A great, yet low fat, dessert May 31, 2008

We’re having a lovely evening this evening, chilling in front of the television. Sausage casserole with baked potatoes and then one of my favourite desserts – blueberry creme brulee, but made with Greek yoghurt instead of cream or creme fraiche.
Take some blueberries, add a little water and sugar, and heat until the blueberries plump up [...]

Sauce of the Month May 27, 2008

Some years ago, we experimented with cooking chicken pieces in different flavoured sauces. There was one sauce which we liked so much that it received the accolade of becoming our permanent Sauce of the Month. We don’t use the sauce on a monthly basis – but the whole family knows what it means when we [...]

What’s in the freezer? May 23, 2008

Because we have never successfully mastered the art of labelling items we put into the freezer, sometimes what comes out of the freezer is a bit of a lucky dip. Of course, things like bread, milk, ice cream, cakes, sausages, pizza and all sorts of other things are instantly recognisable. But there are things in [...]

Baked cheesecake May 20, 2008

We enjoy experimenting with cheesecake recipes. Margie made a cheesecake this week based on a recipe by Mary Berry. It’s a baked white chocolate cheesecake. I think that this particular recipe is one of my favourites, although other members of the family prefer the white chocolate with raspberries cheesecake, which isn’t baked.
This dessert made the [...]

Sunday lunchtime May 20, 2008

Sunday lunch is a great occasion each week. Margie and I enjoy sharing lunch with Hannah and Chris, and with Debz of course. We don’t normally have time to cook a roast, and we occasionally use the opportunity to experiment.
We had one such experiment this week. For each of us I wrapped a sausage with [...]

Birthday traditions May 17, 2008

It’s Chris’ birthday today, and we’ve had our traditional birthday tea. Ever since I was a young boy (and that’s a long time ago), we’ve had hot dogs for tea whenever someone has a birthday. So we had hot dogs today, roasted onions and some baked beans.
A great birthday tradition, which I hope we’ll never [...]

The best loaf of bread…ever May 16, 2008

Roses, one of our local bakers, produces a multiseeded loaf that is absolutely wonderful. It’s expensive – they charge £1.90 for a large loaf. But, in my humble opinion, it’s probably consistently the best bread I have ever tasted. But don’t tell anyone, because the one thing that I don’t want is a run on [...]

‘Throw the kitchen sink at it’ soup May 16, 2008

Today is my day off, and I’m making some soup. The soup I’m making this afternoon is ‘throw the kitchen sink at it’ soup. I’ve cooked some beans and pulses, sauteed some onions and bacon, then added carrots, potatoes, baby sweetcorn and butternut squash. All this was added to tinned tomatoes and chicken stock, with [...]

Living watercress May 16, 2008

I love watercress. The only problem with buying watercress in the supermarket is that it doesn’t have a very good shelf life. But my eyes lit up when I visited our local Sainsbury last night. They were selling ‘living watercress’. It’s in a pot, and you need to keep it well watered. But you harvest [...]

Rawnsley Estate – Shiraz Viognier May 16, 2008

Tesco had this wine at half price a few weeks back, and I bought half a dozen. It’s a great wine from South Australia – big and bold. As the label says: Dark, ripe and intense with rich plum, black cherry aromas…displays flavours of plum, chocolate, cassis. I can highly recommend it.
(Writes note to self [...]