I am having one of those kinds of days today . . . a day when I just can't be asked. To. Do. Anything. But we still have to eat. That's when dish like this comes in really handy!
Cheese on toast. You can't get much easier or tastier. If you can grate a block of cheese and operate an oven, you can make this!
I add a bit of grainy mustard and mayo to the cheese, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce!
You will want to use a nice strong cheddar for this. That goes without saying I guess, but don't really be tempted to use low fat. This is an instance where you want the full deal!
Its the same with the Mayo . . . use full fat. I use a grainy Dijon for extra punch. You can leave the Worcestershire out, but I like just a splash.
You also want to use a pretty decent bread. I used a rye whole wheat bread today, but any good rustic bread works well. You don't want it to be a bread that will conflict too much with the other flavours, so try to keep it simple.
You could serve some salad on the side, or a bowl or cup of hot soup. Tomato is good, but you probably already guessed that!
In any case when you are having an off day, this is a simple hot supper that goes down a real treat. I've never had anyone say "Oh no . . . cheese on toast again!" not ever . . . no, not ever.
*Cheese on Toast*
Serves 2
softened butter for spreading
181g good strong cheddar cheese (1 1/2 cups)Mix together the cheese, mustard, mayonnaise and worcestershire sauce.
Hoping tomorrow I feel more like cooking, but for today, this was just the ticket. Bon Appetit!
Ever since I found my bread baking mojo a few weeks ago I have been making and baking my own bread, much to Todd's delight! The other day I tried making my own Burger buns!
I had been sent some lovely frozen Quinoa and Kale Burgers to try out and I wanted to make my own buns to go with it and did a search, coming up with this recipe for Vegan Burger Buns with Poppyseeds on a site called the Greedy Vegan.
Which I then adapted to use for us. We are not Vegans so using Vegan ingredients was not necessary for us. I figured out my own non-vegan ingredients. Also her North American measurements were quite a bit off, so I have given the proper ones here. If you are a vegan do use her ingredients . . .
But if you are a North American, use my measurements. They are spot on.
These are great burger buns! They turned out beautiful and just perfect for what I wanted! We've been enjoying them in the days since with butter and cheese and all sorts. Yummy!
As you can see they had the perfect texture! Just gorgeous! I will be making these again!
*Easy Burger Buns*
Makes 8 nice sized buns
2 1/4 tsp easy bake yeast (for the bread machine)
2 TBS softened butter
We had them with some really tasty Kale and Quinoa Burgers and some Oven Baked Sweet Potato fries that I had been sent to try out from the people at Strong Roots!
We love Sweet Potato Fries in this house. I would rather have a sweet potato fry than a regular one any day of the week. The only problem with making your own at home, is that they are more often than not limp. Tasty, but limp and that can be true of a lot of frozen ones also. The Strong Roots company, an Irish Company, have come up with a beautiful frozen sweet potato fry! I am not surprised that they were Great Taste Award Winners for 2016!
Their oven baked sweet potatoes are made using the best varieties of sweet potato from the best growers of sweet potato in the world. They have been specially produced with a Gluten-Free rice flour batter. They have also discovered the best way to give you a firmer and crisp fry with a real sweet potato taste.
• Gluten Free.
• Low Saturated Fat.
• Low Salt.
• Source of Fiber.
They also sent me some Quinoa and Kale Burgers to try. I've never been a fan of Quinoa, but I am always keen to try something new!
The Strong Roots Kale and Quinoa Burgers are a vegan friendly, low sugar and a low saturated fat alternative for your meals. With a crisp quinoa crust, mixed vegetables and no-artificial flavours, they bake to a tasty and crisp burger, and are suitable for a variety of uses such as a starter, a side or simply as a burger in a bun! They actually had lovely bits of carrot and edamame beans in them.
I served them on my home made buns and they were so delicious. I added some mixed rocket/spinach and watercress leaves, some mayo and sliced tomato.
Just look at how crisp those sweet potato fries were! I can tell you with all honesty, that these were the best frozen bake at home sweet potato fries I have ever eaten!
Altogether we both enjoyed these products very much! They are something which I would be quite happy to buy!
The Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries and Kale & Quinoa Burgers are both available at Waitrose and the whole range which also includes the Garlic Roasted Sweet Potato Cubes and Ripened Frozen Avocado Halves are available at Whole Foods.
Strong Roots Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries (RRP £2.99)
& Quinoa Burgers (RRP £2.99)
Many thanks to Strong Roots for sending me these products to try. I will write about the Sweet Potato Cubes and Frozen Avocado halves on another day. Although I have been sent these products for free, I was not required to write a positive review. I can say with impunity, and all honesty that these are great products. I love it when that happens! Bon Appetit!
We were on the shopping Estate near us the other morning and I was sitting in the car waiting for Todd. We were parked right in front of one of those Sub shops and they had an ad in the window for their new chicken caesar melt sandwiches. I looked at it and thought to myself, that looks tasty, supposedly using fresh rotisserie chicken, etc. but experience has taught me that looks are oftimes very deceiving and that I could probably do much better at home myself. And so I did.
I picked up a Rotisserie chicken at the grocery store afterwards, and some hoagie buns and then went home and created this.
It wasn't very hard to do at all. I split the hoagie buns and spread them with a homemade garlic butter. Garlic is a large component of a Caesar salad . . . as is Parmesan cheese. My garlic butter has both. I toasted the buttered hoagies under the grill, then I set them aside to keep them warm while I prepared the rest of the sandwich ingredients.
I tore the chicken off the bones of the rotisserie chicken and broke it into bite sized pieces, which I tossed together with an amount of caesar salad dressing. You can just use your favourite kind, and low fat if you wish.
I mounded the dresssed chicken into bun sized mounds on a baking sheet I had lined with lightly greased aluminium foil. Then I topped each mound with some melty cheese I had sliced in half diagonally. Back under the grill it went . . . to heat the chicken through and melt the cheese.
I had also grilled some bacon earlier until it was crisp. Smoked streaky bacon, two slices for each sandwich.
I also shredded some coz (romaine) lettuce and slices some fresh tomatoes thinly along with a bit of red onion, also thinly sliced.
The bottom halves of the toasted buns got layered up with shredded lettuce and onion slices and then drizzled with a bit more salad dressing and topped with the chicken and melted cheese . . . and then topped with the bacon and tomato slices, with the top half of the bun folded over top. I will just say one word about this. DELICIOUS! And at a fraction of the cost of buying one ready made.
*Chicken & Bacon Caesar Melt*
Makes 4 servings
4 hoagie buns
1 cooked rotisserie chicken
8 slices cooked streaky smoked bacon
225g creamy caesar salad dressing (1 cup)
(can use low fat)
4 slices of melty cheese, cut in half diagonally (I used Dutch Gouda)
For the garlic butter:
4 TBS softened butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 TBS grated parmesan cheese
1/2 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
finely shredded lettuce
Served with some crisp oven chips these went down a real treat for our tea. We both fell in love. Its surprisingly tasty what you can do when you are inspired to do so! Plus I had some meat leftover (because there are only two of us) for a casserole and some bones for soup. Win, win, win!!! Bon Appetit!
Nothing new here that people haven't seen before. It's courgette season (zucchini to you North Americans). We all have them coming out our ears. I like to make zucchini loaf. They are always really moist and delicious. Zucchini is one of those vegetables that is pretty benign and basically takes on the flavour of whatever you put it with.
This recipe has been making the rounds. I saw a video of it on Facebook, but it is a recipe I have been baking for years. What is that they say? There is nothing new under the sun.
It is really quite good and is one of those cakes that gets even better upon standing. I also make another one which is more like a spice loaf. That one has nuts in it. You can find it here. It makes two delicious loaves. One to keep and one to give away.
I also do a really tasty Lime and cardamom version, that is nice, cut into slices and sandwiched together with buttercream. You can find that recipe here.
This one today is a basic lemon drizzle loaf, highly flecked with green and moist and delicious with plenty of lemon flavour . . . both in the batter . . .
And then with that lucious lemon drizzle glaze that you pour over the top of it . . .
It wouldn't be summer without a few zucchini loaves baking in the oven. In fact when the courgettes/zucchini are coming in fast and furious, I like to grate them and freeze them in 1 cup size packs, ready to use all the winter through. You know it makes sense . . .
*Lemon Drizzle Courgette Loaf*
Makes one medium loaf
Preheat the oven to 180*C./350*C/ gas mark 4. Butter aa medium loaf tin really well, or line with a loaf tin liner paper. (They are like cupcake liners, except large enough to line a loaf tin.)
Whisk together the sugar, courgettes, oil, egg, lemon juice and lemon zest in a bowl. Sift together the flour, soda, baking powder and salt. Add all at once to the courgette mixture and stir together just to combine. Spoon into the prepared loaf tin.
Bake for 50 to 55 m inutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely.
Once it is cold, whisk together the glaze ingredients until smooth and drizzle over the cake. Allow to set before cutting into slices to serve. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
What is your favourite way to use zucchini/courgettes? I also like to use them in savoury casseroles. they make great gratins! Bon Appetit!
Hard at work now putting the final touches onto the manuscript of my cookbook. I am getting really excited about its impending publish. It won't be long now.
It has taken a bit longer than originally thought. I don't think my Editor thought I could do or would do as much as I did so it's going to be quite a large book, but having seen the draft, I can tell you now it is also going to be a beautiful book and I am feeling really good about it!
These last few days have been taken up with fixing little bits here and there, going over the manuscript with a fine tooth comb.
With over 800 pages you can imagine the time involved in that. Its well worth it though because I really want it to be a book you will be happy to make a part of your valuable cookery book library!
I have also re-done some photographs of some of the recipes in the book and I thought I would give you a tiny sneak peak here today of what you have to look forward to.
Peppermint brownies. Just one of the several hundred recipes you are going to find in the book! Let me tell you now, the index alone is 8 pages, double columned. That's a LOT of deliciousness to look forward to!
And this recipe is just a sample of what is in there. They are dense and moist . . . and have a beautiful peppermint flavour.
Mint and chocolate go so well together! It is a flavour combination made in heaven.
You could almost cut these into tiny squares and serve them with coffee after a dinner party as an extra special treat! They are so good.
I think they are just about my favourite kind of brownie. They are also an excellent addition to a Holiday Baking Tray.
There is a double whammy of peppermint flavour in the batter. One form comes from peppermint tea that you blitz with the sugar.
The second peppermint blast comes from the use of peppermint extract. Soooo good!
They have a sweet and glistening chocolate ganache topping. This is decorated with a melted white chocolate drizzle that you run a toothpick through to give it an extra pretty finish.
These are some of my favourite brownies ever, which is saying a lot, and so very pretty!
*Peppermint Brownies*
Makes about 30, depending on how large you cut them
Delicious brownies that get even better tasting after a couple of days! Fantastic!
225g unsalted butter (1 cup)
225g of good quality unsweetened chocolate (8 ounces)
2 tsp peppermint tea leaves
383g caster sugar (2 cups)
4 large free range eggs
2 tsp peppermint essence
pinch fine seasalt
140g plain flour (1 cup)
For the chocolate glaze:
60g unsalted butter (1/4 cup)
60g good quality unsweetened chocolate (2 ounces)
60g semi sweet chocolate (2 ounces)
2 TBS golden syrup (can use corn syrup)
For the White chocolate trim:
60g white chocolate (2 ounces)
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 by 13 inch baking tin and line with parchment paper, allowing it to overhang by at least 2 inches above the long sides so that you can lift them out easily once baked and cooled. Butter the parchment paper.
Heat 2 inch of water in a small pot to a gentle simmer. Place the chocolate (chopped) and butter (chopped) for the brownies into a heat proof bowl. Set over the simmering water without allowing the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Cook and stir, until the butter and chocolate have melted and are uniform, some 6 to 7 minutes. Turn off the heat, but leave the bowl over the water.
Place the sugar and the peppermint tea in a food processor. Blitz until the tea is finely ground. Stir this mixture into the melted chocolate mixture. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then stir in the peppermint essence and salt. Sift the flour over top and then fold it in. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bang lightly on the counter to settle and then bake in the heated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until well set and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out almost clean. Allow to cool to room temperature in the pan, on top of a wire rack, before proceeding. Once cool, lift out by the paper handles and peel off the paper. Place onto a foil lined board, or tray.
To make the glaze bring the water in the pot back to a gentle simmer. Place both of the chocolates (chopped) along with the butter (chopped) into a bowl and set over the simmering water, again without allowing the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Cook and stir until smooth and melted. Stir in the golden syrup. Spread the chocolate glaze over the brownies in an even layer using an offset spatula.
Place the whit chocolate in another bowl and set over the simmering water, stirring until completely melted. Drizzle the melted white chocolate over top of the chocolate glaze in lines. Run a toothpick the opposite way through the white chocolate lines to make a decorative pattern. Allow to set for several hours before cutting into squares to serve. Keep well covered and serve at room temperature.
These delicious brownies really make for a delicious change from the regular variety. Its nice to note as well that you can also cut the recipe in half, and bake them in an 8 inch square pan, which is just the right size for my small household. Bon appetit!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons