After a bout of the sniffles I needed something sweet and gorgeous so I made a cherry pie.
A simple buttery and sweet shortcrust pastry is home to bottled cherries which have been added to a thickened sauce made with cherry juice cornflour, brown sugar and almond essence.
Baked and served cold with a little single cream.
I was particularly happy with the pastry. Almost cakey in texture but with a lightness.

I bought a cauliflower today and will make a caukiflower cheese, added bacon will orbit the everyday dish to a bigger level.

Love at first bite

Last night's hearts were so good I can hardly contain my excitement.
A rich sauce poured over tender meaty hearts and served on a bed o' mash.
Just perfect food for a chilly wet day.

Tonight's dish is the ever reliable Beef Cobbler. When I first started making this dish I used too much water and although it tasted fine it looked a bit insipid. Now I don't use water at all. Just a tin of chopped tomatoes. The result is a magnificent mix of lean minced beef, onion, carrot, tomatoes, herbs and stock cubes. Peppered liberally and on account of the stock cubes a miser with the salt. A nice cobbler topping is dropped on top and then baked to near perfection.
I'll be serving it on a steamed sweetheart cabbage leaf.

Lamb's Hearts

Two tonight. Stuffed and braised in a cider sauce.

After washing them and cutting out the tubes I trimmed off a little of the surrounding fat leaving a bit to enrich the sauce.
Roll the hearts around in some seasoned flour and rest them while you make the stuffing.

The stuffing is easy.
Fresh breadcrumbs mixed with lightly fried chopped onion, finely diced apple, marjoram, sage, thyme, parsley and pepper and salt.
Mix well then stuff the cavities by holding the heart in my left hand while poking in small amounts of stuffing using the thumb on my tight hand. Keep going till no stuffing remains. The ingredients for a stuffing are endless, I'll add some dried apricot next time or sultanas or even bacon and mushrooms. I'll use what comes to hand.
Whilst cooking some stuffing will probably escape but it will only serve to thicken the sauce. So happy days.
Heat some oil and fry the offal till well browned. Take time over this. Make sure the hearts have a crusty coat. Remove from pan and place in small casserole.

Now the sauce.
Fry a chopped onion in butter and oil till browned and soft then add a little flour stirring all the time. Stir in some hot lamb stock and cider and a dollop of redcurrant jelly. Season.
Pour over the hearts.
Pop a lid on and braise in the oven for 2 and a half hours. Longer cooking won't harm. Probably improve it.

I am serving the hearts sliced on top of a bed of Two Potato mash. White pots and sweet pots. Then pouring the sauce over the top so it colours the mash and makes the hearts glow.

Yesterday's Victoria sponge may not have looked pretty but it tasted divine.
I've made hundreds of cakes and this one has to be one of the lightest. It was like biting into a bubble.
Needless to say but I'll say it anyway, everyone loved it.
I am a very happy cookess.

My mate Ken enjoyed his sausage and onion sandwich and devoured the jam and cream sponge shortly after. Clean plates are good plates.

Haven't done much cooking today apart from the frying of the aforementioned sos and onions, but the weekend is coming....

My Victoria sponge has turned out well.
Very light, warmly golden and springs back when prodded.
All I need to do now is fill it with raspberry jam and cream.
And when that's done and the kitchen is tidy I'll see how other amateur bakers fare in The Great British Bake Off. BBC1 20:00hrs.

Cake with a waist

 My Many Seeded Loaf

Having a madcap morning.
Already made some sausagemeat bolognaise and a seeded cheese scone for today's munchies. And as I'm hoping for a visit from my mate Ken tomorrow I will make a raspberry jam and whipped cream Victoria Sponge.
It's all go in the bungalow.
Been looking through my cook books and have found a recipe for a cider cake.
I'm imagining a slice with a small wedge of Cheddar cheese. Oh yum. Oh yes.
I made a sausage in cider casserole yesterday and it went down quickly and well, heaped the Lincolnshire sausages, chestnut mushrooms and cider sauce onto mounds of buttery mash. Served with a spoonful of redcurrant jelly on the side. Too good...

Already thinking about foodie Christmas gifts. I was toying with the idea of creating something in the needlework area but I prefer getting creative in the kitchen. So food gifts it will be.
Probably chutneys.

When it's chilly...

Not much beats a steamed pudding.

4 oz self raising flour
2oz suet
water to bind

2 skinless boned chicken thighs, chopped
2 flat mushrooms, sliced
about four inches of sliced leek
a little thyme, fresh is best but dried will do
5fl oz dry cider
pepper and salt
flour for dusting the chicken

Make the pastry.
Line a 1pt greased pudding basin with three quarters of the pastry.

Toss chicken in flour.
Then place alternate layers of meat and veg in pastry lined basin.
Add thyme and seasoning.
Pour over cider.

Roll out remaining dough.
Wet the rim of the pudding then place pastry lid on top.
Cover very well with foil.

Place in large pan with enough boiling water to come three quarters of way up basin.
Cover.
Cook for a couple of hours or more. Wont harm if you leave it for a long time. But don't forget to top up with more boiling water.

Serve with plain boiled buttered potatoes and peas.

Honest simple heartwarming food.
I love it.

Tomorrow I will use the rest of the cider in a sausage casserole.

I'm hoping for a better day in the kitchen.
Yesterday was ok, but a collapsing cake was not on my to-do list. However after lifting my head from my sloping bosoms I sliced the disappointing bake and had it with a big jug of custard.

Rob and me are entertaining tonight.
Lovely Jeannie and er...lively Mark...
Jeannie has an average appetite, Mark though doesn't have a stomach, he just has a Mighty Cavity.
Apparently having a nice big appetite is common amongst boys and girls with Down's, and Mark certainly doesn't let the side down on that one.

I'm making a beef cobbler for tonight served with baked beans and potatoes. Dessert can sometimes be problematical, Mark has ideas of his own. He doesn't do jelly or anything else that looks weird, so to make sure he gets his sugar I usually make a crumble and custard or unwrap a choc ice. Tonight it's the latter for the young man, for the adults I've made Creme Caramel.

So all looking ok on the domestic front. Now I must get my apron on......

Updated. Again

Trying to be a bit more organized...so before whizzing out for an hour I've put a smashing paprikad pork and veggie casserole in the slow-cooker.

Two shoulder steaks, some frozen veggies (carrot, swede, turnip, leek) a tin of chopped tomatoes, a big sliced onion, some boiling stock, lots of black pepper, some salt, and a generous amount of smoked paprika. I also dropped in half a red pepper, chopped of course.


Recipe from Mary Berry's Book of Meat Cookery. I have though tweaked it.


............................Just taken four Creme Caramels out of the oven.And they smell goood. And as I write a Coffee and Vanilla ring cake is baking.
Later on I'll ice it with a coffee and white chocolate icing as I listen to the news at five.


I am human.
My cake collapsed a bit.
There is no way it will hold an icing so rather than waste it I'll serve it in odd shaped blobs alongside a few of yesterday's remaining prunes.

However, the creme caramels are perfect.

Fish (cod) Fingers, potato wedges, garden peas and baked tomatoes.

Prunes and custard.

I was going to make a Pork casserole but left it too late. I was going to make a jam pudding but all of a sudden, just after the news, I felt the urge for prunes.