The squatters have moved in.

The amount of 'anonymous' piffle on my comments has grown exponentially since my hiatus.   Begone, evil anonymous pifflers, I'm back and you can just bog off with your 'buy adult chickens' and 'buy bizarre liquids'; what is an adult chicken anyway?   Aren't all chickens 'adult'?   Does anyone ever click on these links?   Have the anonymous computer generator peeps nothing more substantial to do with their time?

Aaaaand rant over.

How are you all?   How have you been?  I missed you.   I've been cooking, crafting and generally messing about, limiting my time to mimimum use of the computer.   I've still been shopping on a budget, as usual and cooking tasty meals...or so the kids tell me...even taking photos, knowing I'd be back one day....and looking after the family as always.

My life in food...and badges!    Recipes to follow...I'll be back on Thursday.   Have a wonderful week.

 Sweet and Spicy Goats Cheese and Prawn Salad

Roasted Scallops, Potatoes, Onions and Chorizo...sublime!

Slow Cooked Spicy Lamb Shanks

Chocolate Tart

A bit of a tart...and fruity to boot!

Kids' Fish, Potatoes and Cucumber...pretty tasty, kids!

Helen's New Badges and Gift Tags

Such fun to make and selling well!

Customised for Birthday Favours

Who for?   You guessed it....

Paris

Night Nurse

The Time Has Come, The Walrus Said.....

Good afternoon, fellow bloggy peeps, friends and family who read this blog, my apologies for my absence once again but the holidays are over with, my plans have evolved and I now have time to sit here at my favourite indoor place and talk about grub!   Isn't life grand?

The food budget remains at £50 per week and I find it easier as the good weather comes in; salads, light soups, citrus-y chicken and feta dishes all are the order of spring and the best quality still costs low.   Meals this past week:

Salmon Nuggets

Ingredients:

2 salmon fillets, cut into bite sized chunks

Either: 1 packet plain crisps, crushed or two good handfuls breadcrumbs, seasoned

1 Egg, beaten and seasoned

Oil, if frying

Dip salmon bites into seasoned, beaten egg and then into bowl containing crushed crisps or breadcrumbs.   If frying, heat a little oil in a frying pan and cook over a medium heat until outside is crispy brown and inside cooked.   Cut one open to check; they shouldn't take long because of their size.

Alternatively, place them in a hot oven for approx. 8 minutes.   Serve with petit pois and broccolli.

Cupcakes 

I use a lemon Madeira cake recipe for the cupcakes and a butter icing with vanilla, food colouring and little iced flowers.   I had friends coming over so this was for them and for the kid's tea.

 

Sausage n' mash

Ingredients:

1 packet of sausages

6 large Maris Piper potatoes, peeled or equivalent, suitable for mashing

Knob of butter

Dash of milk

Sea Salt

Pepper

Gravy to taste 

Boil potatoes in salted water until very tender, drain and dry for 20 seconds over heat, making sure not to burn.   I do this with the heat off.   Mash potatoes with a masher and then add butter, salt, pepper and milk.   Mash some more until soft, adding more butter if required.   Using a fork, mash through once again to ensure the potatoes are soft and fluffy.

Whilst the potatoes are cooking, fry sausages in a pan over a medium heat.   I prick a few of the sausages and therefore don't need to add oil to the pan as the fat comes off the sausage meat.   Turn every few minutes to ensure even browning.

Place mash in a bowl, stick sausages in and pour a little gravy round the side with the rest served in a gravy boat.   This is lovely served with fried onions or beans.

Tomatoes stuffed with cheese and herbs

 Ingredients:

Small, ripe tomatoes, approx. two per person

Handful of basil leaves, chopped

Handful of grated Parmesan

Optional: chopped feta cheese

Olive oil

Salt and Freshly ground black pepper

Halve the tomatoes and drizzle with oil, salt and pepper.   Stuff with feta, if using and a good teaspoon of basil leaves.   Drizzle with a little more oil and top with a teaspoon of Parmesan cheese.

Bake in medium oven for approx. 10-15 minutes until tomatoes are soft and cheese has coloured.   Serve with scallops, salad, pasta or as a side with lamb escalopes, chicken or anything else that takes your fancy.

 

 Serving the tomatoes with pan roasted scallops and salad with pine nuts

Tomato Sauce

I use this tomato sauce as a base for pizzas, pasta sauces, pies and dips.   It is very simple and easy to make and freezes beautifully.

Ingredients:

1kg Passatta (sieved tomatoes)

Quarter pint vegetable or chicken stock

Two tablespoons olive oil

Tablespoon sugar

Teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large onion

2-4 cloves garlic, depending on taste

Place garlic and onion in a food processor or blender and blitz to a pulp.   Scrape out into a pan with olive oil and coat by stirring.   Cook for 10 minutes until soft, over a low heat, ensuring the mix doesn't colour or burn.   Add passatta and bring to the boil.   Simmer for five minutes and add stock, sugar, salt and pepper.   Simmer for a further 10 minutes and taste.  It should be pleasant, with a slight sweetness and saltiness.

Keep it as is for pizza or for pasta, add a good handful of finely chopped basil.   For meatballs, add milk.

Tomato sauce used for pizza

Coloured Pancakes

 Pancake mix of 4 oz each of flour, sugar, milk and eggs (1 large, 2 small) with added food colouring.  

 

Blend until mixed and cook in pan.

 

Serve with coloured drinks.   Watch kids be happy.

Feta and Chorizo Pasta

  

Ingredients:

Spaghetti (100g per person)

Chorizo, diced, small handful per person

Knob of butter

Dash olive oil

Onion, chopped

Garlic clove, crushed

Thyme leaves from a few sprigs

Feta, chopped

Light chicken stock, approx. 2 oz. (and white wine, optional)

Double cream or creme fraiche, 2 large tablespoons

Freshly grate Parmesan

Lemon juice, optional

Boil spaghetti as per instructions

Fry onion and garlic and thyme in butter and oil for a few minutes, without colouring.   Add chorizo and leave for a minute or so before stirring to coat the onion mix in the lovely red juices from the sausage.   Simmer for 5 minutes, add wine and simmer until reduced by half if using, then add stock.   Bring to the boil and then simmer until a coating consistency is reached.   Add cream, stir and take off heat.   Add a handful of Parmesan and feta and a squeeze of lemon juice.   Check seasoning, add some freshly ground black pepper and throw in the spaghetti, toss in sauce and serve with more grated Parmesan.

Pan-Fried Salmon with Linseeds, Spinach and Baby Potatoes

 

Ingredients:

1 salmon fillet per person

Sea salt

Golden linseeds

Handful spinach per person

Baby potatoes

Margarine

Sesame Oil

Green peppers

Lime juice

Boil baby potatoes until tender, crush lightly with a little margarine, butter or olive oil and some sea salt.   Set aside.   Score the skin of the salmon and rub in a little sesame oil (or flavoured oil to taste).   Get a frying pan really hot and place the salmon skin side down.   Thrown in the peppers.   When the skin side is brown, turn salmon over and turn heat down slightly; cook until a lovely golden colour.   Depending on the salmon fillet thickness, at this point, I sometimes shove the salmon into a pre-heated hot oven for 4 minutes.

Thrown in a handful of linseeds and a tiny drizzle of sesame oil to coat the peppers.   Squeeze over some lime juice.   Place dry spinach leaves on a plate and place the peppers and linseeds on top with another squeeze of lime juice.   Plate up the fillet of salmon and the potatoes; the salmon is ready when it has lost it's opaqueness, has turned from orange to pink and flakes away easily; do not over cook.   Enjoy.

Dolly for Anna

The competition will resume in the next few weeks; everyone already entered will be put forward.

Grandpa's Birthday

My husband and father in law turned the tv on just now to watch a programme about how long a piece of string was. Seriously. It's party central over here. Sigh.

I then secretly found myself fascinated by the chat for all of five minutes when the discussions and answers ranged from '12 inches' to' infinite'. I have nothing more to add on the subject though. Without jumping from a window.

With three little children off again today, I decided to investigate; it seems between 40-60% of the children at the school have been off at least twice since September and are easily reinfected; their seems to be trouble building immunity. I looked at their diet; lots of fruit, vegetables, homemade food, fresh juices and water. What to do. Any suggestions, my worthy, clever bloggy friends? I'll be homeschooling them soon, at this rate.

Grandpa is 84 today. He had the choice between eating out or in and if in, braised beef with dumplings, mince and tatties, rigatoni al forno or another meal of his choice. He chose rigatoni al forno because he'd never had it before...he's a cool old dude...and a Victoria sponge for dessert. The meat sauce was prepared first and simmered for an hour before I started to make the bechamel sauce. So often, meat sauce is cooked quickly when it should be treated like a stew. Go on, you're worth it!

Meat sauce
The meat sauce could be made using my usual tomato sauce but I went for something a little different and a bit chunkier this time. I blended an onion and 2 garlic cloves in the blender and fried in olive oil for 10 minutes. I then added 500g minced beef steak and browned. A good handful tomato puree and two tins of chopped tomatoes were tossed in opened of course and after stirring and bringing to the boil, I added in a splash of good red wine....there is no point using something you wouldn't drink by the glass...and stirred once more, brought to the boil, added a sprinkling of sugar, salt and pepper and simmered on a very low heat for 1 hour with the lid on.

I checked the sauce after the hour, added a good grating of nutmeg...at least a quarter of a whole one....checked the seasoning and sprinkled in a few pinches of dried herbs...oregano, thyme, bay etc. The lid was put back on as I got on with the bechamel.

Bechamel
Melt butter in a pan over a medium heat. I cut around a thin slice of butter per 100g of pasta to be cooked but really, truly, measurements don't matter with this sauce; the more butter, the more flour...the more flour, the more milk etc.

Once the butter has melted and began to foam, add the flour and stir constantly until a roux is formed (looks like a soft paste). Add a dash of milk and incorporate into roux. It may look a little curdled, don't worry, keep stirring! Keep adding milk, a little at a time, quickly stirring all the time. Don't panic! It may not look good but it will. Eventually, it will look like thick cream although you can make this thinner if you prefer...just add more milk. Once the desired thickness has been achieved, let it simmer for a minute, then add white pepper, some salt (I always use unsalted butter, check taste first before adding any salt if your butter is already salted) and a really good grating of nutmeg.

Mix the pasta into the bechamel sauce and then throw in half of the sauce. Mix well and pour some more on the top. Package up the rest for later. Add a good handful or two of grated Parmesan. We also added some cheddar and Gruyere. At this stage, we usually bake the pasta but everyone was champing at the bit and I just served it instead. This was 500g pasta and it will easily feed 8-10. We all had two servings and the rest was packaged up (two dishes full) for another date and frozen.

The kids helped to make the Vicky sponge and dad made the butter icing.

How do you know if your kids are feeling better? Just look at their faces.

And if in doubt, just watch them playing teddy bear picnics behind the couch.

I have so many fruit cake, bread and loaf recipes and this is one of the simplest. Most of the recipes for fruit loaf are simple and this one is boiled first. I made it for supper last night and so that there was some for breakfast for grandpa as a nice start to his birthday.

Feel free to swap the sugar for muscovado as this is lovely in this cake.

Ingredients
200g sultanas
250ml milk
200g sugar
125g Marg (marg works well in this but feel free to use butter)
250g Self Raising Flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon cinnamon or mixed spice

Put sultanas, milk, sugar and marg in pan, bring to boil stirring all the time. Once it has come to the boil, turn off and remove from ring. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

Fold in the flour and mix, add the egg and mix again. Pour into greased loaf tin and put in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees for 1hr. Leave to cool before serving. How simple is that?

Helen's dessert....skinny cow lolly...actually delicious.

A gift from Barry....kids couldn't wait to open them and of course, disgusting. Hope you don't serve these in your restaurants, Barry!

Feeding thirty at forty for more than fifty.

Although it seemed I was organised, little things came to take up my time; they have a way of sneaking up on you, unannounced, wanting immediate attention and becoming silently but stealthily all consuming. Little things are in fact, humongous things in disguise.

With this in mind, my party and the weekend celebrations were wonderful, if not entirely to plan. Fortunately, ever since my wedding when I was but a mere slip of a lass at 26, I learned the lifelong lesson that "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley" translation: the best laid plans of the big and the small can go awry, no matter what you do. It was a great wedding but things went awry ; things I couldn't change, things I couldn't know; I went with the flow as I realised quickly that that which cannot be changed must be accepted. Plus nobody would ever tolerate a braying, bridezilla beastie in my family and they'd soon begin plying me with whisky.

Having spent weeks on the children's rooms, my plan was to spend another few weeks on some home improvements, painting and organising, in time for the party and Christmas, as is the way of women and men everywhere. I wanted the house fresh, spotless and myself rested, having spent a leisurely few days cooking, with possibly some light dusting and a polish the day before. Of course, this was before swine flu hit me like a brick wall and floored me for several weeks, but still, I recovered well enough to continue.

That's when the little things came; a day off school here and there as the children became ill, unexpected visitors. A leak, a break down, a mistake and a job. All these things led to things going ever so slightly not to plan. Thursday, my 40th birthday, I let it all go and was woken to tea in bed, flowers, gifts and was taken for breakfast by Shona where I consumed pastries and lovely coffee before heading to the spa for my massage. My sis and I floated out of our treatment rooms, happy and relaxed as we got ready to go to The Dining Room on Bath Street for lunch.

Susan and I had the pate starter while Louise, Susan's friend went for the soup. I had expertly cooked salmon with a sweet chilli dressing but still looked longingly at the chicken with black pudding mash on the girl's plates until Susan took pity and gave me some to taste. Both the salmon and chicken were lovely and was washed down by a nice bottle of the house white.

Susan and Louise headed to the hotel as they'd booked rooms for the night because her party was being held there. I wandered round a few shops on my way to the train station, where I was to find myself stuck for ages due to a random flower petal hovering over the line or somesuch nonsense but the wine had had a pleasant, soporific effect and I sat staring at the pigeons until the train eventually arrived.

The entire family, including my mum, father in law, big sis, Brian and the kids all went to Di Maggios for pasta and pizza before heading over to Susan's party. The DJ played some good old classics and the place was packed with those helping her to celebrate. We stayed for a while, leaving early for a party but late for the kids and headed home, contented and tired.

The Friday, despite my best intentions, more Little Things came and we arrived at our friend's, Ricky and Irene's house late for the planned fireworks party. We stayed only a few hours but despite the amount of things I wanted to get done on my return, I was too tired and conked out at the sight of my lovely, beautiful bed.

We worked hard all Saturday and the house was transformed into a mellow, candlelit abode with flowers everywhere, and the smell of spices, curry and mint filling the street. As everyone arrived, we hadn't quite finished making all the cocktails although there was a table full of pink, green and yellow drinks. We calmly answered the door and greeted our lovely guests with hugs, drinks and chat, then frantically ran to the kitchen to make more French Martinis, Mojitos and Champagne cocktails. The table was laden with spicy onions, mango dips, poppadums, spicy almonds, chilli snacks, pickles and rice crackers.

The pakora-chicken which had been marinated in yoghurt and spices, mushroom and potato was placed in the oven and the onion bhajis too. I had made a yoghurt dip to accompany them and it looked delicious. By the time I went to try some, it was all gone, surely a good sign; this made me happy and I hope it was nice. As I went to heat up the curries, I suddenly realised something as I searched for my bread: I had missed out an entire afternoon of preparation and it slowly donned on me that I had crossed it off the list, in my tired state on Friday night and that, in fact, there was things still to do.

After the initial cold shiver from my head to my toes, I thought about it for a moment to understand what had not been done; no bread...I was to cook paratha, poori and peshwari naan...I hadn't finished my lamb sauce although the lamb was cooked and I hadn't even tasted the korma. The chicken stew was refrigerated before cooking had been finished and my chickpea stew was nowhere to be found. This was a freakin disaster! I took a few deep breathes and spoke to Brian:
Him: "There is plenty of food; do you have time to cook at least the bread now?"
Me: "...yes....no"
Him: "Is there rice?"
Me: "Yes, lots"
Him: "Then we're fine".

With that, I served two large bowls of rice, lamb curry, which had enough lamb in it to feed a small army, what with four legs of lamb being cooked, with tasty enough sauce, despite it not being finished to my liking, tender chicken korma, again, it was finished by the time I got to the table which I was again happy about because I can assume it was good, having never made it before, Rajasthani chicken, baked after marinading twice and a nice vegetable curry with my own sauce served with mushrooms, courgettes, onions and homemade muttar paneer (cheese).

The tikka bites, chicken stew, chickpea stew with dumplings, breads and tomato and cucumber salad did not get served. The best laid schemes o' mice and men....

Once the food was served, I poured a large glass of champagne and settled in with my friends to talk, laugh and enjoy their company. A good time was had by all. I had managed to prepare fruit petit fours; strawberries, raspberries and tangerine slices dipped in chocolate, some with nuts or coconut in little petit four cases for a wee dessert before moving on to Sam's amazing birthday cake which she had made for me.

The moral of this tale: don't try to make this amount of food a few days before; cook it, freeze it and leave it weeks before, bringing from the freezer 36 hours before serving. Keep one day...the day before...entirely free to cook those things which are better fresh; the dips, the onions, the bread. Don't look at lists whilst tired. When asked to attend a party the day before your own, just say no. When it goes wrong, don't say too much after your initial outburst of "where the HELL IS THE BREAD?!?" and smile and enjoy because, as I learned many years ago, what you can't change, you just need to accept. Plus none of my friends would have tolerated my whining and would have force fed me champagne to shut me up.

Some of the beautiful flowers I received

I do have to add that the Sunday was total bliss; nursing a little hangover, I lay on the couch napping ,watching The Wizard of Oz with the kids, Brian waking me from my various slumbers with bacon rolls, Lucozade and Irn Bru, mugs of tea and chocolate. When ready, I opened my beautiful, wonderful gifts and Brian pottered about all day, cleaning up the mess. It was like Boxing Day; Christmas is wonderful but Boxing Day is for the mums.

Unfortunately, not a lot of pics were taken of the food, despite me reminding the photographers of my food blog...yes, you! But still....

All recipes to follow, including the elusive French Onion Soup; a picture, just to tease.

Ugly Food and Lovely Children

This is how I spent Saturday....

Yeah, unfortunately, they seem to have inherited my singing genes.

When enjoying a lovely meal, we are enticed first of all by the smell and the appearance and later on by the taste. So when does ugly food ever stand a chance? "MMmmm, Ahh", you sigh, when that delightful smell hits your nostrils and you close your eyes for a moment in anticipation, fork and knife grasped in your greedy wee fists; here it comes and it's placed in front of you but SCREEEECHHHH...the big pile of pulchritude you fancied finding on your plate ends up looking just like the messy mud pies you made as a kid down by the abandoned nuclear power station/fireworks factory/old mine shaft.

Do you eat it? Do you close your eyes and just dive on in? Does it change your potential enjoyment of the dish? It shouldn't really, should it? Food is our friend and we should respect it, regardless of how it looks.....

...and with that in mind, we come to Helen's Steak Pie with Homemade Puff Pastry with a vowel missing; it didn't so much puff as pff....

Without further ado, I'll share the image; best to get it over with I've made it really small so as not to offend thee too much....

Now, this steak pie with homemade puff pastry made my family wince a little. Having spent many hours lovingly preparing it for the little darlings wee jobbies, I failed to notice the appearance might be a little....unappetising. The pff pastry, albeit dodgy looking in the extreme, was absolutely delicious; the beef had been stewed for hours in homemade beef stock and a red wine reduction with a hint of herbs, baby carrots, onions, baby potatoes, sausages and a few bay leaves.

I could have ate it til it was coming out my ears it was that good. I do tend to like my own creations though, even when others are running for the hills. Once the family were persuaded to try it by that I mean I said bleedin' well eat it you ungrateful wretches or I'll be putting in a call to Maggie Murphy's Home for Wayward Weans then they enjoyed it although the pff pastry was given a body swerve by all bar my husband who knows a good thing when he gets told by me sees it. So don't always judge a dish by it's cover or a book/person/animal for that matter; beauty lies within...sometimes way, waaaay within, but nonetheless.

Homemade puff pastry, incidentally, is really not that hard however on occasion, I think I would say there are times to put away the pinny, hang up the rolling pin and buy from the professionals. This is most definitely one of those times.

The beef stew was simmered in hot stock for 2 hours. I then placed it in a pie dish and covered it with my special pff pastry and baked in the oven for 25 minutes. Since the pie had potatoes in it, I served the pie, the whole pie and nothing but the pie.

I should have gone with the Yorkshire puddings as planned..

Another not entirely pleasant looking dish....

...which tasted lovely.

Salmon patties on a bed of spinach, watercress and rocket, cucumber, tomatoes, a little olive oil dressing with balsamic vinegar and leftover goats cheese pasta. A strange combination, leftovers you see, but it went really well together!

The salmon patties are the same as the fishcakes without the flour dipping and roasted in the oven after a quick fry in a pan to seal the top.