I cooked!

For the first time in the last fortnight or so, I cooked.

~ cue applause ~

I'm feeling lots better now and remembered my way back to the kitchen (which was an achievement, if you know my memory at the moment!) and I made a lovely Kedgeree.  Click on the link there and you'll find the recipe, if you're curious.

I didn't overcook the rice, the onions were cooked perfectly and okay perhaps I did overcook the fish just a tiny bit - but the rice needed draining.  ~shrug~  It was that or soggy rice.

Hooray!

Now, because we have passed so many days of lovely meals that I have been in no fit state to tell you about (other than occasionally on the Facebook page), I thought I'd do a quick run down on the best of them now.

However!  Before we get started, I have to tell you that hubby has a new camera!  Woo!
In my opinion, the photographs he took with the old camera were pretty darned good - but this new camera has been turning out amazing results.  The above photograph of the Kedgeree was taken with the new camera - it'd be interesting to see whether you can tell which are "new camera" photographs and which are from the old!

Don't forget that you can click on the photographs and open them up larger, for close inspection!

Now heading backwards in time, at lunchtime today I will admit to having a little practice in the cooking stakes and suddenly wanted poached eggs on toast - and only poached eggs on toast.  Have you ever had one of those moments?  (Not necessarily with poached eggs).  I just had to - and for once the eggs behaved, the toast was crunchy and with a teensy sprinkle of celery salt and black pepper they were a fabulously satisfying lunch.

Just look at that runny yolk.  Cor!

We've had a pretty torrid time of it just lately, coming down with this horrid flu bug one after the other.  I don't think we've ever used so many tissues or swallowed so many paracetamols!

Dear hubby took pity on me and took over all kitchen duties immediately he realised that I was almost sick unto death.  Now if you ask him, he'll tell you that he has made some real howlers of bad meals - but it's not true!

Just look at this creamy chicken & blue cheese pasta dish - does it get any better than this?  I don't think so.  It was perfect, non-confrontational, easy eating stuff that was exactly what the Doctor would have ordered, if he'd have known about it.

Because hubby knows about my liking for Cottage Pie (or Shepherd's Pie) and how it has often been utilised as medicine (and worked very well), it was on the menu list.  However, with a new twist!  While I was sitting sniffling in the car, hubby was purchasing three individual Cottage Pie dishes under the pretext of doing some essential shopping.  Sneaky, eh?

Lo and behold, at the appointed time, out came a gorgeously crunchy topped individual Cottage Pie with its side serving of an assortment of vegetables all designed to put a bit of a spring back into our family's step.

So, be prepared for some individual fish pies, lasagne's, moussaka's - oh, basically, anything that will look great in an individual dish!

Oh and of course - I haven't shown you our Christmas Dinner!

Ta daaaa!  Christmas turkey dinner!

I managed to get through making Christmas dinner by the skin of my teeth.  The fact that we’d cooked the turkey in advance, carved it and put it in the freezer in some stock, was just such a boon!  It was a fairly simple matter, thereafter, of making a gravy with the stock and putting the turkey in gravy into the oven to heat through.

In the meanwhile, the pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, potatoes and parsnips were roasting, the other vegetables were steaming and I was making bread sauce.  It was a simple matter of just serving everything at the right time, thereafter.

Yes, they are purple Brussels Sprouts!

I can thoroughly recommend this as a course of action for the future, so long as you don’t have to present a bronzed and roasted turkey at the table, of course.  I don’t think a casserole dish of carved turkey meat has quite the same appeal.

You might remember my Heritage Christmas Pudding that I’d made a little taster pudding of?  Well, it was superb by the time Christmas came.  I’d resisted all calls to “feed” it with booze and was very pleased with the rich, fruity flavours.  In fact, my Mum commented that it was a bit too boozy – which was odd, considering all it had in it was best part of a bottle of Guinness and a couple of tablespoonfuls of spiced rum!

This Christmas was the first time we’ve ever managed to eat an entire Christmas pudding over several mealtimes.   Ordinarily, the last few slices get tired of and wind up in the local birdies, but not this year.  Sorry birdies!

I’m quite looking forward to next year’s pudding, now!  I’m also going to have to do a few other types of steamed pudding, now that I’ve broken my duck so successfully.

A quick word about our Christmas breakfast.  We try to have something different each year - and after quite literally years of observing the American fancy for pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, we finally succumbed.

For ease (well, the next thing on the agenda was the present opening), we had bought some pancakes which it was a simple matter of warming up in the microwave.  In retrospect, I think a knob of butter would have been a good ruse to just help moisten the pancakes a little more.  The bacon was delicious as usual and the maple syrup was beyond decadent.  With a glass or two of Buck's Fizz, it started our Christmas morning off a treat.

So, looking ahead, what culinary challenges have I got lined up for myself?

Well, there’s the big old terracotta Tagine that I got for Christmas.   Once I've done the whole palaver of seasoning it (soaking overnight, baking in a cool oven for 2 hours), I shall have to find a suitable recipe and give a “proper” tagine a go.  I’m sure I won’t have trouble finding a recipe, as I also got Yotam Ottolenghi’s cook book “Jerusalem” for Christmas.  I’d found three recipes that I want to make, within the first five pages!

Then there’s the Rosti question.  My hubby has yet to find his rosti-making muse and has (apparently) turned out some undercooked efforts, which have burned edges.  This must have been before I met him, as I don’t ever recall such a thing.  However, I have accepted the rosti challenge and shall be grating and squeezing potatoes - and we've got some of our favourite Greenvale Farm Fresh Jelly potatoes - in the hope of creating something worth eating!  You’ll know if I get it right, as I’ll be somewhat cock-a-hoop and no doubt, telling everyone.

If you are currently confined to bed suffering with this horrid flu - I do so hope you get well soon.  Just think of this blog post as evidence that you CAN get better, because if I can do it - anyone can!

This week's menu plan - it's a good job we enjoy cooking!

I was just looking at this week's menu plan, wondering what to give this blog post as a title, and quickly came to the conclusion that this week's meals could only be planned by a foodie family.

I always look at the menu plan once we've decided upon it and think "if one or other of us went down with a cold, could we still produce what's on the list?".  The answer is (pretty much) always a "yes", but even so, this week's plan is so intertwined and - in some places - completely reliant upon our being compos mentis enough to make the meals, I can only hope that son & heir's current sniffles stay as sniffles!

So what's so complicated about this week, then?  Well, it all looks reasonable enough :

Tues : Kedgeree

Weds : Chicken, asparagus & tarragon with Jersey Royals, and sweetcorn

Thurs : Pea & Ham soup, with crusty bread

Fri : Crunchy fish and wedges

Sat : High Tea

Sun : Braised Oxtail, roast butternut squash and parsnips, Savoy cabbage and Yorkshire puddings

Mon : Chicken Gnocchi in Sorrel pesto with garlic bread.

However, it's when you get into the planning of the week, that you notice how dependent everything is, upon having things happen on the right days and at the right moment.

We had the Kedgeree last night - and it was as predictably gorgeous as always.  I used a good two pinches of dried Kasoori Methi (my new favourite ingredient, Fenugreek) in it, along with chopped coriander, and the Methi seemed to even out the slight coarseness of the curry powder, resulting in a flavour with less "sharp edges" to it than normal.  (If you see what I mean!).

Egg mayo - with lots of black pepper - yum!

As I've been hankering for egg mayonnaise sandwiches for the longest time, when I was boiling the eggs for the Kedgeree, I made sure to boil two more for today's lunch.  So roll on lunchtime!

Wednesday's Chicken with asparagus & tarragon is the same recipe that appeared in the menu plan a couple of weeks ago, but that got bumped out for some reason.  I'm reckoning it should be delicious, so have brought it back for another go.  Mind you, we had a bit of a shock when we went to buy the chicken breasts this morning, as the local butcher has taken them off of special offer (5 for £5) and they now cost just under £8 for 6!  So we'll have to think rather more carefully about the chicken dishes we schedule in, in future.

However, every cloud has a silver lining and all that - they are now doing 1kg Silverside joints of beef for just  £4.95!  We couldn't buy one of those quickly enough - and it is now roosting in our freezer for next Sunday's dinner.

So - today being Wednesday, means that I need to start the process for making some home-made Pea & Ham Soup in the slow cooker for Thursday.

To explain about this, needs us to step back a few days, when we picked up six or seven 1970's cook books (and a 1963 one) from a Freecycle lady at the weekend.   One of which was the "Prestige Crock-Pot Cookery Book" from 1977.  Oh, and it does look like it's from 1977, too.  It has the best recipes in it - things like Hungarian Goulash.  Now their Hungarian Goulash isn't anything like traditional Hungarian Goulash, but it IS like the sort of Goulash that my Mum used to make - and as such, is the kind of Goulash recipe that I've been seeking for years.

I'd been after making a main course soup for the last couple of weeks, but couldn't think of one that would suit.  Having found the recipe for Pea & Ham in the Prestige book, it was just begging to be made.  I even - wonders will never cease - found a ham hock in the Rotisserie department of our local Asda that will be perfect for it.

So, getting back to how things are intertwined, I needed to put the dried split peas on to soak this morning, then assemble everything in the slow cooker (crock-pot) tonight and cook the soup overnight on low, to give it the recommended 10-12 hours of long slow cooking.

Hubby is planning on making us either a loaf of bread or some bread rolls to accompany the soup, which he can start on Thursday morning, all being well.

You see how none of this could be accomplished (well, not easily) without meal planning?

We're both having a night off on Friday, as we're slumming it with "crunchy fish" (a.k.a. fish in breadcrumbs) with potato wedges.  It's not quite "fish fingers and chips", just missing that title by the narrowest of squeaks.

High Tea - a favourite in our house

Saturday's High Tea looks like it's going to become something of a production.  However, interestingly, not that expensive a production (for once!).  Hubby has promised to bake a cake - details to be confirmed - and we're looking (currently) at having Corned Beef & Pickle rolls, plus some Red Leicester cheese sandwiches which we'll keep plain for son & heir (Red Leicester is his favourite cheese) and dress up with some lovely red onion for us.  I'll also make a little potato salad with some Jersey Royals and we'll have a small mixed salad to go with it.  I'm busy quizzing my American friends as to Devilled Egg recipes, as I've always wanted to try Devilled Eggs - and now seems as good a time as any.  Poor hubby can't indulge in them as eggs are his bête noir, so maybe I'll make him a stuffed tomato as a consolation prize!  We'll have all the standard cherry tomatoes & radishes in the salad and pickles, including chutney, piccalilli and pickled walnuts alongside too.

In fact, looking at that list, it all looks like good ammunition for indigestion!  Maybe I'll have to re-think the sandwich fillings.  *chuckle*.  Whatever we have, I hope it'll be a good old-fashioned High Tea.  Maybe I can convince Hubby to make some Seed Cake - that'd fit the mood of the thing!  Oh, and what about a little dish of stewed rhubarb?  Am I going too far?  Yes?  Hmmn.  I thought so.

Getting back to the interlinked nature of this week's meals, what with the cake baking and potato salad making, some work is going to be needed prior to the event!

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that almost everything I've mentioned above, we have in the kitchen already.  The only things requiring buying would be the Red Leicester, a red onion and perhaps some cake ingredients.  This is a radical change from the norm, as ordinarily High Tea costs more than a roast dinner to produce.

Photo c/o Delicious Magazine

Speaking of roast dinners, this Sunday's "Roast Dinners of the World" is going to suffer another diversion.  We got diverted onto a Russian Fish Pie last week and this week, we've been diverted onto Oxtail by the Prestige Crock-Pot Cookery Book.

We rang our local butcher and asked whether he could obtain Oxtail for us, and how much it would be.  Turns out, it comes in at a really quite reasonable (or so we thought at the time) £5.50 a kilogram.  However, we didn't realise (then) that it would be more expensive than Silverside - but there we are, we'd been seduced by the idea of Oxtail by then.

I know the slow cooker will do a brilliant job of cooking the Oxtail and am really looking forward to the end result.  It should be excellent with the roast veggies and cabbage.

Depending on what cake hubby decides to make - as to whether it turns out to be more of a "dessert" than a "tea time cake" - we may or may not be requiring dessert for Sunday.  What we had planned to do (and if we don't need it, we'll carry it over to next weekend) is make a fruit terrine.  Yes, you knew I'd have to investigate this terrine idea further, didn't you!

I'm currently thinking along the lines of a terrine (which would have to be made on Saturday, for use on Sunday) involving grapes, rhubarb, strawberries, poached pear, mint and amaretto crumbs.  I have a cunning plan for the jelly, which I'm not prepared to divulge yet.  ~taps side of nose sagely~  You'll just have to wait and see!

What a fine figure of a Sorrel plant!

After all that activity, we've planned in a relatively easy one for Monday.  We were thinking along the lines of pan fried chicken breast with gnocchi mixed with a pesto, when suddenly it occurred to us to make use of our abundant supplies of sorrel.  So, we'll be making a sorrel pesto (probably 50/50 with parsley) to go on the gnocchi - and pairing the whole thing up with some of hubby's fabulous home-made garlic bread.  Yum!

Having decided upon all that cooking, I don't think we've any additional makes or bakes planned - but then, we didn't plan on making hubby's Walnut & Cheese Loaf (from one of the "new" old cook books), last week, either - so it's a case of "watch this space!".

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So Jenny - what's the plan for this week, then? 21-27 June 11

That, is a very good question.  After last week, it could be anything at any time, it seems to me!  We did a spectacularly good job of swapping meals around and exchanging them for other incarnations of the same basic ingredient.


So I'm crossing my fingers that this week stays a bit more settled!


For starters, it's unusual that I'm in a position to write the meal plan post on the day it kicks off!  I blame the Strawberry Stacks, they were so gorgeous I just couldn't not blog about them - so then the Beef stew needed blogging - and so here we are.

In actual fact, we've just returned from doing the food shop at the supermarket and everything came to much less than I was fearing it would, cost-wise.  I had an enormous shopping list going in there, so either we've shopped very well or the prices aren't as bad as I thought they would be!  Fresh salmon was a bit of an eye-opener, as from the fish counter it was £7 a kilo, whereas pre-packed it was £14 - yes, FOURTEEN! - a kilo.  The wet fish counter didn't even have it on special offer, either.  It just proves how it's worth looking at all the options before buying!


So anyway - to business.  This week (she says, whilst emerging from a shed and adopting a West Country accent - and if you haven't seen that T.V. Programme, just ignore that bit) we shall mostly be having :

Tuesday : Warm Salmon Salad with Little Gem, Asparagus, Avocado and Jersey Royals

Wednesday : Onion tart, salad and Jersey Royals

Thursday : Meatballs and Pasta

Friday : Kedgeree

Saturday : Red Dragon Beef Pie with steamed Pak Choi & carrots

Sunday : Shepherd's Pie with carrots, broccoli and peas

Monday : Prawn & Pea risotto.

There now.  That all sounds just lovely, doesn't it?

Today's salmon salad started out life in my head as one of the BBC Good Food recipes for a warm potato & tuna salad with pesto dressing.  It required some fine tuning, in that almost everything on the ingredients list someone had something they objected to.  So, I swapped Salmon for the tuna (Son & heir doesn't like tuna), swapped green beans for asparagus (hubby doesn't like green beans, we all love asparagus) and swapped baby spinach for little gem lettuce (Son & heir doesn't like baby spinach used as a salad leaf).  Truth be told, it doesn't resemble the original recipe in the slightest any more.  The only resemblance is in the structure of the salad and the pesto dressing!

I've bought some garlic & herb tear'n'share bread to have with it, as although hubby likes Jersey Royals they are still potatoes and he won't cope with too  many of them on the plate.  Son & heir will be disgusted by the fact that it's a salad and the bread is to make the whole thing seem worthwhile to him.  I know, I'm a pushover.

I'm also planning on making some muffins today, as the ones I made for Son & heir's break time snacks have all disappeared now.  It's an intriguing recipe, being a Camembert and Redcurrant muffin.  Should be absolutely gorgeous, but I'll let you know!

I'm looking forward to making tomorrow's dinner, the Onion tart.  I was always terribly allergic to onions to the point where I couldn't eat them at all - not even cooked away to nothing in a stew.  My system would still know they were there, with the ensuing consequences - the worst being that I'd spend some time calling to God on the great white telephone.  Which is what makes it all the more remarkable that, having been pregnant, I can now eat onions again.  ~shrug~  Don't ask me how it happened, but I can now risk a cheese & red onion sandwich, which was such a no-no in the past!  Hence, to make an entire tart dedicated to my nemesis of old is something of an triumph.

Thursday is hubby's day to cook and he's going down the sausage meatball route again, except in a rather more classic sauce this time.  Meatballs and pasta has always been one of Son & heir's favourite dinners, so it should be a trouble-free meal time.

Son & heir is bringing one of his friends, J, home from school for a sleepover on Friday.  I recalled when J was here last (when we had the Shoulder of Pork) that he commented on how much he enjoyed fish.  Everyone here loves my Kedgeree, so I thought that would be a nice thing to make for J.  It has the added benefit of being incredibly easy to produce, too!

I'm aiming to make a rhubarb & ginger upside down cake for dessert (just a little one - 4 slices big) that day, too.

Saturday brings the return of the Red Dragon beef pie, now that I'm fully armed with the Aduki beans!  All I've got to do is remember to put the blinking things on to soak on Friday evening!  lol  @MartinK10 - if you're reading this and you're around on Friday evening, send me a twitter to remind me!  *chuckle*

Hubby's volunteered to cook again on Sunday and he's doing one of his gorgeous Shepherd's Pies.  It really IS a Shepherd's Pie, as it will be made with lamb mince.  Oooh, I can hardly wait, as Shepherd's Pie is one of my very favourite meals.

I'll be aiming to make a Gooseberry & Almond Cake on Sunday morning, so long as I get time!  I'm intrigued by how the gooseberries sink from the top of the cake while it's cooking, and have to see it in action.

All of which brings us around to Monday again, when hubby is promising us a prawn & pea risotto.  Being the Risotto King, I just know this is going to be a success - to the point where I can almost taste it if I think about it for long enough.

So there we are!  Sounds like a bit of a busy week, one way and another.  I reckon I'd better get on with those Camembert & Redcurrant muffins, because they won't cook themselves!

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Everyone loves Kedgeree - don't they?

Aaah, Kedgeree.  If ever there was a recipe that puts a smile on everyone's faces, it's that.  We're all very keen on anything that involves curry - and a Kedgeree that doesn't involve curry just isn't a Kedgeree, in my book.  Of course, there is the added bonus of it also involving smoked fish - and as we all love fish and especially smoked fish, then it is a given that we're going to love Kedgeree.

In fact, it is my ambition to one day have Kedgeree for breakfast.  I can't help but think that we'd have to go out tramping across the moors, wearing tweed and muttering about the damned beaters afterwards in order to justify the investment.

I have a very definite preferred type of Kedgeree, too.  I've been making Kedgeree for what amounts to donkey's years now and have changed the recipe quite considerably from the days when I would poach the fish in milk, add turmeric to the rice cooking water and so on.  These days, my recipe is fine tuned and designed to not lose even the tiniest iota of flavour.  Today's Kedgeree is a fairly dry concoction of delicious flavours that guarantees clear plates at the end of the meal.  In fact, I now know the recipe so well that this is the first time I've written it down! 

29 July 2016

I'm still cooking Kedgeree and it's still one of our family's very favourite meals.  I have taken the opportunity to edit the recipe slightly - for the better, I feel.  I haven't changed an awful lot, just slightly altered the order of cooking and added some garam masala, so don't worry, it's still the same yummy Kedgeree and still easy peasy to cook.

KEDGEREE (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

2 eggs
Basmati rice : 1 cupful per person, plus half a cupful
2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
a pinch of sea salt
a pinch of black pepper
half a tsp ground cinnamon
20-30g salted butter
4-5 mushrooms, sliced
a flat tsp ground coriander
a half a tsp ground turmeric
3 rounded dessertspoons of Korma curry paste
150ml warm water
400g smoked haddock or cod, skinned and cut into sections
half a tsp garam masala
a tablespoonful of fresh coriander, chopped.

Method :

Place a small saucepan of water on to boil.  When boiling, gently add the eggs and boil for some 8-10 minutes, until hard boiled.  Drain and refill the pan with cold water.  Set aside. 

Fill a large saucepan with water, add a little salt and bring to a boil.

Place the rice into a sieve and rinse under hot water until the water runs clear.  Leave in the sieve to drain, in a colander.

In a large frying pan, heat the groundnut oil and add the onion and garlic along with the cinnamon, sea salt and black pepper and fry on a slow heat until the onion is softened and beginning to brown (around 10-15 minutes).  Make sure to not let the garlic burn.

Add the butter and mushrooms and continue to cook until the butter has melted and the mushrooms have softened slightly.

The water for the rice should be boiling by now, so add the drained rice and cook until the rice is cooked through, but don't let it become too soft.  It needs to retain some "bite".  Once cooked, drain and replace into the hot saucepan until required.

To the vegetables, add the curry paste, ground coriander and ground turmeric and cook for some 5 minutes or so, stirring so as not to let it burn.  Add the water and stir through to create a thick sauce.

Reduce the heat under the pan and add the fish and cover while it gently cooks.  If the curry mixture has become a little dry, add a little more water.

Meanwhile, shell the boiled eggs and separate the yolks from the white.  Chop the white finely - I usually mash it with a fork.

Slightly before the fish is entirely cooked through, roughly flake into large pieces.  Add the garam masala, egg white, chopped coriander and drained, hot rice.  Stir everything through with a fork, using as few mixing strokes as possible in order to avoid breaking up the rice.

Serve onto hot plates and sprinkle each serving with the crushed egg yolk.

Printable version

This coming week's meals - better late than never.

When I left you last, I believe it was Sunday and we'd just had a lovely Gammon pot roast.

Well, I sort of fell apart over Sunday evening and on into Monday morning, in that the sudden attack of "meh!" that had got me earlier in the week turned into stomach pain and an overwhelming desire to vomit.  Not good.  So not good, in fact, that I didn't go to work on Monday.  Bringing a sickness bug to a Hotel is not a good idea.  As it was, after I'd taken son to school and crawled back into my bed for another hour or so's nap, I took some Milk of Magnesia and almost immediately began to feel better.  After a couple of hours, I could even face a scrambled egg - and so began the climb back to the pathetic level of health that I attempt to maintain.  I'm still not quite right - I couldn't face a curry quite yet - but with some skillful  planning, I'll get there.

So, Monday's lovely prawn risotto that Hubby had planned had to be jettisoned in favour of plain old grilled sausages with vegetables and gravy.  The boys, of course, had waffles and baked beans - but I couldn't face the idea of a greasy waffle.  I opted for a medley of fresh vegetables (leftover bits from the weekend, in fact) which sat a lot more easily in my stomach!

Tuesday is the first day of our new week and, because I was still feeling a tad delicate in the tummy department, I was luckily able to plan accordingly.  So, we had a lovely Macaroni Cheese.  We should have had salad, but again, salad was a bit of a stretch for me so we opted for some garlic bread.

My Macaroni Cheese is made with mature cheddar, onion, streaky bacon, English mustard and cayenne pepper.  Now you would think that the cheese would be too heavy, or the pasta, or the bacon - but no.  Nor is the mustard or the cayenne too much.   On the schedule of "things to eat to make you feel better" - a.k.a. "comfort food" - I think you'll find that Macaroni Cheese (or Spirali Pasta Cheese, as this one was!) is around no. 2, with Shepherd's Pie at no.1.

I did manage to get out to the supermarket on Tuesday, so we are all geared up for this week's meals.

Wednesday (or tonight, as I write this), we had something we haven't been able to have for over a year.  A classic old English Beef Stew, with dumplings.  In the past, stewing beef has always come in as too expensive for us.  However, with the supermarket's special offer help, I picked up some lovely shin of beef.  I made some Parsley dumplings - with fresh Parsley - which were delightful and took the place of potato (you will recall Hubby's strange antipathy towards the humble spud) admirably.

Thursday is the night that the Prawn & Little Gem Risotto makes a comeback - and hooray for it!  I'm really looking forward to trying this - and the wait has made it all the sweeter.

Friday and we're having a blast from the past - Kedgeree.  Now I love kedgeree and it's something I've made for years, perfecting the recipe as I've gone along until we've now got a deliciously dry, spicy confection of smoked haddock, hard boiled eggs, curry and rice.  Personally, I prefer to eat it with a side salad dressed with lemon juice and olive oil - but it would seem I'm alone in that!  That's okay, however, because I can soon rustle up a little salad just for me.  Yum!

Saturday needs to be an easy meal that can be eaten whilst watching t.v.  So this Saturday - thanks to Sainsbury's marked down Springform tins - we're having an old favourite which is "Bacon & Blue Cheese Filo Pie" with salad.

We'd stopped having this one for two reasons.  Firstly, my old Springform tin fell apart and secondly, son demonstrated an allergic reaction to blue cheese.  However, this time I'll prepare the pie with a blue cheese free quarter - and have the antihistamine to hand, just in case!  It's a lovely recipe, using layered filo sheets into which you put a mixture of cream cheese, beaten eggs, ham, rocket and pine nuts.  You then sprinkle over some crushed up blue cheese (I usually use Stilton), then fold the filo in to make a crust and bake.  Gorgeous with salad.

Now, Sunday is very exciting.  We're going over to New Milton to see my Parents and they've offered to take us out for lunch at the Fisherman's Haunt in Winkton.  I've had a peek at their menus and everything looks very tempting - so I expect a review will be forthcoming, in due course!

Not one of our Cottage Pies - but it looks nice,
all the same!

Owing again to the supermarket having some very affordable lamb mince, Monday is looking like Shepherd's Pie day.  Lovely!  Hubby is in the kitchen that day - and he makes an amazing Shepherd's Pie.  It will be extra-nice to have a proper Shepherd's pie, rather than the beef version - Cottage Pie.  So, if I'm not fully recovered by Sunday - I certainly will be, by Tuesday morning!  Shepherd's Pie is akin to medicine, in our house!

Lastly - I'd just like to know whether this qualifies me as a real cook.

Circled - just in case you missed it.  :)

I burned my hand on the cooker shelf when I was retrieving the roast potatoes on Sunday.  Yes, I know it's not a BAD burn - but I'm wearing it like a badge, that says "I cook!".  *smile*