My New Measuring Cups

I love these! I am a sucker for cute & quirky things, especially for my kitchen, so when I saw these in Morrisons I had to buy them. I already have a servicable set of pink plastic ones, but I just had to have these!

Roast dinner!

Tonight I had a friend & her son over for dinner, and made us a nice simple roast dinner. We had roast silverside, roast poataoes, yorkshire puddings, veg & gravy - wonderful! Sometimes it's the simple things ... and the accompanying wine!

Rice Krispies Chicken Nuggets

Well, when I first read about this my first thought was "yuk!". Then I thought, I should at least give them a try ... I like chicken, I like mayonaise and I like Rice Krispies. They were actually quite nice! I think the mayonaise tenderises the chicken (much like buttermilk does) and teh rice krispies are wonderfully crunchy. I made about 10 nuggets in my first try - which Wee Man refused to touch! So I ate them all myself - whoops. So moreish! Im hoping Big Bee and Little Bee will be more willing to try them when they return from their holiday. This is a Lisa Faulkner recipe, from her cookbook From my Mother to My Daughter.



Ingredients - makes 10 chicken nuggets

2 chicken breasts, each cut into 5 pieces.
2 tablespoons of mayonaise
Rice crispies mixed with salt & pepper, to dip the nuggets into & coat.


Dip each piece of chicken into the mayonaise & coat. Dip into the rice crispies & push to thoroughly coat. Transfer to a baking tray & cook in the oven at 190C for 20/25 minutes.

Honey roasted cherry tomatoes

I think I have mentioned my newest cookbook a few posts ago, the wonderful Rivercottage Veg Everyday. We are not vegetarians, nowhere near it, but this book really makes vegetable dishes look and taste amazing! Today I tried the honey roasted cherry tomatoes. These can be served with risotto, other roast veg or just on toast (as I had it). This was divine! No one else fancied it, so I had 3 small toasts topped with it, and put the leftovers in the fridge ... with a plan to gobble them up tomorrow!


Ingredients:

• 500g cherry tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon clear honey
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C/Gas Mark 5.  Lightly oil a medium roasting dish.  Halve the tomatoes and place them, cut side up, in the dish.  They should fit snugly with little or no space between them.
2. Crush the garlic with a pinch of salt, then beat it with the honey, olive oil and a good grinding of pepper.  Spoon this sticky, garlicky mixture over the cherry tomatoes.  Roast for about 30 minutes, until golden, juicy and bubbling.

Recommend a Recipe!

I am always on the lookout for new recipes to try, so if you have one, please let me know! Full credit will be given. Feel free to link to your own blog too :)

Tuna sweetcorn burgers

My children all love tuna and they all love sweetcorn, so this seemed ideal to make. We all had them for lunch, and everyone wanted more! Definitely on the "make again" list. Perfect store cupboard recipe too, I only had to nip to the shop for some spring onions.

• 85g white bread , torn into pieces
• 198g can sweetcorn , drained
• 2 x 185g cans tuna in water, drained well
• 25g grated cheddar
• 3 spring onions , finely chopped
• 1 egg , beaten
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• wholegrain bread rolls, lettuce, to serve 

1. Whizz the bread in a food processor to crumbs, tip into a bowl, then whizz half the sweetcorn until finely chopped. Add the chopped corn, remaining whole corn, tuna, cheese, spring onions and some seasoning into the bowl with the bread and mix well. Add the egg, bit by bit (you may not need it all), until the mixture is sticky enough to be shaped into four even-size burgers.
2. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan, then cook the burgers for 5 mins on each side until golden and hot through the middle. Stuff into wholemeal buns with your favourite lettuce. Recipe found here.

Ice cream cupcakes.

I saw this idea on a few websites and thought Id give it a go. Quite pleased with the results! That is until I tried to carry a plate of them to take a photo and they all fell over!They are very top heavy, so be careful when displaying or moving them. You also have to make sure you dont over fill the wafers with cake misture, as it rises quite a bit. I filled up to the first ridge  on the cone.

This is a perfect recipe to use for the cake mixture and frosting ... fairy cake recipe.

Excuse the 2nd photo, they had fallen over & the frosting was squashed :(

Rainbow Birthday Cake

This is my first ever attempt at icing a cake, so please excuse the clumsiness! Also, some small person pushed their finger into the cake while I was getting the camera ready, grrr! I used this very easy and reliable spomge recipe here ... victoria sponge recipe.

I used gel paste colouring to make the rainbow sponge, and for the coloured circle decorations. I used ready to use fondant icing.

Macaroni Peas

Well, I've had quite a gap in my postings! Life has been hectic & busy, but it's now the Easter holidays & 2 out of 3 children have gone away on trips. Time for me to catch up on my poor abandoned blog!

First up, I treated myself to the Riverside Cottage Veg Everyday cookbook, to try & encourage us to eat more vegetables. It's a brilliant book! I looked for an easy recipe to start with, but also one that I thought the children would enjoy. I came across this recipe for Macaroni Peas, which looked ideal. Even my vggie-loathing daughter ate this! My 4 year old son has named it Alien Pasta :) Its such a simple recipe really, that I think I will let my 11 year old make this for us next time. If you really do want some meat with your dinner, bacon or pancetta would go nicely in this dish.


500g of frozen petit pois (4 cups)
500g of dry macaroni (2 cups)
50g of butter ( 4 Tbs)
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
25g of Parmesan cheese, coarsely grated (1/2 cup) plus more for serving
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
chopped fresh flat leaf parsley to serve

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions while you make the sauce.

Heat the butter in a small pan. Add the garlic and cook gently for a few minutes without colouring.

Put the peas in a separate pan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer until just tender. This should only take a couple of minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid. Put half of the peas into a blender along with 6 Tbs of the cooking water, and the melted butter and garlic. Add the cheese. Blitz until you have a smooth and loose puree, adding a bit more of the pea cooking water if needed. Combine with the whole peas and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta as soon as it is ready and toss immediately with the hot pea sauce. Serve topped with a hearty grinding of black pepper, some more grated Parmesan and a garnish of chopped flat leaf parsley.

Pork Chop tray bake with Sage & Onion coating

I loved the idea of having stuffing coating the outside of the pork chops. This was another very easy dinner, just one tray so minimal washing up!  I used Google to find a recipe, and decided to try this one. I will definitely be making this one again! Everyone loved it. I just used vegetables that needed used up in the fridge, so just use any that roast well.



Ingredients

4 carrots, chopped
1 large onion chopped into quarters
6 potatoes sliced thickly, or quartered
2 parsnips, chopped
4 pork chops
1 small packet sage & onion stuffing, made up as per instructions on packet

Lay your chopped vegetables on a large roasting tray. Drizzle with olive oil & season. Lay the pork chops on top, then coat the top of the chops with the stuffing mix. Roast in the oven, at about 180c, for an hour. Serve with lashings of gracy.