Little treasures

Keith the dog has been keeping us up in the night - first he thought it was really important to bark at the scaffolding outside the house...at 3:45am (!) and the following night he let us sleep in until 4:45am before alerting us the the "terrible threat" of a badger by the back door.  Several jugs of coffee later and I slowly resembled more than a mere shell of a person.  Bless him - he was only trying to be a good watchdog.  Needless to say that he went on to have a snooze, just like when he was a small puppy.

Despite the lack of sleep I am pleased to say that I have finally got the search function on the blog to work - now, the "Search for Inspiration" button on the right-hand side will make it so much easier to find dishes and good food ideas.

The recipe I tried out yesterday was one I found in a handwritten cookbook which must be a good few decades old.  What a treasure! This date & walnut loaf is so easy, you can make it in your sleep - which is probably just as well - see above :-).  The result is what I call an old-fashioned, simple cake/bread that isn't too sweet.

You could amend the recipe by adding raisins, other dried fruit or chocolate chips but I must say I like the original version and enjoyed a couple of slices for my breakfast.

Have a lovely weekend!

The staff of life

A batch of muffins cooling down

Bread has to be one of the most satisfying things to make and eat.  In my view, there are not a lot of things that beat freshly baked bread with butter.  And there are just so many types to choose from!  When I first arrived in the UK, I came across some breads that I had never heard of before - one of these was the good old English muffin.  I thought it was a cake but little did I know - had Wikipedia existed then (gosh, I am showing my age) I would have found that "a muffin or English muffin is a small, round, flat (or thin) type of yeast-leavened bread which is commonly served split horizontally, toasted, and buttered.".

So, there you have it - little breads made for toasting. Topped with butter, cheese, poached eggs or even jam they are hard to resist. And if you are partial to a bacon sandwich, look no further - these make the best bacon butties ever!

I had never made these muffins before and was surprised to learn that they are actually baked in a pan on top of the stove.  The dough is a yeast one which needs to rise and the cooking/baking method is really quick and simple.  I took the recipe from the River Cottage Bread Handbook and was very pleased with the result.  The dough yielded 12 muffins rather than the 9 stated in the book but you won't see me complaining :-)  A batch has already gone into the freezer - each muffin cut in half, so that we can just toast them from frozen when we feel like having "fresh" muffins for breakfast.  And in the meantime, I have enjoyed one with cottage cheese and homemade strawberry jam.  These will definitely become a firm favourite in the Happy Larder household!

Teamwork

Every now and again I write about a recipe that Mr Happy Larder has introduced me to.  The following one he cooked for me the other day and I loved it - we had enjoyed so much lovely seafood in Savannah and had promised ourselves that we would make even better use of the fresh fish available to us here by the Welsh coast.  So, I thought it would be nice if in fact he told you himself about his creation:

A long time ago, I went to an Italian restaurant in west London somewhere and ordered Zuppe di Pesce Siciliana. It was a delicious combination of tomato, fish and scented Mediterranean herbs: a week in a hammock slung between cypress trees overlooking the beach, right there in a bowl. It was filling too – more of a thick stew than a soup. It didn't seem very complicated to make so I resolved to have a go at recreating it at home. 

 

(I think the story might have been a bit more involved than this, and may have involved trying to impress young ladies, but I can't remember the details and it's Kirsten's blog so I'd keep quiet even if I could. This was at least ten years before we met, you understand.)

There was one thing I wanted to change from the original: in the restaurant, by the time I'd finished shelling the mussels, beheading the prawns and de-suckering the octopus tentacles, the soup was barely lukewarm. Purists (and Sicilians) may well look down their noses at me, but my crustacean dissection skills were never going to wow the girls so I made it shell-less that time and always have since. That way, it's as easy to eat as it is to make, which is to say very easy indeed.

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...

Monday surprise...

It's time to reveal the winner of the latest giveaway - the prize is a selection of beautiful Somerset Suds soaps made by my friend Sue. 
 Her soaps are just lovely and I have decided that this time, I'd like even more people to enjoy these, so...wait for this...we have THREE winners! 

Congratulations Kim, Jolouise and Aska Lodge - you will all get a set of soaps! 

Just bear with me whilst I order some more from Sue to send on to you - in the meantime, please email me your address (my email is on my profile page), so I can send your prize on its way to you as soon as possible.  Thank you so much for taking part and for reading my blog!

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On of my favourite things to do at the weekend is to get The Guardian newspaper on a Saturday and - armed with a mug of coffee - sit on the sofa and read.  I always read it the same way:  first, the general news bit, then travel , followed by the family section (usually, there is something in that one that will make me shed a couple of tears like articles about bereavement, illness etc) and last but certainly not least the recipe section and magazine.  It's my little tradition and I always do it the same way.  Do you have a weekend tradition?

A couple of weeks ago I found a breakfast cake recipe in the newspaper that I had to give a go.  It looked delicious on paper but also healthy with oats and fresh raspberries  Perfect for sharing here on the blog or at least so I thought...the result was pretty terrible!  I double-checked I hadn't made any mistakes - no, it was just really really bland with a strange spongy texture.  Not pleasant at all and definitely not for sharing.  Luckily, I had made only half the amount - the only way to eat this "healthy" cake was to slather it in jam.  So, as you can see, things don't always go according to plan in the kitchen at The Happy Larder :-)  Saying that, we have had a beautiful fish dish made by Mr Happy Larder which he will write about in a guest post over the next couple of days and there will be lots more recipes to come...

Have a great start to your week!

Happy Weekend Giveaway...

It's Friday and after slightly traumatising  Keith the dog with a visit to the vets first thing this morning, we are settling down a bit.  The little chap is having a sleep now after all the excitement.

Talking of excitement, I really love doing giveaways here on The Happy Larder blog.  I have only once in my life won anything and that was years ago as a child but I still remember the feeling.  I was soooo excited - maybe someone else will feel the same way when their name is drawn out of the hat at this month's prize draw :-)

Somerset Suds products...the prize...

A couple of months ago I did a giveaway with beautiful soap products made by my very talented friend Sue of  Somerset Suds.  And because her products are just too nice for words, I am giving away another batch this month. 

If you would like to be in with a chance of winning, simply comment on today's post and I will draw the winning name on Monday, 6th May.  Good luck! :-)

As for me, I will get back into the kitchen and try and find some more tasty recipes to share next week.

Have a lovely weekend!

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".

Of giveaways and new recipes...

Gosh - how did it get to be May already?  It's a new month, so that surely must mean giveaway time, don't you think?  Well, here we go - the next giveaway will be this Friday, 3rd May.  As before, simply add a comment on that day to be in with a chance to win a fab little prize which I hope will put a smile on the winner's face.  Have a look on Friday to see what it is...:-)  I will draw the winner on Monday to give everyone a chance to take part over the weekend.

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Since we got back I couldn't wait to get into the kitchen and try some new recipes.  And what better place to start than with a recipe request from my friend Sue.  A little while ago she had asked if I knew a good recipe for a red onion marmalade.  I started looking around and found a great one that I think will hit the spot nicely - I made a batch yesterday and had some on my cheese sandwich for lunch today.  For me, it has the perfect balance of tangy and sweet without loosing the taste of the red onions and even Mr Happy Larder - who normally isn't too fond of sweet savoury things - loved it.  Usually I find that chutneys and the like get better as they mature but you can have this one immediately and it is still very, very tasty.  Simple ingredients, easy method and quick preparation with a yummy result - what's not to like? :-) 

Of sunshine and summer food...

Spring is here at last!  Funny how in just the few days we were away, all the plants have come to life and the trees are really beginning to go green with blossoms everywhere.  I took this picture on this morning's dog walk - what a pretty colour!

With the sunshine out, I am starting to finally get over my need for comfort food and my taste buds are wanting to taste fresh salads and the like.  Not sure if that - and the sunshine - will last...we'll see.  During our trip we ate the most delicious seafood and fish.  One of the restaurants we went to in the Blue Ridge Mountains was right by a river and on the menu were all kinds of variations of trout.  You really can't get any fresher than that - straight from the river onto the plate (ok - via the kitchen, luckily for us).  I also love smoked fish, in particular mackerel and trout.  Over here we can get packets of smoked mackerel filets for not very much money at all  including lovely varieties such as black pepper or hot smoked. 

Smoked mackerel pate on sourdough bread...

Inspired by our holiday, I made a smoked mackerel pate for lunch today - it was the topping for my open sandwich but it can be used in sooo many different ways (see suggestions in the recipe below).  It takes only a couple of minutes to make, is good for you with all those Omega 3s and is very tasty indeed. 

Back in the swing of things...

We caught up on some sleep over the weekend and I think we are pretty much back to normal now.  All of us apart from Keith who is still ever so excited to have us back and to be able to run around in "his" park.

I keep thinking about our trip and all the lovely little moments we experienced.  We met some great people and shared quite a few laughs.  One morning, whilst having the stunning breakfast at our favourite place, the Aska Lodge, we talked with the other guests about food in our respective countries (a subject always close to my heart/tummy).  There were quite a few raised eyebrows when we and another couple from the UK declared that there was nothing better than sharing a good joint with the family on a Sunday.  Oh, we laughed when we found out that they thought we'd been smoking drugs with all the family when we were in fact referring to a large piece of roast meat (usually beef, pork or lamb) which is called a joint here in the UK.  You can see how misunderstandings between cultures can happed :-)  It still makes me chuckle now!

Beef & Vegetable stir fry on rice...

One of the things I love doing with leftover Sunday roast (or joint :-)) is a stir fry.  It's another quick and tasty way to use up what we didn't manage to eat up.  Simply thinly slice the meat into bite size pieces and place in a bowl.  Pour over a couple of tablespoons of sesame oil and soya sauce and add some crushed garlic as well as fresh or dried ginger.  Stir thoroughly to cover all the meat and leave to marinate for at least half an hour (the longer the better really).  You can also add some chilli sauce (find a recipe here) or fresh chilli/dried chilli flakes to add some heat.

After marinating all you have to do is stir fry some vegetables in a wok or large pan (we used carrots, mangetout & peppers but anything goes, including leftover veg from the roast dinner), add the marinated meat including the liquid and once heated through, serve on rice or noodles.  Yummy!