We have a problem!

I'm going to a friends wedding in a weeks time, and have this beautiful blue cocktail dress to wear. So last night thought I'd check what I''d be wearing etc... so put the dress on... and the RUDDY ZIP wouldn't do up!!!! :-O

PANIC STATIONS!!!!

So I sat down & had a good old think about what to do. What with summer just around the corner I've decided to make an effort to cook healthy recipes and healtier versions of other recipes all in a bid to get in that dress without having mechanical intevention!?!? However I realise that this is not going to happen in just a week (well I can always hope!) But all the same it is an aim.

My plan is to find recipes for brekkie, work lunch boxes, lunch at home & dinner. Well I'll have to do some snacks / treats too - healthy ones mind! So I'll test run them out and let you know how they go.

Oh I was also asked about where I got my soya beans from (Edamame beans out of the pods) - You'll find them in the freezer department in any big supermarket. Here's a pic of them:

Great for adding to those salads I'm planning on making & generally very tasty.

So I'll be back with some healthy recipes soon - watch this space....

Peanut goowey bars

Some people just aren't breakfast people and can't do early morning food. This I can't really relate to, when I wake up the first thing I think about is what I should have. Pete is one of those breakfast missers and could very easily skip it completely... until I made these that is!!

For his birthday his mum gave him Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall new cook book - "River Cottage Every Day", which is where I found the recipe.

RECIPE

125g unsalted butter
150g soft brown sugar
125g crunchy peanut butter
75g honey
Grated zest 1 lemon
Grated zest 1 orange
200g whole rolled porridge oats
150g dried fruit, such as sultanas, raisins, apricots
150g mixed seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, linseed (I used pumkin, sesame, poppy seeds)

Grease and line a baking tin, about 20cm square.
Put the butter, sugar, peanut butter, honey and citrus zests into a deep saucepan over a very low heat. Leave until melted, stirring from time to time.
Stir the oats, dried fruit and most of the seeds into the melted mixture until thoroughly combined. Spread the mixture out evenly into the baking tin. Sprinkle the remaining seeds on top, plus a drizzle of honey.
Place in a preheated oven (160C/gas mark 3) for about 30 minutes, until golden in the centre and golden brown at the edges. Be careful not to leave it too long. Golden brown edges, not black.
Leave to cool completely in the tin. Be patient – it cuts much better when cold and easily falls apart when warm. Turn out and cut out into squares with a sharp knife.

Eat when an energy boost is required.

 

Pete's been eating them for his brekkie, not necessarily the healthiest option but not the worst either. They are full of healthy oats & seeds after all.

Ginger Cake that packs a punch!

Pete's birthday tomorrow so decided to bake him a b'day cake in advance. originally he's asked for the hard-core three teir choc beast of a cake, but at the last minute requested a ginger cake with ginger icing.

Taaa daaa.....

Have just had sneeky piece whilst writing up my blogs, really moist and gingery - yum!
I found the icing from one recipe and the cake recipe from BBC Good food website. Here it is:

• 225g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground mixed spice
• 115g butter , cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
• 115g dark muscovado sugar
• 115g black treacle
• 115g golden syrup
• 250ml whole milk
• 85g drained stem ginger , finely grated
• 1 egg 

Icing

• 4tbsp ginger syrup, drained from jar
• 300g icing sugar
• 140g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to fan 160C. Butter and line an 18cm round, 7cm deep cake tin with greaseproof or parchment paper.
2. Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda and all the spices into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Put the sugar, treacle, syrup and milk in a medium saucepan and heat, gently stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point.
4. Add the stem ginger to the flour mixture, then pour in the treacle mixture, stirring as you go with a wooden spoon. Break in the egg and beat until all the mixture is combined and it resembles a thick pancake batter. Pour this into prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out fairly clean. Leave to cool completely in tin before turning cake out. (To freeze: wrap in greaseproof paper, then in cling film. Freeze for up to 1 month.)
5. To make the icing, mix together icing sugar and lemon zest, then gradually add lemon juice until you have a smooth, slightly runny icing, adding more juice, if needed. Drizzle icing in a zig-zag pattern over surface of cake, turn cake around and drizzle again to create the cross-hatched finish (see below). Cake keeps for up to 2 weeks stored in an airtight container. 
6. Beat together the ginger syrup icing sugar, butter & lemon juice until smooth and fluffy. Then spread over the cake.

Enjoy with a cup of peppermint tea or a cold lager in pete's case ;o)

A Sunny Sunday Roast

Every Sunday without fail Pete suggests we should have a 'ROAST'. A very manly request, that takes them back to the feral carnivorous stages of wanting MEAT and two veg. Anyway don't know if you noticed but this weekend was a bit of a scortcher and even though saturday had all the glory Sunday was still rather hot day. so the thought of having a heavy hot roast dinner wasn't really very appertising.

As my mother has always said to me ' compromise, compromise, compromise' and my father says 'Don't see a problem, See a solution'. Wise words don't you think! So knowing that a salad would not to do I thought we should just combine the two. Nice and easy.

So here is what I made: Whole chicken baked with rosemary & garlic - A great recipe from AntonioCarluccio's simple cooking book.

Served with a simple salad and also a spicy puy lentil, bean, broccoli salad. Ooo will be doing that puy lentil salad again it was lush!

SPICY PUY LENTIL BEAN SALAD

• 100g Puy lentils
• 500ml hot vegetable stock
• 100g broccoli
• 70g frozen soya beans , thawed
• 70g sugarsnap peas
• 1 red chilli , deseeded and sliced

FOR THE DRESSING

• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• juice 1 lemon
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 40ml reduced-salt soy sauce
• 3cm piece root giner, finely grated
• 1 tbsp clear honey  

1. Boil lentils in stock until just cooked, about 15 mins. Drain, then tip into a large bowl. Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil, throw in the broccoli for 1 min, add the beans and peas for 1 min more. Drain, then cool under cold water. Pat dry, then add to the bowl with the lentils.
2. Mix together the dressing ingredients with some seasoning. Pour over the lentils and veg, then mix in well with the chopped chilli. Pile onto a serving platter or divide between 4 plates and serve. 

And then to finish off individual rhubarb, apple & raspberry crumble served with orange creme fraiche. Hmm maybe I ended up making a pretty big meal anyway!? Rhubarb is ace!

BananaRaraama Smoothie

 

Hello all, so I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before on the blog but I am addicted to ice cream and therefore never have it on the blog or rarely in the house. The reason for this is firstly if it is in the house, it's only there for seconds and therefore I'm never quick enough to take any photos and blog about about it. A sad situation I know......

Anyway as I never loose the erge / need for ice cream I am over the moon to have found a replacement! It's even reasonably healthy too and you can have it any time of the day including for brekkie!!

Seriously it's ubber delicious and creamy, just hope I don't get addicted to these as well!??!

Ingredients

1/2	banana, sliced
6	oz skim milk
1	tsp vanilla extract
2	tbsp plain yogurt
1/3	cup ice, crushed

1. Chop half a banana into slices, place in plastic baggy and freeze overnight. (Do the same with the other half and save for future shake. Trust me, there will be a future shake.)
   
2. Gather ingredients.
   
3. Place half banana (now chopped and frozen) into blender. Add 1/3 cup ice, 6 ounces of skimmed milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, plus the yogurt. Blend until smooth.
   
4. (Optional: Add a bit of honey for extra sweetness)
   
5. Pour mix into tall glass. (Optional: Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder on shake.)
   
6. Drink it. The world it good again! :D.

Lemonade Cake!

This weekend was so beautiful and sunny I decided a summery pud/cake was in order! I've got two 'seasonal food' cook books at home and was looking through them for inspiration when I came across this recipe. I had to re-read it THREE times. I mean seriously the base is just made of self-raing flour, cream and LEMONADE!?!?!?

Thought it was crazy and therefore had to be tried! Since reading the web a bit further, it's quite a common recipe... for scones. It makes sense as the recipe said the base should be scone-like.

 

It was a delicious pud and I would make it again, except I need to make the base lighter in texture. It was rather dense & heavy. After reading up afterwards, they do say that the lemonade-scone recipe is quite a doughy one. Also "not to mix it too much" I may have mixed a bit too much - I think I got a bit over excited about stiring lemonade into a cake mixture. Reminded me of making 'mud pies' as a kid...ha  hmmm... any way I digress. But yeah I deffinitly need to give it a second chance and perhaps cook at a higher temp than was suggested in the recipe I followed.

Thinking about it I think I was very lucky with getting the fruit. What with British raspberries not been in season yet and with this CRAZY ash cloud stopping any imports... I was very lucky to find them on offer in the local shop :D

 

RECIPE: (original recipe from "Kitchen Seasons" - Ross Dobson)

375g Self-raising flour

500ml whipping cream

250ml lemonade

100g raspberry jam

1 tablespoon icing sugar

2 peaches, stoned and sliced

1 punnet fresh raspberries

a 20cm fluted, loose bottomed tart tin, lightly greased (I only had a 25cm dia one, seemed to work ok)

Preheat the oven to 180oc (when I bake this again I think I'd put it up too 200oc). Sieve the flour in a large bowl, measure half the cream and all of the lemonade in a jug together & pour into the bowl with the flour. Fold in gently, be careful not too over mix, as this will make the base really tough and dense.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin & gently level out. Pop in the pre-heated oven for 30-35minutes, until golden on top (do not open the oven till you need to at the end). Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack for 10mins. Then remove from the tin to completely cool.

Once it is 'completely cool' slice 0.5cm off the top to level it off. Then spread the jam across the top.

Whip the remaining cream with the tablespoon of icing sugar until it forms soft peaks. Spoon the cream on top of the cake, arrange the fruit on top and serve!

 

All the sunshine this weekend has made very excited about the summer & having 'Cream Teas!'. So I'm gonna be on the search for an amazing scone recipe, so if you know one do let me know. Think I might have to do a load of taste testing to work out which is the best..... Gonna need some test eaters hmmm... perhaps everyone at work?

A Hungary fan

The main reason I write this blog is to keep me entertained, I enjoy chatting typing away and recording all my baking etc.. But you know I've never thought that anyone actually reads it, let alone follows my blog, well except my family - who gets told to go read it every time I do a new post ;o)

Anyway last week Pete came home from work with a small parcel for me!? He quickly informed me that he hadn't got me gift and that actually it wasn't from him at all. It was from one of his work colleague's wife, that I've never met - Virag. Now from what I can gather, Virag, originally from Hungary has been following my blog and read on a previous post about trying to find a good HOT horseradish. So she has sent me a Hungarian Horseradish to test. I'm very excited about trying it, as well as a bit scared...hmmm how hot will it be!? I shall let you all know once I tried it :O)

She also sent me some 'Household biscuit powder' which I have never seen or heard off before. I've a good old search on the web, but haven't found a recipe using 'biscuit powder'. Virag, if your reading this I'd love to know what you use it for and whether you have a new recipe I can try out on the blog?

Can't believe I'm getting sent things for my blog?! Thank you Virag :O)

Promise to keep on blogging, I know March was a pretty poor show..... only one blog!?! So I'm already thinking about what to bake/cook for next weekend. Hope all had a lovely sunny weekend. Blog soon
Mx

A Sunday by Pete

Today is Sunday and like most Sunday's, Pete likes doing a Sunday Roast! He's rather good at them, well better than me anyway. I'm hopeless at Sunday Roasts. Nearly as hopeless as growing herbs! Had to buy two new plants to replace another two that had died...woops! You know I swear it's not me, it's this crazy weather we've been having... hmmm will see how long I manage to keep these ones for...

As it was such a nice day we went for a quick stroll and met a random squirrel enjoying his lunch too.

Back with a zesty Punch!

Hi all,

I know I've been a bit slack recently and haven't done many posts since March!? But I'm back now and have another delicious cake recipe to share with you.

April is rather a hectic month, not only is it my Sister's birthday, but also 3 other friends and I've got pete's coming up too (he's already requested a choc cake in adavance).

Any ho we've had Pete's brother and wife up this weekend. I have to say I do love someone who gets excited about eating cake and Martin is deffinitly one of them! So after my sister's / Easter weekend of chcocolate eggs, chocolate cake, choc morsels and general chocolate I thought lemon was the way forward.

LEMON DRENCHED LOAF 
Recipe:
175g Stork marg (brilliant marg to use for cakes!)
175g Golden caster suger (like to think because it's golden it is therefore healthier!)
3 medium eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
175g Self-raising flour
pinch salt
3 tablespoons of milk
50g granulated sugar
Juice of 2 lemons (around 3 tablespoons)

Topping:
150g mascapone (roughly half a tub)
juice of one small lemon
2 tablespoons granulated golden sugar (granulated so it gives you that extra crunch!)

*Preheat the oven to 180oc (170oc fan assisted). Line the bottom and sides of a loaf tin (I used one that was 11x18x8cm)with baking parchment and a bit of butter. Get all your ingredients weighed out and ready, seriously this makes it way more fun!
*Cream together the marg and caster sugar together until really pale and fluffy - take your time there is no need to rush. Get your gently beaten eggs and add a little bit, beating a bit, add a bit, beat a bit. Till all beaten in.
*Add your zest, then sieve the flour and pinch of salt into the bowl. Gently fold in the flour, salt and the stir on the milk.
*Turn the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for about 35-45minutes until springy to the touch and a metal skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven but leave in the tin.
*Put the 50g granulated sugar and lemon juice in a small pan and bring to the boil, stirring all the time as the sugar dissolves. Boil strongly for half a minute..
*Make several holes in the cake with a skewer, going right to the bottom of the tin. Pour the hot syrup all over the cake, letting it soal into the cake. Leave to cool in the tin.
*Once cool, hold the edges of the baking parchment and carefully lift the cake out the tin & peel away the paper.

Finally the topping, as it's a sweet cake it always nice to have a slightly refreshing topping. Add the juice of the lemon to the mascapone (add a bit at a time to taste) then mix together adding the granulated sugar as you go. Taste... yum....
Spread the topping onto the cake with a small pallette knife and decorated with thick slithers of lemon zest.

After having a lovely cuppa tea and a slice of the lemon cake we went for a walk and found another thing that seem to entertain Martin. Mini horses fighting!?... he was laughing hysetrically for a good 10 minutes :D

You've got to love random life. :D

My sister's Easter 30th!

So this Easter bank holiday weekend was taken over by my Sister's 30th celebrations. For someone who suggested she had no friends(!?), an impressive 49 people turned up to help her celebrate her departure from 'young life!' -  lol sorry just winding her up, she's my sister after all!

My sister attacking me whilst I was baking her cake & treats! :O)

As it was her birthday I made her some tasty treats!! Firstly a huge batch of Chocolate chewy morsels , a Blueberry zest cake with a twist ( added 100g blueberries & 100g raspberries), a three tier Blackout Cake which I made on a previous post but didn't give you the recipe :-o. And finally some ubber posh JELLIES!! I've been meaning to make some jellies for my blog considering it's in the title. They were spiced mulled wine jellies with 24 carat gold in them! Yes I suppose Lou's worth it :)

So here are a few photos from the celebrations and the yummy creations I made (I'll post the recipes in the next couple of posts).

Everything seemed to go down well. There was no choc muchies, Blackout cake or Lime drizzle cake by the end of the night. The Spiced white wine gold jellies didn't seem to get the same reaction as the rest...

My cousins compared them to 'Deep Heat' rather than wine flavor and as for Mr Nigel, well you can see his reaction below! Not quite the look I was hoping for?!

Hmmm, back to the drawing board I think. Don't worry I'm not one to give up!! The search begins for the best Jelly recipe I can find. If you know of any let me know.. please......

Hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekends too!
Mx