Cooking, both success and disaster!

What with our glut of strawberries I decided to cook a strawberry tart recipe that I had found on the BBC food website. I had all the ingredients, and what with my meal planning (and thus food buying to accomodate) I didn't want to buy any more, so kept to something I could do.

The recipe is from here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/strawberrytart_74752.shtml

Ingredients

30g/1oz caster sugar

110g/4oz strawberries, hulled and cut in half drizzle of balsamic vinegar

round of rolled shortcrust pastry (approx. 12cm/5in diameter)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

2. Heat the sugar in a pan until a caramel has formed. Add the strawberries, shaking the pan to coat.

3. Drizzle balsamic vinegar onto the pastry and then top with the caramelised strawberries.

4. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes, or until the pastry is crisp and golden.

Looks nice and simple, doesn't it.

Except, I don't think one bit worked!

The sugar melted as expected, but when I added the strawberries, it cooled the sugar down to such a degree that it hardened into one lump. This then stuck to my spoon. This also meant that my strawberries and sauce had no sweetness.

Then, where on the recipe is the bit about baking blind?? huh, huh? It wasn't there so I didn't precook. So the pastry was raw in the middle.

Next, it wanted the tart to be 12cm diameter, for one. That is a BIG tart. And what about pastry cases? No mention of that either.

So, you will see from the picture that they look quite nice, but they tasted like shite. Ah well. I have learnt my lesson and have found a simple recipe for tart in a Take a Break that I saved. I will check the ingredients and make sure I have them in for the day after our next picking trip!!

I did have some success though. We've just finished lunch and I made a recipe that my mother-in-law found years ago. It was lovely.

It is Chocolate up and over pudding, and was delicious.

The disaster tarts
The sugary mistake

My beautiful up-and-over pud.

My latest cooking attempts!

This is the Beef and Onion cobbler that I made. It's no Cordon Bleu cuisine, but it was very nice it was good to have a change from spuds, rice and pasta. The scones were more dumpling like than cakey, and for me a little too heavy. But very very tasty. They soaked up some of the sauce which was delicious.

This is the recipe. I was pleased that mine looked fairly similar!
At school, my favourite pud was pineapple upside down cake, but I had never made it. And recently I was looking for sweet puddings to make for the children, especailly while they are younger and need more full fat things. This sprung out at me, and it was from Mrs Beeton's cookbook. It had nearly a whole pound of flour and a lot of butter but has so far served 10 portions, and another 6 portions in the freezer, for when Span and children fancy it next!

There are several puddingy things in Mrs B and intend to try a few over the next year or so.

I think I might have found my cooking passion. I like everyday recipes. Things that I can do on a boring Monday night, or a busy Tuesday. I'm not interested in fancy recipes that need expensive, rare or weird ingredients. Give me something with tinned tomatoes, flour, cream or butter and I am happy!

My new book, coupled with Mrs Beeton will keep me busy for an age and I keep finding things on Blogs that I will try.

I hope I have the time to potter around like this from September!

I'm still here!

And I keep meaning to update about our hols, but its getting so hard to find the time. I was out 4 nights last week. Sadly, not having oodles of fun, but Brownies, Aqua, Babysitting and THEN a night out.

And this weekend we have been mostly tidying, clearing out, sorting, attempting to Ebay, reloading the loft, generally getting things sorted.

I find that one way I clear up is to just put things in the room they belong, to start with, usually by just chucking it in. Then, once that is done, actually put the stuff away. Needless to say, most of the junk is the children's so its usually their rooms with the biggest piles!

I sorted their toys out as well, and had "toy rage" which is when I just can't work out what to put away, realise there is a load of crap, and it is ALL in the wrong place. Hopefully, it will be a little more organised as I have put a lot away this time.

I also made a Pineapple Upside Down cake today. It was so heavy, and more pudding like than I expected but very nice, and I did get pics. I'll update ASAP with holiday pictures, and then with my cooking photos (I also did a Beef Cobbler with pics, which was tasty)

My latest fad is meal planning. I am trying to prevent wastage, and only buying exactly what we need. I don't think we'll actually save much money, but we'll see. I have started a spreadsheet to see how much we spend on food. Hopefully I'll remember to update on that in the future. I bought a new cookbook which is ideal for easy, cheap and different meals. I'm aiming to use it at least once a week, to try and expant our regular meals a little. I felt like I was using tinned toms ALL the time. Any good ones will appear on here!

I think its bedtime now though, so further musings will have to wait!

Another Recipe

I had a disaster with one recipe on Monday, but TAB redeemed itself yesterday when I attempted Normandy Casserole. I made it with pork instead of chicken as thats what we had in!
I thought of Lindy with her apple corer thing she bought. Sadly there is only one apple required for this recipe, but never mind!!

Normandy Casserole
Serves:4
Ready in: 1hr20
Calories per portion: 265
Total cost:£6.90 (according to magazine, I've no idea if that is accurate)

Ingredients
1tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and cut into wedges
2-3 garlic cloves,peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, trimmed and sliced
450g/1lb chicken breast fillets, cut into bite-sized pieces
2tbsp flour
450ml/3/4pint apple juice
225g/8oz carrots, peeled and sliced
1tbsp soy sauce
100g/4oz button mushrooms,
1 red apple, cored and chopped
225g/8z thawed broad beans (I didn't use this)
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 190C/fan oven 170C/Gas mark 5 10 misn before cooking. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and saute the onion, garlic, celery and chicken for 5 mins, stirring frequently until the chicken is sealed.
Sprinkle in the flour and cook for 2 mins before gradually stirring in the apple juice. While stirring,bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and stir in the carrots and soy sauce. Pour into an ovenproof casserole dish and cover with a lid.
Cook for 45 mins and then stir in the mushrooms, apple, broad beans and seasoning.
Cook the casserole for a further 20 mins or until the chicken and vegeatbles are thoroughly cooked. Serve with sweet potato mash and wilted spinach.

What I did differently:
Pork instead of chicken, Added mushrooms at same time as carrots. Added a little more water (but it wasn't really needed in the end) Frozen peas instead of broad beans, added with 10mins cooking time left, to add colour. Served with jacket spuds and cauliflower as that is what we had in.
It was lovely, and the children, Span and myself enjoyed it.

Recipes - Part 2 - Puds

LEMON TART (from one of my mum’s recipe books)
Ingredients
Pastry – either make, or buy sweet shortcrust pastry to fit dish.
Filling
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
150ml double cream
2 eggs
100g sugar

1. Dust cool surface and roll out chilled pastry to more than fit tin (so as not to stretch it… keep dusting!)
2. Chill in fridge for 20 mins (ish)
3. Heat oven to 180C
Put eggs, sugar, double cream and lemon zest and juice into bowl and whisk until creamy
4. Melt butter and whisk into lemon mixture, then pour into chilled pastry case
5. Carefully place the tart in oven and bake for 15 mins, then reduce the heat to 160C and bake for a further 20 mins or until the filling has set (I aim for it to be golden brown)
6. Leave to cool for 1 hour before serving

There is a blueberry version which is slightly different, but equally delicious. Recipe available on request!

CHOCOLATE LEMON CRUNCH
This is dedicated to my friend Teddy, who loves (and makes her own) Lemon curd. It is also from TAB, and I am yet to make it, but it sounds easy. It is supposedly a “low cal” cake, but considering ingredients, I’m not convinced. Perhaps you just need to have a small amount…

Serves: 8
Ready in: 20 mins (plus chilling time)
Total cost: £4.45

Ingredients
175g/6oz Chocolate digestive biscuits
2tbsp golden syrup
25g/1oz unsalted butter
6tbsp lemon curd
225g/8oz fresh raspberries
Mint sprig and sifted icing sugar to decorate (optional)
1. Finely crush the chocolate digestives. Pour the syrup into a heavy-based saucepan and add the butter. Heat gently until blended, then remove from the heat and add the crushed biscuits. Mix well, then press firmly into the base, and sides of a 20.5cm/8in loose-bottom or spring form flan tin. Chill in the fridge until required.
2. When ready to serve, spoon the lemon curd into the biscuit base, then top with the fresh raspberries. Decorate with a mint sprig and sprinkle with icing sugar, if using, and serve.

Finally, for now, is this recipe, which we found when we had too many over ripe bananas left. We'd had limited success with a previous complicated recipe I found, so I used this instead, and considering how easy it is, the resulting cake was delicious!

BANANA CAKE (off the internet… need to find link!)

This is a very basic recipe I found. It works very well and is so easy. And is mostly for Lindy, who had a Banana Cake “disaster” recently! He he

Ingredients
4oz butter of margarine
6oz sugar
2 eggs
8oz Self raising flour

Mash bananas with a sturdy fork
cream the butter and sugar together, and mix in eggs
Mix the two yellow sludges you now have, and mix in the flour
Scrape into loaf tin and bake for about 40 mins at Gas Mark 4/180C
The recipe ends here, but when I made it, the thing was clearly not done in the middle, so I turned the oven down to GM2 and left it for another 30 mins, whereupon it was fine.

(I’ve no idea what GM2 is in real temps (!) but Span did leave it on for a bit longer than 40 mins.

Recipes - Part 1 - Mains

My friends and I often chat about new recipes we like. I'm hopeless at getting round to things, but finally got my act together today, and sorted out a list of my recent favourites.

These ones, I think, are very child-friendly. Mostly because of the pasta, but also because they contain everything they need, including veg, and are soft and very tasty. I found them ideal for grown ups too!

CHICKEN AND CHORIZO PASTA
Found at “A Slice of Cherry Pie” http://www.asliceofcherrypie.blogspot.com/ (i need to learn how to link properly!!)

Ingredients2 chicken breasts sliced into bite-sized pieces
uncooked chorizo sausage cut into rounds about half inch thick
1 red onion, halved and sliced1 red or yellow pepper, chopped
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 glass of red wine
Pasta of your choice
1. Cook enough pasta for 4 people in salted water and set aside.
2. Fry the chicken in olive oil until just cooked through and remove from the pan. Repeat with the chorizo sausage.
3. Fry the onion in the oil left from the chorizo for a few minutes until it starts to soften, removing any excess oil.
4. Add the pepper and fry for another couple of minutes, then turn up the heat and add the red wine. Allow to sizzle and reduce, then add the tomatoes and simmer until the sauce thickens and reduces.
5. Put the chicken and chorizo back into the pan along with the cooked pasta. Stir everything well and allow to heat through, then season to taste and serve.

Serves 4

FROM TAKE A BREAK MAGAZINE (My guilty secret, but now, I have the equivalent of a whole cookbook from all the recipes I keep from the centrefold!!!)

BACON AND BROCCOLI SPAGHETTI
Serves: 4
Ready in 20 mins
Cals per portion: 710
Total cost £4.30

Ingredients:
350g/12oz spaghetti
350g/12oz Broccoli florets (I just added what I had!)
8 rashers smoked streaky bacon (I used unsmoked, as it’s what we had!)
200ml carton (or tub) of crème fraiche
1tsp Horseradish sauce (optional.. I didn’t!)
150g/5oz Dolcelatte cheese, cubed (I used cheddar!)
2tbsp chopped walnuts (which, again, I left out as we didn’t have them in!

1.Cook spaghetti in a pan of lightly salted water for 5 mins. Add the broccoli and bring back to the boil, then cook for a further 6-7 mins or until the pasta is al dente (I actually cooked the Broc separately as I wanted it softer, for the children)
2. Meanwhile, grill the bacon until crispy, then break into pieces. Drain spaghetti and return to the pan. Stir in the crème fraiche, optional horseradish and cheese. Heat until cheese is starting to melt. Spoon into dishes, and scatter over bacon and nuts. Serve at once. (I just mixed the lot together rather than scattering at the end!)

SO, plenty of variation there, but I wanted to make it easier, and suitable (and palatable) for the children!

SPICY SAUSAGE PASTA

Serves 4
Ready in: 35 mins
Cals per portion: 635
Total cost £5.35

Ingredients
6 spicy pork and sweet pepper sausages (I used whatever was in freezer)
2tbsp olive oil
1 onion peeled and roughly chopped
1 fat red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
400g can of chopped tomatoes with garlic and herbs (I used plain)
2tbsps red pesto sauce
350g/12oz pasta shapes
150g frozen peas
1 ball mozzarella drained and diced (I used cheddar)
Fresh basil to garnish

1. Remove skins from the sausages and cut each into five pieces (I didn’t bother to skin them) Heat the oil in a large pan and fry sausages for 7-8 mins until browned. Remove from the pan, add the onion and chilli and cook for 4-5 mins until softened. Stir in the tomatoes and the pesto sauce, cover and simmer for 10 mins.
2. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a pan of lightly salted boiling water, according to packet instructions, adding peas for the last 5 mins of cooking. Drain and toss the sauce. Spoon into the warmed heatproof dish, and then scatter with the mozzarella and grill for 2-3 mins until melted. Garnish with Basil leaves and serve.

He's 3!

Oscar's birthday was last Friday and we had a wonderful day. His actual birthday was pretty quiet, but in hindsight, that was a good thing considering we had his party the next day (post to follow)

Oscar is such a lovely lad. He is doing pretty well with the potty training, and is talking so much. It is very cute.

He got a "village in a bag", a wooden toy for making pictures and a Kids K'Nex set from us. All small things, as we couldn't think of what to get him other than that. We are thinking of letting Father Christmas know about him needing a bike, in time for Christmas!!

For tea, we had Pasta Bolognaise as it is his favourite, and for lunch I asked him what he wanted, so he (and Jas) had bread, butter, cheese and ham!

In the evening, I spent time decorating his cake. I made a London Underground cake, which I am VERY pleased with. We had fun and games actually making the sponge, as my effort was a complete disaster. Span, however, had more success.

My left over sponge did not go to waste though. I had a brainwave on Friday afternoon about combining the sponge (which was fine, it had just sunk) and some stewed plums I had cooked the day before. I left it overnight in the fridge and then the following morning added some ready made custard, and just before Oscar's party, topped it with whipping cream. By the end of the party it was empty, so i think it was a hit!

Span's sister arrived during Friday evening and we had a nice glass of wine and a catch up. I think it was the calm before the storm!!

More Blackberry fun

I used my friend Lindyloo's Muffin and Cupcake book to make Blackberry Muffins.

They look superb. Unfortunately I haven't eaten them yet, as I am going away tomorrow, and I am taking them with me, for all my friends, so I'll update on that then!

Here are a couple of pics

Lindyloo, the recipe is on page 161 and 179! I didn't put lemon zest in. Let us hope it doesn't ruin them!

Scavenging, Free food, and no food miles

I decided to go and pick some blackberries before the weekend. It was very therapeutic and it was free, picked by me and only from across the road.

Sadly, our apples aren't quite ready yet so I used two from our veg box and stewed them together for about 20 mins, with some sugar. It is DELICIOUS. I gave some Jas and the mess was superb. I have pics, and I will upload them when I am on the other PC.

My other little success was picking up some plums from a tree that hangs over the alleyway next to our house. I literally picked some off the floor. Cleaned them, stoned them and then did as above with a teeny bit of water and sugar. It was surprisingly good. I did try picking some off the trees, but they were just too high. I'm so pleased it worked though. I just need to find some interesting things to cook with all the fruit I'm going to pick over the next few weeks!

There are so many blackberries that go to waste, and yet you can buy them in the supermarket for £2. Now, maybe that is a business opportunity missed!!

Birthday cakes

I made two cakes for Jasmine. The chocolate one on her birthday was a last minute idea. I found a great Ganache recipe on Hannah's Country Kitchen blog (see Blogs I Read) and it worked really really well.
The second was a butterfly, for Jas's party. I loved it, but I was a bit unhappy with the buttercream icing as it was a bit too thick to spread properly. Next time I do it, I'll add water or milk to make it a bit easier to put on.
>
I also thought I'd add Oz's last two cakes to show what I can do....




As I have said many times though, these cakes are made with love, and not skill. I have great ideas, but not quite the skill (or patience) to make them professionally! And my ability to actually make a non-wonky, unburnt sponge is bad at the moment. I blame the oven.... (I wish)