Mince pies and stollen

Posted on December 26, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Christmas, Cooking, Covid, Dinner, Food, left overs, Life, Mince pie, Safety, stollen, TimeLeave a comment

It was just me and my hubby together for Christmas, but that means no pressure to get all the trimmings done! I haven’t made a trifle yet, I will probably do so for New year’s day. We had a £3.80 chicken for our Christmas Dinner (a medium turkey crown in sainsburys was £27.90!) We had a few beers and I made pigs in blankets to go with the chicken. I also roasted all the veg including the sprouts. There are plenty of left overs for sandwiches today and I don’t have to think about turning a turkey into a stew and a curry later in the week. The one thing I miss though was having a party with my sister, but I’d rather make sure we are all safe.

Sprouts popping!

Posted on December 25, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Chicken, Christmas Dinner, Cooking, Dinner, Food, Fun, green vegetables, Humour, Life, Sprouts, VegetablesLeave a comment

A sprout tree, that’s what my hubby bought for Christmas Dinner. I wasn’t sure how to cut the sprouts off this knobbly stick. I don’t have sharp knives so they are hard to cut off. When I tried the springiness in the branch they were on I suddenly had a sprout popping up the air! It flew up and landed on the floor, rolled sideways, and ended up under the fridge freezer. Cue some scrabbling with a spoon to get it back out! It happened again with the next one so I realised I needed to hold the sprout with one hand and cut it off with the other. I didn’t want to use the whole sprout tree today, ten ot twelve sprouts are enough, but the branch was too long. I could not cut it in half so hubby snapped it across his knee after I’d tried to cut through it.

I part cooked them in the microwave and now I’m toasting them with out Christmas chicken (the turkeys for sale were four times more expensive).

Cream

Posted on December 16, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged added ingredients, Cooking, Cream, dairy, delicious, Fat, Flavour, Food, Hot chocolate, Poem, Poetry, TasteLeave a comment

Time for cream to celebrate, on mince pies, trifle and pud. With brandy added or sugar, it’s got to make it good.

On chocolate hot, or a steaming pot of coffee with some whisky. Cream is such a delightful treat, when it’s single, double of whisk-ed.

Add a bit to soups and sauces, give a drop to fruit and berries, savour its flavour in cocktails too. It all depends what you do!

One tiny block of cheese!

Posted on December 1, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Box, Cooking, Food, Food delivery, herbs and spices, home cooking, Ice, Life, Meat, tiny block of cheese, VegetablesLeave a comment

My friend ordered some food on the Internet for home cooking. I saw what was in the box. There were various things:

Lots of herbs, chick peas, box of tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, sweet potato, garlic bulb, two carrots, baby carrots, two bags of potatoes, a shallot, two onions, green beans, a small pouch of honey, spices, an aubergine, an avocado, sumac?? And other stuff. Including bags of ice to keep two packets of minced meat and two chicken breasts cool.

There was also a tiny block of cheese, two inches by one inch by one inch, that made me chuckle…. Oh and a Partridge in a pear tree!

Second hand curry

Posted on November 24, 2021November 25, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged aubergine, Broccoli, Cooking, Courgette, Curry, Food, Lentils, mild curry sauce, Onion, Tasty, turmeric, white fishLeave a comment

Well not second hand, but with left-over ingredients. I made this using curry powder and turmeric. I diced up some courgette, onion, broccoli, and aubergine. I then added a tin of tomatoes. I added water to it to stop it burning on and to add moisture. I also added a few lentils. The fish was bought today. It doesn’t really matter what sort, but a white fish isn’t too strongly flavoured. I’d added it later as you don’t need to overcook fish. It flaked nicely as I cooked and turned a nice golden brown. Much nicer than using a jar of curry sauce.

Thai again

Posted on November 9, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cooking, Food, Lunch, Noodles, Restaurant, Sawadee Thai taste, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, TastyLeave a comment

The trouble with having food at Sawadee Thai taste in Stoke is that I eat the food before I think of taking a photo of it. Today I had some noodles with king prawns and pak choi for lunch. Very tasty. The owner is a lady called Apple who is very friendly and helpful. It’s worth a visit if you want to taste Thai food, and it’s not expensive.

A blob smiling?

Posted on November 4, 2021November 4, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baked, Bread, Butter, Cooking, crusty, Flour, Food, Honey, Hot, Loaf, Tasty2 Comments

My loaf has a smile ! It’s crusty on the outside, soft and springy on the inside. I had a slice with a bit of butter and honey. I’m really pleased as my loaves usually turn out a bit dry and heavy. I tried to balance the liquid content and the stickiness and this time I tried to knead it a bit more.

Tasty!

Making bread

Posted on November 4, 2021November 4, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baking, Bread, Cooking, Linseed oil, Loaf, Rising, strong white flour, YeastLeave a comment

I decided to make a loaf today. Its just gone in the oven for half an hour, gas mark eight. Today’s loaf is half a packet of ready mixed linseed oil bread and half strong white flower. To make sure I had the right amount of flour I tipped flour from the big bag of strong flour into the small half full one till it was filled (I don’t have scales). Then as the strong flour didn’t have yeast I added a level teaspoon of dried yeast. I mixed it with about half a pint of luke warm water and a teaspoon of honey. I should perhaps have added a bit of oil and salt, but I decided not to.

The photo is the dough after it had risen, doubling on size, then it was knocked back and allowed to rise again. I’m happy with how much it has expanded. I hope the loaf that comes out will be light and fluffy… We will see. X

Best bread and butter pud

Posted on October 25, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baking, Banana, Blueberry, Brown bread, Cherry, Cooking, Dried fruit, egg, Food, Hot, Milk, RhymeLeave a comment

Tasty..

Followed the recipe

Milk and egg

Brown bread

Dried fruit

And fresh topped

With banana, chopped

Cherry and

Blueberry land

In layers through

This tasty chew.

Avoiding sugar

So sprinkled sweetner

To make it taste?

Ace!

Bread and butter pudding, again!

Posted on October 18, 2021October 18, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baking, Bread and butter pudding, Cooking, Dessert, Food, Pudding, recipes, TastyLeave a comment

A friend posted two recipes on making bread and butter pudding. Here they are :

I used to make this 2 different ways:
1: buttered leftover bread cut into triangles and put overlapping into a dish with sides.
Sprinkle with raisins and sugar/sweetener.
Beat an egg into about 3/4 of a pint of milk and a pinch of salt, and pour over the bread.
Make sure it’s properly soaked.
Dot with butter and bake in a moderate oven until golden and crispy on top- probably about 30mins.

2: The posh version:
Use a brioche loaf.
Slice but don’t butter
Place overlapping slices in a dish with sides.
Sprinkle with chocolate chips or raisins and a little sugar or sweetener
Beat an egg into a mixture of single cream and milk with a pinch of salt.
Leave to soak. Dot with butter.
Bake in a moderate oven until golden and crispy on top- probably about 30mins

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Cooking