Homemade salsa, plantain and curly fries

L has been cooking again...mmmmmm

L has been cooking up a treat!

Amazing homemade tortilla chips and salsa both made by L. Yummy!! And spicy! *phew*

Another of the joys of home education is that children can learn so many different life skills that they would never pick up at school.  Oh they do 'food technology' (what?) at school but they could never just choose something they wanted to learn to make and then make it.

Fire!

I set fire to pasta today.

I forgot to put water on it!

Hahahahaha I am so ditzy sometimes.  Hubby was rather amused.

The house stinks of burnt pasta now. Yuk.

Good morning! Some more cooking

Good morning.  It's a grey day here.

It's back to school for the girls.  I think they have done all their homework. We had a slight panic this morning when we couldn't find Chatterbox's blazer.  I've paid for music lessons and school dinners.

Squidge's 'Learning Log' task this holiday was to design a modern sleigh for Father Christmas.

Bit of a shock to the system this morning getting up at 6.20 am. We won't be back into a routine for a few weeks though.  I start a course at a local Bible College this week and we are having the bathroom done.  At the moment we have a delightful (NOT) blue suite and regularly have leaks coming through the kitchen ceiling!  So I'm looking forward to a) having a lovely new bathroom; and, b) having a working shower!  Our shower is currently one of those hose type attached to the taps held on with cable ties.  Classy! :)

My Bible study course doesn't start until Wednesday and the chappie doing the bathroom isn't coming until Wednesday.  So today I'm hoping to get as much cleaning and washing done as possible; I also have some errands to run, like drawing some money out for their dancing lessons and Squidge's gymnastics.

Some more on my Journey into Loving Cooking.  On Saturday I made a beef stew in Guinness.  It wasn't to a recipe, and I couldn't taste the Guinness, but it was pretty tasty.  I think next time I do stew I will attempt dumplings.  I will look up how to cook in ale and still be able to taste it.

Anyway, I had some...stew 'juice'? 'gravy'? 'roue'? left,  I put it into the fridge and used it on Sunday in some homemade mushroom soup.  Again, not from a recipe.  I chopped up the mushrooms very small, added some water, milk and some cream cheese.  It was very nice with bread.  It could have done with being slightly creamier, but as I didn't do it from a recipe I think it went well.

Homemade mushroom soup

Sunday evening I made some pizza dough and then the girls and I made some pizzas.  They were delicious.  Except I used Cheddar cheese which is a bit too greasy for pizza I think.

My pizza dough is doughing...it grew to twice this size

I have since watched a video to see how to make one's pizza circular :)

Presentation could be better, but it was yummy!

I've learned a few lessons:
1. Use recipes more for success!
2. Don't put the dough to rise in the bowl that you used to mix the dough, when I took it out there were dried bits of dough stuck to it.  But it wasn't a big problem.
3. I need to start meal planning.  I do plan meals at the moment, but because I don't do a great deal of cooking from scratch I need to be more thorough to make sure I have all the necessary ingredients.

I think I'm doing well so far.  I've not burned down the kitchen yet. :)

Colour amidst the grey

It's cold, grey and damp today.  But I've managed to get out into the garden and hopefully we'll get some colour here and there.  My winter pansies are fading a bit so we need a bit of colour.  After planting out my narcissi daffodil bulbs that I'd saved in my shed I was itching to get out again and plant some primrose, snowdrops and tulips that I'd bought with my Christmas money.

Unfortunately, this photo is a bit blurred (I took it on my mobile phone camera), but it gives you an idea.

Today is going to be catching up on ironing whilst watching Pretty Woman and taking down the Christmas decorations

The house is fairly peaceful, the girls are busy and G is out at church helping with some sound equipment.

Yesterday's cooking went well (if you don't know I'm doing a journey into loving cooking!).  The fajitas were lovely.  I made my own spice mix with cornflower, cumin, paprika and chilli powder...no cayenne pepper because the girls don't really like food that is too hot and spicy, I also added some garlic, red and green peppers, and mushrooms.  We had guacamole and salsa (not homemade!), cheese and lettuce with it.  Delicious.  I might try my hand at burritos next time, just need to get the right beans, etc.

A journey into learning to love cooking - Day 1, well Day 2 actually

My name is Sarah, and I'm a mum who doesn't like cooking. *Sigh* quite an admission here in blogland. :)

From here

I like nice food.  I want my family to be healthy. I love my family and want the best for them. But me + cooking don't get on.

I have mageirocophobia - haha.  I just love a new word.

I'm not sure why I don't like cooking.  My mum never really seemed to enjoy cooking, she dislikes the fact that everyone is elsewhere chatting and enjoying themselves and she's in the kitchen cooking.  But she always cooks really nice meals.  I kind of feel the same, I like to be with people and it can be rather a lonely job.  My ideal would be to have a kitchen/diner with room for comfy seats so that I can be with the family when I cook...but right now that's not an option.  So I'll just have to suck it up. LOL

My other issue is attention span.  Here is a transcript of a typical conversation:

G:  What's that hissing noise?
ME:  I've no idea
[smoke alarm activates]
ME: Oh poo, I forgot, I was cooking.

I've burned frozen peas, yes frozen peas. I forgot to put water on them.  Forgetting to put water into a pan is a common problem.

My other issue is oven gloves.  I burn them.  I've had to evacuate the house a few times, twice for oven gloves and once for a grill tray handle that I had detached and put under the grill.  I worked for a few years in a school kitchen and I am renowned as the only person to have ever burned a hole in an oven cloth. :)  Amazing that they ever let me loose on the deep fat fryer!  G bought me some fire-proof oven gloves and I have burnt them.  It's a gift.  He's threatened to get me some welders gauntlets as a last resort.

It's the attention span, I'm rather like these dogs from the film Up! SQUIRREL!



I can be cooking away, someone says something to me and I totally forget that I am cooking awakened only by hissing and spitting sounds from the kitchen, or the smoke alarm going off.

Cheese on toast is a great problem.  I have actually sat staring at the grill pan whilst the cheese on toast cooks, I've drifted off into a daydream, and it's set on fire in front of my very eyes.

Anyway, 2014 is the year I'm going to start loving cooking...maybe.  I've set up a couple of cooking programmes to record for some inspiration - one is Jamie's Money Saving Meals and the other is The Taste with Nigella Lawson.

SQUIRREL!

What was I saying?...

Oh yes...

Day 1 - was actually yesterday.  We had homemade vegetable soup for lunch and roast chicken dinner for tea.

Day 2 - we had a quick lunch because we were going out, I just made eggs on potato waffles.  For tea I'm using up the leftover chicken to make some chicken fajitas.

So, have you had a good day? It's been cold, wet and miserable today.  I want to plant out some primroses, tulips and snowdrops.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better for that.  I'm planning to take down our Christmas decorations today or tomorrow too.

Here's to Sarah Super-Chef!

Cooking, baking and being a general domestic goddess...

It's hard to admit in the world of Mommy blogs that I am RUBBISH in the kitchen.  Facebook knows it well, I am often lamenting some kitchen disaster or another.

I have a talent for burning food and oven gloves.  I nearly killed me and Chatterbox once with an incident with an oven glove, we nearly passed out from the smoke - so toxic and thick. Urgh - BE CAREFUL WITH OVEN GLOVES (they should come with a health warning).  At work I burned a hole in an oven cloth, they were amazed.  No-one had ever managed to burn an oven cloth before on a hot plate that wasn't hot enough to burn an oven cloth.  Yes my people, if Britain's Got Talent ever allowed me on the show I would most certainly win, but I feel that it's a talent I should only share with my family.

Rice - always gets burned.  So, I tried to make it in the microwave yesterday, I followed some instructions I found online to the letter and it boiled over.  I open the door and it floods my countertop.  Then I can't pick up the microwave plate because it's covered in boiling hot water.  If I pick it up with my new super dooper flame, burn, heat resistant expensive oven gloves that G bought me (which already has holes in because of my previously mentioned miraculous oven glove burning ability) then the water would seep through the oven glove causing me to drop the plate.  So I had to put plastic bags over my oven gloves to stop the hot water seeping through and scalding me.

*sigh*

Cakes and pizza are awful.  I must admit this isn't just my fault, I have a slimline oven which is terrible.  The heat is too intense (I think the heating elements are in the base, top AND sides).  Cake and pizza is burned at the edges and uncooked in the middle.  Even if I turn down the oven temperature they still burn around the edges and are uncooked in the middle.  So frustrating.

However, I've just seen on Sandra's blog that you can enable a cake to cook evenly by wrapping damp towel strips around the edges of a cake tin.  I might try that and see if I have any success!  Here's her post: Cleaning, Cake, Cooking.  Oh and if you love cooking visit her food blog, Full Bellies, Happy Kids one of her lasagne recipes I adapted for us and it is a great success - one of my few culinary successes LOL!

I can make a great baked potato though!  Actually I'm OK if I concentrate - I'm one of those people who is always doing 3 things at once.  You can't always do that with cooking.   You need to be checking and stirring.  Instead I set something cooking, wander off, get distracted and am brought back to reality by a loud hissing spitting noise or the smoke alarm going off. :)

Menu plan for the week (and a few days)

Here's our menu for the week (and a few days), I normally do my shopping on a Wednesday, but we just got back from our holiday in Devon (well we got back on Saturday) so I need to stock up.

Monday
Breakfast – Toast (already had this, the girls had chocolate spread sandwiches - good food at its best NOT).
Lunch - Cheese on toast
Evening Meal - Pork chop risotto (because I always make this when I do a menu plan on my blog!) :)))

Tuesday
Breakfast – Crumpets
Lunch – Chicken soup and home baked bread
Evening Meal – Out for a barbeque (will it rain?? Most likely!)

Wednesday
Breakfast – Toast or cereal
Lunch – Baked potatoes with tuna mayonnaise and cucumber
Evening Meal – Toad in the Hole

Thursday
Breakfast – Sausage muffins (as in oven-bottom muffins...)
Lunch – Quick sandwich for me, kids are at in-laws for lunch and I’m meeting a friend later
Evening Meal - Chicken pie (not homemade), mash n’ veg

Friday
Breakfast – Toast or cereal
Lunch – Hummus and salad pitta
Evening Meal - Lasagna

Saturday
Breakfast – Pancakes and maple syrup
Lunch – Home-made naan bread
Evening Meal – Penne carbonara

Sunday
Breakfast – Croissants with jam and butter
Lunch - not sure...
Evening Meal - Pizza

Monday
Breakfast – Boiled eggs and soldiers (I am RUBBISH at making boiled eggs...never get them just right, but hey-ho we press on).
Lunch - Cheese toasties
Evening Meal – Chicken, potatoes, bacon Au Gratin (as seen on Sandra’s food blog) with corn-on-the-cob

Tuesday
Breakfast - Toast or cereal
Lunch - Sandwiches
Evening Meal – Burgers baked in mushroom soup and garlic, served with mash and broccoli

Garlic chicken wrapped in bacon

Last night I made some garlic chicken wrapped in bacon.  Now I don't have a specific recipe so this is just an explanation of how I made it.

You take boneless chicken thighs, unroll them and then grill on high/medium for about 5 minutes on either side (or longer if needed) until browned.  I meant to take the following picture before I started grilling - so this is a picture where they've had about 1 minute of grilling (then I remembered the photo)! Instead of 4 largish chicken thighs (which is what I would normally get) I had all these little ones! The amount of grilling needed to brown off the chicken will depend on the size of the chicken thigh.

Take a couple of garlic cloves...

...put them through a garlic press and then mix with margarine or butter.

Cut some bacon (I used smoked bacon) up into strips, enough to have one strip per chicken thigh.

Put a teaspoonful (or larger for larger chicken thighs) of the garlic butter into the middle of the chicken thigh, fold it up and then wrap the bacon around.  Some of the butter will leak out, but that's OK.

At this point you need to start warming up your oven to around 200 C.

Grill each side of the wrapped chicken until the bacon is browned - up to around 5 minutes per side. 

Once the bacon is browned all round take a fresh piece of kitchen foil and line a deep sided oven dish or tin. Put in the chicken pieces still wrapped in the bacon, pour over them the juices and melted garlic butter left from the grilling and then wrap up the foil like a parcel.

Put into the oven - now I did these for 30 minutes in the oven.  But check your chicken is thoroughly cooked through if you have larger pieces of chicken thigh.  Because it is wrapped in the foil with the butter and juices it should remain lovely and tender.

What to do with pumpkin?

Flickr

Pumpkin is not a British staple. But supermarkets have started stocking it in recent years during autumn. Today I bought my first ever pumpkins. So, what is it best for? Can I put it in a stew or casserole?

So, what went wrong with my cake?

Hey out there all you baking bloggers, can you tell me what went wrong with this brownie cake?



As you can see it's all cracked, the cake is very crumbly in texture and nothing like the picture in the recipe book! I very rarely bake.

Here's the recipe I followed:

200g plain chocolate
200g butter
3 eggs
175g sugar
200g plain flour

Oven temp: 180 C

Break up chocolate and cube butter, put into bowl set over a pan of simmering water to melt gently (stir frequently).

Whisk the eggs until frothy. Add sugar and whisk until mixture thickens like mousse. Whisk in melted chocolate.

Sift in flour and stir well.

Transfer mixture to a tin lined with greased baking paper.

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.


So what did I do wrong? The cake has cracked and is crumbly, instead of moist and all in one piece.

I've never made brownies before - not with melted chocolate anyway (last time I made brownies I used cocoa, but that was years ago). I wondered if I should have let the chocolate cool before mixing in, whether the eggs weren't whisked enough? What makes a cake too crumbly???

Thanks in advance for your advice.

xxxx