Cookery Calendar Challenge - February

Hello, welcome to my kitchen. I'm joining Penny at The Homemade Heart for February's Cookery Calendar Challenge. The challenge is to pick 2 recipes from one of your cookery books and cook them. Then using photographs of your chosen dishes, talk about how the recipe went and what your family thought about the meal. I'm going to cook 2 recipes from one of the many cookery books that are hidden away in the pantry. The book I chose this time is Simply Good Family Food by Peter Sidwell.

I bought this book after borrowing it from the library. I was instantly attracted to the biscuits section in 'Rainy days' with family favourites such as Bourbon biscuits, Custard creams, Caramel dodgers  described as 'something else' and Sidwell's version of the humble hob nob. These include sultanas, if you should make these, prepare to be amazed and have ready a large storage container or 2 smaller ones, as the recipe makes a lot. Peter Sidwell lives in the Lake District so it's no surprise that he's included a rainy days section.
 

The book itself is split into sections with 'Days out', 'I'm starving', 'Weekends' and 'Fresh from the garden' etc so the sweet thingss are interspersed at the end of each section as opposed to all at the end. Before I tell you the recipes I chose, I want to thank Jo from Three Stories High for sharing her idea about choosing the weekly menu. Her family sit down with a cookery book and each choose a recipe for the week. I like the way she says it builds tolerance to meals you wouldn't normally wish to eat.

Generally speaking in my family, on Sundays after entering work schedule times on the calendar for the week, I usually plan the weeks menu. I choose casseroles, chops and bakes, roasts at the weekend and fish, rice and pasta dishes. Sometimes the teens put in requests, such as sausages or tuna pasta bake. Teen 1 has cooked some meals in the past, when he did catering for GCSE. He cooked lots of sausage rolls, homemade bread and chicken masala, all of which was delicious.

So onto the challenge, this time I asked the family to choose some dishes. The teens chose one dish each which I will show you now. The first one in 'Easy Entertaining' was 'Smoked Salmon Doughnuts' which I initially thought sounded just plain weird! 

Smoked salmon doughnuts

They are described as tasty little nibbles to start a dinner party or for a light supper.

                           

Collecting together the above ingredients - egg yoke in pot, plus lemon, whisked egg whites, self-raising flour and oil for deep frying.

First of all the chopped smoked salmon is folded lightly into the whisked egg whites with the chopped basil, flour, salt and lemon zest. Once the oil has heated to 170*, you can test the heat by adding a tiny bit on a spoon. It should crackle when hot enough.

Once it's hot enough you simply spoon 4 generous tablespoons at a time of the mixture into the hot oil. After 45 seconds, turn them over. They should be golden and crispy. 

Place them on a warmed plate with kitchen towel to absorb some oil. I served ours with a ready prepared stir fry and egg fried rice using the egg yoke only. It was a bit dryer than past egg fried rice dishes but... it used up the yokes.

The family loved them, bliss a great success! I've cut one open so you can peep inside. It just goes to show, it's good to try new things. I definitely wouldn't have attempted this recipe anytime soon. I would've thought it too posh for family meals and thought - one day... maybe.

Sausage and sage meatloaf

The teens also chose another meatloaf, the last one I cooked was from The Hairy Dieters and required some pre-cooking. This meatloaf is from the weekends section. Here's the best bit, it requires no pre-cooking, no sauteing at all. Simply chop the onion, prepare some breadcrumbs and place in a mixing bowl add sage, eggs, milk, salt & pepper, honey and wholegrain mustard. Using your hands mix thoroughly and place in a 2lb loaf tin, covered in oiled baking paper. I lined my tin too as I hate ruining my tins trying to get things out again. Though the liner called have caused the difficulties in slicing the meatloaf to serve. Bake in the oven for about 1hr 20 mins until cooked through. 

We served ours with pasta and a ready made tomato pasta sauce. The family loved it. You could of course serve salad with this meal, or swap the pasta for mashed or jacket potato. Although this meatloaf requires no pre-cooking and it's not that I'm reluctant to cook, I have indeed made many a sauce from scratch, it's just nice sometimes to rustle up a quick meal. The meatloaf could easily be prepared the day before and left in the fridge ready for cooking when needed. 

I saw this book recently in a charity shop for £2. I'm going to pick 2 recipes from it to cook during March. Thank you for joining me today for the Cookery Calendar Challenge. I hope it may have inspired you to try something new.
Cx

NB I found this recipe on-line which has half the ingredients in the book, though the 3oz sultanas are missing. I've made the hob nobs gluten free before.  

There's even a Christmas present idea in the book to make in September. Vanilla and blackberry vodka for the grown ups. You can leave it to mature for 8 weeks or to consume asap, checking the bottle top is screwed on tight, place it in the dishwasher on your usual setting. The heat infuses the flavours. Chill well. 

                                                           

New things - Five on Friday

Hello, I hope you are well. Today I'm joining with 'Five on Friday' and I thought I'd show you 5 new things that are 'happening' here at home.

Spring Flowering Muscari Armeniacum 

One - New life. M planted up my bulbs which were a Christmas present from family. I notice on the label that it warns against eating the bulbs! To be honest it hadn't crossed my mind and I can't help wondering at the 'Nanny State' sometimes. Surely those likely to be at risk, are the least likely to read the warnings anyway?
The photo looks promising, and like all bulbs there's something special about seeing their flowers opening to the sun.

Two - New on my blog. This weekend I finally got round to launching - 'Weekend Stitches' on my blog. This is something I've thought about doing for a while now and I'm hoping this will be the first of many. The squares themselves will feature many different patterns and when joined, will make a sampler blanket.

                                            

Three - New book to read. Top of the book pile at the moment is the next book on the reading challenge. I bought this book from the CO-OP, one of their 2 for £5 deals last year. It's still not been read, so fits in with the 2018 Debbie Macomber book bucket list challenge - Read a book you already own, but haven't read.

                                             

Four - New book club read. Also on the pile is The Girl Before by JP Delaney, this one is for the book club. Peter James describes it as 'a wonderful portrayal of psychological obsession at its creepy best'. I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to it, I read a book once that left me feeling sick inside for days. It was called - Behind Closed Doors by B A Paris. 

I wonder if I'm too sensitive but then again, apart from the book being disturbing, I thought the main (male) character was sick. I would say, why do people read these books, but that would sound stupid, as I did. A friend asked me why I finished it but surely that's the point of  a 'gripping psychological thriller' isn't it, it grips you! You can't put it down. 

New - resting places. My precious boy QT, utterly adorable. As usual, he's relaxing and totally taking it easy. I love it when cats stretch out their front legs, they are totally at rest.

Unless of course someone keeps pointing the flash in your eyes, oops! Sorry lad. The flash was off but the camera runs through meter readings before each shot.

Thank you for visiting, do let me know if you've read any of these books and if you find learning new things, strangely exciting!
I'm off to read other Five on Friday posts.
Have a lovely weekend, Cx

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Weekend Stitches - Double Crochet (uk)

Hello, welcome to 'Weekend Stitches'. I hope that you are well.

Often when people learn to crochet, they enter into the world of Granny Squares with gusto, they crochet squares, blankets for babies, for themselves and for their pets, you get the idea. They may try a circle and round and round they go. They battle the treble crochet stitch, slip knots, chains and changing colour, sewing in ends, maybe buy a set of nice crochet hooks and hunt down some new yarn like so and so has. But there are so many more beautiful stitches that can be equally enjoyable to crochet. Personally I'd like to learn some more crochet stitches and thought that I'd share them with you. If you'd like to 'have a go' at learning new stitches too, please grab your hook and yarn and have a try.
Please do leave a comment if you have a question and I'll try and help.

Terminology - I'm working in UK terminology. I'll try and list the US terminology too.

Double Crochet (Lime) 

To start off, I'm crocheting with a basic stitch, dc (double crochet) this is sc (single crochet) in the US. This is the simplest stitch. I've added a few variants further down, so you can consider the different textures, the different techniques provide.

Uses - You can use this stitch for many projects including washcloths and dishcloths also amigurumi crochet.

Using a 4mm crochet hook and dk yarn, I began with a slip knot and made a chain of 40 + 1 stitches. The extra stitch is for a turning chain and raises the height of the first stitch. I'm going to be crocheting a series of squares with different stitch techniques, a sort of sampler of squares. I'd like them all to be the same size as eventually, I'm going to sew them together as a permanent reminder.

 

I'm crocheting 10 rows in the same colour. In the photograph above, you'll see the row of V's along the top, it's these stitches that I'll be working in. With Granny Squares, you'll have pushed your hook into these and the chain space between stitches. In this instance there are no spaces, instead there should be a neat and densely packed rows of stitches.

Once the chain has been made, insert the hook in the 2nd loop under both parts of the V stitch, yarn over hook, grab yarn (turn your hook down to hold fast the yarn) and pull through loop. With 2 loops on your hook, yarn over hook, grab the yarn with your hook and pull the yarn through both stitches. You'll be left with 1 loop on your hook.

Continue this to complete the first row.
I've called these 2 parts of the V - front and back. The front loop closest to you, the back loop furthest from you.

When you've reached the end of the row, chain one and turn. When counting your stitches, do not count the loop on the hook. Your next stitch goes where my needle (above) is positioned, stitch number 2. If you have the same number of stitches as me in your chain, you will have 40 'V' stitches each and every row.

My thoughts on this stitch. It is simple and quick, the stitches and rows are densely spaced.
Be sure to chain 1 at the end of the row and put your hook into the second stitch (above) shown, otherwise you'll be losing a stitch each row.

Back Loop Double Crochet (Cheviot)

Once I crocheted 10 rows of dc in lime I changed colour, but this time I crocheted 10 rows of dc into the back part of the V stitch only (as above).



You'll notice that the cheviot (grey tweed) section instantly looks different to the lime green. There are raised bumps to the front of the crochet rows.

                   

Front Loop Double Crochet (Gold)

For the gold section, I went on to crochet 10 rows of dc into the front of the V stitch only (as above).

Materials used

Jarol Heritage DK, Wool Rich 100g, 55% wool, 25% Acrylic, 20% Nylon.

Shade - Lime (137),
Gold (140)

Jarol Heritage Tweed DK 50% Wool 20% Premium Acrylic 25% Nylon 5% Viscose 
Shade - Cheviot (02)

Hook - 4mm

Next time, I'll show you the completed Front Loop Double Crochet section and the Back & Front Loop Double Crochet section.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment.
Thank you for visiting, do let me know if you've tried these stitches.
Cx

Family walk, half-term Five on Friday

Hello, it's Friday, half-term and a sunny day, time to put on shoes, wrap up warm and head out for a walk. I'm joining 'Five on Friday' with 5 groups of photos from our walk. Do shout if you've been here before or recognise any plants (especially the yellow ones in my garden please). Unfortunately the flora and fauna are lacking at this time of year. Later in spring time through to summer there's an abundance of wildlife, birds, dragon flies, and beautiful pyramid orchids.   

One - Opening the gate, we head into Rimac a Natural England Conservation area, it's lovely and peaceful here. In the summer families bring children often with fishing nets. A few years ago, schools would bring children to 'experience' nature. I have to say, that I like it here. If you walk straight ahead, you will arrive at the sea, but it is a long walk. 

The hill on the right has been sign posted - Do not enter the grasses, birds nesting. In fact, on the level you should keep to the path due to ground nesting. Though I understand that we should protect the environment, it's difficult dragging children away from electronics only to restrict them again. 

We follow the path round to the patch of water on the left.

You can just see a raised platform with benches.

Schools would flock here to 'Discover the amazing wildlife found in the Rimac pond: water scorpions, dragonfly nymphs and more' with help from Natural England Conservation.


Two - There are information signs and sadly an abandoned education hut in the car park, which provided fun indoor activities for both school and holiday learning. I hadn't realised the hut was no longer in use,  Roger - one of the staff worked tirelessly, to see the hut was adequate with a heat stove and learning materials.

  Three - Climbing the top of the steps, we survey the area.

Four - Before descending for some family photos.

You should just see the sea in the distance.

Five - Plantlife.

The plants have yet to show except for thistles and grasses.

So back at home before we go in for a cuppa, I snap the first signs of colour from my garden.

Winter Aconites

Tete a tete

Snowdrops

Thank you for joining me on my walk, I hope to return in the summer when there's more to see.

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