Toffee Apple Disaster.

So, its Half Term and I have lots of time on my hands - lucky me. I came over all Martha Stewart today and decided it would be marvelous if I wrote a magnificent post on how to make Toffee Apples. How hard can it be?? And I could take the delicious Toffee Apples to my mum's house to share with my triplet nephews.

First Job ... stick sticks in apples

My first job was to stick my sticks into my apples. An easy job, but finding the sticks proved tricky. Bewildered faces met me at every turn when I went into various supermarkets to ask for Toffee Apple sticks. You would have thought I'd asked for some sort of instrument of torture...

But in my Earth Mother mode I was not daunted. I would make my own damn sticks from Mother Nature herself. I grabbed my clippers and went outside in the rain to chop twigs of the appropriate size. Good work Mrs Secret Housewife!!

Then came the other ingredients ...

400g of sugar

150ml apple juice & 100ml maple syrup

And a teaspoon of cider vinegar ...

The next bit I was a tad nervous about. I would go as far as to say that I was scared. I had to slowly melt the sugar in a sturdy pan without burning either it or myself in a horrible sugar scalding accident. I have read that you don't stir the sugar, you just watch it and shake it lovingly occasionally. So I did.

When it had melted I added the maple syrup and apple juice and cider vinegar, letting it bubble and boil for 7 minutes...

bubbly sugary stuff

And that, dear reader, was when it all went horribly wrong.

Drop little bits into a jug of cold water, they said. And the little bits will solidify into lovely crispy toffeeness.... Well not in my house they don't.

Eventually I thought that I would dip the apples anyway. I mean, how long can a girl boil sugary stuff before she keels over from exhaustion? So I dipped the apples and put them to set on my newly bought baking paper. (Non Stick... I hope)

And before my very eyes most of the sugary sticky stuff slid majestically down the apples to form a delicious pool of ... stuff on my tray.

There may still be some sort of hope. There is a chance that in the next 5 years the toffee will set to a crispy crunchy delight, but I am not overly optimistic. Still, at least I tried and I hope that, if you attempt or have attempted Toffee Apples you are more successful than me.

Granny Wilsher's Christmas Cake Recipe

Righty Ho ... here it is! My Granny's recipe for Christmas Cake. This is a very easy cake to make as you just chuck everything in a mixer, bung it in the oven and go away to write your Christmas cards or watch a good film!! I promised to post it yesterday so huge apologies that it took me until today! I had a baking filled evening last night and couldn't bring myself to blog as well ... my feet were killing me and I just fell into bed!

Granny Wilsher's Christmas Cake

Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees centigrade, 300 F or Gas Mark 3.

Line a 20cm cake tin (make sure its a deep one too ) with a double lining of baking parchment at the base and all around. Prepare a double disc of paper to go on top too.

Ingredients

175g butter (soft)

175g lard or vegetable fat (soft)

175g dark moist brown sugar

175g caster sugar

6 large eggs

1 tablespoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

350g self raising flour

200g sultanas

200g currants

200g raisins

100g glace cherries

100g mixed peel

100g chopped walnuts ( I actually used macademia nuts chopped up as I'm not keen on walnuts)

100g ground almonds

1 tablespoon black treacle

1 small bottle Guinness (or other stout) ( you don't use the whole bottle!!)

brandy (maybe ... if you fancy)

Instructions

1. Cream the butter, lard, brown sugar & caster sugar. You can just chuck them all in a mixer and let it do the work if you like.

2. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.

3. Sieve the mixed spice and cinnamon into the flour and fold all of it into the mixture.

4. Add the fruit, peel and nuts and mix well.

5. Stir in the black treacle and enough Guinness to give a soft consistency (drink the rest ... says my mum!)

6. Pour into your cake tin and drop sharply onto your work surface ( not from too great a height!!)

Bake on bottom shelf of oven at 150 degrees centigrade (or as above ) for 1 and half hours.

Lower oven to 140 degrees and put disc of baking paper or foil on top. Bake for a further 2 and half hours or more - until a cake tester comes out clean when pushed into centre of cake.

Cool on wire rack and then store in an airtight tin.

You can spike holes in the cake and 'feed' it with brandy if desired and when closer to Christmas coat the top with a layer of apricot jam, followed by a layer of marzipan and then a layer of Royal icing.

Good luck! I hope you enjoy it if you make it and if you do I would love to see a photo or hear what you thought of it!! I shall post a photo of mine when its all iced and gorgeous, but here it is so far ...

Granny Wilsher's Christmas Cake

My children's eating habits drive me insane.

My children's eating habits drive me insane. There ... I've said it. It's not that I don't try - but they are stubborn and bloody annoying.

Please forgive my swearing and frustration, but I have just cooked the most delicious chicken noodle soup for lunch and have been met with attitudes that would suggest I had just served up a pile of cat food. What, may I ask, is there not to like?? Chicken? Yes, they like that. Noodles? Yes, they like them. Soup? Yes, they like that. Ginger, coriander, spring onions?? Yes, they have eaten them in the past. But put them all together?? They hate it.

chicken noodles soup just like mine, courtesy of BBC Good Food 

Son #1 who is nearly 15 refused point blank to try it even until I shouted at him and threatened death. Then he ate one piece of chicken, one noodle and declared it was disgusting. Son #2, who is 12,  did reasonably well, saying that he liked it, but I have never seen such a performance of attempting to get noodles and chicken into a mouth. It involved spoon, fork, fingers. He would get enough noodles on the spoon, but the chicken piece would be, in his opinion, too big, too small ... Give me strength!!!

I am so bored with cooking for them. I always cook from scratch, use organic veg and free range meat. I do my best to cook tasty food. But Son #1 doesn't like ham, bacon, cream, cheese, salad. Son #2 doesn't like curry, spice, mince.

Yesterday I cooked chicken fajitas and made my own salsa ( delicious even if I do say so myself!) and I nearly fell off my chair when BOTH of them said it was yummy. Son #1 never eats tomatoes and he tucked into the salsa as though it was pure chocolate. This success was, however, a rarity.

So, what can I do? I am certainly not going down the route of smiley face oven chips and processed chicken nuggets. I just don't understand the fussiness, the lack of desire to try new things, to appreciate fresh flavours and good quality ingredients. My husband and I love food, love cooking, love trying new recipes, new ingredients. The children are getting worse.

I suppose I should be grateful that they do like some things. On holiday a friend's children would eat nothing more adventurous than pizza, whilst our boys were ordering duck medium rare. So maybe today is just a bad day and I shouldn't get so frustrated, but I hate cooking the same old things. Dull, dull, dull.

I am certainly not going down the route of cooking different food for different people. I cook one meal and if they don't like it - tough. Ok. Rant over.

How to make a Bakewell Tart - its as easy as pie!!!!!

Eve asked me, the other day, what was a Bakewell slice and I put the recipe on my questions page. I did promise that I would post photos next time I made one and so here we go. Of course the real reason for this flurry of baking enthusiasm is the fact that I am supposed to be working on a 4000 word essay!! I have done 200 words so far...

Anyway... the full recipe is on my questions page up above, but here are my photos. I really recommend it as its easy, cheap and very scrumptious!! Let me know if you make it??

cream together ground almonds, sugar and butter.

add eggs and mix

roll out pastry ( my rolling pin was in the dishwasher so I had to use a beer bottle... )

spread jam

splodge almond mix on top

roughly fold over pastry a la rustique until it looks like this...

then paint with egg wash and bung in the oven.... it should come out looking like this ...

serve hot with custard or cream... or leave it until cold and have with a cup of tea. yum!

Thanks to Economy Gastronomy for the recipe!!

And now I suppose I ought to do a bit more of my essay before I pop over to the allotment!!

The good the bad and the ugly - a combination of Jamie's 30 minute chicken pie and footballing misery...

Its been one of those funny old days. You know the ones that are sprinkled with the good the bad and the ugly? I suppose the good was a combination of things, including the fact that I did lots of work towards my next essay - this time about self control in Jane Eyre. Probably the best though was my Jamie Oliver chicken pie which I cooked from my new cook book 'Jamie's 30 minute meals' - the man is a genius!!

It was so quick and easy to cook but absolutely delicious - made even more so by the fact that I had to go next door to bake it. Our oven is broken and my lovely neighbour let me borrow hers. This is one of the good things about living in close proximity to ones neighbours! If we lived in a huge house down a long drive my pie would have been cold by the time I got home. This way we practically live in the same house...

The bad part of the day was the fact that my son played football.... or should I say, was supposed to be playing football. My husband took him there and the coach made him sit on the bench for the whole game. My Man had to walk away without saying anything to the coach because he was so angry and didn't trust himself to be civil.

What is it with these people? He does not play for Arsenal youth or England schoolboys. He plays for a local team and we pay £150 per annum for the privilege. This entitles him to play in every match as far as I am concerned - maybe not the whole match, but at least some of it, hopefully a half.My son dealt with all this very well. I was proud of his composure and dignity. My husband plans to phone the coach and politely ask the reason for him being left out. I can see no reason as they were winning 2 -0 by half time and ended up winning 3-0.

The ugly part of the day was probably the general grumpiness of all of us this evening.It was a domino effect caused by lack of sleep, football ( Arsenal lost too, you know)and refusal to do trumpet practise.I tried to remain chirpy, but in the face of general sulkiness and misery I surrendered and joined the mass throngs of pouting lips and grouchiness.

I won't linger on the ugly side of matters. I prefer to think about Jamie's chicken pie really - the glorious puff pastry, the creamy, mustardy tender filling... I think I may be falling in love with him!! If only I can get my oven mended I will venture into the realms of pear drop tarts - now that's a scrumptious thought to go to bed on...

One day of illness and I have failed as a mother...

I have been ill today. I won't bore you with the gory details, but I did not make it into work and that was one of the best decisions of my life.As I lay in my pit of death I realised that I had nothing 'instant' for tea for the boys.I, personally, will probably never eat again, but they needed some form of nourishment.

This is one of the times when my ethos -  of only cooking from scratch, preferably from muddy, organic veg pulled, only minutes previously, from rural pastures - let me down. A hungry 10 and 12 year old are not interested in my ethics when they come home from school and want tea on the table, hot steaming and full of flavour.

I could hardly drag myself from my bed, but I did - staggering downstairs to stare vacantly at my freezer drawers.Mmmmmm.... a smoked Harrods chicken ( frozen, obviously ) one haddock fillet, several portions of cheese and a bag of peas.Hardly the inspiration for a quick and easy meal... And then I noticed the oven chips... nestling like a guilty pleasure at the back of the drawer, a reminder of a moment of weakness in Tesco's. I had usually scorned my husband's requests for oven chips.... if we were having chips I would make them, by hand, from potatoes grown in the garden fields of Devon... but this one time I had succumbed to their easy pleasure, and thank goodness I had.

So, chips. What else? What nourishing, nutritious delight could I find to go with them? I hesitate to type my answer... You will place me among the ranks of turkey twizzler scoffing chavs.... Tonight my children sat down to the sumptuous feast that is oven chips and instant noodles... together... as a meal....

I know. As I sit here feeling very much recovered from my earlier dreadfulness, I shudder at my failure as a mother.Will my children grow up to resent me? Will they be ... 'damaged'? Tomorrow its back on the straight and narrow ... free range meat and organic new potatoes with a drizzle of butter, served  with..... oh, hang on... England are playing tomorrow. Forget that... its burgers and chips all round.

Houston... the allotment has landed... HELP!!!!

Not long ago I put my name down on the council list for an allotment. When I say 'not long ago ' I mean... about three weeks ago. I settled down to wait, amidst advice from friends and family that the wait could be anything from 6 months to 11 years!! Lots of time to study gardening books and get my own little back garden ready for the summer.

However, yesterday I arrived home from work to find a letter waiting for me ... offering me an allotment only 4 minutes walk away from my house!! A plot of 50m square ( that's about 30 feet by 15 feet I think ) for the princely rental sum of .... wait for it..... £10 per year.

I couldn't wait to go and find it! I strolled up the road and, after a little hunting, could see the allotments behind a couple of houses.Eventually I even found the entrance! It is a well hidden little plot to say the least! I couldn't actually get in to see my plot, as the gate was locked, but I am going to arrange to go and see it.

The big question is... should I take it? Do I have the time to care for it properly? It is only a little plot, but it will still take some clearing. My sister-in-law appears to have got cold feet over it so it would be down to me... Although my neighbour has offered to help a bit if I install a beer fridge!!

What do you think? Do you have an allotment and can you advise me please??!! I will take photos when I go to see it and will post asap. You never know - I could end up having a veggie blog as well as all the others!!

Cooking, skiing and having fun...

To write down all the stuff that has been going on in my life over the last 3 weeks since I was on here last would take about 3 weeks more! We have been so busy.We had the Easter holidays which were great.The boys and I were on our own as my Man was fortunate enough to be able to fly out to Augusta, Georgia to watch the Masters. He has a very lovely friend who treated him to the week out there. They played golf, watched golf and generally had the best time ever.

We, on the other hand did not have too shabby a time of it ourselves! The boys were booked on a skiing course at an indoor snow centre, so each day we drove up there and they learned to ski while I watched them through a massive window. I sat and wrote my essay on Ibsen's A Doll's House whilst sipping lattes and was amazed to see their progress. By the end of the week they had both passed their course and are able now to ski recreationally with us.

photo of butterfly taken by #1 son

I have been really into baking during the holidays and have made a succession of delights such as cup cakes, chocolate raspberry fudge cake, Granny Boyd's biscuits and more. There is something oh so relaxing about shutting the door of my kitchen, turning on the radio and baking.I also had the girls over and made a yummy red thai curry with rice and a thai cucumber salad.

Yesterday we all went skiing as a family.It was such good fun. The boys skied beautifully.I thought that we would all start with gentle snow ploughs, curving our way down the slope, but no... my husband went first and just shot down the hill like Franz Klammer.The boys followed suit.I am pleased to say that after the initial enthusiasm they all tried hard to improve technique and were under control. I suppose boys will be boys.

So... now I am about to go and play football. I was up early to take son #1 to play his match and my Man is playing baseball as we  speak. We have been snuggled watching our old home videos of the boys when they were tiny.Wow... they were so adorable.I wish I had appreciated them fully when they were young. I spent so much of my time feeling miserable because of PND that I found motherhood very difficult.It makes me want to try even harder now to be a good mum and makes their lives lovely. I am so lucky to have them.

Master Chef - inspiring tv, but blimey it looks like hard work!!

I have been inspired lately to cook. The tv these days seems full of cookery programmes - Come Dine with me, Raymond Blanc, Gordon Ramsay... but my favourite by far is Master Chef.As soon as I see the previews for it my televisual juices start to flow in anticipation! Amateur cooks attempting to reach levels of culinary perfection that most of us can only dream of.

I love to see the contestants faced with ingredients on a table and then being told that they have an hour to cook something delicious.It reminds me of an average tea time round my house... open the fridge, look what's inside and hope you can muddle something edible together! I love seeing them wait with child like expectation as the two judges, Greg and John, give their verdict on dishes.

This year my favourite has been Alex - a 26 year old food blogger who immediately showed a flare and imagination that marked him above the pack.His ravioli filled with liquid pea was a revelation and a thing of beauty! I was rooting for him, willing him to win and feel deflated that he lost at the final test.But the winner, Dhruv, was magnificent.To see his final dessert of ice cream coated in gold was something special.And, not only did his food look good, it apparently tasted marvellous too.

I love cooking and have been inspired by these amateur chefs to try new recipes and be more adventurous with my attempts.I could never put myself through what they do though.I like cooking for friends and family, but the thought of working in a professional kitchen makes my blood run cold!! The pressure they have to work under, the long, long hours of exhausting and exacting work...

I am rather happier at the thought of eating in their restaurants when they eventually reach those dizzy heights.If you would like to try some of the recipes Alex cooked on Master Chef then do follow the link above to his blog Just cook it or indeed this one!! Ho hum. Can't believe I have to wait another whole year before the next series...

Pampered Chef, the Color Purple and nasty people...

I have had a little rest from my blogging, due to general business. I went through meltdown over my last essay on the Color Purple, worrying about whether I should even be on the course, only to get it back with one of my best marks.I have also had sleepless nights over... pathetically... my Pampered Chef party. And why? Goodness knows as it turned out to be a lovely relaxed night and I am soon to harvest the benefits of being the hostess.

I love The Color Purple and found myself enfolded by the characters from the novel as I answered my latest assignment.I was unsure as to whether I would get a reasonable mark as my confidence had dipped, but my tutor seemed to like it a lot.Speaking to one of the other students today I felt that I had been worried over nothing.I was beating myself up over only getting a low B and she was having real problems. I didn't mention my marks, but she told me that she had failed at least 2 of the assignments and only just scraped a pass in the others.I really felt for her, but inside I felt so relieved that I was on the right track after all.

I spent last week cleaning my house in preparation for my Pampered Chef party. I could not have a stranger coming to my house and opening my oven to find the wastelands of Chernobyl inside!! I don't think my kitchen, bathroom or, actually, my whole house have ever been as clean!! In the end I had ten friends who came.Five dropped out at the last minute, but the ten who came were lovely. I had stressed to them that I wanted them to relax and enjoy the evening and not feel pressured to buy anything and the Pampered Chef lady was brilliant.

In the end they did buy loads of stuff. I couldn't quite believe it when the P.C lady told me how much I was entitled to as hostess. I felt both deliciously greedy and shiver inducingly embarrassed!! All I can say is that if you get a chance to host a party... do.

On another note my son played football today in the second leg of a semi-final. We were already winning by quite a margin from the first leg and the opposition had been pretty obnoxious then. Today their tactics seemed to be those of intimidation. I just could not believe their behaviour.One father threatened the referee who sent him away from the match and one of the mothers called one of our players a 'dirty s###head'. Unbelievable! These boys are ten years old. As parents we stayed very low profile, trying to be good role models and not sink to their extremely low level.My boy's team, I can honestly say, are a nice, normal bunch of boys and girls.The opposition played aggressively, urged on by their coaches and parents, but our team did all they could to stay calm and play well and sportingly.Luckily our FA welfare officer was on hand and will be sending in a report. I have never witnessed anything like it though. My heart was beating out of my chest as I thought it would end in a fight. Dreadful.

So.Now I am going to go downstairs and relax. I might even treat myself to a glass of vino.And tomorrow I am starting my careful eating and drinking again. This week I had a relaxed week, but on Monday I plan to go running. Although I have been good and healthy with my eating and have hardly drunk any booze since Christmas I have been stuck on the same weight for a while, so I need to exercise more.Well... that's about it for now. Talk to you soon!

Not so much a diet as a way of life!!

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo happy to report that since I started my diet/new way of living.... I have lost 10 pounds!!!! I am so chuffed!!! And you know what ?? I don't feel hungry or that I am missing out. I feel healthy and happy.Its the first time in ages that I haven't lived my life around food.Right now food just doesn't feature that much in my life.I am still enjoying cooking and I still eat well, but I am eating far far less and far far more healthily.

I have 7 more pounds before I reach my target weight, but I think I might just keep on eating like this forever. It doesn't feel like I am " on a diet". I hope that when I reach a good weight for me it will just level off and I will stay healthy, but slim.

Yippeeee!!

A healthy week all round...

I can't believe it has been over a week since my last post! Time flies and all that... Still, it has been a good week. I have walked to work and back ( once only, but hey, once is better than nothing!) and I even went for a run. If I haven't lost weight when I weigh myself this Sunday I will scream!! My appetite seems to be shrinking too. I am actually enjoying what I am eating - lots of fruit and veg. My portions are soooooooo much smaller, but I don't feel hungry. I am trying to eat more slowly, to savour my food rather than gulping it down like a dog!!

It is incredible how I have let myself get into the habit of grazing constantly. I feel much healthier eating the way I have since I started my diet.I think I should just eat like this forever.Really.

I think that so many of us in the Western world have it so easy. We have no idea actually how much food our bodies need to live healthily. We no longer eat to live, we live to eat.The flavour and texture of foods become what we crave, rather than eating to give ourselves energy to live.

My veg box arrived this afternoon and I was excited to open it.It comes from a company in Devon called Riverford. I have had my veg from them for years now, but it still delights me to see how fresh and plump their veg are.If you get a veg you don't know what to do with you can just go to their website and click for a recipe. I recommend that even if you don't get your veg from them! This year, for Christmas, they sent me through a lovely folder to keep my recipes in. They send recipe cards each week. I love their whole ethos about organic and recycling.I now cook things that I never would have gone out to buy by myself - purple sprouting broccoli, beetroot, asparagus, different sorts of cabbages. And I like looking forward to the seasons when certain veg will reappear - wet garlic,hispi cabbage,new potatoes. Yum.

I plan to grow my own potatoes again this year. Last year they were very successful. My garden is only tiny so I grew some in containers on my patio and they were delicious - easy to grow too.There really is nothing quite like digging up some spuds just before you cook them.Ho hum... I am turning into quite the hippie!!

Happy New Year from Secret Housewife.

It is early on New Year's Eve and I am alone upstairs while the children play with the girls next door on the Wii. My eldest has just been showing them the bridge he built with his wooden train set - a proud 12 year old, bless him!!

I have been cleaning the house like mad and preparing food for tonight.We are having lamb shanks wrapped in foil and stuffed with a rosemary, sage and thyme butter,sitting on a bed of garlic, carrots and onion, with white wine poured into to the foil parcels.They cook until the meat just falls off the bone and I will serve them with creamy mash and probably cabbage.Tonight is the first New Year's Eve in ages that my man has been home. He is working until early evening, but will get home in time for dinner and the celebrations.Lovely.

I have been writing this blog now for three years. My first post was written on New Year's Eve 2006.It seems like longer ago for some reason. That night I was alone and miserable. Tonight I am a calmer woman.I will have my husband with me, and my two boys.Since that night I have done a lot with my life - run a marathon, re-started my Degree, run a household, and generally coped with life.I am pretty happy at the moment. I know that I come on here and moan... and thank you for putting up with all my moaning!! But this blog is a life saver - without it I wouldn't have a place to vent my steam sometimes!!

I hope, wherever you are, that you have a good New Year. Thank you for reading my blog and I wish you health, happiness and fulfilment in 2010.

Warning.... whingeing, fat Englishwoman on the loose.

Ok... just to give you fair warning.... this blog may contain elements of self pity, whinging and general pathetic shallowness.

I am prone, as those of you who have read my blog for a while will know, to moments of absolute shallowness.Its just as well I have a blog because if I allowed myself to whinge in real life on the scale that I whinge on here.... well, I would probably have been dragged away by someone in a white coat by now.


Today my theme is me.Now, that's a surprise...not.I am becoming more conscious with every day that passes, of my increasing gut and wobbly chins.Now, I know, I am not enormous... I do not as of this evening need a crane or the fire department to get me out of bed... but the way I'm going I could be on that road.


I have no excuse of overactive glands or heavy bones.I have no psychological condition that predisposes me to put on weight.The reason I am turning into a porker is the fact that I eat too much. There... I have admitted it.My name is Secret Housewife and I eat like a bloody pig.I like cooking. I like eating. And I especially like to eat the wrong things. By that I don't mean processed rubbish... believe me.... all the crap I eat is Free Range Organic, grown by hippies in kaftans chanting ommmmmmmmmm.


I just eat toooooooo much!! And at the moment I am not exercising enough. I have gone from running 4 times a week, building my miles up for the London Marathon..... to zilch, nada,niente.... nowt.One of the little girls at school today asked me if I had a baby in my tummy.... "No" I said.... "I am just fat"

I know what I have to do to stop this.Its easy. I have to eat less, get out and exercise and all will be well.But, for Goodness sake.... I can't be bothered. I want to be slim and fit and trim and gorgeous..... but I want to eat truckfuls of lasagne and sit watching Strictly Come Dancing on my ever increasing backside.I don't want to have to work at being slim and fit.I want to be healthy.... but not eat healthy.


So... what am I going to do about it? All around me people have hideous problems that make my fatness pale into insignificance... but it is beginning to bother me.It just seems such a long road to travel... to get to what I want to be.If only I could be happy being a blubber mountain...but that's where the shallowness really kicks in.I want to be gorgeous and a size 10. I want people to think I look lovely. And don't give me all that nonsense about how its the inside of a person that is beautiful... sod that.Let me be mean and ugly on the inside.... just let my outside bits be beautiful.


I suppose there is only one thing for it... this is where I start paying.... in sweat.... but maybe I'll wait until the morning.

Economy Gastronomy and the Secret Housewife...

I wonder if you have been watching the tv programme Economy Gastronomy? It is on BBC1 on Wednesdays and I absolutely love it!! I even went and bought the cook book and have been regaling my family with meals from it each day... whether they like them or not.

The idea behind the show is that you should plan your week's menus and start with one main meal, from which you cook " tumbledown meals". For example, this Sunday just gone I cooked a yummy roast chicken and then picked the carcass clean, using the leftover meat for pollo con arroz ( chicken and rice to those of you, like me, not fluent in Espagnol)for the next day. I also cooked up the remaining carcass to make chicken stock.

You end up knowing exactly what you are going to cook each day, removing the whole " standing in front of the fridge thinking oh God, what shall we have for tea tonight" thang.The food is easy to cook and absolutely, bloody delicious!!You also end up saving loads of money as you only buy what you need and avoid the whole impulse buy and chuck half of it away lottery. Yesterday I made Pasta Garganelli which consisted of pasta, broccoli, peas, olive oil and a dressing made from fresh herbs, mustard, garlic, lemon juice and zest.I now possess a window sill bursting with said fresh herbs.Being able to zing up a tasty dressing from my own freshly picked produce makes me feel like a proper chef!


Each Saturday I am making fresh bread, the excess of which I freeze for the rest of the week.I am feeling like an excellent mother and wife!! Although we did have both ends of the culinary scale tonight as son#1 took one look at my Pasta e Fagioli and declared he would make himself packet noodles.Husband and I sat eating fresh pasta with cannellini beans, tomatoes and parmesan, while the boy sat with a bowl full of chemicals...Still, you can't win them all and at least I am trying.Kids, eh.... they just don't appreciate how bloody marvelous I am...

Roasted vegetable pasta bake and neediness for tea...

I am sitting at my computer with a glass of chilled white wine. In the oven is a terracotta dish, in which I am roasting tomatoes, red peppers,garlic, onions and courgettes with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. When they are roasted I plan to mix them up with fusilli ( cooking at the moment too) creme fraiche and a sprinkling of cheese on top to make a pasta bake.


I don't often make this sort of thing so I am flying by the seat of my pants somewhat!! I'll let you know how it turned out!!


Now, I am going to ask a favour of you... I wonder, would you mind, when you have read this, rating it with the little star system underneath? You know that I am fishing for compliments don't you?? But I don't mind if you think I am boring.... well, actually I do, but hey, I shall pretend to be blasee. It would just be interesting to know what kind of posts you enjoyed, thought funny, interesting.... and so on... you get the idea?You can tell, can't you that I just want to be loved!! Aaahh , bless...