Home, sweet home...almost

We are back home!  Well, sort of - I was there for a couple of hours and am now travelling to an event (F1 racing) for the weekend.  As of Monday, however, I will be home for good - finally :-) The kitchen/diner is looking incredible - there are a couple of things still to be finished but I am amazed at how beautiful and light it all looks.  There will be plenty of space to cook, bake and enjoy meals and lots of storage space as well.  One of my favourite things will be the large pull-out larder - no more hunting for ingredients in the depth of the cupboard we had before.  It did the trick (and I am very grateful that we had a kitchen at all) but the new set-up will just be so lovely to be in.  If I was grateful before, I am even more so now!

Have a lovely weekend and I will be back with the first of many new recipes next week...yippee!

Counting down

Well, we are into week 4 of the works at home (not unexpectedly, given all that needed doing) but the good news is that we'll be moving back in on Friday!  I am very excited and can't wait!  I have a long list of recipes to try out as well which will be great.  For now though, here is another little idea to jazz up a classic dish: the good old scrambled eggs.  A fabulous standby meal in itself, why not whisk in a couple of teaspoons of pesto to add something a bit different?  Green eggs might look a bit strange but they sure are tasty :-)

Mock mayo

I love mayonnaise - in sandwiches or burger buns, as a dip...yummy.  I do, however, also love fitting into my trousers, so I try not to have too much of it too often.
A very good and tasty substitute that won't ruin the waistline is this simple little trick: mixing plain yogurt with mustard.  And it couldn't be easier: for one portion, simply mix 2 heaped teaspoons of plain yogurt (2% fat or more) with a little mustard (Dijon, grainy or whatever you have) and season with salt and pepper.  It's creamy and tastes just as good as mayonnaise...without the guilty conscience :-)

Fresh fruit

So, here we are: week 3 of our building works has started.  I know it's silly but I am beginning to feel a little homesick.  I've travelled lots and have been away from home for weeks on end before but this is different: we are only around the corner from home, so it's tantalisingly close and yet I can't really go back because there's too much going on.  They are making great progress and we are on schedule but I really can't wait to be home again :-)

Food is still pretty basic but tasty nonetheless and I have been watching a couple of great food shows on TV for inspiration.  The brilliant Nigel Slater created a couple of amazing yet simple dishes in one of his TV shows that I will definitely recreate and write about when we are back home.

I have just finished making one of my favourite things in the world: fruit salad.  Now, I know it doesn't take any skill whatsoever to make one of those but I think you just can't beat the taste of fresh fruit.  It is the one thing I really couldn't live without (or I'd be pretty miserable if I had to).  And it never fails to amaze me how nature creates these perfect little (or large) gems that are just bursting with flavour.  In my fruit salad today we have melon, strawberries, blueberries, a few grapes that were left and a kiwi - I might add a bit of banana just before serving.  I can't think of anything more delicious.  My slow Internet connection still means that uploading photos is not possible but just take my word for it: the salad looks divine :-)  Not too much longer now and I will be back in full swing with cooking, posting and sharing photos!

The simple life

It's week 2 of our building works at home and we are still in hiding at our cottage.  We are keeping things simple here - patchy internet connections have meant that we are not spending time at the screen.  Food is also simple - stir fry dishes, salads etc.  I made a quick & tasty soy and honey glazed salmon salad for lunch today. Yum!  What I miss though is making bread - I will make some wraps or roti tomorrow, just to feel like I'm doing some baking :-)  We had some shop-bought English muffins the other day and were horrified at the amount of sugar they contained (they shouldn't have any!).  Have you also noticed how much sugar is bring added to everything? I do like a sweet treat now and again but do we really need sugar in ham, bread etc?  I really don't think so!  Just keep it simple, I'd say!

I can't wait to get back to proper posting - please bear with me in the meantime.

No kitchen, no internet

Well, at least that's what it feels like at the moment.  We have moved out whilst the building work is being done at home and were lucky enough to find a small dog-friendly holiday cottage nearby.  The only downside is a very slow internet connection (almost non-existing) and the lack of space for proper cooking.  Oh well, it's not forever!  The beautiful weather definitely helps and makes me want to eat salads etc.  Continuing the asparagus theme from the other day, we bought the local green variety today and had this grilled with an egg on top - easy, healthy & yummy!  And the egg yolk doubles up as the dressing - perfect.  I do have a photo but given the internet timing out when I try and upload this, I will add it in due course.

Lucky dip...baked sea bream

It's been a busy couple of days...we are having building works starting on Monday with a wall being demolished, the kitchen being ripped out (sniff...) etc, so we are having to box everything up. The end result will (hopefully) be a lovely space to cook and eat and we can't wait to have it all finished.  Since Keith the dog will most likely be too keen to help, we have decided to move out for the duration of the works - the builders will be living here in the meantime.

There hasn't been much time for trying out recipes whilst all this has been going on and we've been keeping it simple.  In fact, for the last couple of days we have been having a lot of leftovers from our freezer.  The thing is that I keep forgetting to label my freezer bags and boxes, so now and again we don't know what we will have to eat until it's been defrosted.  I call it lucky dip ;-)  Tonight we definitely were lucky as I knew what was in the package - sea bream.  I simply topped it with a bit of butter and tarragon and put some garlic and chorizo inside (using up some bits and pieces from the fridge before it gets turned off next week) - we then baked it in foil in the oven for 25 minutes at 180 degrees and had it with oven chips and salad.  Simple and delicious!

Of white blossoms and white asparagus

The last few days have just flown by and my mum's visit has come to an end - she's now on her way to London to spend time with my brother and his family.  Keith the dog is wondering where the latest member of his pack has disappeared to :-)  We had a lovely time together and just before she had to leave today, we went for another walk, taking pictures of the beautiful blossoms in the park (my mum uses her photos to make really lovely greeting cards).

I've really enjoyed serving homemade cakes, bread and dinners.  One of the dishes we had was actually one that is very popular in Germany at this time of year: white asparagus, new potatoes and cold cuts (usually ham).  My mum brought local asparagus from the market with her.  I can't remember the last time I had this - it's so tasty and very quick to prepare. 

A great idea for cooking the asparagus:  peel the asparagus and use the peel and some salt water to make a broth in which to then cook the asparagus. It intensifies the flavour.  The asparagus itself needs to be cooked for approximately 10 minutes (longer than the green thinner variety available in the UK).  Serve with boiled new potatoes, ham and a creamy mustard sauce (click here for the sauce recipe) - yummy and for me a real taste of home.




 

Something a bit different...Baba Ganoush

Baba ganoush

Writing about the houmous recipe the other day reminded me of another beautiful little dip/sandwich filling that I love: baba ganoush.  This yummy aubergine (eggplant) dish has a lovely smoky flavour and is great with flatbreads like roti (see the recipe here), as a dip with crudites or in a sandwich.  Makes a nice change.

We are hoping for some sunshine today to show off the best of the Welsh coast to my mum.  Fingers crossed ;-)

Wishing you a lovely weekend - I'll be back next week with some more tasty recipe ideas!

Houmous, hummus, humous?

1952 edition

Mr Happy Larder is on his way to London to collect my mum from the airport whilst I finish making the last preparations.  The house is clean and tidy, there's food ready for when they arrive.  And whilst I am happy and excited, I also know how lucky we are and feel for the people of Oklahoma who have suffered so badly as a result of the tornado - it never ceases to shock me how Nature can be so beautiful and yet so cruel at the same time.

As I was tidying up, I found yet another old cookbook.  This one is a 1952 edition of Duncan Hines' " Adventures in Good Cooking" - it's brilliant and has fabulous recipes as well as lots of little captions which make for very entertaining reading.  Here's a quote that I am sure would not appear in a cookbook nowadays: "A word to dinner givers.  Please have ashtrays larger than thimbles.".  That really made me laugh :-)  I will see if I can find some easy recipes in there that will appeal...

One that definitely appeals to me is this easy version of houmous.  I always used to eat the shopbought version, thinking it would be impossible to make it at home and get it to taste right.  Well, I was wrong - it's super easy and the homemade version tastes delicious.  No need for additives or similar - just a handful of simple ingredients.  This is perfect in salad stuffed pitta bread pockets, as a dip for crudites,...