Food when we were kids - potato roesti

My mum will be coming to visit on Wednesday for a few days and I want to have some nice things prepared for when she arrives.  I made the base for a coffee walnut cake and some jam donut muffins - all safely stored in the freezer now and ready to be finished off when she's here. 

As I was baking, I thought back to when we were kids and how much patience she must have had to bake and cook for all of us.  I thought the same when I cooked dinner last night because it was something she used to make for us (or at least a variation of it): potato roesti.  I am sure she would have made 30 - 40 of these to feed all of us kids and no doubt they all disappeared within minutes.  Her version, the traditional German "Reibekuchen", contains both flour and eggs but the ones I made last night are just potato, onion and seasoning. 

Both types go extremely well with homemade apple sauce or you could top them with a dollop of sour cream and some smoked salmon.  Delicious! 

We had the traditional apple sauce and black pudding (not everyone's cup of tea but we like it, especially when baked in the oven as it's not greasy at all).

I think they make for a very nice change and go with pretty much anything that normally calls for potatoes as a side dish. 

Spring cleaning...updated

Another beautiful Spring day today and we are - very appropriately - Spring cleaning.  There is lots of sorting out to be done as we'll have some building work done in the house soon and we might as well use this opportunity to rationalise what we have.  There are a few items that are perfectly good still but are no longer used by us such as our bread maker.  It's been gathering dust for a good couple of years because I switched to kneading and baking bread without the machine.  I am pleased to say it's going to find a new home this afternoon, thanks to the magic of the internet and Freecycle.  If you haven't heard of Freecycle before, it's basically a local website where people advertise stuff for free that they no longer have use for.  Great idea!  Someone is coming to collect the bread maker later on which means more room in our kitchen for us and a new toy for someone else to play with.

As we are busy, dinner will most likely be a basic and quick affair...something like sausages, baked potatoes and coleslaw.  I cook sausages in the oven on a wire rack above a lined tray - that way, any fat can just drain off.  There's also a lot less splatter than when doing them under the grill - 25 minutes in a medium hot oven and yummy sausages are cooked and ready :-) For the coleslaw I simply finely slice either red or white cabbage, grate some carrot and add a couple of teaspoons of mayonnaise as well as a good amount of salt and pepper.  Much nicer than shop-bought and a lot less fatty.  And finally, for the jacket potatoes, I always put a metal skewer through the potatoes as I find they cook faster that way with the metal transferring the heat through the potato.  A little trick Mr Happy Larder told me :-)  I'll add a food photo later...

So, dinner is planned...now we just have to sort through all those boxes of stuff...phew! 

Update...here is the dinner photo...

Italian classic at home...

We don't really watch a lot of TV here (mainly because there seems to be so much rubbish on these days) but I do love cookery shows.  No surprise there, really.  I watched "Masterchef" the other day (it's a cookery competition show rather than one with recipes) and was intrigued to see them make Italian gnocchi.

Gnocchi with a chorizo tomato sauce...

Now, to be perfectly honest, I have only ever had supermarket gnocchi and they have been pretty average at best.  Either very chewy or very  hard...brrrr!  Knowing how Italians love their food, I reckoned there must be more to these little potato dumplings and they did look delicious on TV.  So, poor Mr Happy Larder had to be guinea pig to yet another new recipe - luckily, we were both pleasantly surprised.

I was a bit unsure what the texture the "dough" should be like but since it needed rolling into a sausage shape before cutting, I guessed it shouldn't be too soft.  I needed more flour than the original recipe stated but apart from that it was straightforward.  The great thing is that you can freeze gnocchi - simply put on a lined baking sheet in the freezer overnight and pop into a freezer container/bag the following morning.  When ready to use, there is no need to defrost - just put into boiling water and when they rise to the surface, they are done.  Self-timing dumplings - perfect :-)  We had one batch "fresh" with another in the freezer and I will definitely be making these again.  The recipe is below as well as a link to a video that shows the method and a little trick I picked up from "Masterchef".

Sunny suppers

The sun came out at the weekend and for the first time in what seems like months, I was able to do a bit of gardening.  Just a little weeding and mowing the lawn but oh, how lovely it was to be back out there!  I find it so calming and feeling the sun on my skin was beautiful.  I also had a look at my seed collection as I am itching to get started again with sowing vegetable seeds.  The nights are still frosty, so a bit more patience is needed...

Then yesterday I drew the winner of the giveaway and that made for a great start to the week - I just wish I had been able to give something to everyone, especially to those who go through the trouble of sending such lovely comments so regularly.  Well, there is always the next time and I am already plotting what goodies will go into the next giveaway.  I've got a couple of good ideas... :-)

Despite the recent sunshine, my body is still craving comfort food.  Light summer dishes are not on my menu just yet...again, more patience required.  As you have probably gathered by now, I love doing recipes in the oven and one of my favourites is potato gratin.  We have a great big bay tree in the garden, so I use the leaves from it in this supper dish although I dare say it would be just as nice without.

What a great dish!  It can be a side dish or turned into a meal in itself and it never ever disappoints :-)

Mhm, I can imagine it now, all creamy with lots of potato and vegetables and maybe even some ham thrown in for good measure - yum! As usual, I have amended the quantities of cream and cheese and have added more vegetables to make it slightly healthier without loosing its creamy luxurious taste.  I hope you will like this one as much as we do!

Easy midweek meal

Gosh - where has this morning gone?  I meant to write my post first thing as usual but then got side-tracked by dropping off cakes at the community centre, taking the dog for his long walk, household chores... Anyway, here I am :-)  And no deep questions today, promised!  That was a bit morbid for a Monday, wasn't it? :-)  Something altogether more cheerful is today's recipe:

Chorizo chicken...

I stumbled across this Nigella Lawson one the other day and I think you might like this: chorizo chicken.   I have adapted it slightly to be less fatty but I think this is a brilliant tray bake sort of meal that can be put together in no time and tastes delicious.  What can be easier than chucking a lot of raw ingredients into a roasting tin with some seasoning and roasting it all in the oven?

Of snow and spice...and all things nice

Snow gentleman

I met this gentleman on the right during this morning's dog walk- he did make me smile, looking all official with his tie.  Someone obviously had a lot of fun there...I really enjoy walking in the snow when it's for pleasure and Keith the dog was also very happy that it hadn't melted - he loves chasing snowballs.

Where's my snowball?

With it still being so wintery here, I feel another soup recipe is in order - and this is one comes with a twist.  It brings the humble potato to life with a hint of curry and coconut milk.  You can even use leftover mash for this recipe to make it an extra speedy lunch.  The addition of crunchy vegetables gives the dish extra texture and the spice is lovely and warming on a winter's day...although this can be enjoyed at any time of the year.   It could also easily be adapted by adding thin strips of cooked chicken or cooked king prawns at the end of cooking if you don't want it to be vegetarian.

Potato soup...

The gift that keeps on giving

My husband is the king of roast dinners in our house and on Sunday he made us a gorgeous roast beef with all the trimmings including Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, different vegetables and gravy.  De-li-cious!  So delicious in fact that I forgot to take a picture of it for the blog before diving in.  I'm afraid you are going to have to wait until next time for photographic evidence :-)

I have, however, taken photos of the dinner I made last night using the leftovers:  bubble & squeak cakes with cold cuts.  I had promised to show a few recipes using leftover mash or potatoes in my post a couple of days ago.  You can make these marvelous little cakes whenever you have some leftover potatoes and vegetables and they go with pretty much anything.  If you like, you can add fresh herbs or spices to change the flavour according to what you want to serve with them but the idea is to keep it simple and to use up the bits and pieces you have in your fridge or larder.

...to this!

From this...

Of snowballs and sausages

Keith eating snow

It's still bitterly cold here but Keith the dog is loving it.  Being a young dog, this is his first proper winter and watching him romp around and waiting for us to throw snowballs for him has been priceless.  It also means he gets to eat crunchy snow - lots of it.

Venison sausages

Luckily, we have been having food with more sustenance than snow, keeping us warm inside.  Spare a thought though for the homeless or the elderly who are not so lucky.  I read a lovely story about the Swansea City footballer Angel Rangel and his wife who drove around the city on Friday night, looking for homeless people to give food to that they had collected from a sandwich shop.  The shop owner was going to throw the leftovers away at the end of the day but instead donated these to Angel and his wife to distribute to needy people. They found a shelter for the homeless where the food was very welcome.  A heartwarming story not only about kindness but also about a better way of dealing with potential food waste.

As I said, we have been lucky to have food to keep us happy and warm and we are very grateful for it!
This yummy dish of venison sausages in red onion gravy is another easy recipe that can be prepared in advance and is ideal for a cold winter's day.  Keep any leftover mash to top a fish pie or make into fish cakes, bubble & squeak cakes etc.  Recipes for all of these will follow in the next few posts but for now, please click below to find the recipe for the sausage dish.  I hope you will like it!

New Year, new post

Happy New Year!  As you can tell, one of my resolutions was to finally post on my blog which has been shamefully neglected over the last few weeks!

Christmas was spent with family and was peaceful and happy.  We had agreed not to give sibling presents and had asked Father Christmas not to overdo it and that worked very well.  It was all about spending time with loved ones, sharing meals etc - perfect!  I had made a Christmas cake with my own decorations for the family and was quite proud at how it came out.

 New Year's Eve was low key for us - until the dog got scared by the fireworks and we ended up staying up until 2am after all.  Luckily, he calmed down eventually, bless him.

I love the start of a new year!  It's a good time to put plans into action and whilst a lot of resolutions eventually fall by the wayside, I think they do help to focus the mind on what we'd like to achieve.  I want to continue making food from scratch and have already begun doing so - a large bread dough is currently rising and I have mixed my first-ever sourdough starter (he's called Sergei - might as well name him as he hopefully will be part of our lives for a long time). :-)  We have also continued with our quest not to waste food and I made some bubble & squeak cakes for lunch on 1st January - served with cold ham and lettuce it made for a very satisfying meal.  I guess food will again feature quite prominently on my blog this year...

I am looking forward to starting out veggie gardening again - after last year's dismal harvest, we are going to invest in a greenhouse.  That way I am hoping to keep the critters out and have my plants grow nicely.  Also, they are unlikely to drown!  The weather has been shocking in 2012 - apparently the wettest on record!  We were lucky enough not to experience any flooding (spare a thought for those who did!) but in terms of gardening and growing food it really wasn't great.  But, after the initial "I'll never bother growing anything ever again", with the new year out comes the ever optimistic veggie gardener who thinks that it cannot possibly be quite so bad again this year.  And so I am already planning what seeds to get, how to organise the greenhouse etc...

Other resolutions?  After successfully completing my knitted winter hat, I will try and make some more things.

 Featuring high on my wish list is a black corduroy skirt...note that I have never attempted to make a skirt, so it'll be interesting to see the outcome...  My lovely husband also gave me a taster wood turning course for Christmas as well as the chisel I have always wanted, so I will try my hand at making a bowl or platter.  I can't wait to get started on this new project but will have to be patient as the course won't be for at least another couple of months yet.

So, with all these resolutions and projects, I hope that 2013 will be a happy, fulfilling and healthy year and wish the same for everyone out there, wherever you are!