Sunday Soldiers

I love a man egg in uniform!  Admittedly, this isn't really much of a post, this, just a quickie...  How fabulous is this soldier egg cup and toast cutter set? My boys were lucky enough to be given one apiece by my parents and it continues to prove, almost every weekend, that it is just the thing for 'dippy' boiled egg and soldiers.  The soldier sets are widely available on the interweb and the sort of cool gifts-homewares-and-novelty shops I spend far too much money in.

Eggs are easy enough to boil, but hobs are fussily awkward about producing them until you get the timing and temperature just right for the stove you're using.  Luckily (?), with two small egg-o-holic boys, I get lots of practice!

Cath xx

Confession Time

Tonight I broke one of my own golden rules and sat at the table with the family for dinner to eat a completely different meal to the rest of them.  My lovely hubby had decided, with the children, last night, to have turkey burgers and chips for supper this evening.  Not being the biggest fan of chips in the world, and having absolutely no interest whatsoever in a breaded turkey burger, we came to a decision that they would eat theirs and I would have something different, but that we would, at least, still all eat together at the same time

Scrambled eggs is, at a time like this, one of the easiest and quickest meals to put together and, luckily, is also one of my favorite things to eat.  Not a traditional supper dish, perhaps, but one that I find welcome at pretty much any time.

I'm not going to give you 'a recipe' for scrambled eggs, as they seem to be quite a personal thing; a real matter of taste, but I will tell you how I like mine.  I prefer scrambled eggs to be very soft and creamy.  The very firm, fluffed-up version one so often encounters is all very well, but when I make them at home,  I cook them like this.  Have the toast ready before you begin and keep it warm.  Heat a knob of unsalted butter in a small pan (non-stick, if at all possible, washing up the scrambled egg pot is a particular bête noire of mine!).  Crack 3 eggs into a jug and beat them with one teaspoonful of anchovy sauce or a little squeeze anchovy paste, in lieu of salt.  Tip the beaten eggs into the foaming butter in the pan and quickly give them a good stir.  Season with plenty of black pepper and continue to stir until the eggs are cooked, but not dry – they should be nice and oozy.  I like my scrambled eggs next to toast, not on it, but that's another of those personal things.  I would have to eat this many, many times before I even began to tire of it.  It really IS one of those things, I suppose...

Cath xx

Doing Porridge

Porridge is a near-perfect breakfast for children (and most adults too).  Filling, warming and stoked with energy that lasts until lunch.  I'm somehow a little wary of microwave ovens, but they are wonderful for making porridge - even on a rushed morning before school I can manage to dish up bowls of basic porridge, usually served with a little milk (or a tot of cream if we have it) and a sprinkle of demerara sugar.  This, the porridge of my childhood in Scotland is now the porridge that fuels my boys' childhood in Wales.

Weekends sometimes seem to call for a bowl of porridge that feels slightly less basic and run-of-the-mill, however, and this banana porridge is a great favourite.  If we have some fresh blueberries in the fridge (and we did, today), I add those, but more often than not I prepare this with sultanas, which swell up, juicily delicious, as the porridge cooks.

Banana Porridge

1 cup porridge oats
pinch of salt
1 banana
1 cup milk
1 cup water
handful blueberries or sultanas
fresh nutmeg, to grate over

Mash the banana and blend with the milk and water.  Put the porridge oats into a large microwaveable bowl and add a pinch of salt.  If you're using sultanas, stir those in too.  Pour the liquid into the bowl and mix well to combine.  Microwave for 5 minutes, then stir and return to the microwave for another 3 minutes, or until cooked.  It is ready when it looks like porridge!    If you're having blueberries with it, stir those in now.  Transfer to small bowls for serving and grate a smattering of fresh nutmeg over.

Cath xx

I Love Breakfast!

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. A good, communal family breakfast at a nicely laid table, even if it’s only once in a while, is a habit worth getting into. You can even set the table the evening before if you feel so inclined. I try, but admit I don't always achieve that level of organisation. Making time, though, to relax over a (reasonably) leisurely breakfast with good things to eat, is the best way to start the day I know. I don't feel that I can function at all if I haven't had a decent breakfast, so the boys and I always sit at the table and eat properly in the morning. My usual breakfast is a cup of tea, a glass of orange juice and a bowl of Dorset Cereals Really Nutty Muesli, while the boys mostly have Weetabix, Oatibix or Shreddies. Christopher has acquired a taste for my muesli of late, though! We follow our cereal with toast and some fruit, mainly bananas, but sometimes other seasonal fruits that have come in the organic box. I try to stretch to cooking breakfast; porridge or some eggs, for us all at least once or twice a week.

One of the things I do to keep our everyday breakfasts interesting is bake different breads. This is made very easy by having a bread machine. My most usual 'special bread' is a Spiced Fruit Loaf, which has a flavour akin to teacakes and hot cross buns, but I branched out this week, adapting my usual white loaf recipe to make some chocolate bread. We were not disappointed by it; the boys have enjoyed snacking on it, as well as eating it at breakfast time. I rather love it too, and it toasts particularly well, filling the kitchen with a gorgeous smell.

Chocolate Bread

¾ tsp easy-blend dried yeast
360g strong white flour
40g cocoa powder
2 tbsp sugar
25g butter
1 tsp salt
100ml milk
200ml warm water

Add the ingredients to the bread machine in the order required by your machine. I have a Panasonic™ Bread Bakery, so the yeast goes in first, but machines do vary. Check your instruction manual for details.

Breakfast for Supper

While we were at the butcher's the other day I picked up some sausages, bacon and black pudding. I can only rarely face a full English breakfast; the timing of it all, the mountain of greasy pots to wash and the guilt of eating so much, so early in the day. I do, however, love all the flavours in a 'proper' breakfast, so I like to combine them in evening main meals when I can. I'm a relatively recent convert to black pudding and like all those converted to something late in life, suddenly evangelical about it.

This rice dish (finally) went down very well with all of us and James particularly enjoyed his first little taste of black pudding. I wanted to cook this a couple of days ago but Karl's overdosing on breakfast-related meals put paid to that. The quantities in this can be rejigged as you like; if you want to add some cooked mushrooms, great. I would have done, but I didn't have any.

Breakfast-for-Supper Rice

250g brown rice
1 onion, quartered and sliced
4 sausages, cut into chunks
4 rashers bacon, chopped
100g black pudding, cut into chunks
1 large tomato, diced
2 hardboiled eggs, cut into wedges

Put the rice on to cook. I used my electric rice machine as usual, but do as you like. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and cook the onions gently, until soft and just starting to colour. Throw in the bacon and sausage and cook through, before adding the pieces of black pudding. The tomato should be stirred in as soon as the black pudding is cooked, then the whole pan (oil and all) tipped into the (drained) cooked rice. Carefully stir in the wedges of egg and serve immediately. Hubby, as a good Sheffield man, likes some Henderson's Relish with his.

Going to work on an egg

Hubby had a late start at work today so we all ate breakfast together - boiled eggs & toast, as requested by Christopher. I love eggs; boiled, poached, scrambled - however they come, I'm happy. In fact I credit eggs for breakfast every day with a large part in my losing about 4 stone when Christopher was nearing his first birthday.

I initially found boiled eggs hard to get right on our hob - it's electric and therefore the heat can't be turned down quickly. So, if you don't cook on gas and your eggs always turn out hard, rather than 'dippable', try this.

Prick the eggshell with a pin at the round end of each egg (rather than the more pointed end). Place the eggs in a saucepan (not too large or the shells will get cracked as the eggs rattle around). Just cover with cold water and bring to the boil over a high heat. When the water boils, set a timer for 3 minutes. Fill a large measuring jug with cold water. When the timer beeps, scoop the eggs out of the pan and plunge briefly into the jug to stop them overcooking. Pop them into eggcups and lop off the tops. Serve straightaway, with toast.

I have to have Marmite™ on the last bit of toast whenever I eat eggs. It's a habit I picked up from my Dad, and one I seem to have passed on to Christopher. Give it a try. Incidentally, the new Guinness™ version of Marmite™ is quite good. Milder an rather less salty, but good nonetheless. I actually think it tastes pretty similar to the yeast extract you can get from LIDL.

We went out to Owain's Butchers in Aberaeron this afternoon. We chose a fine leg of pork joint for Sunday dinner tomorrow, and some minced beef for later in the week. Also popped a bag of their pork scratchings in for Hubby. God only knows how he stays so slim! As usual, a trip to the butchers' means a trip to feed the ducks with any scraps of stale granary bread we have kicking about. I'll only give granary to the birds as I don't think there's any nutritive value in plastic bread - and at least granary gives them the seeds. We nipped into the farm down the road on the way home for another dozen eggs. Christopher enjoyed chasing the hens around the yard behind the house. I'm not sure that they were having quite as much fun!