baking marathon!

Sunday lunch - orange and lemon steamed pudding! (I somehow managed to prepare this before church, steaming it as soon as we got back so we could eat it at 1pm)
Sunday afternoon - one batch of gingerbread men and women, one batch of cranberry oat cookies, one batch of mini jammy buns. All eaten by my youth group that evening!
Tuesday evening - Caramel Croissant Pudding. I’ve wanted to do this since seeing Nigella make it on TV three weeks ago. It was yummy.
Wednesday evening - Orange drizzle traybake. This is normally made with lemons, but we had two oranges, so we experimented. It’s ok, but not as good as the lemon.
Meanwhile, my healthy diet has gone out of the window and I really must go for a run or something this afternoon!

life’s looking up

I’ve just taxed our car (which we’ve been trying to do for a week!), Hubby is coming home for tonight so he can swap driving the slightly dangerous car for the new (now legal) one!
His email is now up and running and his website should be tomorrow!
All the things we’ve been stressed about for the past week and more are finally sorting themselves out. I also have a delicious cheesecake in the fridge that I made on Monday.
Back to the study! (I managed 30 mins before I had to go and get the tax disc this morning!)

yummy!

I’ve just made my first batch of lemon curd, and it’s yummy! I had three lemons leftover from youth group on sunday (we were tasting lemons as an activity to identify with the bitter moments of 2006). So, I looked at making lemon ice cream and lemon sorbet, but decided it was the wrong time of year for both of those. So a quick look for lemon recepies and I ended up making lemon curd. Really easy, and it doesn’t take too long.
For one jam jar and a ramekin’s worth (we only had one spare jam jar!), just mix the grated rind and juice of 3 lemons, 3 eggs, 3oz butter and 12oz sugar in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Keep stirring for about 20 mins until it covers the back of a wooden spoon. Put into jars (and ramekin if you’re me) and let it cool. Refridgerate and eat within a month!

raspberry jam!

Yesterday, hubby and I went and picked our own strawberries and raspberries at Garsons pick your own. It was perfect weather - dry and not too hot! We brought home about 4kg of each, which will last us at least the summer. The majority have gone into the freezer, but I’m using some of it to make jam. This afternoon I made my first ever batch of raspberry jam. It is scrummy, and it won’t last long in this house I’m sure! Strawberry jam takes a few days as it has some rather odd steps in the recipe, needing the mixture to be left for 48 hrs at one stage.
Tomorrow, we’re off on a narrow boat on the Thames with 5 young people. It’s a shame it wasn’t more, but we’ll enjoy chilling with those who can come.

yum yum!

I’m looking forward to this evening. Hubby and I have postponed our valentines until tonight. We were a bit busy with family on Tuesday, and I wasn’t feeling up to cooking anyway. Tonight we have a menu of tomato soup, creamy chicken gratin, followed by white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake!
Already made the cheesecake this morning, and it looks and tastes (from licking the bowl) lovely! I’ve been looking forward to just chillin with my hubby and treating him (and me) with a special home cooked meal!
He’s away all next week with the Fellowship of Christian Magicians, so I have to make the most of him while I can!!!!!
Enjoy your weekend!

soup fest

There are three reasons why I’m into cooking soups at the moment.
1) it’s cold outside and they’re warm and comforting
2) they’re generally healthy with lots of veg in them
3) i just really enjoy cooking, and as I’m not allowed cake anymore, I’ve started making soups!

I thought I’d pick one recipe week, and we’d have soup two or three days. On tuesday I made sweetcorn soup. It wasn’t bad, but probably won’t be repeated. But I’m craving more soup, having been to the doctors and told my cough is a virus and I could have it for another fortnight! As we have a large number of potatoes left over from the weekend away, I’ve just grabbed a potato soup recipe off the bbc food website. So it’s potato soup for lunch. Yum.

massive baking session

Last night, I decided some baking was needed (we were out of cake.) So I got the recipie books out, and found three cakes I had the ingredients for. Not being able to decide on one, I made all three! So I now have one batch of gingerbread men, one batch of chocolate chip cookies and one batch of rock cakes in my kitchen! At least one batch will have to go to youth group tonight, or we’ll never eat them all!
I also managed to complete all my ironing in between baking and washing up!

busy and bread

What with work and things still to do on the house, life is busy.
I’ve got quite a bit of work to do having met all groups I’m supposed to be working with.
I’m really getting into it all now, and am eager to do all I can for these young people.
I’ve got a couple of leaders due here for a meeting in just five minutes, but that gives me just enough time to tell you all how great my new breadmaker is! Not only does it bake the most fabulous bread, but we’ve just managed to make our own pizza this evening completely from scratch! I don’t mind telling you it was delicious! Just a shame there’s still the clearing up to do!

scones, crumble and ants!

We got back from church to find ants had invaded our kitchen! While hubby got the ant spray out, and set about squashing those on kitchen surfaces, I made a start on the crumble.
We had a difficult decision to make for pudding - crumble (with leftover rhubarb from yesterday) or the wholemeal scones I ended up making yesterday evening! We had two small rhubarb crumbles (hubby had banana in his) in ramekins, we’ll have scones later - or the church group this evening will!
Yum!

baking frenzy!

I spent more time in the kitchen yesterday than I did at church!
I was on a mission to use up some porridge oats and museli.
My first batch were traditional oatcakes, and in hubby’s words ‘they tasted like dust!’
Half went on the lawn for the birds, and the rest went in the bin.
I then decided on a well tried recipe of raisin and oat cookies - all of these but one were eaten by the church group in the evening!
Flapjacks are always a good way to use up porridge oats, so I made a rather large batch (which are ready downstairs to be eaten!
Then came my experiment - museli flapjacks. The church group ate them all! I didn’t even get to taste one! But I still have a bit of museli left over, so I’ll be making another batch soon!

After all my baking, I then made the tomato sauce needed for our french bread pizzas for the church group. We had a good night last night. We ate lots of the french bread pizza, and my cakes!!!!!