Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label cooking

Something for the weekend - Girls Night In

The world is a busy place so sometimes it's nice to slow things down and catch up with the important people in your life Every month or two I get together with my closest friends and have a girls night in.  Going out is great, I love going to restaurants, to the theatre, to the movies but sometimes being out socially doesn't give us a lot of time to catch up fully on what's going on in everyone's lives. So we will do things like; Have Afternoon Tea A 'formal' meal A buffet with board games This Saturday we had decided on a Games Night, so this is how I prepare; Generally cleaning my house  Setting the table  Preparing the food  - baking cakes, cooking pastry etc.   As we use the evening to catch up and relax I tend not to cook a formal meal, I create more of a buffet that we can snack on throughout the night as we talk.   I love cooking and baking so this gives me a chance to try out new recipes and relax in my kitchen I make sure I

Brunch Time Baking

There's nothing better than the smell of fresh baking.  I love to bake and I love to try new things.  This is a recipe I've been playing about with this idea from Sainsbury's since Christmas for a mid morning pick me up. You will need:  Puff Pastry - ready rolled is ideal  Jam / Mincemeat - for the filling - as you play with the recipe there are loads of other things you could use  Cinnamon - around two table spoons (for sweet toppings)  Sugar - around two table spoons (for sweet toppings)  You can use any filling/topping you like - for example tomato and cheese (probably a hard cheese like parmesan would be best) to create a pizza like twist.   Step one  Preheat your oven to around 180 degrees  (fan) 200 degrees   Pepare a a baking sheet with grease proof paper - you can at a push use the paper that comes with your pasty  Mix the cinnamon and sugar together - you can keep this in a bowl or as I do put it in a dispenser like and unused

In The Kitchen - My Take on Rustic Lasagne

I love comfort food; it makes you feel all warm inside.  Once of the meals I love to make as comfort food is hearty rustic lasagne.   Originally I learned to make this when I was around ten or eleven, I had a bit of an obsession with Italian food so I started to experiment.  Over the years I've tweaked, changed and adapted my recipe.   This version was partly inspired by the brilliant Mary Berry and uses wraps as a pasta substitute and partly by my mindset of trying to eat as many vegetables as I can.  Hopefully you'll enjoy!  Ingredients to make four servings  Mince 500g (steak mince at 5% Fat)  Olive oil (1tbsp)    Two medium Red Onions    2 Carrots    Frozen garden Peas    Mushrooms (Button or chestnut)  Broccoli    Green Beans    Tomatoes  Beef stock (1 cube)    Worcestershire Sauce (to taste)   Sugar tsp.    Tomato Passata 500g  1 cup Water    Fresh Basil  Mediterranean Wraps    Grated Cheese    Red Wine    Garlic Step 1  I st

Easter - Celebrations, Decorations and Baking

I love holidays, I am one of those people who starts there Christmas shopping in January just because I love to celebrate things. So after Christmas when it's those cold dark months of generally rain up here in the North I look forward to Easter and the time of year when everything starts to change and become new again. This year Easter is early, so its still quite cold so my garden isn't looking its best.  Since there's been so much rain and damp there's been no chance of tidying of planting so my Spring clean focused on the interior of my house.  This involved paining everything! Anyone who owns a dog especially a large one will feel my pain when it comes to white walls and light coloured carpets, they just aren't a great match.  Now the weather is picking up just that little bit the amount of mud being trampled through the house and shaken on to walls has reduced, it was time for the paint brushes to come out of retirement and the white paint to be sloshed