Homemade Meatballs

Homemade Meatballs ~ Makes 20

When I was in town yesterday, I stopped by at the Butcher’s Shop and picked up some things for meals for the coming week…  In amongst the things I got was 1lb of steak mince, I had 3 things in my mind to make…

1. Lasagne
2. Mince n tatties
3. Meatballs

So today, meatballs won… and here is my recipe, made up as I went along 🙂

Ingredients :~

• 1lb Steak Mince
• 1 x medium onion, chopped fine
• 2 x slices of granary bread blitzed in the food processor to breadcrumbs
• 1 x Large Egg
• Salt
• Pepper
• A splash of hot sauce
• 1 tablespoon of mixed dried herbs
• plain flour

method…

• Place in a large mixing bowl
• Add the mince, chopped onion, egg, seasoning and herbs and the breadbrumbs
• Mix everything together until combined
• roll into balls
• coat in plain flour
• brown/fry until golden
• Once browned, I pop mine in a jar of pasta sauce and simmer for 20 mins till cooked through.
• Boil some pasta
• bon appetite 🙂

 

Raspberry Eton Mess

This is a lovely pudding.. for a perfect summery day, this is our pudding for after our dinner tonight 😉

Oh and you can see my craft workshop at the top right hand side of the garden!

Recipe :-

• 1 x Carton of Double Cream
• 2 Tablespoons of Icing Sugar
• 2 x Punnets of Raspberries
• Broken up Meringue Nests

Method :-

1. Add the cream and icing sugar to a mixing bowl and Whip the cream until thick
2. Add the Broken up meringue nests and stir in with a spoon
3. Add the raspberries and stir in with a spoon
4. Refrigerate.
5. Serve
6. Enjoy 🙂

Rocky Road Crunch Bars

I bought a few new recipe books last week and this recipe was in one of them the book reference and ISBN number will be at the bottom of the page.

So this tray of goodness has been calling my name all day, and I just finished crafting in my workshop tonight via Ustream with Karen, Ellen and Laura .. so this recipe is for you girls… enjoy  🙂

RoCkY RoAd CrUnCh BaRs

Ingredients:~

• 125g Soft Butter
• 300g best quality dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) broken into pieces
• 3 x 15ml tablespoons of Golden Syrup
• 200g Rich Tea Biscuits
• 100g Mini Marshmallows
• 2 teaspoons Icing Sugar for dusting

Method:~

1. Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy based saucepan.   Scoop out about 125ml of this melted mixture and put to one side
2. Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and then bash them with a rolling pin.   You are aiming for both crumbs and pieces of biscuit
3. Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, and  then add the marshmallows
4. Tip into a foil trey 24cm (i used a silicone pan); flatten as best you can with a spatula.   Pour the reserves 125ml of melted chocolate mixture over the marshmallow mixture and smooth the top.
5. Refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight
6. Cut into 24 fingers and dust with icing sigar by gently pushing through a tea strainer or small sieve.

Pour your self a cup of tea and enjoy 🙂

Makes 24

Recipe courtesy of Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson ISBN 978-0-701-18184-0

 

Vintage Rice Krispie Squares Recipe

I have 3 whole lovely relaxing days off work this week… sheer bliss!

I spent this morning cleaning out the chickens and I made these this afternoon 🙂

This is the original recipe… from a 1970’s Rice Krispie packet.

• 3 cups Rice Krispies
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp butter/marg
• few drops of vanilla or almond essence

Put syrup, sugar and butter/marg into a pan, melt and bring to the boil for 1 min (stirring).
Remove from heat, add essence and Krispies.
Mix well and pour into a greased 7″ square tin. Mark into squares and remove from the tin when cold.
Alternatively, divide mixture between 12 cake cases in a bun tin.
Put in the fridge to set.

Not suitable for freezing, but will keep for a few days in an air-tight tub.

Cheese Scones

Well autumn has arrived and the tree’s are starting to turn beautiful shades of red and yellow, and it’s this time of year I love, It makes me want to bake 🙂

Cheese scones were beckoned by the oven today, and I found this wee recipe in one of my many cook books called “Porridge” by Margaret Briggs ISBN 978-1-86147-069-0.

I have quoted the original recipe below and then my modification to the recipe in bold alongside it, because when I added the milk and egg to the mix it was too runny.    If you wanted a smaller batch of scones, i’d suggest adding half the milk and keep to the original recipe.

You will need :

• 120g (4oz) Oatmeal
• 120g (4oz) Plain Flour (I used double the quantity of flour 240g / 8oz )
• 60g (2oz) grated, mature cheese of choice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt (I would recommend a big pinch)
• pinch of paprika (I used a pinch of chilli powder as i’d run out of paprika)
• 40g (1.5oz) Margarine
• 1 Egg (2 x small pekin Bantam Eggs courtesy of Brenda)
• 150ml (1/4 pint) Milk

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 230 Degrees C / 450 degrees F or Gas Mark 8
2. Sift the flour, salt, pepper and baking powder and mix with the oats
3. Rub in the margarine, then mix in the grated cheese
4. Mix the beaten egg with the milk and add to the rest of the ingredients to make a soft dough
5. Knead lightly, turn onto a floured board and roll out to about 2cm (3/4″) and cut into 5cm (2″) rounds with a cutter or small glass.   Knead the offcuts of dough gently
6. Brush with milk and bake for approximately 12 minutes.   Serve warm

Nutty Plum Crumble

This recipe is courtesy of  “The Best of Mrs Beeton’s Christmas” ISBN 978-1-898-80176-4

Serves 4-6

Ingredients :

• 675g Plums, halved and stoned
• 50g Sugar

Topping :

• 175g Plain Flour
• 75g Butter or margarine
• 25g Demorara Sugar
• 1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 75g Chopped Hazelnuts, toasted

Set the oven at 180 degrees C / 350 Degrees F / Gas Mark 4   Place the plums in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with sugar

Make the topping.   Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and rub in the butter or margarine until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sugar, cinnamon and hazelnuts.

Sprinkle the topping evenly over the plums, pressing it down very lightly.   Bake the crumble for about 45 mins, until the topping is golden brown and the plums are cooked.   Serve with custard, cream or vanilla ice cream.

Sugar Free Fairy Cakes

Back in April our 15 yr old son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, and as a result is now insulin dependent 😦

He absolutely loves fairy cakes and if you are a follower of my blog then you will already know this with the amout of different variations I make.. well I decided to experiment a bit, and this morning I made them sugar free

I recently discovered a product called SPLENDA®  it is an alternative to sugar ..here’s what it has to say on their website…

“Whilst a healthy lifestyle is recommended for everyone, it is especially important for people with diabetes. SPLENDA® is suitable for people with such a condition, as it contains only a fraction of the calories and carbohydrates of sugar. Sucralose, the sweetening ingredient in SPLENDA®, is not recognised by the body or broken down for energy, so it has no effect on insulin or blood glucose levels.”

Sugar Free Fairy Cake Recipe:-

• 4oz low fat margarine
• 8 tablespoons of splenda which is the equivalent to 4oz
• 4oz Organic Wholemeal self raising flour
• 2 medium eggs (organic from my own chickens)

Makes 6 muffin sized fairy cakes – I use a muffin tray and muffin paper cases

Method :-

1. Cream the margarine and splenda together until light and fluffy
2. add the eggs and mix well.. I added a little flour as the mix started to split
3. add the remaining flour and mix well
4. Divide the mixture into the cases.muffin tin
5. Bake at 180 degrees C for 20-25 mins
6. Allow to cool slightly then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Update… I just tried one and boy are they sweet! but its a different kind of sweetness if you know what I mean, they leave a sweet after taste in your mouth, they turned out ok, before they cooled down I thought they were going to be dry and grumbly, but they were soft and moist inside just like a fairy cake…

I am going to need to make more of these in the future so will try tinkering around with the recipe a bit and add less of the splenda the next time.

Fruit & Nut Loaf

The recipe I used for this loaf was actually titled Sultana Loaf, but I didn’t have enough sultanas in the store cupboard and had to improvise, I used cranberries and chopped nuts to make up the shortage on the sultanas, it turned out ok, but I think I should have added a splash of milk to the mix because it turned out rather dry, still edible tho 🙂

Ingredients :-

• 170g / 6oz butter
• 170g / 6oz soft light brown sugar
• 3 room temperature eggs, beaten
• 285g / 10oz self raising flour
• 340g / 12oz sultanas (I only had 170g the rest was made up with cramberries and nuts)
• grated zest of 1 orange
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice

Method :-

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C / 350 Degrees F / Gas Mark 4
2. Take a 2lb loaf tin and pop in one of those fab loaf liners you get from lakeland
3. Cream the butter in a large bowl using an electric beater until it is soft.   Add the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy
4. Add beaten eggs a little at a time, beating well between each addition.   If the mixture starts to curdle, beat a little of the measured flour.
5. Fold in the flour, sultanas, orange zest, mixed spice and mix well.
6. Put into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 1-1 1/4 hours.   If the cake starts to get too dark, cover it with a sheet of greaseproof paper and turn the oven down to 150 degrees C / 300 Degrees F / gas Mark 2.   Extend the cooking time if necessary.
7. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.   Allow the cake to cool for 10 mins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe Courtesy of Leiths Baking Bible ISBN 0-74765-8189-4

Chocolate Chip & Toffee Chip Muffins

I made a batch of muffins this evening…. there is nothing better than a hot mug of tea and a chocolate muffin to warm the cockles of your heart… especially when April Showers are pouring down outside..

Ingredients :-

• 250g Plain Flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• 175g caster sugar
• 150g chocolate & toffee chips
• 250ml milk
• 90ml vegetable oil
• 1 large egg (i used a medium & a bantam egg)
• 1 teaspoon real vanilla essence

Method :-

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C or Gas Mark 6
2. Fill a 12 bun muffin tray with paper cases (I used 2 x 6’s)
3. Measure out the dry ingredients into a large bowl
4. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug
5. Mix both together, remembering that a lumpy batter makes the best muffin
6. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases
7. Bake for 20 Minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.

Now Pour that cuppa and have a yummy muffin and put your feet up 🙂

Happy Easter x

Peppercorn Sauce

We are having Balmoral Chicken for our tea tonight so I made this Peppercorn Sauce to go along with it, for those of you wondering what the dish is… it’s Haggis wrapped in Chicken Breast smothered in a Peppercorn Sauce … YUM!!

Peppercorn Sauce Ingredients

• 170ml Double Cream
• 2tsp Dijon Mustard
• 2 beef oxo cubes
• A good splash of white wine
• A good splash of hot water
• 2tsp of crushed peppercorns (or more according to taste)

Method

1. Add the cream to a small saucepan and heat gently.
2. Crumble the oxo cube into the cream
3. Add Dijon mustard, and most of the peppercorns leaving some for the steak
4. Add wine and water stirring all together
5. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper
6. keep stirring until quite hot