Herman (or The Blessing of Cake)

I received this from my friend Debbie...

For ten days, Herman 1 lived on our kitchen work-top, covered by a tea-towel. 

He received daily attention, as in the instructions.  On Day 4, I fed him, on flour, sugar and milk.  The rest of the days, I stirred him, so he continued to bubble and grow.

On Day 9, as per instructions, I fed Herman again, then divided him into four Hermans. 

However, I didn't give away 3, like the instructions say.  I gave away two and kept two.

On Day 10, I baked one of the remaining Hermans.  But I still had one left. 

I took care of the New Herman for 9 more days, before separating him into four once again, giving a double portion to my niece (so she can bake one straight away and keep one for next week).

Today was Day 10 again...

I added sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, cooking oil, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon...

and fruit - this is a mix of apple, pears and banana (we fancied a bit of variety).

Herman was put in a large baking tin and sprinkled with brown sugar. 

He remained in the oven for 40 minutes...

until he became the Miracle called Cake!

DS ate Herman-Cake with custard, for dessert.  I ate a slice plain, with a fresh cup of coffee.  

Friendship Cake is a wonderful thing and we now have a home filled with the scents of baking, cinnamon and brown sugar!

* * *

Erm, forgot to say that this is a late entry for Sian's Storytelling Sunday this month!

Pat A Cake, Pat A Cake, Baker Girl!

I made a nice page on Sunday.  I was so pleased with the "photo strip" effect on the page in this post, that I used it again. Almost the same template for the layout too - just an extra big photo, rather than the vertical photo-strip.

Pat A Cake - My little great niece's first attempt at making scones. 

Apart from weighing the ingredients and being shown the "rubbing in the butter" part, she did these all by herself.

They tasted great - I know because she saved one specially for "Auntie"! I ate it with some of the jam that me & Keri-Anne made together.

I used a little bunting stamp, and a plate of buns stamp, which I coloured with pastel marker pens.

I raised the stamped images (and the photo of the plate of scones) on foam pads, to give a bit of dimension and interest.

Quite pleased with this page. And it shows you can do a "girly page" without using pink paper!

Master Chef?

Yesterday evening, I helped DS do a "dry run" of his Cookery Assessment for today.  He was given two sheets of paper, set out with spaces for his ingredients, utensils, safety considerations and method; he had to make an item of food in class today and present it to the teacher.

J. decided to make Salmon Fishcakes and to accompany these with mashed potatoes and carrots.  Sounds straightforward, but he is still only 13, doesn't really like to cook and hadn't made these before.  The only "plus" that I could think of, was that he likes salmon fishcakes! 

I said he could make these, but only if he made them at home first.  I didn't want to just give him a recipe and leave him to sink or swim! 

So we spent two hours in the kitchen, getting out ingredients - writing it down as we went, peeling potatoes and carrot - writing it down, cooking the potatoes, salmon and carrots - writing it all down...

It was very hard work.  DS got super-stressed (as he tends to do).  I did my best not to get cross (because I hate to see him upset and it makes me grumpy!).   I managed to be patient, not too bossy (!), help him to understand what he needed to do and why (like why we put a little egg in with the salmon and mashed-up potatoes). 

He learned a lot - how to prepare boiled potatoes and carrots, how to make fresh breadcrumbs in the blender (how to operate the blender in fact!), how to make fresh mashed potato properly, how to make the fishcakes so that they didn't fall apart when being cooked.... lots of stuff. 

This was the result:

Didn't he present it nicely?  And it tasted great - really very nice indeed! 

This morning we were in the kitchen early, getting the ingredients together for today's Assessment.  J. was calm, relaxed and really quite confident.  It really was worth doing it all at home first, to make sure he understood the process.

The "Dry Run" and J's hard work all paid off.  The Cookery teacher had asked three other teachers to come in and assess/judge the children's food. 

J's Salmon Fishcakes, with Mashed Potato and Carrots came FIRST!  He was congratulated and given a round of applause.  A girl in his group made Raspberry and Chocolate Tart, which was judged the best dessert. 

I am really proud of my son today! He doesn't like to cook, but he came up with this idea himself, he cooked it and presented it so beautifully and his efforts were given their just reward.  He's a little star!

* * *

Just in case you fancy having a go yourself, here is our recipe:

Lizzie and J's Salmon Fishcakes, with Mashed Potato and Carrot.

For each fishcake with mash you need:

1 Large potato (think medium-sized baking potato)
1 small Salmon Fillet
1 Carrot

You also need :

Cooking oil (we used sunflower oil)
1 Slice Bread for breadcrumbs (will make enough for about 4 fishcakes)
Herbs (we used dried mixed herbs, plus dried basil)
Salt & pepper, plus any other seasoning you fancy (spice?)
1 beaten egg (or two if making 4 or more fishcakes)
Butter
A little milk

Peel the potato and scrape/peel the carrots.  Cut the potato up into small pieces and boil until soft.  Slice the carrots (J. likes long slices, as you can see!), then steam over the potato pan (or place in the pan to boil for about 5-8 minutes).  Drain the vegetables and set aside to keep warm.

Meanwhile,  fry the salmon fillets in a little oil, until just cooked (they will be cooked a little more once they are in the fishcakes).  Place on a plate and remove any skin.  Break the salmon into flakes or smallish pieces.

Take around half the potato and put into a bowl, mash (but not too mashed - a few small lumps are fine), then add the flaked salmon, herbs and seasoning, plus a little beaten egg to bind it, then mash together gently.  If you prefer a smooth filling for your fishcakes, pop it all in the blender and blend it on "pulse" a few times, until you are happy with the texture (remember that over-blending cooked potato results in a sort-of gluey-stuff which is not very nice and doesn't hold its shape well either!).

To make the fishcakes, take a portion of the mixture, using two dessert spoons or floured hands and shape it into a patty.  Place it on the plate and dab beaten egg on the top (you won't be able to paint it on, as the mashed potato will stick to the brush, so just dab it over).

Season the breadcrumbs with herbs then sprinkle a layer of breadcrumbs over the fishcake, gently pushing it with a fork, to make sure it all sticks. 

Use the fork to help you scoop up the patty in a curved hand, then turn it over.  Apply egg and breadcrumbs to the other side.

Repeat until you have all your patties ready  (we made one large fishcake each, but you can make them more dainty if you prefer - however they stay together better if they are not too thin).

Fry the fishcakes gently, turning carefully with a fish-slice or spatula, once they are brown on the base. 

Mash the remaining potato, adding a blob of butter and dash of milk, plus any seasoning you like.
Make a layer of potato on the plate, then place the sliced carrot around this, or next to it, as you fancy.

Place your fishcake carefully on top, then garnish with salad (or serve with a side-salad). 

Serve with mayonnaise (J. added a little basil pesto sauce to his mayonnaise, which tasted really good).

Enjoy! 

*  *  *

Saturday Guests

We have had a busy, but lovely day today.   Some friends came to visit, from London.  The morning was busy, busy, tidying up, cooking a nice lunch etc.  They were late because the M1 has been closed for two days, following a big fire early on Friday morning; they had to come by a slightly different route, but were here in time for a late lunch. 

We had a Mediterranean style of lunch today - pasta ribbons, lamb stew with tomatoes, red wine, peppers, olives and herbs, bread, olives, breadsticks, parmesan...

Then we sat in the garden, chatting, playing the guitar (well J. and our friend G. did that), drinking our coffee, jumping on the trampoline (a certain small girl was doing this!).

Lunch was yummy, but we needed a walk afterwards - to make room for pudding!

We went down to the riverside, for a little while.

It was a warm and sunny day today, so we had a lovely walk, across the field from the village, then along the riverside, to the weir.

J. talking about the bridge!

Our Little Friend

The whole family together.

Of course, once we got back we felt hungry again - lemon torte and chocolate fudge cake were very welcome, along with nice coffee. 

It was a really nice afternoon.  I hope we can do it again soon!

Corn Bread Turtle-style!

D'you remember the wonderful parcel I received recently, from a certain DebTurtle? 

It had Sweeties!!

And some Cornmeal, with a recipe to try out my very own American-style Cornbread!

So, today I did just that. 

I found the recipe and cornmeal,

 got my ingredients together,

and also my equipment - don't you love my Cup Measures? So cute! 

I measured out my 1 Cup of Cornmeal

This part is strange for me - here in U.K. we generally write / measure recipes by weight or liquid measures, rather than cups-full (or part-cups).  It seemed strange to put my cornmeal, flour etc into those little cup things. 

All the dry ingredients in the bowl.

I then mixed up the "wet" ingredients in a jug; again it seemed strange to measure the liquids in cups (except the egg, which is 1 Egg in any "language"!).

The other odd thing was using vegetable oil, instead of margarine or butter.  In U.K. we generally use a solid fat in our baking recipes, or sometimes a softer "tub margarine", which is still solid, but has been softened already.  Margarine is a mixture of vegetable fats (sometimes with animal fats too), which stays fairly hard at fridge temperature and needs to be beaten quite hard to soften it (or put in the microwave for a short while - but don't tell Delia!). So I have very few recipes that use liquid fats, so this was an interesting experiment for me!

Once it was all mixed together, the batter/mixture went into the tin,

then into the oven at 200 degrees Celsius (same as Deb's 400F!). 

It came out looking a bit brownish on top, with a slightly crusty surface - like bread or scones. I let it cool for a while,

then I cut it into pieces.

We had Hungarian Goulash (sort-of!) for dinner tonight, with rice and a nice sun-dried tomato bread, from the Italian deli. stall at the Farmers'/Local Produce Market that is held at the local garden centre once a month.  It seemed a good chance to try out our interesting new food, so I put pieces of Corn Bread in the dish, along with the warm bread slices. 

We put butter on some of it and dunked it in the paprika & tomato sauce with our stew. 

It was yummy!

This one's definitely a "keeper"! 

I made this batch without sugar, as I wanted a plain, savoury bread.  Next time I will use a little sugar.  I think I'll also use my slightly smaller square pan, as the bread was a bit thin and dry - I think it will be moister and nicer if it's in a smaller pan and can be in deeper chunks!

So, thanks Deb - it was fun. X

What We Had for Dinner (a quick little recipe)

I haven’t been blogging much recently… about once a week really.  I haven’t been short of ideas, or even photos – just time!  I have had a lot of work to get on with and various members of the family have been unwell (including me but I’m fine now!). 

Anyway, I managed my product review post for Dobbies, but that was last Thursday.  There’s another post coming up, linked to the Dobbies thing, but not sure when that will be (soon, but don’t know the day yet). 

So. I thought I would make a quick little recipe post, about what we had for dinner last night – and also one evening last week.  I think it’s one of our current favourites and I hope some of you will like it too.

* * *

Swiss-style “Butter Noodles”

This is a recipe that I got from my BF, Su.  She was lucky enough to visit Switzerland recently and ate something like this at her hotel.  After a bit of experimenting at home, she came up with this recipe, to reproduce what she had eaten.  Sometimes she adds a dash of white wine as well – just for those who like to add a bit of extra zing! 

This is my own adaptation of her recipe, so, 2 stages removed from “real Swiss”, I’m afraid, but it still tastes great!  It also has an adaptation for a non-dairy eater, since I can’t have cheese, butter etc…

You need pasta noodles – the type called “Linguine” or “Tagliatini”, like flattened spaghetti.  If you can’t find these, spaghetti will do fine!

Allow about 60-80g / 2.5-3.5oz dry pasta per portion (depending on how hungry you are!).   Put it in a large pan of boiling water and set to simmer on the stove.

Now here’s the Magic Bit!

To your pan of pasta, add some Vegetable Stock powder/ cube/ liquid.  Try to use a low-salt version, as it condenses during cooking and can taste very salty otherwise. I use some called “Swiss Bouillon Powder”, which is lovely – about 4 – 6 tsp, depending on how much water I have.  If you don’t have veg. stock, chicken will do nicely.  Let the pasta cook in this “broth”.

Put some fresh spinach leaves into a steamer.  Allow a good large handful or two per person, as it steams down to a much smaller volume. 

Don’t steam this yet – it only needs a minute or two, or it turns to mush!

Alternatively, you can use broccoli florets/ spears, or serve with fresh salad leaves.

Grate some good cheese – Gruyere or similar, if you have it, else a well-flavoured Cheddar-style cheese is nice.  Also, some hard cheese, such as Parmesan or Gran Padano is lovely – that’s what is in my smaller bowl there. 

Cook some chicken breast portions (or use other ready-cooked chicken pieces).  For recipes like this, I put the frozen chicken breast fillets in the microwave and cook for 4 minutes, then cut them into nice pieces and give them another couple of minutes to finish cooking. 

You don’t need them all brown and roasted etc, although cooking them in a pan will give a nicer flavour.  This is one of my quick suppers though, so I go for the quick and easy option every time!

Put the steamer over the pan of pasta for one or two minutes, to blanch the spinach. If you cook it too long, it just goes mushy and is a bit sad and limp… not so nice to eat.

Remove the steamer again and let it drain.

Don’t Drain the Pasta Yet!

This is my Non-Dairy adaptation.  If you don't want any butter or cheese in your meal, remove a portion of the pasta, together with a few good spoonfuls of the cooking broth.  It will be like a nice pasta soup! 

Now you can strain the rest of the pasta, but keep a little of the cooking liquid in the pan, as it makes the butter sauce nicer.  Put the pasta back into the pan.

Add a generous portion of butter to the pasta and broth in the cooking pan and stir it in.  If you want to use wine, now is a good time to add it, as the butter and wine will make a nice sauce.

Stir in the cheese and heat through, so the cheese and butter form a coating over the pasta.  Add the cooking liquid from your chicken pieces.

Put your pasta portions into serving plates, then add pieces of chicken and a portion of spinach / salad.
Sprinkle with some grated parmesan. 

This is my non-dairy version.  It still tastes good, even without cheese (oooh, cheeeeese… I looove cheese… but it doesn’t love me, so I will do without – most of the time!).  It can be made more special with a little white wine.

Hope you feel inspired to have a go.  It’s a nice, quick supper recipe, which tastes lovely and can be made impressive enough for guests.

Use Gruyere, or other Swiss cheese, pan-cooked chicken – so it’s a bit browned - and add a glug of good, dry white wine during the sauce-making process – the wine and butter make a lovely glaze.
  
Slice the chicken breast diagonally and arrange it on the pasta, to one side, so it looks tidy – or serve on a flat plate and lay the chicken beside the pasta, with sauce spooned on top.
 
Use lovely fresh mixed salad leaves,  or nicely cooked dark green veg.  Most guests will love it!  But of course, you will need to have a practise-run first… yummm…

That Yummy Chocolate Flan Thing...

Well, I got told off for not providing the recipe to last weekend's yummy chocolate flan... So I asked Su and she told me how it was made. It wasn't a scientific recipe, but I'll try to work out quantities for you - however it'll be "intelligent guessing", so it may not work out exactly right. Be prepared to do a "dry run" before making it for any special occasion, just in case you need to adjust the amount of something.  The texture should be nicely set, like a cheesecake (non-baked).

So, Su said "Whipping cream, a carton of Mascarpone and two bars of Dark Chocolate".  I think the quantities should probably be like this:

* * *

Pastry Case, "baked blind" and ready to use
250-300ml Whipping Cream, whipped to soft peaks
250g tub Mascarpone
2 x 100g bars (or 1x 200g) Dark Chocolate ( 70%+ cocoa!)
12 Large (halved) or 24 Small (whole) Strawberries
Garnish (Mint or Lemon Balm leaves, baked mini-balls of pastry, biscuit crumbs, chocolate to drizzle, icing sugar etc)

* * *

I'm not too sure about quantities for US-style cooking. This Recipe Converter may help.
It suggests that 250ml of liquid or 250g dry weight is equivalent to approx 1 Cup, 200g (chocolate) is approx 7-8 oz weight.
Hopefully this would help you work out the recipe okay.

* * *

1) Whip the cream to soft peaks. 
2) Melt the chocolate in a bowl, over hot water (or in a microwave).
3) Fold the melted chocolate into the whipped cream.
4) Fold in the mascarpone.  The mixture will begin to thicken.
5) Pour into pastry case.
6) Garnish with strawberries or other fruit, drizzled melted chocolate etc
7) Chill for an hour or more, until cold and set.
8) Add more garnish if wanted - biscuit crumbs, pastry balls, icing sugar etc
9) Serve with more cream if wanted, or ice cream, more fruit etc.

* * *

This dessert is really quite rich and filling, so you'll probably only want a smallish slice. The one Su made served 6 hungry people at two meals!

I hope this works out for you. Please let me know if you decide to try it and whether you enjoy the results!

A Bit of Fun... a bit of News

CSI Cat, or Who Shot Sherlock?

Dear old Sherlock has been enjoying this warm weather. My DH took this photo and messed about with Photoshop to make it look like this!

We had a good weekend, with my Best Friend, Su and her 3 children here to stay. We ate our meals in the garden - including this wonderful dessert, made with chocolate, cream and mascarpone, in a home-baked pastry case.  My friend and her daughter brought it and assembled it here.  It was lush!

Choccy and Cream pie/flan... yummy!

It's been a busy week or so.  Lots going on here and I haven't had the energy for blogging. We're all well though - although we made an unscheduled stop at the Dr. on Thursday, as Mum's asthma was bad.  The practice nurse sent her to A&E in an ambulance. They gave her oxygen, checked her chest, blood etc, then sent her home once she was over the attack, with some steroids and antibiotics, to treat what was (luckily) the early signs of a chest infection. She's okay now, but a bit zombified from the tablets. 

Our friends stayed just Saturday night.  The kids camped in a tent, in our back garden - they had a great time - and we had bbq for tea on Saturday. It's been a good weekend, though hard work.  The two eldest children are nearing 6ft (at 15 and 13 years old!) and eat quite a healthy amount - enough for about 4 of my J. who isn't tall yet!  We had an extra shopping delivery on Saturday morning, to make sure the larder could cope with the onslaught.  We all did fine - in fact we had left-over bbq sausages and jacket potatoes for tea last night - great as we were all tired.  The fridge is currently recovering from the extra work! (as am I).

Off to return the visit tomorrow. Su lives in Cheltenham (I posted about a visit there a couple of months back).  She's offered me & J. a billet, so we can go and see my Aunt Kate, who is very poorly just now. She has leukemia, but her system will no longer tolerate the chemo treatment.  She can have blood transfusions, to help with the high white cell count, but otherwise there is little that can be done.  Consequently, she's very tired and unwell now, and the prognosis is not good.  My cousin says she has "months, not years" now.  Had the chemo continued to work, she'd have been around for years... It is sad - I'm very fond of Aunty - but I think she's accepting it and getting on with enjoying whatever life God gives her now.  Anyway, we're paying her some short visits tomorrow and Wednesday, then coming home on Thursday. Staying with Su means we can visit for short spells and not tire her out with guests in the house.  Even if visitors look after themselves, there is something a bit wearing about having people there all the time (even if it is your niece and her well-behaved son!).  D. can't come as he's working, so it's just me and J. tomorrow, for our journey West.

So, this was a shortish post, without many pics. D. took several good photos of our friends this weekend. Mine were a bit rubbish - to be honest I was too tired to bother, so I let him do it! Maybe I'll post a couple of the best pics later in the week. 

Have a good week, all Blog Friends! I'll be back to "normal" soon! 

A Grand Day Out!

Yesterday we went up to London by train, to meet some of D's work friends for a picnic. They had decided to meet up in Hyde Park, at the Princess of Wales Memorial garden. The weather forecast was sunshine at first, but when we checked it later, they said it would rain!! In the end, we were very lucky with the weather and only had cloud, then sunshine. It was a lovely day.
The people we met are lovely. A chap called Gurav and his wife, Anshu, with their 20-month-old baby daughter and a lady called Asia (pronounced As-y-a).  A couple of others were expected, but Toby was training for a go-karting competition (!) and Ann's baby was not very well, so there were just the seven of us.  We had a lot of stuff to eat and a few things to play with - including the baby's stacking cup set and J's guitar.
All in all, we had a lovely afternoon and it was worth the 3-hours by bus and train (and foot!) to get there.

A lovely day for a picnic!

View across Hyde Park - the Serpentine, trees, buildings - spot the London Eye!

 

Anshu, Gurav, baby & J.

D. plays with the baby.

Our own personal entertainment... he carried this all the way to London on his back.

Gurav and J.

Asia (left), the baby, Anshu (right)

J. gets thoroughly wet, playing in the fountain

 

Starting to unpack - Yummy!

Time to go home... tired and happy