Beef Stroganov

When my husband and I first started dating, we often went out for meals and a few drinks (a lot of drinks) definitely my fondest moments in life - sitting in a restaurant enjoying a nice meal and talking for hours about life. I remember thinking at the time if it was because the relationship was new, and we were both making an effort at making US work, nothing has changed though other than my chain of thought. We are one of the lucky ones, where little effort is needed to make it work, even when we argue, if you can call it that, we end up giggling and smiling at each other.......... Anyway back to the recipe. On this particular occasion my husband, Glen, opted for a fish dish (due to my fish bone phobia, I never eat fish when we are out) I had beef stroganov served with spatzle, I guess I made this recipe to try and recreate that night. We've had lots of good times together some just stick out for different reasons I guess. I found this one in a cookbook my mother gave me, Country Cooking. When I first opened it, I assumed country as in rural, not country as in country. It covers mostly Europe and North America and gives a small piece of information pertaining to each one. It really is a nice book and I've used several of the recipes, some of them are a little obscure, I suppose that's because they're foreign to me, but I love the fact each recipe comes with the proper name (translation underneath) and original spelling!!!!!

Beef Stroganov

500 grams beef strips, sliced

2 onions sliced

100 grams mushrooms, thinly sliced

lemon juice

70 grams butter

100 ml  sour cream

150 ml stock

1 tbsp brandy

1 ½ tbsp flour

1 tbsp parsley

1 tbsp tomato purée

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

½ tsp mustard

1. Cut the meat into strips, mix the flour with salt mustard and pepper. Gently fry the onions in the butter. Add the mushrooms fry for 2-3 minutes; then remove from the heat.

2. Dip the meat strips in the flour and shake off any extra. Cook the meat in butter then add the onions and mushrooms with their pan juices. Fry on a low heat for 5 minutes, stirring.

3. Pour in the brandy, set alight, then add the tomato puree. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then add the lemon and the cream, cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Bring back to a boil and serve.

Servings: 4

Cheesy spinach cannelloni

Just to state the obvious if you are unsure what cannelloni (manicotti) are, they are long tubes of pasta which can be filled with all sorts of things, from cheese and spinach to any kind of ground meat, etc. topped with some sort of sauce and cheese, baked for about 30 minutes.

After I moved out of my ex's house I lived on cannelloni, I wasn't entirely sure what went in it...... It was a frozen meal with spinach, cheese and tomato sauce - plenty of garlic! That's about all I knew! When I found this recipe I was super excited because I could make it myself. Turns out it was inedible, however it was far from brilliant...... It took me awhile to want to try it again and I did some major recipe tweeking. This is what I came up with.

Cheesy spinach cannelloni

butter for greasing

18 no-precook cannelloni

30 grams Parmesan, grated

jar of tomato sauce

FILLING

1 small onion diced

1 garlic clove, minced

500 grams spinach

2 cups ricotta or whipped cream cheese

1. Make the filling, heat the oil, add the onion and garlic, cook for 3-5 minutes until soft, add the spinach and cook on a high heat for 1-2 minutes, then add the ricotta, or cream cheese which ever you are using and salt and pepper to taste

2. Grease an oven proof dish, spoon the spinach mixture into the cannelloni spoon on the sauce, sprinkle with Parmesan and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

Servings: 4

Tortellini , mushrooms and bacon

You've got to love simple pasta dishes, if for no other reason than they are convenient and easy to make. Don't get me wrong I love cooking complicated and wonderful recipes, sometimes though ease is the name of the game! Pasta can be really tasty and because it goes with almost anything you can bung a bunch of stuff together and not worry to much about it. This recipe has all my favourite things in it.     

Bacon, mushrooms, leeks, cream and cheese, for sure this comes under another comfort food. I tend to drain off most of the fat from the bacon before I add anything more to the the pan, but not all because it adds to the flavour in my opinion, that's again my personal choice though, leave it all in or drain it all! Up to you entirely........

Goodness me, I hate this phrase but.............. Nom Nom!!!!!!

tortellini with mushrooms and bacon

500 grams tortellini

1 tbsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)

1 leek, chopped

175 grams mushrooms

250 grams bacon strips, diced

300 ml heavy cream

Salt and black pepper to taste

grated cheese

1. Cook tortellini for 10-12 minutes, until tender.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil, add bacon, cook over a high heat until crisp, add mushrooms and leeks, cook until tender.

3. Drain the tortellini and return to the pan, add the bacon and mushrooms, cream, salt and pepper to taste, Heat gently for 1-2 minutes to warm through. Serve with sprinkled cheese.

Price Of Shrimp

One of the things I loved most about America, was the ability to go shopping and pretty much get everything I wanted under one roof. The only thing better than that, was the fish counter, catfish, tilapia, cod, salmon, tuna and shrimp, to name but a few. Oh my goodness the shrimp, big tasty shrimp, fresh ones. Simple things I guess please simple people, that or I just appreciate how lucky I was? Here in Germany you pay almost double for fish and it's all frozen and lacking in flavour and quality. I worked it out and I am paying $18.00 for a pound of shrimp, I was getting 5lbs for that in the States, admittedly it was frozen bargain Shrimp but it was still better quality, for fresh shrimp was paying around $7.00 per pound in America, I think or there abouts.

The reason for talking the price of fish? Shrimp tagliatelle, the thing I like about this recipe, is that it takes minimum effort to make it with all fresh ingredients, but looks and tastes as though lots of effort has been out into it. It's another one of those ones you have to admire for what it is. Simply put it's almost genius.



Shrimp Tagliatelle

2 tbsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove
3/4lb (375g) mushrooms
1lb (500g) tomatoes peeled, seeded and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1lb (500g) tagliatelle
3/4lb (375g) prawns
1/2 cup (125g) light sour cream

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet, add the onion and the garlic, cooking gently, stirring for 5 minutes, until glassy but not browned. Add the mushrooms and cook on a high heat for about another 5 minutes.

2. Now add your tomatoes, season with salt and pepper to taste and simmer gently, until the mixture thickens

3. Cook the tagliatelle according to package directions.

4. Add the sour cream and shrimp to the tomato mixture and cook on a low heat until the shrimp are heated through

5. Serve the shrimp on a bed of the pasta.


Most disappointed as I don't have a photo to go with this one!! :o(

Meat Hot Pot

I had left over lamb from the night before, chops and mint hollandaise, but I wanted something else. I had all the ingredients to hand and figured I may as well give it a go! It tastes lovely if you like this sort of thing, but my opinion is that it is definitely a winter warmer. I kind of have this preconceived image of cold snowy weather outside, dim lights indoors with a crackling fire, or maybe that just makes me a hopeless romantic. Either way that's how this one and a few others make me feel. I guess I'm just having a love affair with food? Or prehaps the real love is for my husband and the food is just an added extra feel good factor? Our apartment in Virginia had dim lighting, in the evenings and because it was winter we often had the fire on, the atmosphere was already set, without any intention or effort, then with this ugly looking winter warming meal, it's definitely my ideal, I don't know about yours? Hmmmmm...... I feel kind of gooey inside good food and an even better husband to enjoy it with....

Meat Hotpot

2 tbsp evoo
2 lbs lamp chops
4 large potatoes, sliced
1 lb carrots peeled and thinly sliced
2 large onions, chopped
1 tsp sugar
salt and black pepper
1 bay leaf
parsley
2-3 cups vegetable stock

1. Heat the oil in a casserole dish, add the lamb a little at a time, and brown over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.

2. Add the potatoes, carrots and onions, cook for 5 minutes. remove from the casserole dish.

3. Make layers of lamb chops and vegetables in the casserole, seasoning each layer with a little sugar, salt and pepper, putting herbs in the middle. Top with a layer of potatoes. Pour in enough stock to come up to the potato layer. Cover tightly with the lid and cook at 325°F for 2 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender.

4. Remove the lid from the casserole dish and increase the heat to 425°F and cook for 20-30 minutes longer to brown the potato.
Servings 4

Lamb Chops With Mint Hollandaise.

With this one I wanted to push my boundaries a little, in the past I had always bought hollandaise sauce, so I wanted to try and make my own. I was looking forward to a challenge!

 I was left feeling a little cheated, it wasn't difficult at all. To be honest I put this down to the recipe book I was using - "Classic home cooking" It's my regular go to cookbook, my husband bought it in Norway someone recommended it to him and I love it, he loves it and it gets used an awful lot.The recipes really are classics, all of them are in American cups and European measurements.

as well as subsectioned into different groups for example Hot and Chilled Soups, Fish and Shellfish, Poultry, Pork, Beef etc.

Each chapter then has an indexed glossary, picture thing with a short description of each recipe.

Subsectioned again into cooking times

I'll get to it later but I make my Carbonara sauce this way too because I always seem to end up with scrambled egg consistency, when I make it any other way. I'll give anything a try, but I am finding as I go along, easier ways for me to cook certain things, or just a different way to do something altogether, my mother taught me how to make cheese sauce, years ago, by melting butter then adding flour, then slowly adding the milk followed by the cheese. Using that as my basis I made all my sauces this way. I have since discovered that it's easier for me to make my sauce, then take some sort of cold liquid, vodka, milk, cream, water or port, add the flour to that, mix really well and then add to the simmering sauce, stirring constantly until it has thickened. I'm not saying by any means this is better, just that for me it's always a sure thing! NO LUMPS, BUMPS OR GOOEY BITS...........!!!!! Any way that's far more of a digress than I intended. So back to my lamb.

To be honest I kind of dithered slightly over the mint, yes mint does traditionally go with lamb, but with hollandaise sauce? Then I started wondering if the hollandaise would go with the lamb? Ultimately I decided since lamb was new to me, I had no idea if lamb and hollandaise were going to work and since I didn't know if mint would work with hollandaise, but knew mint worked well with lamb, I figured the only way to find out was to try, worst case scenario I end up calling for Chinese or Pappa Johns! As it turns out they all work very well together. Bonuses all round, I made my own hollandaise sauce, which inspired me to make carbonara the same way, and we had a nice meal - and you've discovered how oddly my brain works, and that really is how my brain works, each thought seems to trigger a chain reaction until eventually I come full circle with an answer to my quandary...........................!

Lamb Chops With Mint Hollandaise

4 Lamb chops
2 tsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
Salt and black pepper to taste
 

Mint Hollandaise

2 tbsp fresh mint
salt and black pepper
a few drops of lemon concentrate
1 tsp white vinegar
3 egg yolks at room temperature
125 grams melted unsalted butter

1. Brush the lamb chops with a little oil on each side, season with salt and pepper

2. Grill the chops for 3-4 minutes - slightly longer for well done.

Mint Hollandaise

1. Whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice and vinegar, put over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk until thick.

2. Melt ¼lb (125g) butter adding a little at a time to the egg yolk mixture, whisk constantly until mixture thickens.

3. Stir in 2 tbsps of mint, salt and pepper to taste.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED HERE'S AN AMAZON LINK TO THE COOKBOOK. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0789401533/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1HSPF95RY1ASSBHC83YT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294

Traditional Sunday Roast!!!

Roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding, is a traditional English Sunday dinner - Roast beef I pretty much have down to an art form, unfortunately the Yorkshire pudding is still a working progress, top tips are to make sure the fat is VERY hot and enough but not too much batter, more than that I can't comment on as I'm still being foiled by the little suckers. I haven't failed though as they are and always have been edible, they're just far from perfect... Unless you count Aunt Bessies out of the freezer department? Nah I didn't think so!!! ;o)

Roast Beef And Yorkshire Pudding

Beef joint
salt and black pepper
Yorkshire Pudding
1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch salt
2 beaten eggs
250 ml milk, plus additional if needed
Vegetable shortening

1. Season beef with salt and pepper. For rare: 350°F 15 minutes per pound, Medium: 20 minutes per pound and well done: 25 minutes per pound.

2. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl make a well and add the eggs and a little milk, whisk the milk and the egg.

3. whisk in 125 ml of the milk drawing in the flour to make a smooth batter. Stir in another 125 ml of milk and leave to stand for at least 30 minutes.

4. Put some shortening in each cup of a 12 hole muffing pan and heat in a 425°F oven until very hot, whisk the batter and pour into the muffin pan bake for 15 minutes or until well risen golden and crisp.

Liver And Bacon With Onion Sauce

This is probably one of my husbands favourites, and I make it about once a month, for that reason. I've altered the original recipe, so that I can eat it too, liver is one of my least favourite things to eat, but I am of the opinion, that if Glen can eat, and does eat things that I like and he doesn't, then I can make the effort to cook and eat things, that he does very much enjoy.

Before I made this recipe, I read somewhere that marinating the liver, before hand, in milk, was meant to lessen that really intense flavour, I don't know for sure if it works because I have done it from the very beginning and therefore have nothing to compare it to.

I make a stroganov out of mine, I stick to the original recipe for the most part but I add mushrooms (we both love mushrooms) and cream, which is totally dependant on the type of cream I have to hand, normal single cream, sour cream, creme fraiche, I'm not overly fussed. I also use bisto gravy granules, instead of beef stock and flour to thicken it! Not entirely a short cut because I prefer the flavour but I have to admit, it's easier than using flour as the thickening agent. Sometimes depending on my mood I will add a glug of port, it entirely depends on who I am cooking it for though!


Liver And Bacon With Onion Sauce

2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion thinly sliced
4 slices of bacon cut into thin strips
500g liver, marinated in milk over night
2 tbsps flour
2 1/2 cups beef stock
1 tbsp tomato puree
Dash of worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste


1. Heat the oil, add the onions and bacon to the pan, cooking gently,stirring now and again until the onion is glassy and the bacon has crisped. Add the liver and cook stirring for 2 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon cover with tin foil to keep warm.

2. Add the flour to the pan and cook stirring for 1 minute, slowly pour in the stock, stirring constantly, bring to a boil, keep stirring until it has thickened.

3. Add the puree and worcestershire sauce, season with salt and pepper, then return the onions, liver and bacon, then cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

(this is also where I would add about 100ml single cream)

I normally serve this with Garlic mashed potatoes, but pasta, rice or boiled potatoes are equally as good.

Blogger Burger........

I think most people enjoy a REALLY good burger! My husband and I are no exception, although not huge fans of the processed stuff...... We loved Five Guys Burgers though, the kind you'd find on that show "diners, drive ins and dives" with Guy Firer. In Germany you can buy this mix, it comes in a sachet and is powdered, you mix it with water and then knead it into the minced beef - it pretty much guarantees a moist burger. With that in mind I started adding a mittle vegetable stock to my burgers. One of our recipe books, "Classic home coooking" and it has a beef burger recipe which includes roquefort, (a rather very nice blue veined cheese, in case you didn't know) So with a mixture of Five Guys inspiration and my recipe alternative this is what I came up with.

Roquefort Beef Burgers

1lb (500g) ground beef
1 egg
fine bread crumbs (about 2 slices of bread)

vegetable stock aproximately 1 cup
1 medium minced onion
salt and pepper to taste
6oz (175g) roquefort

1. Soak the bread crumbs in vegetable stock, add the egg and onion, mix into a smooth paste, add salt and pepper to taste.

2. Mix the bread crumb mixture with the beef, a little at a time, you want the ground beef to be moist but not sloppy so take care. Divide the mixture into 8 balls, then flatten to make patties, place a slice of cheese on four of the patties, then top with the remaining patties. Press the edges together to enclose the filling.

3. Cook the burgers until they are brown and feel firm when pressed.

4. Serve in pita bread with green salad, or simply in a burger bun with your favourite kind of burger extras!

Chinese?????

I made this next recipe because we love Chinese food, and I was feeling tentatively, apprehensive, about cooking something so 'exotic'. I was still at this point 11 months off buying my first and admittedly only 'Chinese cookbook' and it took a further 18 months or so before I had the guts to cook much else other than variations of this dish, which I will get to in another blog. So here you are - Chicken Stir Fry - Wow how exotic, right? Told you I started simple!

Chicken Stir Fry

3 tbsp evoo
4 scallions (spring onions) thinly sliced
3 carrots, julienned
1 yellow bell pepper seeded and cut into long, thin strips
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tbsp port wine mixed with 1 tbsp corn starch
4 chicken breasts cut into strips
½ cup Vegetable stock

1. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok or skillet, add the scallions and stir fry for 1 minute

2. Add the remaining oil, carrots and pepper, and stir fry over a high heat for 2-3 minutes add soy sauce, port mixture and chicken strips and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.

3. Add the stock and continue stir frying for 1-2 minutes until liquid thickens slightly.


Our personal preference was that this needed a little more soy sauce - again I am only including the original recipe used, I've said it before and I'll probably say it again, recipes are a guide line we all like different flavours, textures and smells - so all I can do is tell you what I did where and why, you can then make the choice for yourself, more or less, or something else?

Fish, Fish, Fishy, Fishy Fish!!!!!

I love fish, my husband loves fish - my only issue is the bones. I'm not too squimish, so heads,eyes and tails don't bother me, but bones - Ewwwww NO thank you! You will find that 90% of my dishes are made with fillets or boneless cuts of meat for that reason. However every now and again I'll give them a whirl. Fish is the one thing which I have tried to 'get over' and just can't, so aside from one or two all my fish recipes are boneless and skinless or adapted to make them that way.

We love this following recipe and I have made it many times, Crispy Topped Seafood Pie, it's another versitile recipe which is why I for one love it, it can be altered anyway you see fit. I've used catfish, salmon, cod and haddock. Shrimp go in the recipe anyway but I'm guessing you could add crab, lobster or equally any kind of shellfish, and on the note vegetables are also open to interpretation. Personally I have only used the vegetables that came in the original recipe but the facts remain the same, use any vegetables you wish! As long as they fit in the pie dish and you like them, it matters not a jot which vegetables you use.

Crispy Topped Seafood Pie

500 grams fish (Salmon, swordfish, cod etc.)
1 ¼ cup milk
1 bay leaf
2 leeks thinly sliced
2 cups broccoli florets
6 oz shrimp, shelled and cleaned
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
Salt and black pepper to taste
Pastry
¼ cup cheddar cheese shredded

1. Poach the fish in milk with  the bay leaf for about 10 minutes, until fish flakes

2. Blanch the vegetables, for 3 minutes in boiling salted water.

3. Lift out the fish, discard the skin and any bones, flake the fish. Strain and reserve the milk.

4. Put all the vegetables and fish with the prawns into a pie plate.

5. Melt the butter in a small pan. Add the flour and cook stirring for a minute. Remove from the heat and slowly stir in the milk. Bring to a boil stirring until thickened, Pour over the fish.

6. Grate the pastry and sprinkle over the filling, sprinkle with the grated cheese and bake for 25-30 minutes at 400°F (200°C)

Potato And Lamb Bake

                                                

Glen really enjoys lamb and until he cooked lamb chops for about 12 months before I cooked this I hadn't eaten lamb in at least 18 years - so this was another first for me. I own a V cutter and made the mistake of cutting the potato too thinly the first time around, so they stuck together into one massive clump and increased the cooking time (example number 1 of not reading the recipe properly) but apart from that it's really tasty, although probably best as a belly warming winter onepot! You could even serve this with hot Garlic bread to mop up those tasty creamy juices.


Potato And Lamb Bake


400 grams lamb loin chops cut into thin slices
flour for coating
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 clove garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper, to taste
Italian seasoning
750 grams potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
butter for greasing
nutmeg
sage
125 grams cream
1/8 litre milk
50 grams grated cheese
30 grams butter flakes


1. Coat the lamb in the flour shaking off any excess, heat the oil and fry the meat until crispy.


2. Heavily season the meat with 1 garlic clove, salt, pepper and the herbs.


3. Halve the second garlic clove and with butter, grease the casserole dish.


4. Preheat the oven to 200°C (410°F approximately). Place half the potatoes in the dish season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, then cover with the lamb and sage then put on the last layer of potato and season again.


5. Mix the cream and milk, pour over the potatoes and lamb, sprinkle the cheese on top, spread the butter flakes and bake for 50 minutes until potatoes are soft.
Servings: 4

Pasta Bakes

 Pasta bakes, perfect for lazy days, busy days, quiet days or lazy next day left overs. Easy to make, fast. Tasty and the combinations between ingredients, you can use mean that no two pasta bakes, ever need be the same. I’ve used Kassler a German cured and slightly smoked pork, tuna, chicken and ham. You can throw in all kinds of veggies. Use tomato sauce, white sauce, creamy vodka sauce or cheese sauce, top it with cheese or bread crumbs or both. With a ready in time of 30-40 minutes and the most effort required is turning the dial of your oven, what’s not to love? For even less effort you could use store bought sauces, I normally have several of the powdered sachets from knorr, and there is a jarred tomato and garlic one we like, to hand, just in case. Although I prefer to make my own – on days where you need no fuss and ease, a pasta bake is the perfect answer, it can be whipped up in minutes. Of course there’s nothing stopping you from also adding your store bought sauce! Like I said the sky is your limit.

macaroni and bacon gratin

300 grams macaroni, cooked according to directions, drained

100 grams bacon strips, diced

1 tomato, diced

1 tap Italian seasonings

1 tsp basil

100 grams grated cheese

salt, pepper and cayenne to taste

3 egg yolks at room temperature

125 grams cream

1/8 litre milk

1. Mix the macaroni, bacon and tomato with the herbs and season with the salt and pepper.

 2. Preheat the oven to 200°C (410°F approximately). Mix the cheese egg, cream and milk with a little salt and pepper.

 3. Grease the dish you are using, put in the macaroni with the cheese and cream mix. Bake for the 30 minutes.

 As I said earlier I am all for “shortcuts” after all if it’s good enough for the likes of Jamie Oliver, it should be good enough for us all, especially on those busy days when cooking is the last thing on our minds, I think most of us live busy lives, whether it’s because we work or are stay at home parents. However when I say “shortcuts” this by no means, means take out every night, or pre-cooked, pre-prepared frozen meal or some such. By “shortcuts” I am referring to, store bought pastry or naan bread, jarred tomato sauce, powdered sauces, basically anything which will help reduce cooking times……. I take a dim view on anyone – unless single, buying frozen meals or eating take out everyday. There comes a certain satisfaction out of cooking when you make a meal, even when minimal effort has been applied and I defy anyone even someone who can’t abide being in the kitchen, to tell me that they don’t get some austere satisfaction or sense of pride when they’ve put a meal on the table that everyone has eaten and enjoyed! I guess that’s easy for me to say because I love being in the kitchen, I love buying cookbooks and kitchen gadgets or utensils, I only buy what I’m going to use though. My kitchen is not big enough to buy just anything! Cookbooks on the other hand are bedtime reading for me. I have read them all and once they go on the bookshelf they become points of reference, if I was asked for a recipe I could easily pull one or two books of the shelf and have it for you in a matter of minutes maybe even more than one variation of the same recipe. I’m quite possibly a kitchen zealot in which case I’m in no position to be defying anyone to do anything.

Dips in abundance

The five layer dip I made, is a recipe which I first tried at a friends house, she would often hold parties with some really good finger food, nibbles or quite frankly posh, eat off your napkin type stuff, but this five layer dip so delicious, I had to recreate it, the combination of the heat from the salsa, creaminess of the guacamole, salty olives and the bitter sour cream, topped with the cheese is a taste bud tickler, especially if you get scoop tortilla chips, scooping all the way through to the bottom of the five layers. It’s easy to make and if you use a glass bowl, for parties it’s also very aesthetically pleasing. So not only do you have a crowd pleasing dip it looks pretty too. The only thing I would say about this one is that whilst it’s fine to use store bought salsa (although I am going to include a salsa recipe) I would fully recommend using the guacamole, included with this recipe. I find that store bought guacamole can be a little too sharp and you don’t get the same creaminess out of it, that you do when you make your own.

                                                                                 

Five Layer Dip

2 medium ripe avocados, peeled and sliced


2 tbsp lemon juice


½ tsp garlic salt


1/8 tsp hot pepper sauce


1 cup sour cream


1 can chopped ripe black olives


1 jar thick and chunky salsa


1 cup shredded cheddar cheese


tortilla chips


1. In a large bowl mash the avocado, then stir in the lemon juice, garlic salt and hot pepper sauce, spoon into an 8" glass bowl.

2. Layer with sour cream, olives, salsa and cheese. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Serve with chips.


This Salsa is a little fiddly to make in that it involves a lot of fine chopping (unless you want it chunky). I would suggest wearing latex gloves when you chop the jalapeño. I didn’t the first time around and had a rather painful experience when I made the mistake of rubbing my eyes. Also if you don’t want too much heat you can remove the seeds, the tomatoes are very refreshing so don’t be afraid to experiment with the jalapeños. Start off with a little and keep adding until you have just the right amount of heat for you. We aren’t cilantro (coriander) fans so I use parsley instead. Personally I prefer to use lime juice but you could use lemon juice instead, I would use a little and then taste and add some more if needed. If you have the time you could use this salsa in the five layer dip, but to be honest I use store bought and then make this one as an added extra – not everyone likes avocado and olives so to have a few extra ones is never a bad thing.

Salsa

1 cup tomatoes, seeded and finely diced

1/3 cup red onion, minced

2-4 fresh jalapeño's finely diced

2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp fresh cilantro chopped


¼ tsp salt


4 Cloves fresh garlic minced


1. In a bowl stir together all the ingredients.

2. Cover and chill for 2-48 hours

You could try beer dip which is basically cream cheese, beer, salt, pepper, garlic and a few herbs (if your in the States, ranch dip seasoning mix is what I use)

Beer Dip

2 package (8oz) cream cheese

1/3 cup beer

1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat all the ingredients until smooth.

Yield: 3½ cups

 Artichoke Dip

1 can of Artichoke hearts

1 cup mayonnaise

1/3 - 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 clove minced garlic

Dash hot pepper sauce

paprika

1. Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix together, well. Then place in a greased baking pan.

2. Place it in a 350 degree oven and bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden, to be served warm.

 

Spanish Chucks

Chicken And Spanish Vegetables, this is one of those do I, don’t I? Recipes, my intention was to cook something, healthy and low in calories. 325 calories per portion seemed like a good option. The only down side was the peppers (bell peppers), I’m not a huge fan, but not totally against them either! This was the first time that I had really cooked with fresh vegetables and chicken breast. The lesson I learned from this recipe was that it is very easy to over cook chicken, mostly out of fear of not cooking it properly. Although, hindsight is a wonderful thing, cooking is definitely about letting go, whilst at the same time realising that you can’t ignore all the rules. You don’t want to over cook the chicken or it becomes dry (if not burnt, way to go me for stating the obvious), but at the same time under cooked chicken could leave you with that really icky bug, called Salmonella. You want to cook it until it is piping hot in the middle and the juices run clear. Better still it should reach a core temperature of a minimum 165˚F (taken from the USDA website) I don’t own a meat thermometer so I tend to guess at when it’s ready, but to be honest more often than not I use those bake in bag things you can buy, tastes delicious and you are pretty much guaranteed a perfectly cooked piece of chicken.

Chicken And Spanish Vegetables



2 green bell pepper seeded and sliced


2 red bell pepper seeded and sliced


50 grams green olives, sliced


150 grams mushrooms, sliced


4 chicken breast halves


salt and black pepper to taste


2 tbsp flour


½ teaspoon paprika


2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil


2 tbsp tomato paste


150 ml chicken stock

1. Pat the chicken dry, salt and pepper. Mix the flour and paprika on a flat plate, then cover the chicken in the flour, shaking off any excess.


2. In a big pan heat the oil and fry the chicken on both sides until golden and cooked, place on a warm plate, cover and keep warm.


3. Mix the tomato puree in the fat from the chicken, add the vegetables, fry for a short time, stirring until soft, add the stock and boil.


4. place chicken breast on plate and cover with the vegetables - serve with pasta.


Servings: 4


Cooking Times


Total Time: 30 minutes

My Kitchen Antics; really began in October 2009 and my first recipe quiche lorraine is a fairly simple dish really, simple ingredients and with quiche you could add or substitute lots of different ingredients if you wanted to, for example you could add mushrooms, or you could just add smoked salmon and asparagus for something a little posher…. The possibilities are endless, it’s very versatile and leftovers can be eaten for lunch the following day, warm or cold the choice is yours.

QUICHE LORRAINE

2 Tbs butter


1 onion, chopped


6 thick slices of bacon, diced


1 cup (125 g) grated Gruyere cheese


1 cup (250 ml) light cream


2 eggs, beaten


salt and black pepper


SHORT CRUST PASTRY


1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour


4 Tbs butter


about 1 tbsp cold water


8-in (20-crn) quiche dish


or pan


dried beans or pie weights



1. Make the pastry, by sifting the flour into a large bowl, rub the butter, gently, into the flour so that it looks like breadcrumbs, now add the water and mix together with a tableknife, you should have a soft dough. Cover with cling film and chill for 30 minutes.


2. Now you need to roll out your pastry onto a lightly floured work surface, not too much or it will incorprate into the pastry and change the consistancy. Then line your quiche or pie dish. Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork, this is to prevent bubbles.


3. Next line your pastry with foil or baking paper, and with dried beans, rice, or pie weights if you have them. Place the quiche dish in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, at 425°F (220°C) remove the foil and dried beans after about 10 minutes, then put you pastry back in the oven for the final 5-10 minutes.


4. In the meantime, make your filling: melt the butter in a skillet, add the onion and bacon, and cook gently, until the onion is golden and your bacon is crisp.


5. Once your pastry is done, put the onion and bacon mixture into the pastry base and sprinkle with the cheese. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and then add the milk and whisk together, again, add salt and pepper to taste, then pour it into your pastry base as well.


6. Reduce the heat in your oven to 350°F (180°C) and bake the quiche for 25-30 minutes, until the filling is golden and set.


Servings: 4


The only issue I had with this recipe, was the pastry making, for two reasons, A) I am totally rubbish at anything to do with baking (although I am practicing) and B) I am one of those unfortunate souls, whose hands are too warm and no matter how hard I try, and I have tried a variety of methods, from sticking my hands round a carton of milk to putting them inside the freezer, still nothing works……. So cheating and store bought it is!! :o)

As you will discover throughout this blog, whilst I cook with fresh ingredients often making my own sauces, or chopping and mincing fresh garlic, I’ll also use cheats and short cuts, I mostly buy frozen vegetables and cheap cuts of meat, usually pieces which I can cut up into, two people size portions, simple because, yes! We eat a massive variety of meals but something has to give somewhere, unless of course money is of no concern, like most people though I have to watch what I spend, so I keep my eyes out for a bargain and buy things which won’t spoil in a hurry, this doesn’t mean you have to skimp on flavour.

Try new things, just because you don’t like an ingredient one way, doesn’t mean you won’t like it done another; for example my husband didn’t like the avocado in the Apple, Spinach and Brie salad I made but will perfectly happily eat it in the guacamole which makes up a layer in my five layer dip.

Remember that not everything will come out perfectly, that doesn’t mean it’s a total disaster, just that next time it needs a little tweaking and the ones that are inedible need to be regarded as a learning curve and something to laugh about later. Mine was so, so bad that we had to order out for pizza, it couldn’t be saved, I will blog the recipe later….. At the time I was very disheartened and disappointed, but I have learnt to take mishaps in my stride, we all have them. That said I too have had mishaps which leave me cross – I admit to few but at least two where I have stepped on my peddle bin and emptied the contents of my saucepan into it, in hind sight this is a travesty and a total waste in the moment of anger and frustration.

The following recipes are MY story, my failures as well as my successes. I want to tell how it all came about, to show that with a little ambition and by putting those ‘kitchen fears’ to one side, you can achieve anything from the very simple to the more complicated, and that a few short cuts by no means any less effort or love went into the dish – although I am sure some would argue the toss on that one!  

I’m a 30 something woman who up until 2008, loved the thought of churning out weird and wonderful meals from my kitchen, collecting cheap recipe magazines and little cookbooks here and there, which I would read cover to cover, but the actual cooking of meals was slightly repressed, until Christmas ’08. My husband was living and working in the U.S.A at the time and I had gone over to visit for two weeks. All of a sudden I found myself cooking up a storm, using simple ingredients that whilst common place, seemed totally foreign to me. Two weeks later I was back in Germany and I found myself not only missing my husband but also my kitchen. It was nine months later when I was finally able to move to America and my love of food and cooking became an obsession. Suddenly my cookbooks which were either passed onto me by my mother or weedy little things, started becoming more extensive as did the list of different meals being cooked everyday.

 I am no Chef nor do I know anything more about cooking than I have read in either my cookbooks, magazines or online… This blog is not geared out to be preachy with do’s and don’ts in the kitchen and apart from the obvious, like if you have a dog the likes rolling around in all things dirty, then don’t eat off your kitchen floor, health and safety is not an issue I intend to comment on, not because I dismiss it, but because I am a housewife, I haven’t done any classes on cooking or health and safety in the kitchen. My aim, plain and simple is to show that if I can do it anyone can and that home cooked meals can be and more often than not are just as delicious as those from a restaurant.
                                    

 I want to show that just because a recipe is there in black and white written by a professional chef, by no means, means you can’t change it to suit you, in fact the more cookbooks you read the more you realise that just because it’s called Spaghetti Bolognese, doesn’t mean that anyone recipe is going to be the same. I regularly show wanton disregard to recipes these days, (with the exception of baking recipes) substituting ingredients I don’t like with something I do, or adding a little something here or just omitting an ingredient there. Nothing about cooking is set in stone, and there are no rules about what ingredients may or may not go together, for example if you want to eat gherkins and capers with chocolate, caramel topping and a side of pasta and chips (fries), who am I or anyone else for that matter, to tell you, you can’t?

                                    
 
Just the other day, I added chunky bacon bits to my mushroom ragout, that doesn’t make it any less of a ragout, just because I added them, just as it wouldn’t be any less of a ragout, if I had omitted the onions and garlic. It’s all about personal preference. I found myself skipping over recipes because they had ingredients we don’t like, I don’t remember now which recipe it was, but I couldn’t find an ingredient I needed and substituted it with something else, which is when I realised I could and can cook anything I like! Your substitute ingredient doesn’t even have to be something similar in taste, for example there is little point in something that tastes similar to a red pepper if you don’t like them? I try to keep in the boundaries of what I am cooking to a certain extent. If I was cooking a Mexican dish I would take out the red pepper and add an ingredient in keeping with Mexican food, corn maybe? But that’s just me, you might decide to use, spinach or even jelly babies that’s fine too.
                                     

The only piece of advice I really feel I must give and mostly out of experience is that you really should read a recipe all the way through before you start cooking. There’s nothing worse than becoming stuck because you “need” some piece of silly equipment that you don’t own, and then spend ages trying to botch together something viable, while the rest of your meal is still cooking, so you end up with burnt or limp veggies, or watery rice or potatoes. Yes this comes out of experience, one which is frustrating and disheartening but one which can easily be avoided.

                                      

Some of my recipes are horrifically calorific, whilst others are low in fat and calories. My personal opinion is that anything is fine in moderation, stay healthy and enjoy what you eat!!!
 

                                                            







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