Monster Bookmarks

My oldest son is 5 now and has got to the stage where we can read a longer story that takes a few days to finish & last night he was asking how he could hold the page when he finishes reading so he can find it again in. So I promised we would make some book marks after school today and so that is what we have done. They are made from a corner of a used envelope and some coloured paper. Ollie (5) made the red one all on his own it was so simple. I helped Max (3) make his orange one.
I can't wait until they reach the stage that we can read Harry Potter and Roald Dahl and C S Lewis and things like that.

 

Rosewater and Maple syrup milk jelly,

I couldn't resist buying some Peonies yesterday. I miss being a florist so much, when the peonies come out is always one of my favourite times of year. They are so pretty. They inspired me to make something I cut out of a magazine about 5 years ago and never got around to trying. Rosewater and maple syrup milk jelly. I also checked that peony petals are edible (they are) and crystallized some to pop on top to make this very pretty pudding. I was worried it would be to floral a taste for the boys to enjoy it so made some regular strawberry jelly just in case they didn't like it but they gobbled it up happily!

Recipe is as follows;

• 1 pint full cream milk
• 5 leaves gelatine (cut up and soaked in cold water until wobbly)
• 3tbsp maple syrup
•  a good glug of rosewater (about 5tsp)

To make the jelly, warm the milk slowly until nearly boiling then whisk in the soft gelatine and then the syrup and rosewater (I also added a couple of drops of red food colouring to make it pretty)
Strain into a mould and refrigerate.
To make the crystallized petals, wash them and then dip into lightly whisked egg white and dust with caster sugar, shake off any excess and dry for several hours.
I served it with some extra syrup I made from some warmed maple syrup and rosewater, so that you got a bigger hit of flavour if you wanted it, as it is quite mild.
I think it would be even nicer with an extra dash of cream or maybe a top layer of homemade raspberry/rhubarb or strawberry jelly. Next time....

Saturday Family Breakfast

I love Saturday breakfasts. It's one thing that we make sure always happens at the weekend, we get the whole family round the table (including baby Charlie in the Bumbo on the table) and we have something a bit special to eat. This week we even had a bit of a lie in as Charlie decided to sleep through the night for the very first time, yey!
This week we make American style pancakes and added in some blackberries we had in the freezer from last year's pickings and some chopped white chocolate chunks, and had them with maple syrup. Yum.

Asparagus and Goats cheese tart

Friday night supper, we made an asparagus and goats cheese tart/quiche.
We used a rectangular tin so that we could lie the asparagus in a line and show off this star seasonal product. I can't get enough asparagus at the moment, it's a shame the season is pretty close to finishing. One day we will grow it ourselves, the 3 year wait until it fruits will be worth it in the end!
We used ready made shortcrust pastry and blind baked. We made up an egg mix with 9 eggs, a bit of milk, a bit of cream, salt, pepper and goats cheese and poured it into the case. Then lay the blanched asparagus into the egg mix and sprinkled over some torn fresh mozzarella.
Served with a simple salad of wild rocket, balsamic vinegar and virgin olive oil. Mmmmmmm.

Homemade Spelling Toy

Another top tip from that library book! Using label stickers and duplo single bricks to make the components for a spelling game.
My 5 year old is at the stage of sounding out to spell words and these help make it a bit more fun for him. We spent about an hour and a half playing with them after school today and he didn't even notice we were doing something completely educational and something he usually finds really frustrating!

Story Stones

I read about this idea in a library book I got out in preparation for the long summer holiday ahead!
You pull them out of a hat/bag one or two at a time and make up a story that involves whatever is on the stones you pick, then the next person takes one or two more stones and add to the story.
They have been a great success. My 5 year old added quite a few different stone pictures when he got back from school and we have had some great stories going! The great thing is the options are endless and they really fired up Ollie's imagination!

Over-ripe Banana Cake with Butterscotch filling

I had loads of over-ripe bananas left in the fruit basket and a random half carton of sour cream to use up so I found this recipe for Sour cream Banana Cake.
I have been dreaming of this Banana Cake we had in a coffee shop when I was young. I have never been able to recreate it or find the right recipe. But something about this recipe made me think I might have get closer today. The Banana Cake of my 'Coffee Call' memories was dense and very moist with the black flecks from the banana going through it, no other adulterations of chocolate or sultanas. Then in the middle was a yellow/orange colour creamy, custardy thing and on top was a plain white glace icing.
I found a recipe for Butterscotch custard. I added a bit of banana to the recipe as I thought it had a banana taste. This is the finished result....

I was transported right back to 1990! It's still not perfect, their's was deeper and lighter in colour but the custardy thing is very close I think. I wish I could invite my old school pals round for tea tonight and see what they think!











This is the recipe I used
Sour cream Banana Cake

• 2 eggs
• 200g caster sugar
• 80ml sunflower oil
• 125g sour cream
• 250g over-ripe bananas (this was 3 and a half of my bananas)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200g plain flour
• pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarb. of soda 

Easy peasy method - Bung it all in a Kitchen Aid mixer bowl and whisk it all up until a smooth batter.
Pour batter into a lined 20cm cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 170*c for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a rack.


Butterscotch Banana Custard cake filling

• 150g lightly packed brown sugar
• 125g butter, chopped ( I used stork as a lower fat option and it worked fine)
• 1 tablespoon water
• 3 tablespoons custard powder
• 250ml milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 small mashed banana

Heat the sugar, butter and water on a low heat, with continuous stirring until it smells caramely. Mix the custard powder with the milk, vanilla and banana and pour into the pan. Heat and stir until thickens. Cool quickly by placing pan in a sink full of water. Cool until ready to put into the middle of the cake.
Pour plain water glace icing (Icing sugar and water) over the top of the cake and serve.

Soup and Cheese Scone on a blustery, rainy day

What happened to all the sunshine? Oh yes, it is all down south where we used to live!
At least some homemade veggie soup and this cheese scone round helps with the rainy day blues. We also got a lovely surprise gift of cheese from our neighbours, who brought it back from the Isle of Arran on the West Coast of Scotland. The Arran Blue was delicious, thank you guys.
The Veggie soup was diced carrot, celery, suede, onion & sweet potato, with a tin of tomatoes and some vegetable stock.
The Cheese scone recipe is as follows. I recommend you try it, it is perfect comfort food.
225g Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp baking powder
25g butter
150g grated cheddar
1 egg
milk
Oven 200*c (fan)
Add the butter to the dry ingredients and rub it in until resembles breadcrumbs. Then add 100g cheese.
Break an egg into a measuring jug and add enough milk to make up 150ml. Mix this into the dry ingredients to form a dough. Knead lightly. Place on a greased baking sheet, brush with milk and sprinkle on the rest of the cheese. Bake for 15mins. Cool a little but eat warm to eat it at it's best.

Broken biscuits

Why do kids refuse to eat a biscuit unless it is whole and in one piece? At least it isn't just my children. Toddler group gave me all the broken biscuits from the biscuit box and I used them to make some chocolate biscuit cake and the grown ups got to eat something for once!

This is a family recipe that we call Flatter's Cake (no idea why!)

Heat 1 egg, 3oz unsalted butter, 4oz caster sugar, 1tsp vanilla extract and 1 dsp cocoa in a pan until all melted together and nearly boiling. Then pour over 8oz broken biscuits and 1/2 cup of raisins. Ensure mixed well and press into a lined baking tray and refrigerate. When cold melt a 200g bar of your favourite chocolate (over a bain-marie or in the microwave 10 seconds at a time) and spread over the cake. Refrigerate and cut into small pieces in a vague attempt not to eat too much!

You could add whatever other bits you fancy, other dried fruit like sour cherries, cranberries, sultanas etc, flaked almonds are good if you like a little crunch.

The picture above is all that was left!

  

Face painting

Max got some face paints for his birthday. Why do they never ask to be anything they can find in the little booklet that comes with them!
The first thing Max wanted to be was a Killer Whale! Do you think any other child has ever asked to be a killer whale in the history of face paints?

Killer Whale

Dinosaur

Wolf

Lion

Lemon and Rosemary Roast New Potatoes

Just needed to do something a bit different to the usual with the new potatoes. The lemon made them really nice and fresh.

Griddled Veg and Slow roast Tomato salad

Yesterday we made this yummy salad to go with our barbequed soy and ginger salmon kebabs.

We griddled courgettes,green beans, red & green peppers, red onions and peeled asparagus. Meanwhile we slow roasted the halved tomatoes in a low oven (150*c) with sea salt, pepper and fresh thyme.

Then tossed it all together with some slithers of parmesan, some wild rocket and lightly dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Fresh Berry Tart

We had a couple of bramley apples that needed eating up so my husband rustled up this lovely fresh berry tart for our Sunday lunch.

Fresh Berry Tart Recipe

1 pack frozen puff pastry

2 bramley apples (cored, peeled and diced)

3 braeburn apples (cored, peeled and sliced in about 2mm think slices)

1 punnet each of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries

1 x 284ml carton of double cream (we used Elmlea double light in a vague attempt to be healthy!)

A couple of tablespoons caster sugar

Vanilla extract.

1 tbsp jam (we had strawberry)

First warm the bramley apples on the hob with 1 tablespoon sugar until it goes soft and pureed. We then blended this in a mini processor (but this was not completely necessary). Cool.

Roll the puff pastry thin enough to line a whole swiss roll pan.

Spread the pureed apple over the pastry and then place the braeburn apple slices in neat rows.

Cook in an 180*c oven for 30 mins.

Whip the cream with the vanilla and sugar

When the tart is cool, spread over the cream mixture and sprinkle the berries on top.

Then warm the jam in a small pan on the hob and brush onto the fruit as a bit of a glaze.

Grown up Strawberry Ice Cream

This morning I went to use the strawberries that were delivered last night and half of them had already gone squashy. I appreciate strawberries have a short shelf life but I didn’t imagine I would have to use them within 12 hours of the delivery coming!

So I needed to find a way to use them quickly and as I was half way through making the honeycomb ice cream below, I decided to have a bash at turning it into a Strawberry ice cream and so I put aside about a third of the cream/condensed milk mixture.

I warmed the less great strawberries (about 500g) in a pan with some vanilla extract (~3tsp), about a tablespoon of caster sugar and a tiny splash of balsamic vinegar. Then I blended them with the hand held blender. Cooled the puree quickly by putting the pan in a sink full of cold water and then added them to the cream mixture (see honeycomb ice cream recipe below). I had visualised it being a strawberry ripple effect but there was actually 2/3 strawberry puree to 1/3 cream so I just mixed it all together. I then got a bit worried that it would set too hard so I added a couple of shots of framboise liquer as the alcohol should stop it completely freezing.

I did have to fork the mixture a couple of times while it was freezing and there are still some ice crystals in it but the flavour is really good, I especially like the framboise in it. If you have an ice cream churn I would use it if repeating this recipe.

Super easy chocolate honeycomb ice cream

This is my mother in law’s recipe for Crunchie ice cream that she used to make for my husband and his sister when they were young. I was introduced to it a couple of years ago and it was so scrummy and moreish I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make! There is no ice cream machine required, no getting the ice cream out the freezer part way through and mixing it up. And it is smooth and scoopable straight from the freezer.

I have used the basic recipe to make multiple variations, adding Fudge bits (as in finger of Fudge), crushed up Malteasers, Smarties and KitKats. But Crunchie is still my favourite (closely followed by Malteasers) – it’s the really fine bits of dust that flavours the ice cream all the way through that does it! I wonder if mint Aero would work?

Honeycomb ice cream recipe

5 Crunchie bars (smashed up making sure there is a good mix of dust and big chunks!)

1 tin Condensed Milk

500ml Double cream

Whisk the cream into soft peaks. Add the tin of condensed milk and continue whisking (I use the kitchen aid). Then fold in the crunchie pieces, pour into an empty ice cream tub and freeze! See told you it was easy!

                           

An interesting roasted veg salad

We roasted potato wedges, chunks of swede, chanteray carrots, red pepper chunks and asparagus (though these were added in the last 10mins only) in a 180*c oven for about ½ hour with some garlic cloves and sticks of rosemary and thyme, olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. Then we tossed in some watercress and a splash of balsamic vinegar to make it a lovely warm salad to have with our  bbq bangers (first of the season) and some fruity cous cous.

Lemon Meringue Roll with Strawberries

We had some friends over and I decided to do a nice pud. I had a random jar of lemon curd which I really don't like on toast and so thought of making a Lemon Meringue pudding but didn't fancy the pastry element. I think I had seen something like this on the Cook website when I was looking at what we might buy to serve at Charlie's christening.

Lemon Meringue Roll with Strawberries

It turned out well, it had a lovely balance of fresh tartness from the lemon and sweetness from the meringue. And the strawberries complemented it well, though obviously these could be left out. I think next time I would experiment with some lemon zest through the cream, or maybe puree the strawberries into the cream?

Anyway, this is the recipe I used;

5 egg whites

150g caster sugar

1tsp cornflour

284ml double cream (elmlea light) whipped

1 jar lemon curd

1 punnet strawberries, thinly sliced.

Fan oven at 140*c

In the kitchen aid (or by hand) whip the egg whips until stiff then add the sugar and cornflour a bit at a time

Line a swiss roll pan. Spread the egg mixture onto the baking parchment and bake in the oven for 45mins at 140*c.

Cool completely, uncovered. Remove baking parchment and place on another sheet of parchment that has been dusted with icing sugar to prevent it sticking. Then spread the meringue with the whipped cream, followed by the lemon curd and then the strawberries. Then using the paper roll from the short side into a roulade shape. 

It needs to be served quite quickly as the juice from the strawberries runs out after a while and makes the whole thing a bit more soggy - though still yum!

My first foray into quilt making

I realise this has nothing to do with Gobbling but it does have to do with Cobbling! I decided to have a shot at making a quilt for our bed as, over the cold winter, I never managed to find a bedspread that I liked or (if I did like it) could afford! Quilting is a craft I have always wanted to try. I have been heavily inspired by a family friend who has made me these gorgeous quilts as Christening presents for the boys and decided I wanted to have a go myself.

I have started quite simply. As with cookery, I am completely incapable of following a recipe or a pattern without freestyling it, so I knew I would have to find designs and patterns that wouldn’t matter if they weren’t dead on. So I dragged out my ancient sewing machine (that my nan passed on to me when her arthritis got too bad to use it) and had a go.

I got a tip that I could use a cheap sheet (one with a thread count below 600) instead of large expanses of proper quilting fabric. I went for this design so that I could have a quick result and be encouraged to continue.

And within 2 days , side one is complete.

Now I have got the bug and want to do a completely different design on the reverse. I want something a bit more Spring like as these fabrics are quite Autumnal in feel. And then I will still have to wad and quilt it – which I think is going to be the really tricky bit! So the completed item is still some way off but I will show you when it gets there.

Max’s third birthday cake!

Not exactly a roaring success. He requested a Wilson from Chuggington train and this is what I managed! I made a basic chocolate sponge in a square tin. I needed to sandwich 3 on top of one another (with buttercream) and then trim to get the shape. I used food colourings and fondant icing to get the exterior.  I added a bit of strawberry squash (double concentrate) to the red icing to give it a bit of strawberry flavour interest.

Here is a picture of what he is supposed to look like in case you aren't familiar with the joys of Chuggington!

He looks a bit sad for my liking but the boy was very happy indeed!