My whole morning has been spent in the kitchen today, sadly not baking, but instead coming up with meals for Little Miss C. Pureed vegetables are nice and simple, but today I branched out a bit and tackled my first Annabel Karmel recipe: Apricot Chicken and Sweet Potato. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have bothered though. LMC is currently teething and while her front bottom two teeth have come through the gum, I'm pretty sure there's more going on in that little mouth of hers. Not only is she chewing everything that comes into her hands, but she also has moments where ... read more
Homemade pizza
Finally I'm finding the time to catch up with various blog posts that I've been meaning to write for a while. Following on from the various meals that I planned I'm pleased to report that all were a success.One that we particularly liked was homemade pizza. It seems silly now that we hadn't tried this before now and since our initial attempt we've this weekend enjoyed the second batch.The recipe that I've been using for the dough is a Jamie Oliver one that I found online. I halved the quantities to make enough dough for just three pizzas (six ... read more
Meal planning
With a demanding baby in the house (Little Miss C is teething at just eleven weeks old!) the variety of our evening meals has been somewhat lacking of late. I'm hoping that over the next week I can change this a bit and whilst ordering my groceries online I have also been seeking out some new recipes to try. Earlier in the year I also tried to take part in the 52 in 2010 challenge but as expected my participation eased off somewhat once LMC arrived. May be I can get a bit back on track this next week.Firstly I was drawn in by the Waitrose TV advert featuring Delia's ... read more
Hummingbird Bakery Chocolate Muffins
Life is greatly improved when you add a chocolate muffin and cup of tea to it! Muffins from the recipe in The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. Slight deviation in that I used chocolate chips rather than a bar of chocolate broken into pieces. Still tasted good though - I just need to learn how to stop the chocolate pieces sinking to the bottom! ... read more
A chocolate filled Easter
It's been an Easter weekend that I think I'm going to remember most for the variety of chocolate consumed whilst doing a million and one other things! There was only time for one bit of baking though which was an opportunity to try out a new seasonal recipe. I've had the card for Waitrose's Chocolate Nest Cakes for years (possibly since 2001 looking at the date on it!) and have only just got round to trying these, although as I needed to transport them to a friend's house in the car I made them into Easter cupcakes rather than nests so that they went in a tin ... read more
Seared Spicy Tuna with Honey Soy Glaze
Anther new recipe for dinner tonight after spotting some tuna steaks in the local supermarket.Mr C had the idea that he wanted to do something with honey and Soy Sauce and a quick google found me this recipe on Oishii's blog. Fantastically tasty and the chilli flakes in there gave it a lovely warm taste. Easy to make (or so Mr C tells me!) and went great with some couscous and asparagus. Definitely one worth trying again. ... read more
Lemon and Honey Chicken
I love it when you discover a new recipe that's completely yummy, but also so easy that you could almost do it with your eyes closed. That sums up this recipe for lemon and honey chicken that I took out of 101 Cheap Eats . Less then ten minutes preparation and then an hour in the oven was all that was required before this could be served up. We used whole chicken legs in it and found that the meat stayed beautifully moist and infused with the lemon and honey flavours. These were also carried by the potatoes that cook around it and the time in the oven was just right to get these ... read more
Valentines chilli and chocolate muffins
Valentines day meant something nice had to be made for Mr C when he returned from his usual SUnday morning football. I spotted the recipe for chilli and chocolate muffins in the February edition of Country Living magazine and thought that they would fit the bill perfectly - Mr C being a fan of home baking, chocolate and chilli.Very simple to make as the recipe only took a few minutes. I did decide not to include the whole bird's eye chillies on the top of each, but otherwise followed it to the letter. I'm therefore not at all sure as to why they rose and spread in quite the way they ... read more
A week of new recipes
Last week I managed to make great headway on my 52 in 2010 challenge with not one, not two, but three new recipes tried during the course of the week! The first came from the wonderful Apples for Jam and was for a simple beef stew with carrots. Not necessarily the most exciting dish in the world, but a good hearty winter meal all the same. Served up with some home-made mash this was very welcome of a bitterly cold evening. The carrots added a certain something that gave it a slight step up on most beef stews. After being inspired by seeing Nigel Slater's cookery programme on ... read more
Hummingbird Bakery Chocolate Cupcakes
With a craving for something chocolate based I searched all my cook books to find something that would satisfy my sweet tooth. There were plenty of options in The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook but the ones that most stood out were the chocolate cupcakes.I've made the plain cupcakes from this book before, but that time ate them all before getting round to making the icing. This time I was determined to complete them before sampling, and succeeded. The cupcakes are completely delicious; lovely and moist. The chocolate rich, but not too rich. The icing sweet, but not over the top. The ... read more