I just love Rhubarb Season and our rhubarb plants are going crazy at the moment!  I am love, love, LOVING it!

 

I picked up some Spanish strawberries today.  (I know naughty me.)  They looked really, really good though and mine are only blossoming . . . sooo tooo early for English ones.  I was really wanting a Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble though, and just what's a gal to do!

 

This is easily my most favourite of all crumbles.  Todd . . . he likes Apple Crumble best of all . . . for me though, it's this one.

 

You get the slight tartness from the rhubarb and then that sweetness of the strawberries . . . and all topped off with a buttery/oaty/nutty crumble topping!



Soft and succulent fruit . . . oooozing with flavour!!!
Toasty nutty topping . . . oooozing with crunch!!!
Rich cream dribbling into all those lovely crevices . . .

 

It's pretty hard to resist something that is so so so sooooooooo GOOD!

 

Seriously.  I was very naughty with this, and I think I'm going in to polish off the leftovers for breakfast.

 

If I'm not up for air by noon . . . you better send in a search party . . .

 

 *Strawberry, Rhubarb, Oat and Walnut Crumble*
Serves 8 to 12
Printable Recipe

This is worth waiting all year for.  Delicious, delicious, DELICIOUS!

For the Crumble Topping:
3.75 ounces plain flour (3/4 cup)
2 ounces rolled oats (1/2 cup)
3.75 ounces soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup packed)
3 ounces of chopped toasted walnuts ( generous 1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
2 ounces butter, melted (1/4 cup)

For the filling:
7 ounces granulated sugar (1 cup)
2 TBS cornflour
16 ounces rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces (a generous 6 cups)
16 ounces strawberries, cut in half (a generous 6 cups)
1 TBS pure vanilla extract

Pouring cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.  Butter a large glass baking dish and set aside.

Make the crumble first.  Mix the flour, oats, sugar, salt and walnuts together in a bowl.  Pour the melted butter over top.  Stir and press together to make a few clumps.  Put in the freezer while you make the filling.

Stir together the cornflour and sugar, mixing it together well.  Add the fruit and vanilla.  Toss together gently to coat.  Pour into the prepared baking dish.  Remove the crumble from the freezer and sprinkle over the top.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling around the edges.  Cool for about 20 minutes before serving.

Spoon out into bowls to serve and pass the cream!

Note:  This is best eaten on the day.  You can halve the recipe quite successfully if you don't want to make that much.  Chill any leftovers, wrapped in the refrigerator.  They're quite nice eaten for breakfast the morning after.  *blush*

I have always loved corn muffins and corn bread.  A baked bean supper would be nothing without some cornbread on the side, nor would a spicy bowl of chili con carne! Cornbread completes those meals like nothing else does. I think corn muffins are every bit as wonderful as corn bread. Maybe even better.

 

I remember an incident very early on in my young married life when I was visiting my in-laws for the first time. My sister in law was also there for the weekend and my Mother in law used to work in a shoe store. To make a long story short, she had prepared baked beans and ham for supper one night, which she asked me to pop into the oven and she also asked me to throw together her corn bread recipe and bake it as muffins to have along with the meal.  (I think she was trying to help me to feel included and useful.) Then she went to work. As soon as she left my sister in law insisted that I made the muffins right away. I didn't think I should, but rather than argue or press the point, I did what she told me too. (I think she was trying to make me look incompetent!)  Of course it was the wrong thing to do . . . but, c'est la vie! Once we warmed them up they were completely edible and no real harm was done.

 

I think cornbread is much better when eaten warm. Ditto the muffins. That way if you want to spread them with butter, it melts into all of those lovely little crevices and tunnels.

 

These particular muffins are extra moist and extra special. They are lightly sweetened and flavoured with honey . . . I like English Wildflower honey, myself.   It tastes like a warm sunny day!

 

I like to tuck in a little surprise as well, that never fails to delight the eater.  I hide a sweet little nugget of strawberry or raspberry jam in the middle . . .well  . . .  sometime, it does sort of sink to the bottom, but no mind . . . it's tasty nonetheless.  It goes so very well with that little bit of crunch from the cornmeal and the moist butteriness of the whole muffin.

 
Cornbread muffins, filled with jam and baked until all scrummily toasty golden brown.  They're a good thing.   In fact . . .I think that they're the best!



*Honey Cornbread Surprise Muffins*
Makes 12 large muffins
Printable Recipe

If you like cornbread muffins, you will love these tasty little babies.  Moist and delicious, with the hidden surprise of a nugget of jam in the centre.

170g of cornmeal  (fine ground polenta will do) (1 cup)
100g of plain flour (1 cup)
1 TBS baking powder
95g of granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
250ml of milk (1 cup)
2 large free range eggs
4 TBS butter,  melted
85g of runny honey
12 tsp of raspberry or strawberry jam

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.  Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.  Set aside.

Whisk the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and sugar together in a large bowl.  Beat together the milk, eggs, melted butter, and honey.  Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.  Add the wet all at once and stir only to moisten the dry ingredients.  Spoon into the prepared muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full.  Drop a tsp of jam onto the top of each.  (It will sink as the muffins bake.)

Bake for 15 minutes, until well risen and golden brown.  Serve warm, with or without butter.  It's up to you!

Note:  You can leave the jam out completely if you wish. We love that tasty nugget of fruity sweetness in ours though.  It makes them special!

When I was a child I was not overly fond of oatmeal . . . not for breakfast or any other time . . . unless it was baked into cookies . . . then I could be gently persuaded to eat it.  I wasn't eating cooked oatmeal for love nor money.  It was just not my cup of tea . . . at all!

 

Clearly my mother was not all that persuasive or inventive . . . I dare say if a bowl of these lovely baked oats had been put down in front of me . . . I'd have gobbled it up . . . no problem!  Sorry mom!

 

This is so easy to make that there's really no excuse not to make it.  You just throw it together and pop it into the oven.  Run upstairs to take your shower and get dressed, and by the time you come back down it'll be scrummily ready to scarf down!

 

Tasty baked oats . . . toothsome and slightly crumbly . . . with a nicer bite than ordinary stove topped cooked oatmeal.

 

Lightly flavoured with cinnamon and golden syrup . . . or honey if you would prefer.

 

Stogged full of chunks of dried apple and sweet dried cranberries . . . poking here and there, sparkling with all the beauty of the crown jewels.

 

Other than the bit of butter that you stir into it at the beginning . . . it's totally fat free too.  Of course . . . having it with cream would negate all that good.  But go on . . . why not.

 

Dig in!!



*Country Farmhouse Baked Breakfast Oats*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

Toothsome, crumbly, chock full of fruit, cinnamony and most important of all . . . a most delicious way to get your oats!

120g of old fashioned rolled oats (1 1/2 cups)
2 TBS butter
375ml of boiling water (1 1/2 cups)
375ml of milk (1 1/2 cups)
2 TBS golden syrup or honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch salt
45g of chopped dried apples (1/2 cup)
75g of dried cranberries (1/2 cup)

To serve:
whole milk or single cream (cold or gently warmed)
cinnamon sugar

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Butter a medium glass baking dish.  Set aside.

Measure the oats into a large bowl.  Drop in the butter.  Pour the boiling water over top.  Let stand for 5 minutes.  Stir in the milk, golden syrup (honey), ground cinnamon, and salt.  Combine well and then pour into the prepared baking dish.  Cover tightly with foil and then place into the heated oven.

Bake for 35 minutes, remove the foil and bake for 5 to 10 minutes longer, until thick and bubbly.

Spoon into heated bowls.  Serve hot with cream or milk drizzled around the cereal and a dusting of cinnamon sugar.

 

I had some French Bread that needed using up today and I fancied some French Toast for breakfast. But I didn't want the same old same old.

 

I thought I might like to stuff it . . . but again, I didn't want the same old, same old.  Then I spied a tasty jar of lemon curd in my cupboard.  (I usually make my own, but I always have a jar of ready made to hand as well, coz . . . I'm a lemon curd nut!!)

 

I've seen French Toast stuffed with fruit and cheese and ham and all sorts, but I've never seen one stuffed with lemon curd . . . I thought why not!!

 

And so I did . . . stuff it with lemon curd that is.

 

I served it up with some fresh Strawberries.

 

It was good . . . very, very goooood!  'Nuff said.



*Lemon Stuffed French Toast*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

A wonderful way to use up stale bread, with a tangy lemon curd filling.  Serve with some golden syrup and fresh berries for a delightful breakfast treat!

One (16 ounce) loaf of french bread, unsliced
295ml of milk (1 1/4 cup)
3 large free range eggs
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
a jar of lemon curd
unsalted butter and vegetable oil for cooking

To finish:
Icing sugar to dust
an assortment of fresh berries
golden syrup (optional)



Preheat the oven to 150*C/300*F/ gas mark 2.  Butter a baking sheet.  Set aside.

Cut the bread into  8 equal slized, each about 1 inch thick.  Cut a pocket into each  piece of bread, using a serrated knife, carefully slicing into, but not all the way through.  Spoon about 1 dessertspoon full of lemon curd into the pocket created in each piece of bread.

Whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt.  Dunk the stuffed slices of bread into the egg mixture, allowing them to soak it up for several minutes, turning to coat it evenly on both sides.  You want it saturated, but not falling apart.

Warm 1 TBS of butter and 1 TBS of oil together in a large heavy skillet over medium heat.  Cook the slices of stuffed bread in the heated fat until golden brown and lightly crisp on one side, flip over carefully and brown and crisp the other side.  Place them onto the prepared baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while you cook the remainder, using more butter and oil as necessary.

When all the toast is ready, place it onto heated plates and dust lightly with icing sugar.  Serve immediately with some fresh berries and  golden syrup (if desired.)

I don't know why, perhaps it's because I am slimming, or at least trying to at the moment . . . but I have had an awful craving lately for Bounty Bars . . . you know what I mean . . . those candy bars that have the scrummy coconut filling, and a milk chocolate coating.  I'm not pregnant, (Heaven forbid!!), so there's no accounting for it really!



In any case, I had it in my mind today that I wanted to make a bounty bar kind of a cake.  I thought a nice moist chocolate cake . . . with a scrummy bounty type of coconut macaroon type of filling, iced with a delicious buttery chocolate icing.

 

So that's what I set out to do . . . although it didn't end up exactly as I had envisioned . . . the end result was still rather scrummy and completely edible.

 

The cake was quite moist . . . and the macaroon coconut quite sticky and scrummy.  I had wanted the filling to settle somewhere in the middle . . . but alas, it sunk completely to the bottom.

 

Epic failure . . . or a wonderful discovery???

 

I dunno . . . but . . . in any case, here it is!

 

I am now on a quest.  I think I need a batter with a denser texture.  Perhaps then the filling will stay where I want it to be.  Watch this space!

 

I just love sandwiches . . . and I'm not alone in that either. The British all love sandwiches! They're a big business over here.  They're sold in all the shops, convenience stores, grocery shops, coffee shops etc.  Of course if you hadn't guessed already . . . Sarnie is another name for sandwich!

 

Makes it sound like something  quite exotic doesn't it?

 

One of my favourite places to buy a ready made sarnie is in M&S.  Their sandwiches are the best.  The bread is always fresh and the filling generous, and spread to the edge . . . not like some of the cheaper places where you get a dollop of filling in the  middle of two slices of dry bread . . . with more bread than filling!  Ugh!  Nasty.



I was quite suprised when I moved over here to the UK at the different varieties of sandwiches that were on offer as well.  Cheese and onion . . . delicious!  Cheese and tomato . . .  likewise!  There's salad sandwiches, sandwiches made with crab, or prawns or tuna.  Tuna and Cucumber seems to be quite popular.  As is Tuna and Sweetcorn.

 

Then there are Egg & Cress, Coronation Chicken, Corned Beef (made with tinned corned Beef, which is actually quite nice),  and a host of others . . . too many to list here I think, but you get the idea, I'm sure!



Anyways, the point of all of this is that I made Todd and myself a couple of very tasty sandwiches for our lunch one day at the weekend.  In  my quest to cut back a bit, I made them open faced sandwiches, so only half the bread.

 

I added some sliced ham, sliced turkey, half fat swiss cheese, lettuce, a delicious homemade dressing . . . kind of tangy and yet at the same time a bit sweet . . . some sliced egg, tomato and  . . . naughty but nice crisply cooked streaky bacon.  (Really nice . . .  dry cured and unsmoked is my choice!)



A gal can't be 100% good all of the time can she??  I thought not!!



 *Dressed Club Salad Sarnie*
Serves 2
Printable Recipe

An open faced, knife and forker!  Delicious!  (Easily upped or downed to serve more or less people.)

2 slices sour dough bread
2 slices of baked deli ham
2 slices of Leerdammer cheese (Swiss type of cheese, I use the low fat one)
2 slices of deli turkey
1 cup of shredded cos lettuce (Romaine)
1 hard boiled egg, sliced
1 tomato, sliced
4 slices of streaky bacon, rind removed and cooked crisp

For the dressing:
1 heaped dessert spoon of low fat mayonnaise
1  tsp of tomato ketchup
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp of chopped sweet pickle
1/2 tsp of finely grated onion
pinch of salt and black pepper

Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.  Set aside.

Lay one slice of bread onto each of two plates.  Top each with 1 slice of ham.  Top the ham with the cheese.  Top the cheese with the turkey.  Divide the lettuce between the two and drizzle each with half of the dressing.  Top each with half of  the sliced egg, sliced tomato and two slices of bacon criss crossed.  Serve immediately.  Pass the knives and forks!