I can’t imagine that there’s even one person in the whole world who doesn’t love the smell of freshly baked bread. When I do my weekly grocery shop I have to stop myself scoffing all the bread on the way home. And, as with pretty much everything (except maybe things like cars), homemade is even better. (Perfume isn’t better homemade either. Remember when you were a kid and you made perfume with water and rose petals? At first it smelt really nice, but after a few days the water went really yellow and it smelt kind of sickly sweet verging on rotten. Homemade perfume definitely isn’t better than shop bought. Nuh uh). Click here if you love homemade bread (homemade perfume, not so much)
Archive for the ‘Leftover ingredients’ Category
Chorizo and thyme fougasse
Posted in Baking, Bread, Chorizo, Leftover ingredients, tagged baking, bread, chorizo, thyme on November 13, 2011| 4 Comments »
Happy birthday to Chris! Part two: Chocolate sticky toffee pudding
Posted in Baking, Chocolate, Dessert, Double cream, Pudding, Toffee/Caramel, tagged golden syrup, sticky toffee, sticky toffee pudding, toffee sauce on November 9, 2011| 10 Comments »
You didn’t think he only got a main course, did you? Every birthday meal needs a dessert! Chris is rather fond of this sticky toffee cake and that is what I was originally going to make for this birthday. But then I ordered a copy of Green and Black’s Ultimate Chocolate Recipes and came across this recipe. Sticky toffee pudding AND chocolate? Yes please. So I suggested it to Chris (because I was just thinking about what Chris would like for his birthday, obviously. Not because I really, really wanted chocolate sticky toffee pudding. No no no. Not at all.) and he agreed that it sounded like something he’d want to put in his face. So I made this and we put it in our faces and I was so happy I could have exploded. Get in my face, toffee!
Happy Birthday to Chris! Part one: Chicken, sausage, parma ham, mushroom and spinach calzone
Posted in Leftover ingredients, Main dish, Mozzarella, Pizza and calzone, Poultry, Sausages, tagged calzone, mushrooms, parma ham, pizza, spinach on November 8, 2011| 9 Comments »
Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Chri-iis, happy birthday to you! Come in for birthday calzones!
Halloween cupcakes
Posted in Baking, Cake, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Double cream, Toffee/Caramel, tagged caramel, chocolate, cupcakes, halloween, pumpkin on October 31, 2011| 11 Comments »
Happy Halloween! Did you go to a halloween party? Did you dress up? Did you make halloween-themed baked goods? Did you, did you, did you? Where was it? What did you wear? What did you make? Hmmmmm? I did not go to a party or dress up, but I did make these pretty orange and black cupcakes 🙂 Enter if you dare… it’s only cupcakes, silly
Tomato and chorizo soup with parmesan
Posted in Chorizo, Leftover ingredients, Main dish, Soup, tagged cooking, soup, tomato on October 24, 2011| 5 Comments »
Sometimes The Book People come to my office. When this happens, I accidentally part with money in return for more cookbooks and then I sneak them home and put them on the bookshelf so that I can claim I’ve had them for ages when Chris asks where they’ve come from. Shh. Don’t tell. What has this got to do with soup? Well, not loads. But I got this wonderful soup book last time The Book People came (don’t you think The Book People sounds kind of sinister? Like The Pod People. They’ve come to take over your… cookbooks! I guess it doesn’t sound that sinister. I do love my cookbooks though. What if they took over my Nigella books?! I am experiencing high levels of confusion right now). Come inside if you want (your cookbooks) to live!
Roasted vegetable and tomato tagliatelle with ricotta
Posted in Main dish, Pasta, Ricotta, Vegetarian, tagged aubergine, courgette, pasta, ricotta, vegetarian on October 17, 2011| 5 Comments »
Last week, my mum and I went out for tea to Strada. I was getting a little worried looking at the menu because I wasn’t in the mood for much of what was on offer (apart from the desserts, hehe). In the end, we both ended up choosing tomato and roasted vegetable rigatoni topped with ricotta and it turned out to be absolutely delicious. We agreed that it needed recreating at home and so I decided to have a go. It turned out ace. Eat your vegetables!
Baked sausage and mushroom stuffed pasta shells
Posted in Main dish, Mozzarella, Pasta, Sausages, tagged mozzarella, mushroom, pasta shells, sausage, stuffed pasta on October 3, 2011| 11 Comments »
I did not realise, when I decided to make this, how much of an arse-ache it would be to get pasta shells. I naively went to my usual supermarket and happily (that bit might be a lie, grocery shopping makes me angry) trotted (also a lie, I never trot) up and down the aisles picking up my shopping, when I got to the pasta aisle. I looked at the big pasta shapes they had. Not there. “Hmm,” I thought, “I must not be looking properly” (this happens a lot). I looked at the small pasta shells. Nope, not there either. In fact, after 10 minutes of searching (and panicking) it transpired that they did not stock large pasta shells. They had what can only be described as slightly-larger-than-small-but-not-even-medium-sized pasta shells. (more…)
Chicken and courgette carbonara
Posted in Bacon, Creme fraiche, Egg yolks, Main dish, Pasta, Poultry, tagged bacon, carbonara, chicken, pasta on September 4, 2011| 5 Comments »
As I love to add courgette to EVERYTHING, I was excited when I saw a recipe for Courgette carbonara a couple of years ago in Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver. I copied out the recipe and I’ve made it often ever since. Except that I haven’t, really. I’ve changed it every time until it’s morphed into something which doesn’t really resemble Jamie Oliver’s recipe at all, other than the fact that it has courgette in it. So I’m claiming it as my own. Is that too cheeky? (more…)
Dark chocolate and strawberry swiss roll with white chocolate custard
Posted in Baking, Chocolate, Double cream, Egg yolks, Strawberries, Swiss roll/roulades, tagged chocolate, custard, roulade, strawberries, swiss roll on August 30, 2011| 16 Comments »
This started life as a jam and white chocolate roly poly. My Good Food magazine came with a yummy looking dessert on the front and I took it round to Mum’s house to show her. “That looks nice”, she said, “what’s in it?”. “Well, it’s got suet in it…”. This was thoroughly rejected. So I decided to turn it into swiss roll instead. (more…)