 minutes (though I left for about an hour)
3. Brush the aubergine with oil, season and grill on both sides until golden.
4. Grill the chicken for about 12 minutes until golden. Slice into pieces.
5. Make the dressing by mixing the yoghurt, cucumber, mint and seasoning.
6. Warm the naan and layer the aubergine, chicken pieces and yoghurt dressing on top.
7. Garnish with coriander and lime wedges (if you remember before you eat!!)

It really was very tasty and something we'll have again.

Eating Out in the Highlands

2007-09-30T11:00:00.000+01:00

As I have already mentioned we had a fab time when we went oop North. We stayed in a beautiful cottage at Tormore Distillery - whilst we were there we went on the look for dolphins, but the blighters didn't keep to their appointments - twice we sat in the cold wind and for nothing. We also:

had a lovely walk through the Glenlivet Estate
saw snow on the top of Cairngorm (it was -4° one night)
Mr C played golf at Craggan and I was official photographer/videographer and scorekeeper
went on a horse trek through a forest
Mr C watched Elgin City beat East Stirling 6-0
visted two distilleries and one organic brewery
ate out lots

The first night we stayed over in Perth & went into town to eat - Mr C gave me a Pizza Express club membership so we headed off there. We both had dough balls to start and then I had my usual Fiorentina pizza & Mr C had a Pollo ad Astra.

The next morning we headed North up the A9 - and after a detour to the small distillery of Glenturret (whose whisky is part of the Famous Grouse blend & is now branded as the Famous Grouse Experience). After a tour of the distillery we stopped for lunch in what appeared, I thought, to be a dull little restaurant - however we both had soup and a doorstopper slice of fresh bread and it was very tasty indeed.

Our next dining delight was the following day at Glenfiddich (anyone spotting a trend here?!). We ended up here earlier than expected during our week away as the weather was quite dull and it seemed to make sense. Last year we had enjoyed two fabulous baked potatoes here and we had both been looking forward to going back. So after another distillery tour (well, it is free & you get a dram) we stopped for lunch in the beautiful restaurant. We both repeat ordered our jackets - mine with smoked salmon and cream cheese, Mr C had Orkney cheese & ham. All I can say is they were delicious (picture to follow).

Tuesday was spent dolphin watching and as you already know they didn't show. So after spending a few hours wrapped up like a pass-the-parcel we gave up, went 'home' & I made some delicious Yellow Split Pea soup.
(The day light was quite bright, so the sunglasses aided my water watching as I didn't have to squint!)

The next day we had a lovely walk through the Glenlivet Estate. It was probably about 2.30pm when we'd finished the walk in the car park of Glenlivet distillery however after popping in to look at their lunch menu we decided to hop in the car back to Glenfiddich! This time we both had a sandwich - they make delicious food there so if you get a chance do go in and have a look.

In the evening we went to the Mash Tun in Aberlour. The food was nothing less than fantastic & considering the leaflet we had which classed the establishment as having boutique hotel accommodation we were surprised to find the meals were inexpensive. I enjoyed deep fried brie with an onion chutney and Mr C experimented with Haggis, Neeps and Tatties with a whisky sauce. His plate was clean in minutes - I think he really enjoyed it! For mains I chose the only veggie option which was Savoury Bread & Butter pudding with feta and roasted vegetables. I don't think I would have instinctively chosen this but it was excellent - the portion sized beat me though and I had to leave some. Mr C opted for his all time favourite - a trio sausages (1 haggis, 1 wild boar & leek and 1 venison) served with mash and gravy. Doubtless to say there was another clean plate!

We tried to burn off some of the calories the next day walking around the golf course at Craggan - it was very, very windy but most enjoyable. I mean how can you not enjoy it with scenery like this...
On Friday we went for a horse trek through a forest at Loch Alvie. Lucy, my horse may have been the slowest in Scotland but was very adorable. Mr C rode Murphy...
On Friday evening we took my mum & dad up to the sunset dining experience at Cairngorm which is 3600 feet above sea level - the highest in the UK. After arriving at the base, a funicular takes you up to the summit. Unfortunately it wasn't the clearest evening for the sunset but the views were still fantastic - if you ever go I'd recommend taking a nice warm jumper or coat as its very windy at the top!
Its not the cheapest meal in the world but with the views and experience we would definitely do it again. I started with Mussels and Smoked Haddock with Orkney Cheese sauce and Mr C had Breast of Pheasant with pink peppercorn mousse , red onion marmalade and watercress salad. Mine was delicious but I did have a quick taste of the pheasant & it was divine - something we've never tried before but something I'd definitely have again.
For mains I had the veggie option - Spiced aubergine and lentil parcels with vegetable couscous. Mr C chose the Fillet of Aberdeen Angus beef with rosti potato, asparagus and Ptarmigan whisky sauce.
For dessert we both enjoyed the Hot chocolate fondant with home made vanilla ice cream.
The next day was our last full day in the Highlands so the boys went to watch Elgin City and then we ended the holiday in true Anderson family fashion - with some of the best fish & chips ever and as we were in Scotland we had to have a white pudding too. We sat by the banks of the Spey to devour it and it was the perfect end to a perfect break.

Penne Alla Vodka

2007-09-26T22:05:00.000+01:00

Courtesy of Nigella's book, Feast...

To serve 5 (or 2 hungry mains & 2 lunches):
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon garlic oil (or normal oil + 1 smushed up garlic piece to remove before eating)
1 x 410g chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon of double cream
500g penne pasta
65ml vodka
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Parmesan for serving

Heat oil & gently cook onion until soft (with a good sprinkling of salt) - about 15 mins
Tip in the tomatoes & simmer for 15-20 minutes nb. 10 mins before your ready put your pasta on.
Take sauce off heat & stir in cream.
Drain pasta & put back in pan with butter & vodka
Mix pasta in with sauce and serve with parmesan and some black pepper

Its so simple but deliciously moreish. Nigella says she thinks the pasta is especially good cold - I don't agree, its much better warm but by making this much we have plenty for an easy lunch the next day and with a nice side salad it fills me up for the afternoon.

Scotland: Foodie presents

2007-09-26T21:15:00.000+01:00

We managed to bring back quite a few foodie treats from Scotland, mostly with thanks to the Spey Larder in Aberlour. Here is a quick list:

Spey Larder Deli -
Eggs from a local farm in Elgin
4 Butteries (the nicest we had!)
1 real Haggis
2 x bags of polenta
1 x quinoa (let me know if you have any ideas for this please!!)
Celery salt
Bay Leaves
Organic Sesame seeds
Blue Poppy Seeds
Ground Mace
Gardeners Spicy Tomato Chutney

And from other places -
Isle of Arran Cheese
Real Tomato Sauce
2 Veggie Haggis
2 Mealy Jimmies (white puddings)
Walkers Shortbread
Black Isle Brewery beer
6 Posh Chocolates
1 Granery Loaf from the Water Mill at Blair Atholl
1 bag of bread flour from the Water Mill at Blair Atholl

I think that's about it... some bits I bought for cooking whilst up there, others I just fancied picking up for a change. I'm looking forward to making some nice soups & home-made bread rolls - hence the sesame seeds & poppy seeds. I did take a picture of my haul but due to us having broken one camera the photo is quite poor in quality...

We are still catching our breath...

2007-09-24T20:30:00.000+01:00

Last night we got back from a fabulous week (well, just over a week) in Scotland. The holiday was refreshing and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We even managed to fit in quite a few culinary delights which I will blog about very soon. But for now (well Nigella has just started!) here is one of my favourite pictures from our break... how cute is he?

A very foodie Birthday

2007-09-09T14:29:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I turned 30.

However, as depressing as it seemed, it turned out to be a very good day. For starters it was a Saturday! and my day started at a 9am appointment at the hairdressers - as we were going out she finished it off in a flicky out - going out style. Hubby dropped me off at the hairdressers as he 'stuff' to do then picked me up & we went home for a nice cup of tea & some very tasty buttery croissants.

Whilst I'd been at the hairdressers he'd nipped about in the car to collect my birthday presents which he'd kept out of sight at his mum & dads. So I can home to a nice few surprises. The first two presents were Nigella books - Feast & the new one, Nigella Express - this is a really nice book with lots of pictures.

My third & main present was this...
The one I have is cream & it perfectly matches my Nigella bread bin & other paraphernalia so I was very excited and very happy as you can imagine.

My fourth present was a bottle of
The first (& only) time we drank this champagne was on our wedding night in Malmaison. Even at midnight we thoroughly enjoyed it so this was an extremely nice present and I cant wait to open it!

Apparently there is also fifth present that the postman is yet to deliver... I have no idea what it is!!

I also got an array of presents from friends and family- the highlights of which include two more bottles of champagne, a rather nice block with 5 knives (Anolon) and a knife sharpener, a pure pamper session, two bunches of beautiful flowers and some money & vouchers.

In the afternoon I had a nice relaxing bath & then we headed out to my mum & dads where we met up with my brothers, their girlfriends & my Gran and we headed out to Ego Restaurant in Heswall. We've been quite a few times as the food is always fresh and tasty. We weren't disappointed. Another restaurant we'd always recommend.

il forno

2007-09-02T11:02:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we went out with my friends for my birthday meal - a week in advance of the big day. As I'm going to be 30 I wanted to go somewhere nice but without spending a fortune.

Italian food is one of my favourites and Liverpool has quite a few Italian restaurants but I was yet to find one that was traditional but didn't have plastic red and green check table clothes. So a bit of googling later we came across a restaurant described as "One of the Top 10 authentic Italian restaurants according to The Times Knowledge magazine, Il Forno is a slice of Italy situated in the heart of Liverpool city centre". The reviews on onionring seemed quite good so I booked us a table.

The booking was made for 7.30pm as they were fully booked for later slots - 2 1/2 weeks in advance. I was surprised then when we ended up staying in the restaurant for 3 hours - not rushed once by the friendly staff.

The food was fantastic. We shared some focaccias to start and then I tucked into a Garganelli al salmone fresco e funghi - Garganelli with fresh salmon mushrooms and a dash of cream. The bowl was huge, the portions definitely on the generous side and it was beautiful. The pasta was perfectly cooked and the sauce coated the pasta just enough. At a cost of £7.50 for a main it was most definitely value for money.

For pudding, well it is my birthday!, I had ice cream with a dash of baileys poured over the top. My friend also ordered this & we took one mouthful and just looked at each other as the delicious ice cream melted in our mouths. It was fantastic.

Its just such a shame we forgot the camera so there are no pictures to tempt you all with.

Hubby & I will definitely be going back & I just hope its sometime soon as there was such a good choice on the menu it really was difficult to choose.

And not one tacky table cloth in sight. The restaurant was modern, bright and really vibrant. A real breath of fresh air indeed.

So if you are ever in Liverpool in search of a good meal I'd most definitely suggest il forno

Happy 800th Birthday Liverpool

2007-08-28T23:09:00.000+01:00

My, did they celebrate tonight. 20 minutes of fireworks set to music. Fantastic.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Liverpool
Happy Birthday to you!

And blogger now does videos!!...

For some more (& better) pictures you may want to have a look at Hubbys blog.

Pick-me-up Lunch

2007-08-28T13:44:00.000+01:00

I've been full of a horrible cold all bank holiday weekend & I'm feeling no better (if not a bit worse) today. I've had to call in sick to work as I am not up for anything except dozing in bed & watching bad daytime TV.

So to make myself feel a little bit better I made my myself a traditional lunch for such occasions! Chicken sandwiches with Heinz Cream of Mushroom soup.
We have a birthday to attend later tonight - luckily I have to move nowhere as Liverpool is celebrating its 800th Birthday with a firework display right opposite our settee. How very kind of them, I dont even have to get dressed properly! With any luck some we may get some good pictures.

Homemade Guacamole

2007-08-26T20:10:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we picked up some tuna steaks for dinner and whilst we were in the supermarket we picked up some chillies, lime, lemons and avocado.

So I marinated the tuna in some chilli, lime juice & a dash of olive oil. And whilst that was sitting in the fridge I tried my hand at guacamole. Mr C has a strange relationship avocados as he doesn't like them, the taste or texture - unless its guacamole? Anyhow, I mashed down 1 1/2 avocado, added some chopped chilli & garlic, the juice of 1/2 a lemon and then seasoned with a little salt & pepper. After a few tastings & a few more drops of lemon juice I think it worked quite well. So after leaving it to infuse in the fridge I served it up with a tuna steak, a jacket potato and some salad.

We both enjoyed it and the Maris Piper potatoes were so soft and fluffy. Delicious with a slice of butter melted in.

Moist chocolate brownies

2007-08-20T19:03:00.000+01:00

Thanks has to go to the lovely Jules at Trainee Domestic Goddess for firstly, finding this chocolate guinnessness that Hubby adores and secondly for converting the recipe from US to good old English measures.

I made the brownies yesterday & apart from them needing some chunky texture next time, they came out just as I had hoped.

I also bought a brand new silicone baking tin - its very flexible and I was slightly worried that when I picked it up full of runny mixture it would invert & land on the kitchen floor - but I was careful with my handling & it did the job very well indeed.

Recipe - Care of Trainee Domestic Goddess - link as above

Makes 16

4 eggs
5oz caster sugar
12oz of various chocolate - dark & milk
2.5 oz unsalted butter
4 oz plain flour
2 tsp cocoa
290ml Guinness
icing sugar

1) Preheat oven to 190oc and line 8 inch square baking pan with baking parchment.

2) Combine eggs and sugar. On a medium heat melt chocolate and butter until smooth. Allow to cool for about 3 mins.

3) Beat chocolate mix into egg mix. Sift in flour and cocoa. Beat until well combined.

4) Whisk in Guinness, then pour into pan. Bake for 25 min until a skewer comes out just abour clean. It will continue to cook slightly after being taken out of oven.

5) Cool on rack, then dust in icing sugar and cut into 16 squares.

Creamy Chicken Pie

2007-08-18T22:46:00.001+01:00

I've been wanting to make a pie for so long now, but as I don't cook much meat I've kind of put it off and my new Nigella pie dish has been patiently waiting in the cupboard.

Well last night we where in Tesco & I picked up Olive magazine and some corn fed chicken breasts. And it just so happened Olive contained the kind of pie recipe I've been craving.

Recipe
Chicken breasts
8 shallots - 6 whole, 2 sliced
100g creme fraiche
2 1/2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar - I'd probably use a touch less next time
75 ml white wine
Small bunch chopped tarragon
1/2 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 1/2 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon olive oil
Ready rolled puff pastry

1. Heat oil in pan
2. Cut chicken into chunks & brown in heated oil
3. Once brown remove chicken & add all the shallots and cook for 8 minutes
4. Add vinegar & cook until reduced by half
5. Add chicken, wine, creme fraiche, tarragon & cornflour mixture - cook for 5 minutes
6. Add mixture to pie dish & cover with puff pastry (cut to just larger than the pie dish)
7. Cook for 25-30 minutes on 180°c
8. Let pie cool for 5 minutes before serving

Enjoy

I've been meme'd - here goes...

2007-08-17T19:10:00.000+01:00

Thanks Ginger!

Four places you’ve lived

On the Wirral since I was born but have managed two houses (with family) & flat with hubby. Hoping I'll move to a house with hubby soon (anyone looking to buy a nice flat?!)

Four places you’ve been on holiday

France
Italy - Sorrento - love, love, love it
Italy - Florence -verrrrry nice
Antigua - our honeymoon -relaxing with a few cocktails & watching the sunset. Bliss

Four favourite foods

Bread
Cheese
Pizza
Chocolate

Four places you’d rather be

Scotland - somewhere in the Highlands
On a beach with a martian martini cocktail
In Venice or Paris as I havent managed to get to either yet
On a boat

Not the most exciting answers! But hey ho.

I tag:

Escape Crate
Girl With The Golden Touch
Gastronomy Domine
Kitchen Delights

Cook Yourself Thin

2007-08-12T10:35:00.000+01:00

You may, or may not have seen this new programme starting last Wednesday on Ch4. I would review it as 4 pretty girls, with apparently average sizes doing a cooking show in the style of Gok Wan

The main premise of the programme is to how to lose weight sensibly by limiting calorie intake but by eating your usual foods rather than making yourself think you are on a diet of ryvita and cottage cheese (yuk!). So being your typical female I watched them cook low fat versions of a roast dinner, chocolate champagne truffles (yes, really!) and some other bits and bobs.

I am slightly dubious of the outcome - a lady who followed their plans for 6 weeks + some more exercise who lost 9lbs but also TWO dress sizes?

Anyhows, I've caught the bug after pigging out for the last few weeks & I've joined the online version for £9.50 a month - initially for one month only as I want to see what all the fuss is about.

So far, the websites not telling me too much that is new (i.e. cut back 500 cals a day to lose approx. 1lb a week) but it does allow you to diary your foods every day & it works out how many calories you have consumed. Their database has most foods in it so you don't need to keep & read every food wrapper and you can make your own recipes up & it will work out the calories for you. My fiorentina pizza is approx. 800 cals which for a large filling pizza isn't too bad when you compare it with a processed shop bought one.

I'm going to try & keep it up for the first month & see how I get on. I'll report back soon!!

Our trip to Nottingham

2007-08-05T17:21:00.001+01:00

This post is a bit late!

Was a lovely one. We went away for a few days this weekend for a bit of r&r.

Hotel - QHotels - We'd never heard of them until I came across what appeared to be a cracking deal on a website I simply fell upon - activehotels.com (I would recommend this website, it gave us a much better deal than expedia would have). Back to the hotel, it was fab, gorgeous, comfy, friendly. I haven't a bad word to say about them at all. Room was very spacious, very modern, bed was very comfy & the bed linen lovely & soft. The bathroom was also spacious - a bath with shower over and a stand alone shower. It gets a full 5 stars from me.

Nottingham - it was surprisingly large and very nice. We spent most of Saturday morning wandering around and came across a shop called Chocolate Utopia (they do mail orders!) where we sat in with a coffee and mocha and sampled some of their delightful chocolates. Mmmm. We came away with a milk chocolate bar & small dark chocolate bar for us and a dark chocolate bar for a gift. Including the chocolates & coffees I think we spent about £8 in there - much better value for money than Hotel Chocolat (which is where we were going to buy the gift) & just as delicious.

The first night we ate at the hotel which was tatsy. We had taken up a bottle of champagne as it was our official 'getting together' anniversary. Very nice.

On the second evening we went to the Hard Rock Cafe! Not our usual dining experience but we'd never been to one and finding myself with the chance to sample some of Joe Perrys Mango-Peach Tango hot sauce, how could I resist?

The grub was your usual American fare & being a fussy meat eater I nearly always choose the veggie options - I did however, have to have the Chicken Quesadilla to sample Joe Perrys sauce.
The dish consisted of chicken & pineapple (of which I'm not a big fan) - but I have to say I actually quite enjoyed it. For the main the only veggie option was a burger. It was huge, even by my mammoth portions and I never seen so much cheese!
Again it was tasty but I actually think I enjoyed the Quesadilla slightly better. Washed down with two glasses of wine I was a happy but very full bunny.

Mr C's Burger & Chips

Coming back home on the Sunday we took the scenic route via Bakewell & picked up some of their traditional puddings. Mmmmmm.

Here's some other pics from our weekend...

Robin Hood

The Ducks enjoying the warm sunshine in Bakewell

Our garden 3 floors up

2007-07-30T19:57:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I picked up some bamboo type fencing to make our balcony feel more garden like & give it some more privacy.

Mr C wasn't too impressed when I came home with it but after he put it up he was pleased with the results. I just need a bit more for the front panel just less high!

Todays View

2007-07-29T10:53:00.000+01:00

Every few months we get up, get dressed, have some breakfast & then open the blinds in the living room to find some large cruise ship moored up outside. Its quite a nice sight to see.
Todays fine cruise ship is the Maasdam from Holland and its quite a nice day for the visitors to be stopping over in Liverpool. The boats always moor up in the middle of the River Mersey & the passengers disembark using the ferry service.

2007-07-28T22:05:00.001+01:00

Afternoon Baking

2007-07-28T19:51:00.001+01:00

I've been fancying some scones for a few weeks now so when we where at the supermarket the other day we picked up some clotted cream & strawberry jam.

This afternoon I baked the scones. This is the second time I've made them with the Mary Berry recipe and both times I found I needed much more flour than it says (otherwise you end up with a soggy gooey mixture that you cannot knead nevermind roll out!).

Here is the recipe:

Sieve 250g self raising flour & 2 teaspoons of baking powder into a bowl
Add 60g butter - in small cubes
Mix with your hands into breadcrumb type mixture
Add 30g sugar
Put one egg into a jug & add milk upto 1/4 pint (beat lightly)
Add liquid to mix & stir into dough
I added a good handful of Sultanas here (not in original recipe)
Knead dough (you will probably need to add more flour at this point until mixture is more dough like)
Roll out to 1cm-1/2" thickness
Cut into scone size circles & put on a buttered baking tray - use excess milk to brush tops of scones
Cook at 220°c for approx 10 mins or until risen & golden brown

Cool on wire rack

Serve with cream & jam or just butter and a nice cup of tea. Enjoy.

Where has July gone?

2007-07-27T23:10:00.001+01:00

Is it just me, or has it flown by in a mist of rain?

Rant...

2007-07-24T20:22:00.001+01:00

Another good use of my blog - the art of ranting! I seriously, seriously feel like slamming my little head against an almighty brick wall.

If, in the future, you consider using Northern Rock for anything - please don't tell me I didn't warn you. They are a bunch of monkeys. Can I say that? Is that allowed? I mean I am allowed to express my view right? Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Ok. Deep Breath.

It seems that every single time I approach them to fix a problem (that is of their own making & one they cannot simply correct) I end up arguing with the monkey on the other end as they do not understand what I am saying. Even. if. i. spell. it. out. to. them?

My frustrations caused me to write in - I mean if you write to the complaints department you think they would (a) read the letter (b) look into it (c) offer to resolve problems & apologise.

Not at Northern Rock. They just read your letter & reply telling you the same thing as the other monkeys on the phone. Can you not read people?

My second complaint letter will be winging its way back to them tomorrow - just to state the obvious, it points out the four reasons why I am still unhappy with them and why I feel like they have not yet resolved my complaint.

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sorry. Normal blog service will resume when I find my sanity :)

Tasty Tasty Tuna Burgers

2007-07-15T09:18:00.000+01:00

You may remember that we made some salmon burgers a few weeks ago & whilst they were nice, we said we'd like to try them with Tuna instead. So on Friday this is what we had and we both agreed that the recipe works better with Tuna and you even get a more 'meaty' flavour too.

We started with some homemade Bruschetta - one shallot, a good handful of organic cherry tomatoes, a tiny amount of garlic & a few leaves of basil - all finely chopped and left in the fridge for a little while. Then served on a few slices of ciabatta and a drizzle of some grassy olive oil.
The burgers were made just the same way as the salmon burgers and this time I left them in the fridge for an hour or so before cooking them. I also coated them in a small amount of flour too & this gave them a good golden colour once cooked. Served on a ciabatta bun with lettuce, cucumber and lemon mayonnaise with a side serving of rustic chips and the obligatory glass of white wine. A perfect Friday night tea.
Mr C said he'd quite like a tomato salsa type accompaniment next time so maybe we'll have to try it again in a few weeks.

I didn't make anything for pudding but we accidentally picked up 2 slices of blueberry cheesecake which went down very well.

The Weather Lottery

2007-07-10T17:42:00.000+01:00

A bit more exciting than all this rain.

Mr C signed up in aid of Zoe's Place - it only costs £1 a week (25p per day x 4 days a week) - I think he's been playing for two or three weeks and already he's won 2 prizes. Now I wont be going on any holidays with a grand total of £4 but I think the odds are better than the normal lottery & you know where your % of charity money goes. Top prize is £10,000 too so whilst it may not be millions it's a nice sum to win if your so lucky.

If your interested have a look here

Cakes, Glorious Cakes

2007-07-10T17:31:00.000+01:00

Whilst things over here have been a bit busy & hectic recently I haven't had much to blog about.

For example, we went to the opening of the new Red Ape enclosure at Chester Zoo a couple of weekends ago. It was nice. But it rained and rained and erm, rained. And we stood around, stood around and then queued in the rain. Eventually we got in & saw one Orang-utan. Yes one. Then we walked some more in the rain to get some nibbles (ok, not fab) and then hopped on the monorail for free all the way back to the car.

We also helped out at the Zoe's Place summer fete. In the rain. Though I did bake some delicious cupcakes thanks to my new favourite recipe from Nigella. Though they all sold quite quickly so we didn't get a look in.

However, the rain seems to have brought the baking abilities out in Mr C. Would you believe it?
He was quite taken with the one cake he did manage to scoff (the one that fell on the floor, what is it with men?).

So we have now seen two batches of cakes courtesy of Mr C. The first ended up getting left at my mum & dads so he had to make a second batch!!
I cant wait to see what he bakes for my birthday cake ;)

Same old story, same old song and dance

2007-06-25T22:04:00.000+01:00

A proper post will follow shortly but here is the highlight of the weekend...
The weather was bad, I had my wellies on but it didn't stop me dancing & singing for an hour and a half...

"Its the same old story
Same old song and dance, my friend
Its the same old story
Same old song and dance, my friend"

The Wirrals answer to Shirley Heights

2007-06-17T11:52:00.000+01:00

Last night we went to see The Bees perform at an evening called Nautical at Fort Perch Rock in New Brighton. Its a brilliant venue and is, as the name would suggest, an old fort.
Going back to our honeymoon in Antigua earlier this year we went to Shirley Heights which happens every Sunday evening - its held at an old fort & is the best place to watch the sun set with steel drum bands, BBQ and a bar. It's the only way to spend a Sunday evening in Antigua.

Now back to New Brighton, I have never actually been inside the Fort Perch Rock before and much confusion we couldn't decided if the gig was an indoor or outside event. The answer is very much outside (& I am so glad it didn't rain!). The walls of the Fort contain an outside area which isn't the largest but quite a nice size really. The stage was set up at one end and there was a pub/bar located inside one of the walls.

The Bees came on & performed at about 10pm for just over an hour and I have to say it was one of the best gigs I have ever been too. The Bees are now on their third album and I am seriously surprised that they haven't hit the BIG, big time yet.

There was one bizarre and unexpected twist to the evening when David Gest turned up!?!?! I am still unsure as to why he was there but he did introduce The Bees onto the stage, said Hello to Liverpool (& got boo'ed until somebody corrected him he was on the Wirral!) & then proceeded to say The Bees are his favourite band. I am still very ?????????

Anyway, here are some pics for you (darn camera decided the battery needed recharging so we didn't get too many)

Tuna salad with tomato and onion salsa

2007-06-05T22:17:00.001+01:00

Whilst this was tasty I got round to thinking that tuna could possibly replace the salmon in the salmon burgers I made last week. Hmmm...

Another Place

2007-06-03T19:15:00.001+01:00

Today we decided to go out somewhere. Hubby suggested Crosby to see the Anthony Gormley statues so off we went - this is the second time we have been so I took my wellies as last time my trainers sank into the sand!

Anyway, the tide was pretty much in, so we took some pictures of the statues (well, what we could see of them) and had an ice cream (Hubby has an obsession with Mr Whippy) & then we headed North to Southport where we bought a saute pan which I can use for my mexican eggs & lentil bake as it has a lid!

Warm summer evening

2007-06-03T16:25:00.000+01:00

Well, it was quite warm here yesterday & we fancied something fresh & clean tasting for dinner, so that called for Nigella's Chicken with spring onion, chilli and greek yoghurt.

The recipe can be found in the Fast Food section of 'How To Eat' as it can be made quite quickly, though yesterday I marinated the chicken whilst we went out. I say marinade, it literally is the juice of a lemon & a tablespoon of olive oil!

The refreshing part of the dish is the yoghurt - take 1/2 bunch spring onion & 1/2 a green chilli finely chop. Take 1/2 cucumber & dice it up quite small. Then take a small handful of coriander & mint (courtesy of the tub on the balcony) and a clove of garlic. Use mezzaluna to chop these very finely. Mix all ingredients into 200g greek yoghurt.

When ready to eat, heat a table spoon of oil in the frying pan & add the chicken - cook for at least 5 minutes each side until cooked through. Just before serving throw over the left over marinade to make it shiny & a bit sticky.

Serve with a simple salad - or just a nice tomato salad, crusty bread & very cold white wine. Mmmm.

Roasted Vegetable Pizza

2007-06-02T09:52:00.000+01:00

So our dinner last night was a roasted vegetable pizza. The veg had been the last batch in the freezer & I was intending to do a pasta sauce but we decided a pizza would be more of a Friday night in type dinner.

Pizza is normally something I'd make at the weekend because it does take a while even though its not labour intensive. Mid-week it is a bit of a push but on a Friday night it works very well. For example, last night we got home about 6.45 so I got in & immediately popped the kettle on for a few seconds to take the chill off the water & then got it into the airing cupboard with some yeast & sugar for 15mins. In the time it took the yeast to react I weighed out my flour & a pinch of salt and got everything ready to go.

At 7pm the yeast went into the flour and after a bit of mixing and kneading the dough was back in the airing cupboard for an hour. In that hour I threw some onion, garlic and chopped tomatoes into a pan with a pinch of oregano and 2 small bay leaves and left it simmering down into a tasty thick sauce.

At 8pm I took the dough out, knocked it back, split into two and left it under the bowl for 20 mins. In that 20 mins I put the oven on to heat up to 200°c and prepared all the ingredients - drained the juice from the defrosted roasted vegetables, chopped up the mozzarella and got the olives to the ready!

8.20pm and the doughs are flattened and stretch into the bases and the ingredients piled on top.

Thrown in the oven for 16 minutes and hey presto dinner is served at 8.45pm. And I really dont want to buy a pre-made pizza ever again.

Puy lentil and roast tomato salad with chicken

2007-05-31T20:49:00.000+01:00

Tonight we had a quick tea of chicken with some very easy puy lentils and roast tomato salad.

Puy Lentil Salad
4/6 tomatoes halved (drizzle with oil)
100g puy lentils
1/2 lemon juice
1/2 garlic clove
1/2 small red onion, sliced
handful of coriander

Heat oven to 180°c & roast tomatoes (I put the chicken in for 15 mins first, then added the tomatoes for another 15/20 mins)

Cook puy lentils in a pan of cold water for 20 minutes then mix lentils with lemon juice, garlic, onion & 2 tablespoons of olive oil (*).

Serve & eat.

(*) not necessarily required as I forgot this!

Feta & Olive Tarts

2007-05-29T20:11:00.000+01:00

Based upon this Good Food recipe, tonight I made us some tarts.

Upon the puff pastry base I put some feta, little drops of pesto, a small amount of shallot, sliced tomatoes and a little more feta with a drizzle of olive oil.
Baked for 20 minutes on 200° then garnished with some olives & basil and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Tasty but the pesto did run so quite a lot of the taste was taken over by it.

Salmon burgers with basil and lemon mayonnaise

2007-05-28T19:59:00.000+01:00

From Something for the Weekend by Simon Rimmer (click link for recipe)

Even Hubby, who doesn't like fish, thought they were tasty...

Some bargins and a bank holiday brunch

2007-05-28T14:21:00.000+01:00

So this morning we popped over to Liverpool to buy some bin bags! and came home with a few bargains from Monsoon.

Numero uno - a rather nice corset (£65 reduced to £10)Numero dos - a new t-shirt for Hubby (£30 reduced to £5)

Numero tres - some brown cord trousers for Hubby (£75 reduced to £5)
So a spend of £20 and a saving of £150! and some nice catalogue posing on the balcony ;)

We then came home & made some Huevos rancheros for lunch which is basically an onion, some garlic, a red pepper (which we didn't have) and some chilli cooked down then a can of chopped tomatoes is added. After 5 minutes add 2 eggs, cover & cook until the eggs are done just like you want them. Served with some wholemeal pita it makes quite a healthy tasty meal.

Green Thai Curry with Greens

2007-05-27T20:36:00.000+01:00

A Simon Rimmer recipe from Delicious magazine (June 07) - for 4 people

The paste (though it needed more chillies)
1 tsp each cumin & coriander seeds
5 Thai chillies (I used normal green ones, but only 2 - next time use 5!)
2 shallots (roughly chopped)
2 garlic cloves (roughly chopped)
4cm ginger, grated
2 lemongrass stalks, chopped
Finely grated zest 1 lime
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp palm sugar (I used golden brown normal sugar as we couldn't find any)
splash vegetable oil

Dry fry the spices & then grind with pestle and mortar. Put in blender & add the other ingredients.
And the veg
400ml can coconut milk
3 courgettes, thickly sliced
250g shelled broad beans
250g asparagus
10 fresh basil leaves

Warm some oil in a pan & add 40g paste and cook for 2 minutes.
Add coconut milk & simmer for 5 minutes
Toss courgette in oil & griddle for 2 minutes each side
Add courgette to the curry & simmer for 6 minutes
Add the asparagus & broad beans and cook for 3-4 minutes
Stir in the basil

Our dinner...

Creamy Spinach Pasta

2007-05-24T19:12:00.001+01:00

1 onion
1 clove garlic
Soften in olive oil

Add a generous glug of vermouth or white wine

Add spinach (wilted) & a glug of single cream & parmesan.

Serve mixed into tagliatelle.

Not bad as a quick meal.

Candie

2007-05-21T21:08:00.000+01:00

But not the tooth rotting kind.

Today I bought Candie Payne's first album I wish I could have loved you more - sister of Sean Payne (drummer in The Zutons) and Howie Payne (ex-The Stands frontman and up coming solo artist). Very sixties-esque but very fab & quite addictive.

Bushed

2007-05-20T14:39:00.000+01:00

Thats what we are. Absolutely bushed.

From the piccy I very quickly posted last night (from the Radio 1 website) you probably know we spent most of yesterday in Preston at the Big Weekend.

We were out at 9am as parking was on a first come, first served basis so via a petrol stop, a little breakfast break & a slight de-tour we got to Preston at about 11am. We parked in the college car park and took the park & ride service to Moor Park. We stood in the queue for about half an hour before gates were opened & we got in. The first band we saw were the Pigeon Detectives in the In New Music We Trust tent - they were very good, energetic & I would pay to go & see them again should they play near home sometime.

We then wandered around & waited to see The Fratellis who, as usual, played a great set. My only complaints at this stage in the day were that 1 - I have not been in such a 'smoky' atmosphere for years, everyone seemed to be blowing smoke our way, eugh. And, 2 - some people are soooooooo darn cheeky. We waited for 30+ mins in situ to see The Fratellis & we were by no means close to the stage yet for the full set people were forcing their way past, knocking me off my feet to get forward into the crowd that was jam packed full. Grrrrrr.

Anyway, annoyances aside, we went on to watch some of The Gossip, Hubby likes them but I have to say I am not that keen. A bit of LCD Soundsystem, again Hubby likes them but I dont see the fuss really. I mean they are not offensive, maybe its just not quite me.

We caught half of the Kasabian set which was enjoyable. Not a band I have listened to much but the songs were ones you just kind of know. We heard some of Razorlight too but am not really a fan of them either!

We decided to leave before the Scissor Sisters as they were playing the main tent and we would not have seen them and we weren't prepared to be squashed alive again so we headed off home.

After getting back at about half nine we got a call for duty at the Zoes Place midnight walk - we had offered to be reserve stewards, so at 11pm we headed back out to Liverpool to marshall the near 400 walkers. I think we got home & went straight to bed at 4am.

So, yes. We are absolutely bushed.

Radio 1 Big Weekend

2007-05-19T22:39:00.001+01:00

A big shop

2007-05-13T16:58:00.000+01:00

We've been to Tesco today for our weekly shop - the first we have done for a while as we have been living on the contents of the cupboards & freezer with the odd shop here & there. This means that last week I only made a few proper dinners - a feta salad cous cous & another fiorentina pizza.
This week I intend on cooking every night and I am determined to take part in my first 'bag weekly challenge - this weeks ingredient is asparagus. Especially since we got 2 bundles of asparagus in Tesco for 10p each.

Here is our vegetable haul for the week:
Most of that veg is now cooking in the oven as batch cooking commences with a large batch of ratatouille (2 peppers, 1 red onion, 2 courgettes, aubergine, tomatoes & one bunch of asparagus).
Tonight I will make a chilli as Hubbys sister is coming over for tea.

Monday we will probably have round one of the ratatouille with some cous cous.

Tuesday will be a lentil bake (must remember to wash the lentils).

Wednesday I aim to make a quiche with the other bunch of asparagus.

Thursday I will use some more ratatouille to make a pasta bake with some mozzarella & olives

Friday we will probably have the left over chilli.

On Saturday we will probably eat out as Hubby won us two tickets to the Radio One Big Weekend next Saturday in Preston - hmmmm I could make us a picnic.... will have to get my thinking cap on there!!

Anyway, I will try & report back mid week with some pics seeing as I have been a bit absent recently.

The National Day of Meh-e-co

2007-05-06T09:40:00.000+01:00

Apologises for my bad accent there! But yes, apparently yesterday was the National day of Mexico (thanks for the tip Toast!). However we were a bit short of time & preparation yesterday as we had to have a big clean for friends of my mum & dad popping around for the first time since we moved in two years ago and I went for a big chop, my locks are now short, a bit layered and more versatile.

So the poor excuses over, for tea we had some tortilla chips served with a layer of bean salsa, a layer of tomato salsa and cheese - served with spring onion as the chilli I *thought* we had was not as edible as it once was. Served with sour cream, guacamole & refried beans.
For the main course we had fajitas - the filling was quorn mince, peppers and red onion, chopped tomatoes and a mexican seasoning. Again, served with sour cream, guacamole & refried beans.
We forgot the Corona too but made up for it with a very nicely chilled white wine.

I love pizza

2007-05-05T10:28:00.000+01:00

Our favourite pizza restaurant has to be Pizza Express & we own two copies of the Pizza Express cookbook. One Christmas I bought my Hubby one & yes, snap! that very same Christmas he bought me one.

I've used it quite often for its dough recipe & more often than not make my favourite Pizza Express pizza - the Fiorentina.

The dough is soooooo simple & reasonably quick to make so long as you have about an hour & a half to leave it to rise. I enjoy the bouncy texture of it:
To make the Fiorentina, the base is covered in the basic tomato sauce (1 onion chopped finely & softened in a pan with some garlic, throw in some tomato puree, then 400g chopped tomatoes and a pinch or two of oregano + seasoning - leave to simmer & reduce). On top of the tomato sauce you need to add some spinach, cubed mozzarella & some finely chopped garlic.
Throw it in the oven - ours takes about 16/18 minutes at 220° - 10 minutes before its ready add an egg... and hey presto one very tasty & satisfying Friday night in.
Serve with some black pepper & grated Parmesan and a large glass of white wine. Bellissimo!

Green Fingers

2007-04-29T20:33:00.000+01:00

Me? No. Definitely not.

But I have been to the garden centre today & I came home with a big tub, some herbs (how could I resist the 5 for £6 offer?!) & some soil. I had no idea really what I was doing, if I can grow them all in the same pot or if I even bought the right soil but I thought I'd give it a go.

Here they are, sitting on the newly cleaned & tidy balcony...
I thought if I blogged about them I might just remember to water them. Maybe, or going by my track record, maybe not. Lets see!

Weekends, a great time for cooking

2007-04-29T19:32:00.000+01:00

On Friday I made another batch of chili which was yummy.

On Saturday, I made nothing, not a sausage, ziltch. In the evening we went out for a drink & ended up going for an Indian. Not much to write home about I have to say.

Today we are having the rest of the chili. So a weekend well spent. Hmmmm.

We did however have a nice morning out in Liverpool, wandering around the waterfront to see what all the developments look like from t'other side of the river. I think its going to be really nice when its finished & I am quite looking forward to it. Work has started on the canal, joining the Mersey from in front of the Liver Building up to the Albert Docks, the new stadium is nearly finished (well, from the outside) & it is starting to look like it is coming together. There is still a lot of building work going on though, cranes everywhere, but I have faith it will be done in time for 2008 & will be great.

Here is a flavour of what we saw...
Can you (just about) make out the cone at the bottom of the dock? As usual the fun lovin' scousers have been up to their tricks, but blimey how clean is the water?!

The beginnings of the canal

Oh and how could I forget, whilst we were wandering we saw a chap sprinting towards us in his red shorts (no top), just as he got past us he headed down to a dock, stripped of his red shorts & dive into the cold water - eek. Yes I had to look away as he stripped, it wasn't a pretty sight but how I could I not post this pic... (if you click on the pic to enlarge it, you might just be able to see the desirable swimwear...)

Wednesday night cook in

2007-04-26T20:15:00.000+01:00

Wednesday nights are great at the moment. First at 8pm we have Neneh & Andi which is an absolutely great non-chef foodie programme.

Followed by some Sweet Baby James - whilst I think the title is quite poor, I do have a small thing for James so I have to watch...

Followed up by The Apprentice, not as good as past years in my humble opinion but I do watch (normally whilst on the 'bag).

And at 10pm we have the finale, Desperate Housewives, I just love this programme & there's not many on telly that gets me cheering & laughing quite so much (Susan & Mike have to get back together!).

A bottle of wine always goes down on a Wednesday too - ahem.

Anyway, back to the food. I went a bit mad last night & made:

Bruschetta (toasted ciabatta for ease, & mixed up some tomatoes, garlic & red onion with a small amount of olive oil, serve with a dash of balsamic vinegar)
Asparagus & Lemon Risotto (yum) care of Nigel Slater
Chocolate Chip Muffins thanks to Nigella's recipe here
I also heated through some ciabatta & onion bhajis for lunch today (based on a Philpotts favourite of ours - ciabatta, hoummous, onion bhaji & spicy mango chutney)

Here are a few pics of the risotto & muffins
The muffins are quite nice but not as sweet as we expected so may try another recipe next time.

And here are some tulips Hubby bought on Tuesday after a small reminder that it was our two-monthiversay.

Spicy Lentil Bake

2007-04-23T22:30:00.000+01:00

This recipe was on Something For The Weekend the weekend before last & you may have noticed I've been meaning to make it for about a week now.

In the pan we have some colourful carrot, onion, celery & pepper...
Throw in some lentils, stock & a few more bits & bob and after 20 mins add an egg or two...

Served with pita bread (as we didn't have naans) & some yoghurt with cucumber.

It turned out ok, I'd like to try it again but remember to wash & drain the lentils & maybe cook them until they are a bit softer...

Chester Zoo

2007-04-21T18:00:00.000+01:00

Its my sister-in-laws (that sounds weird, am still not used to my new surname nevermind new family members!) - yes its her 24th birthday tomorrow & for ages she has been wanting to go back to the zoo. So today the three of us went for a nice day out. And I had a fab time.

I commandeered the new camera & I think hubby was a bit miffed but we have some nice pictures of most of the animals we saw. We are both extremely tired now. Anyway, here are a few to brighten up my blog.

The last week

2007-04-21T17:43:00.000+01:00

So I had the weeks food all planned out & as usual I start to change my mind thinking 'I cant be bothered making that tonight' or 'I don''t really fancy this today' Wah!

So I made the chilli & it was a success & I did enjoy batch number two.

The lentil bake, well thats still in the fridge - I am aiming to make that for tea tomorrow.

Linda Mc Cartney - pies & chips - were ok, sausages & chips - surprisingly very sausage-like but very salty.

On Thursday I was feeling lazy again but mustered up an asparagus risotto & it was quick & easy to make. It was tasty but could have had a small touch of lemon in just to lift it.

On Friday we went to a sportsmans dinner at Goodison. Hubby supports Liverpool so whilst being in the Everton ground may have been a bit painful for him I did catch him eating the EFC chocolates - and he didn't choke either.
I opted for the veggie option as I am not keen on meat, especially when we eat out. It was all very tasty - tomato & basil soup, asparagus, goats cheese & red onion tart with some verrrry nice balsamic with veg & then a lemon tart served with mascapone. The tart had just the right amount of lemon tang but wasn't half as nice as the brulee tart I made a week or two ago.

A weeks menu

2007-04-16T19:20:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we did our weekly shop & for the first time in a while, nothing on the menu is copied from the previous week/s (which happens quite frequently). This week we have a vegetable chilli (serves 4, so thats two sittings), a spicy lentil bake, gridled chicken salad & some Linda McCartney mince pies & sausages & chips! We haven't bought chips for well over a year either.

Last night I made the chilli & I am not a big fan of the stuff but Hubby quite likes it so this was really for him.

From Delicious magazine (May 07)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
300g frozen quorn (Tescos didn't have any so I used a 350g box from the refrigerator section but its £1 more expensive!!)
2 peppers, chopped fairly small
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons of lightly crush cumin seeds
320g jar of tomato & chilli pasta sauce
1 tine of kidney beans

1. Heat oil & cook peppers for 5 minutes
2. Add garlic & cumin seeds & quorn - cook for for 3/4mins
3. Add kidney beans & sauce + a further 160g water - simmer for 20 mins
4. Serve with rice

We also had the suggested sour cream & guacamole.
It was very easy & the cumin really made it for me. For once, I am looking forward to the second serving of this which is sitting in the fridge.

All Batched Out

2007-04-12T20:15:00.000+01:00

Tonight we used the last batch of my roasted vegetables.

I defrosted the veg during the day & at tea time I slowly reheated it in a pan with a small amount of olive oil. Once warmed through I threw about 200ml couscous in, followed by 200ml of marigold vegetable stock & some black pepper. I left it to soak up & then threw some butter in.

I dished it out & left it to cool slightly before serving with yoghurt & coriander. We had a side serving of garlic bread as we would have only gone to waste (any excuse, believe me!). Anyways, this is how it looked:

Verdict: Very tasty & very quick.

Earlier in the week we used up the second batch of vegetables by heating them through with a tin of chopped tomatoes & hey-presto we had a roasted vegetable sauce & pasta.

Easter Monday

2007-04-10T20:02:00.000+01:00

We tried to make the most of our last day off work & headed out to Pistyll Rhaeadr - a waterfall near Oswestry. The waterfall is actually higher than Niagara Falls & is quite pretty.

On the way back home we stopped off at the Cheshire Cat in Christleton for a late pub lunch - I had some garlic mushrooms & then an open sandwich of salmon, prawn, creme fraiche & spring onion. It was quite tasty.

After heading back home I heated up the last of the watercress soup for tea - followed by some chocolate of course!

Oh, and here are some of my Easter tulips...

A lot of hot air

2007-04-07T23:20:00.000+01:00

Today was the day where we volunteered to help blow up 1500 balloons for the great balloon race at Zoes Place. I think we did our fair share & managed around 700 - it only took us three hours!!

After 30 mins...
After 3 hours...
And finally they were set free...

I had also invited my mum & dad around for dinner so this morning, before we left for the balloon race, I made a passion fruit & lemon brulee tart. Now I haven't made pastry since I was a child, nor have I ever attempted a brulee. The pastry was supposed to be made using a food processor - which we don't have. I was tempted to use the hand mixer with the dough hooks but then decided my hands were just as good! The pastry was surprisingly easy to make into a dough & roll out. My difficulty came in transferring the dough into the dish. The first attempt collapsed dreadfully so I re-kneaded & rolled out again. The second time I managed to get most of the base in, in one piece & some of the sides so I decided to patchwork the rest together.

After baking blind & egg-whiting it the case looked ok...

I then prepared the creme brulee centre & the passion fruit smelled so delicious, I couldn't wait to try some.

It went in the oven at 100° for 45 mins. The recipe said it should be set but still a little wobbly in the centre. I pulled the shelf out & a tidal wave of filling nearly escaped the pastry case. Set my @*se! As we had the balloons to get to I gave it another 10 mins & then had to leave. It was still very much liquid & I was quite annoyed after spending all morning working on it. I left it in the oven, with the door slightly ajar (after my steaming escapade earlier in the week).

After stopping at Sainsbury's and buying a vanilla NY cheesecake on the way back, we got home to find one set filling... Surprise!

After eating our main course of lemon marinated chicken with greek yoghurt accompaniment (with spring onion, cucumber, chilli, garlic, coriander & mint) I got round to sprinkling it with icing sugar & starting up my new chefs blowtorch...

It was delicious, tangy & sweet, crunchy but gooey. Very very nice, I have to say!

Update!

2007-04-06T22:16:00.000+01:00

Friday 6th April
Ah, a bank holiday means a day off work :) So hubby did some DIY & I did some baking for the open day at Zoes tomorrow - I made some traditional crispy cakes/nests, a malteser tray bake & a rocky road - the latter two being essentially the same recipe -

Some rocky road (this one included a few cherries, marshmallows, left over maltesers & sultanas - oh, & a few mini eggs for good measure!!) *recipe below:

And after a baking morning I put together a ratatouille bake (from Delicious magazine) for tea, so that's batch one of my Tuesday cook-down used! Served with garlic bread & some nice Italian prosecco...

This was very tasty but the olives we had put in it were the worst we have ever had so we picked them all out!

And whilst I was cooking, Anthony managed to finally put the wallpaper up that we bought some 6 months ago!

On Wednesday I put together a greek salad for tea.

We haven't had one in ages & its the kind of thing you can eat too often. But once in a while & its really fresh and tasty - especially with some nice crusty bread & butter.

Salad: Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, green olives, feta (was in oil so this was drizzled) & balsamic vinegar.

Rocky Road Recipe:
100g butter
200g dark chocolate
3 tbsp golden syrup
225g digestive biscuits (finely crush half of them and lightly crush the other half)
Anything else you want to chuck in (I threw in some sultanas, cherries, marshmallows, left over maltesers - but they were difficult to cut through & mini-egg - cos it was Easter!!)

All you need to do is melt together the butter, chocolate and syrup in a pan then add all the biscuits and anything else you want to throw in. Mix together quickly then pour into a swiss roll tin that has been lined with cling film then chill till set (though I used a loaf tin)

Batch Cooking

2007-04-04T19:26:00.000+01:00

This is something I've tried to do occasionally over the last few months but I either

never get around to the mass cooking
forget to freeze the stuff in time, or,
i forget it is in the freezer , or how long its been there & throw it out!

From now on in I am going to make more of an effort & I started yesterday with a large batch of ratatouille - care of Delicious magazine & some watercress soup care of of Delia (the first batch of which was delicious).

Note to self: next time you do this - do not leave the vegetables to cool in the oven - it gets steamy!

Now I just need to make sure I use it!!

Chocolate Billboard

2007-04-03T22:22:00.000+01:00

Funny news story on the BBC!

My First Nigella Cake Bake

2007-04-02T21:40:00.000+01:00

At Christmas I received my first two Nigella books - I'd been craving some of her books as she is the level of Domestic Goddess I could only dream of becoming! I just love her colourful books & the pretty things she bakes - I am a sucker for pretty sweet things. So when I took the books off the shelf (whilst wedding planning, cooking was the last thing on my mind!) I decided my first venture into Nigella world would be her Chocolate-Cherry Cupcakes.

My husband loves cherries & chocolate so it was quite an obvious first choice. They turned out OK too & when I took them into work as a thank you they went very quickly.