Pasta la vista, baby

So we decided to dig out the pasta machine and have a go at making our own - I've owned the machine for years, but only made pasta once or twice way back when.  I made the dough and the kids did the rolling part (with the help of Olivia's friend Nina, who was also here at the time). 

It was quite a successful group effort, really - needs several pairs of hands, ideally. 

We then turned it into a yummy canneloni dish - not sure I'd want to make the pasta myself every time, though it certainly wasn't hard, and the kids enjoyed doing it. We will definitely give ravioli/other filled pasta a try though - I think that's something worth doing homemade...

Feb 18th: Apple Crumble

no recipe, per se. I just use enough flour to cover the fruit, with enough butter or marg to rub nicely into crumbs. Some sugar.  And I usually throw some oatmeal into the crumble mix and sometimes, some chopped nuts. Then bung it into a medium oven until the fruit is soft and the crumble is crispy. Serve with cream, ice cream, custard  - whatever you fancy.

Feb 18th: Vegan Lancashire Hotpot

Recipe Source: The Modern Vegetarian, Simon Rimmer

Tasting Notes:  this is an excellent example of how something doesn't have to contain meat to be both hearty and full of flavour. We love this, and have had it a number of times since I first cooked it a year or so ago.  Sometimes I add mushrooms. I don't use as much olive oil as stated in the reipce.

Feb 17th: Linguine Carbonara

Recipe Source:  Good Food Magazine, October 2008.

Tasting Notes:  This is a nice, easy, carbonara. Yum.

Feb 16th: Chickpea and Spinach Curry

Recipe Source: BBC Vegetarian Christmas, 2003. 

Tasting notes:  We eat this a lot - it's a standby vegetarian curry, as it is easy, yummy, healthy and cheap. Although I've made the flatbreads in the recipe (and they aren't hard and are tasty), we usually don't bother as our local shop does really nice made-in-store flatbreads, so we usually just buy some fresh from them. We do add more potatoes and more spinach than the recipe calls for to bulk it up a bit. Plus we like more spinach.

Feb 15th: Summer Chicken One Pot (new!)

Recipe Source: Good Food magazine, June 2011 Tasting notes: fine, but next time I would use more potatoes. Sarah liked the sauce, particularly (I used low-fat cream cheese because that's what I had & it worked fine).

Believe it...

You might wonder what a knitted Ferari has in common with 

a portrait of a South American tribal chief painted on a tortilla (I was going to show Jimi Hendrix painted on dried dung, but couldn't get a good photo of that),

a large collection of belt buckles, 

some sushi made from drier lint,

a segment of the Berlin Wall, 

the Flute of Shame (hung around the neck of bad musicians),

a wedding dress made from toilet paper

and the Last Supper painted on a dragonfly's wings....

The answer is, these items can all be found in the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum in London (other locales no doubt have similar treats in store, though I'm sure they vary from place to place).  Yes, there were also two-headed calves and replicas of extremely fat, extremely tall and/or extremely tattooed people, but I'm more of a fan of the quirky than the outright grotestque, so my photos concentrate on a different segment of the displays.

I have to admit, the museum was more interesting (to me) than I thought it would be. The kids and I spotted it when we were up in Picadilly Circus to see Les Miserables back in January and we thought it would make a nice half-term outing, something which would appeal to all the kids (not always easy with our age and gender distributions), so after searching out some vouches, off we went. And it was a nice few hours - quite a lot of interest in there for pretty much anyone, even those who might be a bit squeamish could find plenty to look at. I thought there was a good mix of types of display, both in terms of content and in terms of media - some photos, some original cartoons (or posters thereof), some video, some actual objects, a handful of interactive things. Not a cheap treat, but definitely worth considering if you need something to do which will interest both a 9YO boy and a 14YO girl, or a similar spread... (the 12YO girl was interested, too). Plus, I reckon dads in particular would enjoy it!

Feb 14th: Calypso Pork Chops with Red, Green and Gold Rice (new!)

Recipe Source: Levi Roots, Food for Friends. 

Tasting notes:  The rice was lovely, despite no "gold" in it (the yellow pepper I had in the fridge was past it - mushy - ick!). I used a normal red chili, not a Scotch Bonnet. The marinade for the pork chops was sweet without being too sweet and cooked down nicely into a glaze. Good, would eat again.

Feb 13th: Artichoke, Bacon and Cheese Tart

Recipe Source: Good Food Magazine, not sure of date

Tasting notes:  We've had this before and liked it; the same is still true. Neither of the girls really like quiches - Olivia doesn't like anything eggy and while Sarah will eat eggs in some forms, she doesn't really like quiche - so as they are both away, we took advantage of the situation to make a quiche. (Alex likes quiche, no problem.) There are leftovers, which will make a nice lunch.

A little baking

Olivia did a little baking today - it's only  mix, but they look yummy!

Feb 12th: Risotta alla Pomodoro (Tomato Risotto) (new!)

Recipe Source: The Top 100 Italian Rice Dishes, by Diane Seed

Tasting notes: (photo taken before basil and parmesan were stirred in). Very nice, light, not overpoweringly tomato-y. I upped the rice a bit to 500g, which is what it takes to feed 5 of us, then realised that Sarah wasn't going to be eating with us (no problem -risotto for lunch tomorrow!) and upped the stock accordingly, but didn't change the amount of tomatoes. Added a little more parmesan and basil, too. 

Feb 10th: Chicken, Potato and Green Bean Curry (new)

Recipe Source: Good Food Magazine, not sure of date

Tasting Notes:  This was a last minute substitution for dinner - I had planned to cook a risotto, but realised I don't have any arborio rice, and it was cold outside so I didn't feel like going to the shops.  I had to find something I had all the ingredients for, in the house.  It was nice, a good, mild, child-friendly curry - you could make it spicier by using a different curry paste if you wanted to.

Friday morning, 7 am

Feb 9th: Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli

Recipe Source: none - I don't use a recipe for mac & cheese. Added some broc at the end of the pasta cooking time to be healthier.

Feb 8th: Thai Prawn Soup (new)

Recipe Source: Lindsay Bareham, A Celebration of Soup. Modified.

Tasting notes: I added rice noodles and quartered button mushrooms to this, as we wanted something a little more substantial. At the last minute, I also added some beansprouts, as Sarah had a half a package leftover from her DT lesson today. Also upped the number of prawns, again to make it more substantial.  Used vegetable stock instead of fish.

Feb 7th: Minty Lamb Flatbreads

Recipe Source: Good Food Magazine, Jan 2010.

Tasting Notes: I doubled this (more or less) for the 5 of us and served with a salad (this gave us two each - one and a half for Alex, two and a half for Geoff - our supermarket khobez bread comes in a pack of 5 anyway, though our local shop has it in many other guises, as it's Middle Eastern (the shop)). We've had it before, we really like it. Probably need to slightly up the spices, though, as they get a bit lost, I think. 

Feb 6th: Spaghetti with Pancetta, Butter Beans and Rosemary

Recipe Source: delicious. magazine, unsure of date

Tasting notes:  We've had this before and enjoyed it. I doubled (more or less) the recipe, which serves 2. Quick, easy, tasty.

Feb 5th: Chicken soup with noodles and pak choi

No recipe on this one - I was originally going to have cold chicken, fried potatoes and salad for dinner, but there was very little chicken left last night, so it turned into soup instead. Stock from the chicken carcase, then carrot, celery, onion cooked long enough for the veg to get tender. Then some ready-for-wok noodles zapped in the microwave, some chopped pak choi and the small amount of leftover chicken actually in the bowls with the broth ladled over, and hey presto - dinner. Along with some bread, it makes a nice, filling soup, which everyone likes. And uses up some bits and pieces that wanted using!

Birthday Boy

The day started with waffles, and featured various other boy-friendly activities, like 

Lego (a new game, from Grandma Kathy's birthday money), 

a trip to the cinema and then Baskin Robbins with some friends,

and of course, chocolate cake.

9 years ago today...

...more or less. I think this photo is actually when he was a few days old, but the one I have of him as a newborn in hospital is pretty awful, so we'll skip it.   What I need is a companion photo of him with his sisters today - if they ever wake up, perhaps I'll take one...  Happy birthday, little man!

Snow.

Snowing. We aren't supposed to get a LOT, but still, this country is ill-equipped to deal with snow. Alex is terribly upset because he's worried if it snows too much we'll have to cancel his birthday party tomorrow. I'm hoping not, because it's so much of a nuisance to rearrange these things...

Feb 3rd: Black Pepper Tofu (new)

Recipe Source: Plenty, Yotam Ottolenghi

Tasting Notes:  This was very good, although a bit too peppery for Alex and Sarah (Olivia is a spicy food fiend). I did use a little less pepper than called for, but next time would cut it back even further - it would still be plenty peppery. We thought the spring onions were a bit large and/or too many, so will cut that back, too, or at least chop finely. Only used 4 chilis instead of 8, which was plenty (ha). Also felt that although the sauce was gorgeous, it could have been just as good with about a third less butter (though again, I didn't use quite as much as in the recipe in the first place).   The tofu is fragile to deal with, so the dish is definitely not a quick weeknight type meal, but it was extremely tasty.  Served with stir-fried sugar snap peas on the side.

Feb 1st: Courgette and tarragon soup (new)

Recipe Source: New Covent Garden Soup Company, A Soup for Every Day

Tasting notes: we liked the tarragon in this, found it a bit creamy without being too rich. Only problem was, the recipe didn't really make enough - next time, I will increase quantities.  Couldn't find fresh tarragon (not usually a problem) but worked fine with freeze-dried instead.

January Roundup

What's was for Dinner, January 2012

• 31st: Goan Prawn Curry
• 30th: Tagliatelli with Sausage and Porcini Mushrooms
• 29th: Deep Filled Chicken and Mushroom Pie, courgettes, chantenay carrots, baby new potatoes.
• 28th: Savoy Pork Rolls, Dumplings, Pak Choi
• 27th: "Cheat's Lasagne" - will blog another time
• 26th: Jerusalem Artichoke and Carrot Soup
• 25th: Linguine alla Amatriciana
• 24th: Chicken Korma
• 23rd: Leftovers
• 22nd: Red pork curry with green beans and hearts of palm
• 21st: Mushroom pie with stilton, courgettes
• 20th: Fresh tomato lasagne with pesto, salad
• 19th: Jacket potatoes with beans, bacon, etc
• 18th: French-style chicken with peas & bacon, mashed potato
• 17th: Penne putanesca, garlic bread (no recipe)
• 16th: Thai style chicken and vegetable soup (no recipe)
• 15th: Cauliflower and Broccoli Canneloni, Salad
• 14th: Coconut vegetable stew (ok, not brilliant)
• 13th: Roast vegetables with feta cheese & cous cous
• 12th: Pasta with garlicky greens (uninspiring)
• 11th: 5-spice chicken stir fry
• 10th: Night at Les Miserables - everyone fend for yourself
• 9th: Broccoli and Stilton Soup, bread
• 8th: Wholemeal spinach & potato pasties, salad
• 7th: Beef stew (in slow cooker, no recipe)
• 6th: Salmon, baked potatoes, peas
• 5th: (leftover) Broccoli bake
• 4th: Chicken with chili and basil, rice
• 3rd: Night at the pantomime - everyone fend for yourself
• 2nd: Crusty pasta & broccoli bake with ham
• 1st: Ham, slow-cooked with coca-cola, potatoes, vegetables