Scoop off to cool on a wire rack.  Store in an airtight container.


Try not to eat them all at once!

I have always had a great fondness for salads of any kind. Todd, not so much . . . he has always thought salads boring . . . that is until I came into his life!!  My salads are anything but boring!!  (Even he would agree to that!)  And, whilst salad is still not his favourite thing to eat, he quite enjoys them once he digs in.

 

When my family was growing up I used to make a variety of layered salads for them, and it is often a delicious dish to take to a pot luck supper.  Everyone usually loves them.

 

They involve layering traditional, or even the not traditional, salad ingredients in a pretty glass bowl (so that you can see the layers) and then covering the top with a type of mayonnaise frosting to seal in all the flavours.  It also helps to keep them crisp and fresh, which makes them the perfect make ahead salad.

 

I've seen them topped with all sorts of cheeses, and crisp bacon bits . . . and even crumbled tortilla chips, especially in the case of a mexican styled one.  (In that case I would layer drained mexi-corn, chopped avocado, spring onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped  ripe olives, chopped chicken etc. and top with some mayo spiked with salsa and chilies and then top with some pepper jack and the tortilla chips.  Nummy yummy!)



It's not really practical for me to make them for just Todd and myself though . . . not with only the two of us in the house . . . and not unless I am making one up for a church supper or some such.



That is until today . . . when I got the idea to tailor them down to our specific needs.  I have given amounts for one serving, but as you can see it is very easily adapted up!

 

I used my favourite creamy Italian Dressing that I make, also cut down in amounts.

 

It was delicious, delicious, delicious.  Even Todd was a happy camper.  I served them with grilled fish and potatoes.  Yummo!

 

 *Layered Chopped Salad for One*
Serves one (is easily multiplied up)
Printable Recipe
I love layered salads, but with only two of us in the house, making a large one is highly impractible.  So I adapted a few of my favourite recipes and scaled them down to one.

For the salad layers:
2 TBS thawed petit pois
2 radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 TBS chopped red onion
2 TBS chopped other vegetable (I used courgettes today, but you can use any vegetable
you want, raw or cooked)
1/2 tomato, thinly sliced
1/2 hard boiled egg, chopped
 a baby gem lettuce, shredded

For the dressing:
2 TBS no fat mayonnaise
1 tsp water
1 tsp olive oil
pinch salt
pinch black pepper
pinch onion powder
pinch garlic powder
pinch chili powder
pinch  paprika
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano

To finish:
1 TBS finely grated Pamesan Cheese
1 slice of streaky bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled

First make the dressing.  Whisk all of the ingredients together.  Taste and adjust seasoning as required.  Set aside to allow the flavours to meld.

Layer the salad ingredients in an individual serving sized ramekin, in the order given, beginning with the peas and ending with the lettuce.  (I used fluted glass dessert bowls, each holding about 1 1/2 cups)  Lightly press ingredients down to compact a tiny bit.  Spoon the dressing over top to cover.  Cover and chill until you are ready to serve, over night if possible.  Sprinkle with the Parmesan Cheese and bacon bits just prior to serving.  Delicious!

I have a little tab at the top of my page here called my Kitchen Wish List.  On it I have a list of things that I have always wished for to have in my kitchen.  Surprisingly, or not . . . I have been so blessed to have received quite a few things from my list.  Yes, I am one very lucky girl!

  

After practically burning out the motor on my food processor trying to make almond butter a couple of months ago, I added this to my Kitchen Wish List.  I had been eye-balling this on the Froothie page for a while.   The Froothie Optimum 9400 Blender.   It promises to be as good as any other high powered blender on the market today,  with a powerful industrial quality high speed 3 horse power motor . . . the most powerful motor for any blender!  I just knew this would be my ticket to greatness when it came to blending.  Imagine my surprise and joy when this arrived in the post just a few weeks ago!



Yay!!  And it's mine, all mine!  The motor base is solid and heavy, but the jug is amazingly light.  And it fits perfectly in the space on the counter  beneath my kitchen cupboards, so I don't have to try to find a place to store it.  I can keep this lovely creature out all the time, which means I will use it more often than I would if I had to keep it tucked away somewhere.



I love, LOVE the sleep design of the motor base and it came with a handy tamper to use and a specially shaped scraper to help scrape down the sides.   Also included were these two books . . .



A user's manual and a cookbooklet filled with lovely recipes to help me to make the best use of this lovely machine.

My sister has been after me for a long time to start eating healthier.  She is a big proponent of raw foods and fermenting, juicing, etc.  It was because of her that I spent a bucket load getting in some coconut oil and buckwheat to sprout.  (I'll get to it sis, I promise!)  She makes lovely stuff.   Last year when I was at my mom's she mailed me some of her strawberry GRAWnola bites and some raw carrot cookies, etc.  She is always sprouting, fermenting or grinding something tasty up.   I do believe this wonderful tool will be just the ticket to me following in her ways!

The first thing I decided to do was to make a nut butter.



I love, Love, LOVE macadamia nuts!  The thoughts of a macadamia nut butter were making my tastebuds tingle.   A delicious nut butter created with only nuts and salt, with no preservatives added.   I wondered how long it would take me to do it in this machine.

I took 2 cups of macadamia nuts (about 400g) and toasted them for about 8 minutes in a nice warm oven, just until I started to smell that gorgeous nutty smell.  A nut butter with roasted nuts just has to taste better than one with unroasted nuts in my opinion.  After roasting I threw them, still hot from the oven,  into the Froothie Optimum 9400 Blender along with half a teaspoon of Pink Himalayan Salt.   (Another suggestion of my sisters!)  I was a tiny bit sceptical after my experience making the almond butter in my food processor.



In less than two minutes I had THIS!  Yep, less than two minutes later I was pouring this beautifully creamy macadamia nut butter into a jar.   It was perfectly smooth, and boy oh boy . . . does it taste good!



If I had not seen it for myself, I would not have believed how quickly this was made.  I stopped it twice during that time to scrape down the sides, but it was amazing to me how very fast it worked!    I stuck a whole macadamia nut into the top of the jar for illustration purposes, so that you could tell what kind of butter it was.   Without it, it just looks quite dull and uninteresting.

*Roasted Macadamia Nut Butter*

   

I was so excited to learn earlier this month that Heck Sausages are now available at Asda.  You may remember me getting to try them last year and we fell right in love with them.   So happy that I can now buy them closer to our home.  (Asda is the UK's version of Walmart.)    

  

They only have the two flavours at the moment, the meaty ones and the apple ones, but hopefully they will add more as time goes on.  In any case I picked up a package of each when we were there the other day.  They are just so good, I could not resist!  Today I used the apple ones in a delicious stove top braise.  


   


I also had a small cabbage which needed using up, what they call a white cabbage over here, but back home we just called it cabbage.   I browned the sausage and then added thinly shredded cabbage to the pan, and allowed it to wilt slightly before adding some thyme and apple juice, popped on a lid and let it bubble away.



After about 20 minutes or so, I removed the cabbage and kept it warm, whilst I finished cooking the sauces in the pan juices, until they were golden brown all over and lightly glazed with the juices.  A couple of them served hot on top of that lovely cabbage and along side some carrots and some of this spring's Jersey Royal potatoes made for a simple, yet beautiful supper.   Delicious!



*Braised Bangers and Cabbage*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

Easy and delicious.  This is a meal that cooks itself.

8 good quality thick and meaty sausages
225ml of cloudy Apple juice (1 cup)
2 TBS runny honey
1/2 tsp dried thyme

   

I usually like to pull out the stops for breakfast at the weekend.   Making something special for the two of us to enjoy.  I've seen a lot of versions of French Toast on the net lately using croissants instead of bread.  I just happened to have a few stale croissants in the house and so I decided to make my own version of French Toast with it.  

  

This is French Toast with a definite British twist to it.  One of our most beloved of puddings over here has to be the Bakewell Pudding, (Bakewell pudding is an English dessert commonly consisting of a flaky pastry base with a layer of sieved jam, topped with an egg and almond paste filling. There are numerous variations and several bakeries each claim to hold the original recipe.)  There is also the Bakewell Tart.  ( The Bakewell Tart is an English confection consisting of a shortcrust pastry with a layer of jam and a sponge using ground almonds.)



Neither Pudding nor Tart, this delightful version encompasses some of the best qualities of both desserts . . . a rich almond flavoured custard, sugared almond topping and a delicious raspberry syrup for pouring.



The croissants soufflé up beautifully with the egg custard . . .  toasted to golden brown on both side in butter.  There is no substitute.  Oh sure you could spray oil, but I say in for a penny, in for a pound!  If you are going to do French Toast and use croissants, what is a few more calories????



Those sugared almonds add a delightful crunch, which goes so very well with the texture of the buttery souffled croissants . . .  and as for that raspberry syrup . . .  well . . . as the French would say . . . C'est tres Magnifique!  It's French Toast, but not as you know it.   We loved this and I hope you will too.




*Raspberry Bakewell French Toast*

   

One of my favourite baking ingredients has to be dates.   They have a natural sweetness that is almost caramel-like in taste and they add a wonderful touch when stirred into cakes and cookies.   I love eating them out of hand . . .  mmmm . . . Medjool dates are my favorites.  

   

I always treat myself to a box at Christmas and in all truth they shine above all other Christmas treats for me.  If you have never tried a lovely sticky date, filled with some parmesan cheese, rolled in bacon and then baked, then you have not lived.   Fabulously delicious.  It's that salty/sweet thing.  

  

These squares I have baked for you before, but some things just bear repeating I think . . . and my photos were not so good when I first showed you these either.  I have grown in skill and I have a much better camera now.  I really wanted to re-do them, so that you could see them for the truly wonderful squares/slices that they are.  

  

They have a moist, almost blondie-like texture . . . not too sweet, but stogged full of dessicated coconut, and those caramel flavoured bits of dates, they don't need to be too sweet.  The dates really shine!  

  

And then there is that tart/sweet lemon glaze icing that just sets everything off beautifully.  I always add a touch of lemon to my Date/Matrimony Squares.  Dates and lemon . . . so good together!  If you like dates, you will love, LOVE these bars/slices!  Quick and simple to make.   Delicious to taste.  Break out the tea cups, coz these are perfectly scrumptious little bites to enjoy with that mid morning cuppa!  




*Date Slice*
Makes one 8 by 12 inch pan
Printable Recipe

If you like the flavour of dates and coconut, then this slice is for you.  Moreishly moist and datey cake, beneath a tangy lemon icing.  What's not to like!  You can add 1/4 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts for an extra bit of flavour and texture if you wish.

100g of dessicated coconut (1 1/3 cup)
198g caster sugar (1 cup)
170g self raising flour (1 1/4 cup)
90g of butter (6 1/4 TBS)
1 large egg
125g of stoned dates, finely chopped (generous 3/4 cup)
2 TBS whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the lemon icing:
130g of sifted icing sugar (1 cup)
1 TBS butter
the juice of one lemon  



Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4.  Line the baking tin with baking paper and lightly grease.  Set aside.

Melt the butter.  Once melted cool and then whisk in the milk, vanilla and the egg to combine well.

Sift the flour into a bowl.  Whisk in the castor sugar, the coconut and the dates.  Pour the butter mixture over top and mix well with a fork.  Spread evenly into the prepared tin.  



Bake for 25 minutes until risen and golden brown.  Remove from the oven to a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing whisk the icing ingredients together until smooth.  Spread over the cooled cake.  Cut into squares to serve.