Happy Belated Easter!

I have such a craving for something but I don't know what it is; I've tried salty snacks, savoury slices and sweet pieces of pie.  Seafood, wholefood, meat, chips and rye.  None seem to work.   The last time I had this kind of craving, I was pregnant  no, I'm not and I worked my way through a half ton of food trying to find out what it could be.   No complaints of course, I enjoyed every minute of it but was a wee bit surprised when it turned out to be Cheesy Wotsits; I couldn't get enough! 10 packets later and I scunnered myself; I haven't eaten them since. 

It may take me days, months or even years to work it out but I'm up to the challenge..............

Our Easter was lovely; on Thursday, the last day of school we were invited round to a friend's house with the kids and enjoyed snacks, chat and a wee glass of wine.   On Good Friday, grandpa came to stay and on Saturday, my lovely niece joined us too.   We bought dvds, popcorn and sweets and cooried in for a film fest, venturing out for the occasional walk in the sunshine and lunch.   Easter Sunday, I cooked roast lamb stuffed with feta, mint and lemon cooked in lemon juice and white wine, roast pork stuffed with chorizo, onions and fresh herbs, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, roasted root vegetables with honey and maple syrup and steamed greens and baby sweetcorn.   It was a good day and enjoyed by all.

 Roast Lamb: looks messy, tasted lovely!

Roast Pork; hmmm, not a great pic but again, tasted gooooood!

I made an Easter cake, with help from the kids and it turned out pretty well.   My friend Shona gave me a wonderful cookbook, from the Hummingbird Bakery which is where I got the recipe from a wonderful recipe it was too and spot on but the decor was inspired by Sarah Magid's Organic and Chic cookbook a few little basic recipe mistakes within but was worked out failry easily; very good for inspiration and her vanilla buttercream icing worked really well.

Pretty AND tasty!   Brooklyn Blackout cake, Nutella icing inside.

Easter dinner.

I think they like!

Other food this month:

Scallops with roasted tomatoes

More cupcakes....

Mmmmm!

Beef and sausage stew with Yorkshire Puddings

Kids own homemade pizza!   Good job.

Mini feta, spinach and pine nut tart

Tomato Sauce for the pizza

Mmmm, pizza..

More tart...

More scallops..I'm going through a phase; that's an artichoke heart in the middle

Lucy is pleased with her own wee pizza

  

Bank Holiday Monday

On the last Bank Holiday Monday, I took the kids to The Burrell where we met up with friends to take part in a decathlon. The kids had great fun and then we all piled back to mine for food. I like to make pasta fresh but I decided to be prepared as I didn't want to come back and spend an hour cooking plus I knew the kids would be champing at the bit for their tea! I made in advance a large lasagna, a large Macaroni Cheese and I made the linguine with lemon and feta fresh. I prepared a fresh loaf by slicing it about a third of the way down and filling it with garlic butter. I bought a garlic pizza and added some fresh rosemary and sea salt before cooking it. There were 6 adults and 7 kids.

When I came home, I put the oven on and quickly prepared some antipasti and olives plus a small round of Camembert. I didn't put out bread because there was a lot of food and bread for the main course and I didn't want anyone filling up. The children who didn't want antipasti got stuck into a large bowl of Doritos!

The pre-cooked lasagna was placed in the oven and 25 minutes later, the macaroni was put in. Then, I cooked the linguine. The lasagna was brought out to the table first and the bread was put in its place in the oven. I prepared some cucumber, tomatoes and yellow pepper for the kids as an accompaniment and tomatoes with pesto as an accompaniment for the adults.

The food went down a treat and afterwards we had home-made lemon cupcakes and lemon cake.

I'd definitely do this again as it was suitable for everyone and perfect for a 6pm tea. Next time however, I would not pre-cook the lasagna; I'd prepare it all as usual in the dish but then cover it in clingfilm and put in fridge; the pasta becomes a bit too hard and slightly burnt round the edges if pre-cooked in a large dish. The macaroni cheese was fine but next time I'd prepare the cheese sauce but not cook the pasta until we were ready to eat it. The heat distribution, possibly just in my crappy oven although it is fan assisted, meant that I had to rescue the dish before it started to brown but the middle was only warm and not yet hot.

Lemon cake recipes to follow.