I managed to pick up a rotisserie chicken at the shops today that was marked half price. Did you know that they are only allowed to keep them in the cabinet for a certain amount of time and after that they have to mark them down and get rid of them? I discovered this little bit of information a while back and haven't paid full price for one since.



There is nothing wrong with them. They are still perfectly good. I just bring them home, strip them and then use the meat for casseroles or sandwiches.



Today I wanted to treat Todd to a Chicken Pot Pie . . . sort of as an apology for having fed him pasta that I tried to pass off as flat potatoes yesterday, he he he. I may torture him from time to time with things he is not overly fond of, but I always more than make up for it.



This recipe is quite simple and easy to do. It makes a nice sized casserole pot pie that is very family friendly. I used carrots and peas today, but you can also add some corn if you want to. You can also very easily double the recipe to feed more than four.



Instead of a traditional crust, I made some cheddar dumplings to drop on top . . . I was feeling rather lazy and didn't want to go to all the faff of rolling out a dough. Todd didn't mind. He loves dumplings even more than pie crust.



Stogged full of cheddar cheese and all crispy on the outsides they were just beautiful with that delicious filling. You could use cream, but I always just use skim evaporated milk. It saves somewhat on the calories and fat, and you can't really taste that it is tinned milk. The sauce is luxuriously rich tasting and lucious indeed!



We had it with a salad. Rabbit food as Todd calls it. He wasn't too happy about that. He doesn't like salad and I had given him some salad along side of his sandwich at lunch time. He figured once a day was enough, without me trying to palm it off on him twice in one day! Men!!



*Chicken Pot Pie with Cheddar Dumplings*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

A delicious pot pie which makes good use of leftover chicken, or you can pick up a small rotisserie bird at the shops and use the meat from that. Scrumdiddlyumptious!

250ml of chicken broth (1 cup)
250ml of tinned evaporated milk (1 cup)
3 TBS butter
1 large leek, dark green leaves trimmed away, washed and then the light green and white parts chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
1 stick of celery, trimmed and chopped
1 mug full of frozen petit pois
1 small rotisserie chicken, shredded ( 2 1/2 to 3 cups of meat)
2 heaped dessertspoons of flour
1 fluid ounces of cream sherry (1/8 cup)
1 tsp dried sage
a handful of fresh parsley, chopped

For the dumplings:
4 1/4 ounces plain flour (1 cup)
1 tsp baking powder
generous pinch of baking soda
generous pinch of salt
2 ounces grated strong cheddar cheese (1/2 cup)
4 TBS cold butter, cut into bits
125ml of buttermilk (1/2 cup)

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Have ready a shallow baking dish.

Strip all the chicken from it's bones, discarding any skin or bones. Cut into small bits or shred. Place in a bowl.

Heat 1 TBS of butter in a skillet. Add the leeks, celery and carrots. Cook and stir over medium low heat until tender, 7 to 8 minutes. Add the sage. Add the remaining butter and then sprinkle the flour over top and give it good stir to coat everything. Pour in the chicken stock, milk and sherry. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about a minute. Stir in the parsley, frozen peas, chicken and season to taste with some salt and pepper. Pour this mixture into the baking dish.

Sift the flour into a bowl. Whisk in the baking powder, soda and salt. Drop in the butter and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the cheese and then enough of the buttermilk to make a soft dough. Drop by tablespoons onto the hot chicken mixture.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until bubbling and the dumplings are crusty. Serve hot.



Our little princess celebrated her Birthday today with a tasty Beef Cake. She wasn't too happy about the party hat, but she sure enjoyed her cake! She wasn't bothered about the balloons either. I thought she might be afraid of them . . . but one whiff of the beef and she could think of nothing else! (That would be like me and good chocolate. You could sit anything on my head and cover me with balloons, just so long as I got the chocolate in the end!) Happy Birthday Mitzie!

If you are a regular reader here, you will recall me having received a hamper of meat from Piper's Farm several weeks ago, and a very fine hamper it was. We greatly enjoyed all that they sent. I am only now getting to try the bacon though, and I have to say it is the finest bacon I have ever tasted! I'm not making that up either, just because they gave it to me for free. I speak the truth.



It tastes just like bacon used to taste in the old days before supermarkets and plastic packaging. This tastes just like the bacon we used to get back home . . . home smoked and very flavourful. I have fallen in love with it.

From their page: Cured in our home-made brines, air-dried and smoked over oak, our bacon has a wonderful texture and flavour, crisps in the pan.



It is fabulous!

I chose to make a delicious bacon sandwich with some of it for our lunch today. I can't remember where I got the idea for this combination. I won't take credit for it. I saw it somewhere one day when I was surfing the www and it sounded delicious so I made a mental note of it.



Imagine a delicious sandwich, all buttery and toasted on the outsides . . . the insides spread with honey dijon mustard and stogged full of delicious smoked back bacon, sweet slices of apple and gooey scrummy melting farmhouse cheddar . . .



Are you there yet??? Can you taste it???



Go for it. You won't regret it . . . oh, your hips might groan a tiny bit, but all will be forgotten as soon as you sink your teeth into that first delicious bite.



*Grilled Apple, Bacon and Cheese Sarnie*
Make as many as you like or think you can eat
Printable Recipe

Ingredients vary according to how hungry you are or how much you like. Know only for sure that it is delicious!

two slices of sturdy bread (you choose, white, whole wheat, grainy, etc.)
cooked back bacon
a strong farmhouse cheddar cheese, cut into slices
a granny smith apple, washed, cored and cut into thin slices
Honey Dijon mustard
softened butter for spreadin on the outsides

Take your bread and spread both slices on the insides with some of the mustard, spreading it as thin or thick as you prefer. Top one slice with the cheddar cheese and bacon. Top the other one with the thinly sliced apple. Press both slices together with the ingredients on the insides. Butter the outsides, top and bottom.

Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium low heat. Place the sandwich in, apple side on the bottom, and butter to the pan. Cook gently over low heat until the bread is nice and toasty. Flip over and toast slowly on the other side until the cheese melts.

Note - You cannot rush a grilled cheese sandwich. Slow and steady over a low temperature is the key, oh and patience. That also helps. A tasty sandwich is it's own reward!

The weather really has been miserable this past week . . . cold, showery and windy! Mind you, we do need the rain. Our garden is simply gasping for it!



One isn't really inclined to eat warm weather food on this rainy cold days though. One wants comforting sustenance . . . rib sticking, tummy warming, soulful food.
A nice warming soup always fits the bill perfectly. Especially soups such as this tantelizingly delicious Honeyed Tomato Soup here today! It's simple, easy, quick and fantastically tasty!



Rich and herby with just a hint of sweet . . . your guests will wonder what your secret is. It tastes like it should have a bazillion calories in it, but guess what?? THERE IS HARDLY ANY FAT! It's just tomatoes, herbs, love fat milk . . . and that incredible richness comes from tinned skimmed evaporated milk.



Oh sure . . . you could use cream, but it's not really needed. You get all the deliciousness of a full cream soup, without any of the fat or calories!

I like that. Of course, one cannot say the same about the accompanying sandwich, but then . . . you can't have it all can you?



*Honeyed Tomato Soup*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

A deliciously simple tomato soup, slightly sweetened with honey. I find the honey helps the tomatoes from being too acidic. It just tastes wonderful. Who would guess that is is low in fat!

2 (390g) pouched of chopped Italian tomatoes with onions and garlic (about 4 cups)
2 ribs of celery chopped
splash of white wine
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
2 TBS runny honey
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
250ml of skimmed evaporated tinned milk (1 cup)
250ml of 2% milk (1 cup)

Place the tomatoes, celery, white wine, sage and rosemary into a saucepan. Bring to the boil. Immediately reduce the heat to a low simmer. Stir in the honey and season to taste with some salt and black pepper. Simmer for about 15 minutes, until the celery is soft. Blitz until smooth with a stick blender if you have it, or very carefully in a regular blender. Alternately you can put it through a moulee. Return to the heat. Whisk in most of the tinned milk, reserving a bit for a garnishing. Whisk in the milk. Heat through. Ladle out into 4 heated soup bowls. Drizzle a bit of the reserved tinned milk on top and drag through it with a toothpick to make a lovely swirl.



These are quite simply one of my favourite ways to make a grilled cheese. Simple and yet filled with wonderfully rich flavours! The tanginess of the strong cheddar cheese, combined with the sweetness of red onion marmalade, tucked inside a sturdy loaf and grilled until it is scrummily oozingly delicious! If you can't find Onion Marmalade, you could use a good chutney, and then again you could make your own.



*Cheddar and Onion Marmalade Panini*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

These are soooo good!! The perfect "go with" for a cup of soup!

8 thin slices of a sturdily rustic white loaf (I used a French Boule, which
I sliced into 1/2 inch thick slices)
4 generous tablespoons of onion marmalade
8 ounces of a good strong farmhouse cheddar, sliced
softened butter for buttering

Heat your panini press. Lay out 4 slices of your bread. Spread 1 TBS of onion marmalade onto each. Top with a generous amount of cheddar, dividing it equally amongst the bread. Top with the other 4 slices. Butter each sandwich lightly on each side and place into the Panini press. Grill until the cheese is meltingly scrummy and the panini have nice grill lines. Serve immediately.

So yesterday I was invited out for a girlie day crafting with two fab friends. I was asked to bring cake for our picnic lunch, and so I was quite happy to comply!



Crafting, girlie friends, cake . . . sounds like a fabulous combination don't you think???



I wanted a portable cake though, because I knew I was going to be travelling first by train and then by car and I didn't want anything that was going to get squashed or ruined in the process, in other words . . . something that would hold up.



Loaf cakes are the perfect thing for such occasions. You can cut them into slices and then sandwich the slices together with the icing in the middle. Easy to handle, and easy to eat, with little or no mess! The perfect picnic portable!



This is one of my favourite loafs to make, next to banana or carrot . . . oh and lemon, let's not forget that. Cougettes make a lovely loaf cake, which always turns out moist and delicious.



I added cardamom and lime to this one to give it just that little bit extra zip and tang. The frosting in the middle? A delicious cream cheese, also flavoured with lime.

Altogether scrummy and the perfect treat for three crafting gals I think!

Cake sandwiches! I love them!



*Courgette, Cardamom and Lime Loaf*
Makes one 9 inch loaf, serving 8 to 10
Printable Recipe

Moist and nicely spiced. I like to sandwich slices together with cream cheese icing to wrap up and take along to picnics!

250g of grated courgettes (2 medium zucchini, grated)
100g caster sugar (1/2 cup)
100g butter (scant 1/2 cup)
100g runny honey (1/3 cup)
3 large free range eggs, beaten
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
the zest and juice of one unwaxed lime
325g of self raising flour (generous 2 1/2 cup)
75g of ground almonds (3/4 cup)
3 TBS thick Greek Yoghurt

Icing:
100g of icing sugar, sifted (generous 3/4 cup)
75g of butter, softened (1/3 cup)
75g of low fat cream cheese, softened (1/3 cup)
juice and zest of one unwaxed lime

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark4. Butter a 9 inch loaf tin and line with parchment paper. Butter the paper. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Beat in the honey and the eggs. Fold in the cardamom, lime zest and lime juice. Squeeze as much liquid as you can from the courgettes and fold them into the creamed mixture along with the flour and ground almonds. Stir in the yoghurt. Spread the batter in the prepared tin, smoothing the top off.

Bake for one hour until baked all the way through and well risen. A toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean. Place (still in the tin) on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the Icing, beat all the ingredients together until smooth. Cut the cold cake into slices and sandwich them together with some of the icing to serve. Alternately you can just spread the icing on top of the loaf and cut into slices to serve.

Know what I love even more than Hot Cross Buns???? Hot Cross Bun Loaf!! Oh, I know . . . it's store bought and not homemade . . . but . . .



Just look at it close up. It's soft and spicy and absolutely bursting with currants and sultanas! I think it's just wonderful and so does Todd! Our local butcher had it on special last week at two loaves for 99pence, so what could I do, but buy two!



We've had it for breakfast, lightly toasted and spread with butter. We've had it for our evening bedtime snack, again lightly toasted and spread with butter. I've eaten it right out of the bag . . . it's so soft and yummy . . .



AND then I decided to make some scrummy French Toast with it . . . but not just any French Toast . . . a French Toast stuffed with low fat cream cheese and jam. Normally I would have used apricot jam for this . . . but alas . . . I had run out and so I used berries and cherries jam. It was really good too.



Oh my but it was some good. We actually had it for our tea the other night with some grilled sausages, but I reckon it would make a fabulous holiday breakfast for the children on Easter morning.



What do you think?? I'm thinking the kids would love it!



*Hot Cross French Toast*
Serves 4, but easily mulitplied to feed more
Printable Recipe

It just wouldn't be Easter without it!

8 sliced hot cross bun bread (can use raisin bread if you
can't get the hot cross bun bread)
4 ounces cream cheese
4 TBS of your favourite jam
3 large free range eggs
2 ounces milk (1/4 cup)
1 TBS butter
1 TBS oil
Icing sugar to dust (optional)

Lay 4 slices of the bread out. Spread these with the cream cheese, spreading it right to the edges, but having it a bit thicker in the centres. Spoon a TBS of jam in the middle of each one and spread it out a bit, but not all the way to the edge. Top with the remaining slices of bread. Press down slightly to make them stick together around the edges.

Beat the eggs and milk together until smooth.

Heat the butter and oil together over medium heat until the butter begins to foam.

Dip each cheese and jam sandwich into the beaten mixture, one at a time, allowing the egg mixture to soak in a bit on each side and on the edges. Fry them one at a time in the butter/oil mixture, browning them on each side and then placing into a warm oven while you prepare the rest.

Dust with some icing sugar if using, and serve hot with syrup and cooked sausages.



Happy Easter!

I sometimes will pick up a Rotisserie chicken at the grocery store as a real treat. They are always so tasty and moist. Usually we eat it just as it is, but sometimes I turn it into a tasty casserole or delicious salad. You can often get them marked down as well, depending on what time you get to the shops. In fact they sometimes give you a better deal if you buy two . . . so you can eat one as a roast chicken on the day, and strip the meat off the other one for use on another day.



I know, it might seem rather lazy, and it is . . . but there are days when you just have a lot on, and will be in and out . . . and there just isn't enough time to cook anything much proper . . . a rotisserie chicken beats the heck out of a burger meal or the like! Along with some veg and a packet of steamed rice, you've got a tasty nutritious meal ready in no time at all!



This is one of my favourite salads that I like to make with the meat. Not only is it very quick to make, but if you use low fat mayonnaise it is not all that bad for you at all. With the added crunch of toasted walnuts and the sweet tangy spice of some mango chutney, it is chock full of flavour, and colour! We like it at any rate!



*Chicken Salad with Chutney, Coriander and Lime*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

A great lunch salad that makes good use of a rotisserie cooked chicken. If you use low fat mayonnaise it is also relatively low in fat and calories. It also makes a delicously scrummy sandwich filling!

250ml of low fat (or regular) mayonnaise (1 cup)
125ml of mango chutney (1/4 cup)
1 plain roasted chicken (approx 3 pounds)
3 1/2 ounces of chopped toasted walnuts (3/4 cup)
2 stalks of celery, trimmed and chopped
1/2 of a medium red bell pepper, trimmed, seeds discarded, and chopped
a handful of fresh coriander, chopped (cilantro)
3 limes, divided
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
a small head of Boston or garden lettuce

Place the mayonnise into a large glass bowl.Cut any large pieces of mango in the chutney into small dice, and then add the chutney to the mayonnaise, stirring well to mix.

Remove and discard the skin from the chicken. Cut the meat into 3/4 inch cubes. Stir in the walnuts, celery, red pepper and coriander, mixing all in well. Juice 2 of the limes and add 3 TBS of the juice to the chicken salad, stirring it in to mix. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. (you can make it ahead up to 4 hours at this point. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature 15 minutes before serving.)

To serve, arrange a bed of lettuce leaves on each of 4 chilled plates. Mound a portion of chicken salad on top of each. Slice the remaining lime into 1/2 inch wedges and garnish each portion with a wedge of lime.

 

A few days ago I was contacted and asked me if I would like to try out a few products. I was quite happy to oblidge.

I opted for the Giant Cupcake Pan from Eddingtons and a really cute little Retro Milk and Sugar set from Make My Day.



They arrived this morning and I could wait to get stuck in to using them. I have always wanted a cupcake cake tin and I was pretty excited about it. It came with expert instruction on how to use it and how much batter to use.



It suggested you use a 6 egg cake batter and so I decided to use Mary Berry's Victorian Sandwich Cake recipe, doubled, as it is one of our favourites. The cake tin is all in one piece, which includes the cupcake base section and the cupbake top section. One down side of this is that the bottom takes longer to bake than the top and so you have to put the tin into the oven with just the bottom filled and then take it out about halfway through the cooking time and fill the top part. Anyone who is a baker knows that messing around with taking cakes in and out of ovens during the baking process is a risky business, and prone to failure and sure nuff . . . my cake ended up sunk a bit in the middle and heavy. I would say that this is a major hiccup in anotherwise beautiful pan, and I'm not sure how to get around it.



I also decided to use all butter in the cake recipe this time, as someone had suggested in the comments section the last time I baked it that you should always use all butter in a Victorian Sponge, and I have to say we are not very happy with the texture of the cake, and have found it to be far too rich. I will definitely go back to using half butter and half marg. When Mary Berry says to use half and half, I would think she definitely knows what she is talking about. I should have listened to her. ( I would have to say that the cake is almost greasy and that is not good in my books. I like butter, but too much is too much!)



Nevertheless the cake was quite cute when completed and decorated and looked just adorable sitting on my table with that sweet little milk and sugar set. I am in love with that. It is not too big and not too small. The milk container resembles an old fashioned pint milk bottle, complete with a rubber cover to keep it fresh. I collect milk and sugar containers so this is a lovely addition to my collection.



I was able to use my Tovolo Utensils again, that they had sent me previously and I have to say that I am very impressed with the. Sturdy and brightly coloured they have become my favourite utensils. Knowing that I have something to use that is heat resistant, sturdy and that won't scrape my pans is a blessing! I am especially enamoured with the slotted mixing spoon. It has a lovely stainless steel handle and is very strong and able to handle the thickest of batters with ease. The scraper is also very good and sturdy. These are lifetime tools as I cannot see them ever breaking or melting, and after several months of constant use have remained as new looking as the day I received them. I highly recommend.



Thanks very much to Eddingtons and Tovolo, for having sent me these handy little gadgets. I will work at finding a way to make the cake tin work out a bit better. Perhaps a different recipe for the batter and if I bake the layers separately. It will take longer, as it will be like baking two cakes, but for a special occasion it would be well worth the trouble, as it is really cute!!



Nevertheless I did enjoy my little tea for one . . . a tiny sliver of cake and a delicious cup of Cranberry and Pomegranate Herbal tea . . . very refreshing. Sometimes it's nice to spoil yourself just that tiny bit.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone! we'll be enjoying our boiled bacon and cabbage today, how about you?


*Traditional Victorian Sandwich Cake*
Makes one 7 inch cake
Printable Recipe

Popular during the reign of Queen Victoria, this cake remains popular to this day, which is a huge testament to it's taste and ease of baking! Don't be tempted to use all butter. This is one recipe that is better for the use of a mixture of butter and margarine.

3 ounces of butter, softened (6 TBS)
3 ounces soft margarine (6 TBS)
6 ounces caster sugar (1 cup)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs, beaten
6 ounces self raising flour (a scant 1 1/2 cups)

To finish:
3 TBS raspberry jam
buttercream to fill (optional)
icing sugar or caster sugar to dust the top

Butter and base line two 7 inch sandwich tins. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.

Cream the butter, margarine, sugar and vanilla together until light in colour and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mixture begins to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour.

Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, taking care to use a cutting motion so as not to knock out too much of the air that you have beaten into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake tins, leveling off the surface. Make a slight dip in the centre of each.

Bake on a centre rack of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the sponges have risen well, are golden brown, and spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in the pan for five minutes before running a knife carefully around the edges and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled, place one layer on a cake plate. Spread with raspberry jam and buttercream (if using). Place the other cake on top, pressing down lightly. Dust with icing or caster sugar and serve.