No such thing as too far

Is 100 miles too far to drive for tea and scones? Is an hour too long to spend in the car just for the purpose of purchasing fancy cakes? Kris believes it is, I on the other hand, would gladly travel three times the distance for something special on my plate.

Harrogate is around 100 miles from us, and an hour or so drive which normally wouldn't matter but other than pretty views the village doesn't really offer much else in the name of activities. Because of this, my bi-monthly requests to be taken to Betty's Tea Rooms is usually answered with a resounding 'No!' Luckily for me (but unluckily for him), the drummer in my lovely fiancee's band has just made the move back to the land of the parents after graduating university. Where do his parents live? That's right, Harrogate. So now, every time the poor soul ventures back up to my neck of the woods, which is quite often, I request he comes bearing a different cake from good old Betty's.


The marzipan cauliflowers are my very favorite.

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Whiskers on kittens...

Certainly are one of my favorite things.

Marmalade McTiddlesworth

Muffin McTiddlesworth

Sure, they're A LOT bigger now, but this pair of terrors can elevate my mood instantly with a simple twitch of their cheeks. Without them I don't know what I would do. It's funny how animals can develop their own little personality, each totally different from the other. Marmalade is my tiny prince, spoilt, fussy and stubborn. Want a big cuddle? Well, you're looking at the wrong cat..unless he wants one, of course. Muffin on the other hand is a cuddly, loving little monster. Probably the most ungraceful cat I have ever met, but boy is she adorable. Put them together, however, and you have a kitty whirlwind of naughtiness. But it's a whirlwind I couldn't live without.

Another of my favorite things is banana bread. Oh, how I love banana bread, the taste, the smell, the way it looks, all sultry sitting there in its tin. And luckily for me, I always have a few over ripe bananas knocking around my kitchen. Add chocolate and I'm yours forever, this cake is like a giant moist hug every morning and it only gets better with age. I often make a loaf at the beginning of the week and see how long it can last for a beautiful breakfast time treat.




Chocolate Banana Bread, adapted from Olive Magazine:

Ingredients:

100g plain chocolate
150g unsalted butter
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175g self raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
25g cocoa powder
2 ripe bananas, mashed (I used 3 small bananas)

Recipe:

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 1kg loaf tin with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate either in the microwave or in a small glass bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir until smooth and remove from the heat.

Cream together the softened butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg, beating well between each addition. Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa and fold in using a large metal spoon. Add the mashed banana and chocolate and mix well.

Pour mixture into lined tin and bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a rack, then wrap in baking parchment or foil.

The original recipe calls for 2 smaller loaf tins and to bake them for 45 minutes. I only have a larger tin so I increased the baking time by 15 minutes which seemed to work perfectly. Just make sure you keep and eye on it after the 45 minutes are up. You can find the original recipe here, on BBC Good Food.

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Brrrrrr

I'm sure you're all very aware of the Geordie stereotype? Those of you who've ever read an issue of Viz will know what I'm talking about. Nighttime rolls around, the pubs begin to fill and thousands of coat-less and, when a lady, tight-less people emerge upon the streets in the depths of Winter, ring a bell? Well, I'm sorry to say that the majority of the time, it's true! There's nothing more sobering than driving through the centre of Newcastle on a Friday night witnessing gaggles of Bigg Market girls in dresses small enough to be my dish cloth in the middle of bloody January. Compare that to little me, snug as a bug under many layers of winter woollies (2 pares of 100 denier tights, thicker than the average pare of trousers. Oh yes!). Madness, utter madness! I'm all for looking pretty, but I'm a firm believer in comfort over fashion....at least at this time of year ;)

As cold as it is, winter is my very favorite time of year, if only for the big stodgy meals you allow yourself to gouge upon. Beef, pastry, potato, massive loaves of sourdough bread...bring it on, all of it, at once! I find myself, all through the British Summertime (what little of it we get up here), wishing the leaves would hurry themselves up and change from green to yellow, all the while pacifying myself on boring sandwiches and dull salads. But, as soon as the very first leaf flutters gently to the floor, the rolling pin is out, the potato masher is liberated and I'm ready to tackle the mountains of winter veg coming my way. I'm all about the comfort food and I live by the moto, bigger is always better, especially when it comes to food!

This January has been the coldest month so far and has left me craving one thing, pie! A steak and ale pie to be precise. I was originally going to use Newcastle Brown Ale as the base but Kris was adamant that Brown gives you a horribly bad tummy if consumed warm. I later discovered that Brown Ale is beautiful in pies and the bad tummy only occurs if drinking it below the recommended temperature, or if the lil star on the bottle hasn't yet turned blue.

I used the recipe from an episode of Jamie at Home I found on the Sky+

Jamie's Steak and Ale Pie:

3 onions
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 handful of rosemary
3 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
800g Stewing steak, diced
1 pint of Guinness (I used locally produced ale)
1 heaped tablespoon of flour
300ml vegetable stock (I found this to be too much so I only used about 150g of it)
500g puff pastry
100g cheddar cheese (I used mature)
1 egg

Peal and slice the carrots and put them aside for later.
Chop the onions and fry them in a large pan with the olive oil.
Finely chop the rosemary and crush the garlic. Add these to the onions.
Add the carrots, beef, ale and flour to the pan.
Add salt and pepper then pour over the stock, but only add enough so that the meat is not quite covered.
Put on the lid on and put into the oven for 2 hours.
Grate the cheese and after the 2 hours take the pan out of the oven and stir in the grated cheese.
Roll out a third of the puff pastry and use it to line a pie dish.
Pour in the mixture. You can also add a bit of extra cheese on the top.
Roll out the remaining puff pastry for the lid. Carefully score it and brush with the beaten egg before putting on the pie.
Put back in the oven for another 40 mins, or until golden and bubbling.

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Yummy yummy, that's a pizza pie

First and foremost, happy new year! I hope you all had a wonderful time surrounded by the people you love! I know I did. Kris and I spent our New Year up in chilly Edinburgh with some very good friends watching fireworks, drinking champagne from a paper cup and having as much fun as a bunch of twentysomethings playing in a play park could have. Nobody, I'm sure, had a better New Year than us.

Not only did our gracious hosts put a roof over our heads but they went out of their way to feed us up on some great food, some of which was home made pizza. I've tried pizza before, a long time a go, and it was a disaster. Bland bland bland, I feel so sorry for the poor people too polite to tell me I'd made a dreadful meal. But after sampling how delicious home made pizza could be, and how simple the lovely Caitlin made it look I was determined to redeem myself.

Not only was it simple and really easy to prepare, but I had a lot of fun doing it. Until my first pizza deceived me. It looked wonderful in the oven, cooking away, toasting the cheese to a beautiful golden brown. Boy, this is a breeze I thought, I should have thought of doing this sooner....uh ohhh! The pizza came out of the oven and refused to let go of its cozy stone. I actually think the two became one. For no amount of trying, I could not get this pizza off the stone. Ready to throw in the towel and phone the ever reliable take away, Kris insisted on calling the pro cooks up in Scotland to see if there was a trick we were missing. There was, apparently you have to coat the surface of the pizza stone in a thick layer of flour to prevent sticking. Bah, nowhere on the box told of this so I assume (and hope, so don't feel like so much of a dufus) they also learned the hard way. By this time, the stone was far from rescue, so I took note of their tips for next time and threw the rest of the prepared pizzas on baking trays and sent them into the oven.

I'm sure, if I used the stone, the pizzas would have been a little crispier but boy were they good just as they were. By the time I finished the last offering there was only scraps of crust left, good job I hid my very own caramelised onion and goat cheese pizza till last, mwahaha. All in all, after what I thought was to be the end of my pizza making career, I think I did good. Im proud of my little mis-shapen babies.

You can find pizza dough recipes all over the Internet, mine was taken from Jamie's Italy (linked here from his website) and included a combination of pepperoni, paprika salami, parma ham, red and green chilli's, chili oil, caramelised onion and goat cheese.

In a vain effort to drag more readers to my little blog (one of my new year resolutions is to become a more active blogger) I will be submitting my pizzas to Yeastspotting.

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Gone in a flash

Well well well, it's all over and done with for another year. Two month worth of heart attack inducing stress leading up to the big day then poof, it's finished. Exhausted and a few pounds heavier we ask ourselves, is it really worth all the hassle? Deep down, we all know the answer.....of course it is!!

For those of us in our mid twenties Christmas never really offers much of a problem, at least, it doesn't for me. I'm a firm believer that my mothers Christmas lunch is the best in the world and all gatherings should be held around her tree rather than my own. Here mother, take my share of the burden as well as your own, I insist. So really, the most stressful part of my day turns out to be drying my hair in an overly warm house. But this year I felt jealous. I sat by and watched my mother dive around the kitchen like a woman possessed in total envy. I wanted those to be my carrots, my sprouts, my damn turkey! Next year, I'll claim the whole damned holiday and mum can be the one to sit back an relax. It's only fair. But, pushing my green eyed monster aside, it really was a wonderful Christmas. I couldn't have wished it any better. Family, friends and good food; what more can a girl ask for? One thing, that's for sure...

And I got it! The thing I've been lusting over since I was old enough to venture into a department store unsupervised, a lime green Kitchenaid mixer. Swoon! It's my new favorite toy in the world, and to make things even better, I got a free accessory pack worth £140. Thank you Santa (or dad, whichever you prefer).



I love you Kitchenaid! Next on the list, a Smeg fridge :D

I was itching to take it out on a test drive that very day but alas, it wasn't to be. The days following Christmas were hectic. Family to visit, friends to enjoy and a lot of wine to drink. But today, life calmed and I could get my fingers stuck straight in, hurray! Kris' mum bought me a darling book called Easy Baking (my love of all things kitchen is well documented among my peers) full of really easy sweet treats for a fast paced life. And since during this festive season my life has been far from the chilled affair it usually is, I thought it perfect for my first Kitchenaid adventure. Chocolate chunk cookies, yum!

Now, as much as I love the city of Newcastle, it's not a great night out destination, especially on New Years Eve. I've had nothing but bad experiences and I vowed this year would be different. No parties full of people I hardly know with the promise of sleeping on a lumpy couch looming over my celebrations and no over priced, over filled club pumping out music I despise. This year will be spent way ooop north in Edinburgh with some dear friends and a nice bottle of gin. That's my kind of night. You'll probably be wondering why I've started waffling on about NYE, well I'm getting to that. I have two cats, Marmalade and Muffin whom I love like children....probably a little bit more than children if I'm honest. And, as much as I adore my little terrors, they kind of hinder any out of town plans, so I've had to lure my little brother into cat sitting with the promise of vodka and home baked goodies. Which is where my cookies come in.



I do hope they'll do. I've yet to try one as the very thought of anything chocolaty has me running for the cheese counter of my local supermarket. Keep your smarties away from me, thank you very much...for the time being. The recipe called for 100g of white chocolate and 50g of Brazil nuts but my younger sibling would vomit at the very taste of a nut continuing cookie so I changed it to fit what I had in the cupboard, 50g of white chocolate chunks, 50g of plain chocolate chips and 50g of dried cranberries. Kris tells me it works very well, I certainly hope so.

One thing, my cookies never seem to spread much during baking but stay as quite chubby rounds. I'm not sure why this is, maybe I'm not flattening them enough before baking, or maybe the oven isn't hot enough. I just don't understand.....

The recipe, should you like to recreate....

115g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
115g soft light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
250g self raising flour
pinch of salt
125g white chocolate, chopped
50g brazil nuts, chopped
(substitute the filling, I did)

Preheat the oven to 190C, reduce for fan, and grease several baking sheets.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Gradually add the egg to the creamed mixture (I remembered this time, haha), beating well after each addition.

Sift the flour and salt into the creamed mixture and blend well. Stir in the chopped chocolate and nuts.

Place heaped teaspoons of the mixture on the prepared baking sheets, spacing well to allow for spreading during cooking. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until just golden brown.

Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and leave to cool.

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