Happy Valentines Day

 

 Love is in the air, everywhere I look around....I just got sent this image from someone who wished to remain anonymous:

Aww.   Well, thank you anonymous stranger, I'll look after it.  

 

Flourless orange cake; recipe to follow this week-twas deelish.

 

Lasagna; truly tasty.

 

Spag Bog.   For Lucy.

 

Salmon fishcakes, for Kelly and friends

 

Fat scones

 

Aromatic Thai Chicken with Spicy Crackling-Recipe to follow. Mmmmmm!

 

Our newest dolly member; she doesn't have a name yet as she is for Heather.   Isn't she adorable?

Lots of recipes this week including the giveaway I've been going on about and a traveller to your home!   Have a lovely Sunday and a wonderful Valentines Day.

Shopping Week 7-9

The menu this fortnight:

Salmon fishcakes

Chicken goujons and straw fries

Aromatic Thai chicken

Sausage & Mash

Lasagna

Tuna Mayo Salad

Farmhouse chicken and chorizo casserole

Spaghetti Bolognese

Parmesan, pine nut and lemon pasta

Chicken stew with dumplings

Spicy Chinese soup

Roast chicken with trimmings

Sesame salmon and crushed potatoes

Chicken and rice soup

Cheese and onion quiche

 

 

Chocolate & Cherry cake...I lost control of the sprinkler!

 

Receipt: £92; £41 per weekly shop

 

Marks and Spencer tin, now filled with homemade biccies

Sweet stuff (some breakfast):

Pikelets

Seville Orange & almond cake

Swedish tea ring

Chocolate buns

Pinwheel biscuits

Scones

Crepes

Chocolate Marquise cake

Snacks (some breakfast):

Fruit

Homemade bread

Cheese

Ryvita

Toast

 

Lunches:

Soup

Sandwiches

Pasta

Baked potatoes

 

 

Fried potatoes with cumin and coriander...mmmm.

 

 

Picture for Jennifer

My Helen, what lovely buns you have.....

"All the better to entice you with, my dear...".   "Why, thank you!" came the reply til I noticed him peering at a pair of Nutella covered chocolate buns.....I sighed inwardly and offered him one......uh...a bun....cheeky.....!   The buns in question were rather delectable so I can understand the staring.  

 

 Helen's Buns

This is the same recipe, dough-wise as the schnecken  but with 100g more flour and 80g sugar instead of 50g.   You can use oil instead of butter if you wish in this recipe.   So, all is the same up to the stage of rolling out the dough.   At that point, stop!  No longer follow schnecken and go the Helen Bun route instead;  you simply sprinkle over some sugar...a few tablespoons, making sure you coat the entire thing and then sprinkle with chocolate chips, enough to cover the dough evenly.   I used a 100g packet.   You then press the drops firmly into the dough and then roll up as per usual for buns, i.e. starting from the long end, rolling like a swiss roll.   Cut into 14-16 pieces, place on a parchment papered or oiled baking tray and follow the schnecken recipe, i.e. leave to prove and bake at the same temperature.

You don't have the syrup mix on this bun, like the schnecken do...so instead....oh this makes me happy...you take two large tablespoons of Nutella out of the jar and into a bowl, you melt in the microwave for about 10 seconds...stir...another 10 seconds...stir again at which time it should be soft and runny.   Pour over the cooled buns.   Leave to cool again and set a little then sprinkle with icing sugar through a sieve.   Gaze in wonder and have two immediately with coffee, pretending to everyone and yourself that there were only 12 to begin with....12 I tell ya!   At 300 calories each...yup, I worked it out....1 bun is all you should really allow yourself but then, I'd had soup for lunch.....*whistling*...stepping away from the buns....

 

A wonderful breakfast treat

Today's shopping came to just over £92 for two weeks.   There is a lot of chicken dishes this fortnight and a few new cakes which I'm excited to try.   I shall post the receipt and menu plan tomorrow.

Having had rather a lot of leftover cooked salmon from Christmas, I decided it had to be eaten as it was getting near it's throw out date, frozen or not!   I decided to curry it...yup, that's right....curry.   It was mighty fine, good for us and extremely easy, considering I had curry sauce leftover in the freezer as well.   I threw it...the sauce... into a pan and added some water, getting it to a simmer.   I then tossed in some chopped onion, some cherry tomatoes and a potato, peeled and roughly chopped.   After the potato was almost soft...about 10 minutes, I threw in the salmon, broken up into large chunks and simmered for a further five minutes.

I added a sprinkling of ground cumin and coriander and a little turmeric.   I cooked for a further five minutes at a gentle simmer with a lid on and then served the dish with plain, boiled, white basmati rice.

 

So, Scotland, unfortunately, lost the rugby game on Sunday.    France were clearly on much better form and it was enjoyable to watch.   I had prepared some snacks in preparation....

...much to the amusement of my husband.   It's not exactly typical football/rugby fayre, now is it?   This is what I felt like, you know it's my favourite, so that is what I had, plus it was leftover from the girls night on Thursday and needed using up...suuuuure it did.....!

Until tomorrow my friends....have a wonderful, crazy night.   

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

Wordless Wednesday

This Wednesday, the house is blooming!

 

Scottish Jambalaya!

Two nights in a row I haven't slept and my goodness, do I feel grumpy.   I lay on the sofa this morning, eyes like a half shut knife, growling at anyone who came within three feet of me.   It was the same old story; after being intravenously fed a cup of tea, I came to, just in time to have my heart sink at the sight of yet another blanket of snow; I rushed around as fast as my tired legs could carry me and found a bizarre assortment of gloves and hats for the children to wear....Kelly had one pink fluffy mitt and a hand puppet, I kid you not.   Why the school haven't sent out a social worker yet, I've no idea.....

I managed a smile and a kiss for each of them...not Brian; think Rottweiler snarl...poor guy...and crawled towards the bathroom for a shower.   Going as fast as a speeding tortoise, I had no time to fix my mop of unruly blonde hair stop telling me it looks ginger or I may have to kill you...no offence to those beautiful, natural ginger headed lovelies of course...and walking along in the snow, I'm sure I saw people pointing and laughing from their cars as my hair got bigger and bigger and bigger.   My hair arrived at yoga 10 minutes before I did, lay out my mat and twirled itself around a passing leg.

We did flow yoga to music; very enjoyable in a "WTH-my-body-can't-bend-like-that; I-may-have-a-dizzy-turn-or-even-faint-anytime-soon" kind of way.   We looked totally knackered by the end of it and coffee was welcomed by all.   By the time I left, the sun was shining and I'd perked up so I strolled to Ann's for another wee coffee before heading home.   Having refused to eat anything, saving it all for my lunch, Brian, who was having lunch with me, became increasingly quiet as my lips curled up and my teeth seemed to grow a few inches.   One slice of toast and a poached egg later, I was much better and got on happily with the rest of the day.

 

Lola was finished this week

I fancied making Jambalaya; having had chicken breasts at the ready to make buttermilk chicken but with no buttermilk, this seemed like a good opportunity.   I also had a bag of prawns sitting in the freezer unopened from Christmas, vaguso using store cupboard ingredients which vaguely resembled the recipe I had, I went about creating Scottish Jambalaya...or JambalHiya as Lucy christened it.

Jambalaya                                                  Scottish Version
1 tbs plain flour                                          Same
1 tsp dried oregano                                    Half tsp dried thyme
2 tsp paprika                                              1 tsp smoked paprika
Half tsp celery seeds                                  Good sprinkling celery salt
750g (eight pieces) chicken thighs               2 chicken breasts, cut in half
2 tablespoons olive oil                                1 tablespoon olive oil
225g/8 oz  chorizo skinned and sliced         Oh, I wish but had none left
3 cloves garlic peeled and chopped            1 big fat clove
500g raw shelled prawns                            250g cooked frozen tiger prawns
1 onion peeled and finely sliced                   Same
1 celery heart, leaves and all                        Nope
2 red peppers, thinly sliced                          1 orange pepper
1 tsp dried thyme                                        Same
5 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, quartered        Tin plum tomatoes, sauce and all
6 handfuls long grain rice                             A big dod of basmati rice
1-4 tbs tabasco sauce                                 That would have been nice but sadly, no
1 handful chopped fresh leaf parsley            Had some but was too hungry....
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper     Yup

Mix flour, herb of choice, paprika (I used smoked because I love it), celery seeds (celery salt in my case), salt and pepper in a large bowl.  Coat chicken in flour mix and fry in olive oil until brown.   Gosh, the smell from this alone....

Browning the chicken in spices

Remove chicken back to the floury bowl and fry chorizo, if you have it for a few minutes then reduce heat and add remaining  paprika, some salt, garlic and prawns (shrimps).   Stir until the prawns turn pink or in the case of frozen prawns, stew!   Prawns really shouldn't stew but well, I knew it would be good, I wasn't being too  pernickety.  Add onions, celery if using, peppers and thyme to the pan.   Stir every now and then until onion is soft...approx. 10 minutes.  

Sweating the veg and prawns with thyme

Return chicken and remaining flour to pan alongside tomatoes and  rice and cover with water.   Give it a good stir, bring to a gentle boil and simmer until rice is cooked-according to my recipe about 40 minutes but I don't imagine any rice would take that long.   I shall cook it for this long however when next using long-grain.   I was using basmati so I cooked it for approx. 20 minutes.   Everything was cooked through, the chicken was tender and the rice perfect.

 

Tomatoes, rice and water added

    

Season to taste with salt, pepper, tabasco and parsley.   Plate up, salivate, have husband tell you he isn't touching it because there are prawns in it and eat alone, mentally sticking two fingers up to him but then realising that it's now just yours...all yours and yours alone!   Mmmmmm.

 

A steamy bowl of Scottish Jambalaya!

Tender, spicy chicken and prawns

We made biscuits tonight, some in the shape of hearts since it's February.....

Iced and plain butter biscuits

Lovely!

Whatever happened to quiet weekends?

Kids.   

Yes, you!

That's what happened.   Kids I tell ya!   Remember going out on a Friday night straight from work?  You'd hit Fouquets and dine on their shared platter, eating a mozarella stick or onion ring for every martini drunk, heading home to change at 9pm to go to a club and falling into a coma like sleep about 3am.   Rising at noon, you'd head out to the local cafe for brunch and watch the world go by in large, dark glasses long before such a thing was trendy....no little dogs in large bags in Glasgow.....then stroll home through the park, napping on the sofa until dinner time and then spending an hour getting ready with the radio blaring and doing it all over again, with the addition of the Sunday papers this time and a huge fry up rather than Saturday's croissant.

I don't actually miss those days but isn't it funny that in my head, that was my definition of a quiet weekend?

This weekend was spent, amongst other things, entertaining, birthday celebrating Happy Birthday, Heather, my lovely little niece, swimming and bear shopping.   On Friday, we had friends come over...10 adults and 11 kids; there are times when I realise my optimism doesn't always overcome the space I have although gin does.....but we settled in to our limited space and enjoyed the night.

I opted for comfort food, food that kids and adults alike would eat....beef stew, chicken and chorizo casserole with dumplings, vegetarian lasagne, homemade pizza, bread, sausage and mash with lashings of gravy yes, that was a water jug I used and a big, fat, ungainly, cartoon like chocolate cake.

The kids helped; the messier looking, the better they said....

It was all fine and served fairly hot although I've discovered that the temperature to heat up beef stew and chicken and chorizo casserole should definitely be different.   Next time, one in a pot, one in the oven.

My lovely Irish bloggy friend,  Mise had a giveaway.   Having never won anything or having been told not to enter as Scotland is too far too post we do have airmail ya know...it might be in the form of pigeons but it still gets here....I was incredibly surprised and delighted to win a lovely tea cosy from the amazing peeps at Mabel and Violet.   This stuff is seriously lovely and the website, moreish!   Thank you, Mise, Mabel and Violet; I love it, the kids love it, husband thinks it's a bit mental and my friend tried to steal it  no-one's seen her for days......   All of which are good.  Now, if you could make a Helen cosy, I'd sure appreciate it.....

Kelly pouring me some funky tea!

 

Kelly wanted mash cakes and peas so we gave her The McGinn Family to scoff.

 

The kids made oat and choccy chip cookies! Well done, kids....sorry there are none left.....

Farmhouse Chicken and Chorizo Casserole

When I made this dish, I added the chorizo at the end because I couldn't get one at the time; I recommend cooking it with the stew to intensify the flavour and so that the chorizo is as tender as the chicken.   Adding it at the end was nice but it was still chewy and the oil didn't have the same chance to ooze out, coating everything in sight...always a good thing with chorizo.   Any spicy or not spicy sausage could be used.   I also make it without the chorizo as a cheap and tasty family dish.

I also recommend doubling up on the quantities; this freezes beautifully.

Oven 200oC, 400oF, Gas 6.

1.5kg/3lb chicken pieces (I use thighs, skin removed but use whatever you prefer)

1 whole chorizo sausage, sliced half an inch thick.

Seasoned flour, approx. 4 tablespoons

60g/2oz butter

1-2 crushed cloves of garlic

600ml/1 pt chicken stock

2 tablespoons tomato puree (mixed into stock)

1 tablespoon veg oil

Selection of root veg; turnip, parsnip, carrot, diced

4 small onions, roughly chopped or 8 shallots whole.

3 slices of bacon, chopped

8 new baby potatoes, quartered or 4 Maris Piper, cut into eight.

Salt, freshly ground black pepper, chopped parsley (fresh)

Toss chicken in flour to cook, brown in pan with melted butter over a medium heat and transfer to a casserole dish.   Throw in sliced chorizo, toss around the pan for a moment and add to chicken.   Remove with a slotted spoon so that the remaining butter and chorizo oil remain.  Add garlic to pan and leftover flour, cook over low heat for a minute, stirring all the time and then remove from heat and slowly add stock and puree mix.   Put back in heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens.   Pour over chicken and chorizo.   Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

 Browned and covered with sauce

Heat the oil in a pan and cook root veg over a medium heat for a few minutes; remove onto a plate and add onions and bacon to the pan.   Cook until the bacon is crisp.   Take chicken dish from oven and add in the root veg, the onions and bacon alongside the uncooked potatoes, black pepper and parsley.  

 Veg and parsley added

Cover and bake for a further 40 minutes.  If making dumplings, add them in 15 minutes before the end.  This is great to serve immediately or leave in the fridge to be reheated the next day.   Excellent dish if people coming over and time is limited.