Dinner Party Triumph

In the midst of my house smelling like an authentic Italian home (picture one of those picturesque little places, nestled deep in the lush hills of Tuscany) home to an Italian mumma who looks strangely like me, only slightly more harassed and more-than-a-little sweaty...it is here that some truly wonderful dinner party creations have been born over the last fortnight; through blood, sweat and tears.

For the past two weeks my boyfriend I have been having a Come-Dine-With-Me-Off with my brother and his girlfriend, with some memorably wonderful and unforgettably bad outcomes, and today I'm going to share the peaks and troughs with you. 

As you know, I'm always in the market for stress-free and taste-full, so this was a perfect opportunity to stretch my kitchen-legs, to flex those admirable cooking biceps, if you will; it could have all gone horribly wrong, especially with such feigned self-belief as that.

This wondrous cook-off idea was mine…after I had cooked a distinctly average spaghetti bolognese accompanied by garlic bread and a little vin rouge (okay, more than a little vin rouge) and a rather-better fruit-bowl crumble, the recipe for which can be found by clicking here. However, this idea led to rather more exciting times than my first and best attempt at feeding everyone, on a rather fragile and slow-moving Sunday. While not particularly exciting, the best advice I can offer you when cooking a spaghetti bolognese is that ketchup, HP Sauce, Lea & Perrins and red wine (one for the dish, two for you, naturally) are the key to worldwide fame in the spag bol department. Not particularly like-a-mumma-used-to-make, but a serious goody nonetheless.

Following this was the first week's trials which firstly saw my (irritatingly lazy/good at cooking when he bothers, instead of ordering a chicken chow mein) brother cook up and absolute storm, with one of the best soup's I've ever tried, later deemed Max's Marvellous Mushroom Soup. To make this truly marvellous creation (I urge you to do this) here's the recipe and method for you, it's enough to serve 4:

Ingredients:

800g button mushrooms
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2g of chive stalks, chopped
2g basil leaves, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
600ml of double cream
1 vegetable stock cube, made into broth
Chilli flakes, optional

Method:

1.) Put your spring onions, chives and basil in butter for a couple of minutes on a high heat, before placing all your mushrooms into the mix. Be sure to add olive oil to ensure you don't burn your mushrooms, cook until reduced a little, then add more butter.
2.) Once reduced, add your prepared stock, then cover and reduce the mixture by half (approximately 10 minutes.)
3.) Blend the mixture, place back into the pan, add your cream, chilli flakes and salt and pepper to taste and cook for a further five minutes, with the lid back on until reduced further.
4.) Blitz for a final time to ensure it is completely smooth and place back on the heat, until suitably warmed before serving.

As you can imagine this simple, rustic but smooth, luxurious soup went down an absolute storm and has been requested/created again since, I have a feeling it will be a firm household favourite in years to come, much to the annoyance of the part of me that still suffers from the curse of lifelong sibling rivalry on an almost daily basis.

The following day saw my boyfriend cook-up a heart attack for each of us, including chicken burgers in cheesy rolls with what we like to call 'fake cheese', we all know what we mean, those perfectly shiny squares of bright orange 'cheese'. I'd hate to see what kind of crazy cow it's made from.
His dish was finished off with mozzarella dippers and sweet potato fries, you know, just in case we hadn't all had enough carbs. Alas, his final dinner more than compensated for this slight oversight and temporary lapse in judgment. Oh the indigestion. Oh the meat sweats.

The next night my brother's girlfriend cooked up a healthy delight (thank goodness) including cooked peppers with overflowing spicy rice, chicken in a garlic and herb sauce and some homemade sweet potato fries. This was finished by the last triumph-of-other-people dish I will mention, before moving on to a well-kept family secret recipe. 

She made adorable puff pastry hearts, packed full of crème fraîche and topped with drizzly chocolate, with gorgeous little chocolatey strawberries served chilled, to the side. 

Adorable, girly and not completely awful for the waistline. Bravo.

Here's how she did it, again, it's enough to make 4:

Ingredients:

Ready-to-roll puff pastry (it's not lazy, it's efficient)
1 egg, beaten
1 pot of crème fraîche 
300g of milk chocolate
250g fresh strawberries
A sprinkle of sugar

Method:

1.) Cut your puff pastry into hearts and use a pastry brush to brush the beaten egg over each heart, before dusting with a little sugar and placing into the oven, on greaseproof paper for 10-15 minutes at 180 degrees, based on a fan assisted oven.
2.) Once cooked through, remove and leave to cool, before slicing each heart in half.
3.) Once sliced, add your crème fraîche and then, when ready place the two halves back together before drizzling yummy chocolate over them.
4.) Lastly, heat up your remaining chocolate and dip the whole strawberries into it, before leaving to one side to cool on some baking parchment.
5.) Serve together and enjoy.

Lastly, on the final and closing night, the fun and frolics fell to me and I decided to do a three course-er, no pressure whatsoever was put on oneself as, of course, one doesn't like to put pressure on oneself at all, does one? Sod that, the pressure was sodding high. Sod, sod, sod.

Growing up my favourite thing in the world, which I genuinely believed God created just for my pleasure (I'm not even religious, but feelings such as that would wash over me like a heavenly cloud with each spoonful) was my Grandma's Lemon Syllabub. Or, as I like to think of it, my Grandma's soaked-in-sherry, oh yeh, right up to the top, it's-lemon-but-that-doesn't-make-you-healthy-it-still-makes-you-a-total-lush-because-it-is-so-full-of-sherry syllabub. 

For my dessert, guess what, my interpretation happened - an interpretation that left everyone hiccuping naughtily and with satisfied, lemon-fuelled, smug looks on their faces.

Begrudgingly, I share the recipe with you now. I say begrudgingly because I fear we will now have a mass exodus of the following items listed in supermarkets all over the world this summer, once you mix all the ingredients together and experience something I suggest you all do, sooner rather than later. 

This recipe offers enough to serve eight people (who have a normal sized appetite for such dishes) or one person (for those, such as myself, who can be utterly dangerous with a large bowl of such yumminess and only one spoon.)

Ingredients:

One pint of double cream
175g caster sugar
Juice and rind of three large, unwaxed lemons
10 tbsp of medium dry sherry (I used Harveys Bristol Cream)

Method:

1.) Firstly grate the rinds of your lemons and place into a large mixing bowl, before squeezing all the juice you can out of the lemons and into the same bowl. 
2.) Then add your sugar, cream and sherry and beat with an electric whisk until thick. Don't over-beat this mixture or it will spoil. You want it like a thick, almost mousse-type consistency.
3.) Place in the fridge for approximately two hours, until set, and serve. I served mine with shortbread rounds which worked perfectly.

After all was eaten and drunk and I felt like I had just completed the London Marathon, I opted to force everyone to have a shot of Schnapps (a-la-after a meal on a European summer holiday style) and we all had the best sleep of our lives. THE END.

PS - if you do take me up on any of these dinner party highlights, then I salute you. Good luck. Go forth and make/break friendships, sweats and crockery. It's a whole lot of fun, if nothing else.

Healthy Choccy Muffins

I don't know about you, but my week's been a super busy one and, generally when that happens, I begin to look forward to the simple pleasures offered by the weekend and, for me, the main one of those simple pleasures is a'baking an' a'blogging and here I am, having now done both, with an easily recognisable combination of happiness/smugness lashed about ALL over my face. And breathe. Happy Sunday.

I hope when you read my blog I feel like a friend as well as a happy-to-help-recipe-offerer and, for that reason, I offer you these show-stopping chocolate gooey yummy-o muffins that are also one of your five a day (or very nearly anyway) because, hey, that's what friends do.
Sorry about all those hyphenated mashed up phrases in my opening gambit, there's just so many words I want to squeeze in about these casually luxurious muffins and clumsy nouns/superlative adjectives seem to be the only tools at my disposal that nail it.

These gooey muffins, packed full of sweet blueberries and even sweeter white chocolate chips will seriously perk you up during the great sugar crashes of 2015…you know, those ones that ordinarily strike at around 15:00 each day.

They're just perfect with a little unsweetened tea or indeed a fruit tea would no doubt be just yummy too.

Without further a-do, or whatever cliché best expressed that we're moving on from my jibber jabber, here's the yummy recipe. I hope it makes you happy and healthy-ish and feel productive. Feeling productive is the best thing ever isn't it…? I remember this one time…NO. Woman, quit yo jibber jabber, we've been through this.

Recipe (makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
200g caster sugar
130g plain flour
50g white hot chocolate powder (Whittards do a delightful one of these, however, if you can't get your hands on it straight away, a little more vanilla essence into the mix in it's absence will work wonderfully too!)
2 tsp baking powder
160ml semi-skimmed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
160g salted butter
140g white chocolate chips
150g fresh blueberries

Method:

1.) Heat your oven to 170 degrees (based on a fan assisted oven) and lay out 12 muffins cases on a 12 hole muffin tray.
2.) Beat together to eggs, sugar, flour, white hot chocolate powder, baking powder, semi-skimmed milk, vanilla extract and butter until well beaten and light.
3.) Use a wood spoon to fold in the blueberries and white chocolate chips until well combined. This will look like rather a lot of the good stuff…it is…and you're welcome. I haven't mistyped any amounts, theses muffins are just full of stuff you like rather than just sponge. Life's too short to not have a lot of what you fancy.
4.) Evenly place the mixture in the cases (this should work out just perfectly - happiness) and bake for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes skewer to check if they are cooked. If any mixture comes out on the skewer, they may need to be cooked for longer.
5.) Once cooked remove from the oven and leave too cool. A little. Not completely because there's a large amount of fun in eating something you've made, fresh from the oven, when it's still warm.
6.) Make tea, put on an episode of your favourite programme or blow the dust off your favourite book…sit back, feet, up relax…don't move until another muffin is needed. You're welcome.

Biscuits Melt like Lemon Drops

I truly believe that if I do ever find that place 'somewhere over a rainbow', these lemon biscuits may well be what is at the end of it. Move over leprechauns and pots of gold, I no longer wish to find you waiting for me.

These suped-up-lemony little biscuits are just perfect with a cup (or Minnie Mouse cup and saucer, a la me) of steaming hot, sugary earl grey and are sure to set you up for the afternoon that lies ahead, whatever it may bring. Refreshing, but creamy and lemony but sweet; they are a bit Mary Poppins in spirit; practically perfect in every way.

The gorgeous tin I popped them in is from Figgins in Frome, a gorgeous little shop that offers all things old fashioned at a reasonable price. It's newly opened and a genuine treat just to walk around, so imagine my surprise when I saw the perfect cookie jar with 'Eat Me' brandished across it this afternoon, ready to be purchased and brought home.
This jar has made me learn something about myself…I like a pretty jar that tells me to eat the glorious contents inside it. Taking advice from inanimate objects, I'm not sure what that's the start of, but I like it.

This gorgeous little jar, just as a sideline note, seemed to be between £12.00 - £20.00 everywhere I saw it online and I paid an enjoyable £10.00 for it in Figgins. Make a trip when you can (that's not an if, it's a when) and be sure to have free hands/an empty boot. You're sure to come out with wonderful trinkets, kitchen utensils and yummy smelling candles.

So, onto these Lemon Drop Biscuits of mine, it's time for the recipe and expectedly simple method. Genuinely, 20 minutes after you start putting your ingredients in the bowl, you will be tasting these biscuits. I hate those people who say "these were so quick and easy to make" and you know they're lying and it took them hours and numerous uncharacteristic expletives to get to the pristine, finished article, but I promise, these are super simple, unbelievably tasty and relatively mess-free.
That's my sort of cooking.

Ingredients:

115g salted butter
Zest of 3 large lemons
275g caster sugar
1 large egg
60ml fresh lemon juice (this should work out to be the juice of those three lemons you've, so nothing is wasted. Or you can of course use a cheeky bit of Jif lemon, for those who are looking for even quicker comfort food)
270g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

Method:

1.) Line three baking trays with greaseproof paper and heat your oven to 170 degrees.

2.) Simply beat together all the ingredients until they are somewhere between runny and thick. This mixture will not be a dough-like consistency like some cookies/biscuits are, so don't be afraid and hastily throw this mixture away if it seems a little thin - it makes for an amazingly light, fluffy biscuit when they get taken out of the oven.

3.) Spoon your mixture onto the baking trays. You will need to use about one dessert spoon of the mixture. Ensure you leave about 3cm between each heavenly splodge and cook for approximately 12 minutes (or a little more, until the biscuits look cooked to your taste.)

4.) Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely. At this point, I cut mine into heart shapes which makes them look just as good as they taste, but you can leave them as they are or cut them into alternative shapes - it's all about what makes simple pleasures, pleasurable to you.

5.) Brew your earl grey, sit back and enjoy.

Happy four o'clocksies, everyone.

Celestial Seasoning Teas

Two of my favourite things in life are tea and quotes, so one of my newly favourite things is Celestial Seasoning Tea, which combines the two.

With each cup of fabulous tea, anything from Raspberry Zinger to a way-above-standard cup of Earl Grey, there is also a quote which will either make you smile, make you think or make you cry a bit. It offers the thinking woman's cuppa.

It was my darling Grandma who first bought me this adorable set which also came with a cute little linen bag with "Kettle On, Feet Up" brandished across it (my sort of instruction) and a coaster filled with spices, which exudes a fabulous smell when warmed up and various teabag flavours which I have been slowly picking my way through over the last few days.

She bought it from the American History Museum in Bath, one of my favourite spots on the planet, hence it being an import but I have already found these being sold on ebay at a reasonable price, which has consequently meant I have spent a little more than was initially intended on fruit tea, but it's all worth it if I get inspired from a mug of hot loveliness each day.

I raise my mug in your general direction and say, "Cheers!"