There is nothing that brings me more satisfaction than being able to pull together a few simple ingredients and come up with a delicious dish that has people ooohing and aaahing and, well . . . wanting more . . .



You can't really go wrong with the combination of onions and cheese.
They are the perfect marriage.



Onions have a natural sweetness that goes so well with the tang of a good cheddar!
You see it in French Onion Soup . . .



With the added crunch of a toasted crouton on top . . .



This delicious casserole has all of the same elements . . .
except there's a tasty, creamy sauce as well.



Make this today.  You will love it.  I kid you not.  Go on . . . you know you want to.




*Cheese Scalloped Onions*
Serves 4 to 6

This is a lovely side dish.  Cheese and onions go together so very well.  They also go very well with most things.

3 large onions, peeled and sliced
6 ounces grated strong cheddar cheese
2 cups croutons, crushed a bit
2 ounces butter (1/4 cup)
2 ounces flour (1/4 cup)
500 ml of whole milk (2 cups)
salt and black pepper to taste
freshly grated nutmeg
a knob of butter

Place the onion in a large saucepan.  Cover with lightly salted boiling water and allow to sit on a slow simmer while you make the sauce.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour and cook for one minutes.  Slowly whisk in the milk.  Cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.  Season to taste with salt, black pepper and some freshly grated nutmeg.  Remove from the heat.

Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas 4.  Butter a 2 litre casserole dish.

Drain the onions well.   Place half of the onions into the buttered dish.  Sprinkle with half the cheese and half the croutons.  Pour on half of the sauce.  Layer on the remaining onions and cheese.  Pour the remaining sauce over top.  Cut into it a bit with a dull knife to distribute the sauce evenly through out.  Sprinkle on the remaining croutons.  Dot with butter.  Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.  Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.  Delicious!




 I would like to announce my very first Cookbooklet, "A Royal Teaparty." You can read all about it in the top right hand column of this page. It is filled with over 20 special recipes, including everything from delicious savoury offerings, to delectable puds and delights. Also included are my own delightful water colour illustrations (Rule Britannia!), Teatime prose and folklore, Hints and Tips to make your tea party the very best that it can be, Teatime etiquitte, several crafts to help make your day special and unique, and your very own Tea Party Invitations that you can print and send out to your friends.  Available for a limited time only!

 

I got a new cookbook the other day. ( Shhhhh . . . don't tell Todd. He thinks that my cookbooks proliferate all by themselves, and I'm not about to tell him the difference! )  I read an article about the 50 best cookbooks in the UK, and this was on the list . . . I read the reviews about it on Amazon and then I thought, why not and I went for it!

 

If this first recipe I tried out in it is any indication of the calibre of recipes in this book, Todd's in for a real treat!  I made these sausage burgers today from the book, adapting it slightly.  She called them "Festive Pig in a Bun." but it's hardly Christmas, so they can't be festive today for us.  I just called them fruity sausage baps.  A rose by any other name and all that!

 

She also used crusty buns, but as you can see I used soft floured sesame baps.  I did toast them.
She didn't add any salad leaves.  I added a bed of rocket and I have to say it went very well with the meaty fruitiness of the burgers.  I love rocket.  It's a bit spicy and meaty itself!

 

She recommended perhaps having them with a sprinkling of Stilton. I didn't have any and they tasted fine just as is, but I can definitely see where some stilton melted over top would be a fantastically delicious addition.

 




But my darlings . . . they were fabulous just as is.  They were moist and succulent, with little bits of fruity sweetness, and a moreish little nuttiness from the pinenuts.  I can  tell  that the leftovers are going to be every bit as good, perhaps on their own with a small dollop of mayonnaise???  *Oink* Oink*  Come to mama!




*Fruity Sausage Baps*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

These are sooooo simple and very tasty.  Scrummo yummo!!

8 of your favourite British Bangers
(Use a good lean, well flavoured one, a generous pound in weight)
80g of dried cranberries (Scant cup)
80g of pinenuts (2/3 cup)
4 toasted baps (split in half and toast under the grill, toasting one side only)
(Rolls)
Fresh Rocket Leaves (Arugula)

Preheat the oven to  200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.  Line a large baking tray with baking parchment.  Set aside.

Skin all of the sausages and discard the skins.  Place the meat into a bowl.  Chop the cranberries finely and add to the meat, along with the pinenuts.  Mix well together with your hands.  Shape into 8 balls, flattening the balls into patties.  Place onto the prepared baking tray.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden brown and crisped up on the outsides.  They should not be pink on the insides and the juices should run clear. 

Place a  toasted bap bottom on each of four plates.  Top each with a handful of Rocket and two sausage patties.  Top with the top bun halves.  Serve immediately.

WE had ours with potato salad and coleslaw and they were fabulous darlink!

 

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!