Makey-Cakey

Bursting with Black Eyed Beans

2012-01-27T21:49:00.001Z

January's No Croutons Required challenge was to make a vegetarian soup or salad using black eyed beans.

Yet again, I missed the blog posting deadline - going to have to set myself a calendar reminder for next month!

But better late than never...

So I stared off in a soupy vein, and made a hearty soup with spinach, black eyed beans and peanut butter. Mr E and I thought it was delicious - Mini-M less so!

I then made some quick black-eyed bean humus - which again was shunned by Mini-M but which the grown up faction thought was lovely with lots of crunchy carrot and cucumber for dipping. At least Mini-M ate the cucumber...

Lemony Black Eyed Bean Humus (serves 2-3 as a main meal element, or more as a dip)

1 tin (340g) black eyed beans
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp water
1 large handful of curly parsley
Generous pinch salt
Lots of ground black pepper.

Take the stalks off the parsley.
Drain the beans.
Put everything in the food processor and blitz until smooth and well combined.
Done!

Daring Bakers' January 2012 Challenge: Back to Basics

2012-01-27T21:13:00.000Z

Scones are awesome. Which is convenient, since they were this month's Daring Bakers' challenge, and we've enjoyed several batches over the past four weeks.

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers' host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

I made my first batch almost as soon as the challenge was announced, and they tasted lovely but were more than a little flat. I made two half-batches, and flavoured one with 1tsp honey and some fresh thyme leaves, using oat milk as the liquid and dairy-free margarine, and added 1 tsp poppyseeds to the other batch, dairy free margarine again, and used orange juice as the liquid. Mini-M was a fan, and didn't seem to care that they were flat as pancakes!

After investing in some new baking powder, things started looking up (quite literally!). Next up I did a batch made with goats yogurt as the liquid, and an egg thrown in for some added protein for Mini-M. They definitely rose a little - an improvement.

Lastly, I went a bit experimental, and made some spicy cheese and tomato ones, replacing the milk with bloody mary mix, and sprinkling some grated sheep's cheese on the top. They were definitely my favourites - yum!

Here's the basic scone recipe we were given - it's a good one, and stands up well to all sorts of messing about with, as you can see! If you want a bit more detail regarding the method, and want to understand the science behind scones, then the Daring Kitchen Scone Recipe page will sort you out, and your scones will be wonderful, sky-high and light evermore!

Scones (Makes 6-8)

140g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
30g fat (be it hard dairy free margarine, butter, or even lard!)
120ml liquid (traditionally milk, but it seems like most things work!)

Grate your fat and stick it in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile preheat your oven to 220C, and grease a baking tray.
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.
Rub in the chilled grated fat, working quickly and lightly to keep the fat cold.
Add most of the liquid and mix briefly - it should be a soft dough that is sticky but workable. If need be, add the remaining liquid.
Knead briefly on a floured worktop, the roll out until just under an inch thick.
Cut out scones, re-roll the scraps and cut again, and place on the baking tray.
Brush with a little extra liquid or egg wash to help the tops colour.
Bake for about 10 minutes, until risen and golden.
Enjoy!

Pretty Panoramas

2012-01-23T22:47:00.002Z

I've always been a sucker for a panoramic photo, and have often taken a whole series of images with the intention of stitching them together.

And finally, I've got round to it! I used the Hugin Panorama Photo Stitcher which is freely downloadable. It's slightly clunky to use, but I got the impression that there was a whole load of more technical functionality that I was only touching the tip of the iceberg with my basic stick-it-all-together-in-a-line approach!

Panoramas are tricky things to display though - especially when you make them really long and skinny like some of the ones I've stitched. My blog template isn't long and skinny! So if you click on any of the titles below the panoramas, you should (technology permitting) be taken to a larger version, that you hopefully wont need a microscope to work out where it is! Have a little bit of patience - they take a few seconds to load. So starting off in Scotland...

Gullane Beach

Aberdour Beach

Watch Water Reservoir

Touch Reservoir, Stirling

Snowy Scott's View

Port Seton or Cockenzie (I'm not 100% sure...) Harbour

Longformacus

Snowy Liddesdale

Heading further South...

London

London

And off to Europe...

Budapest in the twilight

Istanbul by day

Istanbul bay at night

Montmartre, Paris

Vienna rooftops

Popeye would be proud...

2012-01-22T20:13:00.001Z

Last night I made banana muffins. With hidden spinach in them. Just that spinach is very, very green, so it was definitely not visually hidden. It was, however, very convincingly hidden in terms of taste. I kid you not, these tasted just like banana muffins.

As far as muffins go, I'm giving them a ten on the toddler suitability scale. They do have a wee bit of sugar in them, but they're full of other nutritious stuff... wholemeal flour, spinach, banana, olive oil and plain yogurt. And if you fancy being a bit hippy dippy about it, like I did, you could use some form of non-refined sugar to make that bit a little less nasty!

I used a recipe found here at Anja's Food 4 Thought. I made a couple of tweaks - reduced the sugar slightly and changed the type, missed out the nuts and lemon, added some vanilla, used 'grown up' rather than baby spinach, and switched the yogurt type - so here's my version too.

Banana and Spinach Muffins (makes 12 fairy cake sized muffins)

1 cup of wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar (I used coconut sugar)
2 tbsp olive oil (I used light and mild)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium banana
4 tbsp natural yogurt (I used goats, but you could use cows, or to make them dairy-free, soya)
1 cup of packed spinach (without the tough stalks removed first)

Preheat the oven to 180C and line your bun tin with paper cases.
Sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a mixing bowl.
In another bowl, whisk together the egg and sugar vigorously, then add the oil, vanilla extract and yogurt.
Mash the banana and stir that into the egg mixture too.
Blitz the spinach leaves to a puree with a hand blender, then add them to the egg mix.
Stir the wet ingredients into the flour, and mix well.
Spoon into the prepared cake cases (I got to use my new gadget - a mini ice-cream scoop for portioning out cake and biscuit mix).
Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until firm to the touch, lightly browned on top, and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack, then feed to your unsuspecting children, and feel smug that they think they are eating cake, but you know they are eating spinach!

I tried to get a photo of Mini-M eating hers, but to be honest it disappeared pretty quickly. She even meticulously hoovered up all of the crumbs afterwards, which is very unlike her - she's normally a rather messy eater, so I'm taking that as a rave review, and a mark of how tasty they were - not a morsel was wasted!

Going...

Gone!

A Palmful of Palmiers and Walnut Chocolate Deep Fill "Pecan" Pie

2012-01-20T20:01:00.001Z

This week I was lucky enough to end up with two little bitty ends of pastry to use up in the fridge.
On Monday, I had puff pastry left over from making sausage rolls for Mr E to take to a meeting. (Not a work one - that would probably be seen as a little odd!). And also a ball of shortcrust left over from making a smoked haddock and leek tart (which will appear here at some point before too long!).

I never ever throw out pastry scraps - they are for experimenting with!

Close up deep filled chocolate walnut amazingness!

So firstly the shortcrust. I used it to make a really really delicious "pecan" pie, made with no pecans at all (since I had none). Why did I make pecan pie when I knew I had no pecans... well, I found a bag of walnuts hiding under the kitchen cupboards, and wanted to see if they would work. They do!

Making this reminded me that whilst it is lovely to bake for other people, and I'll never pass up an opportunity to rustle something up to give as a present, share with friends or serve to guests, it's also sometimes a treat to make something just because, and for us to enjoy. I know Mr E agrees!

So here's my recipe, which brightened up a grey and drab January Thursday, and is about to brighten up our Friday evening too, as we enjoy the remaining two slices!

Walnut Chocolate Deep Fill Pie (Serves 4)

Tennis ball sized lump of shortcrust pastry
100g walnut halves
15g dairy free margarine (or butter)
1 dessert spoon of dark brown sugar
2 dessert spoons of granulated sugar
65ml golden syrup
2 tbsp brandy
a few drops vanilla essence
1 tbsp plain yogurt - (i used goats you could use soya or regular)
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of grated nutmeg
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Roll out pastry and line 5inch mini spring form tin.
Line and fill with baking beans, then bake blind for 10 minutes.

Ready to be blind baked...

At same time, put the walnuts on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes until toasted.
Take out of the oven and reduce the temperature to 160C.
Take the toasted walnuts and chop roughly (or bash up with the end of a rolling pin in a plastic measuring jug like I did!).
In a small saucepan, melt the margarine, then add the sugars and syrup and heat gently until dissolved.
Once there are no grains of sugar visible, add the brandy, bring to the boil and allow to bubble away for 5 mins.
Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla, yogurt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa powder.
Allow to cool for a few minutes.
Beat the egg in a mug and then whisk in 1 tbsp of the syrup mixture to stabilise it, then add the egg mix to the rest of the syrup and mix well.
Put the crushed walnuts in the pastry case, and then carefully pour over the syrup.
Return to the oven and bake at 160C for about 30-40 mins until set.

Cooling... slowly! Requiring much exercising of patience...

Allow to cool before serving

Done!

Now onto the puff - I made some tiny mini palmiers! I spread the pastry with a teaspoon of raw chocolate nut butter, sprinkled over a tsp of sugar and rolled it up from each side into the middle, then sliced it, popped it on a greased baking tray and baked at 190C for about 10 minutes.

A palmful of palmiers!

These are my entry into this months' Tea Time Treats challenge, which is hosted this month by Karen at Lavender and Lovage. The theme is sweet pastries and breads, so I think these fit the bill perfectly.

Porridge Fudge - but in a good way!

2012-01-19T21:37:00.000Z

Yep - you did indeed read the title correctly. I have filled a previously undiscovered gap in the breakfast/confectionery crossover genre.

Think of a bowl of hot porridge. Imagine sprinkling brown sugar on top, and letting it melt. Then imagine getting your spoon and scooping up the warm melty sugary puddle. That is the taste of this fudge, so I really do mean it when I say it tastes of porridge but in a good way!

The obvious question to be pondering at this point is why? That's a big question - there are a lot of whys out there in the world. Such as... why is there always a single sock in every wash, despite only putting them in the machine in pairs; why is Mini-M so fixated with her kitten jumper that it had to take a bath along with her tonight; why is the dip to dunker ration so wrong in those little chocolate dip pots; why does the photocopier at work always jam when you're photocopying something that's non work related. But since attempting to consider all they whys in the world, or indeed even a trivial portion of them is likely to induce brain meltdown (for me anyway - although I shouldn't tar everyone's philosophical capacities with the same brush!) I'm sticking with one why for now. Why was I concocting porridge fudge?!

A birds eye view of porridge fudge

And those of you that know me will know by now that it was in the name of de-dairification. I found some soya fudge in a health food shop. I'm pretty sure there's some irony there - just because it has soya in it doesn't cancel out all the sugar and make it healthy! But it tasted of soya (no surprises). So I wanted to see if I could make dairy free fudge that didn't taste of soya. And I succeeded - it tastes of porridge!

I based it on the recipe for white chocolate fudge that I blogged back in October. It is most definitely not dairy free, being full of white chocolate and double cream! So when I say based, I mean I used the same general principle and changed half the ingredients...

Dairy Free Oat Fudge (Makes a 9inch round tin)

100g dark brown sugar
400g granulated sugar
3tbsp liquid glucose
500ml Oatly oat cream

First grease your tin and line the base with parchment to make it easy to turn out.
Put all the ingredients in a large heavy bottomed saucepan over a low heat, and allow to melt together.
Stir regularly until the sugar melts and is no longer grainy at all.
Once the sugar has dissolved, bring the mixture to the boil, and let it boil fairly vigorously.
Boil until the 'soft ball' stage is reached, or if you're using a sugar thermometer, 118C.
Take the mixture off the heat and stir for about 5 minutes until it starts to thicken and leaves a trail on the surface that doesn't sink back in straight away.
Pour into the prepared tin and give it a good shake to level the contents.
Allow to cool. Once it has cooled for half an hour or so, you can mark it into squares, but leave it in the tin to cool completely, ideally overnight.
Turn out, and cut into chunks.

Good fudge... bad photo!

I loved this - it definitely tasted fudgy, it didn't have the weird soya taste of so many dairy free sweets, and it reminded me of eating porridge for breakfast as a kid, when I'd sprinkle sugar on top and then make islands with the milk. Nostalgia and a sugar hit in one bite is a winning combination.

Plenty of normal dairy eating family and friends tried it too, and they all seemed to think it tasted good too - in a porridge-y sort of way! It doesn't quite have the texture of normal fudge - it was slightly more brittle, which I think is probably because the fat content of the oat cream was lower than double cream. But if you've got a dairy free friend and you make them up a batch of this, I'm fairly certain you'll be hailed as a hero/heroine (delete as appropriate!). Unless of course they don't like porridge...

Breakfast Club January Detox - Baked Banana Breakfasts

2012-01-18T20:45:00.000Z

January. A time that everyone makes resolutions to eat healthily, whilst still having a house full of left over Christmas chocolate, and then due to the foibles of human nature, suddenly can only think of chocolate, cake and all things forbidden.

I have to say that one of the few benefits of being dairy free during Christmas is that my chocolate count was virtually nil, desserts were largely fruit based, and although there is a chocolate stash in the house I can't eat any of it! Trying to see the silver lining here...

Anyway, since healthy eating is a hot topic at this time of year, the theme for the January Breakfast Club was appropriately detox. It was hosted by Food, Je t'Aimee, who kicked things off with some delicious sounding smoothies.

I opted for a super quick microwave 'baked' oaty cake with banana and blueberry, which I found at Love Veggies and Yoga. It packs in lots of slow release energy, antioxidants and no refined sugar. Oh yeah - and is ready in 5 mins, so really is a viable breakfast option! Think of it like portable porridge.

Banana and Blueberry Oaty Cake (breakfast for 1 hungry person!)

1 medium banana
1/2 cup of porridge oats
1 tsp honey
1 pinch of ground cinnamon
1/4 -1/2 a cup of blueberries

Mash the banana in a bowl with the honey and cinnamon.

Add the oats and keep mashing until well combined, then mix in the blueberries as gently as you can.

Lightly grease a bowl (or cute mini casserole dish!) then tip in the mixture and squash it down a little.

Cover with cling film and poke a hole for steam.

Microwave for 3.5 minutes (for a 900Watt microwave).

Allow to rest for a minute and a half - then it's ready to eat.

Eat it from the dish, or turn out onto a plate - it's up to you!

I had blueberries needing used up, so chucked in the full half cup - which made it lovely and juicy, but reduced the easy portability slightly! If you wanted to take this with you and eat it on the bus to work (for example!) where blueberry juice running down your chin isn't socially acceptably, then I'd reduce it to 1/4 of a cup. If you're at home, with a spoon, then throw them all in!

I had high hopes Mini-M would eat this. She loves banana. She loves blueberries. She loves oat cereal bars. I was soooooooo wrong! She studiously picked out and ate the blueberries (saying bloob, bloob as she gouged each one out!) and threw the rest swiftly off her plate, creating a lovely oaty, blueberry, sticky mess on the floor.

Inspired by my success, I decided to try another banana microwave bake - this time using quinoa flakes for extra detox healthiness.

Quinoa Banana Microwave Bake (Serves 1 hungry person for breakfast)

1 medium banana mashed
not quite 1/2 a cup of quinoa flakes
1 tsp honey
2 tsp dessicated coconut

Mash the banana well in a bowl along with the honey, then mix in the coconut and quinoa flakes and keep mixing until well combined.

Grease a bowl (or mini casserole dish) then tip in the mix and flatten out a little.

Cover with clingfilm, then poke a hole in the top to let it the steam out, and microwave for 3.5mins (for a 900Watt microwave), and stand for a minute and a half.

Tip out onto a plate, and you're ready to top it with what ever you like and enjoy.

Yet another awful photo! I am starting 2012 badly...

I opted for a spoonful of coconut milk, and that classic detox breakfast accompaniment... a fizzy vitamin to chase away the winter sniffles!

And if you're intrigued to see what detox delights other Breakfast Club bloggers have come up with, well the good new is... you can!

Needles and Pins

2012-01-15T19:11:00.002Z

It seems like a looooooooong time ago that I made this felt needle case for a "Mummy School" graduation present. In reality it was only 3 months - it's just been a busy three months!

I used brightly coloured felt, which I edged with blanket stitch, then used a different colour of embroidery thread for each letter to create a rainbow effect. Not subtle, but a little burst of colour can sometimes be like a little ray of sunshine, at least I hope so, particularly if the needle case is being brought out to do something less than exciting, like mending holes!

Daring Cooks January 2012 Challenge: Mexican Tamales

2012-01-14T11:53:00.001Z

This month Maranda of Jolts and Jollies was our January 2012 Daring Cooks hostess with the mostess! Maranda challenged us to make traditional Mexican Tamales as our first challenge of the year!

In the words of our host...
"Tamales are made up of a masa (dough) usually made from a corn base and a filling. These are wrapped in corn husks, a large leaf, or some other wrapping and steamed to cook. The wrapper is discarded before eating.
Tamales can be traced back as far as 5000 B.C. Tamale making is usually a social event with the women in Hispanic families gathering together to spend an afternoon making dozens and dozens of tamales."

Tamales all wrapped and in the steamer

Prior to this months challenge, I had vaguely heard of tamales, but wasn't exactly sure what they were, and I'd certainly never tasted one. Now I'm enlightened on all three counts, and are most of my family who came around to eat them!

A detailed how to and recipe can be found here - at the Daring Kitchen.

When the challenge was announced, I was a bit concerned that both the corn flour (not to be confused with actual cornflour) and the dried corn husks would prove impossible to find in Scotland, but Lupe Pintos Deli in Tolcross, just across the other side of Edinburgh came up trumps on both. It's a shop I've passed many times but never been into before - and if you're looking for something hot, spicy, or Latin American, I suggest you pay it a visit - it's a treasure trove packed from floor to ceiling with goodies!

I went on a massive deviation from the fillings suggested in the challenge recipe, since I reckoned that things like green tomatillos were likely to be nigh on impossible or affordable to find. Instead I made some Scottish/Mexican fusion Tamales. I made three different fillings - spiced red cabbage, chicken, black pudding and cranberry, and a slightly more traditional chili beef and sweetcorn. They were served with a green salad, and some plum and grape salsa.

Get stuck in!

Now for the epic recipe roundup....

Chili Beef and Sweetcorn Filling (for 10-12 tamales)

1 small onion
1 green chili
1 garlic clove
225g steak mince
4 baby sweetcorn
3 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp olive oil

Finely chop the onion, chili and garlic and saute in the olive oil. Add the mince and brown. Chop the corn in to small pieces, then add once the mince has browned. Stir in the ketchup and water, and simmer until the mince stops being squeaky in texture. Add a little more water if need be to stop it becoming too dry.

A cooked tamale with with chili beef filling

Spiced Red Cabbage Filling (I made 6 tamales with this and had LOADS left over for the next day. It's a great accompaniment to roast meats, or in ham sandwiches, which is how we ate it!)

1 small red cabbage (about 700g)
2 red plums
1 medium onion
3tbsp water
2tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
pinch of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg
Salt and Pepper
1tsp olive oil

Finely shred the cabbage, chop the onion and plums (you don't need to peel the plums). Take a medium casserole dish with a tight fitting lid, and lightly grease with the olive oil. Put about 1/3 of the shredded cabbage on the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle over half of the onion, half of the plums, half of the sugar and add a pinch each of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper, then cover with another 1/3 of the cabbage. Do the same with the other half of the onion, plums, sugar and spices, then top with the final third of the cabbage. Pour over the water and white wine vinegar, then cover the dish tightly and cook in the over for about 2.5hrs at 150C until tender. I then roughly chopped the cooked and cooled mixture in the food processor so that it was easier to spoon into tamales, but you could leave it unchopped too, to save time.

Black Pudding, Chicken and Cranberry Filling (I made 6 tamales with this, then added 1x 340g jar of pasta sauce, and used it to make lasagna with instead of mince, which served four)

1 skinless chicken breast
300g black pudding
50g fresh cranberries
1 small onion
4 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1tbsp olive oil

Poach the chicken breast in gently boiling water until cooked through, then cool. Put the chicken, cranberries and black pudding in a food processor and blitz until chopped. Finely chop the onion, and saute it in a medium saucepan. Add the black pudding, chicken and cranberries and stir constantly until the black pudding softens. Add the chili sauce and stir well, cook on low for a few minutes more, then remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before filling the tamales.

A black pudding one... pre-unwrapping, so you can't really tell - oops!

Red Plum and Grape Salsa (Serves 6-8)
This is a good way of using plums out of season - they often ripen but remain flavourless. They taste too sour to enjoy on their own, but this seems to make the most of their sweetness.

6 red plums
150g red grapes
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley
1 green chili
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil
1 tbsp lemon juice.

Stone and chop the plums and half the grapes. Finely chop the parsley and chili. Whisk together the oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mix them all together, then leave for three or four hours for the flavours to mingle. Serve at room temperature rather than cold to maximise the flavour.

A tamale tower!

Cake doesn't have to be fancy...

2012-01-13T21:04:00.000Z

... sometimes simple cake just hits the spot.

This cake did just that!

Almond sponge cake with a thick layer of black cherry jam, topped with some no-frills water icing sprinkled with flaked almonds - Bakewell Cake!

Bakewell Cake (Serves 10)

185g dairy free margarine
150g flaked almonds (plus an extra tbsp for decoration)
200g granulated sugar
100g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
4 medium eggs
1/2 a jar black cherry jam
175g icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
a splash of water

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan), grease 2 8in cake tins and line the bases with baking parchment.
Take the 150g flaked almonds, and blitz in the food processor until they are ground. This will give you coarser and more moist ground almonds than commercially ground ones, and improve the texture of the cake.
Then add the margarine, sugar, SR flour, baking powder and eggs to the food processor on top of the almonds and blitz it all together until well combined.
Pour into the prepared tins and bake for about 30 mins until golden, springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Turn out of the tins and allow to cool until cold on a wire rack.
Put one layer on your serving plate, spread the cherry jam on top, then top with the other layer.
Sieve the icing sugar into a small bowl, add 1tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp cold water and gently start to mix together. Keep adding tsp of water gradually until you get a thick pouring consistency.
Pour into the centre of the cake, spread out very slightly then allow it to find its own way to the edges.
Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and the set to the side to allow the icing to set.

Yes, yes, yes, I know, another awfully lit photograph! Scotland in the winter, and food photography are not natural allies!

The bonus of this cake is also that the ground almonds keep it nice and moist, so it stays delicious for several days. The slice photo wasn't taken until day three, and it was still just as good as day one. That's a very useful attribute in a cake!

Frozen to fantastic in 10 minutes!

2012-01-11T20:57:00.000Z

Mini-M is enjoying soup at the moment. And dipping things in it. She's a fan of dipping pretty much anything, into anything else, if I'm being honest. Tonight, at dinner time, she dipped cucumber into vanilla soya custard and seemed to enjoy it. Maybe it is an undiscovered delicious taste sensation, but I have to confess I didn't try it!

So I decided to make soup, took a look in the fridge, and found that the only soup-y ingredients I had were an onion, and some sad looking herbs that I discounted at the outset. I'm quite glad there was nothing else, and I had to resort to the freezer, because the resulting Pea soup was lovely. And ready in 10 minutes. Fast, tasty, healthy and warm - all good things for a January recipe.

Why yes, we do use our Christmas mugs in January - and all year round for that matter. Take that, seasonal appropriateness!

Frozen Pea and Ham Soup (Serves 4)

1 onion
2 slices cooked ham
1 mug full frozen peas
1 pint of chicken stock
1/2 a mug of boiling water
1 tbsp olive oil

Finely chop the onion and fry it in the bottom of a medium saucepan in the oil for a few minutes until softened.
Chop the ham and add it to the pan, then add the peas, stock and water.
Simmer for about five minutes until the peas are cooked then take off the heat and allow to cool for a minute or two, before blitzing it until smooth.

Nothing makes an appealing food photograph backdrop quite like a grotty carpet...

Done - in just ten minutes from freezer to table - and thankfully Mini-M ate it happily - with a peanut butter sandwich to dunk!

Upside Down Pear and Chocolate Cake

2012-01-10T09:21:00.000Z

Pears and chocolate are a delicious combination, and therefore it's not surprise that this cake tasted fantastic. Rich dark and chocolaty with a fruity edge cutting through - perfect. We ate it cold, over several days, as a cake when friends came round to visit, and then just on our own, and it kept really well. It would also be lovely as a pudding, served warm with a splash of cream or scoop of ice cream.

Upside Down Pear and Chocolate Cake (Serves 8 generously)

3 tbsp demerara sugar
3-4 medium sized ripe pears
200g dairy free dark chocolate broken into pieces
125g dairy free margarine
2 eggs
40g granulated sugar
125g self raising flour
25g cocoa powder (make sure it's dairy free - most are)

Grease an 8 or 9 inch cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.
Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan).
Sprinkle the demerara sugar over the base.
Melt the chocolate and margarine separately in the microwave, then mix together and leave to cool slightly whilst you prepare the pears.
Peel and core the pears, and slice into quarters, or thinner, depending on the size of your pears vs the size of the tin. You're looking for a layer all over the base.

Add the eggs and sugar to the melted chocolate, then sieve the flour and cocoa powder in on top. Mix well until smooth.
Pour the mixture over the pears and give the tin a good wobble to level it out.
Bake at 190C (170C fan) for 35-40 mins until just set in the centre.
Allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins, then tip out onto your serving dish and carefully peel off the baking parchment.
Voila!

Geeky Stats Cooking: Georgia

2012-01-08T22:32:00.000Z

So, I'm onto my second country of many many still to go on my weird and wonderful culinary world tour. If you're not sure what on earth I'm talking about, then I suggest you have a quite read of this post, where I explain my madcap scheme.

And that country is... Georgia. Purely coincidental that it's another 'G' country, after Gibraltar last time - I'm definitely not doing it alphabetically, but I did have a lot of potatoes needing used, and some walnuts lurking in the cupboard, so this seemed a good option.

It was delicious - a very different alternative to normal potato salad, and the taste of the walnuts was fantastic - not too overpowering but nutty and creamy with just the right hint of bitterness. My recipe is based on this one, at Georgian Taste (which doesn't seem to be a current site - the last update was in 2007, but thankfully recipes are timeless), for Kartopili Nigvzit, and made a few tweaks to make it dairy free. I opted to cook the garlic so it wasn't so overpowering, in the hope that Mini-M might eat it, but she was having another funny food day, so I'm not sure any of it even made it into her mouth. Oh well - one of these days we'll stumble across something she loves!

Georgian Potatoes with Walnuts (Serves 6)

700g potatoes (not floury)
1 medium onion
1tbsp dairy free margarine
1 cup shelled walnuts
1 clove of garlic
Large pinch of salt
2 tsp dried dill
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil

Peel and chop the potatoes into chunks and boil until tender but not too soft.
Whilst the potatoes are cooking, finely chop the onion and crush the garlic, then saute both in the melted margarine.
In a food processor, blitz the walnuts into a crumbly paste, then stir in the dill, vinegar, cooked onions and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste. Add a splash of olive oil it if is very stiff.
Whilst the potatoes are still warm, mix into the nuts, stirring well - they will start to break up a little.
Eat at room temperature

We enjoyed it served with Polish sausage and green beans.

Not an amazing photo, but almost passable...

...the worst close up in the world!

My photography needs some work! It's easy to make cake look tasty - seems potato salad is a bit harder...

Random Recipes 12 - New Year, New Book!

2012-01-08T21:57:00.000Z

This month's Random Recipe challenge was to cook something randomly selected from our newest cook book. A great idea - thanks for yet another ingenious challenge - hosted by the ever inspiring Dom at Belleau Kitchen.

He surmised that most people would have been given one if not more recipe books for Christmas - and he wasn't wrong. I was lucky to receive a copy of Hugh Fearnely Whittingstall's Veg Every Day, which I had been eyeing up when it was released in the Autumn.

I flicked through the pages, Mr E shouted 'Stop' and so, the random recipe was chosen - "Pasta with raw tomato". Dairy free in it's original form, and requiring no substitution - win!

I followed the recipe fairly with only a couple of very minor substitutions: half a green chili for half a red; 100ml extra virgin olive/rapeseed oil for 50ml cold pressed rapeseed oil; posh pasta (orechiette or conchigliette are recommended) for regular - fusilli in this case; and 2 large caper berries finely chopped rather than 1tbsp baby capers. All in all, fairly true to the original!

It was delicious - it tasted of summer, which is sometimes a welcome change in the depths of Scottish winter! The basil was grassy and herby, the garlic packed a punch, and the tomato was sweet and fruity, with a slight salty tang from the capers. It was also excellent cold for lunch the next day - even Mini-M who is notoriously fussy ate some!

Peeling the tomatoes was a bit of a pain, but not too difficult, so it's definitely one I'd make again, maybe during the summer when they are a bit more ripe and flavoursome.

Chocolate Mousse with a Secret Ingredient

2012-01-03T20:37:00.002Z

Chocolate mousse is delicious - a fact that is pretty much universally accepted.

Dairy free chocolate mousse that doesn't taste of soya is pretty hard to find - also a fact.

Therefore I'd have been keen to make this no matter how complicated the recipe looked.

But in actual fact it is ridiculously simple! I found the recipe here - Vegan Avocado Chocolate Mousse.

Avocado. In chocolate mousse. I have to confess I was initially unconvinced. But just think of it as fortuitous that I've done the sceptical bit for you - and you can now just take my word for it that it doesn't taste of avocado, just rich, yummy, chocolate mousse!

Dairy Free Chocolate Mousse (serves 2)

1 small-medium ripe avocado

1/2 a cup of cocoa powder

1/2 a cup of agave syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put all of the ingredients in a jug or liquidiser. Blend until smooth. If it's too stiff, you can loosen it up with a splash of non-dairy milk (if you don't want to use soya, I'd recommend oat milk).

Unlike other avocado dishes, it seems to keep well in the fridge, and was just as delicious the next day and all of the chocolateyness means that for once you don't need to worry about the avocado discolouring, which is a bonus. If you need it to be dairy free for yourself or guests, just make sure your cocoa powder doesn't have any added milk in it - it's cocoa rather than drinking chocolate that you need. And finally, make sure your avocado is very ripe - if it's still hard it will be difficult to blend and you'll be left with tiny avocado pieces in your mousse, which will stop the texture being as smooth as it should be.

And as a parting thought, I guess with the avocado included, and agave rather than refined sugar, this could almost be classed as healthy... depending on how rose tinted your spectacles are. According to the NHS, half an avocado counts as one of your five a day!

Sugar and spice and... gingerbread!

2012-01-03T19:37:00.000Z

Not many words, and no recipe. Just some photos of the IKEA gingerbread house I finally got round to decorating.
I had planned to do it pre-Christmas instead of a traditional Christmas cake, but everything got a bit hectic so since it was in a sealed packed with a best before date of September 2012, it was put to one side.

Last night, however, Mr E went to the cinema to see a boy film (anything with violence, action, guns, fast cars, etc is categorised as such!) - in this case The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And I decided the time had come to attempt some gingerbread flat pack construction.

It comes with proper IKEA flat pack instructions which made me smile, and the little man doing the constructing is wearing a Santa hat! Easily pleased, I know.

I used royal icing as the glue, and had to do some emergency structural repairs since the front wall was broken - but not too noticeable post-decoration thankfully. Trying to stick the walls together a) upright and b) at right angles was tricky with only one pair of hands, but I got there in the end.

A New Year, A New Challenge: Geeky Stats Cooking: Gibraltar

2012-01-01T22:14:00.000Z

So 2011 is put to bed, and 2012 is (according to my laptop clock) 20hrs and 55mins old.

Mini-M is asleep after a happy day watching hundreds of hardy (and crazy!) Loony Dookers at South Queensferry, followed by blowing bubbles on Cramond beach. Fresh air = an easy bedtime.

It seems like a good time to introduce my new crazy blog project, replacing the weekly photos, but without the weekly bit!

A few months ago, Mr E stupidly asked how many countries my blog had been viewed in. I was a bit of an Google Analytics geek already, but this simple enquiry sucked me in even further and has set me off on another cooking challenge: cooking a recipe from every country in the world I have not had a blog visit from.

Now before anyone misunderstands me, I'm not thinking that cooking a recipe from a country will lead to visitors from there. It probably wont, for a couple of key reasons... most people in said country will already know how to cook their typical foods and therefore are unlikely to be Googling it... and if they are they are unlikely to be Googling in English... and to be honest, if I'm wrong on both those assumptions, I kind of feel sorry for those poor visitors, as I no doubt make a culinary travesty of their treasured national recipes by doing my usual substituting and generally failing to follow recipes properly!

However for blog readers closer to home, it might hopefully make mildly interesting reading as I cook my way through a bunch of recipes you've probably never heard of, and you can feel your culinary horizons have been broadened a little along with mine.

Right, back to the challenge. I chose the list of countries I'd not had visitors from because it was more adventurous than the list I had - instead of staying in my comfort zone and cooking my way around mainland Europe, I'll be exploring the cuisines of Africa, Asia and beyond.

At the outset, I went searching online for a list of all the countries in the world. Unsurprisingly due to complex global politics it is a subject of much debate! In the end I decided to go with a belt and braces approach and used a list of countries, sovereign states, principalities - the lot. I'm ruling out any that Wikipedia says are uninhabited, which I think leaves me with around 150 nations! Eep - that's a big number!

So anyone that's any good at maths will realise that this project may keep me busy for more than 2012 - to do it all in a year, I'd have to notch up a couple of countries a week, which is probably optimistic. I did the weekly posting thing last year, and it was great to have that discipline, but I'm ready for a break from it now - so my Geeky Stats Cooking posts will be as and when I feel like it - or can get my hands on the right ingredients!

To kick things off, I'm awarding the honour of being the first country on my global blog tour to... Gibraltar, from which I've made Calentita - which is considered to be Gibraltar's national dish. It's a baked dish that is a bit like a cross between polenta and a yorkshire pudding, and made with chickpea flour.

Calentita (Makes 1x 8in tin)

1 cup chickpea flour (sometimes called gram flour or besan)
2 cups of cold water
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

The day before you want to cook the calentita, mix the flour, water and a pinch of salt in a jug, cover and leave overnight.
When you're ready to cook, pour the oil into a baking tin or dish and heat in a hot oven (about 240C). Once hot, take the dish out of the oven and give the mixture a good whisk before pouring it onto the hot oil.

Sprinkle some black pepper over the surface, then quickly return to the oven and allow to cook for about half an hour until the top forms a golden crust.
Remove from the oven and cool - it will set as it cools. Once it has set, you can cut it into squares.

We ate it as an accompaniment to stew, and also sprinkled with a little grated sheep's milk cheese, then popped under a hot grill until melted.

I under salted and pepper mine whilst cooking and the finished result was a little bland, so don't be shy, particularly with the pepper. It has a mild flavour, and on its own isn't startling, but it is substantial, filling and cheap - and nutritious from the chickpea flour. The tangy sharpness of the sheep cheese went well with it, as did some meaty stewy gravy.

A successful first stop on my global food adventure... wish me luck! And of course, if you feel like joining me on a similar adventure, then there's room on the 'Geeky Stats Cooking' cruise ship!

A Picture A Day: Week 52

2011-12-31T22:28:00.001Z

It's hard to believe that this is my last daily photo roundup post. I've gone a whole year taking a picture every day, and looking back, I think I've managed it on about 355/365 days. I make that a 97% success rate, which I'm pretty sure is better than I've ever done on any exam!

It's been really fun and interesting to do - the camera has become part of my day to day handbag equipment (along with a squashed cereal bar, quite a lot of crumbs, some stale chewing gum, a ponytail band despite having very short hair - you know - the essentials!). Mini-M now picks it up, and says 'cheese' (which admittedly sounds more like 'chszzzz' with no vowels at all), when she wants her picture taken. I've created a 1 year old photo diva!

It's also my 200th blog post! Since starting in January 2009, it took me 30 months until July 2011 to reach 100 posts, then 6 months to notch up my second century. I'm feeling quite proud of my little blog!

Anyway, Mr E is going to be taking over the daily photo mantle, and I guess we'll soon discover how, when and where the pictures are going to be posted!

But until then, for the final time, here are last week's photos...

Saturday 24th December
Christmas Eve finished with a quiet game of Scrabble after a lovely family gathering over the Forth in Fife. Mini-M slept, and Mr E and I put our feet up and pondered double word scores, triple letter scores and whether or not any words contained no vowels...

Sunday 25th December
We went to the zoo on Christmas Day. The penguins were the highlight. Mini-M has been working on her penguin wiggle, and it was performed at many times throughout the day!

Monday 26th December
Boxing Day saw us head to Granny and Grandad E's, where Mini-M continued the penguin theme by wearing her penguin jumper around her waist and waddling around the kitchen, with a cushion.

Tuesday 27th December
A trip to Harestanes for some fresh air and see-sawing got everyone out of the house.

Wednesday 28th December
In a rain-free gap there was some technical swing construction...

Thursday 29th December
Indulging in some holiday reading...

Friday 30th December
I couldn't let my folks escape without featuring in a photo - so here they are waving us off on our way back to Edinburgh - Granny and Grandad N

Saturday 31st December
Happy Hogmanay chaos earlier this evening, when some lovely friends threw open their home to a horde of rampaging tots! There was laughter, there were tears, and someone took their trousers off - sounds just like student days again...

I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings, and a little insight into my view of our world. I'm not leaving blog-land behind - I'll still be updating Makey-Cakey regularly with crafts, cakes and I daresay a fair few photos of Mini-M may sneak in there too, just with a little less structure!

And finally of course, Happy New Year! I hope 2012 brings health and happiness to you and yours, where you are. Rx

Chocolate Poppyseed Slice - A Successful Invention

2011-12-31T21:45:00.004Z

I'm a big fan of poppy seeds, particularly poppy seed cake (Makowiec) which I'm attributing to my Polish ancestry! I had good intentions of making some, but in the midst of Mini-M having some very festive pre-Christmas lurgy, I ran out of time. The tin of poppy seed filling just sat there on the counter, looking sadly at me every time I passed, saying 'bake me!' (Just to clarify, I don't actually talk to my ingredients, they don't actually talk to me, and I'm speaking metaphorically rather than madly!)

So I did. In my head I envisaged a kind of poppy seed millionaires shortbread, without the caramel or chocolate topping. It pretty much worked out exactly like that, and better - I'll definitely be making it again. The shortbread bottom was based on this BBC Good Food Millionaire's Shortbread recipe, and the topping by these Poppy Seed Cookies from Jar in the City, which I de-nutted then chocolate-d up.

The result may not be exactly authentically Polish, but it tastes delicious so hopefully it's cultural transgression can be forgiven!

Chocolate Poppy seed Slice (makes 1 tray)
For the base

50g granulated sugar
140g dairy free margarine
175g plain flour
25g ground rice

For the topping

1x850g tin poppy seed filling
1 medium egg
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1x 85g bar dark chocolate (mine was flavoured with ginger and mandarin)

For the icing

4 tbsp icing sugar
a little cold water

Preheat the oven to 160C (Fan 140C) and grease a 9x13" rectangular brownie tin or similar.
Blitz all the base ingredients together in a food processor until it goes through the crumbly stage and starts clumping together.
Press the crumbly mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes until golden.
Meanwhile make the filling by mixing the poppy seed filling, egg, plain flour and cocoa powder together well in a large bowl.
Melt the chocolate and stir it in to the poppy seed mixture.
Pour the topping over the cooked base, and spread out evenly.
Increase the oven temperature to 180C (Fan 160C) and bake for another 30 mins until slightly puffed and firm to the touch.
Allow to cool, then mix the icing sugar with a few teaspoons of cold water to a smooth consistency, and drizzle over the poppy seed layer with a teaspoon.
Allow to harden, then cut into squares to serve.

Best of all, it's dairy free - enjoy!

An alternative take on some Christmas classics: Mincemeat pancakes and Brussels Sprout Pakoras

2011-12-31T11:02:00.000Z

We went to the zoo on Christmas Day! It was fab - Mini-M was captivated by the penguins, we saw the new giant pandas, it stayed mainly dry, the penguins came out on parade, and despite it being rather gusty, we made it to the top of the hill without being blown away.

As a result we had a rather unconventional Christmas meal. We took a picnic, which included cold potato tortilla, smoked mackerel and tomato mayo toastwiches, sausages wrapped in bacon (of course) and mincemeat pancakes. Then when we got home in the evening, we had carrot, parsnip and orange soup with brussles sprout pakoras!

Definitely a deviation from turkey and gravy, but still delicious!

To make the sprout pakoras, I used this recipe from the Patterned Plate, with a few little tweaks.

Here's my version.

Just the right mix of spicy, crunchy and sprouty!

Brussels Sprout Pakoras (Makes 12-15 depending on size)

125g brussels sprouts (this worked about at 12 smallish ones for me)
1/2 a large onion
125g gram flour (chickpea flour)
3 tbsp ground rice
1/2 tsp baking powder
300ml cold water
3 sprigs fresh parsley
1/2 a hot fresh red chili
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground ginger
a generous pinch of salt
1litre sunflower oil (for frying - you can reuse it)

First prepare your sprouts - take off the outer leaves if necessary, and cut off the bottom stalk, then finely shred them.
Next finely chop your onion.
Deseed and chop your chili.
Finely chop your parsley.
In a large bowl, mix together the gram flour, ground rice, baking powder, cumin, ginger, turmeric and salt.
Add about 250ml of the water until you have a thick but pourable pancake batter consistency. You may need to add more water - just keep adding it until you reach this point.
Mix in your sprouts, onion, chili and parsley and stir until well combined and coated.
Pour the oil into a medium saucepan, so that it comes about halfway up the pan, and is about 3 inches deep.
Heat the oil until a small blob of batter will float but not immediately colour. It's a bit tricky getting it right - too cold and the pakoras will absorb too much oil - too hot and they will be cooked on the outside but raw in the middle.
Once your oil is hot enough, drop tablespoons of the mixture in - they will sizzle a bit as the moisture in the batter comes into contact with the hot oil. Depending on the size of your pan you may be able to cook up to 3 or 4 at a time. I managed 2. Don't be tempted to squash too many is, as they will a) stick together and b) cool the oil down so they won't cook properly.
Cook for a few minutes, until golden and slightly puffed up, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

These are delicious fresh, but they also reheat well, so you can make them ahead, allow to cool, then re-heat for about 5 minutes in a hot oven.

Fresh pancakes just chilling out on a tea-towel

The mincemeat pancakes were delicious - to make them, I started off making a regular scotch pancake batter, but before I added the milk, dolloped in half a jar of suet-less mincemeat. I then added enough milk to get the correct consistency, but it was a fair amount less than usual, since the mincemeat was quite runny. Then I cooked them as usual. They were great cold, but even better toasted the next day for breakfast!

Mr E & Mini-M mid-pancake munch, waiting for the penguin parade

Say cheese if you love pancakes!

If this chocolate cake could wear a cape and fly... it would!

2011-12-30T20:50:00.001Z

Superfood and chocolate cake. Not often words that coexist happily in the same sentence. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people would heartily agree that chocolate cake is a pretty super food, in terms of general deliciousness, but it's not normally a superfood in terms of nutrition.

One of these days I will not spatter cake mixture when pouring it into the tin!

Well, this one is! It contains not one, but two superfoods: blueberries and quinoa. The first one probably didn't surprise anyone - the second one has possibly made you all a little sceptical. Rest assured it tastes delicious, and not at all 'healthy' which means you can be relatively virtuous and still feel sinful.

Cracked chocolate amazingness

As I'm writing this, I'm mentally picturing some little fat blueberry ninjas, and a be-caped packet of quinoa, ready and waiting to take on the winter germs, cure aches and pains, lift spirits and find the solution to world peace. If only! In reality, they might at least create a neutral dessert - where their superfoody presence cancels out the sugar and other cake baddies!

The heart of darkness (due to my dodgy photography!)

This recipe is adapted from one I found at Within the Kitchen - so if you're looking for a real dairy, blueberry-less version with a coffee hit, and twice as much of it (yum!), then you'll find it here.

Superfood Chocolate Cake (Serves 6-8)

1/3 cup dried quinoa
1l water
3 tbsp non-dairy milk (as usual, I used oat milk)
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Scant 1/2 cup of dairy free margarine
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g fresh blueberries
pinch of salt

Put the quinoa and water in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer until the quinoa is tender (about 10-15mins). Drain, and allow to cool slightly.
Preheat the oven to 180C (170C fan) and grease an 8" cake tin. Line the bottom with baking parchment if it isn't non-stick.
Put the eggs, oat milk, melted margarine and vanilla in a blender (or bowl if you're using a hand blender). Add 1 cup of the cooked quinoa. (If you have extra left, if makes a fantastic tabbouleh style salad with tomatoes and lots of fresh herbs.) Blitz it until smooth.
In a large mixing bowl, measure out the cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Stir to combine then add the wet ingredients.
Mix well, then stir through the blueberries.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for around 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (unless you hit a blueberry of course!).
Allow to cool completely in the tin, then wrap in tin foil, pop in a large airtight box and leave for 24-48hrs before eating. This helps it to become moist and fudgy - of course you can eat it straight away, it might just have a very slightly more grainy texture from the quinoa, depending on how soft you cooked it, and how smoothly you blended it!
Serve warm or cold, with a drizzle of oat cream, and feel good about getting your chocolate fix!

More than a drizzle really!

A Picture A Day: Week 51

2011-12-23T21:47:00.000Z

Well today has been an epic blogging day - this is post number 3, plus one last night!
And it's also my second last daily photo post - I can't believe I've actually managed the whole year, pretty much without cheating. A subject of recent debate has been whether or not I continue it on into 2012. It's been a lot of work, but also a huge satisfaction. I think I want a wee break of carrying my camera everywhere, however.... Rumour has it that Mr E may be taking up the daily photo baton. Now we just need to figure out the logistics of where and how the photos will go - but rest assured, they will still contain plenty of Mini-M!

Right - on to this week's pictures.

Saturday 17th December
Today was the Mummy School Christmas party. Mini-M was poorly, but made it along for 15 mins at the end during which time this ambitious picture was staged!

Sunday 18th December
An afternoon visit to the National Museum of Scotland to allow Mini-M some indoor adventuring, as she was starting to perk up. Perhaps she's a geographer at heart, getting up close with the volcano display!

Monday 19th December
Hmmm - a picture taken out of our bedroom window at 11:57pm - oops! Guess who forgot to photograph anything interesting during the day...

Tuesday 20th December
Mini-M not looking entirely convinced by the rainbow Eskimo look!

Wednesday 21st December
Clearly 'The Wheels on the Bus' has branched out since I was a kid!

Thursday 22nd December
Mini-M's advent calendar has stained glass instead of chocolate

Friday 23rd December
The best way to eat peanut butter on toast is with one piece in each hand!

Gingerbread Tablet - tastes like Christmas!

2011-12-23T17:32:00.000Z

What does one do when faced with a full and unopened carton of single cream, and real butter in the fridge needing used up, when still unable to eat dairy?

Turn it into a big batch of gingerbread tablet, of course, and share it with family, friends and colleagues!

I can't tell you what it tastes like - but I can tell you that it went down very well with all who tasted it. In fact my brother, a self titled 'Tablet Connoisseur' decreed it really good - high praise indeed - and happily headed off home with a small stash of his own to see him through some very un-festive exam revision.

So here's my recipe

Gingerbread Tablet (makes 1 large tray)

100g dark brown muscovado sugar
900g granulated sugar
100g butter
284ml carton of single cream
150ml semi skimmed milk
50g crunchy gingerbread biscuits
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put the butter, sugars, milk and cream and vanilla into a large heavy based saucepan. Put it on a really really low heat, and leave it until it has all dissolved - this can sometimes take as much as an hour. Dissolving over a low heat is key - if the heat is too high, the mixture will start to boil before all the sugar crystals have dissolved, and the resulting tablet will be grainy in texture. Still delicious, but not velvety smooth.
In the meantime, butter a baking tin - mine was a 9x13 inch swiss roll tin. Don't use margarine or oil or spray, otherwise it will make your tablet taste funny. A thin, even coating of real butter is best.
Crush your gingerbread finely. I think there's a massive therapeutic value in pummelling the living daylights out of some defenceless biscuits with the end of a rolling pin!
Once the sugar has completely dissolved, turn the heat up and bring the mixture to a vigorous boil - stirring carefully because it does tend to splash a bit, and boiling sugar to the eye is not something anyone needs to experience.
Continue to boil hard until it reaches the soft ball stage (115C according to my sugar thermometer). It's not that I don't trust my thermometer, just that, well, OK I don't trust my thermometer, so prefer to check that it's ready by dropping a small amount of the mixture straight from the pan into a cup of cold water. If you can roll it into a ball that holds its shape under water, but loses it a bit out of water, then that's you done.
Take it off the heat, set on a heatproof worksurface, roll up your sleeves and beat it hard with a wooden spoon until starts to thicken. You will notice the consistency suddenly start to change, at which point throw in the gingerbread crumbs, give it one last stir and very quickly tip it into your prepared tin. This stuff sets fast! There is nothing more upsetting than it setting in the pan, particularly if it's going to be a gift. Although it will still taste delicious, a tub of unceremoniously-hacked-out-of-the-pan-with-a-knife tablet chunks and crumbs doesn't have quite the same elegance and visual appeal and neatly cut squares!
Once it has set to the touch, mark into squares with a sharp knife then allow to cool to completely stone cold before turning out of the tin and cutting.

Breakfast Club 17: Banana Bready Bread

2011-12-23T10:47:00.003Z

Now that I'm officially on holiday, I am catching up on a blogging backlog, still in my PJs whilst Mini-M is having a morning nap. Of course, she will probably decide it is time to wake up in about three minutes, before I get anywhere close to the end of this post, let alone onto the next, and I'm now wasting time writing rubbish that could be recipe words - I'll never learn! Onwards...

The December Breakfast Club challenge theme was Bread, and was hosted by Krithi's Kitchen. We were challenged to either make bread for breakfast, or use bread in a breakfast dish. I went for the former.

This challenge coincided with a surfeit of bananas. Our veg box banana allocation is usually reserved for Mini-M who is a banana fiend, however she was on a bit of a food strike a few weeks ago, so suddenly there were three rather sad bananas in the fruit dish.

In my epic 'Recipes' bookmarks folder, I had this one from veganbaking.net for Yeasted Banana Bread. It's for proper bready bread, with yeast, rather than banana cakey bread, with bicarbonate of soda or SR flour.

For once, I didn't have to de-dairy it, which meant it went into the oven without the familiar will it / wont it work feeling. Of course it did!

And for once my substitution list was low - so I'm not going to post the recipe, just direct you to the original. Where it called for 'non dairy milk' I used oat milk, and instead of canola oil I used sunflower, but that was it. No weirdness!

The recipe is easy to make, and quick, in that there isn't much measuring, mixing or kneading involved, BUT slooooooow in that there is a lot of rising time. Not a good 'bread in a hurry' recipe, but a very good 'delicious warm bread without very much effort' recipe.

It was sweet and banana-y but not too sweet - just right for breakfast. It toasted well, and got top marks from both me and Mr E. I don't think any of it even made it into Mini-M's mouth, but it throws very well, particularly the crusts, which can easily clear the length of the living room.

I have to apologise also for the shocking photographs - this was made during the brief no-camera spell, when my old one gave up the ghost once and for all, and my new one hadn't arrived.

Random Recipes 11: Rocket Parmesan & Pear Salad (sadly without the parmesan!)

2011-12-22T21:02:00.001Z

December's Random Recipe Challenge - hosted by the ever ingenious Dom at Belleau Kitchen was to make a recipe from a cook book that you rarely use, then give it away to charity, (The book, not the cooking!) which was a lovely idea, and a welcome antidote to all the mince pie and Christmas cake type posts flying around. Not that they aren't delicious and lovely too, of course, but sometimes it's possible to get a bit Christmassed out. And of course, charity shops are always on the look out for donations, many with stock appeals at this time of year, so it's a win win situation!

My book was World Cuisine Italy (1) which I think may have come from a newspaper at some point in the past, but is a fairly substantial book that had languished unused and unloved on my cookbook shelf.

I asked my sister, the lovely Auntie L to choose me a random recipe, and she picked Rocket, Parmesan and Pear salad, or Insalata di Rucola, Parmigiano e Pera if we're going to be Italian about it.

Since I'm still non-dairy, it immediately lost one of it's three key ingredients, and became Rocket and Pear Salad, which was thankfully still peppery, sweet, and tangy with a dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

So yet again, not what I was supposed to make, but lovely all the same. Don't be scared of adding pears to your winter salads - they are fantastic - I am a convert!

Christmas Playdough

2011-12-16T22:14:00.004Z

Whilst I was researching my edible gifts article for the Daring Kitchen, I came across this Fall Spiced Play Dough recipe at Creating Nirvana Today. Yes, I know playdough isn't edible, but it is a homemade gift from the kitchen, so I decided that it most definitely counted!

This week I was using my full entertainment arsenal to keep a poorly Mini-M happy, and decided that playdough was worth a shot. It turned out to be a big hit - particularly prodding it with pointy sticks.

The post over at Creating Nirvana Today will make you double this quantity - I halved it to fit with the amount of flour I had, and it made plenty for playing with Mini-M, but if you're making it to entertain a horde of kids, I'd definitely do a bigger batch. I also changed the spices a bit - again to match what I had to hand. It made the kitchen (and my hands!) smell like Christmas. Mr E wanted to eat it. Mini-M tried - but only once - clearly even with spices and vanilla added, playdough still tastes like playdough!

This possibly wasn't the most sensible use of nap time!

Christmas Playdough

1/2 cup of plain flour
1/4 cup of table salt
1tsp cream of tartar
2tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of warm water
1tbsp sunflower oil

Put all the ingredient in a saucepan and give a good mix. Don't worry, it will be all weird and slimy and lumpy to begin with but it will come OK in the end.
Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly, and you will see the mixture begin to thicken. Keep cooking and stirring until it comes together and forms a ball.
Once you've reach the right playdoughy consistency, take the pan off the heat and allow to cool a little.
Give it a quick knead for a couple of minutes, once it's cool enough to handle, then wrap tightly in cling film, seal in a plastic bag, or pop into a tupperware box until you're ready to use it.

Trying some over ambitious one handed rolling pin lifting

Prod (with one hand on the rolling pin in case of sudden attack...)

Prodding is serious business!

"Ooh that's pretty! I'd like to squash it!"

A Picture A Day: Week 50

2011-12-16T21:41:00.000Z

It's been a bit of a week of lurgy here, mainly for Mini-M who has been feeling very poorly, with a snotty nose, hacking cough, gunky eyes, temperatures, shivers - the works. She's been a very miserable little lady, but thankfully we seen to have turned a corner and she's on the mend, although still nowhere near 100%. Hopefully that's out winter dose of illness out of the way pre-Christmas!

My camera also died once and for all last Friday. My new one has in fact winged it's way from Germany already, thanks to Kodak and DHL, but as a result most of this week's photos were taken on phones, be it mine or Mr. E's.

So here they are...

Saturday 10th December

Today was Mr E's work Christmas do - which was monumental in that it was our first night away without Mini-M, since it was just outside St Andrews. Thankfully Mini-M, the babysitting grandparents, Mr E and myself all survived, and indeed enjoyed the weekend! This was my highlight though - my special dairy free dessert - layers of thin, light, crispy filo pastry layered with marinated strawberries, citrus marshmallows, and raspberry sherbert. It was absolutely delicious!

Sunday 11th December

Mini-M helping me unpack, as the lurgy began to kick in

Monday 12th December

The living room, 10 mins after a very discontented and agitated Mini-M got up from her nap

Tuesday 13th December
Bubbles at the MusicBugs Christmas session

Wednesday 14th December
Our mini indoor reindeer...

Thursday 15th December
Some moderately happy veg time on the sofa as an interlude from the coughing and crying :o(

Friday 16th December

This isn't a photo, but I make no apologies for that! It is 25 seconds that brightened up my day. Mr E and Mini-M filmed me a little message, and it popped up in my inbox during lunch. I hope it makes you smile too, whoever you are, and wherever you're reading this.

Coconut Chocolate Truffle Torte (Shh! It's dairy free but no-one will ever know...)

2011-12-14T21:47:00.000Z

Quite a few years back, I remember our family having Delia's chocolate truffle torte one Christmas, specifically because, since I lived in the 'big city' at uni, I was asked to find some amaretti biscuits that were clearly proving elusive in deepest darkest Hawick! I still remember finding a deli that stocked about six different types, and having no idea what quantity they were required in, so buying about four packets.

Anyway, it was a decadent, rich, chocolatey concoction, and buoyed up by the success of my dairy free chocolate truffles, I began to ponder if it could be made dairy free by using coconut milk instead of the cream, and dairy free dark chocolate.

This post is proof that it can! I made it for a weekend away with friends and it got a whole hearted thumbs up, as well as general disbelief that it was dairy free, which is always a good thing. Substitutes that taste like substitutes always make me a bit sad - I want things to taste fantastic in their own dairy-free right.

I'm just gutted I didn't manage to take some better pictures of its fantastic-ness!

Coconut Chocolate Truffle Torte (serves 10-12)

75g dessicated coconut
450g dark chocolate (high cocoa solids, dairy free)
5 tbsp liquid glucose
5 tbsp cherry brandy
2x 400ml tins coconut milk

This recipe has an unusual first step... about a week before you want to make the torte, put your coconut milk in your fridge. Shove it to the back, and go away and forget about it.

When you're ready to make the torte (and remember it needs to chill overnight before serving) toast the coconut in a dry frying pan over a low heat, or under a grill until lightly browned.

Grease and line a 8-10 inch loose bottomed cake tin (line the sides as well as the base, since you don't want it to taste 'greased').

Sprinkle the toasted coconut over the base of the tin.

Break the chocolate into pieces and add to a heat proof bowl with the liquid glucose and cherry brandy.

Heat it over a pan of gently simmering water until melted and completely smooth.

Take your tins of coconut milk out of the fridge, and don't shake them or turn them upside down. Remove the lids and carefully spoon out all of the thick coconut cream. By chilling it, it will have separated into a thick creamy layer on the top, with a smaller layer of very watery coconut milk at the bottom.

Once you've spooned out all of the thick stuff, give it a quick whisk with an electric beater to thicken it a little more.

Add the cooled chocolate mixture and mix gently to combine, then pour over the coconut into the prepared tin.

Give it a shoogle to settle the top level and tap it off the worktop a few times so that the bubbles rise to the top.

Chill it overnight in the fridge.

To serve, tip it out of the tin onto a serving plate - worry not, it is pretty robust! Carefully peel off the greaseproof paper, and there you go. Rich dark chocolate coconut creamy goodness with a subtle hit of alcohol - a perfect grown up pudding!

Daring Cooks' December 2011 Challenge: Cha Sui Bao

2011-12-14T01:00:00.000Z

Our Daring Cooks' December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch - delicious!

This was a fantastic challenge to make - exciting enough to feel adventurous, but uncomplicated enough to be achievable.

Looking super shiny after baking

I made the Char Sui pork somewhat impulsively without checking first of all which ingredients I actually had in the cupboard. I went for the maltose and food colouring free version, since I wanted them to be suitable for Mini-M to try, and she's high spirited and energetic enough without a dose of 'pillar box red'!

Here's the list of what should have been in the Char Sui marinade... Honey, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, sugar, oyster sauce, shaoxing cooking wine, five spice, salt. Here's what actually went into it... Honey, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper (so far so good), date syrup, cherry brandy (!), ground cloves, ground cinnamon, salt. All things considered, I was relieved how good this tasted even despite the cherry brandy.

I then used the Char Sui pork to make the baked pork buns - cue a whole lot more ingredient substituting.
I didn't mess with the actual dough recipe, but the filling itself was a heavy casualty.
I didn't have spring onions, so used half a regular one. I didn't have hoisin sauce, or any more sesame oil, and I subbed in some ketchup, some more date syrup, a splash of rice wine vinegar and some finely chopped tinned pineapple. I also used some home made vegetable stock paste for the chicken stock.

Cooked pork and chopped onions ready to go into the filling

Pork & pineapple filling

The dough after rising

One little baked bun

And a cross section of baked porky goodness!

So then, behold the miracle that is baked pork buns that still taste good regardless of what weird ingredients you throw in!

No Croutons Required: Festive Photos

2011-12-13T20:51:00.001Z

No Croutons Required is usually a monthly vegetarian soup or salad challenge, but for December hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes we've been asked to share a festive photo instead in a No Croutons Christmas tradition.

Here's mine

It was taken on Hogmanay 2009, about a mile or so behind my parents house in Hawick.
I was about 10 weeks pregnant and had awful morning sickness. I'd spend virtually all of the Christmas holiday curled up in a chair feeling miserable, trying and failing to keep down dry toast and generally being a scrooge.
On the 31st December Mr E eventually cajoled me into going for a walk, and we made it about a mile to where this picture was taken. I'm pretty sure he also cajoled me into taking it - I think I was participating in the walk in body only, and moaning about it all the way, but looking at the photos I took afterwards, I'm glad I went - it was a stunning day!

Ninja-bread men!

2011-12-11T21:13:00.001Z

I have to start this post with a shocking confession...
Almost a year ago, the lovely Miss M gave me some very funky biscuit cutters. For the first couple of months, they sat on the kitchen counter and made me smile when I saw them.
Then I tidied them up into my baking cupboard, and (here's the confession) promptly forgot about them for almost another nine months.
Unearthing them again last week filled me both with excitement and guilt! So before they could be tidied away again, I decided it was very much time to bake some ninja-bread men.

I just used a regular, bog standard gingerbread recipe, which due to an unfortunate discovery mid way through (I discovered I had no syrup, and almost no treacle) was fairly heavily substituted with date syrup, which changed the texture a bit. It tasted great, but mode the ninjas look slightly like they have a skin condition!

They are definitely more exciting than regular gingerbread men!

Christmas Card Chaos

2011-12-11T20:52:00.001Z

Last week, Mini-M and I tried to make a Christmas card for Mr E.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out - but it belies the chaos that went into making it!

There was drawing all over the furniture, head first diving off the chair, climbing on the coffee table, tears and concilatory banana loaf!

Firstly, I let Mini-M go crazy with the felt tips on a piece of green card. We also stuck on some sticky stars. The look of concentration when she was trying to get the sticky star from her finger to the page was intense!

Pre chair-diving incident...

I then used this free template from RobertSabuda.com to turn it in to a Christmas Tree - as simple as that.

A Picture A Day: Week 49

2011-12-09T20:54:00.001Z

I can't quite believe how quickly this week has zoomed past, and indeed the whole second half of this year. In fact, I'm sure it's actually only mid-August. Mini-M's 1st birthday seems only a coupe of weeks ago, but she's now almost 17 months old, and what a happy, chatty, kamikaze mountaineering little lady she is turning into! During yesterday's stormy weather, we did some unofficial scientific testing, and concluded she now has a vocabulary of about 50 words or sounds, and understands a whole lot more. New additions today include ham, teddy and snot. Nothing if not varied.

So on to the pictures - it's been a week with lots of cheesy grins. Mini-M is turning into a bit of a diva in front of the camera, to the extent that she now picks it up, says cheese (which sounds like "shzzzzz") and waves it in my direction, whilst grinning from ear to ear. She's going to be disappointed come 2012 when my daily photo challenge finishes!

Saturday 3rd December
Mini-M looking very pleased with her new toy... Auntie L's bike light!

Sunday 4th December
We spent a few very chilly hours at Scott's Selkirk and experience the first few flakes of snow of the year. Mini-M also had some roundabout envy...

Monday 5th December
Doing some very mucky Christmas stamping!

Tuesday 6th December
Our little tree looking festive before bed

Wednesday 7th December
Great excitement as the printed copy of my book arrived. Seeing all the words I wrote there in black and white was a great feeling!

Thursday 8th December
Mini-M getting to grips with the Tweed catchment...

Friday 9th December
Mr E and Mini-M at the front door this morning as I was heading off to work - they look very happy to be getting rid of me!

Not many words, and a lot of pictures!

2011-12-08T20:23:00.001Z

Having a browse through my iPhoto yesterday, I discovered a whole collection on random things that I have made this year that never quite made the blog post grade, but nonetheless I took photos of.

Some I fully intended to blog, but left for so long I'd forgotten the recipe I used, others were a bit more experimental!

Here goes...

Leek, bacon and egg puff pastry freeform pie

Blackberry and oat milk ice cream

Lemon and almond bundt cake

Banana bundt with cream cheese icing

Marshmallow and popcorn fudge

Pork chops baked with leeks with wild garlic mash

Taboulleh with parsley and mint

Dairy free chocolate cake with cherry jam icing

Chocolate cupcakes with pink fluff icing

I have no idea what this is! Any suggestions?

Sticky pear and ginger cake

Gooey banana oat and maple syrup cake

Smoked mackerel and chickpea quiche with feta (I think!)

Upside down pineapple and mango cake

Sausage and cabbage casserole (made by Mr E)

Fruity caramelised onions with red wine

Mostarda di sedona - caramelised celery

Black pudding and beetroot pasty

Mini carrot and buckwheat crumbles

Bacon courgette and goats cheese tart

Baked banana and almond milk rice pudding

Apple and thyme cake

Baked soya and cranberry custards

Pasta with fennel, chickpeas, tomato and bacon

Potato and pepper loaf

Parsnip, leek and ginger soup

Parsnip, swede and bacon gratin

St Nicholas' Day Biscuits

2011-12-06T22:04:00.001Z

Today is St Nicholas' Day, and yesterday Mini-M, Mr E and I decorated gingerbread biscuits.

Or more accurately, Mr E and I decorated gingerbread biscuits and Mini-M ate hers before any decorating could happen.

Here's what I envisaged - gingerbread biscuits with dried fruit and nuts stuck on with a little icing, capitalising on Mini-M's current love of dipping things (bread in soup, biscuits in yogurt, penguin in the bath).

Here's what happened.

And what very almost happened!

Polish Style Meatballs with Buckwheat

2011-12-06T09:00:00.000Z

Or Zrazy z Kasza Hreczana to give it it's Polish name.

Whichever language you refer to it in, it is pretty tasty! We ate it for dinner two nights running - the first night with buckwheat, and the second with mashed potatoes. I think I preferred the flavour of the buckwheat with the meatballs, but the mash was infinitely better at soaking up the gravy!

It was a really easy dish to prepare and assemble, particularly since the meatballs don't need to be browned first, meaning less manual labour, and one less pan to wash, which is always good.

Meatballs with Buckwheat (Serves 4-5)

1 medium onion
25g dairy free margarine
500g beef mince
1 egg
1/2 a slice of toast
2 tbsp plain flour
1litre beef stock (mine wasn't home made and it worked just fine)
2 tbsp tomato puree
200g buckwheat
1 tbsp sunflower oil
pinch of salt
300ml boiling water

Preheat the oven to 170C (Fan 160C).
Chop the onion as finely as you can (otherwise you'll end up with misshapen meatballs).
Melt the margarine in a small frying pan, and cook the onion gently until golden brown.
Put the mince into a large bowl and break up a little with a spoon. Crack the egg in, add the cooked onion and mix well.
Grate the piece of toast to make breadcrumbs, then add it to the meat too, and mix it in. In order to get it thoroughly mixed you may need to mix it with your hands.
Roll the mixture into 12 table tennis ball sized meatballs.
Put the flour onto a saucer, and roll each meatball in it to coat, then place them into a casserole dish with a lid.
Whisk the tomato puree into the beef stock and pour over the meatballs.
Gently sprinkle the remaining flour on top of the mixture and give it a little stir, taking care not to break up the meatballs, which will be quite fragile at this stage.
Cover and cook for about half an hour, then remove the lid and cook for another half hour.
After you have uncovered the meatballs and returned them to the over for their second half hour, start to make the buckwheat.
Put the buckwheat into a medium saucepan, add the oil and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes until the grains start to split.
Add a pinch of salt, and allow to cool for a moment before adding the 300ml boiling water, and returning to the heat.
Cook on low for about 15 minutes until the grains are tender. You may need to add a splash more water.
Take off the heat and allow to sit for a couple of minutes, then serve with the meatballs and gravy on top.

Hearty food for cold, wet, wintry days!

A Picture A Day: Week 48

2011-12-05T19:32:00.001Z

I'm late yet again, I know! Another busy weekend and a few other projects meant I was spending my blogging time doing other things - some lovely things though, so I can't complain.

So here are my photos from last week

Saturday 26th November
It was a VERY blustery day, and we braved the elements for a windy walk at Silverknowes

Sunday 27th November
The Warriston Path - dark and deserted at 5pm. Gladly I wasn't on my own!

Monday 28th November
A new and very exciting purchase for Mini-M - a whole bag of plastic balls for £3 at the Jack and Jill Market. Worth braving the freezing queue on a Sunday morning for.

Tuesday 29th November
Uncle P trying to show Mini-M that her paddling pool filled with balls was fun and not scary. She took some convincing, and I'm not sure this escapade helped...

Wednesday 30th November
Socks off and unpacking the book case, with a mucky mouth she didn't want wiped

Thursday 1st December
Advent calendar day 1 - an elf with Santa's sack. Apparently elves make the same sound as elephants...

Friday 2nd December
Family photo at the Christmas market in Princes Street Gardens

DIY Wellies with eyes!

2011-11-29T19:23:00.001Z

Yesterday was a horrible wet, windy day, and although we did get out, most of it was spent inside.
Windy weather tends to make Mini-M a bit rampage-y and her attention span drops to about three milliseconds (or at least that's what it feels like!).

In an effort to distract her for a while with something new, I made some sticky eyes (with some blank labels, a blue Sharpie and a pair of scissors) for her wellies - since she was toddling around the living room clutching them and shouting foot.

It took me about a minute, and after I stuck them on and she wore them, it entertained her for about ten, so I'm counting that as a success.

I love the jaunty expression it gives them!

Super Spicy Squash & Split-pea Soup

2011-11-28T23:01:00.001Z

Now that I've got all that alliteration out of my system, here is a recipe for a really delicious soup I accidentally invented a few weeks back, when we got a knobbly orange pumpkin-y squash-y thing in our veg box from East Coast Organics.

It's hearty, creamy, spicy, filling, tasty, economical and orange. All great soup attributes! I'm sure it would work equally as well with any type of squash or pumpkin.

Super Spicy Squash & Split-pea Soup (Serves 4)

1 onion
1 garlic clove
1 small hot red chilli (thanks Mrs H!)
1 sachet of creamed coconut
3 tbsp yellow split peas
1 large squash or small-medium pumpkin
1 tbsp olive oil
600ml chicken or vegetable stock (from a cube or powder is grand)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, crush the garlic, chop the chilli and the onion and fry until softened.
Peel, deseed and chop the squash and add to the pan.
Add the split peas, then pour in the stock.
Add the creamed coconut and stir until dissolved.
Bring to a boil and simmer gently until the squash and split peas are cooked.
Allow to cool slightly, then blitz with a magic wand, or liquidise.
Enjoy the spicy orange deliciousness!

Apologies for the less than glamorous photos - they really don't do it justice, but soup is a tricky thing to photograph, particularly with no natural light!

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles

2011-11-28T10:51:00.001Z

I'll let you into a secret. These truffles started life as an attempt at dairy free chocolate 'butter' icing. On that front, they were an unmitigated disaster! But, I'm very glad of that disaster, because as chocolate hazelnut truffles, they are fantastic. In fact, fantastic isn't a positive enough word to describe how I feel about them. I'm going to upgrade to stupendous.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Did I mention that they are also dairy free? Yep - stupendous and dairy free at once - something that is hard to achieve!

So if you have a dairy free fried, make these, and they will love you forever. I guarantee it. Since I made them for myself, it doesn't quite work, but it does make me quite proud to have concocted such a tasty recipe.

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles (Makes 12)

4tsp hazelnut butter
2 tsp coconut oil (which is solid at room temperature)
50g dark chocolate (dairy free, of course)
1 tbsp dairy free margarine (I used 'Pure' sunflower)
5 tbsp icing sugar
1tbsp cocoa powder for coating

Cream together the hazelnut butter, dairy free margarine and coconut oil until well mixed. Depending on how cold your kitchen is, you might need to soften the coconut oil a little first , but be careful as it melts very easily, and you don't want it runny!
Sieve in the icing sugar and mix - it will be quite stiff, and may even stay a bit powdery. Don't worry! It will all come together in the end!
Melt the chocolate gently in the microwave, and once it has all melted, stir it into the other ingredients. You will end up with a fairly stiff paste.
Allow to cool. If need be, you can stick the mixture in the fridge where it will keep happily for a few days until you're ready to roll them. Just take it out an hour or so before you want to use it to let it soften slightly.
Take teaspoons of the mixture, and gently roll into small balls. Once you've formed them all, roll each one in the cocoa powder to stop them sticking together.

Ready to be rolled in cocoa powder. Where is truffle no. 12 I hear you ask... I ate it! What can I say - I am impatient!

Then take a bite, and marvel in the chocolate hazelnut nirvana you have just created!

Pretty quickly, this is all you will have left!

Daring Bakers' November 2011 Challenge: Sans Rival-esque!

2011-11-26T23:45:00.001Z

Daring Bakers time again. A challenge with mixed success for me... what I ended up with is blatantly nowhere close to what I should have done, but (and it's a big but!) it also tasted fantastic, so it wasn't a complete failure!

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers' host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert - the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

I have to confess to being completely clueless about Filipino cuisine, either sweet or savoury and I had no idea what Sands Rival cake, or Bibingka were. I'm guessing that most of you reading this are in the same boat, so here's a brief description, taken from Catherine's words of wisdom in the challenge post...

"The first is a Sans Rival cake. “Sans rival” means “without rival” and any Filipino will argue with you that this is true. Although it’s one of the most popular desserts in the Philippines, its origins are certainly French. In the 1920’s to 30’s there were many Filipinos who went abroad to study. A good number went to France and learned many French cooking techniques which they then brought home. A Sans Rival is made with layers of dacquoise, typically using crushed cashews, with very rich French buttercream frosting. The dacquoise is allowed to bake and dry to a crispy layer so that there is the crunch of pastry and nuts with the buttery, silky frosting.

Bibingka is traditionally served during Christmas. It’s similar to other Asian desserts that use rice flour as the base, like mochii. The traditional method of preparation is to line a special clay pot with banana leaves, pour in the batter, top with banana leaf, and then sit it in coals to cook. It is served with a shredded, mild, white cheese and slices of salted egg on top for flavor contrasts. But you can also top it with butter and shredded coconut."

So, my first thought was to make the Bibingka, since a main feature of the Sans Rival cake is buttercream, which is hard to make dairy-free.
But after pondering a) the availability of banana leaves in Scotland, b) white cheese - again difficult to de-dairy, and c) salted egg in a dessert, I decided to give the Sans Rival a shot after all!

The meringue mixture whipped up fine, and I spread half into small rounds, to make some Sans-Rival mini cakes, whilst the other I made a couple of large rectangles.

The small ones lifted off the baking sheets without issue, but the large ones stuck horrendously. Disaster no. 1. They swiftly just became a tub full of chunks of nutty meringue and a pile of crumbs!

Disaster no. 2 was the buttercream, although it was hardly really a disaster. I did not end up with butter cream. I did end up with completely delicious dairy free hazelnut chocolate truffle mixture - this cloud definitely had a silver lining!

So I spread a smear of the chocolate mixture on a meringue layer, and stuck another one on top, in a kind of sans-rival meets sandwich cookie. To finish them off I drizzled melted dark chocolate on top.

They disappeared swiftly as dessert when family were round for dinner, and they were enthusiastically eaten, however it's a good job they were eaten quickly, since being out in the air for even a short period of time meant the meringue started to go very sticky and chewy.

Will I make sans rival cake again - probably not. Will I make cashew meringue again - definitely yes. Will I make the chocolate filling again - another resounding yes. So all things considered, a successful challenge, despite ending up with something completely different to the plan.

Pumpkin Cheerios Muffins: Breakfast Club Stars and Stripes

2011-11-26T20:29:00.001Z

The November Breakfast Club challenge was hosted by Susan at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate. I have just discovered whilst writing this post, that through my own stupidity, I completely missed the posting deadline, over a week ago. Oops. Doubly frustrating since I actually made them in very good time. Since I made them in time, I'm posting this anyway - better late than never, as they say...

The theme was 'Stars and Stripes' meaning anything with an American twist was fair game.

I decided to go down the muffin route, and went for an double American combination - Cheerios and pumpkin.

I found a recipe for Cheerios Muffins at Mr Breakfast, and decided to substitute the applesauce for pumpkin puree, and the milk for almond milk to make them dairy free.

Unfortunately it was only after I poured the batter into the tins, thinking that it didn't look quite right, that I read back and noticed instruction step one, which I had overlooked the first time...

"Crush the Cheerios into very small pieces". Oops again! I put them in whole, which meant that they didn't bulk out the mixture like they should have, and instead just went kind of oddly chewy!

The muffins were still nice, just a little denser and flatter than the should have been. The pumpkin flavour came through well, and made them even feel a little healthier than eating regular muffins - cake with hidden vegetables in it is always a win!

Next month, whatever the challenge is, I'll be making extra sure I read the recipe instructions thoroughly before I get stuck in though!

A Picture A Day: Week 47 plus 1

2011-11-25T23:37:00.001Z

A quick post because it's getting late, and I'm hopeful that I can write this and still be in bed by midnight (my computer informs me that it's currently 23:37).

Here are this week's photos, plus last Friday's too, since I posted a day early last week before it had been taken.

Friday 18th November
Mini-M and Mr E demonstrating her mini-ness in the woods at the Hirsel, near Coldstream, on our way to Cragside

Saturday 19th November

Mini-M tried some marshmallow at the Electric Estate, mainly because we were all toasting them over the braziers, and it seemed really mean to to let her have one. It was un-toasted. Judging by her expression I don't think she minded!

Sunday 20th November
The view from "our" front door, at Garden Cottage, Cragside.

Monday 21st November
And a view from the roadside, somewhere near Otterburn, where we had a short stop for milk time!

Tuesday 22nd November
Using-up-bashy-bananas-and-squashy-pears cake, with pecans and oats for health. It tasted a lot more exciting than it looks!

Wednesday 23rd November
Most of my library books at the moment appear to be River Cottage cook books!

Thursday 24th November
This is the reason my blog has been a little neglected this month - I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month, and trying to churn out 1667 words a day. Almost there though... roll on December!

Friday 25th November
Mini-M decided that despite having had her tea, play time, bath time and tooth brushing, it was time to try some of Mr E's Thai basil chicken. Which she seemed to enjoy, even though it was quite hot and spicy - and this from the girl that seems to sometimes exist on just bananas and toast! And yes, we do regularly eat our tea out of cereal bowls...

The Pink Whisk November Challenge: Traybake-tastic!

2011-11-21T15:47:00.001Z

Traybakes are fantastic. They remind me of being a kid - mars bar crispie slice, mint crunch, flapjacks and other such delights were classic birthday party fare.

But you can bake a whole lot of exciting things in traybake form, and they can get very naughty, decadent, chocolaty, and delicious too!

For the Pink Whisk November Baking challenge, I made two traybakes - one from each of my mental sub-categories. Peanut Butter Marshmallow Rice Crispie Slice from the first category, and Mint Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies from the second. I made them both dairy free, one by following an existing recipe to the letter (a very unusual occurrence!) and the other by doing a whole lot of tweaking and de-dairyfying.

I took them away to a weekend catch up with some uni friends, where we had rented a cottage owned by the National Trust on the stunning Cragside Estate in Northumberland, and we spent the weekend pretending we lived in a country house, eating cake and partaking in a gin or two. Fantastic fun! Given that out of two entire trays of traybake, only three squares remained at the end, I think these got the thumbs up!

Peanut Butter Marshmallow Rice Crispie Slice

No ordinary rice crispie slice!

I made this following the recipe on Wayfaring Chocolate, and it works perfectly. Whilst reading her blog post, I also enlightened myself as to what Nuttelex and Natto are. For anyone clicking through, and sharing in my puzzlement, Nuttelex is an Australian soya and dairy free margarine, that comes in sunflower, and olive varieties. Natto is a fermented soya bean paste that seems to do weird stringy spider webby things - a little like melted marshmallows, hence the reference, but similar only in texture! (It sounds fairly icky to my palate, and definitely in no way whatsoever a Marshmallow substitute. Let's just make that bit crystal clear! I don't want to be responsible for any disgusting peanut butter rice crispie Natto slice concoctions!!!!)

Mint Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies
Makes 1x 9x13 inch tray

100g dark, dairy free mint chocolate (mine was a bar of mint soya chocolate)
100g plain dark chocolate
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp dairy free margarine (sunflower in my case)
1 cup plain flour
3 tbsp self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
4 eggs
2 cups of demerara sugar
150g Marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 180C (170C fan) and grease a 9x13inch tray bake tin.
Next, cut each marshmallow into two or three with a pair of kitchen scissors (or use mini-marshmallows!) then scatter them over a tray, and stick in the freezer whilst you get on with preparing the rest of the recipe.
Break the chocolate into pieces and put in a medium saucepan along with the margarine, over a low heat, stirring frequently so that it doesn't burn onto the bottom. You could also do this in the microwave if you prefer. Leave to cool for about five minutes.
Whilst you're doing that, in a large bowl beat together the eggs and sugar, then also let them sit for 5 minutes to allow the sugar to dissolve a little.
Mix the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar and stir well until combined.
Sieve both flours, baking powder and salt on top of the wet ingredients and mix well.
Pour half of the mixture into the tin, then take the marshmallows, which should now be frozen, out of the freezer and sprinkle evenly over the batter, then quickly top with the other half of the mixture so that the marshmallows are mainly covered.
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25-30 mins.
Cool in the tin completely before cutting and carefully lifting the slices out.

Sticky, chewy, chocolaty, crunchy and gooey - everything brownies should be!

Twice baked Brownie cookies = extra chewy deliciousness

These were both fantastic traybakes. The marshmallows made the brownies chewy and sticky, and the mint added a nice subtle background flavour. I didn't bake mine for quite long enough, as I had to go out and took them out a few minutes sooner than I'd have liked. That meant that the middle section of the tray was just a bit too gooey to cut - but not to worry - once it was cool I scooped it out and rolled it into balls, then baked them for another 10 minutes, making fantastic chewy brownie cookies.

The peanut butter in the rice crispie slice balanced out the sweetness of the marshmallows very well, and made it very moreish - be warned!

And the general consensus was that these most definitely did not taste dairy-free - win!

A Picture A Day: Week 46

2011-11-17T18:44:00.001Z

Posting this week's photos a day early, since tomorrow morning we're heading off away for a long weekend, and wont be back until Tuesday. Tomorrow's photo will have to be tagged on to next week's post.

Here they are...

Saturday 12th November

Mini-M in her party dress before Miss A's 1st birthday party.

Sunday 13th November

Beat the eggs until they form stiff peaks... done! Sunday meringue making today

Monday 14th November

Gin tasting with Mrs McC at the Hyde Out - rather decadent for a Monday night! Six varieties were tasted in all - who knew gins could taste so different! This was my favourite - The Botanist, made by the Bruichladdich distillery on Islay.

Tuesday 15th November

The Ukrainian Catholic Church, Our Lady of Pochayev and St Andrew on Dalmeny Street, Leith, is complete with a Ukrainian style wooden top.

Wednesday 16th November

After a dinner fail (lasagna and stewed pears) in her highchair at the dining table, toast for supper was a success on her mini 'big' chair at the coffee table.

Thursday 17th November

Mini-M's soya milk stash - we bought out Waitrose's entire stock today... based on the pictures, she is going to grow up thinking milk comes from giraffes!

Mini-M Makes... Scones and Collages

2011-11-15T21:55:00.001Z

It has been an action packed afternoon here - Mini-M and I ventured into the kitchen for her first ever baking, and then later did her first cutting and sticking (OK well, maybe just sticking!)

I was surprised how successful baking with a 15 month old was, and how much she was actually able to do. Similarly the collage - she was really into it.

I hope you have as much fun looking at these pictures as we did!

We made scones - of the rough and ready singular giant variety. There was no weighing, and no recipe. To be honest, I'm quite surprised how well they/it came out.

The 'recipe' was 5 heaped dessert spoons of self raising flour, 1 heaped dessert spoon of margarine, 1 egg, a slosh of soya milk and a handful of raisins. The flour and marge were rubbed in together, then the egg and soya milk stirred in, the whole lot mixed up and unceremoniously dumped on a baking tray, squashed flat, with raisins stuck on, baked at 180C for about 15 mins.

Doing her warm up exercises...

Stirring the flour

Rubbing in the margarine

Mixing in the egg and soya milk

Mini-M was chief raisin-sticker-onner. If she had her way, pretty much everything in life would be liberally coated in raisins. Often our living room carpet is!

Caught in the act - raisin theft - and very almost a nasty scone/sock incident!

Baked and cooling until after tea

Mini-M enjoying the fruits of her labours

The collage was vaguely starry sky themed, since Mini-M is a big Twinkle Twinkle fan at the moment. I don't want to think about how many times each day I sing it! She sings along too with 'Howowowow' for how I wonder and 'Upabawaw' for up above. I covered a piece of black paper in Prit Stick, then gave her a selection of bits to stick on. After a lot of initial sticking and unsticking and resticking she got the hang of it, with an interlude of confusion in the middle as to why the stars would stick to the paper but no her jumper. Turns out that if your fingers are mucky enough, and you manhandle the stars enough times, they stick temporarily to skin - a source of much excitement!

This was not a set up - she stuck the star there, and was very pleased with herself!

In case you wondered, this is what pink tissue looks like suddenly very, very close up

The finished masterpieces :o)

And once the collaging was done, she happily spent another ten minutes posting a single star in and out of the washing machine. Simple pleasures!

The Daring Cooks' November 2011 Challenge: Cooking with Tea!

2011-11-14T00:00:00.000Z

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks' hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

We had fairly free reign this month - to cooks something (anything!) savoury using tea.

It was the excuse I needed to give tea smoking a try - something I've been curious about for a while. I tea smoked tofu on the hob, using a bit of a Heath Robinson-ish cobbled together smoking set up, over sugar, rice and gunpowder tea.

Here are some step by step photos...

Tea!

Demerara, rice and tea. Looking a bit like a national flag, but of which country I've no idea!

Essential item number one - a baking tin that is already quite trashed...

Essential item number two - a vegetable steamer

Feet. It need to have them!

Smoking mix, on tinfoil, in the tin

Tofu on the steamer (smoker?)

Another layer of foil went over the smoking mixture, then the steamer and tofu, then I gave it a tinfoil blanket and wrapped it up tightly

Smoked tofu! Woop! After 15 minutes on the hob on medium

The spent smoking mixture

I made some of it into stir fry with rice, carrots, garlic, ginger, spring onions, egg and sesame oil and soy sauce.

And some into smokey baked beans, with dried kidney beans, black eye beans, tomatoes, tofu, onions and probably some other stuff that needed using up which I have forgotten about!

And I also made an oat bread, steeping the oats in camomile tea first. It was lovely :o)

Chocolate Hippy Biscuits

2011-11-13T15:13:00.001Z

In my googling for Dairy-free baking recipes over the past year, I have bookmarked a ridiculous number of recipes. Some Dairy-free. Some not. Some for baking. Some not. Most of them will probably never be made... but from time to time, the inkling, ingredients, and time coincide, and one of them makes the leap from blog to mixing bowl to oven... and back to blog!

And after that introduction this post is, unsurprisingly, about one such recipe. A while back I added Banana No Bake Cookies (Vegan, Gluten Free and No Added Sugar) by Cassie at back to her roots to my virtual recipe stash. And finally on Thursday, I made them.

The catalyst to making them was a squashy banana, which I then forgot to use (oops!), and a curiosity as to whether something so apparently wholesome would actually taste good and satisfying in a chocolatey-biscuity sort of way.

I'm pleased to report that they do. Not in exactly the same way as, say, an actual chocolate biscuit. But in a different equally good, and less guilty way.

As usual, I messed about with the recipe a little... I am a compulsive substituter! I still don't understand how I can have a cupboard absolutely jam packed full of cooking and backing ingredients, and never have the correct ones for any recipe. Cassie's recipe called for almond butter, which I didn't have, but I did have peanut butter, so in that went. Similarly chia seeds. I had to ask Wikipedia what these ever were, which means I definitely did not have any in the cupboard, but based on their Wiki picture alone, I substituted sesame seeds. They looked roughly about the same size... I still have no idea about taste similarity! My oats were of the non-gluten-free variety. And finally, scaled the quantity back since I didn't want to be eating them forever, and it still made plenty for Mr E and myself, plus some to give as a present.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana No-Bake Cookies

(Makes 12)

1 medium banana
50g dairy free dark chocolate (without any added junk)
1 heaped tbsp peanut butter (unsalted and unsweetened)
1tbsp sesame seeds
2 tsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp almond milk
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats

In a medium saucepan, mash the banana.

Break the chocolate into pieces and add to the pan along with everything else apart from the oats.

Heat on low until melted, and beginning to bubble.

Let it boil gently for 2-3 minutes, stirring like crazy the whole time to stop it sticking on to the bottom and burning. (The vigorous stirring also helps get it nice and smooth)

Stir in the oats and mix until well coated, then dollop dessertspoonfuls on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

Allow to cool and set.

These do set firm, although would melt easily if held in a warm hand for a while, so eat them quick!

They can also be kept in the fridge, or Cassie suggests the freezer. My freezer is clearly a bit of a beast, since it froze them into rock solid bricks, which took ages to defrost - not a quick access chocolate fix! So if you have a super freezer like me, I'd recommend the fridge or room temperature.

They keep well for several days, and generally get a bit more fudgy and dense as the oats absorb the coating. And whilst you're definitely getting a health punch from the ingredients, they don't taste too virtuous to be enjoyable. A win-win situation :o)

Radom Recipes does No Croutons Required

2011-11-11T22:49:00.001Z

Since I'm not quite nodding off on the sofa yet, I'm going for some more Friday evening blogging.
This month's Random Recipes challenge was a joint venture.
Dom at Belleau Kitchen teamed up with Jac at Tinned Tomatoes to bring the blogosphere Random Recipes does No Croutons Required. Cheers peeps - it was a lovely challenge!

To satisfy the 'No Croutons Required' bit, the recipe had to be for a vegetarian soup.
To satisfy the 'Random Recipes' bit, it had to be - well, you know - random. No surprises there!

I have three confessions to make before I get onto the soup.
Firstly, I very un-randomly chose the 'The Soup Bible' as my book, mainly to save me randomly picking baking book after cake decorating book, which are somewhat lacking in the soup sections.
Secondly, I rejected my first random soup recipe! Shocking I know. It was chosen my Mini-M who decided to open the book and stand on the page for Roasted Red Pepper Soup. My book will automatically open at that page now for evermore. I a) don't like roasted peppers, b) didn't have any peppers in the fridge and c) didn't like going out to buy an ingredient to turn into soup I knew I wouldn't like. So I got Mr E to chose me one instead - I flicked through the pages and he shouted stop. He chose me Lentil and Pasta Soup, which I miraculously also had most of the ingredients for - good choosing Mr E!

Thirdly, I definitely took the role of 'executive chef' in making this soup. In fact, my brother made it, under my instructions. He very kindly came round to help entertain Mini-M so I could get some things done the other day. Just that by the time he arrived, Mini-M had decided it was nap time. So instead, he made this soup, whilst I freestyled it and made parsnip, lentil, apricot and beef baby mash.

We changed the ingredients and recipe ever so slightly - the original called for marjoram and basil, which I didn't have. And sun dried tomato puree - which is a bit posh for my fridge, so we went with common or garden un-sun-dried tomato puree. It was supposed to have butter in it - so we missed it out. And the garlic that we have at the moment is pretty feisty, so we only used one clove, especially since the stock I used was made with home made stock paste, which is quite garlic-tastic.

Lentil and Pasta soup, a la me and Mr P!
(Serves 4-6)

175g dried brown lentils
1 garlic clove
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
1.75 litres vegetable stock (chicken would also taste nice, if you're not veggie, and had some to hand)
Leaves from 1 sprig fresh thyme
50g small soup pasta shapes
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the lentils in a large pan.
Peel the garlic clove, then squish it under a large knife with the palm of your hand and add it to the lentils.
Pour over enough water to cover by an inch or so.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about 20 mins until the lentils start to become tender, but still have a bit of bite to them.
Drain the lentils into a sieve, pick out the garlic clove and set aside, then drain the lentils under the cold top to stop them sticking together.
Heat the oil in the bottom of the pan you cooked the lentils in, add the onion and celery, and cook on low for about five minutes until softened but not browned.
Crush or mash the reserved garlic clove, and add it to the onion and celery along with the tomato puree and lentils. Add the stock, thyme and a generous pinch of salt and pepper.
Bring back to the boil and simmer for about 25 minutes, then add the soup pasta and boil for another 10 minutes until the pasta is cooked.

As you can see, this made a very thick soup - to be honest, calling it soup is kind. It is most definitely stew. You could have eaten it with a fork without much difficulty. It was tasty, and hearty and wholesome - with that amount of lentils and pasta it's always going to be a gutsy soup, but I'd recommend upping the stock quotient to 2 litres, to make sure it is just a little bit more liquid! Unless you don't have any spoons, in which case go with the above!

Thanks Mr P (and Dom and Jac for another inspired challenge :o))

A Picture A Day: Week 45

2011-11-11T20:30:00.001Z

Ug - another week where I've not managed any more blog posts, and it's photo time again.
It's been a week with lots of fun, a fair amount of chaos (as usual), a LOT of attitude from Mini-M, belated Halloween parties, car shopping, sunsets, chilly weather, and tummy bugs! But we're made it through - phew.
So here are this week's pics...

Saturday 5th November
Mini-M and I took a sunny but nippy buggy walk along deserted Seafield prom to Porty whilst Mr E went car shopping

Sunday 6th November
Mini-M pouting with a flower behind her ear - she was fascinated by it, and wore it there for about an hour. She is currently into all things jewellery (i.e. mine - she's not got her own collection yet!) and trinkety. I don't want to quash her fascination and concentration, but it does mean watching her like a hawk to make sure she doesn't eat them!

Monday 7th November
Sunset over Powderhall bowling greens

Tuesday 8th November
Giant hands! Add gloves and oven gloves to the list of Mini-M's current fascinations...

Wednesday 9th November
An original Mini-M artwork, done at nursery. I am led to believe it is a poppy for Armistice Day.

Thursday 10th November
A horrible sicky day for me, with a nasty tummy bug. Mr E bought me a magazine for some distraction, which combined with a truly awful (but cheap) iTunes audiobook kept me company as I lay in bed, feeling very ill every time I moved! Thankfully it was only a 24hr one - and I'm back to normal now.

Friday 11th November
Mini-M finding breakfast hilarious this morning...

A Picture A Day: Week 44

2011-11-04T23:18:00.000Z

Since it's 10:44pm by my computer clock, and I'm feeling sleepy, here are this weeks photos, minus the preamble! Several of them stolen from other people this week

Saturday 29th October
We were all at the Borders Exploration Group 20th Anniversary Dinner. Mini-M doing the Gay Gordons in her pyjamas! Her first proper ceilidh dance, rather than just getting carried around. She LOVED it - and so did everyone that was watching. Taken by Grandad A.

Sunday 30th October
A quick pre-concert rehearsal before performing at the Hawick Music Club. Taken by Grandad A again, since I was also playing (invisibly). I'm impressed by my brother's multi-tasking skills...

Monday 31st October
After over a year of never quite getting round to it, Mr E finally found the time (life has been pretty busy!), and we now have our levitating bedside book shelves installed.

Tuesday 1st November
Halloween - not that we did anything spooky. Uncle P came round to visit, and entertained Mini-M on the bottom step of the stairs - the book reading location of choice!

Wednesday 2nd November
Mr E went to ASDA and in true hunter gatherer mode, brought back reduced for quick sale bakery products.

Thursday 3rd November
This one was taken by Mr E, but for me, apparently (unintentional rhyming). Today, he unpacked the living room unit, cleaned it and put it back in a more logical formation - i.e. nothing in the bit that Mini-M can easily reach, and lots more stuff on top of it!

Friday 4th November
Mini-M modelling her almost-a-week-late-but-only-just-finished Halloween costume. She is a Mummy (in case anyone thought she just had bad eczema and had to wear lots of bandages). On the plus side, the costume was free, using a bunch of old youth group training bandages and an old babygrow. On the downside, it possibly wasn't my brightest idea to use a too-small babygrow as the base - not sure that the capri-Mummy look will catch on!

And now it's 23:17 and I'm off to bed!

Simply Soup-er Hearty Leek and Bacon Soup

2011-10-30T20:49:00.001Z

A quick post of a very quick and easy recipe. Perfect for cold wintry weather, and quick enough to make post-work. And of course dairy free. Mini-M even tried a bit - the leeks were met with skepticism, but the pasta got a big thumbs up!

Hearty Leek and Bacon Soup (serves 2 as a main course)

2 medium leeks
4 rashers of bacon
2 handfuls of dried pasta spirals
1 stock cube (chicken or veg - I used chicken)
Boiling water
1/2 tbsp oil (sunflower or light olive oil)

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil and once hot, snip in the bacon. Fry for a couple of minutes until cooked. Whilst the bacon is frying, clean and slice the leeks, then add to the bacon. Chuck in the pasta too, crumble over the stock cube, and pour over boiling water to cover with a cm or so above.

Simmer for about 15-20 mins, until the leeks are soft and pasta cooked.

Job done. It's such a simple recipe, uses so few ingredients, and tastes soooooooo much more than the sum of its parts. It's been a revelatory way for us to use leeks, which make frequent appearances in our veg box, and for which I've always been slightly at a loss for inspiration. But no more.... I'm sure this soup or variations thereof will appear frequently all through the winter at No.28.

A Picture A Day: Week 43

2011-10-29T17:05:00.000+01:00

Well, it has been another busy week. But there's nothing new there! I think when folk ask how life is, I should stop saying hectic, because that implies some sort of abnormality to the business, like it is usually quiet and organised and peaceful. It is pretty much never any of those things - but it is fun!

I have to confess that not only am I posting late, yet again, I forgot to take a picture yesterday. What with work, then leave straight from the office to drive down to Hawick, then a generous gin and orange poured by Mum. Personally, I'm blaming the gin!

But I have a spare from Thursday, so all is not lost...

Saturday 22nd October
Playing in puddles on the wasteland opposite Ocean Terminal... I have a feeling that this makes us seriously cheapskate parents! But I thoroughly recommend it to anyone in Edinburgh.

Sunday 23rd October
Mini-M got a toy cow from the vet stand at BBC Good Food Live at the SECC. This is what she did to it!

Monday 24th October
The No. 22 bus zooming past the end of our street at night.

Tuesday 25th October
Mini-M's new mannerism - hand to face when something is funny or silly. Cute but messy immediately after blackcurrant jelly... didn't get a picture of the moment she took her hand away unfortunately!

Wednesday 26th October
Cake in progress - for the Borders Exploration Group's 20th Anniversary celebrations. The world is REALLY wiggly when you try to ice it. Particularly northern Canada and South East Asia. I may have significantly altered continents....

Thursday 27th October
Autumn on the Warriston path on the way home from work and nursery with Mini-M

Friday 28th October
Me and Mini-M. Two smiles, and all of our eyes open - a success I think, even if we're not both actually looking at the camera...

Daring Bakers' October 2011 Challenge: Pretty Povitica

2011-10-27T19:55:00.001+01:00

This will have to be a short post, with the recipe for my fillings and my dairy-free recipe conversion to follow later, since I've got a lot of things on my to-do list for this evening! But I didn't want to miss the posting date...

The Daring Bakers' October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

It is probably the prettiest bread I have ever made or eaten.

I made three loaves, and filled one with chocolate and almond (which I took in to work to share for my turn on the cake rota - yes, we are that obsessed with cake!), one with crushed gingernut biscuits and roughly pureed peaches, which we ate, and the third with a leftover mix of both mixtures, which I'm taking visiting at the weekend.

Here they are...

Close up of the interior of the chocolate and almond loaf

Chocolaty-almondy-symmetry

2 loaves after baking - coffee glazed and hiding their exciting interior well!

Disposable loaf tins - better in theory than practice!

Gooey peach and gingernut loveliness

The Pink Whisk Challenge: Apples for October

2011-10-22T21:29:00.000+01:00

The other night I was watching TV and it was a 'where are they now' run down of last year's competitors in the Great British Bake Off. That prompted me to stop by the blogs of a few of the participants, which I do from time to time - it's nice to read some lovely blogs from closer to home as well as all of those from around the world that I cast and eye over.

One of which is The Pink Whisk, by Ruth Clemens, last year's runner-up. When I stopped by, not only had the site had a fab makeover, Ruth had just announced the first Pink Whisk Baking Challenge, which was to incorporate apples in a recipe. And you know I'm a sucker for a challenge ;o)

I made 'Orchard Cider Butter' based on a recipe for Apple Cider Butter in the River Cottage Handbook No. 2 (Preserves) by Pam Corbin. Here's my version - the taste makes the mental arithmetic involved in making well worth it!

Orchard Cider Butter (Makes 5x250g jars plus some left over to use straight away)

500g hard pears
1kg apples
500ml apple cider with blackberries
700ml water
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Granulated sugar (about 900g)

Take the stalks off the apples and pears and cut them into chunks. Don't bother peeling or coring them.

Put the apples and pears into a large pan with the cider and water, bring up to a gentle boil, and cook until the fruit is really soft - this took me about an hour, but it will depend of the type of apples and ripeness of pears you are using.

Once soft, blitz the mixture with a hand blender, then pass it through a sieve to catch any fibrous bits like pips and cores.

Weigh the combine weight of your sieved puree and bowl, then tip it back into the pan, and weight the bowl on its own.

Subtract the weight of the bowl from the combined, and you're left with the weight of puree.

For each 600g of puree you have, add 340g of sugar, then add the ground cloves and cinnamon.

Put back on the heat and heat very slowly until all the sugar has dissolved and you can't feel any more graininess.

Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up to medium high and bring it up to the boil, then let it boil hard for 10-15 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken a little, and sputter. (Mine sputtered like crazy - all over the hob, the splash back, and the oils and vinegars next to the cooker - it's feisty stuff!)

Take off the heat and pour into warm sterilised jars and seal immediately. Don't be tempted to boil it for too long - it will set in the jars as apples are high in pectin

Small jars are best, as once opened the butter needs to be kept in the fridge and used within about a month.

Unopened though, it will keep for a year, so you can enjoy spiced apple-y pear-y cider-y goodness whatever the season.

Unfortunately I don't have a lovely picture of the finished butter spread photogenically on a scone, or even some crusty bread. It has been sampled though, and it is delicious, but I sampled it at 7:30am this morning, on a piece of very crumbly not quite toasted toast, served on the least photogenic saucer in the world, which I took back to bed with me, accompanied by a Berocca and some Sudafed to try to banish the lovely cold Mini-M shared with both me and Mr E. Not very photogenic. But it did the trick, and by 9am I was feeling human again - I'm putting the success down to the magic restorative properties of Orchard Cider Butter. If that's not a good reason to go out and make it, then I don't know what is!

Magnificent Mackerel

2011-10-21T22:28:00.002+01:00

My folks were on holiday last week, down in Staithes on the North East coast of England. There was an award winning fish monger nearby, and Mum brought us quite a haul of lovely fish back (Thanks!) including some peppered smoked mackerel.

Here's how we ate it...

We had it on pizza - seriously don't knock it until you've tried it - it was delicious!
The pizza base was topped with tomato and basil pizza sauce (from a jar), peppered mackerel, sauteed kale, pickled pears and goats cheese. An unlikely sounding combination, but it really worked. Even better, Mr E made it!

And we had it as pate/dip. I was inspired by a recipe for courgette dip in the River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cook Book, which I changed a bit. The original is just courgette, garlic and cream cheese, and would definitely be kid friendly. There's nothing inherently un-kid friendly about my adaptation, just that the mackerel flavour might be too strong for some little tastes.

Courgette and Mackerel Pate/Dip (Serves 2-3 adults for lunch, or 4-5 as a dip)

2 small courgettes
1 clove of garlic
1 heaped tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
25g cream cheese (I used chevre spreadable goats cheese)
1/2 large or 1 small peppered mackerel fillet

Heat the oil in a small frying pan, crush the garlic, add and soften for a minute or so.
Thinly slice the courgettes and add to the pan. Sprinkle in the thyme.
Cook over a very low heat until the courgettes are translucent, but not browned - about 15 mins - stirring occasionally.
Either put all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz, or pop them in a jug and give them a whizz with a hand blender.
Season with salt and pepper to taste (I didn't add any, since the mackerel was peppered and the cheese salted).
Chill for about an hour before serving.

We ate it with toasted bread, at the table in the sunshine - pretending it wasn't freezing outside!

If you wanted to make it a denser pate, you could use a stiffer soft cheese, and also up the cheese and decrease the courgette quotas slightly. The texture of this was spreadable on bread, but also dippable - multipurpose is always good!

A Picture A Day: Week 42

2011-10-21T20:31:00.002+01:00

We've both been on holiday this week (woop!) but have both had Mini-M's cold (yuck!) so we've been living quietly and not doing anything too adventurous.

So here are your 'holiday at home' photos

Saturday 15th October
Mini-M lounging in Princes Street Gardens with Auntie L, who very kindly babysat whilst Mr E and I went to Yo Sushi for an anniversary lunch.

Sunday 16th October
My spider plant it flowering - it brightened up my otherwise useful but slightly un-fun Sunday afternoon at work

Monday 17th October
Rain, rain and more rain - taken from our front door. Didn't manage to capture the huge bow wave as the bus went through the puddle at the junction, but I'm very glad I wasn't a pedestrian at that moment!

Tuesday 18th October
Mini-M participating in some pre-bedtime gambling... looks like she won!

Wednesday 19th October
Two of my most commonly used pet names for Mini-M (apart from Mini-M) in one vegetable - munchkin and pumpkin. If I added the other two - chickpea and sausage (yes, I realise writing this that my choices are a bit odd...) it would make a pretty decent casserole. Haven't quite got my head around whether or not that would be cannibalistic yet!

Thursday 20th October
Fed up of being repeatedly soaked, I bit the bullet and bought a new waterproof coat. Lets hope it holds out a bit better than the last one...

Friday 21st October
Puddle stomping on the balcony :o)

Seedy Slice

2011-10-20T22:22:00.000+01:00

If you are expecting a post about nightclubs with sticky floors, dark alleyways and strippers, then you are likely to be very disappointed - sorry!

If you are looking for a post about a seed-packed sugar free tray bake that is dairy and egg free, then you've come to the right place.

That probably accounts for about the 2 people who have arrived at this post via Google. To the others who read it semi-regularly, of which I reckon there are about 10 (Hi Mum!), then you're probably likely to be mildly disappointed that this recipe is so virtuous. But please bear with me whilst I have a little vegan moment, and if you need to counteract it with some excessive butter, sugary, chocolaty goodness, then earlier tonight I posted about white chocolate fudge which is definitely at the other end of the taste scale!

So today it was completely freezing outside, and pretty cold inside, since our living room radiator is temporarily out of action (i.e. completely and mysteriously broken). I was making bread and it was taking so long to rise, because according to the thermostat, it was 15.3C. That's a little chilly for an inside temperature, and I have to say I was quite envious of Mini-M being at nursery where the heating is cranked up to toasty at the moment. So in order to get the bread to rise a little faster, I decided to put the oven on, but it seemed a bit wasteful to put it on without something in it.

Part two of the reason behind this recipe is that Mini-M likes to eat oaty, fruity cereal bars. Although I don't have any quibble with them health wise (no added sugar or nasties), and whilst oats are all very superfoody and wonderful, I'm keen to see if I can sneak some more seeds into her diet for the fats, oils and nutrients they bring. Particularly since she seems to be anti-anything-that-isn't-toast-porridge-banana-soya-yogurt-or-pancake.

So I found a recipe in an Australian Womens Weekly cookbook for a slice made with apricot jam and pumpkin seeds that baked in 20 mins, which sounded about right to give my bread the extra little warm rise that it needed. Queue me substituting half of the ingredients, and coming up with something bearing a fairly low resemblance to the original!

So here's my version...

Seedy Slice (Makes 1x 23cm square tin)

90g margarine (dairy free)
80g sunflower and pumpkin seeds (I used a ratio of about 60:40 sunflower:pumpkin)
1 tbsp date syrup
1 tbsp honey (or alternatively miss out both of these, and add 2 tbsp sugar)
1tsp grated orange zest
100g plain flour
80g wholemeal flour
80g sugar free jam (I used Meridian morello cherry, which is 100% fruit and sweetened with apple juice)
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2.5 tbsp finely ground flax seeds
3 tbsp water (or replace the flax seeds and water with an egg - I had run out this morning!)

Firstly, in a small bowl whisk together the flax seeds and water. Leave them to sit for a few minutes and they will go gelatinous.

Grease your tin and line with a sheet of baking parchment, and preheat the oven to 190C (180C fan)

Next give the seeds a quick blitz in the blender to break them up a little.

Beat the seeds, orange rind, honey and date syrup together, then once it is combined add the flax seed mixture.

Finally add the flours and mix well - you will end up with a fairly stiff dough. If yours gets too stiff to mix, then loosen it up with a tablespoon or two of water or apple juice.

Press the mixture into the bottom of your prepared tin, and spread the jam on top.

Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the jam and bake for about 20 mins until the dough starts to golden brown (which is a bit tricky to see if you use cherry jam!).

Allow to cool in the tin and cut into slices.

Mini-M hasn't tried it yet, but fingers crossed it passes the test! I'm skeptical since a) it doesn't contain banana b) isn't a pancake and c) has pumpkin seeds in, which I don't personally like, but Mr E is confident the jam will overcome all...

White Chocolate Fudge

2011-10-20T20:30:00.000+01:00

This is quite possibly the sweetest thing I have ever made - which isn't really that surprising since it is basically sugar, with white chocolate in it!

I was intrigued by the recipe, which I had cut out of a BBC Good Food magazine at some point, as it has liquid glucose in it, and I'd never made fudge with that in before. Not that I've made that much fudge before - just that when I have, it's been of the bog standard sugar, butter, cream or condensed milk variety.

This one worked well - the liquid glucose helps the texture, I think - keeping it soft but solid, and stopping it from being grainy.

I tasted a tiny bit, and like I said, it was super sweet. But that could also be that my taste for sweetness has been slightly altered by not eating dairy for the past year - no ice cream, only very dark chocolate and a limited cake/biscuit choice has definitely made my diet more of the fruity sweet rather than creamy sweet variety. Mr E certainly didn't seem quite as shocked as I did on tasting it - but then he likes eating condensed milk straight from the tin, so possibly not a great example!

I'll definitely use this fudge method again, but I think I might go with dark chocolate and see how that tastes - hopefully even better...

White Chocolate Fudge (Makes 1 tray approx 35x20cm - i.e. lots!)

500g golden caster sugar (I used 250g soft brown sugar and 250g granulated sugar instead of the golden caster sugar because I didn't have any)
500ml double cream
3 tbsp liquid glucose
140g white chocolate chopped coarsely (not too fine otherwise it will melt completely)

Firstly grease your tin and line the bottom with parchment.
Next put the sugar, cream and liquid glucose into a large heavy bottomed pan over a very low heat and melt together gradually, stirring regularly until the sugar melts and the mixture is no longer grainy. If you use granulated rather than caster sugar, this stage will take longer, and you'll have to keep the heat right down to stop the sugar mixture starting to boil before completely melted, otherwise the sugar in your finished fudge will crystallise a bit and make it grainy.
Once the sugar has completely dissolved, turn up the heat to medium and bring the mixture up to a vigorous boil. Don't put the temperature up too high, or it will catch and burn on the bottom of the pan, but by the same token, if you don't have it high enough, you wont reach the critical setting point.
The setting point for fudge is 118C, and while I do have a sugar thermometer, I still prefer to test by checking for the 'soft ball stage'. Drop a small amount of your boiling mixture carefully into a glass of cold water. If you can roll it into a soft ball under the water that holds it shape, but softens when taken out of the water, then the correct point has been reached. Maybe the next time I make fudge or tablet, I will manage to record the crucial moment with a photo! Generally I'm a bit distracted by the vat of boiling sugar in front of me to be taking photos though.
Take the mixture off the heat, put on a heatproof work top or chopping board, and stir for about 5 minutes, until the mixture starts to thicken, and leaves a trail on the surface that doesn't immediately disappear.
Add the white chocolate and give a very quick stir to distribute then quickly pour into the prepared tin - do this as fast as you can, as it will start to set rapidly.
Leave overnight to set fully and cool, then cut into squares.
The fudge will keep for up to 2 months in an airtight tin - but don't keep it in the fridge, otherwise it will go soft.

Hopefully it also travels well... as a big tub of it was entrusted to Royal Mail to be sent as a wedding present last week!

Recycled IKEA Catalogue Wall Art

2011-10-19T21:29:00.000+01:00

Question... is it wrong to steal your child's toys to turn them into living room art?
Answer... probably, but it's too late now! Plus I only stole the boring ones.

Mini-M likes building blocks - mainly to eat. The blue ones taste particularly good. The plain wooden ones, apparently less so. So I commandeered some of them for my craft experimentation purposes.

I'm a big fan of paper - a secret given away by a) the huge pile of books beside my bed, and b) the even bigger stash of old magazines I can't bear to throw away that lurks in a variety of shelves and corners around the house. I particularly love the colours and textures of the pictures in magazines - be them adverts or articles. And the IKEA catalogue rates highly on my colours and textures scale.

As far as recycling goes, this is not up there as a big landfill diversion... it probably saved about ten pages of IKEA catalogue from being scrapped (and they'd have gone in the paper recycling anyway) BUT it did make me feel that my saving said IKEA catalogue for the past 6 months had a purpose!

So I decided to wrap the plain wooden blocks in bits of IKEA catalogue, then used some UHU Power Stick glue (kind of a cross between superglue and Pritt Stick) to stick them together into a grid. Lastly, I attached them to a bit of scrap cardboard and added a piece of string to hang them.

Et voila - free living room art :o)

Chocolate Rum & Raisin Muffins (for me!) and mini Cheezly Muffins (for Mini-M)

2011-10-16T20:26:00.005+01:00

The other night I decided I was going to make Mini-M some muffins, as a variation on the pancake theme. I figured they might be a good foil for hiding some "Cheezly" (fake dairy free soya cheese - hiding it definitely helps its edibility...) and veggies.

But whilst flicking through books looking for a savoury muffin recipe, I found one for chocolate rum and raisin muffins, which sounded quite a lot more fun to make!

So I made them both. I made up the "Cheezly" recipe as I went along, and it worked out just fine, and I modified the Chocolate Rum & Raisin one from the Australian Womens Weekly 'Muffins' mini book to make it Dairy Free. I also modified it to save on the washing up - you end up mixing it all in one big pan.

It is completely undetectable, and really hard to believe that these are dairy free. In fact, I took them in to work, and I don't think anyone there suspected...

So here are my recipes.

First up the exciting chocolate ones :o)

Chocolate Rum & Raisin Muffins

Makes 12 large (or in my case 6 large and 12 small)
170g raisins
60ml dark rum
375g self raising flour
50g cocoa powder
200g soft brown sugar
150g dark (dairy free) chocolate coarsely chopped
125g margarine (dairy free)
125ml Oatly oat cream (if you can't find it, just use another 125ml soya yoghurt)
125ml plain soya yoghurt
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180C (170C fan) and line your muffin tin(s) with paper cases.
Put the raisins and rum in a large saucepan, bring to a gentle simmer and allow to cook over a really low heat for about 5 mins, then take the heat off, add the margarine and let them steep for another 5 - the residual heat will melt the margarine for you.
Once your raisins have cooled a bit, add the sugar, chocolate, flour, and cocoa powder. Resist the temptation to mix it just yet!
Next pour in the oat cream and soya yoghurt, and crack your eggs on top of it all.
Give the eggs a quick swirl with a fork to break up the yolks, then get stuck in with your wooden spoon and mix it really well - the last thing you want to find when you bite into a muffin is a big lump of unmixed flour! If you think your flour is prone to being lumpy, then by all means sieve it in, but I went unsieved and had no problems.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins, and bake for about 20 mins until they are crackly on the top, and springy to the touch.
Cool on a wire rack, then enjoy!

If you're not having to be dairy free, then you can easily substitute butter for margarine, be a lot less fussy about your chocolate choice (white chocolate chips would be fantastic in this too I think!), and use 250ml of buttermilk instead of the oat cream / soya yoghurt combo.

Next up - Mini-M's Cheezly muffins. For those of you uninitiated in these matters, Cheezly is a soya based cheese substitute. It does kind of melt, it is kind of like cheese, just not quite. On the plus side, Mini-M has never actually had real cheese to compare it to, but as she is going through a fussy phase, it is still treated with skepticism.

Pancakes have got a very firm thumbs up from her - regardless of what I add into them, she seems happy to wolf them down. Cheezly and ham pancakes have already been consumed with abandon (OK that is a slight exaggeration - abandon is really only reserved for pancakes that have raisins in, but they were eaten happily without being flung around the living room which is, you know, quite nice.). But I am a bit fed up of making pancakes, so I decide to give mini muffins a shot.

Cheezly, Carrot and Apple Muffins
(Makes 36 tiny muffins, 12 small or 6 large)

150g self raising flour
50g plain flour
1 egg
60ml sunflower oil
150ml plain soya yoghurt
50ml soya milk
25g finely grated Cheezly
25g finely grated carrot and apple (I used 1 tiny apple, and 1/3 of a regular carrot)
1 pinch bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 180C (170C fan) and line your tins with paper cases.
Sieve the flours and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl (or if you're lazy like me, don't sieve, live life on the edge and risk the lumpy floury consequences - happily avoided this time!).
Measure the oil, yoghurt and soya milk into a jug.
Add the egg and beat it all together lightly.
Then add the Cheezly, carrot and apple and give it another quick mix.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix well - use some extra elbow grease if you've not sieved the flour.
Spoon into the prepared tins and bake until golden and springy. If you're making tiny ones, this will be about 10 mins - large ones about 20 - small ones somewhere in between.

Mini-M's verdict seems to be that the aren't quite as tasty as pancakes. Thankfully still edible, but definitely more naturally missile shaped when she gets bored of eating....

A Picture A Day: Week 41

2011-10-15T20:18:00.000+01:00

A day late, but here are last week's pictures. And I have to confess, I forgot one day! But that's OK - I had an extra one from the day after to fill in the gap. I'm actually quite surprised how few days I've slipped up on, given that on a daily basis I forget a whole bunch of often much more important things... like taking my lunch to work, remembering a bib to go with Mini-M's lunch, forgetting my work ID badge, walking halfway to nursery with a bag of dirty nappies hanging off the side of the buggy etc.

Anyway, enough of the personal confessions and back to the photos!

Saturday 8th October
My new baby - a purple cast iron casserole dish, thanks to a half price sale in Jenners!

Sunday 9th October
Mini-M having so much fun playing with glow sticks!

Monday 10th October
Me working on some modelling clay miniatures that will no doubt feature in a future post...

Tuesday 11th October
Mini-M showing an early preference for Polish lager... (and saying 'bark bark' to the dog!)

Wednesday 12th October
Looking VERY happy with her new coat and mittens. Not exactly colour co-ordinated, but with emergency jackets (bought because someone's silly Mum dropped their other coat in a huge muddy puddle, completely saturating it at the start of a long day out and about on a very chilly day) beggars can't be choosers!

Thursday 13th October
Extreme hat hair!

Friday 14th October
One of my favourite views in our house - from our bed - where I was blogging my Daring Cooks post last night.

The Daring Cooks' October Challenge: Mmm mmm mmm Moo Shu

2011-10-14T23:05:00.000+01:00

The October Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including the pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

I think of all the Daring Cooks' Challenges I have done so far, this has been the tastiest and also had the best effort vs result ratio!

I thought it would be fiddly and time consuming, but it really wasn't - only slightly more time consuming than cooking a normal sort of meal.

I have to admit a certain sense of trepidation to begin with. I asked Mr E to buy some pork loin or fillet when he was at the supermarket, expecting him to come back with some escalopes or chops. Instead, this is what he brought home.

Yep - that's right - bacon! But I decided to go with it, and so moo shu bacon was born, and it was amazing. Seriously tasty! Worth making not just in an accidental way, but actually in an intentional way too. In a way that I'd definitely make again. In fact Mr E rated it as the tastiest dinner ever, and proclaimed it so to the world via Facebook. High praise indeed.

The thing is, I don't actually have a recipe as to how I made it - I just sort of chucked some stuff together.
You can find the complete challenge on the Daring Kitchen website.

And here's a quick run down of what I subbed for what, but without anything as helpful as quantities. Sorry folks - what can I say, sometimes I'm not a very precise cook!

I made the pancakes as is, but a quarter batch, since I was just cooking dinner for the two of us.

A pancake post-dry frying.

For the stir fry, I used cubed cooked bacon (I baked it the day before, wrapped in foil, for an hour and a half or so), tinned bamboo shoots, grated carrot, egg, rice vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce.

Bacon stir fry!

I made hoisin sauce and subbed peanut butter for black bean paste, 1 tsp honey and 1 of molasses, rice wine vinegar for white vinegar, a clove of crushed garlic for garlic powder, and a pinch of chili powder for hot sauce.

Quick and easy hoisin style sauce. Peanut butter probably makes it inauthentic, but it tastes good!

Pancakes, stir fry and sauce - balanced precariously close to the edge of the work top (most likely to hide the clutter from the camera...)

A pancake ready to be rolled.

We still had bacon left, so the next day I used it with more bamboo shoots, carrot broccoli, egg, the leftover hoisin sauce and a sheet of puff pastry to make a big free form Moo Shu Bacon Pie, which gave us another two delicious meals. I'm not sure where the pie rated in Mr E's all time meal preferences, but I reckon it was at least in the top 50% too.

Looking giant and pie-y. Glazed with beaten egg and hoisin sauce hence the dark colour.

Leftovers in pie = almost as good as the non-leftovers

Pomegranate & Chocolate Cupcakes

2011-10-12T19:30:00.000+01:00

I love pomegranates. They remind me of being a kid, and wintry evenings, and sticky fingers, and total absorption in picking out all the little bits (which I recently discovered are called arils - who knew!). And to be honest, that's normally how I would still eat them. But I got a pack of four from the supermarket the other day, and decided that gave me enough for some cooking experimentation, as well as enjoying on their sticky, jewelly lovely own.

So here are my pomegranate and chocolate cupcakes. Sweet and delicious with little pops of pomegranatey goodness.

Pomegranate & Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 10-12)

100g Self Raising Flour
100g Sugar (Granulated is fine, caster is better)
100g Dairy Free Margarine
2 eggs, beaten
25g grated dark chocolate (70%, dairy free)
50g pomegranate

Preheat the oven to 180C (170C fan)
Line a 12 hole bun tin with paper cases.
Cream the margarine and sugar together, then gradually add the eggs, adding about 1tbsp flour with them to stop the mixture curdling.
Sieve in the flour and mix until combined.
Add the pomegranate and dark chocolate and give it a quick mix to distribute them evenly through the batter.
Divide between the prepared paper cases, and bake for about 15 mins until they are risen and golden and slightly springy to the touch.
Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

I didn't ice these - I'm a bit of a fan of plain cake, but I'm sure they would be lovely iced. They were delicious "naked" and also kept really well in an airtight box - the bits of pomegranate stopped them from drying out.

Another on the make-again list. Yum!

Random Recipes - Green Bean and Parmesan Soup

2011-10-11T22:39:00.001+01:00

The inspiration behind October's Random Recipe challenge was "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" - not in any way as dodgy as it sounds - it was all about cookbooks, and thought up by Dom of Belleau Kitchen.

We were all paired off randomly with another inhabitant of blog-land, and first up we had to have a bit of a confessional on the cookbook front. After a quick count I admitted to having 68. Which I am secretly quite proud that I have managed to fit them all into two shelves of the bookcase - that's some tight packing, and lots of little books! The idea was then as follows - we each chose a random number for the other, which was the book we had to cook from, and then chose a page number which determined the recipe.

I was paired with Karen at Lavender and Lovage (Hi!), who chose book no.55, page no.55. A sigh of relief when I discovered it was 'The Soup Bible' and not a cake decorating book! It's been a hectic few weeks and fitting in some extra sugar flowers would have been tricky. I have to confess my heart then sank a little when I discovered that page no.55 was in the 'Rich and Creamy Soups' section. I can only have a tiny amount of dairy at the moment - which is an improvement of none a few weeks ago, but still not easily compatible with 'rich and creamy'. So I have to confess, I missed out the cream, because it was only a small amount, and didn't put the cheese on my serving. And another confession... I didn't have Parmesan (what with not eating dairy, the cheese section of our fridge is somewhat scant, unless you count 'Cheezly', and I most definitely don't - that's reserved for Mini-M's consumption who hasn't ever eaten real cheese to know what a disappointing imitation it is!

So as a result 'Green Bean and Parmesan Soup' turned into 'Green Bean Soup' for me, and 'Green Bean Soup with Cheddar' for Mr E.

Oh yeah - one more confession - as well as green beans, I had some runner beans in the fridge from our East Coast Organics Veg Box needing used, so I chucked them in too!

So here is both the original, and my massively corrupted recipe...

Green Bean Soup (Serves 4)

25g butter (or dairy free margarine)
225g green beans, trimmed (or 180g green beans, and 150g runner beans)
1 garlic clove crushed (I didn't mess with this bit!)
450ml vegetable stock (or chicken, since I'd run out of Marigold granules)
40g grated Parmesan cheese (or cheddar)
50ml single cream (or not!)
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (or not!)

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.

Top and tail the green beans, (and cut the runner beans into 5cm chunks).

Add the beans and garlic to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes over a medium heat, stirring regularly.

Stir in the stock, and season with salt and pepper.

Bring to the boil, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, uncovered, until the beans are tender.

Pour the soup into a blender and process until smooth.

Pour through a sieve back into the pan (this gets rid of the stringy bits from the runner beans).

Stir in the Parmesan and cream, and sprinkle with the parsley, then serve.

Given that I missed out or messed up with half of the ingredients, this was a really lovely soup. I will definitely make it again if I have green beans or runner beans to use up. Mr E said the cheese was nice, although if I was going to be having cheese in it, I'd definitely go for Parmesan rather than cheddar, because melted cheddar in soup goes a bit weird in my mouth - but that's just my personal preference.

I imagine the cream would be a lovely addition too. One to revisit in the future.

This was a fab challenge - it introduced me to a new blog and blogger, made me make a new recipe, which to be honest I'd never otherwise have made, being more of a hearty stewy soup girl myself.

Thanks Dom! Looking forward to next month already, and of course seeing what everyone else has made.

Cold Chip Fritttata

2011-10-09T21:19:00.000+01:00

I am as big a fan as the next person of that Scottish delicacy of chips and brown sauce, wrapped up in brown paper from the chippie. But you always, always, always get too many.

Last night, our family's dinner menu probably reached a low point of culinary sophistication... I had chips and brown sauce, Mr E had macaroni and ketchup, and Mini-M threw pasta around the room and ate a pancake.

I ate half of my chips, and put the other half untouched in a plastic box in the fridge to spend the night. Today I was determined to find a way to use them up - I hate seeing food wasted, but I really didn't want to eat them cold.

And to that end I concocted a frittata for lunch, which was quick, easy, tasty, and didn't taste like it was made of leftover chips!

Cold Chip Frittata (Serves 3)

1/2 a portion of chip shop chips with brown sauce
1/2 a medium head of broccoli cut into florets
1 small onion
4 eggs
50ml oat milk
1 tbsp sunflower oil
25g goats cheese crumbled

Heat the oil in a large grill-proof frying pan.
Finely chop the onion, add to the pan and soften for a few minutes.
Cut the large chips into pieces, and add to the pan once the onion is soft.

Zap the broccoli in the microwave for three minutes to soften it slightly, then add to the frying pan with the chips and onion.
Beat the eggs and oat milk together, then pour into the pan.
Swirl it about to coat the bottom, but don't stir.
Turn the heat down to low, and cook for about 5 minutes, then sprinkle over the goats cheese.
Pop it under the grill on a medium heat for a few more minutes to finish off the cooking.
Enjoy with a crisp salad, to assuage the chip guilt!

A Picture A Day: Week 40

2011-10-08T22:09:00.000+01:00

Late again this week - a horrible migraine kept me away from the computer for a couple of days.
But I'm fixed now, and catching up, so here are last week's pictures...

Saturday 1st October
Oops - too busy taking pictures of biscuits for this post about Mini-M's first 14 months in numbers that I forgot to take any other pictures. So 121.5 will have to be recycled here! It is the number of hours of 'bedtime music' that we have listened to via the trusty monitor!

Sunday 2nd October
A lovely Sunday morning spent playing some recorder trios with the siblings - Mini-M was getting into it (well stealing the music at least!!!)

Monday 3rd October
Micro-cauliflower!

Tuesday 4th October
Old trade signs remaining on a doorway on Nicolson Street, Edinburgh

Wednesday 5th October
Mr E polished my shoes for me!

Thursday 6th October
Mini-M in stealth mode, playing with a blue LED balloon. She was fascinated.

Friday 7th October

Migraine day 2 :o( Paracetamol didn't do a great job of helping unfortunately!