Spring Must Haves

I love spring.  I love the idea of opening up the windows and doors and letting the light shine in.  I love the fact that it always feels like a time for cleaning away the cobwebs and getting rid of everything you have hoarded over the winder months.

I love a house and wardrobe clear out, but then it's also nice to bring some new goodies in.  Here are some bits that I'm loving and that I'm hoping will take me nicely into the summer months;

Fab spring/summer crockery for when the weather gets slightly nicer and we can start eating outside (above).

I've had a bit of a thing about Globes for a while, and still lusting over getting me own.  I'm loving the spring colours of this Globe.

I was travelling through London last week and popped in to Oliver Bonas in Victoria station.  I got my hands on this gorgeous Oliver Bonas Ring for only £10.

Since knowing that we were off to France for our anniversary I've falled in love with these Boden Breton tops, and now have a yellow and navy one in the wardrobe.  Perfect with jeans, but also nice tucked into a high wasted skirt for work.

So so chuffed with this Meringue Girls Cookbook for my birthday and really nice to get some lovely summery recipes to move through the seasons....out with crumble and custard, in with meringue and fruit!

I've been lusting over a classic pair of Converse for a while, just saving up my pennies.

Mmmmm....Meringues!

I may have mentioned once or twice that I recently got the Meringue Girls Cookbook.  I'm loving it so much, mainly because they are actually super easy to make, and also because they are unbelievably tasty!

This weekend I decided to try my hand at a couple of different flavours; chocolate with crunchy topping, and raspberry with pink sugar topping.

I used the same technique as last time for the raspberry ones, meaning they came out very circular and delicate looking.  I sprinkled on the sugar before cooking and let them cook away for about an hour.

I used much more of a rough, 'dollop' technique for the chocolate ones, meaning they were much bigger and a bit more rustic looking.

Very pleased with the result of both and took some samples to my friend Jo and her son gobbled up 3, so I'm pretty sure I got the thumbs up from him.

p.s. thanks for featuring me on your blog Jo x

Meringue Girls

I got this fantastic cook book, Meringue Girls Cookbook - Incredible Meringues everybody can make, from my sister's boyfriend for my birthday.  I had never heard of the Meringue Girls, but now I'm pretty much obsessed!

I love the fact that the book is dedicated to 'everyone who dreams of leaving their 9 to 5', and not only are the recipes super tasty looking, the girls are pretty cool themselves!

Over the last few months my aim has been to get back to the roots of cooking and find some classic recipes that I can master and this book has given me the nudge to try my hand at a mastering a good meringue.

I tried this weekend to master the simple chocolate meringue kiss, and was definitely pleased with the result.

I was so pleased that I made another batch on Sunday to take to the bake sale at work on Monday.

Elegant Sausage, Mash and Homemade Beans

I love having enough time to spend making bits of the dinner that are homemade.  On Friday night I got home from work in plenty of time so decided to make the beans from scratch.  I have made homemade beans before but couldn't remember which recipe I used, so on Friday I started again with my search and found a brill recipe on Great British Chefs.  I found this recipe which was fantastic to accompany the sausages and mash.

The beans do take a while as you have to boil down the liquid so that they are all thick, rather than being runny, but it was certainly worth it.

Having started watching the new series of Masterchef last week I though that it might be nice to try a new way of presenting every day dishes, so tarted up my mash with some greenery and popped the beans in a ramekin....et voila!  Elegant Sausage, Mash and Beans.

The recipe made enough for 4 so I popped them in the fridge and had them the next night with some pie.

Have you ever tried to make homemade beans?  What recipe did you use?  Did they work out ok?

Recipe: Lemon Layer Cake

I haven't baked for ages and although I've made jams and chutneys recently and made some very tasty meals, I don't remember the last time that I spent the afternoon baking.

I feel like I've managed to master my pastry but I haven't ever quite mastered the sponge.  Cupcakes never really work out so I thought maybe I would try a layer cake.  I went for something plain and simple so as not to get carried away with frills and whistles, rather than concentrating on the texture and flavour of the cake.

I keep seeing fantastic layer cakes, and although I attempted one a year back, it never really lived up to Emily's or these tasty looking treats on Pinterest.

When searching through for recipes it's tricky to find fab ones that are in English measurements, but after a quick bit of looking good old Delia came up a treat!

This lemon layer cake was the perfect choice!  I doubled the recipe to make it a super tall 4 layer cake and added some lemon juice and icing sugar to the icing to make it a bit less creamy.  Admittedly also I used shop bought lemon curd as that was a bit much to do as well!

I cannot believe how super quick and easy this cake was and the result was flipping amazing! 

What layer cakes have you tried?

Homemade Thai Feast

What a feast!!!  I was all ready for making a beef stew last Sunday night.  I headed off on Sunday afternoon, in a very hungover state, to do by 2 weekly grocery shop.  I bought everything that I had on the list, and definitely still when I left I had in my head that I was making stew for dinner.

But when I got home and unpacked the shopping I couldn't get the idea of making a thai out of my head.  I bought all of the ingredients to make a chicken and cashew nut thai red curry, but I then realised that really, a feast was all that was going to cure the hangover!

We ended up with;

• Thai red chicken curry with cashews and mange tout
• Satay rice noddles
• Egg Fried rice (Uncle Ben's Mircowave!)
• Soy and Honey glazed purple sprouting

Recipe: Orange Marmalade

One the items on my 2014 to do list was to make a preserve I had never made before. For Christmas Bean bought me The Preserving Book.

This weekend was the first weekend that G and I have spent doing nothing since the beginning of December. G has spent the weekend on the couch full of the cold so I decided to keep myself busy and looked through the preserving book.

There were loads of things I wanted to try and I went for orange marmalade.  It is quite long winded as you have to boil up the orange skins and then chop them all up into tiny bits - bit i guess if you had a snazzy grating machine this might do it for you!

I doubled the recipe in the book and got 8 jars! I'm loving the marmalade.

Recipe: Indulgent Mac n Cheese

When you have excess food in the fridge what better is there than putting everything together into an indulgent dinner.

We got this lovely pie tin for Christmas from our friends A&H and I thought today would be a good day to take it for a test run. No pie in sight though. I decided to use it to make a deliciously luxurious mac and cheese adding in loads of our left overs.

I added in chorizo, olives, red onion and sweetcorn with a tasty cheddar sauce and chunks of buffalo mozzarella.

Tasty Treats of 2013 - No Oven Necessary

I'm so pleased to have an oven again, having not had one the majority of last year - but I am pleased that some of my really tasty treats last year didn't even need an oven!

1. Hairy Bikers Sausage and Bean Casserole

2. Butternut Squash and Procuittio Rigatoni

3. Tasty Breakfast- Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon and Mushrooms

4. Chicken Curry, Rice and Homemade Naan

5. Rice Krispie Treats - Peanut Butter and Pretzel

Recipe: Chicken and Chickpea Curry

This chicken and chickpea curry as a definite winner in our house.  It came about due to the fact that I had very little in the house, so I had to use up the ingredients I did have.

Curry Ingredients:

1 Can Chickpeas

2 Chicken Breasts

1/2 Onion

1 Small Courgette

1 Clove Garlic

1tsp Medium Curry Powder

300ml Vegetable Stock

Fresh Chopped 

1tbsp Cream Cheese (I chosen lactofree cream cheese)

I followed this Jamie Oliver recipe for the bread

Curry Method:

1. Cover the chicken in flour, seasoned with salt and pepper.
2. Fry the chicken until brown and add the onions, garlic, courgette and curry powder.
3. Pour in the vegetable stock and the chickpeas and simmer until the stock reduces and the chicken is tender.
4. Take the curry off the heat and stir in the cream cheese.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Place on the plate and sprinkle with fresh coriander.  Serve with rice and bread.

To Veggie or not to Veggie?

Mushroom Wellington

G has been advised to go veggie 2 days a week due to health issues and I am really looking forward to embracing this.  If I offer something up to G that looks vaguely veggie I always have to assure this what meat it contains! So as you can imagine I am expecting this to be a bit of a challenge.

I found this article in Stylist magazine this week and was really delighted to see that 1, all of this food was super cheap (meat is expensive!) and 2, lots of these dishes look super tasty and I think I'll be able to tempt G with lots of them.

(Photos from Stylish Magazine)

Pumpkin Soup

Veggie Shepherds Pie

Recipe: Christmas Cake - Stages 2 and 3

Stage 2 - Feeding the cake:

This stage of my Christmas cake making was pretty simple - feed your cake.  I made an alcohol free cake, not for any reason apart from the fact that I didn't have any brandy in the house and also loooove the flavour of earl grey.  

I dribbled a tablespoon of earl grey over the cake once a week for the 3 weeks prior to Christmas. 

Stage 2 done.

Stage 3 - Decorating the cake (the fun bit!):

I cheated with decorating the cake and have to admit that I made neither the Marzipan nor the Royal Icing.  I bought both from ASDA and am hoping (having never made a Christmas cake before)that these are as tasty as if I had made them. 

To get the marzipan to stick to the cake, and add an extra bit of Christmas flavour, heat a bit of marmalade mixed with water and brush this all over the cake.

I love the marzipan layer on an Xmas cake and have heard a good way to add a bit more is to cover the cake in a thin layer, but then add another disc of marzipan just to the top of the cake.

Once the marzipan is on it's time for the icing and making things look pretty.  I'm not a fan of royal icing so I rolled mine as thin as possible. 

A tip for the marzipan and Icing - once you have rolled it out, fold it over your rolling pin to lift it over the cake as this will prevent it from stretching too much as you lift it.

You can make your decorations as simple or extravagant as you want.  I went simple this year for my first year, with just thin icing snowflakes, glued into place with marmalade.

Christmas cake - Done!

Recipe: Christmas Cake - Stage 1

I followed this tasty looking recipe for my gorgeously tasty Christmas cake- the first I've ever made.

There are several stages to making the perfect Christmas Cake the cake, the feeding and the decorating.

I have never attempted a Christmas cake before but I thought if G and I were spending Christmas day at home together then, as my first year as a wife, I should make the effort this year.

Stage 1 - How I baked the cake:

Ingredients:

• 
  
• • 150 grams currants
  • 350 grams raisins
  • 50 grams glace cherries
  • 200ml cold earl grey tea
  • 75 grams chopped pecans
  • 150 grams butter
  • 90 grams soft brown sugar
  • 1 orange grated
  • 150 grams plain flour
  • 75 grams ground almonds
  • 1/2tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4tsp ground ginger
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon black treacle
  
  
  18cm round tin
  Temp 150C
  yield approx 12 slices
  
  
  
  

Method:

1. Place all of the dried fruit in the earl grey tea, stir and place  in the fridge over night.

2.Preheat oven to 150C and prepare tin.

3. Cream butter and sugar together then add orange zest.

4.Add eggs one at a time (adding tbsp if mixture starts to curdle) Beat in treacle.

5.Sift in dry ingredients, then mix this alternatively with the soaked fruit, into the creamed mixture. Fold in pecans.

6.Pour into prepared tin and bake in the oven, until a screwer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

7.Brush with more earl grey and wait until completely cold before turning out.

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