A friend's visit

The lemon and sultana cake lasted impressively until Tuesday, by which point it was on the verge of being stale anyway. Now my husband has started measuring his waistline once a week and he's been getting more out of his gym membership for the past fortnight! So last night when confronted with a box of carrot and orange muffins he tried very hard to limit himself to just one. He nearly managed it too but succumbed to another later in the evening. Maybe eating them a couple of hours apart helps to lessen their effect!

Today a friend of mine came over to buy a few jars of homemade jam from me. Whilst here I offered her a drink and a muffin, which she accepted. The drink she chose happened to be a glass of homemade blackcurrant cordial. She enjoyed both her drink and her muffin and went home with 4 jars of jam too! It doesn't often work out like that but it was nice to have my homemade products appreciated!

Carrot and Orange Muffins (makes 10)

4 oz (110g) light muscovado sugar
5 fl oz (125ml) sunflower oil
2 eggs
7 oz (200g) plain flour
2 oz (55g) wholemeal flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 orange
6 oz (170g) carrot
4 oz (110g) sultanas

Preheat oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Mix the oil and the sugar together then beat in the eggs. Sieve the dry ingredients into the oil mix. Grate the peel off the orange and add that to the bowl then squeeze the juice from the orange and add that. Grate the carrot and fold that into the mix, along with the sultanas. Spoon into cases in a muffin tin. Cook for 20 minutes and test with a skewer. Cool on a wire rack.

My husbands fat tummy!

Every night when my husband is getting ready for bed he catches sight of himself in the mirror. This causes him to stand up straight, draw in his breath and suck in his tummy. Then he pats it, says, "I must get rid of this." He's not particularly fat, you understand, he just has a mental image of himself as a fit 18 year old and the sight in the mirror always comes as something of a surprise!

Whenever he talks about dieting he always sees having "afters" as either the biggest problem or perhaps as the easiest area to tackle. He likes to have something sweet after dinner, as is so often the case, something we seem to get trained into somehow. I know that after dinner he will go looking for the cake tin to see what delight I have cooked up today.

At first sight it would appear that if I stopped making cakes, flapjacks and biscuits for him he would stop eating them and this would help his belly. As obvious as it seems, that solution doesn't work. I know, I've tried it! Instead, when he finds the cake tin empty he opens the food cupboard and sees what else he can find. This often results in him eating something a good deal more fattening than the relatively health bakes I make, such as shop bought shortbread fingers.

I have pointed out to him that what I make is supposed to last 4 to 5 days not the usual 2 to 3!This week we have agreed upon serious rationing - just 2 flapjacks a night. He did well, managing to eek out the batch of flapjacks from Monday to Thursday.

So today the cake tin stands empty again and this afternoon I have friend popping over for a chat. So at the moment the appetising smell of lemon and sultana cake cooking fills the air. I wonder how long the cake will last?

Lemon and Sultana Cake

1 lemon
4 oz (110g) sultanas
5 oz (145g) caster sugar
3 fl oz (85ml) corn oil
2 eggs, beaten
7 oz (200g) plain flour
2 oz (55g) wholemeal flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons oat bran

Preheat oven to 180°C (gas 4). Grease and line a loaf tin. Place the sultanas in a bowl and cover with the juice and zest of the lemon, made up to 6 fl oz (170 ml) with warm water. Set aside. In another bowl, sift together the flour, salt and raising agents. Make a well in the middle. To the fruit mix, add the sugar, oil and eggs. Carefully stir the wet mix into the dry mix. Add the oat bran and combine well. Spoon into the loaf tin and bake for 55 to 60 minutes and test with a skewer.

Friends after school

My daughter invited a friend over after school this afternoon. It was arranged before the Easter holidays so she has been looking forward to it for about 3 weeks. She was quite clear that she wanted some cakes to share with her friend. Certainly not a problem in our house so this morning I made a batch of orange choc chip muffins. To add to the interest, I also whipped up a bowl of orange butter icing and got out the last of the mini eggs left over from Easter. So when they got home, I shared out 12 cakes between 3 girls and they dolloped on butter icing and finished off with a mini egg. OK so the Easter theme was a bit late but they were pretty little cakes. The girls enjoyed the activity as well as eating a cake there and then and my daughter's guest had 3 cakes to take home to Mum too.



Orange Choc Chip Mini Muffins

(makes 12-16)


110g (4 oz) self-raising flour
25g (1 oz) wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
55g (2 oz) caster sugar
Grated rind of 1 orange
1 egg
150 ml (5 fl oz) milk
2 tablespoons juice from the orange
60ml (2 fl oz) oil
25g (1 oz) chocolate chips
40g (1 1/2 oz) butter or margarine
55g (2 oz) icing sugar
Rind and juice from half an orange
12 Mini Eggs

Preheat oven to 200°C. Sift together the flours and baking powder then stir in sugar and orange rind. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, milk, juice and oil. Combine the dry and wet mixes until just mixed then stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon into fairy cake cases and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. In the meantime, cream together the butter and the icing sugar in a bowl then add the orange rind and juice and stir well. Add butter icing and one mini egg to each cake.

Too many bananas

Bananas are a funny old fruit. I don't like them as it happens, which I often regret. I find myself every now and then wanting to eat a banana. They are the perfect snack - wrapped in a colour-coded skin that lets you know exactly how sweet it will be, an individual portion of high energy, high fibre nutritious food. If I'm starving hungry just before dinner I think to myself how perfect a banana would be - an energy boost to get me through the food preparation without it spoiling my appetite. Nonetheless, whenever I try them I only confirm that I don't like the texture nor the flavour. What's funny is, I like banana flavoured things such as milkshake, and I like bananas in food such as banana cake.

So the ever present bananas in my fruit bowl are there for my children and my husband and so whenever any of them say, "I'm hungry," I can reply, "Have a banana." But I find that some weeks they snaffle the lot and in other weeks they slowly turn brown without even a sniff of interest. Apparently you have to be in the right mood for a banana.

Last week was a definite 'off' week and when we set off to Granny's for the Easter weekend there were 6 bananas in the fruit bowl already showing their first flecks of brown. When we arrived at Granny's we discovered that she too had filled her fruit bowl with a fine hand of bananas. Despite the occasional nibble over the course of the weekend, by the time we were packing the car Monday morning there were still 4 bananas left. As always Granny busied herself with loading a bag full of various bits and pieces of food from her cupboard (she hates to think we might go hungry!) and I knew it was likely the bananas would find their way into the bag too. But as it happened just before we left I was met with calls of "I'm hungry!" and you can guess what I suggested!

Back home the 6 bananas in my fruit bowl were very definitely ripe and I figured if they stayed there much longer the fruit flies would start to circle! So the next day when I went shopping I bought some extra thick double cream and by the afternoon 3 bananas were magically transformed into banoffee ice-cream.

Banoffee Ice-cream

1½ oz (45 g) brown sugar
1½ oz (45 g) butter
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
3 large over ripe banana
7½ fl oz (210 ml) milk
10½ fl oz (300 ml) double cream

In a saucepan or in the microwave, melt together the sugar, syrup and butter then set aside to cool. In the meantime, blend the banana with 100 ml of the milk in a food processor until smooth. Pour this mix into the remaining milk, add the toffee mix and the cream and stir well until fully mixed. Pour into suitable containers and place in the freezer for 2 hours. Remove from the freezer and beat then return to the freezer. Repeat every two hours until solid.

By the next morning the remaining 3 bananas had been used to make a banana loaf. What a fantastic fruit the banana is - a handy snack and a versatile cooking ingredient.

Banana Loaf

7 oz (200g) plain flour
2¼ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
¾ ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons wheatgerm or oat bran
2½ oz (70g) margarine
4 oz (110g) caster sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 180°C (gas 4). Grease and line a loaf tin. Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the wheatgerm. In another bowl, cream together the margarine and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the mashed bananas and eggs to the creamed mix and stir well. Add the dry ingredients and blend evenly. Spoon into the loaf tin. Cook for 50 to 60 minutes and check by inserting a skewer. Cool in the tin.

Making Easter Eggs

Easter can very easily turn into a choc-fest. Chocolate Easter eggs are everywhere and ridiculously cheap so it is very easy to end up with a multitude of the things. When my two girls were little I asked their relatives not to buy them chocolate eggs at Easter because little children really don't need to eat chocolate and certainly don't miss what they have never had. I don't buy them sweets either. It's a tricky position to take but if you are fairly relaxed about it it can work out well. When they go to parties their party bag will inevitably contain a few sweets so on those occasions they will eat sweets and sometimes they are given sweets whilst at friends' houses. This attitude means that sweets are not a forbidden fruit (and consequently even more desirable) but they do not expect sweets from me nor every time we go into a shop, and I have never been nagged to buy any. I'd much rather buy them a magazine instead and they are happy when I do.

When chocolate Easter eggs are not an option it makes you more imaginative about Easter gifts but to be honest there are so many other things available at Easter time that it is easy to find something else that does not involve chocolate. Cuddly toys, craft kits, clothes etc.... Tomorrow I shall be doing an Easter Egg hunt with my girls with lovely fluffy bunny baskets and plastic eggs filled with little toys and craft items, and they are really looking forward to it.

Still, I did end up with some Easter egg moulds that I got off Freecycle with a collection of other things, including egg wraps that shrink around eggs when you boil them (looking forward to trying them out). So today we made chocolate rice crispie cake mix but rather than putting them into paper cases, we filled the Easter egg moulds instead. When they were set we put the two halves together and wrapped them up in a piece of attractive foil. Now they both have chocolate Easter eggs but, with the chocolate padded out with puffed rice, they are unlikely to get through them at a rate of more than a quarter of an egg at a time.

Easter biscuits for granny

We're visiting Granny over the Easter weekend so today I have been helping my girls make Easter biscuits as a gift for her. Making biscuits is always fun but I think it is important that children grow up learning that it is nice to make gifts for family and friends.

Once we had made the biscuits, we converted an old tissue box into an attractive basket for the biscuits. We cut the top off then covered it with pieces of patterned paper, stabled on a piece of patterned cardboard for the handle and lined it with tissue paper. So simple yet very affective and bound to be appreciated.

Traditional Easter Biscuits

4 oz (110g) softened butter
3 oz (85g) caster sugar
1 egg, separated
5 oz (145g) plain flour
2 oz (55g) wholemeal flour (or a total of 7 oz, 200g plain flour)
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground mixed spice
2 oz (55g) dried fruit such as currants, sultanas and/or raisins
1 oz (25g) chopped mixed peel
Some milk
A little extra caster sugar or coloured sugar (for decorating)

Preheat oven to 200°C, gas mark 6 and grease a baking sheet. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg. Sift in the flours, salt and spices, then add the dried fruit and peel. Carefully add just enough milk, a little at a time, to bind the mixture into soft dough. On a floured surface, roll out the dough until 5mm (¼ inch) thick and cut out using a pastry cutter. Transfer the biscuits onto the greased baking sheet and bake in the centre of the oven for 5 minutes. Remove them from the oven, brush with the egg white and sprinkle with some caster (or coloured) sugar. Return them to the oven for a further 5 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer the biscuits onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Leftovers for lunch (again!)

As you'll have guessed by now I'm very keen to avoid food waste and to use up leftovers. As a result I tend to have a variety of things for lunch, which is no bad thing and certainly beats the repeative limp ham sandwich.

Yesterday my girls and I did the supermarket shop just before lunchtime and we couldn't resist picking up a French stick. Once home (and the frozen food put away) I sliced the bread, buttered it and served it up with soup and a few slices of mature cheese. Yummy!

As a result of this I had a good length of stale French bread leftover today. Great! French bread pizza for lunch, using up some of the pizza base tomato sauce that I had lurking in the fridge too.

French Bread Pizza

A piece of French bread
Tomato pizza base sauce, or pasta sauce.
Ham
Cheese

Slice the French bread in half and if necessary trim a bit off the top to make sit level. Toast the bread under the grill then spread the tomato sauce over it. Scatter over pieces of ham and grated cheese. Grill until the cheese is melted.

Fish Pie

I made fish pie yesterday. Whilst browsing the fish counter at the supermarket I spotted a pack of "fish pie mix". This was 320g of pieces of fish - salmon, cod and smoked haddock for £2.99. With enough fish to make 4 individual pies, that works out about 75p per pie.

Fish Pie (serves 4)

1lb 8 oz (700g) mashed potato
2 carrots
1 clove garlic
2 cm root ginger (or 2 shallots instead of garlic and ginger)
1 sachet miso soup making 160ml (or fish stock)
4 fl oz (110 ml) white wine
250ml single cream (or soya alternative)
1 oz (25 g) butter
1 oz (25 g) flour
320 g fish pie mix

Sprigs lemon thyme (or parsley)

Grated Cheddar cheese
Two slices wholemeal bread, crumbled
Black pepper

Make the mash potato in your usual way and leave to cool. Peel, finely chop and cook the carrot until tender then leave to cool. Peel and chop the garlic and ginger then fry in a little oil for 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and heat for 5 minutes until reduced by half. In the meantime, make up the miso soup then dilute with 140 ml water. Add the soup and 150 ml of cream to the wine and heat for 10 minutes until reduced by half. In the meantime, make a roux by melting the butter in another pan, stirring in the flour and gradually pouring in the remaining cream. Pour the soup mix into the roux and cook for 5 minutes until a thick, smooth sauce is made. Leave to cool completely. When everything is completely cool assemble the pies in 4 individual dishes or foil containers. First divide the fish mix evenly between the dishes then sprinkle over the lemon thyme and carrots. Pour over the sauce and stir. Layer over the mashed potato and level. Sprinkle over the cheese then the breadcrumbs and finally grind over black pepper. The pies can now be frozen. To cook, thaw completely then bake at 200°C, gas 6 for 20-25 minutes until hot through and golden. Serve with seasonal vegetables.

Hot Cross Buns

The Lakeland catalogue came through my letterbox the other day. I find it best not to look in it because I know that I will be tempted by their lovely stuff and then once I've got started I have to find enough stuff to get free p&p and before I know what happened I'm placing another £50 order! However, the envelope it came in had a plastic window so I had to open the envelope to remove the window before I could drop it into the recycling. Once open, of course, I had to have a quick flick. Oh dear... where's my credit card...

Anyway, next to a listing for a square baking tin (phew... I have one of those already so I'm OK) was a recipe for hot cross buns http://www.lakeland.co.uk/090326-hotcrossbuns?src=email&email=090326eastereditorial

Now, when you come across a recipe for something that is readily available in the shops you have to ask yourself exactly why you should put in the effort to make it instead of just buying it. Sometimes it is a matter of cost - after all when you can make flapjacks for 6p each why spend 99p on a box of 6? Sometimes it is a matter of flavour - what do they put into cakes to make them taste so weird? Sometimes it is to have control over the ingredients and sometimes it is a combination of several things.

With hot cross buns, the only reason I could see for trying them was to shear challenge of it. So I've just given it a go. It is certainly one of those recipes you need to do when you are going to be in the house with other things to be getting on with. There is a good deal of rising and resting involved. But, what do you know, they came out looking like proper hot cross buns. I'm proud of my buns!