Pea and Spinach Soup

This bright green bowl of happiness will be ready to eat in ten minutes or less. A bold statement I know. This really is the quickest soup to make and in fact I think that it might be almost as quick to make as a packet of dried soup!

Christmas Tree Brownies

Tis' the season to eat, drink and be merry! These Christmas Tree Brownies are the best and the easiest season treat to make but oh so impressive!

Delia's Creole Christmas Cake

This is the easiest Christmas cake to make! My stand mixer lay idle while I stirred and folded, that is a first for me, especially when it comes to the making our Christmas fruit cake! Yes it's true, it didn't plug in any gadgets when I mixed this cake, that alone makes this cake a winner! 

I have been in love with this recipe for a long time, it just screams Christmas with all the spices, alcohol, the chopped nuts and the smell...so Christmassy!

I was slightly dubious about the long list of spirits and lets be honest I was totally put off by the addition of Angostura bitter! It sounded like one of  those dusty bottles that your grandparents would have at the back of their drinks cabinet, stood beside tiny lime green bottles of Snowball or Advocaat!! Remember those? 

Well I thought this year was the year that I would make it no matter what obstacles I faced :) I did some research and discovered that this could be made without any effort. So here is how I got on, remember no electric mixers were used in the making of this sumptuous Christmas cake!! Enjoy.

No Bake Chocolate Nests

An Easter treat that all the family can help make (and eat!!). These beautifully simple rice krispie treats are the perfect reminder to spend some family time together in the kitchen. 

Spinach and Beetroot Smoothie

This is a healthy and surprisingly tasty smoothie is well worth a try. With the sweet baby spinach leaves adding to your Iron intake in the day and the earthy beetroot giving the smoothie it's distinctive deep scarlet colour this is a healthy treat in a glass. 

Porridge with Frozen Summer Berries

It took me thirty seven years to fall in love with porridge - to be honest I wasn't sure I even wanted to - childhood memories of grey gloopy stuff in a bowl was not my thing. Don't get me wrong my parents never forced it on me - but they are my memories of it all the same.

4 Ingredient Red Velvet Cookies

Over the school mid term the children and I spent some time in the kitchen, we baked a couple of cakes and by total accident we discovered this recipe for cookies!

Slow Cooker Bread

I was a total skeptic too, how is it that for years I have been preheating my fan oven almost to the point of melting the metal racks! Only to discover that my humble, hard working slow cooker can do the job albeit with one major advantage, both raising and baking the bread and all without any interference from me...score!

No Bake Nutella Bites

If you are looking for a quick and easy recipe that requires no effort at all then you are in the right place. Basically heat, stir and chill and you are on your way to a chocolatey chewy bite that didn't even raise a sweat. These little tasty morsels are very moreish and even if I say so myself are real lookers! Perfect for some after dinner dining, party treats or perhaps as a movie snack.

Recipe adapted from Dinner Dishes and Desserts

Yield 80-90 pieces

Ingredients
450g White Sugar
4tbsp Cocoa powder
113g Butter
125ml Milk
1tbsp Vanilla extract
165g Nutella
230g Porridge oats

Method
Line a 30x25cm shallow baking tray with baking paper.

Place the sugar, cocoa powder, butter and milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring frequently. Boil for 1 minute, remove from the heat.

Fold in the vanilla extract, nutella and porridge oats. Mix until all the porridge oats are coated in the chocolate mixture.

Pour into the prepared tray, level off.

Gently tap the dish on your work surface to remove any trapped air bubbles.

Before the mixture sets, shake over sprinkles of your choice.

Chill for 2-3 hours or until firm, use the baking paper to help lift the chocolatey goodness out of the baking tray. Place on a chopping board, with a sharp knife cut into roughly 2cm square pieces. Serve and devour!!

Homemade Flubber

We spent the day playing with this, everybody in the house has had a go at it. We stretched it from one end of the house to the other, moulded it, stamped it and generally had a ball with it!! Now I am totally new to flubber (also knows as Gak and Slime), it's hard to describe, it is firm, yet very soft and is extremely stringy although it will tear in half if needed....strange stuff indeed. I made the first batch as an experiment, then proceeded to make two more batches in different colours. We store it in airtight containers when not in use and I expect it will keep for weeks and weeks. If this gets into your carpet or your cloth sofa then you will be scrubbing for what seems like an eternity to get it out, you have been warned!

My children are of an age that they know (at least I hope so!) not to eat this stuff, so if your little ones put everything in their mouth then I suggest you try one of the non toxic recipes out there.

Yield 375g

Ingredients:
140ml Cold water
250g White PVA glue (I bought a 600g Bottle of Blue Label Washable PVA Glue for €1.99 in Easons )
Food colouring
125ml Hot water
1 tsp Borax powder (I bought a 100g pot for €1.51 in my local pharmacy)

Method
Borax powder is not suitable for small children and should be handled with care, with that in mind I recommend that an adult make this recipe.

Place the PVA glue, cold water and food colouring in a small bowl. In a larger bowl dissolve the borax in the hot water, stir until the water is clear.

Slowly pour the glue mixture into the bowl containing the borax solution. Mix thoroughly until the glue forms a squishy ball. If you remove the borax solution too soon the flubber won't be cohesive. Carefully drain off any remaining liquid. Message the flubber until it is smooth and elastic. Stick with it, at first it will be a crumbly and fall apart but the more you work it the smoother it becomes. Eventually it will become stretchy, slowly does it though, if you stretch it too fast it breaks!

Stamp it....

Create a fossil with it....

Stretch it...

Attack it!!

Canvas Button Tree

Now I know this is a departure for me, I'm usually busy in the kitchen cooking up a storm. But I am a crafter at heart, I have my finger in many crafty pies, I do a little knitting, painting, jewellery making and I especially love paper crafts. This was a project I spotted on Pinterest and thought it would look lovely hanging on the landing. This is how I made it....

I sketched the outline of a basic tree trunk in pencil on a 50x70cm (20x27inch) canvas (for a previous painting project), then I provisionally positioned the buttons. Trying to mix the size and colours for a balanced look.

I took this photo to use as a guide for when the tree was painted and dry, to act a reference point for later (which I didn't use!!)

I painted a graduated wash, light into dark with acrylic paint, I then painted in the pencil outline for the tree trunk in dark brown.

There is no real need to be too detailed, this is meant to be fun.

I used a glue gun to stick the buttons into place, then glued some really small buttons at the base of the trunk so they look like fallen blossoms.

The finished result is now hanging in pride of place on the landing. The colours change all the time, some of the buttons catch the light at different times of the day. Some sparkle in direct light, others stand out in low light. It reminds me of a tree in early autumn when the trees are at their most colorful. 

Light Coconut Broth with Spinach

My blog is celebrating it's second birthday this week, so I have been delving into some of my older cookbooks the last few day. It is lovely to revisit recipes that served me so well in the past, but have since been set aside and forgotten. Now if you are looking for a very versatile recipe that can be thrown together in a few minutes, with the added benefit of being healthy, then can I humbly recommend this recipe. Rachel Allen's original recipe called for four heads of pak choi, which is very tricky to get in these parts, I substituted them for fresh spinach. An inspired decision, if I may say so myself, the whole dish comes together beautifully, very moreish! Rachel also suggested adding (32) tiger prawns if something more substantial is called for, I opted instead for cooked noodles, but for a special treat I would consider the prawns. Really I think that this is the kind of dish that you can call your own, experiment and enjoy!  

*Recipe adapted from Rachel's Favourite Food at Home by Rachel Allen

Serves 4

Ingredients
1.2ltrs Chicken or vegetable stock
410g Tin coconut milk
1-2 Red chillies, deseeded and cut into rings
4 Spring onions sliced diagonally
1 Garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 tsp Fresh ginger, grated
150g -200g Fresh spinach leaves, shredded
3 tbsp thai fish sauce (Nam Pla)
Juice of a 1 lime
2 tbsp Coriander, chopped
200-300g Cooked medium egg noodles (optional)

Method
Prepare the vegetables in advance, this whole dish doesn't take long to cook so you can add in the vegetables as needed.

Place the stock and coconut milk in a large saucepan over a medium heat.

Stir, add the chilli, spring onions, garlic and ginger to the saucepan and bring to the boil to infuse the flavours.

When the broth has come to the boil, add the shredded spinach and noodles (if using), reduce the heat and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the fish sauce (nam pla), juice of the lime and the coriander.

Serve with a wedge of fresh lime and sliced chillies for seasoning. This is best eaten on the day it is cooked as the spinach tends to discolour.

Nigella's Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes

 

Okay this is so simple and tasty to make that it would be unfair to get into any long discussions, so here is the important bit, this is the handiest dinner you will make this summer! Seeing as we are actually experiencing some real summer weather this week I'll just let you get on with it.....

Recipe adapted from Nigella's Kitchen 

Serves 8

Ingredients

2 tbsp Olive oil

12 Chicken thighs

750g Chorizo sausage, cut into large chunks (if you cut them too small they'll burn)

1kg Baby salad potatoes, cut in half

1-2 Red onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 tsp Oregano (dried)

Zest of one orange

Method

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas Mark 7. Rub the olive oil into the bottom of two baking sheets (like the ones that come with your new oven, large with shallow sides) the oil will stop everything sticking to the baking sheets. Rub the chicken, skin side down in the oil, turn upright so they will cook with a beautiful crispy skin. 

Divide the chicken between the two baking sheets, interspersed with the potatoes,chorizo chunks and red onion, sprinkle over the oregano and orange zest. It's going to be very crowded but that's okay, it will all cook perfectly don't worry.

Cook for 60-65 minutes, swapping the trays halfway through so everything gets evenly crisp and caramelised. The chicken is cooked through when there is no pink meat and the juices run clear (no pink juices).

Serve with a green salad, a beautifully sunny day and a glass of something cool in a glass!!!

That's Just Cheating Baked Eggs!

To all foodie pinners out there this is a familiar sight, Pinterest is absolutely full of knacky recipes like this one, I must have pinned (or salivated) over twenty of these recipes since I joined Pinterest. I gotta tell you this one was hard to resist, it's so easy to make, quick to prepare and a real crowd pleaser. It's the type of recipe you can pull out for breakfast, lunch or at tea time, actually when I come to think of it anytime you're feeling peckish this is a winner (wouldn't this make a nice alternative to quiche as finger food at a party). I would consider this as the basic recipe, you could jazz this up any way you please....Enjoy!

Serves 4

Ingredients
8 Slices of cooked ham
8 Medium eggs
1 tbsp Dried parsley
50g  Grated cheddar, grated (optional)
Seasoning

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Grease or oil eight holes of a muffin tray, place a slice of ham in each of the holes. Gently ease the ham into the base of the muffin tray, crack an egg into each of the ham pockets.

Season each egg with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Sprinkle with the dried parsley or if you prefer ......

...top with a grated cheddar cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until the egg is cooked to your liking.

I think that two baked eggs per person is a fair portion once served toast and a large comforting mug of steaming coffee.