Abigail's Strawberry Shortcakes

When I was a child, I remember Hanna Barbera's "Wait til your Father gets home" being on the telly.  I'm sure it was entertaining but literally, all I can remember is the title.  The meaning was slightly lost on me at the time as I never had the fear (or joy) of my father coming home.  But now it resonates as I've become that parent coming home to face the needs of Miss A.

I can pretty much guarantee now that whenever she's been subjected to Daddy DayCare, at some point, he will have used the 'Wait until Mummy gets home and then you can...' line on her.  Having a child generally makes crap days at work (like the one I had today) worthwhile.  But boy, I could've done without coming home to 'but Daddy said we could make Strawberry Crown' when I finally got in after a twelve hour day.

The fragrant Katie of 'I Can Cook' fame is to blame for this one.  We're going through a princess phase at the moment.  Yesterday this was a bonus as I managed to get Miss A's hair brushed twice without tears because I've been telling her for months that princesses have their hair brushed 100 times.  She finally succumbed to this yesterday, but I paid the price tonight because princesses must eat Strawberry Crown for pudding when they've been good all day.

Not being in the mood for soothing another tantrum (that's all I've done all day today - and I've had a few of my own too!) I gave in way too easily and soon we were in a happy, sticky, floury mess of a kitchen.

Cooked by my favourite chef!

In essence, it's a shortbread biscuit, topped with jam and strawberries and baked in the oven.  I never realised you could bake strawberries and they'd still come out pretty whole.  So I've learned something today.  It also got Miss A to eat something green because the jam is sprinkled with basil.  Okay so it was a tiny bit of green stuff but it was a new taste sensation for her.  And if I can convince her that lettuce is a kind of basil tomorrow then I'm getting somewhere.

Because I couldn't be bothered to dig out the original recipe, I just made my own base up and used almonds to give the shortbread a better texture.  Of course, they don't do that on the telly because of nut allergies.  I think it works well, but you can always substitute them with extra flour.  And to top it off, it's sprinkled with Demerara sugar.  I can't believe that Miss A was able to work out that soft brown sugar was not Demerara sugar when we were getting the ingredients out of the cupboard.  She's two.  This is slightly scary. If I'd not used up all my glitter stars making Dan Lepard's sparkly plum jam the other day I think we'd have used those instead as the 'gold' melted on cooking so we had to sprinkle more for decoration before serving.

Even the husband liked this one.  It's a great one for kids to make pretty much by themselves with a little bit of guidance.  If my two year old can do it, anyone can.

Serves 4 (adapted from I Can Cook)

100g plain flour
50g unsalted butter, cubed
50g ground almonds
25g caster sugar
8 strawberries - hulled and halved
4 generous teaspoons of good quality strawberry jam (we used Bonne Maman)
6 basil leaves, torn
Demerara sugar or edible glitter

Preheat the oven to 220c/200c fan
Put the butter and flour into a bowl and rub together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Stir in the almonds and sugar and bring together to form a soft dough.  You may need a little extra flour if the mixture is a little soft.
Divide the mixture into four.  Shape into balls and then flatten to about 1.5cm thick.  Place on a baking tray.
Make a dip in the middle using your knuckles and spread a teaspoon of jam into the centre of each biscuit.
Sprinkle the basil over the jam then top with the strawberries.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until the biscuit is starting to go golden brown.
Leave to cool then sprinkle with Demerara sugar or edible glitter and serve with creme fraiche, yogurt or ice cream.

BBC Good Food Chicken Chow Mein

Chicken-based recipes are a recurring theme in our household.  It's about the only meat the husband will reliably eat.  And pretty much, if a new recipe contains chicken, he's open to trying it.  Hence my decision to do chicken two days in a row.

For some strange reason, he always used to order Chicken Chow Mein and Special Fried Rice from the Chinese.  Every time he did it, he'd complain that he had too much food (we never have 'sharing' Chinese) and eventually he braved a Chinese Chicken Curry and has never looked back.

One of my early thoughts for things to do on this blog was to have a go at 'Fake-away' (homemade versions of takeaway meals).  I had one hit with Singapore Noodles and on less successful attempt at Salt and Pepper Chicken.  Since then I've not tried anything else.  So this seemed an ideal crowd pleaser.

Low fat, low carb and simple

I found it under the Kids Cooking section of the BBC Good Food website and even though Miss A is too small to help prep and cook it, I'm hoping she might try it as it comes with noodles which she does like.

Due to holidays, this is another pre-authored blog so do check back for an update with a picture and a verdict.

Recipe can be found here

Updated: 5 July 2012 @ 20:26

It got eaten.  The hubby's complaint was that it was a lot of the same - which is true.  Because it's all mixed together and there's not much complexity to the flavour.  Which is odd.  Because that's how all the meals he enjoys normally are.  I think he had an issue with it being healthy and not having a huge pile of bread on the side - which is how he normally eats his food.

This was the first signal that the eight-week healthy eating plan is going to be more stressful than I'd first anticipated.  I'm not sure that he is really taking the health kick seriously....watch this space.

Cooking for Kids: Fruit Skewers

When we get back from holiday, the husband is starting a new healthy eating regime, coupled with a stupidly intense exercise regime.  I've been handed the manual and informed that I am responsible for making sure that he has a six pack like Ben Shepherd's (if you've not seen him recently, check out these pics of him in Men's Health - shame he's a bit little)

Some of your five a day

I'm sure, if he puts his mind to it, he could get most of the way there.  When I first knew him, he used to lift weights every day and had really big arm muscles for someone who was pretty slim.  Since we moved to the countryside, he's become more sedentary and the dumbells are coated in a serious layer of dust in the garage.  But the biggest challenge will be the food.

It involves very little carbs, lots of protein and lots of fresh fruit and veg.  The only veg the husband eats is bell peppers when we have fajitas (chopped toms, onions and garlic made into sauce doesn't count in my book).  He keeps saying 'it's only eight weeks'.  I'm afraid we won't get past day two.  Every so often, he'll inform me I don't feed him enough vegetables.  I stock up on broccoli, asparagus, peas etc and by the end of the week, I'm making soup for me with it and he's back to no veg at all.

Miss A is just like him in that respect; but when it comes to fruit, she's like a little fruit bat.  I've never seen a child willingly eat so much fruit as she does - all varieties (except Dragon Fruit).  The husband, on the other hand, only eats bananas.  And apple turnovers.  Only if they're accompanied by ice cream.

So I figured that this would be a good, simple, sharing family recipe for holiday.  Chop up loads of fresh fruit.  Stick it on skewers.  Drizzle with maple syrup and melted chocolate.  Eat.  Job done.  Why did I not think of this before?

Dan Lepard's Easy Chocolate Birthday Cake

So right now, we're in hopefully (sunny) Scotland and by the time you're reading this, we will have produced a stunning Father's Day cake for the husband.  With it being our seventh wedding anniversary tomorrow as well, I figured what better way to tick off a new recipe than to bake a celebratory chocolate cake.  This also helped justify why I needed to pack my sandwich tins for holiday.

Artfully decorated by Miss A with giant jazzes

We always take basics with us to cope with the first night just in case we don't make it to the supermarket - normally Weetabix, bread, frozen milk (it can defrost on the way) and a few other odds and ends.  Our favourite Scottish hideaway used to have a well-stocked pantry of basics left by previous visitors but this new location is an unknown quantity so I included all of the dry ingredients weighed out already and then threw in my scales too - just in case neither location had a set.

Then it just needed a quick trip to the local shops for eggs and cream and some magic from Miss A and hopefully at some point during this week, I'll be able to furnish this pre-written post with a picture of the finished cake.

In the meantime, here's a link to the recipe online.


Updated 17th June 2012 @ 21:10

There's just something about me and chocolate cakes (excluding brownies) that just don't seem to be working well together on this blog.  When we finally arrived at our destination, I realised that despite ticking them off from my holiday packing list, I actually forgot to bring my scales with me.

My holiday packing list

Unfortunately, the scales at the cottage are a bit hit and miss (although if I'm honest, my own scales are temperamental) and so this cake was destined from the start to not be perfect.  Add to that my decision to halve the recipe and baking in an unfamiliar oven; plus, not checking that the batter was evenly spread in the pan, I was lucky it even resembled a cake.  And because I was so worried about it sinking, I didn't dare look at it until 25 minutes had passed.  By which time it was cooked, but a little dry.

Lepard's cake is stuffed with whipped cream and jam before being slathered in chocolate icing.  Because we already had an amazing cake in our holiday fridge on arrival (more on that another night - it deserves its own special post), I decided to cut down on the cream and just make a simple ganache for Miss A to spread over the top of the cake.

The flavour of the cake was really good.  It just probably need a little less time in the oven and a little more filling/topping to disguise it's dryness.  Miss A was really proud of her efforts and it was a good recipe to allow her to help with every single stage, apart from melting the butter and heating the cream for the ganache.

I owe it to this recipe to bake it in its true form another time.  In the meantime, I'm off to polish off some more of the other cake before falling into a sugar-induced coma.  Laters!

PS: It's been mostly raining with a tiny glimmer of sunshine!

Miss A's Triple Ginger Gingerbread

Baking gingerbread has now become a weekly ritual in our house.  It's the only kind of biscuit Miss A will eat.  We've tried shop-bought organic and ones full of E-numbers (I'm kidding - but see sconegate anyway) and I've tried a variety of home made offerings - triple chocolate cookies, peanut butter cookies, Banana Fudge Cookies, Easter Biscuits, Christmas Biscuits and Cheese and Black Pepper Buttons - all of which she's had a hand in making, none of which she's liked.  So we always come back to Gingerbread.

I've been using a recipe from my Marks and Spencers Food 4 Kids book.  Every time I make them, I always forget that the recipe seems to need far more flour than it states as the mixture is extremely sticky.  This frustrates me.  You'd think I'd remember. But every time, I slavishly adhere to the recipe, go to roll it and then get flustered because I forgot the extra flour.

So today, I figured 'how hard can it be to make up a biscuit recipe that works?'  And decided to have a go at making the recipe myself.  Of course, having made the other recipe so many times, I had an ingredient list in my head, but I wanted to see if I could improve on it.

First off, I started with the butter and syrup.  I wanted to make a large-ish quantity of dough because I believe that someone other than Abigail eats all the 'big bu-fwys'.  I often get complaints that nobody likes 'li'l bu-fwys'.  Hmmm....

I heart my bunny biscuit jar

We started off by melting butter with some golden syrup and then for good measure, I decided to use some stem ginger in the biscuits so I added two tablespoons of the ginger syrup too.  My brown sugar had gone rock hard so I lobbed that into the pan to melt as well.  There were a few tiny bits that wouldn't dissolve (see the picture) but all in all this worked well.

While the butter and syrup mixture was cooling, we sifted some of flour into a bowl.  Added some bicarb to keep it soft and plenty of ginger and cinnamon for flavour.  I also chopped up three balls of stem ginger for some contrast in the texture.

Not every gingerbread recipe uses an egg, but with my egg-cracking assistant at the helm, I had no choice but to add one in.  After adding the cooled butter mixture and mixing to combine, the dough cracked a lot on rolling so with a bit of faffing around trying to work out if it needed more syrup or flour we got ourselves a dough that was good enough to roll and cut.

We managed to get fourteen butterflies from this and I think it would make about eight decent sized gingerbread men.  Some of the dough was lost through 'rolleee cuttee' but the dogs enjoyed it.

The result was a thick, soft gingerbread, nicely spiked with bits of ginger.  And surprisingly, Miss A loves bits of chopped stem ginger straight from the jar, despite its subtle spicy heat.  That girl is going to have a good palate one day.

Recipe

• 300g plain flour
• 125g self raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 140g butter
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 3 balls of stem ginger, chopped plus 2 tbsp of syrup from the jar
• 100g soft, dark brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan.  Lightly grease two baking sheets.
2. Sift the flour, bicarb and spices into a bowl.
3. Melt the butter, sugar and syrups in a small saucepan, taking care not to let it boil. Leave to cool for a few minutes.
4. Crack the egg into the flour mixture, add the chopped ginger and loosely combine.
5. Add the cooled butter mixture to the flour and mix quickly to a firm dough.
6. On a floured work surface roll out the dough to about 4mm thick.  Cut shapes as desired, gathering and re-rolling the cuttings until all the dough is used up.
7. Place the shapes on the baking tray and backe for 8-10 minutes until slightly risen and golden at the edges.  
8. Leave to set on the tray for five minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

PS: The triple ginger comes from the ginger powder, the chopped ginger and the ginger syrup :)

Miss A's Sunny Carrot Cake

Today's recipe was a little bit unplanned.  I'd intended to do fajitas for tea for the hubby and try Thomasina Miers' Spring Tacos myself.  But when I finished work just after midday, I discovered that Miss A had been waiting to cook since 9am (hands washed, sleeves rolled up, apron on) and Daddy had promised that Mummy would help cook as soon as she finished work.

Sunny carrot cake

So we made up our own carrot cake - inspired by a similar recipe from CBeebies 'I Can Cook' - and adapted with the help of Dan Lepard.

I wanted to make it healthy-ish so alongside the carrots and pineapple, I used both regular and wholemeal flour and I included some finely ground oats - an addition I picked up from Lepard's Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake earlier this week.  From the mixture, we made eight average sized muffins plus a 1lb loaf cake.  The muffins were baked for 25 minutes, the loaf cake for 40.  Or you could turn it into a 2lb loaf cake - I guess that would take about an hour to cook.

After portioning out the muffins, I suddenly realised I should've included some stem ginger as I had a jar in the fridge.  So the loaf has ginger in.  The muffins don't.  Both are equally tasty so the ginger is an optional ingredient.

The muffins will be frozen so Miss A can have them in her lunch box once in a while.  The loaf cake was topped with ginger cream cheese frosting and will no doubt be devoured by the husband later tonight.

Ingredients

Multi-tasking :)

• 125g plain flour
• 100g wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 75g fine oatmeal (or rolled oats, blitzed in a blender)
• 3 balls of stem ginger - optional
• 1 tbsp syrup from stem ginger jar - optional
• 1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice
• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 100ml sunflower oil
• 90g light muscovado sugar
• 2 eggs
• pinch of salt
• 100g carrots, finely grated
• 250g tinned crushed pineapple (or use regular tinned pineapple and break up with your fingers or in a blender)

For the cream cheese icing (optional)

• 125g icing sugar, sifted
• 20g butter, softened
• 20g cream cheese
• 2 tbsp stem ginger syrup (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan.  Either line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases or grease and line a loaf tin.
2. Beat the butter, sugar and oil until light and fluffy.  Mix in the eggs until thoroughly combined.
3. Add the carrots and pineapple to the mix and stir well.  Add the ginger and ginger syrup if using.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice into a separate bowl.  Add the oatmeal and mix well.
5. Pour the dry ingredients into the egg and butter mixture and mix until well combined.  Portion into the cake cases or pour into the loaf tin.
6. Bake until risen and golden.  Approx times - 25 minutes for muffins, 40 mins for 1lb loaf, 60 mins for 2lb loaf.
7. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for fifteen minutes before placing on a cooling rack until cold.
8. For the icing - sift the icing sugar into a bowl.  Add the cream cheese and butter and beat until well combined.  Add the ginger syrup if using and mix thoroughly.  Refrigerate for at least fifteen minutes as this makes it easier to spread.

Banana Toffee Pudding

Today's recipe is another from CBeebies 'I Can Cook'.  I know certain people will be horrified by my choice of this recipe as it is rather heavy on the sugar content.  But, because I am a sensible mummy and feed my child a healthy, balanced diet (when I can!) and as a reward for her choosing to eat the remainder of yesterday's Flash Loaf (another Dan Lepard recipe), I let Miss A loose in the kitchen to make Banana Toffee Pudding.

Not the most photogenic pudding ever

It's basically a take on a traditional sponge topped pudding - the kind of thing I used to get as a child for pudding on a Sunday.  It makes me a little sad that life has changed and we don't have a traditional family dinner around the table at Sunday lunchtime.  That said, I don't really like roast dinners enough to eat them every week and it's a lot of effort to do for just two - especially with all the washing up.  We probably have about two roasts a year in this house - one of them being Christmas dinner.

So as a little family bonding exercise, I decided to allow this treat.  Because it's a kids recipe it makes four small portions and with the high sugar content I don't think even an adult could eat that much (well there are times when I probably could eat the whole thing myself!).  To balance all the naughtiness out, I served it with low fat Greek yogurt (good source of calcium for my milk-hating child) and fresh strawberries - one of the five a day and the slight acidity worked well against the sickly sweet pudding.

Had my sous chef not eaten one of the bananas during prep, I'd've also served some fresh chopped banana with it.  But I could hardly complain, could I?

Pass me a spoon, someone!

The base of the pudding is toffee sauce.  My latest and greatest food find is Bonne Maman Confiture de Caramel.  Basically Dulche de Leche or Toffee Sauce but in a screw top jar rather than all those annoying tins of caramel that the shops seem so keen to peddle.  They're fine if you need the whole lot for a recipe, but if you only need a spoon or two, as in this case, you have that old half-opened-tin-of-something-stuffed-in-the-back-of-the-fridge-and-then-it-eventually-gets-knocked-over dilemma.  Or is that just me because I'm a bit of a slummy mummy?  Anyway, caramel in a glass jar is a winner.  I just have to resist taking the jar and spoon to a secret corner when I'm having a bad day.

My sous-chef's new skill of the day is banana chopping.  I love watching her develop her fine motor skills.  To start with, the poor bananas were just bludgeoned to a pulp but a bit of input from mummy and we ended up with arty chunks.  In they went on top of the toffee.  The sponge is a simple, even mix of flour to butter to sugar to egg (70g of each).  I adapted the recipe slightly to fill my pie dish so used 100g of each, an egg and 30ml of milk to slacken the batter off.  Then it's just into the oven at 180c for 35 minutes (in my case as I used a deep dish).  And out came a light, fluffy sponge with a banana flavoured toffee base.  Perfect.

This is a lovely little recipe to make with little ones as a special treat.  There are loads of different skills involved and the result is a definite crowd pleaser.  Well for most of the crowd.  Someone actually only managed three toddler spoonfuls of pudding because she actually preferred the strawberries.  Big respect to my child and her good food choices :o)

One small point of note.  If cooking several things at the same time, make sure the pudding is on the lower shelf with a tray underneath as the toffee in mine tried to make an escape.  Miss A had toffee flavoured Pussy Pieces (home made fish fingers) for her tea...

Recipe - adapted from CBeebies I Can Cook

Serves 4

• 100g butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g flour
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 30ml milk
• 2 bananas
• 3 tbsp toffee sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/Gas 4.
2. Oil the sides and base of an oven proof dish.  Place on a baking tray and add the toffee.  Lay the banana slices on top.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the beaten egg and mix well.  Mix in the flour, mixed spice and the milk until well combined.  Scoop the sponge mixture into the dish on top of the bananas and smooth out with a spatula.
4. Place the dish in the oven for 25-35 minutes (depending on the depth of your dish) until the sponge is well risen and springs back when touched.  I turned the heat up for the last five minutes of cooking to get a nice crispy top on mine.
5. Serve with fresh fruit and yogurt.

Italian Cornbread

Sometimes  I really struggle sometimes at weekends when I just need to get stuff done and I have a maniacal toddler to entertain at the same time.  It's the double-edged sword of having to be a full time working mummy.  You want to spend quality time together, but you have to wade through all the things you didn't get done in the past week, try to get a headstart on next week and be a perfect mummy too.

At the weekends, I like to do all the mummy things that Miss A hates such as washing her face, combing her hair, trying to keep her from damaging herself too much (there's a difference between learning about danger and dangling from a light fitting) and stopping her from breaking anything that belongs to the husband.

Miss A's preferred weekend activities include being carried everywhere, feeding the dogs inedible objects, throwing tantrums, watching back-to-back episodes of Mr Tumble, escaping out of the front or back doors and trying to sleep on the top stair amongst other things.

Natural light in my kitchen for once

The one thing that I can wholeheartedly say we both enjoy is cooking.  We did have a few tears over there not being any rolling and cutting today - new green playdough just isn't the same as raw gingerbread dough - but she was soon appeased with permission to crack four eggs for me.  Egg cracking is her absolute all time favourite activity.  In fact every time she enters the kitchen, she looks up hopefully with her big brown eyes and pleads 'More crack egg pwease Mama?"  I'm starting to think we need to get chickens and eat more omelettes such is the obsession.

One of the great things about the CBeebies recipes is that all of the steps can be done by children save for putting the food into the oven.  The two other kids cook books I own are cooking for kids rather than with kids so they're not always suitable to do with her.  And I keep kidding myself that the recipes look good enough for an adult to eat.  Sadly, this one left me disappointed again.

Given the expensive ingredients, the flavours just didn't come through.  You could taste the chilli, but if I'd not made it myself, I'd swear that the closest the bread ever got to having cheese in it was when the polenta and goats cheese got delivered by the supermarket delivery driver yesterday.  I'm sure, again, that this is due to a lack of salt.  Whilst I fully appreciate that the recipe is low salt because it's aimed at children, I'd love to know if a half teaspoon would've lifted the flavours properly.

It didn't last long - the light I mean!

I love Jay Rayner in a guilty foodie crush kind of way and totally agree with his assessment of salting things as published in the Guardian recently.  It's bad for you, but boy does a little bit make things taste better.  That said, my beloved grandfather who salts everything before he's tasted it has had endless heart trouble.  I should heed his warnings.

Back to the cornbread.  Miss A had a whale of a time cracking eggs, mixing the ingredients and tearing basil.  She watched it lovingly through the oven door and hovered impatiently while I tried to unstick it from the tin (note to self - always base line the tin even if it doesn't say so in the recipe) and bounced excitedly on her chair when I finally stopped with the photos and served her a piece.  One mouthful and she looked like she'd been poisoned.  Given the yellow colour I think she was expecting a nice little loaf cake.  Still, the dogs enjoyed it.

Not one I'll be making again in any hurry.  I'm not sure if that's how real cornbread is supposed to taste.  I can't say I enjoyed the texture either.  It was a bit weird.  Not exactly bread and a bit too cakey for my liking.  It's the kind of thing I'd have to eat in a restaurant or at someone else's house to convince me it's worthy of trying again.

You can find the recipe here 

'Green Parcel Pie'

Most parents know the delights of a craftily snatched cuppa whilst the children watch five minutes of CBeebies.  As much as I dislike my daughter watching telly, I know that I can brush her hair during Mr Tumble or Justin's house and grab a cuppa during I Can Cook With You (ICCWY).

As it's National Pie Week, I decided to try to succumb to Abigail's demand to cook when I got in from work, give in to her adoration of Katy from ICCWY and let her make her own tea this evening.  We've seen the 'Green Parcel Pie' episode more times than I care to remember (thanks Sky+) and she always says 'Yummy for Abi' when the finished product is revealed so I figured this would be a good time to give it a go.

 I'd bought a courgette for this a few days ago and whilst I was hunting for something in the fridge, little fingers lifted it off of the counter, snapped it in half (thanks for teaching her this Katy!) and put one half in a mixing bowl, inside her new pram and walked it round the house for half an hour.  I also had to battle with her trying to 'pop a pepper' with my bag of capsicums whilst we did the shopping last Friday.

Her mixing and egg cracking skills are second to none for a 23-month-old.  I'm sure there are many adults who can't do this as well as she does.  Who says telly can't be educational?

Get ready for an egg-splosion

No shell in the bowl :)

Mix, mix, mix

Filling the pie

The only sore point was when it needed to go in the oven and she wanted to put it in her pram and take it for a walk again.  The tantrum was only held off by giving her the remaining piece of courgette to baby.  I love her little foibles.

Overall, it's obviously a simple recipe because it's aimed at 4-7 year olds, but it's actually really quite tasty - although I'd probably add salt or use some feta cheese to give it a bit more flavour if I was making it for adults.  The instruction to use three sheets of filo was a little off in my book - maybe it depends on the brand, but three sheets of Jus-Rol were too big in my opinion.  Next time, I'd cut them in half as there was far more pastry than there was filling.  

Finished pie.  Requires less pastry and more filling IMHO

I'd also double or possible treble the amount of filling to make it a more generous dish.  For that, I figure you'd need to cook longer at a slightly lower temperature to ensure the filling cooked without the pastry topping burning.

It would work well as a simple summer dish with a nice green salad and a glass of crisp white wine.  Not that I like wine, but that's what chef-y types say - I'd probably go for a chilled cider myself.

As for Abigail's opinion?  Well she poked it with her fork, ate a couple of mouthfuls and then left the rest, but oddly wouldn't let Mummy try any (I had to sneak into the kitchen for my taste test).  I'm sure we'll get there one day when the fussy toddler phase passes.  Not that I'm wishing her life away, but I'm seriously looking forward to her learning to love food.

Next task is to go through my M&S kids cookery book and see if she can find something in there she likes besides the gingerbread men and give one of those a whirl with her.

You can find the original I Can Cook With You recipe here

Strawberry Meringue Ice Cream

My sous chef

My daughter is currently going through an obsession with 'I Can Cook' on CBeebies.  Before, she'd just watch whatever was on, but now we have to rely on Sky Plussed episodes of the Fragrant Katie and her band of merry helpers.  I feel like I've done nothing this past week but watch 'I Can Cook' (I've only seen about three episodes, but it feels like a hundred).  So I figured that alongside the weekly ritual of making some small biscuits or cake, we'd give the Strawberry Meringue Ice Cream a go.

Of course, it not being strawberry season, we stumbled at the first block with the strawberry mashing.  Miss A was given a large bowl, four strawberries cut in half and the potato masher.  They just got chased and chased around the bowl until I turned my back to whip the cream.  Less than thirty seconds later, the bowl was nearly empty and I had a suspicious looking toddler with strawberry juice running down her chin.  As fussy as she is, my daughter adores her fruit.

Broken whisk :(

We ended up squishing the strawberries by hand.  An activity in hindsight that I wouldn't do again as once frozen, the lumps were very icy.

During this escapade, my expensive (well £11) dishwasher-proof, hard-anodized-saucepan-safe whisk decided to fall apart.  Not a happy mummy.  Still, the cream was just about whipped.

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of no-churn ice-creams or not.  I've made them before from a recipe on the Good Food website.  The first time I made it, it was okay.  The second time, using the exact same recipe, I found it greasy.  Today's effort was a little greasy, but the fruit and meringue helped detract from it.  It was a rich, easy recipe that did what it said on the tin.

In essence, it's really just frozen Eton Mess.  With the mood I was in this morning, it was lucky to make it to the freezer.  The recipe says to freeze it for two hours and then temper in the fridge for half an hour.  I found it was still soft enough to scoop after two hours without the need to temper.

Finished ice cream with Waitrose choc chunks

All in all, not bad.  For a quick, simple, faff free ice-cream, I'd probably do it again if I didn't have time to nip to our local farm shop for some.  But in lieu of an ice cream maker (I'd so love a proper CuisineArt one), the next best thing to proper home made has to be Marshfield Farm ice cream which is made just down the road from here.  I'm not sure where it's stocked nationwide, but if they sell it near you you so have to try it.  Especially my favourite - blackcurrants and clotted cream.  Slurp!

As for Miss A's opinion?  She absolutely steadfastly refused to touch it.  But she ate the rest of the strawberries :)

Recipe - serves 2 to 4 (or one!)

• 125ml double cream
• 2 heaped dessert spoons natural yogurt
• 2 level dessert spoons icing sugar
• 4 large strawberries
• 1 meringue nest or 4 mini meringues

1. Whip the cream then stir in the yogurt and icing sugar.
2. Mash the strawberries and crush the meringue.  Swirl through the cream mixture.
3. Pour into a freezer proof container and freeze for at least two hours.
4. Temper in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving (although you may not need to do this step)

Soft Raspberry Coconut Ice and Lemon Christmas Biscuits

Now, when I cook during the day, I have a battle on my hands to try and not have a very cute and inquisitive small person help me out.  A while back, I thought it might be fun to make some gingerbread with her.  She's pretty smart (although I may be biased as her mother and because I don't know any other 21 month olds in person, she may be well behind) but she can crack an egg without getting shell into the bowl and she knows all of the kitchen equipment and that things need to go into the oven to bake (huge tantrum last time we made Rice Krispie cakes as mummy wouldn't cook them - they sat in a cold oven for half an hour in the end, just to keep the peace).

My little helper on another occasion

This now means that if I so much as pick up a spoon, she immediately demands 'Abbeeeeee help' or 'Abbeeeeee's turn' and has a right old strop if I have to say no (she still doesn't get the concept of hot pans).  I'd decided weeks ago that we'd make Christmas biscuits today ready for the arrival of my mother and the rest of the family tomorrow.  But yesterday, I came to rue that decision...

If you read yesterday's blog, you will know that we went to visit my Father-in-Law on the Isle of Wight.  When I wrote the blog, I hinted that the visit is more than a little stressful.  But inquisitive toddler-child took things to a whole new level of stress.

Before I continue, I'd just like to point out that I'm a good mother and I'm hoping that all mothers of toddlers have experienced similar near disaster.  Please don't go ringing social services after reading this.  Things happen when toddlers are let loose in strange places.

I often wonder about the confessional nature of this blog and if I'll ever get myself into trouble.  Should I just button it and talk about the food?  I find the waffley bit at the start somewhat cathartic to write, but if I EVER start to sound like Liz Jones of the Daily Fail, please, someone tell me and I'll just talk about food!

Pre-bake biscuits

Back to yesterday's near disaster.  Abigail has a fascination with knobs and buttons.  Again my fault as I let her turn on the washing machine.  Which means I often used to suddenly hear our dishwasher spring to life by itself (before it blew up the other day) and I have to watch my oven like a hawk when it's on as she likes to change the temperature.

So we're at the F-I-L's house.  He has an electric oven and stove with a million knobs on the front.  He unpacked his hamper goodies on top of said oven.  A while later, I said I thought I could smell burning.  Someone who shall remain nameless, had obviously turned one of the hob rings on and set fire to the packet of biscuits for cheese.

I'm just grateful that we'd not decided to go out and play in the garden or he may not have had a house to come back to!  The husband had warned him that this might happen and unpacking the hamper there was a daft idea.  As we only see F-I-L twice a year, I really don't think he was prepared for the whirling dervish that is our daughter and it'll probably take those six months for him to recuperate from the stress of our visit.

Abigail's finished biscuits - decorated all by herself

So this morning, I was a little reticent at letting Abigail near anything that might cause further disaster. But then I felt a bit bad so we made both Christmas biscuits and Soft Raspberry Coconut Ice.  She made the biscuit mixture herself, I rolled, she cut, I baked, she decorated.  Then we started on the coconut ice, but sadly, Mr Tumble is far more fun than mummy faffing about trying to figure out 3/4 of the recipe quantities as we didn't have enough coconut.  

And this is the bit where I finally talk about the recipes!

I chose the biscuit recipe after scouring practically every baking book I own for a Christmas biscuit recipe that didn't involve ginger, oranges or boiled sweets.  Fussy mother who doesn't like ginger, fussy me who's not a fan of orangey things (except Jaffa cakes although I wish they still did the lemon and lime ones) and couldn't face the idea of the mess I might make with the boiled sweets.  

I found the recipe in The Great Big Cookie Book.  It's one of those books I picked up for a fiver in a cheap bookshop and thought "This will be really useful and I'll use it all the time"  I bought it in 2003 when I bought my first house and this is the first time I've used it.

The biscuits are very shortbready although crunchier due to the thinness of the roll (3mm).  I went for all out lemon flavour with lemon icing but in all honesty they really don't taste that festive.  Far more summery if you ask me.  But nice.  And so beautifully decorated by my gorgeous girl.  The only thing that disappointed me was a) they lost their shape a bit when cooking and b) the recommended glaze had raw egg white in which I obviously can't use with a 21 month old so I just used good old lemon glace icing.

Christmas Biscuits

• 175g unsalted butter
• 300g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1tsp vanilla essence (I used lemon essence)
• grated rind of 1 lemon
• pinch of salt
• 300g plain flour

• 125g icing sugar
• juice of half a lemon

1. With an electric mixer, cream the butter until soft.  Add the sugar gradually and continue beating until light and fluffy.
2. Using a wooden spoon, slowly mix in the whole egg and the egg yolk.  And the vanilla essence, lemon rind and salt.  Stir to mix well.
3. Sift the flour over the mixture and stir to blend.  Gather the dough into a ball, wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 190c/375F/Gas 5.  On a floured surface, roll out until about 3mm thick.
5. Stamp out shapes or rounds with flowered cookie cutters.
6. Bake for about eight minutes until lightly coloured.  Transfer to awire rack and leave to cool completely before decorating.
7. Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice to a consistency that coats the back of a spoon.  Use to coat the biscuits and then decorate with sweets.

From The Great Big Cookie Book by Hilaire Walden

Pretty pink coconut ice

I picked out Dan Lepard's coconut ice the other day as it's one of the first things I ever remember cooking with my mum.  We used to make all kinds of sweets when I was little as she was forever manning stalls at fetes and fayres as Brown Owl or to help out at my school.

Back then we used condensed milk and icing sugar - she showed me the recipe book the other day but I can't remember for the life of me what it's called.  Dan's recipe, however uses marscapone and fresh raspberries.  

I had a little tub of pureed raspberries from my garden in the freezer so they worked really well as they had far more taste than shop-bought ones have at this time of year.  It lends a really fresh taste to the coconut ice.  You don't really notice it at first but as the tooth-tingling sweetness disappears, suddenly you're left with the taste of summer dancing on your tongue.  

Coconut ice

It's also very soft.  I remember the coconut ice my mum used to make could often feel like you were going to crack a tooth when you bit into it.  But this is like diving into a Bounty bar.  Beautiful.  

Sadly it doesn't say how long it keeps, but judging by the flavour, I figure this is immaterial as nobody will leave it hanging round long enough to find out when it's past it's best.  As always, highly recommended and will be a great gift for the visitors over Christmas. 

I also didn't have quite enough coconut and my tin was slightly too big for the original recipe, but I was saved (once again) by Lakeland's amazing foil lined parchment.  Honestly, this is brilliant stuff and every baker should own some.  It allowed me to fashion a container within my tin to just over half the size of the tin and happily retained its shape once the coconut ice was pressed in without the divider falling flat and the contents tipping everywhere.

Soft Raspberry Coconut Ice

For the white mixture

• 250g icing sugar
• 100g marscapone
• 150g desiccated coconut

For the raspberry mixture

• 50g fresh raspberries
• 50g marscapone
• 250g icing sugar
• 200g desiccated coconut

1. Line an 18cm sqaure tin with non-stick baking paper.  
2. Make the white ice first by beating half the sugar with the marscapone until you have a smooth runny paste.  Stir in the coconut and remaining sugar, mix well then press into the bottom of the tin.  
3. Pack the mixture well and smooth the top.
4. Squish the raspberries with the marscapone and half the sugar until smooth.  Then stir in the coconut followed by the last of the sugar.  Spread this carefully  over the white ice until you have it even, then press it down firmly with a spatula and your figers.
5. Loosely cover the tin, with the top of the ice exposed to the air slightly, and leave overnight somewhere cool to firm.  The following day, lift out of the tin by lining paper and cut into pieces.

From Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard

Banana Fudge Cookies and Canadian Buttermilk Pancakes

Twitter has turned me into a 'sleb stalker.  @Dan_Lepard, my 20 month old daughter had so much fun baking your cookies today!

The finished cookies - the pic doesn't do them justice

I'm a bit rubbish at being a mum and to be honest with you, in some ways, my daughter has the best of all worlds in that she spends days with hubby (playing football in the house), at nursery (learning politically correct songs about rainbow coloured sheep) and with me at the weekends - learning how to bake because I can just about deal with baking mess, but the thought of painting mess sends my blood pressure skywards (and I am so NOT a neat freak - I'm just scared of the husband's beady eye).

So at the weekends, I've tried to make an effort to cook with her and properly for her as during the week, things are often rushed.  I tried to instigate the tradition of pancakes when we first did baby-led weaning.  This lasted until she learned she could just pick out the blueberries and leave the rest so I gave up after weeks of wasted effort.  But today, we tried Delia's  Canadian buttermilk pancakes - mostly because I had a half open tub of buttermilk in the fridge from the disaster that was the vanilla cake last week and I wanted to use it up.

Pancakes for breakfast

Having cooked the pancakes together and been thoroughly impressed by Miss A's egg cracking skills (this girl is going to be a 'sleb chef, I just know it!) I settled her in her booster seat with our respective plates in their places.  Despite the booster seat saying 'Do not leave your child unattended' I nipped into the kitchen to collect our drinks and by the time I'd gotten back, she'd helped herself to my pancakes - hence why there is no picture of the finished pancakes!  But the pic of her whisking is so much cuter :)

Later, we made granola (my own recipe and I don't need a better one thank you very much) and then it was on to the banana fudge cookies from Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet.  Okay, I'm obsessed!  Dan is my new favourite chef (for the moment) and my Thomasina Miers book has been stuffed unceremoniously back onto the shelf until Christmas is over.

Taste test

Stirring

First off was the delights of the bananas.  A few weeks back, the husband was on another get fit jag and demanded I buy a ton of bananas.  They started to go brown so rather than throw them out or feed them to the dogs (I had no time to bake a cake) I froze them in their skins.  On retrieving them, they were a strange maroon-brown colour.  Not too much of a problem.  But they were rock solid.  Not knowing how long it would take to defrost them and with a child who had been chanting 'Bake, Make, Stir' since I got her up at 7am I defrosted them in the microwave.  I haven't seen many more unappetising things than a microwave-defrosted banana.  But hey, they were going into a bake so it was about taste, not ap-peel :o)

Once the husband was up (we had to wait until after 11am) we blitzed the bananas, butter and vanilla in the Kenwood and then came time for Abigail to do the mixing.  As you can see, she had fun.  That is until she got out a baking tray and tried to turn on the oven.  The trouble with twenty-month-olds is that if you tell them they're wrong or they need to do something else, they don't take it well.  The mix has to chill in the fridge for a while.  Whilst this was happening, I had to deal with a full on tantrum.  Not pretty.

Let it snow

Thankfully she'd calmed down by the time we were read to 'Smush' and 'Siff'.  Into the oven, she watched them like a hawk until the timer pinged and then I had another battle as she wanted to eat them before they'd cooled down.  For once she actually ate all her tea (most unheard of) then a satsuma as well so by the time it got to cookie time, she fed it all to Mummy.  It's a hard job being a mum, but someone has to do it!

 A really good and simple recipe which produced beautifully soft, banana flavoured cookies and the crunch from the icing sugar dusted on before cooking is truly inspired.  Love them and will definitely make them again.

Add to this the fact that they contain oats as well, and you have a biscuit that you could pretend is quite healthy (if it wasn't for the huge amount of butter and sugar to make them all lovely and soft!).  Top notch recipe :o)  Not going to post it though - grab a copy of the book off Amazon - it's still only £8.99 and worth every penny!

Ham and Sweetcorn Mini Pizzas

I try, really I do.  But I just have not got the hang of the super-career-woman-yummy-mummy thing.  I look at all the lovely ladies in the Twitterati who juggle seventeen kids and running their own business whilst still finding time to keep an immaculate house and find time to have a life too.  But that's never going to be me.

I'm the mummy who gets stuck at work and then hurtles along the motorway, praying that there won't be any jams because I'm late for teatime.  And my darling daughter then repays my efforts at trying to pretend I'm supermum by saying no to her tea before I've even fastened her into her high chair.

Abigail made pizza.  She fed it to the dogs.

Although I was late tonight, I still tried to make an effort.  The child will not eat anything other than pasta.  And cheese.  And peas.  And absolutely any kind of fruit you care to throw at her.  I'm tired of the GP banging on about how she needs a balanced diet.  If only he would come round and witness her bury her head in her hands if I've had the temerity to put a few carrots in amongst the pasta and peas.  Or, heaven forbid, that I've given her pasta and cheese with tomato sauce.

She was an amazing eater until she learned to say no.  Her early cosmopolitan tastes included hummus, patatas bravas, mousakka and spanish omelette with feta to name but a few.  But these days she's having none of it.

I tried a different tack today.  We made pizza.  She made the dough.  She topped them with ham (which she will eat if it's in her sandwiches I make for nursery, but not at home), sweetcorn and mozarella - she chose the things from a bowl (and ate all the pineapple before it got anywhere near the pizza).  She waved it into the oven.  She watched it like a hawk while it cooked.  She chanted 'Mama tea' while it cooled.  Her backside had barely touched the high chair when she adamantly said 'No Mama' and buried her head in her hands for the next five minutes.

Well the dogs enjoyed them anyway.  And I'm sure it's a great recipe for those of you with kids.  It's from the M&S Just 4 Kids book which is a great little book full of recipes that both kids and adults can eat - provided their not fussy like what my family is!

Will post the recipe later as the book's downstairs and the husband is currently crashing round the kitchen, filling the dishwasher.  I intend to steer well clear!

Banana and Oat Muffins

In go the oats

"What would be the first thing you'd buy if we won the jackpot on the Euromillions?" I asked the husband today.  "A Ferrari, of course" came the reply.  "Do you know what I'd buy?" I asked.  Silence.  "I'd buy a really big kitchen and hire a cleaning lady."  Cue bemused look.

Stirring is hard work

Because as a responsible parent, I can no longer dream of jetting off to laze on sun-drenched beaches for the rest of my days - there's a hole in the ozone layer, didn't you know and I can't be dealing with the 'I'm not wearing suncream' tantrums from Crowdey snr and Crowdey jnr on a regular basis.  So my next best dream is to have a big house, with a big kitchen and someone to clean up behind me - because I'm never going to have a figure like Kylie and my people would never spontaneously burst into song and dance around me (I always wanted to live in a musical when I was a kid), no matter how rich I may be in this fantasy.

My little monster mash(ing)

And I'd learn to cook lovely things, every day.  I'd hire someone like James Martin to come and teach me to be an amazing chef.  I've got the sweet-front covered but I still need to work at the savoury side of things.  Difficult when you're feeding fussy eaters who will only eat chicken and rice (Crowdey snr) or pasta and cheese (Crowdey jnr).  And then I'd hire 'friends' like Nigella does to come and sit at my dining table and coo over my culinary prowess...

Making her own mini muffins

Enough rambling.  On to today's recipe.  Over-ripe bananas in the fruit bowl and a Saturday with nothing to do with the child so I decided we'd make banana muffins.  She was actually quite good at it.  Stirring and mashing and spoon licking and waving goodbye to the muffins as they went into the shiny new oven and proudly showing them to daddy as they were cooking as we actually have a light in our cooker for the first time in about four years!  It's the small things.

The big ones - finished

But oh.  Mr Ramsay.  Banana muffins need mixed spice in them.  What were you thinking?  I faithfully followed your recipe because you are a mega-celebrity, multi-Michelin-starred chef and I am, but a mere housewife and what would I know?  That bananas and mixed spice work far better than bananas and salt.  You might want to edit that recipe for the next edition of your book?

Despite this, they were a hit with Miss Abigail and she is FUSSY.  So top marks to you from her, but a thumbs down from me and the hubby.

PS: This recipe was from Gordon Ramsay's Greatest Hits but I understand it was also published in his 'Healthy Appetite' book meaning it's probably good for brides who are trying to fit into their wedding dresses ;-)

Makes 12

• 200g plain flour
• 1.5tsp baking powder
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 0.25 tsp salt
• 100g oats
• 100g light brown sugar
• 4 ripe bananas
• 60g melted butter
• 1 large egg
• 75g chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan).  Put muffin wrappers into a 12-hole muffin tin.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a mixing bowl.  Add the oats and sugar and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork (we used a potato masher - easier with a toddler!) and then mix in the egg and the melted butter.  Add to the dry ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into the cake cases and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden. Best served warm.