Tinkering With The Classics

For ages I've intended to try making some kind of variation on our great favourite, Savoury Mince Crumble, so tonight I got down to it. As the original is beef-based, chicken seemed a good choice and with a bit of thought the rest came quite naturally. I used chicken thigh meat for this dish; I think it works best when the chicken is combined with other ingredients like this, as it generally has more flavour than the white breast meat. Peas were good as a side dish, but you could even throw the frozen peas into the chicken filling too if you want fewer pots to wash. James had a portion pulsed in the processor, with some whole petit pois stirred through after. He ate masses, as you would expect from a baby with - count 'em - two teeth now!

Chicken, Leeks and Bacon with a Crumble Topping

2 leeks, trimmed and sliced into thick 'coins'
400g chicken thigh meat, diced
150g lardons or chopped streaky bacon
fresh thyme

Heat a little oil or butter in a large pan and fry the chicken, leeks and bacon until just cooked through. Mix in the chopped thyme leaves and tip everything into a deep ovenproof dish.

30g plain flour
30g butter
450ml milk

Make a white sauce. I use the all-in-one method; put the cold milk, flour and butter into a saucepan together and bring to the boil, whisking all the time. When it boils, turn the heat down and simmer, still whisking, for a couple of minutes more. Remove from the heat and season the sauce. I don't use salt because of the baby, but one day I might. Pour the sauce over the ingredients already in the dish, mixing to coat, then make the crumble topping.

200g plain flour
100g butter
handful grated cheese
black pepper

Rub the fat into the flour, then stir in the grated cheese. Season with black pepper and tip into the dish, spreading the crumble mixture evenly. Bake for 30 minutes at 180°c The crumble topping should be golden brown. The sauce may bubble up the sides a little, but we never feel that's a bad thing in any sort of crumble.

Get Organised!

We're still very much trying to recover from the weekend. Most of the tidying-up and general stuff is done; now it's just a case of working through the tiredness and getting things back to normal. We are, however, looking forward to another 'big' weekend this week, as Hubby's parents are having a party to celebrate their birthdays and Ruby wedding anniversary. Fancy dress, too, with a 1960s theme, so that should be a giggle.

As well as trying to get things back to normal, I'm currently working on 'better than normal'. Having recently bought and read 'Time Management for Manic Mums' by Alison Mitchell, I'm trying very hard to put it all into practice. My new 'Life Book' diary from Organised Mum has just arrived, and very natty it is too. Today, with James having a nap and Christopher engrossed in a DVD he was given as a gift at the weekend, I spent some time filling all the birthdays and important dates into it. I've used a Dairy Diary for years, but I'm afraid this all-singing, all-dancing new one has usurped its position.

I couldn't face doing the usual weekly shop the other day when I went in to town to get all the stuff we needed for the christening buffet, so the boys and I had to go food shopping again this morning. Christopher was very insistent that we should have broccoli for supper. When pressed, he suggested "chicken too". So there you have it. I roasted the chicken breast fillets on a rack, with a little water in the tin, giving it about 25 minutes at 200°c. I made a cheese sauce and poured it over the steamed broccoli florets, arranged in an ovenproof dish, before scattering a hanful of grated parmesan over the dish and putting it in the oven with the chicken for the last 10 minutes. Christopher and I enjoyed it very much, and James had a good portion too, which I just pulsed in the processor to make it more suitable for him. I made up an individual portion of the cheesy broccoli bake to put in the oven for Hubby later on, along with a chicken breast quarter. Hopefully, that is just the sort of dinner he wants to come home to after a long day at work.

What a weekend!

A 'big' weekend always leaves a lot of tidying up and things, but this weekend we had James' christening, so it was a really big one.

On Friday night, my brother and his girlfriend stayed, before heading to a B&B for Saturday night. I cooked a version of Nigella Lawson's One-Pan Sage-and-Onion Chicken and Sausage from her book 'Feast'. I used a mixture of chicken thighs and drumsticks, marinaded them, along with some wedges of onion, using olive oil, Dijon mustard, lemon, fresh sage from the garden. I added the sausages just before cooking, giving them about an hour at 200°c. Some baked potatoes and cabbage was a nice simple accompaniment to a really good supper. We drank (rather a lot of) white wine and played Trivial Pursuit.

On Saturday the real work started. We were expecting about 30 people at the house for drinks and a buffet after the service on Sunday, so I tried to keep things quite simple. I made some pastry and lined two tart tins, plus I fried bacon, cooked leeks and chopped up cheese ready for the fillings. I wanted to assemble and bake the tarts fresh on Sunday morning, as I don't think they are at their best when they've been refrigerated. I also got the pâté that I prepared in advance a few weeks back out of the freezer to defrost.

On Saturday evening we had a takeaway and played Scrabble before I drove my parents, my brother and his girlfriend back to their B&B, then came home to get the house ready for Sunday. We crashed into bed just before midnight, then James woke us up again at 5. Thanks, James! I lay in bed trying to sleep for an hour or so, then gave up and left JD doizing with his Dad while I got on with it all.

I cooked the tarts; cheese & bacon and leek & caerphilly and put together a large platter of cold meats. A cheeseboard of Welsh cheeses and a basket of small granary rolls supplemented the home-made dishes, along with the usual suspects like sausage rolls, pork pies, crisps and crudités.

James' godparents arrived early to help out. We got them on babysitting duty while Hubby and I showered and got ready. Karl drove down to the shop in the village to fetch the ice we'd ordered. We filled an empty plastic toy trug with the ice, and put the wine in to chill while we were at church. There's never enough space in the fridge at parties, is there? So this was a great wheeze. The service was lovely and James was really well-behaved. I'm used enough to the bilingual services now to sing along with the Welsh-language hymns, even if I don't always know what I'm singing about!

After the service we all trooped back up to our house, squeezing everyone in. Drinks were handed round, with tea or coffee, plus sparkling water and orange juice to supplement the sparkling wine that my parents had very kindly provided. After everyone had eaten and drunk, we opened all James' lovely gifts with him, plus Christopher opened the presents that people had generously brought for him, lest he feel left out. We toasted James' health and then cut his christening cake, which went down very well. All in all, a brilliant day. I could sleep for a week now, mind, shame I can't...

The icing on the cake

Well, the frenzy has started. After playgroup today I went shopping for, among other things, a few nice chunks of Welsh cheese from Ultracomida, as I'm offering a cheeseboard as part of Sunday's buffet. We also got a couple of types of ham for a platter of cold meats. After just managing to miss the rain (phew!) we hurried home, as fast as the roadworks would allow anyway, to have lunch.

In other news, I iced James' christening cake this afternoon. The little resin boots were saved from Christopher's christening cake, so it was pleasantly nostalgic to use them again, but I did want the cake to be a little different this time, so I added the cross, studded with little silver sugar balls.

Hubby and I have moved some furniture and done a decent bit of cleaning, so we're about sorted on that front. I bought a cheap IKEA Bambu wooden roller blind to use as a table runner on the buffet table, so I took the draw cord and metal fittings off that, too. With our plain white cotton tablecloth underneath, I'm hoping it'll look really good - but as it was one of those middle-of-the-night ideas, we'll just have to see.

For a quick supper tonight, I made this Sausage and Tomato Pasta. With some grated parmesan to scatter over, and a bit of garlic bread to go with, it was just right for a rainy, but still warm, evening.

Sausage & Tomato Pasta

200g dried pasta (I used conchiglie)
6 pork sausages, cut into chunks
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
pinch mixed dried herbs
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato purée
handful spinach leaves
fresh parsley, chopped

Bring a big pan of water to the boil and put the pasta on to cook. Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until just soft, then add the sausage chunks and cook until brown. Tip in the tomatoes, tomato purée and the dried herbs. Simmer for 5 minutes or so, then stir it the spinach into the sauce to wilt the leaves. Drain the pasta and toss through the sauce, then add the chopped parsley to serve.

I'm now going to sit and make about 4,000 lists of all the bits and pieces I need to buy or do over the next couple of days. My brother and his girlfriend are staying with us tomorrow night, so I've got to think of something to give them for dinner when they arrive. Time to get the cookbooks out, I think...

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.

Soup, Shopping, Smoked Fish

All in all, it's been quite a relaxed day today - after a morning playing with the boys, I made some tomato soup for lunch, which we ate with some granary bread and a wedge of Applewood cheddar that was languishing in the fridge. Christopher loves this soup, which I call my Simple Tomato Soup, and ate two big bowlfuls, as well as bread and cheese. James had some too, with some coarsely grated cheese and diced bread stirred into his bowl of soup. While the smallest Homer napped after lunch, I sorted out a few odds-and-ends of housework in anticipation of having lots of visitors at the weekend. I tidied up all the shelves and things downstairs, then dusted all the surfaces. I'm very proud of our fireplace, which Hubby built (clever old thing that he is), so I gave it some special attention, especially the mantelpiece, which is half a planed roof beam (Karl again). I cleaned it with slightly abrasive cream cleaner, then gave it a good polish and buff with Beeswax furniture polish. I shall try to do a blitz-o-clean of everything before the weekend, but tempus fugit, you know what they say. If if comes to it, I'll just do the bits that show...don't tell anyone!

We went and did a bit of food shopping this evening, to get some of the bits for Sunday's buffet that would keep well. I need to go to the cheese shop and a couple of other places in Aberystwyth on Thursday after playgroup, then I should be able to pick up everything else as part of my usual shopping on Friday. We've ordered some bags of ice from the petrol station/shop in the village. We'll use it to fill a big storage trug and cool the fizz in that while we're at church. After catering for Christopher's christening two years ago I'm not even going to hope for fridge space to chill wine!

We got some smoked coley from the wet fish counter in the supermarket, plus some bread and a bag of salad, so that was supper in the bag (quite literally !). I poached the fish fillets in milk, with a knob or two of butter, a sprig of thyme and a couple of bay leaves. I cooked some bacon rashers, until they were really crisp, to top the fish. I love the combination of fish and bacon anyway, but with smoked fish it's just gorgeous.

The big news today? James got his first tooth! It's still minute and only just barely visible of course, but still...so proud!

Strata & Strawberries

The boys and I were on our own for supper tonight - Hubby's shift changed at the last minute. I decided to cook this cheese strata, which is one of those brilliant standby dishes I always have all the ingredients for. As a bonus, it's very easy to throw together and fantastically comforting. A strata is basically cheese sandwiches baked in a savoury custard. I sometimes put some chopped cooked bacon in, or some slices of ham in the sandwiches along with the cheese. I think granary bread gives the best texture and flavour, but use some decent white bread if you prefer to. I use Dijon mustard because it's what I tend to have in the house, but any mustard will be fine, or leave it out entirely if you're not keen.


Cheese Strata

6 slices granary bread
butter
mustard
100g cheddar cheese, finely grated

Spread the bread with butter and a little mustard. Use 75g of the cheese to make sandwiches. Cut off the crusts and slice the sandwiches in half diagonally. Arrange the sandwiches in an ovenproof dish with the points pointing (ha!) upwards. You may need to cut one of the halves into two to fill the ends of dish if your dish is oval like mine.

200ml milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Beat these together with a little black pepper. Pour the mixture over the sandwiches in the dish, making sure you soak all the protruding parts. Scatter over the remaining 25g of grated cheese, then bake at 200°c for 25 minutes. Allow to cool a little before serving. At this time of year, there's nothing better than a big bowl of gorgeous ripe tomatoes to eat with it.

As a quick pudding, I sliced some strawberries that I got cheap because they were a little over-ripe. To each serving, after dolloping on some nice thick cream, I added one of the coconut biscuits that I made yesterday. This is a really good use for any biscuits that spread a little too much on the baking sheet and join up at the edges with their neighbour. Pop them in a pudding bowl with some fruit and cream and it looks terribly clever and entirely deliberate (which, of course, it is).