Egg & Bacon cups

These delicious little things are what my children and I shared for Mothers day brunch! So simple to make, and lovely to eat. I will need to make more next time, these disappeared too quickly. Be careful not to over-mix your eggs when whisking, be gentle. You could add any extras you fancy, such as mushrooms or cherry tomatoes. I have many ideas for some tasty variations.

Makes 6 cups

6 rashers of streaky bacon
6 eggs
Handful of grated cheese
Salt & pepper to season

Preheat the oven to 200c.
Line a muffin tray with a piece of bacon in each cup. Gently mix the eggs with the cheese, and season to taste. Pour the mixture equally between the 6 bacon cups. Pop into the oven for around 20/25 minutes, until all the egg mixture is cooked. Serve with toast & a dollop of ketchup!

Red Nose Day Cookies - Cheese & Tomato!

Red Nose Day is 25 years old this year! In celebration of that, Sainsburys Family Bloggers network challenged me to make a Red Nose Day cookie. As I have given up sugar for lent (go me!), I decided to make a more interesting savoury cookie, using tomatoes for red noses. They turned out looking great and tasting amazing! They are so easy for kids to make too, my 4 year old had great fun helping me mix & flatten the cookies. He also devoured 2 for his lunch, with a big glass of milk. Yum!

Ingredients -

75g plain flour
Pinch of paprika or chives
20g soft butter
20g grated mature cheddar
1 spring onion, chopped
2 tablespoon passatta
3 cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat the oven to 190c. Rub the flour, herbs or spices and butter together in a bowl, until all combined. Add the cheese, chopped onion & the passatta and mix until you have a dough like consistency. Add a drop more passatta if it is too dry. Shape into 6 equal sized balls, then flatten on greaseproof paper on a baking sheet. Place a slice of cherry tomato on top & gently squeeze in.
Pop in the oven for 15 minutes. remove & allow to cool & harden.

Scotch Pancakes

It was Pancake day a few days ago, so of course we made pancakes! My 4 year old son helped me to make these, and asked for golden syrup ones. These were so easy to whip up, and the Wee Man had a lot of fun mixing the batter. The trick is to use a dry but hot (not too hot though!) frying pan. Spoon the batter into the pan, then flip when lots of bubbles appear in the batter.

½ teaspoon white wine vinegar 
150 ml milk 
110 g Plain flour 
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 
1 medium egg 
1 tablespoon Vegetable oil 
1 tablespoon Golden syrup

 Mix the oil, milk, vinegar and golden syrup in a bowl. Add the egg & mix. Tip in the flour & bicarb. soda and combine thoroughly. Its ok if very small lumps remain.

Heat a large frying pan, and spoon 1 tablespoon of batter into the pan. Repeat 3 more times until you have 4 pancakes in the pan. Flip over when bubbles appear on top. Cook for another minute on the other side then remove to a warm plate. repeat until there is no remaining batter.

Can be eaten warm or cold.

Sausage & Pickle Plait

I had some sausage meat leftover from Christmas, so used it to make this tasty plait. It did get a soggy bottom though, I obviously don't have Mary Berry's touch! It was still very tasty though, and went down well with the whole family. You could use any pickle/chutney or relish to this, I think a tomato relish would be lovely! Even branston pickle would be great. I used a caramelised onion pickle in this version.

1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry
375g sausage meat
2 tablespoons relish/pickle or chutney
Beaten egg

Preheat the oven to 220c. Roll out your sheet of pastry. Spoon on the sausage meat up the middle, and flatten slightly. Make sure to leave around 4cm on each side. Spoon the pickle into the middle of the sausage meat. Cut the empty sides into strips about 1 cm apart. Fold these over each other, taking one from each side in turn, until you have covered the top of the plait. Wash with the beaten egg & pop into the oven for 35 minutes, until golden & crisp.

Savoury Breakfast Muffins

I get bored with cereal and toast for breakfast, so when I tried these I was very happy! I make a batch up & keep them in the fridge for everyone to help themselves to. They are tasty hot or cold, you can reheat in the microwave if you want to. I eat mine cold though, except from when they are fresh out of the oven. This recipe makes enough for a 6 muffin tin. You can add any meat/veggie that you like - peppers, onion, chorizo, chicken and tomato would all be tasty. A great way to use up those wee bits of veg left in the bottom of the fridge.

4 large eggs
100ml whole milk
Salt & pepper to season
4 slices thinly sliced ham, chopped
6 mushrooms chopped
Large chunk freshly grated Parmesan(amount to your taste)
Chopped fresh parsley leaves

Combine all the ingredients and mix thoroughly but gently. Divide equally between the 6 muffin cups. Put into a preheated oven (200C) for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. Can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Sweetcorn Fritters

Today I made my slow cooker ribs again for dinner. I wanted to make some tasty sides to go with them, so decided on a potato salad and these maxing corn fritters. They were quite messy to make, but absolutely worth it! The kids loved them, and ate every last scrap. They are not something I would make on a regular basis, but lovely as a treat. I would use a pan of oil that you can discard afterwards rather than a deep fat fryer, the mess was unreal! 

90g plain flour 
1 tablespoon sugar 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
2 eggs 
120ml  milk,
1 teaspoon salt 
4 large tins of sweetcorn, drained 
3 teaspoons Chopped Fresh Chives 
 Oil, For Frying

Heat about 2 inches of oil to a medium high heat in a large pan.
Sift together the flour, sugar and baking powder. Season with salt & pepper.  Stir in the milk & eggs and mix until it is all combined. 
Add the sweetcorn and chives and mix so that the corn is coated. The mixture will be still quite wet, and wont hold together well, that is how it is supposed to be. Drop a large spoonful of the batter into the oil. repeat this, doing no more than 4 at a time. Once they have turned golden in the oil, remove & drain on kitchen paper. Serve when all the mixture has been fried and drained.

Stuffed Quesadillas

The traditional version of these are just stuffed with cheese, but I wanted to zing mine up a little! You could add anything you wanted really. I had onions, red pepper, mushrooms & some cooked chicken in the fridge, so bunged them all in. I did fry them first, to soften up a little. I used half for this quesadilla and have kept some to have again this week.A tasty lunch, that isn't your usual wrap/sandwich. Kids love them too!

To serve 1 person

1 tortilla wrap
1 teaspoon oil
1 handful cheese
Other fillings (cooked onion, pepper, mushroom, chicken are what I have used)

Heat the teaspoon of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the tortilla and flip after 10 seconds. When air bubbles start to appear under the wrap, its time to add the cheese & filling. Don't overfull, as the quesadilla will be folded in half & flipped, so the filling may fall out. Fold over the top of the wrap & cook on that side for about 2 minutes. Flip over carefully. The top side should be nicely browned & crisp. Cook for 2 minutes more then move to a warm plate. Then enjoy!

Stained-glass biscuits

This is a lovely recipe that was sent to me by Whitworths along with their baking sugars, and I was eager to try it out! These both tasted lovely and looked stunning, I think these will be perfect at Christmas. You can add a loop of ribbon to hang them up! The cinnamon taste adds another Christmassy edge. These were so simple to make, and my wee boy loved helping out.  


220g butter, softened
200g Whitworths for Baking Light Soft Brown Sugar
350g plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger or cinnamon
50g Whitworths for Baking Crunchy Demerara Sugar
A selection of fruit flavoured boiled sweets in various colours


Preheat the oven to 180c. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. 
Separate the boiled sweets into colours and place in separate plastic food bags and use a rolling pin to crush into pieces approx 1cm and set aside.
Beat the butter & soft brown sugar in a bowl, until pale and creamy. Sift the flour and spice into the mixture; add enough milk to make a workable dough. Use your hands to make a smooth dough. Wrap in clingfilm  & refrigerate for 30 mins.
Sprinkle a little flour over the work surface, divide the mixture into 2 pieces and roll it out so that is 1/2 cm thick. Using biscuit cutters, cut out shapes. Using a smaller cutter, cut out the middle of each biscuit and sprinkle the biscuits with some crunchy demerara sugar. 
Carefully transfer the biscuits to the baking trays using a fish slice. Place one or two pieces of broken sweet into the middle of each biscuit hole.
Bake for 10 minutes or until the biscuits are just golden. Make sure the middle has set before moving the biscuits from the baking tray. 


Disclosure: I'm working with Whitworths Sugar, whose www.whitworths-sugar.co.uk site includes ideas and recipes for baking with sugar. Follow the conversation on Twitter with the #bakingS0S hash tag and @WhitworthsSugar.

Feta, hummus & courgette flatbread pizza

I am now on my 3rd batch of no-knead bread and I am still loving it! Today I used some to make a base for a flatbread pizza. This made the most delicious pizza I have ever eaten! I was wary about using hummus as a base sauce instead of tomato, but it really worked. This had a wonderful Greek taste to it, no flavour was over powering, they all just worked together to make a very tasty flavoured pizza. I will be making this again, and very soon! I had a friend over for lunch who seemed to really enjoy it too.

A hand full of no-knead dough or your own pizza base
100g hummus
100g feta cheese
10 or so cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small courgette, cut into thin strips with a veg peeler
3 mint leaves
Balsamic glaze to drizzle
Salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 200c. Prepare your pizza base. If you are using the no-knead dough, roll out it quite thin & pop onto a slightly oiled pizza stone or baking tray. Top with the hummus, and spread to the edges. Add the tomatoes and courgette and season. Crumble the feta all over the top & then put into the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven & add chopped mint & then drizzle with the balsamic glaze. Cut into slices & serve with a rocket salad.

Peanut Butter Squares

Another Lorraine Pascale treat! I was sad to see the end of her TV show last night, I have really enjoyed it. She makes cooking seem so easy & effortless. Last night we saw her make these peanut butter squares, which looked amazing! The Wee man had a friend round this afternoon, so thought we would get stuck in & make these. They are very tasty, if a little sweet for my taste. The kids wolfed them down though! These would be nice to share at a coffee morning or school bake sale.

150g butter
200g dark or milk chocolate,(I used a mix of both)
250g digestive biscuits
200g light brown sugar
300g peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Line a deep baking tray with greaseproof paper, allowing some overhang to make it easy to remove later.

Melt the butter in a saucepan on a low heat. Crush/whizz up the digestive biscuits until you have fine crumbs. Add the sugar. Melt the chocolate in either a banne marie or in the microwave. Mix the melted butter to the digestive/sugar mix, then add the vanilla extract. Mix in the peanut butter and then spoon into your baking tray. Smooth over and then pour the melted chocolate over the top. Allow to set in the fridge for at least an hour. remove & chop into squares.

Calzone & Pizza

I used some of my no-knead bread dough to make calzone for the childrens lunch. They didn't turn out quite as I expected! I think I rolled the dough too thin, so they split open. The kids still devoured them though! You could fill them with any sort of fillings that you would use on a pizza - we had sliced chorizo, tomato sauce & mozzarella. After seeing how the calzone came out, I made just flat bread pizzas (using the same dough) for our lunch. I love how many uses the dough has, while it just sits in my fridge! I have enough left for another loaf of bread or some rolls before I whip up another batch.

To make the calzone, roll out a handful of the no-knead fridge dough into a circle, Spread with pizza sauce, and top with your filling on one side only. Fold the empty side over the filling, and crimp the edges with your fingers. Pop onto a baking tray and put into a preheated oven (200) for 15 minutes. For pizza, roll out the dough and top with sauce & toppings. Also cook on a baking tray for 15 minutes.

Cheese & Egg Tartare open sandwhiches

I wanted a nice, tasty topping for the bread I made, see here. Watching re-runs of the River Cottage tv show, and saw this interesting idea. Cheese topped with an egg tartare, or fancy egg mayo, on top. He always makes things look so tasty, I had to try this. I loved the egg tartare, but I really didn't like it with the cheese - this is probably because I am not a cheese lover. I would definitely have it again,minus the cheese.

2 slices of nice bread (i used my own homemade bread)
Cheese, sliced

2 eggs, boiled, shelled & roughly chopped
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 gherkin, finely chopped
1 or 2 spring onions, sliced

Mix the eggs, mayo, gherkin & spring onions together. Top your bread with the cheese, then the egg tartare. 

Red Onion & Rosemary Foccacia

I have made foccacia before, in this post here. I used a very similar recipe, but added some lightly fried red onions to the top before baking in the oven. Delicious!

Flapjacks

I found this tasty recipe on Mumsnet, a user called SoupDragon posted the "ultimate" flapjack recipe. Of course, I had to try it! I have a few friends & their kids coming over tomorrow afternoon for tea & cakes. I made these flapjacks, some chocolate cripie cakes and some toffee crispie cakes. The toffee version doesnt seem to have worked too well - smells burnt :( Will have to wait and see what they taste like. These flapjacks on the other hand, smell and taste great! I haven't used condensed milk in them before, but it was a great addition! No need for sugar in this recipe.

250g porridge oats (the cheap type, not large ones),
150g Butter,
2 generous table spoons Golden Syrup
half a tin condensed milk, (half a 376g tin)
baking tin, no bigger than about 18cm x 28cm

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees c
2. Line the baking tin with baking parchment.
3. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the sugar and syrup. Keep gently heating and stirring until all is melted and mixed. If it starts to boil take it off the heat!
4. Add the condensed milk and mix. Bring to the boil for about a minute.
5. Remove from the heat and gradually add the oats, folding them in. All the oats should be coated, and the mixture quite dense, but still sticky. Don't add so many oats that the mixture becomes dry.
6. Pour the mixture into the tins and spread about so that it lines the tin to a depth of 2-3cm. Don't squash the mixture in, just spread it evenly.
7. Bake in the oven for about 15mins. You should take them out when they just start to go brown round the edges, don't leave longer than this. If they're still squidgy in the middle that's fine, they set on cooking.

Party Nibbles

I had a wee get-together with some of my friends, and I love to be the hostess with the mostess! I'd collected a few recipes for party nibbles, so this seemed a great opportunity to try them out. The one that went down the best is the one I forgot to photograph! Typical! They were sweet chilli sausages, and were eaten very quickly. I will make them again soon I think.


Another nibble I made were the sausage rolls I had previously blogged about here. I added a dash of tomato ketchup, less garlic and sliced them into bite size rolls. Served hot with a ketchup dip, they were delicious.

I had recently spotted these wee tomato/cheese cocktail bites, so had to make them! Very easy to assemble, and taste lovely - a bit different from the usual cheese & pineapple sticks!

They are just cherry tomatoes, a cube of feta and a small basil leaf, speared on a cocktail stick!

Creamy Garlic Mushrooms

These are delicious on toast, or even just by themselves! You could probably use it as a pasta sauce, or pour it over chicken. I love mushrooms, so I am always looking for new recipes for them. If you have a good mushroom recipe, please share it with me!

Serves 2

3 crushed garlic cloves
12 mushrooms chopped (I used chestnut, you could use any though)
Knob of butter
Splash of sherry (or white wine)
Half a carton of double cream
Parsley, to serve

Melt the butter in a pan, and add the garlic. Cook for a minute or 2, letting it cook but not colour. Add the mushrooms and stif fry for about 5 minutes. Add the sherry and let it simmer & reduce down. Add the cream, and let it warm through, stirring to mix all the flavours. Sprinkle with parsley & serve.

Cheese, garlic & chive crisps

Not a potato in sight! These would be perfect for people following a low carb diet. They are also perfect for cheese lovers! They are deliciously crispy and tasty, I would serve these as a snack at a party/buffet. I used fresh chives from my garden, but dried would work. You could try changing the toppings to whichever herbs/spices you like. Try varying the cheese too.

4 square slices of Edam cheese (from the packs you get of pre-sliced cheese but NOT processed cheese)
3 inches of fresh chives, snipped
A few pinches of garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 170c. Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper. THIS IS IMPORTANT, they will stick to foil/nonstick trays! Cut each square of cheese into 4 quarter squares. Spread on the baking sheets, top with snipped chives & a tiny pinch of garlic powder. Place in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the edges turn golden brown. Remove from the oven, and carefully remove the greaseproof paper with the cheese from the tray, and place on a cool surface. Le the cheese completely cool (this doesn't take long) and then serve! They crisp up beautifully.

Tuna Crunch Lettuce Wraps

It's a lovely sunny day today, so we had a picnic in the garden. The Wee Man had a friend over for the afternoon, so they had a tray of picky things while I enjoyed these tuna wraps. I am quite fed up of bread/bread type things just now, so these cos lettuce leaves were perfect. I think they are more delicious this way, and surprisingly filling. I am going to serve these next time I have friends over for lunch :)

To make 4/5 wraps -

1 tin of tuna, drained
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 inch piece of cucumber, chopped into small dices
1 3 inch strip of red pepper, cut into small dices
2 spring onions, chopped
5 lettuce leaves for wraps

Mix the tuna, mayo, lemon juice, cucumber, pepper & spring onion. Spoon onto the lettuce leaves & serve immediately.

Tuna & Sweetcorn Slice

We just wanted a light dinner tonight, as we have a verytasty pudding for after! I can never manage a proper meal and puddings in one sitting, so we tend to have soup/sandwiches/something light on Pudding Nights. This is very quick & simple to make, and the ingredients are also simple. It would make a very tasty lunch and would also be great as part of a buffet.

320g pack ready-rolled puff pastry
185g can tuna drained and flaked
325g can sweetcorn , drained
3 tbsp crème fraîche
50g cheddar , grated
a few chives , snipped to 1cm lengths

Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/ gas 7. Lay the pastry out on a baking sheet. Pinch up the edges to form a border, pressing firmly into the corners. Prick the centre all over with a fork and pop in the oven for 10-15 mins.
Meanwhile, mix the tuna and sweetcorn in a bowl and season.  
Remove the pastry from the oven, pressing the centre down with the back of a fork, as it will have puffed up a bit. Spread the crème fraîche across centre, spoon the tuna mix on top, then sprinkle over the cheese. Bake for 10-15 mins more, until golden, puffed up and cooked though. Sprinkle with chives and cut into quarters

American Breakfast Pancakes

I wanted to make a tasty, filling Sunday morning breakfast, so decided to try the American breakfast pancakes like those you get at McDonalds! They were very easy to make and cook. A good tip for perfect pancake batter is to leave some small lumps in the uncooked batter, dont over-whisk. These small lumps disappear whilst cooking and leave you with perfect, delicious pancakes!

120g self raising flour
Pinch of salt
30 g caster sugar
1 egg
142 ml/¼ pint milk

In one bowl, mix the flour, sugar & salt. In another, mix the egg & milk. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry whilst whiskung gently. Combine the ingredients but do not over-mix and allow some small lumps to be left.

Heat a small frying pan with a tiny amount of oil or butter. Ladel in a dollop of the batter, and tilt the pan to make a medium sized pancake, Cook until small bubbles appear in the pancake, about a minute. Flip and cook the other side for around a minute. Remove to a warm plate and repeat with the rest of the batter. You should get 8 pancakes Serve with maple syrup, bananas, lemon or sugar. Also good with scrambled egg, american breakfast sausage and eggs.