It's turned back to cold windy and wet again today. Please don't tell me that the brief respite we had last week was Indian summer, coz I just don't wanna know!



This is the perfect day for staying indoors where it is wet and dry . . . and warm.



The perfect day for feasting on comfort food.



Food like this delicious chicken stew, baked in the oven . . . in one tasty pot.



All you need on the side is a nice pot of buttery mashed potatoes and a nice pile of lightly herbed green beans.



*Savoury Chicken Hot Pot*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe

Chicken and autumn vegetables simmered together in one deliciously hearty pot!

1 TBS olive oil
plain flour, salt and pepper
1 kg of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, each one cut into four chunks
1 pound of butternut squash (Peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks)
4 leeks, washed trimmed and thickly sliced
hot chicken stock
two small handfuls of pearl barley
2 small bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/2 tsp savoury crumbled

Heat the olive oil in a large stove top/oven proof casserole dish over medium heat. Toss the chicken bits with the flour and seasoning to taste. Brown them all over in the hot oil. Add the butternut squash and leeks. Cook and stir until the leeks begin to soften. Add hot chicken stock to barely cover and the pearl barley. Add the seasonings. Bring to the boil, then cover and cook for several hours in a moderate oven, (180*C/350*F/ gas mark4) until the chicken, vegetables and barley are tender and the liquid has deliciously thickened. (About an hour and a half.) Remove the bayleaves and serve hot spooned out onto heated plates along with some buttery mashed potatoes and a green vegetable on the side.

I have been suffering with a severe case of gastroenteritis since Friday last and today is the first day I am feeling even half back to normal.  I don't think I've ever felt so sick in my life.   It began on Friday afternoon and rapidly went downhill from there.   I can't even begin to tell you how bad it was . . . but when I don't want to cook or eat . . . you know something is terribly wrong.



Today is the first day that I have gotten dressed or out of bed.  The poor Toddster had to cook his own chops the other night . . . he didn't seem to mind overly much and has been a real sweetie pie bending himself over backwards running back and forth to the shops fetching me Lucozade, Orange Juice, Gingerale, etc.  What can I say . . . the man's in love.  ☺



I was beginning to feel rather peckish today though . . . having only eaten one piece of toast and a small pot of yoghurt since Friday . . . I thought I better have something to eat, although I do admit to having been a little afraid to eat anything, you know how it goes . . . but the more I thought about my comfort foods, the more I wanted to make myself some. 





Comfort foods.  They aren't the same for everyone are they.  To one person it might be eggs on toast, to another beans on toast.  To me . . . comfort food is Macaroni with Tomatoes and Cheese, which is pretty much exactly what the title says . . .



Macaroni, cooked . . . and mixed with a big nob of butter, a tin of chopped plum tomatoes, some minced onion, seasoning and cubed cheddar cheese, sprinkled with some buttered cracker crumbs and then baked . . .



Until the cheese is a molten mass of ooze, slightly tinged with the flavour of tomatoes . . . I like my onion raw in it, because I am rather fond of the sharpness of it.  It goes rather well with the cheese . . . some people would like meat in theirs, but I just like it the way it is.   I had a small bowl of this for my lunch today . . . and I confess . . .  I will probably have another bowl of it for tea.




Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 5.   Butter a casserole dish and set aside.

Cook the macaroni until al dente according to the package directions.  Drain and return to the pot.  Stir in the knob of butter, along with the tomatoes, onions and cheese.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper.   Stir in half of the crushed crackers and then pour the whole mixture into the casserole dish.  Sprinkle with the remaining crackers.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until bubbling and the cheese is nicely melted and the crackers are golden.  Serve hot or warm.

Note - When I was a child my mom would have used velveeta, and by all means use this if you wish.  I can't get velveeta over here so I just use strong cheddar because I love it's flavour.



Comfort is different things to different people however . . . and I'm afraid Todd doesn't find much comfort in macaroni with tomatoes.   Macaroni pudding is a different story however.   A week or so ago we got to talking about old school dinners.




Todd actually loved school dinners when he was a boy at school all those years ago.  In fact, that was the only hot dinner he had most days, and he would have a simple supper of bread and jam or whatever when he got home from school, his mother relying on the school to have provided him with a sturdy and nutritious dinner.



One of the things he did love most about his school dinners was the pudding . . . it was his favourite part.  Junket, or Spotted Dick . . . perhaps an Eve's Pudding, or Rice Pudding . . . usually something stodgy and . . . yes . . . comforting.



He told me about a Macaroni Pudding they often had and that he remembered fondly.  Now for a man that hates pasta, this got my attention and I went on a search.  This is what I found.  It's quite similar to a rice pudding, except it uses macaroni.



It must have been good, because . . . the Toddster ate two bowl's full without blinking an eye.  Comfort . . . it means different things to different people aye?



Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 5.  Butter a shallow casserole dish.  Set aside.  

Cook the macaroni until soft, according to the package directions.   Drain well and rinse.  Drain again.   Heat the milk over medium heat along with the butter and sugar.  Once the butter has melted remove from the heat.  Whisk a portion of the hot mixture slowly into the beaten eggs to temper, then whisk the eggs back into the warm milk.   Add the cooked macaroni, raisins, lemon zest and vanilla.   Simmer for about 15 minutes.  Pour into the buttered casserole dish.  Dust the top with grated nutmeg and then bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until set and golden brown on top.   Serve warm. 

I do apologize to anyone who is waiting on specific posts from me.  I will be on to them as soon as my tummy and time allows!  Sorry for the brief hiccup!

The weather has been a lot cooler these past few days, and not so stifling . . . Todd was so happy, even though he really loved the heat.  He was getting a bit tired of salads though . . . he was craving some meat and potatoes.



So what's a gal to do?   Well, I love my man a lot, and so I cooked him up a real man-pleasing meat and potatoes meal.  He loves bangers and mash most of all . . . so that's what I did . . .



But not just any bangers and mash, no.  Oven Barbequed Bangers and Mash.  This is the best of the best. I do confess to having a certain fondness for it myself.



The sausages are par-boiled on top of the stove in some water, along with some onions to help render out some of that fat.   They you lightly brown them in a nonstick pan.  The softened onions are put into the bottom of a shallow baking dish.   A delicious home made barbeque sauce is poured over top and then you drop in the browned sausages.



The whole thing then gets banged into the oven.  The sauce, which appears quite liquidy when you first put it into the dish, thickens into a glossy rich sauce . . . filled with lovely bits of soft onion, coating and glazing the sausages.



The sausages are meltingly tender and in that sauce . . . wowsa, just heavenly . . . and with a side of mash, you just can't go wrong.   Winner/winner chicken dinner!



Except it's not.  Chicken that is . . . it's Banger's and Mash, but not as you know it.  ☺
Try them for yourself.  I think you'll agree that this dinner is quite scrumptious indeed!   There is nothing that could make this any tastier than it already is.  Guaranteed!



*Oven Barbequed Sausages*

Place half of your marinara sauce into the bottom of the baking dish.  Top with the basil leaves, reserving a few for the top.  Fill your rigatoni noodles with the cheese mixture.  (It works best if your noodles are not quite cooked and the cheese is at room temperature.  Then you don't have blow outs and the cheese goes in quite easily.)  Lay the filled tubes in the dish in a circular pattern, one layer at a time.   Once you have filled them all and they are in the dish.   Pour the remaining sauce over top, spreading  it out to cover.   Scatter on a few torn basil leaves and the grated Parmesan cheese.  Scatter the Mozarella over top of all.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the top is golden and the dish is bubbling.   Serve hot!

I really like using my crockpot and it has come in especially handy these past couple of days, when we have spent more time packing than doing anything else.  We actually have two crockpots.  The larger one that you see here, and a smaller one.



Often on Sundays I will put a chicken or roast into the larger one and potatoes in the smaller one.  That way supper is ready and waiting for us when we get home.  We're usually starving by then!



We have several freezers here.  A large chest freezer that is ours, and which will be going with us up to Chester, and a smaller bar sized one, which will be staying as it belongs to the cottage.  I have been trying really hard to use up everything in it and found myself with a lovely piece of rolled brisket to cook.



I had always wanted to try cooking one in coffee.  I had heard that done that way, brisket turns out really tender and delicious, and that you cannot taste the coffee in it at all.  We don't really do coffee, but I bought a small jar of decaf to use in this recipe.



It is really a combination of several recipes that I found.  I liked bits of both and put them together to make my own taste tempting concoction.  Delicious tender beef,  cooked with onion, carrots, sweet bell peppers, mushrooms, garlic and some seasonings.   Stirring in some cream cheese at the end creates a luciously rich and creamy gravy.



And taste tempting it was!  You really could not taste the coffee at all, and it gave the gravy a nice colour, and true to it's reputation . . . the brisket was tender as could be.



Todd gave this two thumbs up and I will be putting it into my regular Sunday Recipe rotation schedule once we get all settled in up North.



I really hope you will give it a try.  Not only was it easy to do, but relatively painless, totally scrumptious and smelled fantastic when it was cooking!  We had this simply with some mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts on the side.  The gravy was really scrummy spooned over the potatoes!



*Crockpot Java Brisket*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe

Delicious moist  beef brisket with a wonderfully rich and flavourful sauce.  You would  never know there was coffee in the gravy.  You can use beef broth  instead if you are not fond of coffee.

1/3 kg rolled brisket  joint
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
1  large onion, peeled and chopped
4 to 5 garlic cloves, peeled and  minced
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
6 ounces strong brewed coffee or  beef broth
1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
3 TBS Sherry Vinegar
1/2  tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

To finish:
4  ounces cream cheese

Place all of the chopped vegetables in the  bottom of the crockpot.  Top with the brisket.  Stir together the  coffee, worcestershire sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper.  Pour over all.   Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours, or on high for 4 to 5 hours.    At the end of that time, remove the meat carefully from the crockpot to a  platter.  Whisk the cream cheese into the juices until smooth and  amalgamated.  Serve the meat sliced with the juices spooned over top.