Jam....... lovely

I made jam for the first time. Plum jam, we had a glut of them and it is sssssssoooooooooooooooo tasty. What a mess it makes though, I see the need now in having the right equipment for the job.

Plum pie, oh my word

I made a plum pie for the first time ever and with my own plums from the allotment. It was delicious but almost didn't happen. When I was making it I put my hand through the bottom of the lose bottomed pie tin and nearly had plum pie shoes. I made a vanilla custard to go with it and I have never tasted custard as lovely as that for a long time (bit of a cheat when I do custard normally and use the tinned stuff - but never again!).

Recipe available on request for both plum pie and vanilla custard.

Le French apple cake

A day in baking and I had to use the apples from the allotment to make this cake, it's gorgeous.

It's such a moist cake it barely needs anything with it, maybe a little homemade custard tomorrow after dinner with it could be good.

A friends birthday gave me another excuse for more baking and this time it's the best type of cakes according to my son - cakes with icing sugar and decorations!

Man City blue icing sugar for my friend's beloved footy team and loads of decorations for my sons sweet tooth.

A bit of salad just in case you were feeling a bit sickly.

Recipe available for apple cake, fairy cakes are pretty straight forward.

Allotment shocker

Went to the allotment today for the first time in 3 weeks and got a very pleasant shock when I saw the amount of fruit everywhere ripe and ready for picking. I called in reinforcements as there was just so much.

These plums are luscious, ate so many whilst trying to fill my bag.

Can just imagine French Apple Cake with ice cream made with this tasty lot.

I even got a massive hug from my elderly neighbour when I gave her 4 bags of fruit and veg from the allotment that she will be sharing with her friend from across the road.

What a lovely day.

Baking and photos to follow

Withdrawal symptoms

Been on my hols to Spain but the food was not up to very much as it was quite a touristy destination purposely taken for cheapness and laziness. Lay round the pool soaking up far too much sunshine. I wish, now I'm back on my blog, that I could write about tasty tapas, fresh seafood paella or even a huevos a la flamenca but sadly the food was aimed at Brits abroad and I resorted to cooking up meals in our apartment.  Got back this afternoon and needed to throw together a quick and easy meal so here it is, not Spanish at all but Chinese.

It's so quick to make and quicker to eat. My 7 yr old son made me play 'MasterChef' when eating it and he said it was a 'simple but excellent dish with tender meat and lovely sauce on the noodles'. His version was noodles with Soy sauce over the top with all the veg fresh on the side but with the meat cooked.

Veggie version for the hubby had meat replaced with Quorn chicken style pieces (they don't yet do a beef strips style).

Quick, tasty noodles.

For 2 people - 3 minutes to cook

2 portions of dried egg fried noodles - Sharwoods
5 tablespoons light Soy Sauce and 3 tablespoons of Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce mixed together
4 Spring Onions - chopped small
1/4 Red Pepper - roughly choppped
1/4 Yellow Pepper - roughly chopped
4 or 5 Mange tout or Sugar Snaps or anything green and edible really
Carrot - as much as you fancy and sliced thin
3 Mushrooms - whatever type and size you fancy
Beef, thin sliced - stripped and as much as you think the 2 or you can eat ( I used Sirloin today and left it to soak in soy sauce for the time it took me to prepare the veg).


Really, you can just chop the veg  how you fancy but remember thickly chopped is crunchier.
If doing veggie meal simply replace the meat with the quorn.

Ingredients ready to go

3 Minutes later scrummy meal

Strip the meat and throw it into a bowl with a dash of soy sauce to soak whilst you are chopping the veg. Chop the veg to desired shapes and thickness.

Heat the water for the noodles in a pan and heat up the oil in frying pan when water starts boiling. Throw noodles into boiling water and meat into frying pan (high heat).

Simmer noodles and after a minute of frying the meat throw in all the veg and fry for a further minute then throw in sauce. 

One more minute of frying and stirring and all done. Drain noodles, throw into the frying pan for a quick toss and serve.

Prawn crackers go well on the side and a cold drink.

Enjoy

Easy Casserole

I found this recipe some time ago and have messed about with it to get it just how I like it (which I suppose is what you should do with recipes). It's easy to convert to a veggie meal too and very, very tasty.

All ingredients thrown into frying pan

Sauce added and into casserole dish

Vegetarian version with sauce added

Served with boiled spuds and veg

Very easy dish to make

This meal is so tasty that I quite easily eat far more than I should.

Ingredients (serves 4 very good portions)

300g of beef cubed- I use whatever type of steak I can afford and it all tastes good

Good splash of olive oil for frying

1 large or 2 small garlic cloves

1 inch piece of fresh ginger grated finely (try different amounts)

1 onion

1 carrot

1 courgette

1 400g tin of toms (chopped is easiest but laziest)

1/2 red pepper

18cl of white wine (try different amounts)

300ml of vegetable stock

Sprinkle of black pepper

For the vegetarian version simply replace the beef with 2 quartered veggie burgers and add 4 large closed mushrooms.

As you get to know the recipe try varying the amounts of ginger and wine according to your own taste, I personally like a lot of ginger and quite often will leave out the red pepper.

Recipe

In a frying pan fry the beef until brown, throw in all the veg and garlic and fry for 2-3 mins. Carefully add the wine and stir the pan to get all the bits of the bottom (deglaze). Add stock, tin of toms and ginger with sprinkle of pepper.

Vegetarian version do the same using veggie burgers and add wine and stock together off the heat as the pan will hiss and steam. Mushrooms go in the same time as all the veg.

Bring all to boil, transfer to casserole dish and cook for an hour at 200 degrees centigrade (392 degree F).

If I'm busy and want to eat later I put it onto 160 degrees centigrade and cook for an hour and a half.

Pasta with Chicken and Hot Tomato Sauce

I was reminded today of the programme 'The Royle Family' and a particular line '- What y'avin for ya tea?'  Well here it is - Pasta with Chicken and hot tomato Sauce.

Really tasty, really easy to cook and ready to serve by the time the pasta is done.

I do a vegetarian version for my husband and a 'no chilli' version for my son.

All three versions are scrummy.

I plan this for a Monday and use up the roast chicken from Sunday.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

2 Chicken breasts or leftovers from Sunday roast chicken or Quorn chicken style pieces for veggie version

1 Tin chopped tomatoes

1/2 Lime

4 Mushrooms (3 quartered, 1 sliced)

Tablespoon squirt of tomato ketchup 

Large clove of garlic

Olive oil for cooking

Quarter of teaspoon of dried crushed chillis, fresh green chilli if you prefer

1/2 teaspoon each of basil and oregano

Season with small sprinkling of salt and black pepper

Sprinkle over whichever cheese you like when ready to serve (I like parmesan)

Recipe

Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and throw in chopped chicken pieces if using fresh, fry for 5 minutes and add the chilli now if using and the basil and oregano. Veggie version simply substitute the real chicken for the quorn pieces. (If using cooked Sunday roast chicken don't put in until sauce is made). Throw in mushrooms and garlic, squeeze in the lime and chuck in the chopped toms and squirt of tom ketchup. If using Sunday roast chicken add now. Stir well. Bring sauce to bubbling, season now, lid on, low heat, cook for 10 minutes.

Time to cook the pasta, usually 10 mins. If the sauce cooks for longer it's no problem but keep the heat low and the lid on. 

When all is cooked add the sauce to the pasta and sprinkle over with cheese of your choice. My husband like chedder grated over and grilled for 5 minutes and my son has his cheese grated on the side (do I spoil these two or what?)

Very nice served with fresh crusty bread and a tall glass of ice cold pear cider.  

Redcurrant pie - a German recipe

This is a slice of redcurrant pie, the very one from the header shot. I got the recipe online after gathering a crop of redcurrants from the allotment and needing desperately as many recipes as possible to get through our mega hoard.  It looks gorgeous, the meringue topping delicately cut with the currants, it was devine from adding the sugar in the bowl stage to the final stage of  production. But meringue and lemon flavoured dough do NOT make great pie mates. They are very much 2 separate puds needing 2 very much better other halves.

I have 2 trusted and willing tasters at home, my son and my husband. The three of us can devour a pudding within the hour of making and usually me eating the majority but this pie is still sat 5 hours later looking rather forlorn and only a quarter of it gone. I'll no doubt scrape the meringue off tomorrow and eat that with my son as a quick sugar fix after he has finished school. The dough base alas may get nibbled if all the snacks are gone.

Would I recommend the recipe to a friend - no chance. I wouldn't even make it for the PTA's cake sale.

And the allotment....

Well the allotment provides mucho fruit for my baking of course. Rhubarb (had so many puds and sauces with rhubarb wish I'd photographed them all for this blog), apples, plums, gooseberries (make me go oooo), redcurrents (the above photo is evidence), raspberries and strawberries.  The veg is all coming along slowly, trial and error as am very new to allomenteering.

What's it all about?

I have an allotment and ocassionally dabble in the art of baking. The baking all started with me wanting to be a Mum my child would have great memories of, just as I have great memories of my Mum and my Nan. For some reason baking in the kitchen is amongst the strongest and most fondest of my memories. I'm not that great cook I hoped to be, but by heck do I try hard. I found I really like the photos of food too so i'll be putting plenty of images of my attempts at baking for all to see (though I can imagine that'll be just me and maybe my Mum). Well if it is, hey Ma look at me, i'm on top of the world.