Chicken Salad with lemon hummus

Mmmmm.
Warm sliced roasted chicken.
Warm buttery potatoes mixed with chopped spring onion. Seasoned liberally.
Chunks of red and yellow peppers to dip into hummus.
Lettuce tomato cucumber and beetroot. For colour and supreme health.
Salad cream coated hard boiled eggs. A childhood favourite.

Tinned pineapple and mango and passion fruit yoghurt..... a refreshing pudding.

Another foodie memory is mum's rice pudding
So firm dad needed a knife to slice.

Cottage Pie

Makes me feel all cosy.

500g good minced beef
2 onions
can of chopped tomatoes
dash of Worcestershire sauce
squirt of HP sauce
3 cloves of garlic
a litle water
two beef oxo cubes
salt and pepper

Top the cooked and cooled meat mixture with lots of creamy cheesey mashed potatoes and bake till bubblingly brown.
Serve with some baked beans or tinned peas.


When I was a little girl we lived in a flat and one of our neighbours was an Irish woman who made the most gorgeous of pies.
To this day I don't know what was in it. But the taste has remained locked in my food memory all this time.
She kept tortoises.

Chilli with lots of beans and veg

I've jazzed up, played around with, dare I say...improved my regular chilli con carne.

Minced steak
Onion
Self crushed cumin seeds.  Used a new chopping knife.
Muscovado sugar
Chilli flakes
Garlic. Beyond belief.
Passata
Beef stock
Flagelot beans, black eye beans, kidney beans, green beans, sweetcorn, adukis, borlotti beans.
Chopped sweet potato
Salt and Pepper.

Left in oven for a couple of hours then served with jacket potatoes, guacamole and sour cream.
Fingers of garlic bread.
All very good but it's pudding I'm really doing somersaults over..
Tres Leche.
A milky cream cake from Mexico, the recipe a new found one from Jane Asher's cake book. I made it this afternoon with butter, flour, eggs, sugar.
Evaporated milk, condensed milk and double cream.
According to Ms Asher this is more of a pudding than a cake. But whichever way you look at it, it's marvelous.
Can't wait to serve it to Mr Horsehound and Hairy Suit.
Mum's having a fish pie.

Pork chop day.

Pork Escalopes dipped in flour, egg and sage and onion stuffing mix then pan-fried.
Served with jacket baked poatoes and steamed broccoli with lemon butter sauce.
For pudding. Chocolate sponge and custard.

Easter Sunday tea in the bungalow.

Up at 7:30 to start round two of the preparations for Easter Sunday tea.
As you will see and hopefully hear from my video on offer was a selection of fancy cakes and charming sandwiches.
Orange and Chocolate sponge cakes.
Fruit cake.
Jam and cream scones.
Ginger squares. Decorated in Jackson Pollock style by arty Mr Horsehound.
Beef and English mustard sandwiches
Ham and fruit chutney sandwiches.
Egg mayo sandwiches.
And.
Salmon Puffs. Which went very fast. Indeed.

Mr Horsehound and I put on a show for my very good friend Mr Hairy Suit and his ma and pa. Both quite able to move after  having their fill of the aforementioned grub.
There were plenty of ooohs and aaahs.

The spread

Plenty to choose from

My utterly moreish Salmon Puffs. (with little lady)

Homemade Hot Cross Buns with butter

Waiting for our guests...

My scales displaying Jackson Pollock chocolatey collateral damage

Franks and Hot Potato Salad. And cake.

For tonight's tea I poached some frankfurters and served them with a bowlful of hot potato salad.
I also made something sweet. A batch of Munchkin cakes. Rich orange fairy cakes topped with orange curd and dark chocolate. These were'nt touched however because they are one of the many delicacies I'm offering to Hairy Suit's mum and dad tomorrow tea time.

More on that tomorrow.

Recipe for Hot Potato Salad.

Boil chopped unpeeled potatoes till done.
Drain and put into bowl,
Heat some oil  ( 2 or 3 tbsp) in a small pan and add a finely chopped onion. Gently fry for five minutes.
Add some crushed garlic, 5 or 6 tablespoons of wine or cider vinegar, a little sugar, mustard of your choice, I used wholegrain mustard, some chopped parsley, a touch of salt and a good grinding of pepper and a pinch of chilli powder or drop of Tabasco.
Simmer for a couple of minutes then pour over warm potatoes.
This is gorgeous with sausages of any kind but especially yummy with Hot Dogs.

Yesterday I made a dozen Hot Cross Buns.
Rich with fruit and spices and lovely spread with butter.

Today along with the Munchkin cakes I baked a Fruit Cake, this too being for my terribly English Tea Time.
An ordinary little cake packed with the usual dried fruits but including exotic apricots and glace cherries . No spices only lemon rind to give it some zingzing.

Now I must go to bed to read about cakes a la Mrs Beeton....

Orange Cake with Apricots

This was lovely. I served it with cream. As the cake sunk a bit in the middle I improvised by opening a can of apricots...

A simple orange glace icing finished it off sweetly.

Tonight's extravaganza will be..Meatloaf. My own concoction. Simple and hopefully yummy. Minced beef, pork sausagemeat, onion, beef oxo, garlic, grated carrot and pepper.
Talking of which...As I opened a new pepper grinder the whole lot poured itself into the moist meat mix. Hmm. Ditch the whole lot? Not likely. Can't abide waste. So I patiently picked out every single peppercorn.
I THINK I salvaged all the peppercorns but we'll find out soon enough!
I'll serve mashed potatoes with the meatloaf and probably a green veg. I might make a spicy sauce too.

Ooops nearly forgot.
After laying half the meat in the loaf tin I scattered over a little grated cheddar then topped it with the remaining meat. To give a hint of sweetness I glazed the loaf with a mix of tomato puree and honey.

Moist and Sweet

I feel like something fruity so have made an Orange Sponge cake.
After it's cooled I'll ice it using the juice of half an orange and some icing sugar. I'll then decorate with slivers of finely shredded peel.
I considered splitting the cake and spreading with chocolate butter cream but soon dropped the idea. I don't want exotic I want a fresh zingy tingling cake which is as light as a butterfly and as beautiful.

The other day I made chocolate mousse and served it in small glasses. It was and will always be the most gorgeous dessert. It is so unbelievably simple.

Melt 100gms of plain chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
Then when completely melted stir in 12.5 g butter.
Remove from heat add 4 egg yolks and blend thoroughly.
Meanwhile whisk till stiff the four egg whites using an electric whisk. Fold into the chocolate mixture until evenly mixed using a metal spoon. Wood won't do.
Divide this heavenly concoction between four glasses or dishes and leave in the fridge until required.

When ready to serve you could drop on some whipped cream and nuts or serve au naturel.
Gorgeous.

Bramley Caramel Sponge

For pud tonight I'm serving a new recipe.
Bramley Caramel Sponge.
I've just takenit out of the oven and it looks good enough to eat!
A thick layer of caramel covers a layer of tart apples which cover a sweet light sponge. I'll have some pouring cream with it instead of the ubiquitous custard.
A change really is as good as a rest.
Before our sweet indulgence....fried pork steaks peppered with a sage and onion stuffing mix, a carrot and potato mash and garden peas. Gravy laced with redcurrant jelly.
I get through a jar of the stuff a week.

I made a Gingercake for Hairy's mum and she liked it a lot. There's nothing more rewarding than baking for other people.

GUILTY SECRET~

For the first time in my culinary life I bought a can of aerosole cream.
Because..... as I dawdled around Morrisons this morning I pictured a silly jelly with a squirt of the white stuff on it.
Being an avid listener to all things paranormal I took it as a message...So mum's diabetic jelly will look and hopefully taste nicer...

Simplicity

Marinated some braising steak in oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, thyme and onion. Then after several hours coated the beef in seasoned flour then browned it before adding beef stock, whole potatoes and the remainder of the marinade.
Brought to a boil, then transferred to pot to braise for a couple of hours.
After which I dropped in some dumplings. Cooked for twenty minutes then served up in soup bowls.
Simple and wonderful.

For pudding leftover squares of last night's ginger sponge cake.
Which, by the way, was gorgeous. Rich, light and spicy served with a lemon custard.
Last night's dinner was one of the best.
Marjoram chops.
Pork chops, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, marjoram, tinned tomatoes, seasoning. Cooked slowly for 90 minutes then served with a Sweet Potato and White Potato mash.

With a Margueritte Patten recipe to hand I thought I'd make her version of a sticky Gingercake.
Disaster.
As damp as a thousand wet socks and as flat as a piece of paper.
What on earth went awry.
Was it my scales? Could they be out of kilter? I had Mr Horsehound investigate. "No, they are sound" he said.
Hmmm.
Was I too heavy-handed with the treacle? Ummm no. I used exactly the amount stated in the recipe.
After many head scratchings I gave up. Can't win 'em all I said. And went onto make a Hairy Biker recipe.
A much simple lighter Ginger Sponge Cake.
I don't usually entertain BBC 2's strange couple, they grate on me. A bit too cheery. But this recipe was from one of their mums so I gave it a go.
Very Good.

A pair of Hairy Bikers and a Mum

Whenever I make Ginger Cake or Gingerbread it's always from a Mary Berry book. This time however Ms Patten seduced me from within the garishly coloured pages of her 1975 Hamlyn Cook Book.
Oh Mags, what were you thinking. The 6oz of black treacle HAD to be a typo. But I'll be magnanimous and let it go.

The Ginger Sponge Cake will be served warm tonight with a Lemon Custard.  But before that we'll be eating Marjoram Pork Chops with a Sweet Potato Mash, green beans and peas. Redcurrant jelly will be available.

Tonight I'm marinating some braising steak in oil, wine vinegar, parsley garlic( and other things which I've forgotten) for tomorrow's dinner....
No ginger I hope!

An old book

Pork chops encrusted in sage and black pepper.
Mashed potatoes.
Honeyed lemon carrots
Peas

No pud today as I'm not feeling very sweet.

I am though looking forward to making a special cake for Hairy Suit's mum. I've narrowed it down to three stunners.
I adore baking for other people. 'Tis only time I really pay attention...

I will be hunting for hearts tomorrow.