If Food Be The Music Of Love....

....Why Don't You Stop Yer Whingeing a good wee word; think a cross between wining, moaning and wailing...it's not fun...And Just Eat It?   So said the lady to her wee boy in the cafe, sitting next to me.   He had said "This Tastes Minging" and then, surprisingly, considering his young age around 7, "Isn't Food Supposed Tae Be The Music Of  Love....or sumhin like that?"   "Cos If Ye Loved Me, Ye Widnae Make Me Eat This Mingin Stuff".   And that's when she replied.  

I had to leave so that I could laugh; it was funny and in it's own wee way, very sweet.   I guess you had to be there to see how she smiled at him and they both chuckled to each other.  

Beef and Barley Broth

It's been stews, casseroles and pies this past few weeks; the chill is already in the air and we've felt like coorying up with a bowl of something hot, soothing and meaty!   I'm having smaller portions than everyone else but that's ok because a stew like this fills your belly pretty quickly.   All recipes to come next week.

More Broth!

Chicken Pie with Cheesy Cobbler Topping...oh my.

Tasty garlic bread

Beef, Sausage and Potato Stew...this was later topped with dumplings.   Very tasty.

Carbonnade a la Flamande with Mash and Crisp Vegetables

This is a traditional Belgain dish made with Belgian beer and slow cooked for hours.   You caramelise the onions first, making this a really tasty meal with a hint of sweetness.

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Friends, trying to eat in peace; "fer goodness sake, can I eat my soup??"

I promise all recipes next week; I have my first fair this week and I'm head to toe in badges and paintings!   Have a wonderful weekend, lovely bloggy peeps.

Scotland vs France and Garlic Swirls

Today, Scotland plays France in the RBS 6 Nations Rugby; the 6 nations are Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, France and Italy.   I'm not a huge sports fan by any means but there is something about the game of rugby...a wee bit similar to American football...that I just love; there is a wonderful camaraderie between all the fans unlike with football, the strength and focus of the players, the determination of every team; despite everyone taking it seriously, everyone enjoys the whole thing immensely.  

Now isn't that what sport should be about?

So at 3pm, I shall be watching, much to the chagrin of some sorry girls, enjoy the afternoon tea and the joy of others come on over.   Come on, Scotland!

Garlic Butter Swirls

Lightly grease a shallow baking tin (enough for 12 small rolls) or place parchment paper on instead.  Place the flour in a bowl with butter, and rub it together.   Stir in salt and yeast.   Make a well in the centre and add enough water to make a soft dough...not too sticky!

Turn onto surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth.   Place in a polythene bag with a wee bit of oil in it and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the dough to approx. 35x25cm/14x10 inches.   Mix together the butter, garlic, lemon juice and spread over the dough, taking it right to the edges.   Scatter the parsley over the top and season lightly.

Roll up the dough tightly from the long edge like a swiss roll and pinch the seams together to seal.   Using a sharp knife, cut into 12 equal pieces.   Turn the pieces so that the spiral faces upwards on the baking tray-space evenly.   Cover the rolls...I use a damp tea towel...and leave for the second proving in a warm place until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven 10 minutes before using to Gas Mark 7/220oC/425oF.   Bake the bread for 15-20 minutes until golden.   Allow to cool slightly on a wire rack before serving warm.

These rolls freeze beautifully and are wonderful with pasta dishes like spaghetti Bolognese as well as serving with antipasti dipping into olive oil and balsamic vinegar.   You can sprinkle some chilli flakes over the garlic butter before rolling up the dough for an extra zingy version.   Gone to have some now....

The ingredients, in easy to read format:

350g (12oz) mixed grain bread flour

25g (1oz) butter

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fast action dried yeast (easy use yeast/granules)

250ml (8 fl.oz)  hand hot water

For the garlic butter:

50g (2oz) butter, melted and cooled

2 garlic cloves, crushed

A good squeeze of lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

AWOL

Forgive me, bloggers, for I have sinned, it's been five days since my last blog post and I have little or no excuse except that it was a holiday weekend and when not cooking, painting, cleaning, hanging out with the kids or exercising ha! when I say exercising, I mean the contemplation of starting a new routine, donning the gear and looking at the size of my butt in the mirror; I'm gonna stand at the back of my yoga class from now on, I was drawing, yoga-ing and shopping.

Kelly's Room, almost complete. She asked for a dove in that painting!

We're getting there....


...almost!

I had a lovely, spur of the moment drink in the Burnbrae on Thursday night with Anne and we put the world to rights. Friday was spent Ikea shopping for kids stuff, coorying in with the little 'uns, playing games and doing more cleaning, sorting and painting in the children's bedrooms. I made no plans for the evening as I had a yoga session booked in, courtesy of Jo, at the Chi Yoga Centre in Glasgow as Manju Jois the son of Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois, who sadly died this year, both world renowned ashtanga teachers was in Glasgow, teaching. It was excellent.

Saturday evening, we donned a dress or two check out my new dodgy hairdo and headed to Lyn's for Chinese food, home cooked by her husband Ken and some beverages or two of the alcoholic kind. It was a lovely evening although my thinking was, that as it was so close, we could all just walk home at midnight; not my finest hour or the best laid plan. Two out of the three children were fast asleep when we decided to go and carrying them, although an option to be considered as a last resort, didn't bode well with four inch heels. They clung to me, walking like the waking dead and collapsed into their beds in wee heaps. I've learnt that particular lesson.

We took Kelly's friend Ellie with us on Sunday to meet up with Ann and Eric and Ruiradh for bowling and a late lunch. Cooking was certainly attempted over the weekend but for some reason, my memory is vague. I did bake some lovely bread on Monday, alongside cinnamon buns. I used my hearthbread recipe but changed the toppings; I made two large rectangle bread sheets and cut a line in the middle of each. One hearthbread was drizzled with olive oil and sea salt with one half sprinkled with Parmesan and a little basil. The other hearthbread was topped with a mixture of baked garlic see hearthbread recipe, blended with rosemary, salt and olive oil. One half was dotted with cherry tomatoes.

We had the breads with chicken, egg salad, pickles, sauteed potatoes baked with cheese and a little butter. I think we sat at the table for at least two hours, eating, chatting and getting our faces stuck into the lovely cinnamon, iced buns, Kelly's, of course, laced with Nutella.

I had a dodgy hair experience on Saturday; it was actually a nice place, very friendly, lots of mugs of steaming coffee and tea and a wonderful head massage alongside a shower but that's just typical wee lassie hair washing experience but the resulting damage was not. The muted lighting of the place made my hair look like Jennifer Anniston's and, despite being severely overcharged don't get it, this always seems to happen to me, even if I object...don't think I look like the rich sort...I was happy with the do but once into the light, the donning of glasses by my family waiting in the car and the sniggering of those that passed me by made me realise that, in actual fact, I looked more like I'd been painting with a nice magnolia and dropped the paintbrush on my head. So tonight, I shall be colouring it myself. A very expensive mistake.

The next few weeks, I shall be focusing on some low fat but still tasty dinners on a budget. I have 14 pounds who would like to leave me for pastures new and, never being one to stand in the way of progress or adventure, I've accepted the need for those pounds to leave and at least they've given me some notice. I shall spend however long it takes four weeks would be nice, however, since that is a ridiculous goal and with my penchant for baked goods, curries and stews, it's doubtful really,therefore I'd be happy if it took 10 weeks and, not being one to diet, it will have to be by cutting down a little, changing some meals to low fat and plenty of exercise. Tasty and low fat? Watch this space.

Shopping List and Menu.

This weeks menu for family of five:

Family of five
Garlic mozzarella pizza, potato wedges, tomato, basil & mozzarella salad, cucumber strips
Roast Lamb with mashed potatoes, sweet potato crisps, roasted parsnip & green vegetables
Chicken, Rice and Vegetable Soup with homemade Bread
Roast Chicken with vegetable couscous and gravy
Moroccan lamb with rice, couscous, roasted tomatoes, yogurt raita and pitta bread
Garlic and Rosemary hearthbreads with cold meats and salad

Kids only
Macaroni Cheese
Chicken noodle soup and baked potatoes with tuna mayonnaise and cheese salad
Fish fingers, chips and baked beans

Helen & Brian
Linguine with spicy tomato, feta, pine nuts and spinach
Linguine puttanesca
Fried spinach and potato curry with rice and paratha

Breakfast
Cereal, porridge, toast, homemade fruit loaf, chocolate and hazelnut buns (made with Nutella) and danish pastries.

Lunches
Sandwiches, soup, cheese, biscuits, bread, bananas, apples, crackers.

Snacks
Pickles, bread, French toast, mini chocolate muffins

There are nine main meals, some of which will use items already in the freezer. The leg of lamb will be roasted, the leftovers used for the Moroccan lamb and some frozen for later on, for curry.

The receipt came to £50.92.

Tonight's fayre is homemade garlic and mozzarella pizza with potato wedges, tomato, basil (grown in a pot) and mozzarella salad and cucumber strips.

The potato wedges are made by quartering and then halving Maris Piper potatoes with the skin on and covering with olive oil and sea salt. Use your hands to coat each potato wedge thoroughly. Place in an oven at 240 degrees Celsius, 10-15 minutes before the pizza goes in; they should cook in approx. 30 minutes, depending on your oven.

Garlic & Mozzarella Pizza
The pizza dough I normally use works well with this but I prefer to use 200g strong white bread flour and 50g plain flour when not using tomato sauce.

Pizza Dough
250g flour, 200 strong white bread flour, 50g plain
1 heaped teaspoon easy-blend dried yeast (half 7g sachet)
Half teaspoon salt
150ml warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pizza tray with holes, or baking sheet, oiled with olive oil

Combine flour, yeast and salt and mix. Pour in water and oil and mix to form a dough, adding more water if necessary. Knead for 5 minutes. Put into an oiled bowl, turning once to oil both sides of the dough, cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise for an hour.

After an hour or so or once dough has doubled in size, punch all the air out of it and knead for another minute. You can squeeze it to fit into your chosen tin but I tend to hold it in two hands firmly, shake it, moving it around from hand to hand quickly. As it starts to get larger, keep moving so that you don't end up with too many tears. Lay it on the pizza tin and then press out to fit. It's ok to have a thicker rim, this makes for a lovely crust.

Dimple the dough with your fingers and pour over some olive oil; enough to cover the dough lightly, not too much that it dribbles through any holes or falls over the sides. Sprinkle over crushed garlic...around 2 cloves or more if you prefer, a good pinch of sea salt and then lay thinly sliced mozzarella around the middle of the pizza. Drizzle over a little more olive oil. I like to place a basil leaf right in the middle, just for me and aesthetics!

Place in pre-heated oven...it should already be at 240 degrees c for the potato wedges and bake in the middle for approx. 15-20 minutes or until browned and bubbling.

Serve with the cucumber strips, which the kids love and the mozzarella, basil and tomato salad, which is my favourite.

The kids like to add a little melted butter to the crust which is lovely or you can add another little drizzle of olive oil, which I usually do. Bon Appétit!

Shopping List 24th July-2nd August 2009

It's been a while since I've had to go shopping but yesterday, after our small adventure exploring the side streets of Bearsden and ice cream at MacDonalds, we headed to Asda. I think I may have to consider changing supermarkets as their stock seems to run low really quickly these days and the fishmonger wouldn't skin lemon sole for me "cos I don't have a skinning knife..."! Lucy turned to me when he was out of earshot and said "I don't think that's true, I just think he couldn't be bothered"...even an 8 year old picked up on that.

With him left holding the lemon sole, I continued my shop, and bumped into Dave and Olwen, my old English teachers, looking tanned and healthy after a walking holiday in France. They looked healthier than I did, despite them having had the journey home just an hour or so before and being 20 years older. Sigh.

Brian is away looking for gold once again so we've played in the garden, read, chased each other and they all helped make the bread. It is a lovely day and I'm considering scooping them up and taking them to Massimos as it would be a nice walk there but the house is brimming with food and everyone seems quite happy and content so we shall see.

I spent £54 exactly and have enough meals for at least 10 days. The menu so far:

Children & Adults:
Garlic & Parsley, Rosemary & Thyme Hearthbreads with cold meats and cheeses.
Seasoned Sausage Ragout with Baby Jersey Royal Potatoes
Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding
Pasta Fest
Ciabbatta toasted with cheeses, tomato and basil
Hearthbread Pizza with homemade tomato sauce and fresh mozarella
Vegetable curry with Chick Peas and Rice
Vegetable soup
Afternoon Tea: Cucumber, Egg and Ham Sandwiches, Scones and Mini Pancakes
French Toast
Lahmacun with green leaves and goats cheese
Lasagna
Children:
Salmon Fishcakes
Lamb Meatballs with Rice
Chicken Noodle soup
Penne Pasta with tomato Sauce and Parmesan and garlic bread
Adults:
Pan-fried Salmon with Tomato and Rocket Pesto Salad and crispy courgettes
Lamb Burgers served in a wholemeal bun with sweet potato fries
Carrot, honey & ginger soup
Spaghetti with Pesto, Goats Cheese & Pine Nuts with leftover Hearthbread
Cakes:
Scones
Scotch Pancakes
Bread & Butter Pudding
Danish Pastries inc. Almond
Fresh Gingerbread with lemon icing
Breakfasts:
Pastries, Fruit Loaf, Toast, Pancakes, Cereal, Porridge and Eggs.

I made the hearthbreads this afternoon and we had them with chorizo, salami, parma ham, thin slices of Parmesan, tomatoes with seal salt and basil, olives and olive oil for dipping. We will have some of the remainder tonight with ham, turkey and green salad.
Garlic & Parsley, Rosemary & Thyme Hearthbreads
This recipe is inspired by Nigella Lawson's Hearthbread recipe
Makes 2 baking sheet sized breads. You will roast your garlic before cooking any bread so set the oven to 190 degrees celsius/gas mark 5.

500g strong white flour (I used strong white bread flour)

1 sachet instant yeast (7g) or 15g fresh yeast

1 tbsp salt

300ml warm water

5 tbsp olive oil plus extra for the parsley mix and drizzling

1 head fresh garlic, top sliced, drizzled with oil, roasted in the oven in sealed foil for 45 minutes

Bunch of flat leaf parsley, most stalks removed (don't worry about this too much)

A small handful of chopped, fresh rosemary and thyme (dried would work though)

Maldon sea salt or other salt for sprinkling

2 small baking trays and parchment paper, lightly oiled

Method

Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl and mix together in a jug the warm water and 5 tbsp olive oil. Stir wet mixture into the dry one and combine the two...use more water if you need but this should be plenty. Place dough onto a lightly floured working surface. Knead for around 10-15 minutes or until dough is supple, elastic and smooth. Knead using the balls of your hands, just below the thumb and push the dough away from you and then wrap it all up again, occasionally turning over the dough and adding a sprinkling of flour if required.

Clean your large bowl or, like me, use a different bowl and lightly oil it with olive oil. Place the bread inside and then turn over so that all the dough has some oil on it. Cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for around 1 hour until is has double in size. I placed mine inside the plate cupboard.

This is the point I roasted the garlic but you could do it beforehand. You want it to cool down and then you add it to the parsley which you have chopped in the food processor and blend. I add a little sea salt at this point. As it is slowly blending, add some olive oil, not too much. You don't want it too runny but more of a pesto consistency. Set aside. Put the oven up to 200 degrees celsius.

After your bread has risen, punch down dough and leave it for 10 minutes, then, divide into two. Place each dough onto the parchment paper and pull out with your fingers, pressing it into a rectangle or oval shape. Place dough, still sitting on parchment paper, onto baking tray. Cover with tea towels and leave for a further 25 minutes.

With your fingertips, poke all over the bread to dimple it, pushing it out a bit more in the process. Sprinkle the breads with a little sea salt and pour the garlic and parsley mixture over one of the breads and a liberal sprinkling of olive oil and the rosemary and thyme over the other.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until the top is golden; if you tap it, it should sound hollow. Once they came out of the oven, I laid little slivers of butter on the rosemary bread and a good drizzle of olive oil on the parsley bread.

I served, the kids ripped it apart and we really, thoroughly enjoyed it. Never getting enough olive oil, I had a little drop in a bowl to dip the bread into. Delicious. Really delicious.

Olives

You either love them or hate them. If you love them then the best are from Somerfield's Extra Special Range, in particular the large green olives with garlic. To make your own cheaper, extra special kind, buy a large pack of Asda's small green olives, usually Spanish. Drain them and put into a dish with a tablespoon of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and possibly a little bit of rind, sea salt to taste, lots of freshly ground black pepper, some leftover thyme (basil works well too) and a good, fine grating of Parmesan cheese. I have a jar of seasoned garlic cloves which I add and occasionally some feta if I have any left over but these are extras. Mix well, cover and leave for at least 12 hours. Delicious and a fraction of the cost.

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.