Pork Chops, but better

We had another fairly quiet day today - I'm trying to keep things calm, before the storm of activity in the few days running up to James' christening. I marzipanned the cake today and have left it to dry out a little before I ice it, which I intend to do either tomorrow or Friday.

A nice filling lunch yesterday put both boys (and me!) in a good mood for the afternoon, plus it seemed to help James sleep better for his afternoon nap. So I decided to make these little sweetcorn pancakes for lunch, with a few left over to reheat for their lunch tomorrow, after we've been to playgroup. These, with some salad veg and obligatory ketchup, are one of Christopher favourite meals, whether it's a lunch ot teatime thing. James had them for the first time today, cut up into small pieces, and seemed very taken with them too. This recipe originally came from a little 'Cooking for Kids' booklet that came with BBC Good Food magazine. They're also quite nice with some bacon and soured cream if you want something more substantial and main meal-ish. I didn't add any salt, as James was sharing these, and the sweetcorn should be canned in water with no added salt if you're feeding baby under one. Or you can use 150g of frozen sweetcorn, defrosted, if you'd rather. I mainly use strong cheddar for this recipe, but it works well with Red Leicester or a creamy Lancashire cheese, too.

Sweetcorn Pancakes

175g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
125ml milk
198g can sweetcorn, drained
100g cheese, finely grated
fresh chives, chopped

Beat the eggs and milk together, then whisk in the flour and baking powder. Stir the sweetcorn, cheese and chives. Season with black pepper. The batter will be very thick, but it's supposed to be; don't be tempted to add more liquid. Heat a little oil in a frying pan, then drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan. You should get 10-14 pancakes out of this batter, depending on how big you want them. Cook them in two batches, keep the first lot warm in a low oven while you add more oil to the pan and fry the second batch.


For dinner tonight I tried a meal idea that I saw on another food-related blog, A Slice Of Cherry Pie, which is this month's blog of the month in delicious. magazine. I was immediately drawn to this Butternut Squash, Potato and Pork Cheesy Bake, largely because of Karl's near-legendary love of pork chops, but also thanks to its simple and unpretentious quality. It doesn't disappoint, the potatoes and butternut squash baked alongside the chops were delicious and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Cheese on top of pork chops is something I've tried before, using Y Fenni, a Welsh cheddar with beer and wholegrain mustard. I'm going to try this again, using Y Fenni next time.