Aw, wee lamb!

Aw, wee blog.  Wee lamb.   Totally neglected by the big bad Scottish lady.   Here's a wee dusting, pet.   I'll be back soon for the proper clear out.   Sorry, blog.   Sorry fellow bloggers, I miss you.   Thanks for not ditching me!

 Far too much contemplating, not enough work.............

NOT!

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

My Food Week in Pictures

The last day of summer, the sun shone with glee.   We spent the day loitering in the garden, lazing on deck chairs and enjoying the warm sun.   We had a BBQ and Brian and I stayed up to watch the sun set.   The kids, tired and excited about the return to school, smiled through half shut eyes as they wearily set of for bed, windows open to let in the cool air.

Breaded Cobbler with baby buttered potatoes and cucumber slices

Goats Cheese and Spicy Prawn Salad with Sweet Chilli and Black Pepper Sauce

Yet more prawns!   Prawn Broth with Noodles.   Mmmm.

You know we love Chicken with roasted veg

Healthy BBQ food; halloumi and mushroom kebab, mixed salad, sunblushed tomatoes drizzled with pesto, loives, BBQ'd asparagus and baby buttered potatoes.

Homemade mini burgers and lamb koftas

Prawn skewers coated in spices and olive oil

Lucy enjoying the BBQ and the sun!

That's BBQ'd baby sweetcorn sticking from his gob!

Kelly eating and reading at the same time as usual!

And the sun sets on a beautiful day.

The food, as you can see, has remained light and healthy...the weather allowed us another few BBQs and we've had a busy, productive and tiring but lovely week.

New Dress Blues

I bought a new dress today from a funky new store in town; on returning home, I put on the dress to show my lovely, supportive family yeah, not so much.   I stood in front of the kids and watched their silence unfold; Fraser cocked his head to the side and declared it "old-fashioned".   Lucy kinda smirked and the words "oh dear gawd" emanated from every fibre of her being.

The kids followed me upstairs, giggling as I went to show husband.   He looked me up and down, grinned and asked "did you make it yourself?" followed by "so that's what you've been doing at all those night classes".....playing to his audience of giggling children, he went on to describe his horror in many forms which ended with me curled up under the duvet, with only eldest daughter hugs for comfort.

Sigh.

Thank gawd there's always cake.

Chocolate Cheesecake with mixed berries

I had friends over at the weekend and I served antipasti with basil pesto, sunblushed tomatoes, brie, fresh bread, dipping oil, olives and balsamic vinegar, Parmesan, a variety of tarts including caramelised red onion and goats cheese, artichoke and mint, goats cheese and pesto, asparagus and cheddar.   There was also lasagna, pasta Bolognaise, macaroni cheese, green salad with a honey and balsamic dressing all followed with apple pie, chocolate cheesecake, extra thick double cream and Colpi ice cream.   Twas a great night and no-one went hungry!

Apple Pie

Helen's buffet, suitable for kids!

 

Lasagna

Antipasti

Pasta Bolognaise and Asparagus Tart

William's cupcakes...tasty cakes, well done lad!

;

Val and Colin's Chocolate Cake...the icing was an experiment, 

I need to make again before I decide if I like it or not or whether to share!

I'm a bit late in giving the shopping list but suffice it to say, it was within budget and will last for 10 days in total; meals include the following:

Rosemary and Garlic Roast Lamb with a Pesto crust, served with roast asparagus, broccolli, green beans and roasted potato with a red wine gravy

Chicken Soup with Chickpeas

Fish & Vegetable Stew with dumplings

Salmon Tempura with Sesame Fried Rice and green veg

Prawn coconut curry

Grilled Vegetables with Halloumi

Macaroni Cheese

Lamb Curry

Fishcakes

Stirfry

Recipes and pictures to follow, my friends!

Mmmm....curry!

I decided not to plan a menu this week and therefore took no list with me on my food shopping trip; I wanted to stay within the budget and see what I could make with the ingredients I found.   A leg of lamb, reduced to approx. £4-£5 per kilo was tossed into the basket as was braising beef at £6 for 4 huge steaks.   A few trays of free range chicken breasts were added too, along with fresh coriander, chillies, ginger, potatoes, pasta, yoghurt and other substance and sundries.

The chicken was made into a tasty Green, Creamy Chicken Curry which I served to my friends on Thursday night with some home made flaky pan bread.   I was rather pleased with how it had turned out; a good bit of spice but not too hot, the coriander and lime juice coming through the creamy sauce and mixing pleasantly with the rice.   I had had a very busy day baking cupcakes for a launch night which I attended with Anne before our other friends arrived at my house; add to that, making the curry as well as painting decorations for the school fair and, in my rush, I forgot to have dinner.   On arriving home, the curry, which was meant for a late supper was instead heated right away, the rice cooked and the bread re-warmed in the pan and served with no photograph as my stomach couldn't stand to wait.   We all enjoyed it.

We had leftovers tonight along with a quickly prepared lamb curry using the leftover leg of lamb we had on Sunday, rice and pan bread.

 Slow roast leg of lamb...

rubbed with a paste made from garlic cloves, fresh thyme, olive oil, soft butter, ground cumin, sea salt, black pepper and smoked paprika.   Rub all over lamb.  Put oven to 180 degrees, gas mark 3.5 for 20 minutes, then turned down to150 degrees for 2.5 - 3 hours; at this point, pour a cupful of stock and white wine into roasting dish.   Check every hour to ensure stock/wine gravy doesn't burn away.   Add some water if needed.   Throw in potatoes, carrots and a quartered onion as well as garlic cloves in the skin for the last 45 minutes-hour.   Let the meat rest for at least 20 minutes.  If veg not ready, turn up oven and keep cooking during the rest period.

Served with peas cooked in stock and leftover mash.

 Green, Creamy Chicken Curry

 Ok, so one thing you should always, always do when you are making up a recipe is take notes.   Me, I like to think my brain is the size of a planet when actually a pea is more accurate so the retention of information will stay with me until I get to a computer, right?   Wrong.   I remember all the ingredients but since I tend to work in 'dods', especially the first time, all these measurements are approximate.   Stick with the basic guidelines, and ye cannae go wrong!

Ingredients:
 For the chicken:
8 chicken breasts....half the amount or use whatever is required
Marinade the chicken in the following mix:
Small tub creamy yoghurt
2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 teaspoons curry powder
Lemon juice (toss the lemon in there too, once juice extracted)
Sprinkling of turmeric
Grinding of black pepper

Once marinated...overnight or at least 4 hours....place onto a baking tray and bake in oven, 180 degrees (medium) for 20 minutes.   No need to turn.   Remove from oven and add to sauce when ready.

For the sauce:
1 25g packets/ 2 large handfuls coriander...if you dinnae like the green stuff, ye'll no' like this curry!!
Juice of 2 limes and zest from 1 lime
2 garlic cloves
Approx. teaspoon of cumin, half teaspoon coriander,quarter teaspoon fenugreek seeds, 2 cardamom pods, half cinammon stick, 1 clove, a few black pepper corns, ground turmeric all ground together in a pestle and mortar
Big dod of ginger....i.e. approx. 3 inches
2 green chillies, deseeded plus one whole chilli, slit a little down the middle
Small tub double cream
Thick Greek style yoghurt, approx. same amount as double cream
3 tablespoons coconut milk
2 good handfuls ground almonds
1 red chilli, deseeded and very thinly sliced into strips

Blend together: the ginger, garlic, chillies (not the whole one) and coriander.   Add the spices, blend and then the lime juice.   This should make a nice paste.

Melt some ghee or a mix of butter and oil in a deep pan over a medium heat.   Add the paste and cook for 10 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn.  You may want to turn the heat down after the first five minutes and add a few drops of water if necessary to stop the mix catching.

Add the cream and stir into the mix.   Then add the yoghurt and the coconut milk.   Add the whole chilli.   If you want the sauce a bit thinner, add a little stock.   A teaspoon of sugar and a good sprinkling of salt should be added although you could omit this.   Leave the sauce to simmer with a lid partially on.   Add the chicken when ready.   Thrown in the thinly sliced red chilli and the almonds.

Simmer gently together with the chicken for at least 20 minutes; the chicken should be cooked through (obviously) and will be tender.   Add the juice from a lime or lemon if you prefer and another good handful or two of finely chopped coriander.   Taste, season if necessary and serve.

Boiled rice, lamb and potato curry, green, creamy chicken curry and quick pan bread

 Curry close up!

The Lemon Madeira Cupcakes for the new product launch were frosted with a mix of pale pink and pink vanilla butter icing and topped with flowers, leaves and butterflies.   They tasted yummy.

Ingredients:

250g softened unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 large eggs

210g self-raising flour

90g plain flour

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy.

Grate the lemon zest into the bowl.

I made a double batch so I grated the first lemon and used a zester for the second to give longer strips.

Add a tablespoon of flour with one egg and mix together; repeat until all eggs are incorporated and add the remaining flour.

Add the lemon juice and mix until combined.

Place paper cases into a cake or muffin tray.

Add approx. a large tablespoon of cake batter to each paper case.

Bake in oven 170, gas mark 3 for approx. 20-25 minutes or until golden; use a skewer inserted into a cake to check they are cooked; it should come out clean.

Make frosting by mixing sieved icing sugar with soft butter, a little at a time until fully incorporated and creamy, adding colour of choice and vanilla to taste....a few drops at a time!

Frost cakes and decorate.

Enjoy.

I made thai fishcakes;
Disaster!
The Thai green sauce was delicious but I totally mucked up the cake; it tasted nice but not great, far too greasy and in need of much simplification.   Back to the drawing board; I'll keep you updated.

Aww...except look at the expression on Lucy's face.....*shiver*