Monday 16 March 2009

I have been cooking.....


honestly!

Have just been very busy with the new site, and haven't had time to do everything I should be doing. I did make both a very naughty chocolate cake last week, and vanilla ice cream (never start it late in the day if you are freezing it the old fashioned way)

Have taken mince out of freezer for dinner tomorrow, will probably be my own version of spag bol, which probably isn't anything like the proper Italian style, but I like it anyway!

Sus x x x

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Honey & Mustard Chicken

Todays dinner is Honey & Mustard Chicken. It should have been honey and garlic chicken but I don't have any garlic left - which is most unlike us, we normally have loads!

Anyway, I specially weighed all the ingredients just for you:

Chicken drunsticks and thighs (I have three of each)
25g butter (I use salted)
30-40 g honey
2 tsp mustard seeds
Some dried or fresh herbs for colour - I used tarragon, thyme and a tiny bit of cumin.

Right, stick all that into a pan and cook for a minute or two over the hob. You can adapt it to suit yourself - I normally add a bit of garlic too, and sometimes a bit of lemon. you could use chicken breats too, but there's a credit crunch on so we went for the cheaper option.

Pour your melted mixture over the chicken. Leave it to sit for a couple of hours and then chuck in the oven (190) for about an hour. Depends on what chicken you use really as to how long it needs. Turn over once about halfway through, and then again about 10 minutes before the end or the chicken is upside down.

Serve with anything you fancy! We are having it with wedges (potatoes, olive oil, some herbs or or chilli, roast for about 45 minutes) and we are also doing roasted veg (butternut squash, sweet potato, parsnip, onion and carrots, cooked in butter and sweet onion relish because it's been in the fridge for weeks)

Enjoy!

Muffins!



Yesterday I made muffins. I love muffins, and eating cake makes breakfast acceptable. I decided to make raspberry muffins and white chocolate muffins. I started with the white chocolate ones and this is how it went....


3.30pm
After looking for some recipes online I found two that looked fabulous. I printed them off and went into the kitchen to discover I had forgotten to clean it. I decided it would be muuch better to make the muffins first, because if I made them after cleaning the kitchen I would have to clean up twice.
I use a fair few American recipes, which all call for cups. After spending a frustrating couple of years worrying about what size a cup was I eventually found some in a local supermarket. I then discovered my two cups sizes are different. The plastic ones I bought from Morrisons (which have a handy spoon size on it too) were smaller than the metal ones from Tesco. Decided to use metal ones as they looked posher.
Washed hands, checked recipe, turned oven to 350 and realised it didn't go that far. Went into living room and converted it online...works out at around 180. Took muffin tray out of cupboard, looked for muffin cases, found them, and lined the muffin tray with them. Much easier than nessing about and greasing everything in sight.
Found really large posh glass mixing bowl that recently purchased because was on sale. Found another bowl for dry ingredients. Measured out 2.5 cups of all purpose flour, 0.5 tsp salt, 3.5 tsp baking powder. addition on baking powder suggested I should have used plain flour and not self raising. Added 1 tsp instead to make sure they had no choice but to rise.
Got glass bowl. Recipe asked for 12 tbsp of butter at room temp. I used 12 tbsp of marg at fridge temp. Added 1 cup of suger, not sure which kind so used caster sugar. Turned on electric whisk and whisked away for the 2-3 required minutes. Realised had not bought chocolate chips. Took out white chocolate bar (it's cheaper for a start) and bashed up with the tin opener while whisking. Put in 2 eggs one at a time. Was supposed to add 1.5 tsp of vannila extract but didn't have any pods left, so left that out. Time to add half of flour mixture. Hand whisked flour too as had forgotten to sieve it. This new method worked, and stopped flour flying all over place when sieved. Added half flour to wet mixture. Whisked. Add 3/4 cup of milk. Whisked. Add rest of flour, making sure did not over beat. You have to then fold in tin opener bashed chocolate with a spatula. Realised had broken spatula some weeks ago so used one with no handle. Hands got a bit messy.
Put the mix into cake cases. Woman was right, she said the recipe was for 12, should get 14, I got 16. Only have one muffin tin so sat 4 in a normal cake tin and left them for a while. Slid muffins in oven, took other recipe.

4.00pm
Took posh glass bowl over to sink and washed it. Have just realised should have had oven higher for this one, but I didn't! Melted 6 tbsp marg in the microwave. Added this to 3/4 cup packed dark brown suger. didn't have dark brown sugar, used light brown instead. Added 1/2 cup milk and 1 egg. Whisked on high speed to save time.
In the plastic bowl whisked together 1.5 cups flour (used plain this time), and added 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp of cinnamon and the recipe asked for 0.5 tsp fleur de sel which I had never heard of but translated to salt flour, which I didn't have, so I used normal salt. Added dry ingredients to wet. Whisked until just incorporated. Took raspberries and blackberries from fridge. These had been frozen so they were a bit mushy. Drained juice to drink later. Added to the mixture.
Tasted juice, was v not sweet, added to mixture instead, mixture now looked v wet, added a bit of flour to make up for it.
Realised I couldn't put them in the oven as the others still weren't ready yet. Tidied up a bit fo the kitchen while I waited.

4.35pm
Muffins were ready! Took out of oven. Was supposed to let cool in tins but couldn't be bothered. Took them out and wondered if I was getting chef hands like they are always taking about in Market Kitchen. Lined with more cases, added raspberry mixture which honestly looked like brown sludge. Chucked them back in oven.
Tidied up a bit more of the kitchen.

5.15pm
Took nearly burnt muffins out, should not check emails while stuff is cooking. Realised husband would soon be home and no dinner was made. Kept oven on and chucked a couple of chicken kievs in. Couldn't eat them as looked yuk, so made me chips for a treat. Needed to leave room for all the muffins! Sat muffins on table to take a picture. Dropped one on floor, it went everywhere.

5.45pm
Took spare four muffins out of oven. Kitchen was tidy, but not amazingly so. Sat muffins at front of kitchen so husband would notice my wonderful home cooking skills and not the nearly clean kitchen.

6.00pm
Husband has finished dinner. He tried to eat three chocolate muffins and discovered three is too many. Caiden ate the other one. Have sat some in freezer, some for kids to add to packed lunches, and eaten rather a lot myself. They really are v scrummy.



For thise interested in the proper way to make these muffins, I took the recipe from this site:

Annie's Eats - Raspberry Muffins

Annie's Eats - Chocolate Muffins


Have fun and enjoy!




My biggest fan!

Monday 2 March 2009

Hiya

Welcome to my new blog!

I don't cook professionally, all I do is try to make lovely meals and tasty treats for my family. Like most things in my life, I have my own unique and special way of doing them. I rarely create my own recipes, I hunt online for delicious ones from other people. However, as I rarely have everything the recipe calls for, or I make a mistake, I use a substitute (hence blogger name!)

For those that are new to the weird and wonderful person I am, I shall introduce myself properly. I am named Mum mostly, although I am occasionally called Auntie Sue and tend to get called Sus online. My mum named me Susan and that's what she calls me when I'm in trouble. I am 26 and have three awful children. I was married on the 28th June 2008 to a wonderful, kind, caring and very patient man called William. We all live in domestic bliss in Scotland. I work as a wedding stationer and I'm even pretty good at it. I have no pets, I like to pretend I'm a gardener in the summer and I love reading. I already have two blogs, but they are more businessey and wedding orientated so this one is just for me!

Sus x x x