I Can't Believe It's Not Butter ran a recipe competition and this was the winner. I thought I'd put it to the test.

Can a lumpy, runny batter really turn itself into a pastry case, an egg custard filling and a coconut topping?

In my case - no. It just ends up as a kind of eggy coconut slice. More than edible though.

Here is the recipe in case you want to give it a go...

4 ozs “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”
8 ozs caster sugar
8ozs desiccated coconut
4 eggs
4 ozs plain flour
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
½ pint full fat milk

1. Put the oven on to 180°C
2. Lightly grease 10 inch pie or flan dish
3. Cream butter with sugar
4. Add coconut and eggs to butter and sugar
5. Sieve flour with nutmeg
6. Add vanilla essence to flour and nutmeg
7. Fold in coconut mixture
8. Gradually whisk in milk
9. Pour into prepared dish and bake for one hour.
10. When cooked a knife inserted into the centre will come out clean.

The mixture will have formed a pastry shell, an egg custard filling and a coconut topping. Or will it?

Labels: cooking

Banana loaf made with VERY ripe bananas that were heading for the bin.

Labels: cooking

Another Jamie Oliver recipe was trialled when my friends came to stay. This time a dessert, from his old Naked Chef days. It looked so damn good, but you know what? It could have sunk a sub it was so heavy - almost inedible! There is a possibility that I over-measured the tablespoons of cocoa powder, but even with less I don't think it would have been completely to my taste. Never mind!

Labels: cooking

I worked my little socks off last night, cleaning the house and baking treats. Like some kind of crazed loon I was baking my second batch of brownies at 10.30pm, while snacking on the leftovers of my failed first batch! Dusting, hoovering, making panna cottas and scones, wiping the floor, cleaning the bathroom, making up beds... I finally made it to bed at 1.30am.

This morning I left it as late as possible to leave for work and crammed in more cleaning and then my family were there waiting when I got home from work and it was time to start entertaining. I decided to cook a chilli, and leave the lamb shanks for tomorrow, as I will have more time in the morning to prepare.

Labels: cooking

My mum, dad, sister and boyfriend are all coming to stay with us for the weekend and they arrive tomorrow night. I want to cook something fairly traditional, as my dad is not an adventurous eater to say the least.

I also don't want to be slaving over a hot stove when I arrive home from work as it is likely that my family will have already arrived, so I need to pay them some attention. In these situations before I have cooked casseroles the night before and then heated up, but I have found that for the time it takes to heat up the dish, I may as well have cooked something quicker from scratch.

This time, I am trying something different. It wasn't one of the things on our wedding list, but we were given a slow cooker as a wedding present. It went straight in the loft as it is huge and just not efficient for two people, but in this situation, it might just come into its own.

I've bought lamb shanks, and I normally use a Jamie Oliver recipe to cook them, which would work in the slow cooker, but I'm wondering if I should try something else. The Jamie recipe is Spiced Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks and has quicte a chunky tomato based sauce with it. I can serve this with mash but I think I need to serve another vegetable as well and I don't think extra veg will work with the chunky spicy sauce.

I'm now thinking about a simpler sauce for the shanks, such as red wine. There are loads of recipes on the web, but there's always a little risk in cooking something un-tested for your guests. I don't want to mess it up!

Labels: cooking

It was business as usual at the Grace abode this weekend. Dom got stuck into the bathroom almost as soon as we got back on Saturday, bless him. He plumbed in the new Grohe shower valve.

I made some lemon cup-cakes to keep him going.

On Sunday we got up early and went for a run, then after another tour of the local DIY stores Dom worked right through until 10pm plumbing in the bath and sink waste.

We have changed our minds about having a bath spout coming out of the wall and are swapping it for a discreet Grohe Talentofill inlet and overflow within the bath. We are also going to send the whole bath back to Ideal Standard. They still haven't sent us a new leg almost three weeks after we complained and their fancy compact waste system looks like it would block up in an instant, and because it is all sealed there is no way of unblocking like a normal waste system. We are seriously regretting giving them our business.

Labels: cooking, d.i.y.

Mmmmmm, the house is filled with the delicious aroma of baked granola. The staple breakfast dish in our household is plain yoghurt, banana, fruit, nuts and seeds, so making a granola with all our sprinkles in it will save us precious seconds in breakfast-assembly-time as we are rushing to get out of the door in the mornings, and it tastes good too.

The recipe is from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food, but there are loads of granola recipes on the web - it's pretty basic stuff.

Labels: cooking

I seem to be pursuing new recipes with great enthusiasm at the moment. Tonight's treat was Summer Tray Bake Salmon, another delicious Jamie Oliver invention. It was lovely and lemony, and the suggested garlic mayonnaise accompaniment is a must in my opinion. Go cook it!

Labels: cooking

Been going through a new recipe phase this week. Tuesday night it was Griddled Lamb Chops with Chunky Salsa, served with Best Ever French Beans, both from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food book, which was a Christmas gift from my mum.

Wednesday night was Good Old Chilli Con Carne from the same book.

The lamb was quick, easy and tasty, but the chilli was competing with our usual chilli made with a jar of Asda Hot Chilli Sauce, so it wasn't quite as quick to make, but it did make enough for us to freeze - thus saving time another day. It certainly had fresher deeper flavours than the jar and brought with it the satisfaction of having cooked it completely from scratch. Definitely recommended.

Friday night it was Asian Squash Salad with Crispy Duck from Jamie At Home. Jamie excelled himself with this one. It was a taste explosion - seriously delicious. I am going to share the recipe here as Jamie has already been on US TV with this, and the receipe is already on the web, so I consider it as being in the public domain.



You will need:
a whole duck
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a small bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and chopped

For the roasted squash:
1-2 dried red chillies, crumbled
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large butternut squash or 2 onion squash, quartered
olive oil

For the dressing:
zest and juice of 1-2 limes
extra virgin oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon soft brown sugar
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely grated
5 green onions, white parts trimmed and finely sliced, green ends finely chopped
a large bunch of fresh coriander, leaves picked and stalks finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Wash the duck and pat it dry, inside and out, with paper towels, then rub it all over, inside as well, with salt and pepper. Place it in a pan and roast in the preheated oven for around 2 hours, turning it ever now and then. Halfway through, you'll probably need to drain away a lot of the fat from the bird. (I did as Jamie suggests and kept the fat in the fridge for roasting potatoes).

In a pestle and mortar bash up the dried chillies and coriander seeds and add the ground cinnamon and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Scoop the seeds out of your squash and put them to one side. Cut the squash into wedges, place them in a roasting tray, and drizzle over enough olive oil just to coat. Sprinkle over the ground spices and give the squash a good toss, spreading the pieces out in one layer. Once the duck has been in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, add the pan of squash to the oven and roast for about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, rinse the squash seeds after removing any fibres. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Toast them in a dry frying pan until they're golden and crisp, and put aside (I didn't bother with this bit).

To make the dressing, put the lime juice and zest into a bowl and add the same amount of extra virgin olive oil, plus the sesame oil and the soy sauce. Stir in the sugar, chilli, garlic, the green onion ends and coriander stalks. Taste and adjust the sweet-and-sourness and the seasoning. You want it to be a little limey, to contrast with the rich duck.

After 2 hours, if the duck is nice and crispy, and the squash soft and sticky, take both pans out of the oven. If they need more time, leave them in until perfectly done. Using two forks, shred the duck meat off the bone and put into a large bowl. (OK, I did everything by the book and my duck wasn't crispy, but I really don't think it needs to be. I also did not find that the duck could be shredded off the bone with two forks, and after a frenzied attack on the duck with a large carving knife I managed to get most of the meat off the bird. All I am saying is don't expect it to be falling off the bone.)

While the duck and squash are still warm, toss with the toasted seeds, half the coriander leaves, half the mint and half the white onion slices. Pour on the dressing and toss together. Serve sprinkled with the rest of the coriander, mint and white onion slices.

-

I promise you, it's one of Jamie's triumphs and you will really impress your dinner guests.

Look out for Jamie on TV this Thursday 29th January as part of Channel 4's Great British Food Fight season. In 'Jamie Saves our Bacon' he will be showing us the ins and snouts of the pig industry and hopes to encourage the nation to buy British.

Labels: cooking

There was no way I was going to spend £400 on a cake. So, I looked at different ideas to reduce the cost, while keeping it personal and special. Making a cake from scratch was going to be too impractical as I was planning the wedding long distance, so I came up with an ingenious cheat that I am very proud of. This is my secret top tip for having a lovely wedding cake at a real bargain price.

You will need:

• a cupcake stand I bought a 7 tier Perspex one from Exhibitz, but only used 5 tiers (£49 inc delivery, or cheaper if you win an auction)
  
• 8 packs of Asda Smart Price fairy cakes 12 per pack gives 96 cupcakes @ £0.48 per pack, this includes extras in case of mistakes (£3.84)
  
• 2 packs icing sugar (approx £1.50)
  
• sugar flowers in your wedding colours 90 small for the cupcakes, approx 4 large for the top (approx £35). Cake Craft Shop have a great selection for all budgets. Browse around for more colours and toppers as desired. Simple is more effective in my opinion.
  
• medium iced celebration cake (Asda, M&S, Waitrose, Tesco) approx £10
  
• water (free)
  
• 2-3 metres of ribbon (approx £1.50)

total cost: approximately £100 ! ! !

How to make

1. Assemble the stand
2. Make firm icing according to instructions, adding water drop by drop
3. Rope in Husband to Be and Father of the Bride to ice cakes, gently pushing the icing neatly to the sides of each cake wrapping using the back of a wet teaspoon dipped in water. With three of us it took about 3 hours.

4. Stick a sugar flower on top of each cake

5. Assemble larger sugar flowers on the top cake
6. Tie ribbon around top cake so that it drapes all the tiers
7. Take cakes to venue in tin
8. Get nice staff to arrange the cakes on the stand


9. Cut
10. Eat!
Only the cupcakes need to be served on the day. The top cake can be saved if you buy fruit.

No-body clocked that I could have made this myself, it looked professional, did the job, those who knew my secret were very impressed and I was very proud of my efforts. If anyone tries this, I hope you have the same success. Good luck!

Labels: cooking, crafts, wedding

In celebration of my birthday, the lucky people in my office are getting to feast on these Mars Bar Krispie cakes. Various recipes float around for these choccie chewy chunks, but this is the one my mum always uses.

Makes 12 approx
3 mars bars
3 ounces of butter or marg
3 cups (tea cups, not America cups) Rice Krispies

Chop up the Mars Bars and butter and melt in a large pan on a low heat. When both have melded sufficiently, add the cups of Krispies and stir in. Press into a baking tray (approx 7 x 10 inches) or even a small roasting tin lined with baking paper. Put in the fridge to set. Drizzle with melted chocolate if desired.

Labels: cooking

Serves 2
250g lean beef mince
1 leek split length ways and finely sliced
1 white onion finely chopped
good handful of frozen peas
2 medium sized potatoes
1 tblsp olive oil
1 heaped tsp dried thyme, oregano or mixed herbs
1 dessert spoon tomato puree
1 beef stock cube
4 tblsp water
1 tblsp grated cheese
1 tsp chopped chives

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Thinly slice the potatoes, boil in salted water for about 3 minutes until they start to soften, drain and set aside. Fry the onion and leek in the olive oil until soft. Add the mince, brown. Sprinkle over your choice of herbs, the stock cube, then add the water, tomato puree and peas. Stir on a medium heat for about 4 mins. Split the mixture between two 6x4 inch oven proof dishes. Layer the potato slices over the top, sprinkle over the grated cheese, some freshly ground black pepper, and finely drizzle with a little olive oil. Pop in the oven for 20 mins, by which time the potatoes should be browned. Sprinkle with chives if desired, and serve with vegetables.

Labels: cooking

It doesn't sound like a store cupboard recipe, but it was. Without celery or garlic for a risotto base I had to find an alternative and as for the tarragon, it was meant for something else, I didn't even know what it tasted like before now, but it was there and it worked.

Serves 2
1 small white onion, finely chopped
1 leek, halved lengthways and finely sliced
3 slices bacon chopped or 100g pancetta lardons
100g risotto rice
1 pint chicken stock
200g frozen large prawns
50g parmesan, finely grated
1 glass white wine
handful of fresh tarragon
knob of butter
tblsp olive oil

Heat the olive oil and a bit of the butter in a large shallow pan. Gently saute the onions and leek until soft. Add the bacon or lardons, and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the rice. Stir until it is coated with the oil and vegetable juices. Pour in the white wine. Once this has absorbed start adding the chicken stock a ladle at a time and stir continuously, waiting for the rice to absorb the stock before adding the next ladle. Keep adding the stock (and continue with boiling water if it runs out), until the rice reaches your desired texture. Some like it al dente, I like it soft.

Stir in a handful of the grated parmesan, keep some back for sprinkling on the top. Then stir in the prawns (if you are using frozen prawns, defrost first) and heat through (should only take a few minutes). Finish by adding another little blob of butter and about a tblsp of the chopped tarragon.

Serve sprinkled with black pepper, parmesan and more tarragon. Delicious.

Labels: cooking

The perfect easter breakfast. A cup of tea and a toasted hot cross bun with lashings of butter and my mum's homemade blackberry jam. Yum.

Labels: cooking

I have to admit I never really gave much thought to chicken welfare until I saw Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV programme, launching the Chicken Out campaign a few weeks ago. He conducted an experiment rearing some chickens as free range and some chickens in a cramped, smelly barn - the way we rear 95% of the chickens we eat. It was disgusting.

I wasn't shocked in the sense that I knew in the back of my mind that conditions were bad, but I was appalled and ashamed that we, as a nation of consumers have bought chickens for so long without questioning the lives they have led. How could we have let it get like this? It is disrespect en-masse.

Dom and I don't eat whole chickens often, but after the show we immediately started buying free range eggs. Then when it came to buying a whole chicken from Asda, they had ran out of free range. I refused to buy anything else and sent a complaint email to customer services.

A week later, I checked Morrisons. There were some chickens on the shelf, but myself and two others were questioning whether we should buy them. The labels said they were RSPCA approved, but when you read the small print, they were actually kept in barns.

It turns out that Hugh and Jamie approve of the Freedom Food label. So it's better than nothing (it's still not good enough). At least if people buy the RSPCA approved chickens the supermarkets might shift their supply to meet the demand for ethical food.

I finally bought a chicken yesterday from Somerfield. It was the last one on the shelf that bore the Freedom Food label.

Now, I don't know whether it was just psychological, knowing that the little animal had lived a better life, but that chicken was possibly the best roast chicken we had ever tasted.

Support the campaign. Get Chickens Out!

Labels: buying, cooking

We had lovely pancakes last night, with the traditional squeeze of lemon and sprinkling of sugar.

We got 8 pancakes out of such a small amount of ingredients (1 egg, 4Oz plain flour, 1/2 pint milk), why anyone would buy ready made pancakes I don't know. All the fun is in the flipping!

Is Pancake Day at risk of dying out?
Why do we eat pancakes today?

Labels: cooking, seeing_doing

It's been a while since we cooked for friends, but last night we had our mates Kevin and Caroline for dinner. On the menu was pancetta wrapped mozzarella with fig jam, followed by duck breast and mango salsa, with molten chocolate puddings for dessert.

Of course there was plenty to drink, and our hangovers were cured by a morning walk along the river and a fry-up in the very classy Asda cafe.

Then, Sharon and Andy came over to see us this afternoon with their beautiful baby Callum - he is soooooo cute! At seven months, he's not as floppy as he used to be. He's sitting up on his own and is smiling and kicking so I feel much more confident holding him.

It was a really lovely weekend.

Labels: cooking, seeing_doing

Dom has a week off before he starts his new job, so lucky me, I am getting my dinners cooked for me every night!

Monday was pot roast, Tuesday was spanish chicken with chorizo and last night was barbecue pork. All yum!

Labels: cooking

Nigella Express on Tuesday and Jamie At Home last night. Watching Nigella is not a nice experience. Some things are OK, like Monday's intense chocolate cookies but others make me feel sick, like the eggy-bread/doughnut concoction.

Jamie, on the other hand, has me salivating with every culinary creation:

Warm salad of roast duck & pumpkin with Asian-style dressing
Roast a duck for 2 hours at 180C, add a roasting tin full of squash, skin on, cut in wedges for the last 45 mins. Toast the squash seeds. Make a dressing from lime juice, olive oil grated chilli, grated garlic and spring onions. Tear the duck meat, put in a bowl with the squash, coriander and mint and dress. Construct the salad, sprinkle with the seeds, more dressing and finely sliced spring onion. Heaven on a plate!

Hearty winter pumpkin soup
Saute roughly chopped onion, celery, carrot (I think) and garlic in a pressure cooker/ large pan, add chopped pumpkin, fill 1 inch from top with chicken stock. Cook for 7 mins (pressure)/ 30 mins (pan). Blend, season. Serve with giant french bread paremesan topped croutons and crispy sage leaves. Easy.

Butternut squash muffins with a frosty top - so simple!

Labels: cooking

Dinner last night was inspired by Jamie Oliver's Wild Mushroom and Venison Stroganoff as featured on last week's episode of Jamie At Home.

We used beef instead of venison.

I haven't bought the book yet, but from memory, the recipe went like this:

Coat chunky strips of venison (or beef) in flour and smoked paprika (enough for 2 people), fry in a little butter and olive oil until browned. Remove from pan and, adding a little more oil if necessary, fry 1 finely chopped onion, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, the leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme and your chosen mushrooms (preferably wild) chopped in the same size chunks as the meat. When these have softened slightly, add about 3 tbspns of brandy (make sure the heat is high and take a minute to burn off the alcohol). Then, swirl in 2 tbspns of soured cream and add the meat back to the pan along with about a tbsp of chopped gherkins. Season with salt and pepper (I found it needed quite a bit of salt). Allow to heat for a couple of mins before serving on a bed of fluffy white rice topped with a dollop of sourced cream and a handful of chopped gherkins.

Nice, but perhaps a bit too rich.

Labels: cooking

Nigella has never been one to skimp on luxurious, high-fat, high-sugar ingredients, and generally I don't have a problem with this. She's the one I turn to for cakes, biscuits, pies and other sumptuous treats. However, last night I caught the second half of her new show and I cringed with disgust at some of her concoctions.

The squid was good, an easy coating, a quick fry and some simple garlic mayonnaise. More than acceptable as a starter or dinner party snack.

The pork chops with gnocchi - what?! - I thought the idea was to give us things that are better than pre-packaged convenience foods. Obviously she wasn't thinking better in a healthy way, as she fried the pork, coated it with cream, boiled the (ready made) gnocchi and coated it with cream. Better in what way exactly? The most negative aspect of convenience foods, for me, is the lack of nutrients, but where were they in Nigella's pork dish? To top it off she tried to look cool by balancing the pork plate on her knee and eating with a fork whilst reading a handful of pretend paperwork. It's a good job the camera turned away before she attempted the chops with the fork alone - not pretty.

As if this wasn't bad enough the show climaxed with Nigella creating a sorry version of a bread and butter pudding using some stale croissants, sugar and... wait for it... more double cream. After chowing down on the first bowl, she them came back in her dressing gown to polish off the rest of the baking dish, topped off with MORE DOUBLE CREAM!

Maybe I should be applauding her for defying the current movement for wholesome, nutritious food, but she wasn't doing anything imaginative enough to fly that flag. She was putting together lazy fodder that wouldn't even make the grade on Ready Steady Cook then taking it to bed with her in a way that conjored up images of Fat Bastard covered in chicken grease. "I'm dead seeeexxxy, look at ma seeexxxy body!"

Labels: cooking

After drooling over Jamie Oliver's BBQ on Jamie At Home last week, we just had to use the opportunity of what felt like the first and what could have been the last of the 2007 summer to try out his delicious marinade recipe.

I crushed the cumin seeds, cloves, paprika, fennel seeds, rosemary, thyme, garlic, pepper and salt, then mixed with red wine vinegar and tomato ketchup.

Unfortunately we do not have any independent butchers nearby so we had to settle with pork ribs from Asda (don't even get me started on the state of supermarket meat). I rubbed in the marinade and left in the fridge for a few hours. These were accompanied by my homemade beef burgers - yum!

We still haven't got round to buying a barbecue, at first we toyed with a gas one, then came back to the idea of traditional charcoal, looking at a classic Weber, but we didn't like the size and the circular shape, plus it would be good to have something we could take camping as well as our stove. The funky versatile Son of Hibachi would be just about right, and I've found one for £49 inc. delivery.

Our (very) brief summer is probably over now though, so a party sized instant BBQ had to suffice.

All in all a scrumptious outdoor feast!

Labels: cooking, seeing_doing

For some reason, out of all the herbs I have planted, my flat leaf parsley has really flourished. Trouble is, I have no idea what uses it has. As it turns out, someone else has the same problem.

Now, I have two good ideas: tabouleh and parsley pesto.

Labels: cooking

The other night I watched the first of the new series, Jamie At Home and boy was it good. Don't get me wrong, I fully support Jamie's mission with school meals and I enjoyed Fifteen, but it was much more satisfying just watching him cook instead. The first episode focussed on tomatoes and he really had me salivating. Can't wait for next week!

As if I hadn't had enough culinary inspiration, last night began Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes. WOW. Rick can sometimes be a bit fishy for me, but the Corsican goat kid with roast figs and tomatoes and the Sardinian pasta dishes were drool-city. The combination of travel and food around the Med is going to make for a great series.

Labels: cooking

When I was a child, sometimes my mum would make mince, served with mashed or boiled potatoes and vegetables. I had completely forgotten about this very unsophisticated, school dinner-style meal, but last night, I decided to make it. Boy did it bring back memories. What a wonderful hearty comfort food.

What has happened to this and other basic British staples? It’s so easy and quick to make it could be called convenient, yet it seems to have lost out to foods that are even more so. There is no doubt that the balance between convenience and good eating has tipped too far. Schools have some part to play in providing good nutritional food for children, but so do families. When I was growing up, pizzas and oven chips were only just appearing in the supermarket freezers, and other super-convenient oven and microwave-ready options didn’t exist. Now there are too many to choose from, but there is a choice.

Serves 4

800g good quality beef mince
2 onions
2 beef stock cubes
1 tin of baked beans
About 100 ml water
1 tblsp sunflower oil

Cut the onions in quarters and slice, fry in a little oil until softened. Add the mince, fry until browned. Crumble the stock cube over the mince and pour in the water, enough to almost cover. Add the beans (you could add carrots or peas instead), simmer for 10 mins.

Good with mashed potatoes, or dumplings, and vegetables e.g., cabbage or broccoli.

Labels: cooking

I've just baked these gorgeous chocolate brownies. It's the first time I've attempted brownies, as they've never really appealed to me before, but I decided to give them a go to see what all the fuss is about and they are pretty damn good I can tell you.

I used the recipe from my 'Cook With Jamie' book, but I see that he has also published the recipe on his website. I wasn't able to get any sour cherries, and I think they would add a nice tang, but they still taste divine!

Labels: cooking

When I have exams to study for I often find myself getting distracted by leisurely things like baking.

I have just baked a Lemon Drizzle Loaf. So I am loafing in more ways than one, when in actual fact I should be using my loaf and focussing on study.

Here is the recipe, taken from Olive Magazine

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line the base and ends of a 900g/2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.

Cream 200g unsalted softened butter with 150g caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the zest of two lemons. Gradually add 3 beaten eggs, mixing well between each addition. Sift 200g plain flour with 2 level tsp baking powder then fold into the cake mixture with 50g ground almonds. Add 2tbsp milk and the juice of 1 lemon and mix until smooth.

Spoon the mixture into a 2lb loaf tin lined with baking parchment. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer pushed into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes.

Mix the juice of 3 lemons with 3 tbsp granulated sugar. Slowly spoon it over the top of the warm cake. Leave in the tin until completely cold. Serves 8

Labels: cooking

Dom told me he had gone up north with work yesterday, but when I got home, there he was, along with a lovely bunch of tulips (my favourite flower) and he cooked me the most gorgeous risotto (which is, I think, if I can possibly narrow it down to one, my favourite meal).

It was quite low key, because pressures of work and study are sapping both our energies at the moment, but it was very sweet.

Labels: cooking, seeing_doing

Found a new blog and a new recipe to try. Yum.
Farmgirl Fare: Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones

Labels: cooking

Life is a bit hectic at the moment. After a law exam in early Jan, I have a new job role to learn at work and it's proving challenging, plus, another law exam on 4th March just before we go to Thailand. I am in college this weekend, so there has been lots of prep for that and some coursework to hand in.

A couple of weeks ago we had some friends for dinner and I pulled off these amazing chocolate puddings for dessert, which are molten in the middle. We have more friends over next weekend so I will take some pics and post the recipe.

Dom knocked a wall out in our downstairs toilet yesterday so that he can replace it today in a different way that will give us a cupboard for coats, shoes and bags etc at the front door.

I cooked a huge pile of Chinese food last night in celebration of Chinese New Year(nothing special, but it hit the spot). On Friday night I cooked (what I thought was) an Austrian dish in celebration of Mozart's birthday (really not bothered about Mozart but was the bext distraction I could find from watching the final of Celebrity Big Brother). It involved braising sausages, cabbage, carrots, onion and apple in dark beer (I used Guiness) with caraway seeds. I remembered this flavour from when I was in Prague a few years back. I had no idea it was caraway seeds. As it turned out the recipe was German, but who cares, it was perfect to warm us up with this freezing cold weather we are having.

Labels: cooking

I made mince pies and brought them in for everyone at work yesterday. My mince pie recipe is, without doubt, the best in the world. We only have a half day at work today and then a nice long holiday, during which, unfortunately, I have lots of legal revision to do for an exam on 7th Jan. Poor me. There will always be time for wine though.

Labels: cooking

Yesterday I baked our Christmas cake. I swapped recipes half way through and substituted some of the the fruit and nuts for whatever I had left in the cupboard so I have no idea whether it will turn out OK.

I should have baked it before now, so there isn't time to feed it with brandy.

I will decorate it later in the week.



I decorated it on Christmas Day. Not my original plan, but it looks OK and tastes pretty good too!

Labels: cooking

Not only had I never carved a pumpkin (until a few days ago), but I had also never made anything with pumpkins. I found a recipe for pumpkin pie and until I read it, I have to admit I had assumed that it was a savoury thing, but no.

Sunday afternoon, with missing spices and the wrong sized tin I cobbled together something that looked convincing, but having never tasted pumpkin pie before, I don't know if I got it right! All I can tell you is that it tasted better with Creme Fraiche than with double cream. Yum.

Labels: cooking

Scrummy!

Labels: cooking

Dom's amazing giant Yorkshire pud and his delicious Sunday dinner lovingly served to me last weekend. Aren't I a lucky girl!

Labels: cooking