Thomasina Miers' Churros y Chocolate

This recipe has been on my to-do-list ever since I first got my grubby mitts on a copy of Thomasina Miers' Mexican Cooking Made Easy (my second favourite book after Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet) and I knew that if I didn't make it today, I probably never would.

Just a light breakfast

It's the kind of thing that you a) have to share with other people and b) couldn't cook in my house because the husband would freak out about the thought of all that hot oil catching fire.  So I decided to make it whilst visiting the Mothership as I knew she'd just about trust me to cook it by myself (see last night's brandy episode) and that my stepdad would do the honours and eat every last scrap.

The recipe supposedly makes 16 3-4" churros and I did consider only making half of the batter but figured that four each would be about right.  In the end, I must have had about 24 3-4" ones (and they all went).  It also makes far more chocolate sauce than it's humanly possible to eat at that time of the morning - but of course that will keep for another time or can be chilled and turned into truffles.

Mount Churros

Aside from the faff of deep frying, the recipe is simplicity itself.  The batter is just flour, oil and water;  the sauce a simple ganache of dark and milk chocolate*, double cream and golden syrup; the "sprinkly bit" cinnamon and caster sugar.  There's no need for a deep fat fryer to cook them - I did mine in a wok filled one-third full with oil.  You just need to be a bit dextrous trying to snip the batter from the piping bag when it's hanging over a pan of hot oil.  I had a couple that stuck together as the previous one floated into the path of the new one I was squeezing out but other than that, everything went to plan.

The only other tip is to either keep the pre-cooked ones warm whilst cooking the others or to serve them to people shortly after draining.  I made all mine first and so the last few were a bit icky when cold but the chocolate sauce definitely made up for it.

I would definitely make these again if I ever had a crowd to feed.  Which will be never.  But definitely worth the effort if you fancy a treat.  If you don't own a copy of Mexican Food Made Easy (then go buy one!) you can find the recipe here.

*It did feel slightly wrong cooking with 250g Finest Peruvian chocolate at 8am.  But only slightly!

Simon Rimmer's Turkish Poached Eggs

Yes, okay, I can't leave the Olympic Food Challenge thing alone.  I'm now impatiently sitting on my thumbs in anticipation of Ewan Mitchell releasing the remaining OFC countries to the hungry masses for the Paralympic Food Challenge.  In the meantime, with a course (requiring nightly homework of 2+ hours) and two exams to complete I'm still doing the quick breakfast, quick blog thing.

The recipe is again courtesy of some weekend Googling as the scant offering of breakfast recipes in my collection of cookbooks only yielded things that are a) ridiculously high in calories (sausage, bacon and egg muffin anyone?) or b) time consuming (skinny blueberry, apple and muesli muffin anyone?)

Watery spinach and nary a breadcrumb in sight

Poached eggs are my favourite ever breakfast.  With a pile of maple cured bacon on the side.  No sausages (unless you absolutely insist).  Just some crisp buttered sourdough toast underneath.  So this breakfast was a slight departure for me having to pour a garlic yogurt sauce over the top and with spinach underneath (my own addition to the recipe).

Only point of note on the food styling front is that it's essential to double dry your spinach.  In between drying mine and getting the eggs on the top, the spinach had managed to leak its residual moisture all over the plate.

It was an interesting recipe.  I might do it again if I was cooking breakfast for someone else.  Like my friend who's an utterly committed vegetarian unless someone would like to cook bacon and eggs for her.  Whilst I sit there and eat my own bacon and eggs.  Mean?  Me.  Absolutely :)

You can find the recipe here.

One more thing on the C4 food stylist's work.  Wondering why on earth they've sprinkled those lurid orange scotch-egg breadcrumbs over the top of theirs....??

And yes, here's the Turkish flag.  I couldn't resist.

River Cottage Swiss Style Muesli

Yet again I have to take umbrage with the Channel 4 food stylists. Take a look at the picture from their website below. I know it's not a close up, but I fail to see any sign of dried fruits, nuts and seeds being added to this mix. And unless HF-W uses the world's tiniest apples, I don't get how his muesli looks like a bowl of orange juice-soaked oats with a few seeds and a dollop of yogurt and yet mine is a vibrant, jewel-like bowlful?

What I like about this recipe is that you are told to pick your own mix of fruit, nuts and seeds. Whilst I know that as a grown up I'm fully entitled to exercise my right to adapt a recipe I like that HF-W isn't so presumptuous as to believe that everyone in the world likes hazelnuts and raisins in their muesli. I certainly don't. It also gives you the opportunity to use up all those end-of-packet odds and sods that so often clutter up the back of the cupboard.

Poor lighting + Instagram ruined the colours...

My mix ended up containing apricots, cherries, dates, apple and a few token sultanas (I am not a fan of dried grapes if they are not in a cake but I like to push my own boundaries just a smidgen every now and again). To this I added chopped almonds, pecans and pumpkin seeds, which I roasted for ten minutes, and a handful of pre-toasted coconut flakes.

I followed the serving method, grating in a Pink Lady into the bowl and add some fresh orange juice before giving it a stir and leaving it for ten minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this bit. I'm not a fan of soggy cereal. I've been known to throw a bowl of cornflakes away after just two bites as they've gone to soggy from the milk. I'd much rather eat cereal straight from the box (a habit I'm no longer able to indulge now I'm married) or at a push I'll eat granola with yogurt. Which is how I'll eat the rest of this batch of rather tasty muesli.

Here's the recipe link

Olympic Food Challenge: Swayweih and Kahwa - Oman

Like a lot of my other non-European countries, I new little about Oman before the Olympic Food Challenge began.  It's all been very educational.  I knew it was a Gulf state but would have been hard pressed to pinpoint it straight away on a map.  What surprised me was the cuisine because it seems to be heavily influenced by Indian food despite there being a tract of sea between the two.  I ended up discounting a lot of the recipes because they were things I'd associate with India like Biryani - although the husband might have eaten that.

Coffee wasn't quite thick enough to stand the spoon up

Instead, as Friday is a working from home day, I decided to go with a breakfast option.  Mostly because it is served with Kahwa - or ridiculously sweet coffee, spiked with cardamom.  If there's one thing the Middle Easterners do well, it's coffee.  Dark and thick enough to stand your spoon up in.  Sadly, I had to make do with Colombian (my favourite, but I doubled the quantity of coffee to water) and for someone who doesn't take sugar in her coffee (unless it's a caramel latte and that doesn't count as coffee), it was really enjoyable.

As for the pasta with scrambled eggs, coconut, onion and sugar or Swayweih to give it it's proper name.  Well it was different.  I was expecting horrible.  Onion, coconut, eggs and sugar?  Hardly sweet and sour but neither savoury nor sweet.  But actually, it worked.  Laced with more cardamom (love the stuff although I know it's a bit of a Marmite flavour) and stirred through vermicelli it wasn't half bad and although I polished it off quite quickly, it kept me going from 7am through til 1pm - something I can normally only accomplish if I have a protein bar or get stuck in a meeting at work.

Omani flag

Would I eat it again?  If I'm honest, probably not.  I like my pasta dressed with parmesan.  I like my scrambled egg slightly runny and smothered in Heinz ketchup on top of thick, crusty sourdough toast that's been liberally slathered with salted butter (a once in a blue moon treat).  Onions, sugar and coconut? Not mixed in with my breakfast all at the same time.  But if I ever find myself in Oman and it's on the breakfast menu, I would consider it again.

That said, I think it's probably a good post-run breakfast with plenty of protein and carbs.  The butter will help keep the speed of the sugar release from the white pasta down and the coffee is sure to keep the adrenaline and metabolism pumping for a while after (I wish I'd gone to nutritionist school when I was younger).  You never know, I might just change my mind one day.

You can find the recipe here along with everything you ever wanted to know about Oman.

Olympic Food Challenge - Funche - Puerto Rico

It's polenta - not shortbread

Really quick blog post today.  Bridestock has finally dawned and in just a few hours, the lovely @BridestockBride will be hitched to the lovely David.  Far more important things to do today than labour over a blog post.  Very sorry Puerto Rico.  No disrespect to your lovely country.  I did quite like your breakfast.

Funche is simply sweetened polenta.  Cooked with a combination of water, milk and sugar and then either eaten soft, like porridge or left to set and cut into wedges.  I went for the set wedge option and served with some fruit you'd find in Puerto Rico, and some you most likely won't - unless they're expensive imports.  See if you can guess which is which from the picture.

Just a bronze medal for this recipe as I'm still not swayed by polenta.  However, I have finally gotten to the end of the bag I bought some months ago thanks to the Italian Cornbread, Cheesy Polenta with Mushrooms and the more recent Pap and Chakkalaka recipes.  It's been an experience.  Not sure if I'll be repeating it any time soon.

Here's a link to the recipe.  Will try and expand on this another night.

Wahaca: Easy Horchata

As part of my new diet, one meal a day is either a protein bar or a protein shake.  I feel a little guilty about consuming both of these products as they contain a ridiculous number of ingredients that I have never heard of and are produced in a laboratory rather than grown in the ground.  This goes totally against the principle I've been trying to adopt of only eating things that you know where they come from (and I don't mean you can eat something because it comes from Waitrose - other supermarkets are available).

But that's what the meal plan says and so that's what I've been trying to do in my last-ditch, desperate attempt to get back to my happy weight so I can wear my favourite two outfits once more this Christmas.

The only thing these products have going for them is that they're pretty filling.  And because, since having Miss A, I tend to get the munchies at 4.30pm, I have one or other of these 'meal replacements' to banish my grazing needs once and for all.  I have tried Graze boxes, but they don't work - I'll just end up eating two or three if I'm that kind of mood.  But the protein stuff seems to be the solution.

Leafing through my new copy of Wahaca: Mexican Food at Home this week, I found two potential replacements for the protein shakes.  Although not scientifically balanced and guaranteed to help me lose weight (provided I eat nothing but lettuce and exercise seven hours a day, seven days a week), they're made using simple ingredients, packed full of all the good stuff that you're supposed to eat.

A drink that knows where it came from - my kitchen!

I tried the Horchata first.  This is a blended mixture of rice milk, almonds, oats, cinnamon, honey, banana and yogurt.  I chose it because I thought I could share it with Miss A.  Unfortunately whilst I liked mine, she wasn't a fan and insisted that she wanted a chocolate milkshake.  I ended up re-blending hers with a teaspoon of cocoa powder - it was then consumed in about five seconds flat.

The one thing I didn't do was serve it over ice as recommended.  I thought it would be okay because some of my ingredients were chilled and we had no ice, but on reflection I think it would've been far more refreshing served that way.  I think it would also work well blended with some soft summer berries.  If the sun ever comes out and ripens my raspberries, I'll definitely be making this again with some of those thrown in.

I would definitely recommend buying the book.  Although this is the first recipe I've tried, based on my experience of Thomasina's last book - Mexican Cooking at Home (the recipes I've tried from it can be found here), it will be jam packed with amazing recipes.

There are loads of variations for Horchata on the web so give it a Google.  Next up - Avocado Milkshakes!

Mexican Egg White Omelette

This new diet thing is very protein-based and so today, I decided to try an egg-white omelette for my breakfast.  Having done a bit of research online into recipes, I ended up a bit worried that it would be tasteless and runny - according to a Martha Stewart recipe they can be watery - but I was actually pleasently surprised.

An medium egg contains around 70 calories, with only 17 of these coming from the white meaning that it's a good diet choice.  Before I started I decided I'd include one egg yolk in the mix - lucky because I ended up dropping one in! - so I had four whites to one yolk.  With the filling, this came to just 218 cals for breakfast

Shortly before it got really messy!

There's not much else to say on the subject.  I treated it like any other omelette I'd make by seasoning it well with salt and pepper and throwing in a handful of coriander.  Normally I'd add a splash of water too (I can't remember who I picked this tip up from or what difference it makes) but based on the research, I didn't just in case.

Ordinarily I'd fill an omelette with mushrooms, spinach and a sprinkling of strong cheese, but  I was so concerned about this being tasteless, I went for feta cheese and salsa.  In Thomasina Miers' books, wherever she recommends a medium-hard cheese for a recipe, she says that feta makes a good substitute so that's Mexican enough for me.

The colour and taste wasn't as bad as I expected.  The colour was probably helped by the yellow from the single yolk and the herbs.  The texture was a little more rubbery than I would like but this is probably because a lack of fat from the egg yolks.

One bonus was it actually held together getting it out of the pan than a regular omelette does, although next time I'd probably fill it out of the pan as I made a mess with the salsa everywhere - hence the picture of it before folding and serving.

Recipe - Serves 1

• 3 medium egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• small bunch of herbs (coriander or parsley)
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 30g feta cheese, crumbled
• 40g fresh salsa
• cooking spray

1. Preheat the grill to high
2. Whisk the eggs together with a fork, season generously with salt and pepper and add the herbs before mixing well.
3. Spray an omelette pan with spray oil and heat over a medium heat.  Pour in the egg mixture and stir with a rubber spatula as the curds start to form, ensuring that it covers the bottom of the pan well.  When the mixture is nearly fully set, put the frying pan under the grill for 1-2 minutes to ensure the eggs are fully cooked.
4. Use a palette knife to release the omelette from the pan and slide carefully onto a plate.  Fill with the salsa and feta before serving.

James Martin's Caramel Apple Brioche

This is something I've been wanting to make for a long time, but have shied away from because of the whopping calorie content.  But in a fit of pre-diet carb-loading, I decided it was now or never.  It was either this or Churros y Chocolat from Thomasina Miers Mexican Food Made Easy.  This only won because I'm still a bit of a wuss when it comes to deep-fat-frying without a deep-fat-fryer.

As with all James' recipes, this involves an awful lot of butter, and lots of sugar too.  But it has fruit in it, so I figured it counts as one of my five a day.  And I eschewed the dollop of softly whipped double cream in favour of a dollop of Greek yogurt, thus saving a few calories and also helping to cut through the tooth-rotting sweetness that is basically toffee apples on sweet French Toast.

Miss A had one triangle of toast with a smear of the toffee and a freshly sliced apple but managed to swipe a second bit of the bread and ram it in her mouth before I knew where it had gone.  I've tried her with French toast before but she's always turned her nose up at it.  I think the brioche version - sans toffee sauce - might make a good compromise in future.

The brioche I used was a pre-bought, ready sliced one which is pretty lazy of me, but it's a great way to use up the end of a left over loaf whether you make your own or not.  It's something I've done before on this blog (read the post here) and it was a bit of an epically long recipe so not something I do regularly - but worth it for the treat.  I do also want to try Dan Lepard's brioche recipe on day - and that takes two days of baking!


One cheat was to use Bonne Maman Dulche de Leche rather than making my own caramel sauce.  Purely because I had a half open jar in the fridge and didn't have any double cream to hand.


My finally change to the recipe was to not peel my apples and to use Pink Ladies, leaving the skin on to give a pretty contrast to all the brown of the toast and the toffee.  The picture doesn't really do it justice, but they did look quite decorative.  I really need to work on my food photography!


Serves 2

• 4 slices plain brioche, halved
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 Pink Lady Apples, cored and quartered
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean extract
• 4 tsp soft brown sugar
• 50 ml milk
• 2 tbsp dulche de leche
• 40g butter

1. Mix the egg, milk, 2 tsp of sugar and vanilla together in a shallow bowl.
2. Heat half the butter in a frying pan.  Once foaming, dip the brioche pieces in the egg mixture and fry until lightly browned on both sides.  Put on a plate in the oven to keep warm.
3. Coat the apple in the rest of the sugar.  Put the remaining butter in the frying pan and turn the heat up.  Toss the apples in the butter until the sugar starts to caramelise.  Add in the toffee sauce and warm slightly then serve over the brioche, topped with some Greek yogurt, creme fraiche or whipped cream.

BBC Good Food Cinnamon porridge with banana & berries

After at least a week of unhealthy eating, I'm going to slowly start preparing the husband for his new diet regimen when we get home.  He's doing this new hardcore exercise plan (he'll last about a week) and it comes with one of those diet plans that revolves around oats and fish with brown rice and veggies.  None of which he'll eat.  So this morning, as we're in Scotland, I thought I'd try convincing him to at least give porridge a go.  I doubt that he'll even look at it.  Normally he can't bear to be on the same floor as it, let alone in the same room. And we're in a single storey log cabin, so he may have ended up sitting outside in the rain whilst I made this.

Will update with the tale of how it went later as I'm assuming we have no mobile signal and pre-authoring this post.

Loving the retro Blue Willow Ware china

Recipe can be found here

Updated: 05 July 2012 @ 19:58 

I must have been seriously deluded when I wrote the bit above, thinking that he husband would even be present at the breakfast table at the same time as everyone else, let alone that he might consider eating porridge.

Maybe he knew what I was thinking and purposely avoided getting up until Miss A and I had finished breakfast so that I couldn't try and force feed him porridge.  Or because he was on holiday, he got to have a lie in every single day where I was up at 6am, which I guess is a lie in for me as I'm normally up at 5 and off to work at six.

Enough of our marital discord.  There's not too much to say about this recipe.  I enjoyed it enough to make it two days on the trot.  The second day, however, I managed to burn the porridge to the bottom of the pan whilst dealing with a Cheerio-related crisis (I hate stainless steel pans on electric hobs) so I've not made it since.

Cooking the bananas in the porridge meant that it needed minimal sugar for sweetening - I normally use maple syrup - so it's a fairly good and filling diet option.  Definitely one for a weekend breakfast when I've got the time (and the non-stick pans) to make this.

Apricot Pancakes with Basil and Strawberry Butter

Despite all my good planning, the blogging schedule has been interrupted already.  For all the best reasons but this post is technically about a recipe I tried yesterday and I'm making yesterday's pre-blogged recipe tonight.

The interruption was very welcome - the lovely Allison Patrick hosted a special meeting of the Edinburgh Cake Ladies because I was holidaying very close to her house.  Because I'd intended on making the husband try something different for tea, I switched to a new breakfast recipe for myself and Miss A yesterday and let the hubby have a (rather dodgy) lunch in a chippy.  And then I went out and ate lots of cake and had a really good time.

Rocky would give it a thumbs up if he had any

The recipe for today (yesterday) was inspired by a BBC Good Food recipe.  Pancakes used to be staple weekend fayre for Miss A to help me assuage the guilt of not being with her for breakfast Monday to Fridays because I'm already at work when she gets up.  She then got fussy and stopped eating them.  Since then, I've tried a number of recipes to try and tempt her but she's having none of it.  And today's recipe met with a similar reception.

Personally, I liked this batter.  It was the perfect consistency, simple to make and produced light and fluffy pancakes.  Abigail took hers from her plate, turned them into drums, pounded on them for a while, picked out the apricots and then fed the remains to her stuffed toy rhino Rocky.

Because I had no honey (probably a crime in Scotland!) I made use of the leftover basil from Monday's dinner and some strawberries to make strawberry and basil butter.   This gave them a lovely fresh taste, despite being packed with dried fruit rather than fresh.

Recipe - serves 4 (or three plus a hungry stuffed toy rhino) - adapted from a BBC Good Food recipe

• 140g plain flour, sifted
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 25g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 150ml milk
• 50g dried apricots, chopped
• a little butter for frying

• 100g lightly salted butter, softened
• small handful of basil leaves, torn
• 50g strawberries, finely diced

• extra strawberries to serve

1. Mix the basil into the butter then carefully press the strawberries into the mixture.  Mould into a log shape, wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge.
2. Mix the flour, bicarb, baking powder, sugar, egg and milk together to make a thick, smooth batter.  Fold in the apricots.
3. Heat the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat.  Once melted, drop tablespoonfuls of batter into the pan, leaving space to spread.  Cook until firm and browned on the bottom then flip over and cook for a further two minutes.
4. Once all the pancakes are cooked, remove the butter from the fridge and carefully slice into circles then use to top the pancakes.

BBC Good Food Pineapple and Pink Grapefruit with Mint Sugar

The final recipe in this week's mint quadrilogy.  I was feeling really virtuous when I came home from work and tucked into a plate of soft, sweet pineapple and cheek tingling red grapefruit (I didn't pay attention to which colour grapefruit I picked up at the shops so don't shoot me) and summery mint sugar.  And then the husband persuaded me to have a chippy tea so now I'm feeling fat and bloated and a bit greasy.  For every yin, there is a yang and all that.

Not much to say tonight, mostly because I have to do a whole load of washing, ironing, packing, recipe printing and more cooking related packing.  And work.  Hence the really quick and easy recipe and lack of soul searching post.

Never would've thought about doing anything with these fruit other than eating them by themselves.  I added a squeeze of lime to the mix for a really tropical taste.  Will definitely be eating this a lot post holiday!

Recipe is here.

BBC Good Food Black Pudding Potato Cakes

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a tweet by @TheFoodNut saying that the odds were on Stephen getting fired from The Apprentice.  I was desperate for Stephen to go as he was truly irritating so I tweeted back that if he didn't, I'd eat black pudding - the culinary equivalent of eating my hat.  We Sky+'d The Apprentice that night and I left the telly on BBC2 instead.

A waste of a perfectly poached egg

Rather stupidly, I came down just after 10pm and saw that someone else had been fired.  Annoyed both that Stephen appeared to still be in and that I'd seen the result before the programme, I wandered back upstairs and added some black pudding to my Ocado order.  Never let it be said that I don't keep my word*.  Even to someone I've not met.

You can imagine how gutted I was several days later when we finally watched that particular episode and I discovered that Stephen had indeed left in a double firing.  And of course, I already had my black pudding.

This has bothered me for nearly two weeks now.   Every time I've opened the fridge, it's been staring at me.

I decided to discuss it with my mentor.  Normally I like him and respect his opinion which I why I asked him to be my chief cheerleader and motivator (at work!).  One of his roles is to ask me why I'm making particular decisions in my (work) life and challenge me if he thinks I should be doing something else.   I'd desperately been hoping he'd say something like 'Are you completely mad?  I wouldn't feed that to my dog!'**  He told me that black pudding is one of his favourite foods ever and I should definitely try it. I'm now considering looking for a new mentor.

So this weekend it came time to bite the bullet.  I'm emptying the fridge of perishables in advance of our impending holiday and conveniently, it went out of date today.  I'd researched this recipe a while back.  It seemed like a good idea because it wasn't a whole piece of black pudding; nor did it require expensive ingredients to go with it (scallops and black pudding is such a waste of good scallops).  I made my mash yesterday but couldn't bring myself to eat it at lunch time so it became today's breakfast.

That fateful tweet

Having forgotten to mix in the spring onions, I panfried them and served them on the side.  As I don't like cherry tomatoes - and didn't want to buy some just for this one recipe - I used up some of the Chilli Jam that I made a while back (batch number three!).  And I served it with a poached egg because I prefer them to fried ones.

The verdict?  Well it was okay, but it's not something I'll be cooking again.  Ever.  Unless the husband ever decides to like black pudding (in which case I'll probably just divorce him).  It had a very earthy flavour.  Almost like I'd made the potato cakes by mashing in the (unwashed) skins.  And it gave them a bit of spice too.  But it didn't rock my world.

Maybe I should just try it on it's own as part of a full English.  Or in some fancy restaurant, cooked perfectly with scallops or made into pakora or something.  But the chances of going to a swanky restaurant in the current millenium is probably hovering around the zero mark.  So I don't think I'm ever going to have a torrid love affair with the stuff.

Here's the recipe for your delectation.  If I adapted it in any way, I'd drop the black pudding and serve it with some lovely pink rashers of smoked bacon.

*Well most of the time....
**He doesn't have one

Nigel Slater's Mushroom Bruschetta

This recipe is from an article on the Observer website entitled 'Seven Speedy Snacks'.  I was looking for a really quick breakfast idea that involved mushrooms and leftover sourdough and I just knew that Nigel Slater was the man who'd offer me a recipe.  He just loves putting things on toast.  I assume this is why his autobiography (which I've still got to read - note to self, download to Kindle) is entitled 'Toast'.

Breakfast!

It's one of those really simple recipes that you could probably come up with yourself and I'm sure lots of people will say 'I already make that'.  But sometimes you need inspiration.  Especially with a mammoth task of single-handedly organising a toddler for a weekend away and updating a blog on a Jubilee cake.

I'm also not popular with the hubby because I set the smoke detector off toasting the sourdough this morning.  It goes from stale to burnt remarkably quickly.  But it's a great way to use up the last slice of four-day-old sourdough bread.

And that's it for today.  Just a short blog.  Happy Jubilee weekend!

Mary Berry's Orange Drop Scones

So many people have said to me this week 'I don't know how you do it' that today, it nearly became a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I didn't know how I'd do it.  Last Wednesday, sat at my desk, I scribbled down a week's worth of recipes to make sure that the Ocado man bought the majority of the things I'd need when he arrived on Thursday evening.  Okay, so I jiggled things around a bit to make sure I had time to do the curd and the fancy meringue for the cake club cake, but I thought I was safe in the knowledge that there was a plan for today's recipe.

On returning home, absolutely shattered and desperate for a quick win on the recipe front, I discovered that I'd written down 'something with vegetables'.  I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that, but I only turned up one pepper which has gone mouldy and a couple of sad looking spring onions in my crisper.  Along with four new potatoes and a bag of onions, it was hardly inspiring.  I was worried that this might be the end of both the challenge and my sanity in my currently sleep-deprived state.

Mmmm....pancakes!

Thankfully, Miss A saved the day by demanding to cook.  A quick flick through Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes turned up this recipe for Drop Scones.  Now in my book, they're not really a cake or a bake.  But hey, I'm not going to argue with Dame Mary.

Miss A used to have Scotch pancakes for her breakfast every Saturday and Sunday when she first started weaning.  Three small homemade pancakes, each with a slice of banana cooked into the middle for sweetness and then a pile of banana and strawberries on the side.  Then the fussy phase hit and the pancakes were cast over the side of the highchair, dog-wards.  I decided it wasn't worth the effort any more.  Cheerios are now the breakfast of choice.

So today gave me the ideal opportunity to re-introduce pancakes by letting us make them together now that she's big enough to stand on a chair and help out.  Of course, she cracked the egg, but she also had a go at squeezing oranges and using my citrus reamer.  All very messy and great fun.  When it came to the cooking bit, she peered into the pan and announced 'No eat pancakes, Mummy!'  Thankfully telling her that we'd feed them to the dogs soon changed her mind and she polished off three.

The recipe is fairly standard.  Flour, egg, sugar, milk and baking powder for the lift.  You then add orange juice and zest to the batter for flavour.  I will admit that I think it was probably lacking something to truly bring the flavour out - maybe a tiny pinch of salt or perhaps a splash of Orange Blossom Water.  But all in all, a pleasant twist on a standard recipe.  I'm sure they'd lend themselves to other citrus flavours too or to being served with a citrus butter or syrup.  Or citrus curd.  Now I'm typing I've realised they probably would've been good with the leftover raspberry curd from the cake of great epic-ness.

I can feel the weekend pancake ritual being re-instated very shortly.

Recipe - Makes 12 (adapted from 100 Cakes and Bakes)

• 1 orange, plus a little zest for sprinkling (optional)
• a little milk
• 80g self-raising flour
• 1/2 level tsp baking powder
• 20g caster sugar
• 1 large egg 
• spray oil

1. Grate the zest from the oranges and set aside, and then squeeze the juiceinto a measuring jug and make it up to 100ml with milk.
2. Measure the flour, baking powder, sugar and orange zest into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the egg and half the orange juice and milk mixture. Beat well to make a smooth, thick batter and then beat in enough of the remaining orange juice and milk to give a batter the consistency of thick cream.
3. Spray a frying pan with spray oil and then heat over a medium flame.  Drop desertspoonfuls of mixture into the hot pan.  When the top starts to bubble, use a palette knife to flip them over and cook for a further thirty seconds.  Transfer to a plate and cover with a clean tea towel to keep warm and soft while you cook the remaining pancakes.
4. Serve with butter, golden syrup, maple syrup or a fruit curd.

Baked Breakfast Mushrooms

So I'm off home for a few days and with a fridge full of odds and ends that I'd normally use up over the weekend, I figured I should try and make something interesting for breakfast.

Earlier in the week, I'd been pondering what to do with the couple of field mushrooms I had left after Monday's Baked Mushrooms with Parmesan Polenta and some streaky bacon from Sunday's Bacon Brownies (yep, that's right, bacon and chocolate); and had wondered if it would be possible to bake an egg in one.  Thumbing through Leith's Simple Food, my thoughts were confirmed and thus today's breakfast was born.

As I've struggled to perfect the art of the baked egg - getting the perfect moment when the white has set and the yolk is still runny is a bit of an art form - I decided to cheat a little here and poach my eggs and serve them inside the baked mushroom.  That way I knew I'd have perfect eggs.

Definitely something I'd do again if I was making breakfast for guests or as a meal if I had some leftover field mushrooms to use up.  

Sorry for the short blog this morning - packing to do, child to organise yadda yadda.  A Dan Lepard cake and roast Lamb to deliver over the weekend then blogging service will resume as normal on Monday with yet another cake for my first foray into the world of Clandestine Cake Clubs.  Just a little bit excited!

Recipe - serves 2

• 2 field mushrooms - ensure you pick ones that have a nice lip to the edge
• 2 eggs
• 1 clove of garlic, finely diced
• 2 rashers of streaky bacon, snipped into small pieces
• olive oil
• a small handful of parsley, chopped.
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan.
2. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and chop finely.   Place the mushrooms skin side down on a baking sheet.
3. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle the bacon, garlic and chopped mushrooms stalks into the bowl of the mushrooms.  Season well then bake for 20 mins or until the mushrooms have softened.
4. Five minutes before the end of the cooking time, either crack the eggs into the centre of the mushrooms and return to the oven to continue baking or poach the eggs in a pan of simmering water (check out Kitchen Bitching for the best way to poach an egg).
5. Remove the mushrooms from the oven, place on a serving plate and if using poached eggs, slide an egg into the cup of the mushroom.  Garnish with the parsley.
6. Serve with hot buttered toast.

Gordon Ramsay's Blueberry and Honey Pots

So today was my first half marathon since bringing my little sproglet into the world two years ago.  In fact, it was my first race since just before I fell pregnant back in 2009.  And boy, did it show.

I could go on and on about all the things I did wrong, but most of you aren't runners and would find it tedious.  And those of you who are should just be content in knowing that I broke every single rule in the runners handbook and will be paying the price for it for some time (running in too new shoes, running just days after having a chest infection, running after not having run for four weeks....blah blah blah...)

However, I made it round all 13.1 miles in the blazing sunshine.  I have a fetching tan-lines (damn those 3/4 length tights) and the blisters to prove it.  And more than anything, I had the support of Aan amazing bunch of people who encouraged me to get out there, do it and made me feel good when I finished, even though I was much much slower than last time I ran the Bath Half.

There are raspberries in there...somewhere...

I managed to raise just under £200 for Guide Dogs but another two promised sponsorships should take me beyond my target which makes it all worthwhile.  Most of the people that sponsored me wouldn't even know my blog existed so a big group thanks to them.  And special thanks to my three lovely Twitter friends @KateSelwood1, @DickyBundock and @Tarb2010.  All people who I've only ever met in the Twitterverse and haven't known that long, but they all generously sponsored me and kept me going with their support.  Amazing people.  And if you're on Twitter and don't follow them, do so now.  Because they're such a funny and caring bunch.  A little cheeky now and again, but they brighten every day.

Anyway, having spent the day first gaining aches, pains and blisters and then the rest of it mincing around trying not to make things hurt too much, I didn't really have time for anything elaborate.  Even Miss A's ministrations to get into the kitchen for some egg cracking, rolling and cutting fell on deaf ears.  So I've had to settle for a dead simple recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food.

It feels like one of those lazy recipes that I probably could've thought up myself if I liked honey and if I'd ever eaten Greek yogurt before.  So there's a tick on my list of goodness for having tried a new recipe and a tick for having tried two new ingredients (okay I've put honey in things before, but generally if it's in it's "raw" state in a recipe, I'll always use maple syrup).

I made one pot to eat after tea and another for my breakfast tomorrow.  Dead simple and nice tasting, however there was far too much honey in it for my liking and I found it drowned the taste of the berries.  If I did it again, I'd definitely use a spoon of maple syrup instead - a personal preference.  Or maybe it would be better with different honey, but as I'm not a fan I generally buy the cheapest I can find as it only goes into hot toddies.  I also used a mix of berries because normally I find blueberries quite bland but these ones for a change had a real bite to them which I'm sure much enhanced the dish. 

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp flaked almnds
• 150ml Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp runny honey 
• 250g blueberries (I used a mix of blueberries and raspberries)

1. Dry toast the almonds in a frying pan, taking care not to burn. Remove and leave to cool.
2. Starting with the berries, layer the berries, honey and yogurt in four individual pots.  Top with the toasted almonds and serve.

Breakfast Bruschetta

I woke up this morning in a bit of a panic.  We're off to see Father Christmas at Longleat later today.  Once I've worked 1.5 hours (daft fake flexi-time rules!), we're heading out for a jaunt around the safari park, a trip on the Santa train and to see Europe's largest singing Christmas tree.  Indeed.

Who wouldn't want to eat this? Well other than a berry-phobe...

That means no chance to cook during the day and quite frankly, I know the husband will end up twisting my arm to let him have a takeaway when we get back because I have a feeling we'll all be exhausted, cold and as I still feel pretty rubbish from the lurgies, I won't be in any mood to cook multiple different dinners (excuses excuses!)

So I bounced out of bed, looked around my kitchen.  Ocado are arriving at 10am or so with next week's goodies.  Yipes!  The fridge is full of half open jars of jam, curd and pickles, some grapes as it's the only thing Miss A will eat at the moment and some berries.  The bread bin turned up a third of a stale baguette. Double Yipes!!

Les ingredients

Hmmm....  I was thinking bruschetta.  But would I be able to find myself a recipe for sweet bruschetta?  I've been making eggy bread or pain perdu for as long as I can remember so that was out.  And then I happened across the Noble Pig blog.

Okay so I had the wrong kind of bread, the wrong kind of fruit (I know there were some strawberries in the fridge yesterday - the husband was obviously peckish) and no fresh basil, but I made a pretty good stab at a very similar recipe to this one with what I had at my disposal.

It worked really well with blackberries and raspberries and I used lime juice with the berries and lime zest in place of the basil.

In fact, I was thinking of doing a brunch at some point over Christmas and these will make a really great alternative to the usual pastries - something else I intend to master in the next couple of weeks with the help of the lovely Joanne Wheatley from the Great British Bake Off's recipe :)

And as I had time this morning, I even managed to take a slightly more artistic picture of the finished dish.  You'd think I'd be better at this photography lark being married to a pro photographer, but I'm all about the eating of the food.  He drives me  potty if I make something he considers worth of his artistic bent and often dinner is cold by the time he's finished photographing it!


This is my take on the original recipe

Breakfast Bruschetta with Strawberries and Tangy Creamadapted from Noble Pig
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 small French stick, sliced diagonally and buttered on one side
150g mixed fresh berries

A work of art

2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
Zest of one lime and juice of 1/2 a lime
6 tbsp creme fraiche cream
2 tbsp plain yogurt
2 tsp maple syrup

Garnish Bruschetta With:Sprigs of fresh basil

Preheat gril to High with rack 6" from the heating element.

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a dish.  Sprinkle mixture on buttered sides of bread, then broil on a baking sheet until toasted, 2-3 minutes.

Toss fruit with sugar and lime juice.  Stir creme fraiche, yogurt and maple syrup together in a separate bowl.  To assemble bruschetta, spoon a few berries with juice on each piece of toast; dollop with 1 teaspoon creme fraiche mixture.
Garnish with lime zest before serving.

Breakfast Burrito

I'm not normally one for a huge breakfast.  I fluctuate between porridge or toast and for work I now take Bircher muesli or my homemade granola and yogurt.

Back in the day, we always used to have a big fat cooked breakfast on a Sunday morning - my favourite being the fried bread.  Oh how I long for those days.  But it's no wonder why I have a larger than average family.

This morning, however, we had an electrician coming to fix the plug socket for our fridge freezer.  The fridge freezer is a recent purchase and although not capacious by American standards, for us, it is bigger than the last one.

Mmmm....cheese....

This means that even though it has lots of food in it, it often looks empty.  So I've started hoarding jars of things.  And losing things at the back of the fridge for all eternity.  Having to empty it this morning, I turned up two 9 packs of eggs I bought for extra baking last weekend that I never did, a half eaten tin of refried beans and more chorizo than it is sensible to have in a house where only one person eats it.


Hmmm...breakfast....

Today also involves decamping to stay with the Mothership for a couple of nights after I finish work at midday.  This always raises my blood pressure - not least with all the complexity of getting out of the door in the first place.  I have to pack enough clothes just in case the child has multiple accidents - she hasn't yet touch plastic-covered MDF, but I just know if I pack light disaster will ensue.  Then there's all her attendant paraphernalia.  The lullaby light show.  Baby monitor.  Her pillow.  A selection of stuffed animals.  Her drawing stuff.  Her breakfast cereal as she will not eat cornflakes and that is all my mother will ever buy.  Her milk because she has special Lactose free milk.  Enough snacks to last until doomsday to avoid afternoon melt-down in case we drop in on friends before arriving at mothers.  And a million other things that I race around the house stuffing into carrier bags at the last minute.

Look...there are healthy green bits.

I know all my mummy friends are nodding in sympathy at this.  It's something the childless just-don't-get.

Anyhow this means that I'll miss lunch and as I'm out with the girls tonight (hurrah!) I won't eat until late. So a big breakfast was the order of the day.

And very satisfying it was too.  It's the kind of thing I'd expect to get if I ever went to Me-hi-co but in reality it's probably the thing served in McDonalds on CopaCabana beach and no self-respecting Mexican would ever go near it.

Also not something to eat if you're on a lose-weight diet like what I should be doing.

Check out the recipe here

I added some chives to the eggs and used the half tin of refried beans - I buy the little tins from Discovery as they're nice and spicy and don't look like cat food like the Old El Paso ones do.

Nutella and Banana French Toast

Bridestock Bride, look away now!  In fact, don't read my blog at all today.  I'm suffering from a mother's guilt today so I don't want to also feel really bad for you breaking the engagement photos diet.

The plan for later today was to make Mojito cupcakes, but I have a poorly bubba on my hands and wanted to make her something for breakfast that she might eat as she's not eaten anything other than grapes for the past couple of days.

What could be more tempting to a toddler than chocolate, bananas and strawberries?  And with some wholemeal bread and eggs cunningly disguised as French toast, we are on to a winner.  Well except that she will need another bath when she's finished.

And a small note to any other mummys trying this - make sure you're not wearing a white top when your toddler eats this!

The recipe is courtesy of Food.com.

It reminds me of another favourite recipe of mine - Elvis' Peanut Butter and Banana sandwich from the much-thumbed but rarely used Nigella Bites.  In fact, although I've salivated over the book on many occasion, this is the only recipe I've ever tried (so another book that needs to be used this year!)  I've only ever made this sandwich once, but it tasted like Manna from heaven after a week of sobbing into my pillow and not eating after I split up from my first long term boyfriend. I still can't believe that I was *that* upset that I didn't eat for a week, but it was worth it to eat this sandwich.  Apparently the recipe is a cut-down version of what The King consumed.  Much respect to him for managing more than the recipe - I think I only got through about half of it!

Breakfast Bars

So no 'Bread of the Week' this week.  Oops.  Well I might give naan bread a go later today now I have a grill that works.  I usually buy the packet mix but was thinking to myself, how hard can it be to make your own?  Watch this space.

Anyway, healthy has to be the watch-word now.  I *still* have to shift my last stone of baby weight.  Personally I blame my gynaecologist.  He told me a few years ago to run less and put on some weight if I didn't want to go down the IVF route.  That was the best thing I ever heard.  I ran less, I put on weight (btw, I was hardly skinny at 10.5 stones!) and hey presto, free baby!  But that was nearly three years ago and now I have to get back to running and eat less as there will be no more little Crowdeys.  Ever.

Losing weight (for most people) is a simple case of calories in < calories out.  It's hardly rocket science.  You just have to know that your healthy looking salad may just possibly have copious amounts of calories and saturated fat lurking behind that innocent looking rocket leaf and maybe you should eat something else instead - and Bob's your uncle.

And because I'm such an early bird where work is concerned, I really have to watch what I have for my breakfast.  Given all the time in the world, I'd eat porridge or granola and yogurt or Bircher muesli every day.  But I leave for work at 6am so if I ate that early, I'd be hungry again by 8am, thus defeating the object of a good breakfast as I'd be at the vending machine or over at canteen eyeing up the bacon butties.  Nom...nom...nom.

So I try to be good and take breakfast to work and as a rule never eat before 8am no matter how hungry I may be.  This week, I'm out and about so need something portable.  I used to have a good recipe for granola bars which I've lost (it may be on my old blog actually) so I found a new one on the BBC Good Food website.  Very tasty although I would definitely add a pinch of salt to the ingredients if you use unsalted butter like what I do as it cuts through the sickly sweetness of the syrup.  I also found them really hard to cut without falling apart (them, not me!) so I stuck the tin in the freezer for 15 mins to make sure they were properly chilled and it worked like a charm.

Also pretty healthy - here's the skinny: 244 kcalories, protein 3g, carbohydrate 28g, fat 14 g, saturated fat 6g, fibre 2g, sugar 17g, salt 0.18 g

One final note - always line the tin.  I managed to wreck the non-stick on the base of my favourite cake tin with the palette knife.  Really fab product for lining is the Lakeland parchment lined foil.  I have a huge roll in my cupboard and am kicking myself for not using it.  It's great as you can actually fold it into shapes that keep their structure and won't keep curling back on itself once it's in the tin.