Eggs… Pancakes?

Posted on July 2, 2020July 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Cooking, Eggs, Flour, Food, Heat, Lemon juice, Oil, Pan, Pancakes, Recipe, Sugar, SweetenerLeave a comment

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My hubby keeps buying eggs but we are not using them up. They are getting towards the end of their life so I will be making an omelette for tea or even pancakes with blueberries and lemon juice.

If I’m making pancakes, I will make a batter from eggs, milk, and flour. I tend to use self raising flour because the pancakes puff up. I’m not one of these thin, crepes, type of pancake people. My mom used to make pancakes in February for Shrove Tuesday. She would add snow water to the batter (yes it used to snow in February!)

So if you want to make them I will try and write a recipe.

First get 2 mugs full of flour. Plain or self raising, this is for a few people so reduce amounts in proportion for one. Put in a mixing bowl.

Then add two or three eggs depending on the size of your mug. (Make a little well in the flour and break the eggs into it.)

Mix together and slowly add around a mug of milk. Add it slowly and stir it in. Keep an eye on the consistency, you want it pourable, like double cream, (heavy cream in America I think?)

Once it’s mixed just put it aside to rest in the fridge (I don’t know why?)

Then get a frying pan, coat the bottom with a small amount of oil, or a spray frying oil or butter. Heat the pan up quite hot and carefully pour the batter in. Tip the pan to spread the batter out till it covers the base of the pan. If there is still wet batter on the top you can pull the pancake away from the edges of the pan with a spatula and let the batter spill into the gap. Turn it over with a spatula when it’s gone golden brown and cook for a few more seconds on the other side. ( You don’t have to toss it).

Sprinkle with sweetener or sugar and lemon juice when it’s on your plate. Add fruit to taste. When you’ve done one heat the pan again. You might not need to add oil as there should still be some left behind.

Continue till you have used all the mix. You can vary the thickness depending on how hungry you are!

Salmon and garlicky pasta (with or without salmon)

Posted on June 16, 2020June 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Colourful, Cooking, Food, Garlicky, Made up, pasta?, Random, Recipe, Salmon, Tasty, Without salmonLeave a comment

not neat, but tasty..

Ingredients,

About a table spoon of cooking oil,

Salmon fillet (or not for vegetarian)

1/2 aubergine, diced into small cubes,

1 courgette / zucchini, grated finely

1 sweet pepper cut into small squares

1/2 a can of chopped tomatoes

3 cloves garlic, crushed,

Spiral pasta, 2 handfulls

Method

Heat the oil in the pan, add the aubergine cubes, add the sweet pepper pieces, brown gently then add the grated courgette. Add the tinned tomatoes, mix and cook for a few minutes. Add the crushed garlic and the salmon on top of the mix, cook for a few minutes then turn the fish over. Lower the heat from medium low to low and gently simmer for about 5 minutes.

In the meantime put two handfuls of pasta (I had multi coloured spiral pasta in) with boiling water and cook on a medium heat till softened.

Drain and then add the pasta to the other pan. Serve the fish on top of the pasta and vegetables.

(I grate the courgette because it cooks quicker and makes the sauce feel thicker). You could add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Home made bread

Posted on June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baking, Before the lockdown, Blogging, Bread, Brie, Burleigh ware, Cooking, Cottage loaf, Food, Hubby, TastyLeave a comment

Made a couple of years ago… Now flour is never on the shelves in the supermarket, or if there is there is no yeast!

I think the photo shows we had brie with it, on burleigh ware plates.

It had a very good rise, probably because my hubby used flour and yeast separately. The problem with ready mixed bread making kits is that they don’t always rise well and you have to get the amount if moisture and temperature right so that it is soft enough to rise but not too squidgy. But you can always add extra flour if it’s too wet. The dough needs kneading to stretch it and get the gluten in it working. Obviously this doesn’t work with gluten free flour.

Anyway, looking forward to baking again.

Comfort food

Posted on June 8, 2020June 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Chips, Comfort food, Cooking, Eggs, Evening meal, Food, Meat, Memories, Pork luncheon meat, Sausages, Tasty2 Comments

Apologies to vegetarian and vegan readers please do not read further. Also anyone whose religion does not allow eating pork. I apologise and do not wish to cause offence.

————————————————————- We had sausage egg and chips for tea tonight. It cheered me up.

It did remind me of the Monty Pythons Flying Circus sketch about a man asking what he can order in a cafe and the list goes from egg and chips through various permutations to spam egg and chips, spam egg and beans u to and including ‘spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam…… And spam’.

I howl with laughter when I see it.

I can remember being sent to the shops by my mum and saying ‘plumrose chopped ham with pork’ over and over so I would remember the convoluted name. I know it was before I was seven. I’m sure it was after we got a black and white TV. I can remember seeing adverts for it. Perhaps I have got the two mixed up…..

Trying to make banana cake without all the ingredients.

Posted on April 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bad baking, Banana, Banana cake, Cooking, Food, Ice cream, Kitchen, Learning, Making it up, Sticky, Tasty, Toffee, TryingLeave a comment

I give you (please take some).
Home made banana cake with toffees melted on the top.
Ingredients.
Half self raising flour, half plain flour, about 8oz with a bit of yeast. (what I had in the cupboard).
Some granulated sweetener, about a tablespoon full.
4 oz approx of butter
Two eggs
A small mug of milk.
A bit of orange juice.
Two sliced bananas.
Toffees melted on top for the last twenty minutes.

Method
I added the flours together with the yeast, added the sweetener, then added the butter and broke it up until it was crumbly. Then I added the eggs, mixed in milk. It was still a bit dry so I added a bit of orange juice, till it was quite soft. A bit like wet mashed potatoes.
I then chopped the bananas up and mixed them in. I left it for a while to see if it rose (it didn’t!)
Cooked gas mark four for an hour and ten minutes. About forty minutes in I noticed it was rising but split in the top. So I got some toffees we had at Christmas and placed them on top. The mess is where they melted.
Not pretty but tastes OK. Served the first bit with some ice cream while it was hot. Not bad!

Bread making, USK S-O-T challenge.

Posted on April 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Baking, Black and white, Bread, Cooking, Drawing, Food, Ink pen, Kitchen, Oats, Rye flour, Sketch, Sketching, Staffordshire, Urban sketchers Stoke on trentLeave a comment

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Making not made! I found some rye flour and half a pack of yeast in the cupboard. Hubby and I both worked on it. Really tough to knead. We added porridge oats because it was too squidgy and I’d run out of flour. It’s taking time to rise but hopefully it will be OK… X

Update, cooked OK its a bit doughy in the middle. Not bad. Had some hot with butter.

I did the drawing as today’s challenge was something you’ve made for the urban sketchers new challenge. It’s black ink pen in my A5 cartridge paper sketchbook.

Using up sprouts

Posted on April 7, 2020April 7, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cooking, Food, Frankfurters, Interesting, Life, Onion, Pasta sauce, pasta?, Recipe, Sprouts, Tasty, Tomato, Using up food2 Comments

I had a bag of sprouts in the fridge, they needed using up. What to do? I took a mixture of leftovers and cooked something ‘not bad but interesting’ according to my hubby.

First I used up half a small onion. I chopped it up and cooked it in a small amount of butter and olive oil. I added some garlic granuals, dried chives, and dried basil.

I then added sprouts that I had cut the base off, took off the outer leaves and then cut them into quarters. I added some water to the mixture up to the level of the sprouts in the pan and let it gently simmer.

I cut up two large tomatoes that were getting wrinkly and were just past their best before date.

I carried on simmering it to soften the vegetables.

While I was doing this I put on a small amount of penne pasta in some boiling water. I cooked that until it was Al dente (still slightly firm)

As the sprouts were softening I added half a jar of tomato pasta sauce that I’d saved from last night.

If you want to leave it there you can. That would be a vegetarian option. But I had some mini frankfurters to use up, so I cut them into small pieces and added them to the mix. Once they had heated through I tasted the food. It was quite ‘sprouty’ so I took a small piece of cheddar cheese, about a thumb sized piece for each of us and melted it into the mixture. I added a little salt to taste and then drained the pasta and added it to the mix.

Cooking time, about twenty minutes in total.

Don’t know the cost, but not much.

Ingredients

Half a small onion. About two big handfuls of sprouts. Two large tomatoes. Half a jar of tomato pasta sauce. A handful of mini frankfurters. A small amount of mild cheddar cheese. A couple of handfuls of pasta.

I made bread pudding

Posted on April 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Butter, Cooking, Dried fruit, Easy bake, Eggs, Food, Hot, Leftovers, Milk, Puddind, Stale bread, Sugar substitute, Tasty2 Comments

Bread pudding made, yum!

It was a bit burnt on top. I used half a stale crusty brown loaf, soaked in water overnight. Then I added a cup of dried mixed fruit, and stirred it in to break up the loaf. Then added two eggs, some milk, three teaspoons of sugar substitute, a few knobs of butter and a teaspoon of cinnamon to make a wet mix. I put it in a greased shallow baking dish and baked it in the oven gas mark six (mid temp not too hot). I cooked it for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It came out a bit burnt on top. The bits of crust were nice and crunchy. I served it hot with cream. You could use custard.

One way to use up stale bread. Thanks Frank’s wife for the original recipe.

Bread and butter pudding.

Posted on March 31, 2020March 31, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bread and butter pudding, Cooking, Dried fruit, egg, Food, Milk, Recipe, Stale bread, Using up leftoversLeave a comment

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What do you do with your stale bread instead of throwing it away? It depends what you have in your store cupboard.

I asked around for an old favourite of mine, bread and butter pudding. A friend obliged and here is her recipe.

You need to soak your bread overnight, that would be good. You need suet . Dried fruit. Sugar. Ground all spice. I beaten egg. Sorry cant give you exact amount. Suet possibly 4 ozs. Sugar about the same about 12 ozs mixed dried fruit and a good teaspoon of the spice. Mix together with the soaked bread and then mix in beaten egg. Put in the oven for about 1 and half hours on number 6. Hope it turns out okay.

I replied that I would have to use butter as I don’t have suet, also the sweetener that I use for cooking. I don’t have all spice, but I’ve got a bit of cinnamon. She doesn’t say what to soak the bread in. I might use half milk and half water?

Well, if it turns out OK I might let you know. Thanks to my friend for the help.

Chlorinated chicken

Posted on January 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bacteria, Campilobacter, Chlorinated Chicken, Chlorine, Cooking, Food, Food poisoning, Life, Salmonella4 Comments

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In Britain we are about to leave the European Union although 48% of people who voted in the referendum voted not to leave.

To put this in context a ‘friend’ accused me of scaremongering and put a long post on my page saying that chlorinated chicken is marvellous and anyone who was against it were lefie remainers who are apparently too woke??? (what the hell does that mean).

Now I feel guilty because I am speaking against the USA system. But this is what I found on a post on the BBC website on 8 March 2019, and I am using their facts, not my own.

If you read the fact check on the website. ‘is chlorinated chicken bad for you?’ they state that using chlorine is not harmful and cleans up the chickens surface, but this can mask problems inside the chicken where high levels of bacteria can be found like campilobacter or salmonella. It also states that poor hygiene and badly run, crowded abattoirs are hidden by this process. When the two methods of producing chicken were checked, much higher levels of harmful bacteria were found in the chlorinated chicken. So no I will not be choosing it to eat it.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Cooking