You've gotta roll with it...

Yesterday, I forgot to buy eggs.  That made for a very Un-Happy Larder as it meant that I couldn't really do any baking or at least not what I had been planning to do.  But sometimes you just have to roll with it, don't you?  There were plenty of other things I could do and the eggs could wait.

Fast forward to later in the day and the Happy Larder was back to being cheerful again - the egg situation had been resolved and I could get on with making my cake: a Swiss Roll filled with strawberry jam and a bit of cream.  I had attempted this once before and it turned out horrible - it broke apart and the sponge was rock-solid.  Well, I found out later that my baking powder had been out of date...no wonder then!  See, things do go wrong at the Happy Larder...it's just that I prefer writing about the good stuff :-)  And good it was because this attempt worked out fine - I made a little photo guide... I hope you like it!  It was done using a website called Picmonkey that lets you do photo collages for free.

So, here we are: a super-easy but lovely cake to impress your family with.  It is so versatile as well - you can vary the filling pretty much according to what you have to hand.  How about adding cocoa powder to the sponge and filling the roll with cherries?  Or using apple lemon curd as per my post a while ago?  You can have it with or without the cream and have the whole thing done within 30 minutes... now, that's what I call an easy recipe! :-) 

The Spice of Life

It's still quite early here - I am starting my day with a cup of tea, the dog asleep by my feet.

I actually managed to snap a photo of Keith the dog in the sunshine yesterday. He simply loves running through the heather in the park - just for the fun of it and I swear I can see him smile doing it :-)  He definitely appreciates the small things - a bit of sunshine, flowers in bloom...quite a good philosophy, don't you think?

Chicken curry

One of the things that makes me smile is having a nice meal that is quickly prepared and tasty.  Do you like curry?  I love it but all too often I find that it can be quite greasy.  This version may not be authentic by Indian standards but has all the lovely spices with only a minimum of oil and just a dash of cream to finish off - it is really quite delicious, even if I say so myself :-)  And the nice thing is that you can use leftover roast chicken for this or make it vegetarian by using up all those forgotten vegetables in the fridge.  Maybe a cold beer on the side...

What makes you smile?

Shortcut to Supper

It's Monday and for a lot of people the working week starts, although I guess for most the work has never really stopped over the weekend either. And with so many tasks to juggle, on some days food just has to be quick, doesn't it?  Cooking everything from scratch is a wonderful thing and I try and do it most of the time, however, sometimes a shortcut is needed to feed us pronto.  One of these shortcuts is using ready-made ciabatta bread, found in the bread aisle of your supermarket.  It's the basis for this quick meal: ciabatta pizza, an easy lunch or dinner when we are hungry but don't have much time.  And it's great for guests with kids too as it is so versatile - everyone can have the topping they like and it's put together in minutes.  The result: lots of happy faces around the table.

I forgot to take a picture when we had this a couple of days ago but as it is a frequent favourite, I will upload one soon.  In the meantime, just imagine bread - crunchy on the outside but soft in the middle - topped with everything you love on a pizza and covered in bubbling cheese...mhm...;-)  Can you picture it?

Sunday afternoon treat

Sundays used to be all about the cake when I was a little girl.  I can picture my mum now, standing in the kitchen with her apron on and stirring in a bowl or another.  Every now and again little fingers would appear out of nowhere trying to steal a bit of the delicious mix she was creating.  And soon after the lovely smell of cake baking in the oven would fill the house.  She always made the time to bake for us - amazing really when I think that she brought the five of us up by herself after my father passed away.  But in doing so she lay the foundations for our appreciation of homemade food and shared meals.  Sitting around the table on a Sunday afternoon with her baked goodies, telling stories and laughing is one of my fondest memories.  And now, when she comes to visit us here, we still keep up our little tradition, only this time I return the favour and serve one of my cakes.

The following recipe is one of those baked treats she used to make for us and it is still a favourite now.  Easily put together, it can be baked in a loaf tin, square or rectangular tin as I have done here.  You can cover it in chocolate icing and decorate it or leave it plain - it is yummy and moist and quite different to chocolate brownies but definitely worth trying, I think.

Blog update...US conversion tool now available

Hello again! If you are reading my blog from the US, you might find the new tool for conversions to US measurements useful that my husband made (he's a clever chap).  I have now included this on the right side of the blog, just below "Inside the Happy Larder".  Simply enter the amount/number as given in the recipe and choose the unit to convert to. Hope this helps!

Back again tomorrow with another recipe...

Kirsten @ The Happy Larder

Happy Saturday!

Thanks to the lovely Rhonda at Down to Earth I have had new visitors to my blog.  It's great that you have come by to have a look at The Happy Larder and  I hope you like what you see.  I am looking forward to your comments and if you have any questions, I will try and reply to you as soon as I can.

Three Cliffs Bay, Gower/Wales

Now the weekend is here, the snow has completely disappeared and has been replaced by lots and lots of rain (not that I am going to complain after reading about the droughts followed by flooding in Australia).
It just means that apart from walking the dog, I'll try and avoid going outside and will instead sort out the house (there's always something to be done, isn't there?), write some emails that are long overdue and do some baking.  After all, I need a steady supply of recipes to share with you, don't I? :-) 
And if during all this it just looks too grey outside, this photo reminds me of what Wales looks like in the sunshine. 

Happy Saturday - have a great start to your weekend!

The simple stuff

I woke up early this morning, made a big mug of tea and just sat here, cuddling Keith the dog.  It was quiet and peaceful and it made me think about how lucky I am.  A little over a year ago we made a few choices about the direction we wanted our lives to go in and that meant me quitting my job, us moving to Wales and my husband being the sole breadwinner.  We were lucky that we had that option available to us and we are grateful every day.  We can now enjoy a simpler and happier life.

Pretzels....

Moving on swiftly to my favourite thing: food - what could be a more simple and yet delicious than fresh bread with butter?  And if you have never made your own bread, maybe this next recipe is something fun to try: pretzels!

In Germany (where I am originally from) these are sold pretty much anywhere and are known as "Laugenbrezel", referring to the fact that the pretzels are dipped in lye (yep - much the same as drain cleaning lye but luckily of food grade).  Now, I don't know about you but I am not too confident using lye in the kitchen, so I've been looking for an alternative and have finally found one: my old friend bicarbonate of soda.

Similar to bagels, pretzels are briefly poached in hot water prior to baking and in this case, the water contains bicarb.  It gives the finished article a lovely brown shine and whilst the pretzels come out a bit softer than the lye variety, they are absolutely delicious, especially served slightly warm with butter.  You could make smaller ones for a picnic, filled with ham & cheese, salami, just cheese & lettuce or anything else you might fancy.   It's the first time I made these and - although my pretzel-forming skills need fine-tuning - this was definitely not the last time.

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...

Just enough chilli, just enough sauce

I don't know about you but recipes that ask me to use a quarter of a teaspoon of something that I am unlikely to need again in the next year really drive me mad.  I end up with jars of stuff in the fridge that only get moved when I need to make room for the milk and then I think "oh yeah - should be using that up soon" - only I never do.

Sweet chilli sauce...

For yesterday's stir fry I wanted some sweet chilli sauce and decided to make my own. After a bit of searching I found an easy recipe that resulted in a lovely sauce - exactly as sweet & hot as I like it and no more than we needed. Perfect! The other advantage is that you know exactly what's in it - no glucose-fructose syrup, no additives, no other little horrors. 

I thought it would be really difficult to make this sauce and that it would taste nothing like commercial brands.  I am glad to say I was wrong on both counts and I will try and make more stuff like this from scratch.  I'll keep you posted on any progress.

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...