Food
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Easy Christmas Dinner
Does the thought of cooking Christmas dinner bring you out in cold sweat? Don’t panic, I have a great solution. This is a meal that a friend and I prepared for Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago and I am going to do it again for Xmas Day. It was pretty easy to do, and most of it can be prepared in the morning – or even the night before – and popped into the oven leaving you free to play with your new toys. When we shopped for our Thanksgiving meal, we were stumped by our local supermarket’s lack of a whole turkey. There were turkey escalopes, turkey breasts,…
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Roasted Pork and Late Summer Veg Casserole with Thomas Crosby Muffins
This is a recipe that I made up today to use up some of the veg that we have left over this week. Regular readers know that we have signed up for a veg box, which I pick up in a nearby village every Tuesday. This week we still have a lot of courgettes and aubergines, not to mention a glut of tomatoes, so I thought I would make a roasted veg casserole, with tomatoes and with that I will serve Thomas Crosby Muffins from Food, Football and a Baby. Sometimes I get fed up of pasta or potatoes, and the cheese and ham muffins make a good alternative to…
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Are you a Pot Saver or a Pot Slattern?
If you had asked me this earlier today, I would have had no idea what you were talking about. Now, thanks to the wonder of Mumsnet I know what a Pot Saver is, and that I am one. According to a Mumsnet poster Pot Saver “… is a pejorative word meaning that when I’m cooking, or planning cooking, I’m always keeping one eye on what’s going to minimise washing up”. That is me! Whether it is One Pot Spaghetti Carbonara, Easy Chicken And Ham Pie, Salmon en Croûte, Pizza or Quick and Easy Salmon Coulibiac, my favourite recipes use just one pot. Or no pot at all. We have a…
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Banana Cupcakes with Caramel Fleur de Sel
When I renamed the blog, I decided that I would make Salted Caramels and perhaps use the photos for the blog logo. Easier said than done, I discovered. When I searched for a recipe, I found that almost all of them called for what the Americans call “heavy cream”. This is a cream with a fat content of 36 to 38%, in between single cream and double cream. The closest I can find in Switzerland is Vollrahm, in French Crème Entière, with 35%. For making caramels, it is incredibly important to have a candy thermometer, which I did not have. I bought what I thought was a candy thermometer but…
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Lazy Sunday Afternoon Cookies and Easy Chicken & Ham Pie
It has rained today. Warm rain, it has to be said, so still preferable to Scottish rain, but rain all the same. Our dog sniffs at the door, toddles along the side of the house, does what she has to do and hurries back inside. It is that kind of rain, persistent, heavy, drenching, driech. It is a day for cookies, I decided. If it were colder, we could put the fire on, drink hot chocolate and toast marshmallows. Despite the rain, it is still almost 20°C, so we shall keep that plan for a proper autumn day. My cookies are baked, soft squigy chocolate chip using this recipe. I cannot buy…
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Store Cupboard Quick Meals
Sometimes I just cannot be bothered cooking. I have no inspiration, no initiative, null bock (as my German husband would say). When this happens, I open the cupboards and the fridge and have a Ready-Steady-Cook moment. I have learned over the years that having some basic ingredients in the house makes it possible to throw things together at the last moment. Even if we have guests, I can forage in the freezer and fridge and find something worthy of serving up. Not being organised enough to plan a menu for the week, this is my normal way of deciding what to make for dinner each evening. So I might have…
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The BEST Carré d’Agneau recipe ever
Or if you are being less poncy, “Rack of Lamb”. I prefer to say Lamb Carré as it sounds more exotic, less pedestrian. And this is definitely not a pedestrian recipe. About a year ago, I was searching for a good recipe and came across this one. I know it was on a recipe website, but I have searched and searched and I cannot find it so I cooked it as I remembered it. As I was writing this blog post, I realised that I had forgotten to add the olive oil to the breadcrumb mixture, but it still worked. I think you would get a thicker crust with the…
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Cooking For Vegetarians
I am going to admit that I am not a great fan of vegetables. Or rather, I like veg but I love meat and a meal for me pretty much always includes some kind of meat. Less meat is more healthy, I know, but there we are. I just like meat. So when our guests arrived last week and I discovered that one of the group is veggie, I knew it was going to be a challenge. Particularly as my children are big meat eaters – or rather my son is. My daughter is more likely to eat the side order and the veg. The first evening I had to…
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Salmon en Croûte
This was adapted from a Jamie Oliver’s recipe, in the Ministry Of Food book. I blogged recently about the E Coli outbreak in Germany, and my decision to start buying local food. Next week I shall receive my first veg box from the farmer behind the hedge. Until then, I have been going down to the village where he has a little stall with an honesty box to buy my veg. I must take a photo next time I go past, it is very sweet. Today, I bought a bag of fresh spinach, a lollo rosso salad, a massive courgette and some spring onions. The quality was very high, all…
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Quick Homemade Pizza
Living in a small village has advantages and disadvantages and one of the down sides is the lack of take-out. We do have a pizzeria in the next village, but by the time we drive over there, wait for the pizza to be made (as we can never remember where we put their telephone number) and drive home, I can make pizza. And most of the time (to blow my own trumpet for a moment) it tastes better. The recipe is one that I use for making white bread – from Mumsnet recipe pages. I can make a large family pizza and still have enough dough left to make a…
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Quick and Easy Salmon Coulibiac – inspired by Hairy Bikers
This is one of my OMG,-forgot-to-defrost-something-for-dinner-what-can-we-have-meals. It was inspired by the Hairy Biker’s recipe but is made from store cupboard and freezer ingredients. From start to finish, including baking time this recipe takes about 45 minutes and is really delicious. The day I took the photos, I used Uncle Ben’s Lemon and Rosemary Rice so I left out the lemon. Normally I make it without the prawns as my husband is allergic to them. Quick and Easy Salmon Coulibiac You need: Packet of ready made Puff Pastry One egg Packet of frozen salmon Couple of cubes of frozen spinach leaves, defrost a little so you can separate them. Uncle Ben’s…
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How to make friends and bake fabulous Fairy Cakes
The good thing about blogging (and twitter, not to mention Mumsnet) is that you can ask any question and you generally receive an answer. Whether you are looking for relationship advice, ideas for a birthday party, wondering where to apply for a passport or recipe advice, there is generally someone somewhere willing to help. Added to that, I have met so many people online who I am truly blessed to count as my friends. Whether the friendship stays online, or we manage to meet up in Real Life, these are people I can count on to help when times are tough or I need a new recipe. Cooking was always…
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Birthday Cake for Football Fan
My daughter helps to sieve the sugar – still in PJs This week my son reached the grand old age of 6 years old. For the past few weeks he has been avidly following the World Cup so I decided to make a football themed cake. He is Scottish/German so has obviously been supporting Germany (as Scotland did not qualify, no surprise there). Thankfully Germany stayed in the tournament long enough for us to celebrate his birthday. I would have felt a bit daft making a German Flag cake now. My lovely friend at Kitschnbake provided a recipe for Vanilla Yoghurt Cake that is good for birthday cakes. It is a…
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Bier, Bratwurst and Brezeln – the perfect combination
A Good German Housewife should be able to make Brezeln. Really? Well, normally a Good German Housewife (or at least a Bavarian one) knows where to buy decent Brezeln. Not so easy when you live 5 hours from the nearest Brezelbäcker. Since moving to Switzerland, Brezeln is one of the tastes of the Heimat that we have missed. There are the small “delice au beurre” in the bakers which are basically the same but a good German sized Brezel is hard to find. We are expecting guests this weekend for a Bier and Bratwurst WC2010 Party so I thought I would add to the list by making it a Bier,…
