Busy Doing Nothing

Yesterday I took Mr P's lovely Mum to Dobbies Garden World In Liverpool, as I felt she could use a little cheering up. I'd spotted it on my way to a school one morning and instantly thought, Angela would LOVE it there. So yesterday I dropped Mr P off to go to the pub with his Dad to watch the match and Angela and I set off with the children in tow. The garden centre is huge with so much more than plants and gardening items. There were crafts and gifts, candles, furniture, all kinds of fish in the aquatic section and best of all a farm shop. This consisted of a butchery section, a deli counter, a bakery and shelves and shelves of really lovely produce. In one corner they had specialty oils and vinegars with baskets of bread so you could try before you buy. The children loved that and tried all 8 vinegars! I tasted a few and decided that the Blackcurrant Balsamic was my favourite so asked the assistant to fill me a small bottle.

We stopped in the cafe area had had a drink and cakes and managed to spend over three hours in Dobbies World!

I decided that today would be a lazy day. I planned on doing noting much at all, until I found myself wide awake before 8am!
Rather than lay in bed not sleeping I got up, showered, got into clean Pj's, loaded the washing machine, tidied the kitchen and started cooking. I cooked apples and plums ready for our crumble later and made the almondy topping to go on top of the fruit.

Next I got out the Filo pastry from the fridge and made the fillings for the little parcels I'd decided to make for lunch.

Feta, Mint and Pea

Feta, Sundried Tomatoes and Black Olives

I had some Filo left over so made some sweet Apricot and Almond parcels.

These were a light bulb creation, not sure where the idea came from but they worked! I crushed some Amaretti biscuits and mixed with ground almonds finely chopped dried apricots and some double cream until it formed a thick almost moldable paste. I layered four squares of filo with a ball of the paste in the middle scrunched to make a parcel and baked for about ten minutes. They were delicious.

I also popped some peppers stuffed with couscous in the oven to bake, while I made my 'new' favourite salad.

Beetroot and Orange Salad

This is a combination I love and only discovered last weekend while out to lunch with friends.
To make the salad you need -

1 Large orange
1 medium fresh beetroots, cooked
A bag of mixed salad leaves (baby spinach, rocket etc)
Honey and black pepper or
Blackcurrant Balsamic Vinegar

Put the salad leaves into a bowl. Remove the orange peel with a knife and slice segments from the orange, making sure you have no pith or tough skin, you just want the juicy flesh. While cutting, hold the orange over a small bowl to catch all the juice. Scatter over the salad leaves and squeeze out any extra juice from what you have left of the orange. Slice the beetroot in wedges to reflect the shape of the orange segments, dip in the saved orange juice and scatter over the salad leaves and mix. Either drizzle over the blackcurrant vinegar OR make a dressing from the left over orange juice. Simply add a teaspoon of honey to the orange juice and a good grinding of fresh black pepper and mix well. Simply delicious.

Lunch is served

So much for not doing anything today! As soon as this is posted I'm logging off and starting my book for the new reading group and I will not be moving off the sofa until tea time! (unless I need a cup of tea!)
I really am rubbish a 'not doing anything' a trait I get from my Mum. My Dad used to say to her "If you sat still  long enough your backside would be making buttons!" I really have no clue what that means, but it used to make me giggle!
I hope you're all having a lovely weekend

Slow cooked gammon in cola

The evenings getting darker and chillier tell it's time to get the slow cooker out from the back of the cupboard and put it in it's winter home, on the kitchen counter. I love my slow cooker. I usually prepare the meat and vegetables the night before and store the casserole part of the slow cooker in the fridge. That way, in the morning all I have to do is put the casserole in the outer, switch it on and off I go to work. When I return the house smells wonderful and dinner is almost ready. At the very most I may have to cook some rice, pasta or potatoes, hardly an effort.

I'm going to buy one for my very dear friend Karen for Christmas. She works shifts as does her husband, often they need to eat at different times or finish at silly o'clock and the last thing they feel like doing is cooking a meal for the family when they get home, so I thought it would be a big help for them. I run the idea by her first and she thought it would be a great idea, as long as I get her a recipe book to go with it, not a problem!

My lovely friend The List Writer was thinking of getting one and asked my advice. I'm glad to say she hasn't been disappointed and has been putting it to good use. Her recipes have inspired me to cook some different things in my slow cooker as I have to admit I was sticking to the old tried and tested casseroles and stews.

So today I cooked one of my family's favourites Gammon. I usually boil it on the cooker top in a big pan with some carrots and celery for a good couple of hours but you do have to be home for that, as if left it could boil over or the pan could run dry. Today I decided to cook it in cola, (yes you read that right!) in the slow cooker, leaving us free to come & go as we pleased without worrying about pans on the hob! The result was melt in the mouth gammon that quite literally fell apart.

Here's what I did.....

I placed the gammon joint in the slow cooker (mine was about 1.3kg)

I chopped up 4 carrots  and cut a large onion into quarters. I stuck a clove into each quarter of the onion.

I drained and rinsed a tin of mixed beans and put them into the cooker.

I popped in 2 bay leaves.

I put a litre of cola in a sauce pan with about a tablespoon of dark brown sugar, a heaped teaspoon of English mustard and a squeeze of tomato puree. I brought it all to the boil and then poured the mixture over the ingredients in the cooker.

Now usually I don't precook anything other than mince, but you want the mixture combined so that you can just leave it to do it's own thing in the cooker on the high setting.

After about 6 hours we were ready for tea. As I've already said the meat just fell apart. I separated the juices from the gammon and vegetables and put it back into a saucepan and set it to boil and reduce for about ten minutes while I mashed some potatoes and cooked some peas. My slow cooker has a 'warm' button, so while I was mashing, cooking and reducing, I left the gammon and vegetables in the cooker to keep warm.

The whole family really enjoyed their tea and there was no gammon left at all!

I'm looking forward to trying some more old favourites in the slow cooker and some new recipes too. Long Live the Slow Cooker!

(Apologies for the picture quality, kitchen lighting is dismal. Kitchen is currently being transformed and lighting is on the list!)

A day off

Last week I had a day off in the week. Not something I have many of during term time. So like many working Mum's if I do get the odd day off then I put it to good use. I could sit at home, watch a bit of TV and relax but actually I can't! My Dad always said that if my Mum sat still her bum would be making buttons! A very odd saying but what it means is that she could never be still, she always had to be 'doing something', a trait that I seem to have inherited! If we have a 'lazy day' at home I find myself genuinely feeling anxious that I should be 'doing something'. I know that it can be frustrating for those who have to live with me and I know they don't understand because I can remember not understanding when I lived at home with my Mum. A film would come on TV and Dad & I would say we'd seen it but Mum would swear she hadn't and we'd always blame it on the fact that she never sat still long enough to watch one!

So on my day off I did all the usual daily chores, like cleaning up the kitchen and getting some washing done. I popped into town to pick up a parcel, go to the bank and pick up a few groceries and when I came home I headed for the kitchen.

We'd already eaten most of the cake I made at the weekend, although Mr P had taken some into work for a colleague to try so that's why it had disappeared quicker than usual (that's my excuse!) so I decided to make another one. We love the Fruit and Almond cake and I do make it most weeks so I decided to make something different. I've had Rachel Allens Bake book for a while and haven't used it much so I picked that off the shelf. I chose a recipe for an iced orange cake. It sounded lovely and I had oranges spare so even better. However, when I opened the oven I was horrified that the cake hadn't really risen and it had sunk in the middle. I was less than impressed! I iced it all the same and hoped it would taste better than it looked but I really wasn't happy. I still took a picture as I don't believe in only sharing successes and it was only just now as I looked up the recipe online so that I could include it here that I got to see a picture of Rachel's finished cake. Her cake has a sunken centre just like mine! She'd iced it a little differently but the cake itself was the same.

Too sweet for my taste

While the cake was in the oven I decided to make some soup to stock the freezer. Mr P likes to takes it to work for his lunch. I just used up what I had in the fridge which happened to be mainly root vegetables. So it was carrots, parsnips, swede, an onion, a leek and a squash that was lurking! I added some Garam masala and cinnamon to give it some warmth.

Ready for the freezer

Lastly I made a beef and barley casserole for our tea. I started it off on the cooker top and then once the cake was out of the oven I popped the casserole in, no need to heat the oven twice that way! I can't usually make a casserole in the week as I don't have time to cook them when I'm working so if ever I'm off that's what I'll make. And of course any good stew or casserole should have dumplings!

The recipe is so simple that it's barely a recipe at all!

I use
 200g self raising flour
 100g butter
pinch of salt
any herbs or spices I feel like adding
Water to mix

Rub in the butter into the flour by hand then add salt & herbs/spices and enough water to make into a soft dough. Roll into balls and place them on top of the casserole. (they'll be half in the liquid and half out) You can cover the casserole or leave it open for a crispier top to your dumplings but I cover mine you can use the same recipe to make a cobbler too. Bake for 30/35 minutes on gas4/180c at the end of cooking.

This makes about 12 dumplings.. You can adjust the recipe easily as it's simply 2 parts flour to 1 part butter
On this day I added some smoked paprika to the mix. It gave a lovely flavour and colour to the dumplings and complimented the smoked paprika in the casserole. And before anyone asks, I'm afraid there isn't a recipe for the casserole I just put in what I have to hand (beef, onions, celery, root veggies, unpeeled new potatoes and barley) with some good quality beef stock and what ever herbs and spices I fancy.

Ready for the oven

The whole house smelled amazing for most of the day and when everyone came in from school or work they were greeted by warm comforting smells wafting from the kitchen.

The casserole was lovely, really hearty and filling. The soup, Mr P tells me was very nice indeed but as for the cake......lets just say I won't be making it again in a hurry. Everyone else said they liked it but it really wasn't for me.