Graze

I had a lovely surprise this afternoon when a cardboard box full of wholesome yumminess arrived on my desk. Graze send boxes of fruit and nuts to you at work but as I usually don't know where I'll be working this is the first time I've ordered from them. I recommend them wholeheartedly, they're not cheap but I think they're good value when you consider the variety you get in your box. And it's like getting a present at work.

I had fresh pineapple, dried raspberries, and a mixture of pecans, cranberries and almonds. It was all delicious.

This isn't a picture of my box, I'm not called Stephen, but I couldn't take a picture of my box in the classroom (snigger).

If you want to try Graze go to their website at www.graze.com and see their offers. If you quote CL12ZZKL I get money off my nest order which would be most welcome. I don't know what's happened to the typeface, odd isn't it!

Warm Winter Salad

I'm not sure that this is a salad, but it's delicious whatever it is. Clearly my appetite is returning as I was tempted by the wood-pigeon breasts my local butcher was selling, you don't get much more free-range than wild game so I prefer buying them to buying farmed meat. It's also kind of appropriate as I know my Dad has trouble with pigeons eating his cabbages.

• Four pigeon breasts
• Half a savoy cabbage
• 1 small red onion
• 4 rashers of streaky bacon
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper
  

Fry some chopped streaky bacon until half-way to crispy and then add finely chopped red onion. Cook til the bacon is crispy and the onion soft and then put in the garlic- use a garlic press or chop and squish with your knife. Add the pigeon breast cut into strips and cook until brown. Add sliced and chopped Savoy cabbage and stir. If the mixture looks like sticking add a little water as this will also have the affect of steaming the cabbage. Add seasoning and eat with crusty bread or mash. If you want to make it a bit more luxurious you could stir a little cream through.

Chicken Livers and Spaghetti

I've finally started to feel better this weekend and have felt like cooking for the first time in more than five weeks. Last night Gary came round to help me with a hair emergency and I made a quick but hearty pasta dish. Even if you've never liked liver this is worth a try as this is nothing like the tough and bitter liver of your childhood, even my liver-phobic ex loved this. We had this on it's own but it would be lovely with a strong-tasting green salad like rocket or watercress. These quantities served two, but with enough pasta and a salad it could serve three or four.

1. I packet of chicken livers- my packet was 0.45 kilograms
2. 2 red onions
3. 4 rashers of streaky bacon
4. Cream-I used double because I wanted it for the pudding but you can do as you wish.
5. 2 tablespoons of brandy, vodka, dry sherry or some other alcohol.
6. Salt and pepper.

Cut the bacon into small pieces- it's easiest with kitchen scissors- and fry in butter or olive oil until they start to darken in colour but before they crisp up.

Add the chopped red onions and continue to cook on a low heat until the bacon is crisp and the onions soft.

Add the livers and turn the heat up to a moderate to high heat. I don't really like handling them so I bung them in and once they start cooking I cut them into smaller pieces with kitchen scissors. Keep the mixture moving so it doesn't burn and cook for the minimum amount of time to brown the livers and cook them to your taste. They don't need to be cooked right through and I often leave them pink, but if I have friends round I cook them til the pink is JUST gone. This only takes a few minutes and you need to be really careful as over-cooked liver is tough and only good for the bin.

Add the brandy- make sure the heat is high enough to burn off the alcohol and turn it into a sauce.

Add the cream. I used two tablespoons but if you are feeding more people than I was then upping the cream will make the sauce go further.

Season with a generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper and sea-salt. You can garnish with a chopped herb of your choice, I didn't but it was raining and I didn't want to go into the garden!

I served this sauce with wholewheat pasta because it was what I had and the robust flavours worked surprisingly well together but I must admit that I've eaten this- without the cream-on french bread.
Serve with a strong red wine

Love Local.

I've lived in the same part of Hull for more years than I care to remember. The failure or success of different places I've rented has been down to various factors but probably the most important has been how close I was to my beloved Newland Avenue. A friend once pointed out that I'd spent my teenage years trying to get away from a village only to turn my part of a city into one.

Love Local is a fantastic campaign designed to encourage people to shop on Newland and use all the small independent traders rather than give all their money to the big chains. I can't claim to be someone who never goes to supermarkets (their opening hours make them attractive when you work) but there are huge advantages to shoping locally. My local pet shop will drop off heavy bags of cat litter to save me carrying them home, my butcher knows I love chicken livers so got in some free-range ones on the off-chance and kept them in the freezer til I was next in, and my pharmacist will lend me an inhaler if I've c*cked-up my prescriptions (and has consequently probably saved my life more than once). I love being part of a community and shopping in places where people recognise you and tell you your cold sounds better or your new hairstyle suits you.

Seemingly one pound in every seven spent "on the high street" is spent in Tesco, if we want places like Newland to survive we need to spend our money there. I pledge to make an effort to shop on Newland on a Saturday morning each week even if I need to go to supermarkets during the week.

Bloody Mary Sausages

I've read a lot recently about how we're copying America in celebrating Hallowe'en and I couldn't understand what everyone was talking about as we always had parties as children. Of course I grew up with an Irish mammy and in Ireland Hallowe'en is the autumn festival for many reasons, not least that Guy Fawkes night isn't celebrated (funny that!). I was thinking about the foods that we ate at this time of year and remembering lots of sausages and lots of home-made tomato soup. I'm not a tomato soup fan at the best of times, and certainly not when I already have a sore throat so I've made up this recipe.

* 1 packet of good quality sausages (this would work with quorn or other veggie sausages too)
* 4 medium red onions
* 1 cup of puy lentils
* 2 tins of plum tomatoes
* 1 glass of vodka
* olive oil
* 2 teaspoons of brown sugar
* 2 cloves of garlic
* spices of your choice- I used two teaspoons of ground chilli flakes and a generous dash of tabasco.


Put the sausages in a heavy based pan or casserole and brown in the olive oil. Peel and quarter the onions, break them apart and throw them in too. Bash the garlic cloves and add- no need to peel, just look for them when you serve and remove. Cook until the sausages are a nice colour and the onions are translucent. Add the lentils and any spices and stir. Put in the tins of tomato, this will seem like a massive amount of liquid but you'll be cooking it down. Add the sugar and season.
I cooked this on a low heat on top of the cooker for 45 minutes until the tomatoes were reduced down to a sticky sauce, but you could cook in a moderate oven with the lid off.
About fifteen minutes before serving I added the vodka and turned the heat up enough to cook off the alcohol but leave a richness behind but you could easily leave this step out.

The lentils mean this doesn't need an extra carb serving but it would be lovely with mash and a favourite green veg for colour.

Chicken should not be spongy!

In my defence I have been ill and the idea of cooking has not appealed most days. But that really doesn't excuse buying a Sainsbury's Chicken in Mushroom and Wine Sauce and Mash ready meal from their Great British Dishes range. The sauce was nice enough, the mash was lovely but chicken SHOULD NOT HAVE A SPONGY TEXTURE. I bit in and it was immediately clear that either it was a reconstituted piece of meat or that it was a genuine breast but had been injected with water to reach a standard size. Either way, it was horrid and a complete waste of money so I'm back to only eating free-range chicken. Obviously free-range chicken is more expensive than the intensively reared stuff but, even putting aside any ethical considerations, I'd rather have a small amount of the better stuff anyday.

Back online!

I collected my laptop today! It cost me £80 to have it mended where "someone" decided the power inlet was faulty and needed adjusting with a pair of tweezers. I'm delighted to be back online and will be posting random musings and recipes.

Blogging

I haven't forgotten about this blog but it's difficult to post without a computer. I'll be back on with more recipes when I'm back online.

Beetroot and Goats' Cheese Muffins.

Disappointingly, though the mixture for these was wonderfully vivid, they did not bake pink. I'm going to try them again soon and try grating the beetroot. I'll let you know.

Carrot Soup

In my quest to find a carrot soup that doesn't contain coriander I invented this recipe on Sunday night. It's so simple I think I might be making it often.

2 large or 3 medium carrots
1 medium onion
Cooking oil
A generous knob of butter
1 pint milk (I use semi-skimmed)
Salt and pepper

• If the carrots are a bit old you can peel them, otherwise just cut them in to large chunks.
• Peel the onions and cut into large chunks.
• Put the carrots and onions into a food processor (I have a blender attachment for my stick processor thingy) and whizz until very, very finely chopped.
• Cook in the oil and butter on a low heat until soft, this could take up to fifteen minutes so be patient.
• Add the milk, salt and a generous serving of freshly ground black pepper and cook on a moderate heat for at least another 10 minutes.
• Check the consistency and add water if you like a lighter soup.
• Garnish with something green (chives, your leafy herb of choice), croutons, cream or a drizzle of flavoured oil.

Serves 2-3 as a lunch (with good bread) or 4 as a starter.

Cheddar and Rocket Muffins

Given the name of this blog it's surprising there haven't been any recipes for muffins before! I'm on a bit of a muffin madness spree at the moment though and have been experimenting with different flavours. Yesterday's were Cheddar and Rocket, very yummy they were too.

Preheat the oven to 375 F, 190 C

200g plain flour

1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

75 ml oil (I used olive oil because it was all I had but vegetable oil or melted butter work well and if you're likely to be cooking for my ex may I suggest groundnut oil...*)

1 small packet of Rocket

100g of Mature Cheddar Cheese

Sift the flour and bicarb and baking powder into a large bowl, add the oil and mix. I used my Kitchenaid which has decided to work again but you could use a handmixer or a strong forearm.

This is your basic batter and you can now have fun adding the flavours of your choice. Mine were a small bag of rocket which I snipped into the mixture with scissors and the cheese which I chopped into "chips" rather than grated. Mix these in by hand and then fill muffin cases or a silicon muffin tray 2/3 full. This will make about 9 generously sized muffins. Cook for 20-25 mins and eat whilst warm. They're also nice cool and I think they keep for a few days but I've never had reason to find out.

I'm thinking the addition of some dry mustard powder at the dry ingredients stage may make these even better but I'll leave it out of the recipe until I've had a chance to play with the quantities.

*Obviously you shouldn't use groundnut oil if there is any possibility of your muffins being eaten by someone with a nut allergy.

Flatbread

I cooked for my friend Scott on Wednesday night. We had Lentil Curry but I forgot to taste as we went along so it was a bit bland, an important lesson to learn. I read a cookery book by some top chef the other day and he said that a good chef can smell if a dish is properly seasoned. B*ll*cks! Taste, taste, taste!
Anyway, I didn't feel like eating rice with the curry so I made flatbread, it really is the simplest thing to make and people are enormously impressed...maybe I shouldn't tell you how to make it.

Put some plain flour in a bowl and add seasoning. I'd put in a good pinch of sea salt and twist of pepper for each cup of flour. Add some lukewarm water a little at a time until you have a nice firm dough. You want to be able to manipulate it without it crumbling, but it shouldn't be sticky. Knead a bit in the bowl, but there's no need to take too long. Shape into flat patties the size of your palm and then cook in a heavy-based frying-pan or grill pan with no fat until it has some brown patches(or ridges if you use a grill pan) on both sides.. Pile on a plate, garnish with fresh coriander and tell your friends how clever you are.

Store-Cupboard Tortillas

This is a brilliant recipe that can be made almost entirely with store cupboard ingredients. It's quick, easy and full of savoury yumminess.

• 2 tins of kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
• A squeeze of lime juice (lemon would work if you don't have lime, but I always have a bottle of lime juice in the fridge anyway)
• 5-6 teaspoons of chilli sauce
• 4 spring onions ( a small amount of ordinary onion would do at a pinch, but I usually have spring onions- or scallions as they're called in Ireland- in the fridge as I never know when the urge to make Champ will strike me)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Cheddar cheese to taste.
• Four large Tortilla wraps (I keep these in my store cupboard as they last and are useful when you're out of bread)
• 1 pot of guacamole or sour cream (optional, and the only thing you'd have to buy specially)

Pre-heat the oven to 200C, Gas Mark 6

1. Roughly mash the beans and add the lime juice and chili sauce.
2. Finely slice the spring onions and crush the garlic and stir into the beans.
3. Spread the mixture on to two of the tortillas and sprinkle grated cheese on top.
4. Top with the other tortillas to make a sandwich.
5. Place on a baking tray and cover with foil, bake for 10 mins. Remove the foil and bake for a further 10 mins.
6. Quarter and serve with the sour cream or guacamole. This is also good with a green salad.

Soup.

Gary came to dinner last night and for a starter I made pea soup. It's really easy, you fry a medium onion til it's translucent add a small bag of frozen peas and some water or stock and cook for about ten mins. Blend (preferably with a stick blender and without getting soup on the ceiling) and then add milk to taste and warm through. Season and serve with the garnish of your choice- I used cream, but creme fraiche, yoghurt, sour cream or flvoured oil would work just as well.
I served this in my Nigella Cappuccino Cups with a side of sourdough bread from Grain Wholefoods on Newland Avenue. I know I could have made my own but I like Grain's organic bread.

Blackberries

Hannah and I went brambling on Wednesday and I have the scars to prove it. We had a great time wandering through fields and looking for foraged food. We lay in a field and looked at the clouds (and sneezed, damn hay-fever).
Hannah made shortbread and served it with whipped cream and blackerries steeped in cherry brandy. It was fantastic. Here's a picture of Flapjack overseeing the cooking.










Shortbread

Ingredients

125g/4oz butter
55g/2oz caster sugar
180g/6oz plain flour

Method

1. Heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
2. Beat the butter and the sugar together until pale.
3. Stir in the flour to get a smooth paste. Turn on to a work surface and gently roll out until the paste is 1cm/½in thick.
4. Cut into rounds or fingers and sprinkle with a little extra caster sugar. Put on a baking sheet and chill for 20 minutes. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until pale golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Birthday Cake

I just thought I'd post a picture of my nephew's birthday cake. We went a bit over the top with the decoration, but it tasted wonderful. This is after the stripy candles and feather birds had been removed. There's also a picture of the wine we had that day as his dad was rather proud of the collection.

Marrows!

It's that time of year when the garden is full of marrows. My dad gave me one to bring back with me when I was there last week. I wish he'd grow courgettes but he and my mum like to eat marrow stuffed with a savoury mince similar to Bolognese.

I found this recipe in one of Hannah's books, I think it was Leith's Vegetable Bible.








Caramelized Marrow with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

• 3 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds
• 1 tablespoon of soft light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 thinly sliced onions
• 1 oz butter
• 1 oz caster sugar
• 1 marrow- cubed
• 3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of fresh sage
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C, 350F, Gas Mark 4.

1. Mix together the seeds and the brown sugar and spread on a non-stick baking tray.
2. bake for 7-10 mins and then allow to cool.
3. Heat the oil in a large pan and then cook the onions slowly until translucent.
4. Add the butter, caster sugar and marrow to the pan ad stir well.
5. Cook for 10-15 mins ntil the marrow is tender.
6. Increase the heat and add the vinegar.
7. Cook over a high heat until the moisture has evaporated and the marrow is slightly brown.
8. Add the sage, salt and pepper to taste and the seed mixture.
9. Eat and enjoy!
   

Gingernuts

My sister Carol used to make these for me when I was a child. I loved the raw mixture as much as the finished biscuit. I was at her house in Devon last week so I went through her recipe books til I found this.

All measurements are "level" unless otherwise mentioned.

Ginger Biscuits

Heat the oven to 200C, 400F, Gas Mark 6.

• 4oz plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 2oz butter
• 2 oz castor sugar
• 1 heaped tablespoon of golden syrup

1. Sift the dry ingredients together, add the butter and "rub-in"- this can easily be done in a food processor or mixer as you don't need the same light touch you would for pastry.
2. Add the sugar and mix in.
3. Warm the syrup in a small pan over a low heat until it is runny. Add to the mixture and stir in until you have a soft dough.
4. Shape in to a sausage and cut into 16 equal pieces (this is easy to do, halve the sausage, halve the two pieces etc. until you have 16 pieces).
   
5. Roll each piece into a ball, dip into a saucer of castor sugar ( golden sugar or flavoured sugar would be lovely at this point), and put on to a large greased baking tray (they spread so make it large).
6. Bake for 15 minutes.
   

I'm back!

Not just back to the blog, but back from the painful place my marriage and its end took me to.

A lot of time has passed and I have a whole notebook full of recipes.

Endings and Beginings.

So as you all know Adam left me in January but we carried on living together until late March when I discovered some things that made that situation untenable. Since then I've been desperately trying to save my marriage and to "save" Adam from himself as I saw it. I had plenty of advice from people telling me to move on and the majority was kindly meant but I wasn't able to move on until I was convinced I'd fought for the man I (still) love. However, yesterday we went for our last counselling session and things changed for me.

Adam was very reluctant but came because I asked him to do that for me. He knew it would be painful and he was right, it was one of the most difficult experiences of my life but it was hugely cathartic and extremely valuable. I was able to try one last time to make Adam see my point of view and what I thought should, or could happen and he was able to tell me why it just won't. I still think he's wrong and am very sad about it but I've done all I can and I have to let him live his own life and make his own mistakes. I just pray they won't be of the same scale as what he has done to me.

I feel ready to start moving on now. I've got plenty of hard work ahead of me and I need to grieve and rebuild my life but I can START that process now. I'm going to need lots of help. I want to meet new people and do new things. I'm not looking to find love, just peace.

Wish me luck.

Wireless!

Hurrah!
I'm delighted to say that we now have a wireless network here at no.69 which means I can write on here without depriving The Boy of his beloved internet. Expect more postings and musings in the weeks to come.

Spanish Potatoes

This isn't really a recipe but it's a dish my sister Elizabeth made for me when I was staying with her in Norfolk a few weeks ago. She made it in a lovely Spanish Terracotta dish, I had to use Pyrex!

Heat the oven to about 200 degrees.

Finely slice some floury potatoes, I use Desiree. I'm no longer afraid of my mandolin (despite slicing my thumb on New Year's Eve) so I use the widest setting on that. Layer them in a medium shallow dish with finely sliced onions and some cherry tomatoes cut length ways into quarters. Season with salt and pepper as you go. Put in a good glug of olive oil and a cup of water and cook in the oven til the potatoes are soft and there's a delicious gravy at the bottom.

You can serve these as a main dish with a green salad, something strong like rocket or watercress would be ideal or use it as a side with meat or fish. It's especially good with chops as the integral gravy stops the meal being too dry but Elizabeth popped some (ethical, line-caught) cod from The North Norfolk Fish Company (where she worked til last October) on the top ten minutes before it was ready.

Lily-Lo Cosmetics

I have trouble finding good foundations and concealers due to a variety of reasons.

1. I have very pale "cold-toned" skin and most cosmetics in this country are too peachy or creamy coloured.
2. I have incredibly sensitive skin that is allergic to a vast array of random things.
3. I have very dry skin that is prone to flaking, make-up makes it look worse.
4. I can't use Lancome, Maybelline or The Body Shop as they are all at least part-owned by Nestle.

So imagine my delight when Amy recommended Lily-Lo cosmetics. They're a small, independent company that does mineral cosmetics. They have the best colour matches I've ever seen, their concealer is miraculous, it lasts for ever and is easy to use. It doesn't irritate my skin as it's full of natural minerals and low on nasty stuff, in fact it qualifies for entry in the Green Beauty Bible. They sell samples on their website so you can get your match right. A little goes a long, long way. And their service is just amazing. I ordered some yesterday about lunchtime and it arrived this morning. I know they're in the same county as me, but even so...

I cannot recommend this highly enough, order a sample I promise you will be absolutely delighted.

Lily-Lo Cosmetics.

Spring

It really feels Spring-like today, it's cold but sunny but more to the point I feel happy. I'm still having a difficult time of it, sharing the house with my ex means it's impossible to move on properly and he's having trouble understanding what the boundaries are. He sailed into my room this morning looking for a shirt before I was even dressed. Actually sailed implies calm, stormed is probably more correct. (It wasn't in my room, of course, it was in the laundry pile downstairs where he'd left it). He rings me to tell me what he's doing socially and to ask if it's ok that he goes out. I guess it's good that he's attempting to be considerate but his social life is really none of my business- a fact made very clear by the majority of his friends who have ceased all communication with me.

I'm off into town later to get a wireless router as I'm fed-up with having to ask if he could possibly stop playing Magic On-line so that I can spend a few minutes on the computer.

What's in a name?

Ok, so I stumbled on this site that claims it can deduce your character from your name. How is that possible? Your name is given to you by your parents for all sorts of reasons, your character is unlikely to be one of them.
Anyway, mine is clearly nonsense. Prudent? Business acumen? Yeah, right...

NATASHA-You tend to be critical of yourself, not always expressing your true desires. You have an interest in health and health matters. You have much enthusiasm with a driving attitude toward achievement in life. Your privacy is important to you. You have a rich inner life. You have a need to be up front. You try to be prudent. You have good business acumen. You work hard to achieve material success through your own efforts.

What does your name mean?

New Year, New Life.

I haven't posted for ages as before Christmas I was working and commuting rather than cooking. Since Christmas I've been licking my wounds and contemplating my short, disastrous marriage. I'm going to start posting again now, recipes and musings on life, single or otherwise, but what I want to know is...is two and a half weeks after your husband leaves you too soon to be thinking about dating?