Still no working stove.  It turns out that the problem is not with the stove, but with the electrics in the house, so we are now waiting on the landlord to pull his finger out. He's usually pretty good so no worries.  In the meantime we have the trusty hot plate.

 

Today I made us a delicious and hearty Chicken & Orzo Soup.  It was also very simple to make.

 

You will need leeks and celery.  One leek, and one stalk.  Make sure you clean your leek really well.  There is nothing worse than sand in your food. They are really easy to clean.  Just cut  slit down one side of the leek and then fan it open slightly, running cold water over it.  Any sand should just rinse away.

 

After that you can just cut it into half moons or coins.  I always trim my celery also.  I use  a sharp knife to pull away any of the strings.  Strings can be a bit unpleasant depending on the age of your celery. I don't bother with the tender inner stalks, but sometimes the outer stalks can be really stringy, so those are the ones I de-string!  This gets chopped.

 

The prepped veg is then softened in a bit of Olive oil.  Not so that it browns . . .  just so it is soft.  

 

I use gel stock pots and boiling water for my chicken stock.  This took 4 gel pots.  If you have chicken stock in the freeze or cans. Just use that.  Bring it to the boil then throw in some boneless chicken thighs.

 

Cook these until tender and no longer pink and scoop them out with a slotted spoon.  You will cut or shred these to add at the end, in the meantime you bring the stock back up to the boil and add your orzo and your secret ingredient.

 

Secret ingredient?  Yes!  Its dried dill weed. You could also use fresh chopped dill weed. I just used the dry today as that is all I had. Its just enough to add a layer of flavour that is very pleasant and have people smacking their lips.  Don't worry, it won't taste overly like dill. Trust me on this.

 

Once the orzo is cooked you shred/cut the chicken up and put it back into the soup . . .

  

Heat through, adjust the seasoning, and then ladle into heated bowls for your very lucky family.  I like crackers with mine, Todd likes bread. You can serve lemon wedges with it to squeeze over the soup.  I forgot.  Bad me.  The hint of lemon is a real flavour booster!

 

I hope it isn't too long before our stove is up and working again.  I am wanting to bake something!  I have seen some lovely breads about and I am wanting to try sourdough again.  In the meantime,we are enjoying things like this tasty soup.  Bon appetit! 

 

Not having a hob/cooker to use for the last half week or so has certainly been a challenge for me.  I really hope that when the Engineer comes tomorrow, it is an easy fix! 

 

We did purchase a portable hot plate, but with only two small burners on it, it doesn't really lend itself much to cooking gourmet meals  It is however, fab for browning things and heating things up, like soup.  I haven't actually cooked any pasta on it yet, but I did cook carrots on it the other day.

 

It required a bit of difference in planning as I am used to the instant heat of gas.  This electric hot plate takes much longer to heat up and it doesn't cool down instantly either, so I keep having to warn Todd that the burner was just on as it is not really obvious by looking at it, but if you set something on it, you would sure know in a hurry, especially if it was your hand or something plastic! 

 

Today (Sunday as I write this) I  used it to make our favourite Mexi-Melts, working with it in tandem with our Microwave. Tandem cooking!  It works well!  We are huge fans of Tex Mex food!  I heard rumours that we are supposed to be getting a Taco Bell in Chester, but that was months ago and there isn't one yet, although there is supposedly one in Liverpool.  I can't wait!

 

This is a riff on their Mexi-Melt sandwich, which is kind of like a burrito/wrap.  I did make a few changes, so technically they are not identical, but I don't think anyone will really mind.  They are fabulously delicious!

 

We try not to eat a lot of red meat here, so I used ground turkey instead of beef. You can use ground turkey thighs, but I like the turkey breast meat. 

  

This gets simply browned in a skillet.  Because I am using turkey breast which is ultra low fat, I add a bit of oil to help keep it from sticking. We like ground turkey so this really works for us. If you are not a fan of ground turkey, you can use ground beef, but do try to use an extra lean one.

 

Once you get the turkey browned and seasoned (I give my homemade taco seasoning recipe below) you simply layer the meat and two kinds of cheese in a flour tortilla, along with some tomato salsa.  How spicy you choose to use, is up to you!  I like the mild one myself.

   

Once you get all of the tortillas filled and rolled, you wrap them up in some damp paper towelling and then nuke them in the microwave for a minute.  This is just long enough to heat everything through nicely and melt the cheese. 

 

I make my own Chipotle mayo dip for serving with them.  Its a really simple to make also. If you are not fond of mayo, you can use sour cream.

  

These are oh so delicious, especially when you serve them with the mayo which adds a touch more flavour and a hint of creaminess.  I like to sprinkle the dip with black olives and spring onions for even more flavour.

 

Authentic or not, these are really delicious.  Simple ingredients.  Easy method. Quick to throw together.  These are big winners all round, especially if you are a fan of Tex Mex!!  Bon Appetit! 

 

With Valentines Day coming up this week, and my stove being out of commission, I thought it would be fun to do something different and create a delicious picnic for my sweetie pie and I to share for the occasion.  Its really fun to do and really doesn't take a lot of work.  

The weather has been right miserable lately, but that doesn't mean we can't still enjoy a picnic.  Some of the nicest picnics can be shared right within the four walls of your comfy home!

 

The centre piece of my picnic was a delicious Buffalo Chicken Salad that I threw together.  You will find the recipe below for a basic chicken salad and 10 variations.  This is just one of them, and I can tell you it is really tasty!

 

 

I had a good old rummage around the refrigerator this morning while my husband was out and by the time he came home, I had a picnic feast for two more than ready.  

We had some leftover potato salad and coleslaw from the other day, so that was packed  into a container for sharing . . .  

  

I always have lots of cheeses on hand, chutney's and crackers and so I did up a small cheese tray for us to enjoy.  I used some vintage white cheddar, Danish blue, wensleydale with cranberries and boursin cheeses.  

I put the chutney into a small Bonne Maman Jar and an assortment of crackers and some butter for spreading in a sandwich container. Be sure to include a knife for cutting up the cheeses and a spoon for the chutney.  

  

You will want a toasted baguette or crisp breads to have with the chicken salad, or even some salad greens.  My husband isn't one much for salad greens, so I had soft baguettes for him. No toasting today as there is no oven.

 

There was a Melton Mowbray Pork Pie in the refrigerator (his favourite pie) and some cheese and onion rolls, so I added a container with them, as well as some English Mustard for him to enjoy with a slice of pie.  I also had some black and green grapes, so I washed some of them and put them into another container.  

Something sweet is always welcome, so I added a container of his favourite biscuits/cookies and some fruit yogurts. 

 

I also added the required cutlery, dinner plates and glasses, along with some tea light candles (for romance),  a blanket to sit on, a book of poetry to share with each other and a fun game to play. 

  

A bottle of sparkling apple juice was the finishing touch.  I then packed it into our picnic basket . . .  its a red metal one with chrome handles that I bought several years back.  

I think its really pretty, although in all truth a wicker one is better as this one is quite heavy once you get it packed.  It didn't all quite fit inside, but no matter we weren't going very far . . . 

 

And with there being two of us, we carried the juice separately along with the bread, games and poetry.  

As I said, we did not have far to go!

 

My husband was pleasantly surprised when he got home.  I put some nice music on for us to listen to and in all truth, we sat at the table  . . .  these old bones of ours are not fond of floor sitting, not anymore  . . . 

 

It was a really nice spread . . . 

  

 

I had my chicken salad on salad greens . . .  my husband, of course,  did not.  Oh well . . .

 

The star of course was the chicken salad.  I did the Buffalo Chicken version and it was absolutely fabulous. 

The recipe comes from a magazine on chicken that I bought at the grocery store the last time I was visiting Canada.  Its a lovely basic recipe . . . . 

 

And then of course there are ten different variations . . .  sure to suit every taste!

 

This really was a lot of fun! And it didn't really take a lot of effort on my part.

 

It made a change from the usual Winter bill of fare  . . . 

  

And injected a bit of sunshine and romance into what was simply a cold, blustery, rainy day! 

 

Even if you don't want to do something like this for Valentines Day, it would be fun to just do it on any day to help chase away the Winter doldrums's and blues.   

Happy Sunday and Bon Appetit! 

 

I think Vanilla pudding has to be one of my favourites of the pudding flavours. Now when I am speaking here of pudding, I am talking about the North American kind of pudding, which is like a thick custard which is eaten cold, and comes in a variety of flavours.  I am not speaking of the British pudding which essential is just a word to describe any sweet dessert enjoyed at the end of a meal.

 

Something incredibly beautiful happens to a simple vanilla pudding when you add the flavours of cardamom and lemon.  It becomes WOW!  I set out to make a simple vanilla pudding today and then my wheels started turning and I decided to amp it up a tiny bit.  Am I ever glad that I did! 

 

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will remember that the other day my stove/hob stopped working.  We are waiting for an engineer to come and have a look at it.  The appointment is on Monday.  In the meantime we purchases a portable hot plate to use for simple cooking and heating things up.  When we weighed the cost of eating ready meals or restaurant meals against the purchase of this, it was well worth it.  Two dinners out would have more than paid for it.  Problem solved, plus I can use it after for things as well.  Cooking videos come to mind, but don't get all excited yet.  I am not that good at figuring out how to do these things! 

 

Now back to the pudding.  This is a really simple dessert.  Really simple.  You need to only remember a few things . . .

 

One, don't be in a rush.  You don't really want the milk to come to the boil  . . .  use a medium heat so that the bottom of your pan doesn't get too hot . . .

 

Also keep stirring/whisking as you cook it.  This will go a long ways towards preventing lumps in your pudding,or scorching the bottom!

 

I can remember when we were children and my mother first started to work outside the home.  She hired a woman named Mrs Robar to take care of the house and cook the meals for us children. She was a rather large woman with an abundance of hairy moles on her face.  One day she made butterscotch pudding for us and she scorched it.  The pudding was full of little brown lumps. 

 

We children refused to eat it because we thought some of the  moles had fallen off her face into the pudding. Children do think some really strange things . . .  the poor dear. 

 

You could of course use single cream or half and half instead of the evaporated milk.  Both would work fine.  In the interest of fat and calories, I chose to use no fat evaporated milk, which gave the same result . . .

  

A rich and delicious pudding that everyone will enjoy tucking into.  Seriously you cannot taste the evaporated milk, and if you didn't see it going in, you would never know it was there.

 

You can also very successfully cut the recipe in half.  I did today and it was just perfect.  I am kind wishing I hadn't however, as now I am wanting more.  Probably a good thing that I didn't make the whole recipe I think  . . .  Bon Appetit!