Cabbage & Bacon Soup

I have a little lunch recipe for you today. Doesn't sound very appetizing does it, cabbage. But I've become obsessed with it lately. I even replace pasta with white cabbage thanks to Rosie from The Londoner blog, I will pop that up on here soon for you to try.

This isn't a particularly glamorous post and it does send off a bit of a whiffy smell but it does taste great and it is pretty low in calories too. Perfect to take to work for lunch if you have access to a microwave.

All you need is:

1/2 a British Savoy Cabbage sliced

1 white onion diced

Garlic (minced or oil) 1 clove

4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon cut up

1 litre chicken stock

pinch of S&P

All you need to do is:

This recipe is super easy you just heat up some oil and pop in your diced onion. If you are using garlic oil then just fry your onions in it. This is what I did, I love garlic oil, no more smelly hands.

You then pop in your minced garlic (not if your using garlic oil unless you love garlic LOADS)

Now cut up your bacon rashers (I use scissors over the pan) and let it cook until a bit crispy.

Now chop up your 1/2 cabbage and pop it in to fry for a few mins. Once it's wilted down a little add your 1 litre of chicken stock and leave to simmer until your cabbage is soft.

I left mine for around 15 minutes.

Now, without burning yourself and making a massive mess pop your soup into a blender add a pinch of S&P and whizz up until it is smooth. If you like it a little chunky then just don't blend for so long. It's up to you.

Once blended, return to the pan to cool and then store in an air tight container in the fridge. Don't put it in the fridge hot as it will lower your fridge temp. Bad move.

I am biased towards cabbage, I just really like it. I hope you do too, it's very filling and thick. 

Let me know what you think.

Banana Pudding and Tacos

Firstly, sorry for my tiny pictures but I had a slight technical hitch. Basically I pressed the wrong button.

Anyhoo, I have a cracker of a recipe for you in the shape of bananas and Angel Delight. I know this sounds like a cheat and it is a little bit. But who cares, its yum.

I gained my inspiration from the banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery NYC. It was seriously amazing so I decided to recreate it.

What you will need:

2 packets of Banana Angel Delight

2 packets of Birds Dream Topping

2-4 ripe bananas (depends how bananary you want it and how big they are) sliced

Around 1/2 pack of trifle fingers/ sponge fingers, broken up into thirds

What you need to do:

Firstly your going to want to slice up your bananas and break up your trifle fingers into thirds.

Then follow your packet instructions and make your Angel Delight. Make sure you double it all to do two packets. 

Now using your packet instructions make your Dream Topping.

Now combine your Angel Delight and Dream topping, add the AD to the DT and fold it in. Try not to mix it too much as you want a sort of marbled effect.

Now add in your bananas and your trifle fingers, give it all a mix up and pop it into a pretty bowl.

Chill in the fridge for at least an hour to let the trifle fingers go soggy.

Now serve with a big spoon family style! Do it proudly, embrace your cheating.

This delightful dessert was lovingly made for my Dad and his wife Maxine. They came over for dinner a few weeks back.

We had tacos for mains. I again cut my normal flour tortillas with the aid of a drinking glass to create traditional tacos. I had some roast chicken left overs and this proved a wonderful way of using them up. 

I used fajita seasoning in a frying pan to heat up my chicken, make sure its piping hot if your reheating it. 

A few leaves of spinach 

                                                   Some sour cream

Some cheddar cheese

And homemade guacamole!

2 ripe avocados

Juice of 1 lemon

Splash of olive oil

sprinkle of paprika

pinch of salt and pepper

All mashed up with a fork to give some texture. Use a food processor if you like your guac smooth.

Fold and enjoy

They loved the banana pudding!

                     Lex got tired out from all the crumb sniffing under the table

Go and make the banana cheat pudding and the left over roast chicken fajita tacos. Easy lovely dinner.

Garden fun with Cucumber, Pork and Pimms

I am a little behind with my blogging and have gathered a pretty hefty amount of posts. Heres one from a few weeks back when mum and John popped round for tea.

When I'm in the kitchen Daniel is usually in the garden. A wheelbarrow creation was on todays menu.

I have made a discovery. I love cucumber water! A nice big jug of it in the fridge. It is a nice change to juice and much healthier than fizzy or sugary drinks.

All you do is slice up about a quarter of a cucumber and pop it in some water, let it infuse for about an hour in the fridge and your ready to go.

Daniel isn't a fan of cucumber water but he is a fan of Pimms! I did sneak in some cucumber though.

 This isn't a completely pointless post, I do have a recipe in here somewhere. Honest.

Pulled BBQ Pork, in my new slow cooker. It's seriously easy and seriously cheap.

All you need:

Shoulder of pork

1 bottle of bbq sauce

1 can of full fat coke

Wraps or baps 

Sides of your choice

All you need to do:

Pop the pork shoulder into the slow cooker, cover with bbq sauce (whole bottle) and a can of full fat coke. Put the slow cooker on low for around 8 hours.

Once your 8 hours are up you will return home from work to a wonderful bbqy meaty smell. Yum.

The pork will just pull apart, it will be so tender and juicy.

I made some gluten free cornbread as a side as my mum is a gluten free bird. Very inconvenient as usual. Not really mum.

I cut my regular flour tortillas into mini ones using the rim of a drinking glass to create traditional tacos. So much better and much less messy than the crunchy variety.

We topped them with cheese and salad.

Oh and my new obsession, habanero sauce. Super spicy but super yummy.

Make it this week.

Enjoy!

Nectarine Scones

"Nectarines?" I hear you ask.

They are a slightly random fruit to pop into a scone I know. I saw them on the Food Network, obviously, but I couldn't find a recipe so I just improvised and they turned out pretty great!

I find that scones can be pretty heavy and carby sometimes but the nectarines really added a freshness. Really lovely for breakfast or to take to work for your coffee break (like I did)

Heres how you go about making them...

What you need:

70g butter at room temp

250g plain flour

50g caster sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

125 ml milk

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

A little egg or milk for glazing

A punnet of nectarines

What you need to do:

Preheat the oven to 220 C and then lightly grease a baking tin and line with baking paper.

In a nice big bowl, mix up the dry ingredients and then using your hands crumble the butter into the mixture until it looks like sand. Now still using your hands fold in the milk, eggs and vanilla extract.

Do not mix too much! It takes the air out. You've been warned.

Now sprinkle in your chopped up nectarines (skin on). Pop in as many as you like, depending on how much fruit you like.

Once its all mixed up, separate the mixture into balls and place on the baking paper. Leave a little room between them for when they expand.

Now brush them with a little milk or a beaten egg to give them a nice shine.

Now bake in the oven for 15-18 mins until golden brown.

Serve them warm...mmmmm

Enjoy!

The basic scone recipe was from the lovely Angel Adore
You can buy her book too, The Vintage Tea Party. Its great.

Raspberry Corn Cakes and a Fire

Dan has a lot of cuttings to burn, being a gardener and all so from time to time we like to make a bit of a 'thing' out of the fire. I like to make us something, usually something sweet to eat and Dan picks the music, usually country and as the evening goes on we huddle up to the fire, getting closer and closer to the flames and warm our hands over the smoldering ashes. It's pretty fun but you do stink of smoke for days!

This time I decided to make Raspberry Corn Cakes with Lemon Curd inspired by Diners, Drive ins and Dives as usual. So firstly lets see how to make these beauties!

The recipe that I used had missed out the eggs, without them the corn cakes just crumbled so I added an egg and they worked out well. 

What you'll need:

1 cup of corn meal (polenta)

1/3 cup of all purpose flour

2 tbsp sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 tbsp melted butter

1 cup of fresh raspberries

1 egg

What you need to do:

You need to add all your dry ingredients together in a big bowl and mix them all together. Now pop your egg into a jug and add your buttermilk and give it a mix with a fork, now along with your buttermilk/ egg mix add all your wet ingredients to your dry and whisk until its all incorporated. There will be a few lumps but thats ok.

Now heat up a pan with a blob of butter and ladle in your mixture. Once your corn cakes have settled in a bit add your raspberries.

You know when to turn your corn cakes over when they start getting bubbles on top. Wait until there are bubbles everywhere on your cakes and then carefully flip them. Keep an eye on them once they are flipped as the raspberries burn easily. 

Repeat this until all your mixture is used up. You can pop it into a sealed container in the fridge for a day or so and have some tomorrow if your too full tonight, naughty!

I cheated and got my lemon curd from a jar (I know, shame on me) but you can be good and make your own, I have done before and it's pretty easy and defo tastes better!

You can see the original recipe here and she also shares her lemon curd recipe.

Enjoy!

Dan looks pretty pleased with his corn cakes doesn't he?

And Lex wanted in on the photography! Poser

Once it got dark we started the fire, it gets pretty flamey actually. 

I'm not really sure what's happening here.

Me looking moody as usual

Lex vanished and we found her here, she got too cold to be outside so sought out her dressing gown. Yes she has her own one!