Recipes
Jamie Oliver’s Beef Stroganoff
As many of you will already know, I’m a huge fan of Jamie Oliver’s recipes. I’ve blogged about a few of his recipes in the past, perhaps the most popular being the pork marsala with mushroom rice. That recipe, and this beef stroganoff, are taken from Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals. Many people have said that the…
Nigella Lawson’s breakfast bars
I have to admit that I’m a real cereal fanatic – particularly when it comes to muesli! I usually mix up my own with lots of fruit and nuts, and when I saw these breakfast bars I just had to give them a go. This recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s ‘Nigella Express‘ and she says…
Potato and leek soup (with optional bacon!)
There are occasions when I open the fridge and realise that I should have gone shopping…today was one of those days! But the weather has been pretty rubbish and I didn’t fancy going out, so I decided to cobble something together with what we had. What we had turned out to be a couple…
Carrot and coriander soup
This super simple and delicious soup is really healthy and takes no time at all to prepare (about 30 minutes!), which means that it can easily be made on a week night. If you have more time, then you could make your own bread to go with it! This recipe comes from the BBC…
Ginger golden syrup loaf
I made this gorgeous loaf ages ago, and then completely forgot to write the post about it! It comes from Rachel Allen’s ‘Cake‘ – a fabulous book which the Bakewell Cake that I made a few months ago came from too. If you’re a fan of ginger then you’ll love this – it didn’t…
Paul Hollywood’s Gingerbread
I love baking on a Sunday morning, and as I haven’t done any for a while I thought that today would be a perfect day to try this new recipe! It comes from Paul Hollywood’s ‘How To Bake‘ – I think there was a series of the same name, but even if you haven’t…
Chilli chocolate pots
This is possibly one of my favourite desserts ever, and it’s surprisingly easy to make! If you don’t like chilli chocolate then you could just use good quality dark chocolate, but the chilli gives it a nice warming aftertaste. I used Lindt chocolate for this recipe, which comes from The Hairy Bikers’ Great Curries. It…
Saag aloo
This delicious saag aloo would make a great accompaniment to any Indian meal. It comes from The Hairy Bikers’ Great Curries – look out for my other posts from this book!
Chicken Tikka Masala
I love a good curry, and have recently discovered The Hairy Bikers’ Great Curries book, which has pretty much every curry and side dish you’d ever want to make in it! I have to say that now I’ve made my first one from scratch (yes, I’m happy to admit that!) I’m going to make them…
Christmas Shortbread
If you’re looking to make something a little bit different to mince pies this year, then look no further! Tom’s Mum made these last year and they’re absolutely delicious – replacing the pastry with shortbread is a stroke of genius and they are perfect for a super-sweet treat. Helen found this recipe in the Cumbria…
Jam-filled butter biscuits
You can never have too many biscuits – and I say that because my last post was also a biscuit post! These biscuits (which are also known as Sables) look snazzy but are really easy to make. I made these with my lovely friend Tiffany – we decided to make two different shaped batches with…
Amaretti biscuits
If you’re thinking about giving a handmade gift this Christmas, this would make a great present. And if you’re not thinking about that, you should make them anyway! 🙂 Almond is one of my favourite flavours, so I doubt that these biscuits will last long. I followed the instructions below for my first batch which…
Venison stew
I’m using one of my current favourite ingredients again for this recipe! I found the original recipe here, and as usual there are a few minor differences – the biggest being that the original recipe serves 8, but the amounts given below will serve 4.
Sticky honey, almond and banana cake
We have friends staying this weekend and I’m a firm believer that there should always be cake in the house when people come to stay. So I made this old favourite – it’s actually the only way me and Tom will eat bananas! I use my brownie pan to make this sticky honey almond and…
Leek, goat’s cheese and crispy bacon risotto
This is a really delicious risotto and it only takes 30 minutes to cook (plus 10 minutes preparation), so it can easily be made on a weeknight for a treat! Tom isn’t a massive fan of cheese but he loved this – we put extra leek in instead of celery as neither of us…
Eve’s pudding
If you’re looking for a bit of sweet comfort food, then look no further! This recipe is from the BBC Food website and serves 6, but we just halved the amounts here (and left out the raisins because Tom doesn’t like them!). We had a huge batch of cooking apples from our neighbour, so I…
Venison and ale pie
Venison is such a lovely meat, and I recently discovered that they sell it in our local supermarket. It’s a lean and tasty meat, and as I’d found some diced venison I decided to try out making a pie with it. I found the original recipe for this on allrecipes.co.uk but that one serves 10…
Creamy chicken, squash and sage pasta bake
This recipe started out as squash, ricotta and sage pasta bake – a recipe I found on the BBC Good Food website. I thought this sounded really tasty, but the comments at the bottom of the page were pretty mixed and many people had added their own ingredients! So I’ve done that, but a bit…
Pac Man iced biscuits
We’ve had these Pac Man cookie cutters since last Christmas and have been meaning to make them ever since then! This week there was a good reason to do it – our friend Kimberley had an 80s themed roller disco for her birthday, so this was perfect. They are really easy to make but…
Millionaire’s Flapjack
This is a delicious combination which makes normal flapjack just that bit more special. The recipe is from the Gu Chocolate Cookbook (another book that comes highly recommended if you have a sweet tooth – you’ll want to make everything! I’ll definitely make these again but will probably double the flapjack amounts and chocolate –…
Honey Ricotta Cheesecake
I have a really sweet tooth, but strangely I don’t really crave chocolate or sweets very much. Cake and cheesecake are a different matter though! I decided to make this because I had some leftover ricotta cheese from making spicy chorizo and ricotta stuffed ravioli last weekend, and I wanted to make something new and…
Spiced Apple and Squash Soup
Our lovely friend Sandra gave us a homegrown squash from her allotment last week (there’s nothing like homegrown veg!), and I’ve been looking for something tasty to make with it. I’ve recently discovered the recipe finder on the Waitrose website and decided to see what it suggested – this soup recipe is apparently one of…
Spicy Chorizo and Ricotta Stuffed Ravioli
If you follow me on Instagram then you’ll already know that I’ve been busy making my own pasta today! It’s one of those things that I’ve wanted to do for ages and we got a pasta machine with some vouchers that we were given for our wedding. So today I used it for the…
Maple and Pecan Autumn Leaves
I had a really productive crafty day today, and if you’ve seen my previous post then you might have guessed that there was a bit of a leafy theme going on! I found this recipe for these biscuits in the November 2013 issue of Country Living magazine, and bought a set of leaf cutters to…