Tag Archives: food

An Update

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I haven’t forgotten this blog, I’ve just had very little time. However now I have lots of things I want to write about so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep up with this a bit more!

I only have one main finished project, and that’s the cardigan from NaKnitMo. I love it, it’s warm and cosy and I’ve basically been using it as a coat. The pattern is Velvet Morning and I used Wendy Traditional Aran (which I believe is British). Sorry about the bad picture quality.

Velvet Morning Cardigan

I didn’t knit much in December, just started a pair of thick socks from the leftovers of my cardigan. I’ve almost finished them now, and once I have it’s time to get back into proper knitting again.

In December, Nick from UdellGames and I got engaged. I’m planning to knit a shawl for me, and shawls for my bridesmaids. The pattern I picked for my shawl is Sheherazadeshetla and I’m using Jamieson & Smith’s Shetland Supreme 1ply, which has 1600m per 100g. It’s really thin, but the small bit I’ve knitted so far is coming out really well. It was important to me to use British wool, and I wanted a natural but pure white, and this was the closest I could find.

Finally, as a birthday present for me, and an engagement present for the both of us, Nick and I bought a Kenwood Chef Titanium. So far we’ve made ice cream, short crust pastry, soda bread and some bread using ground almonds instead of flour, and have been impressed by it all. We only got it on Tuesday. Now that I’m used to it, I plan on making up some of my own recipes, so look out for them in the future.

In 2015 I have some big plans. Not only am I knitting my wedding shawl and bridesmaids’ shawls, I’m also going to try and knit a pair of socks per month (I managed 11 1/2 pairs of socks last year!), plus I want to knit at least one cardigan, a scarf/shawl or two for me and probably various other small things. I’m also going to finish sewing my big fancy project bag, and learn how to sew clothes properly. That should give me plenty of material to post at least once a week for the foreseeable future. Oh, and we also plan on getting a dog, as soon as we can find one that’s suitable.

In December my working hours got doubled. This has made me value my free time a bit more though so I’m actually managing to get more done than before.

So, that’s the plan, let’s see if I can actually stick to it this time!

Poached egg & mushroom on tomato & pepper couscous

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I had the idea of making eggs benedict with a large mushroom instead of the muffin. Then I decided to make it into a larger meal and this is what happened. It’s pretty easy and takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Poached egg & mushroom on tomato & pepper couscous with hollandaise sauce (serves 2)

Egg mushroom bacon couscous

Ingredients

  • 1/4 pint volume of couscous
  • 1/2 pint boiling water
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Small handful of basil leaves
  • 1/2 ramiro pepper
  • Handful sundried tomatoes
  • Two large portobello mushrooms
  • 4 rashers of streaky bacon
  • 4 eggs (2 for sauce, 2 for poaching)
  • 80g salted butter
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar (any white vinegar should do though)
  • Small amount of fresh chives
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method

  1. Preheat oven to gas mark 6 / 200C / 400F
  2. Add boiling water to couscous. Chop and add the basil and lemon juice. Cover.
  3. Cut ramiro pepper in half lengthways and deseed.
  4. Put mushrooms and pepper on baking tray and cook for 10 minutes.
  5. Add bacon to baking tray and cook for a further 10-15 minutes (depending on how crispy you like your bacon).Mushroom pepper bacon
  6. Meanwhile, add remaining lemon juice and vinegar to a saucepan and simmer.
  7. Separate two of the eggs. Put the yolks into a bowl and save the whites for something else, like meringue.
  8. Whisk the eggs, and slowly drizzle in the hot lemon juice and vinegar while whisking vigorously.
  9. Melt the butter in the saucepan you just emptied. Don’t worry about cleaning it.
  10. Meanwhile, take the pepper out of the oven and coarsely slice it and the tomatoes and add to couscous.Tomato pepper couscous
  11. Start warming plates and put a pan of water on to boil.
  12. Gradually pour the melted butter into the egg mix again whisking vigorously. Leave in a warm place.
  13. Add a splash of any type of vinegar to the pan of boiling water. Turn down to simmer. Stir in a circular motion, then when almost still, break an egg into the middle.
  14. Spoon half the couscous mix onto each plate. Get the tray out of the oven and add a mushroom to each plate.
  15. By this time your first egg should be ready. Remove from pan, drain and place on top of a mushroom. Cook the second egg.
  16. Pour half the sauce (will be runnier than normal hollandaise) over the egg. Place the bacon on top and sprinkle with chives.
  17. When the second egg is cooked, repeat.
  18. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  19. Eat and enjoy!Poached egg & mushroom on tomato & pepper couscous

Food Friday 1

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As you may have noticed, I use WIP Wednesday to help link to other blogs. I thought it might be fun to do the same for food. So, as I already have Food Friday, I thought it’d be a good time to start this.

If you’ve made anything delicious in the last week that you want to share, add your link to your post about it here. All I ask is that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. If this proves successful, I may start setting some challenges to help as inspiration. How does that sound?

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Food Friday – Cooking Fails

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Everybody has cooking fails. In fact if you don’t have cooking fails, you aren’t trying hard enough.

Sometimes the fails work out for the best. Like the time I didn’t realise the type of lid had been changed on the Season-All. I expected a light sprinkle, and I got about a tablespoon full, straight into my cauliflower mix. Thankfully, that was actually about the right amount, and a light sprinkle would probably have been nowhere near enough.

Sometimes the cooking fail is really a fail. Like the time my friend thought she was using the ginger powder, and instead had cinnamon. That was a weirdly sweet meal, and not in a good way. And the cake she made that was so dry it soaked up a whole bowl of custard and was still dry. And like the time I tried cooking pasta in a creamy sauce, which split and was disgusting, and I still haven’t worked out why.

There are probably countless cooking fails I’ve made, so I won’t list them all. What are some of your amusing cooking fail stories?