Pineapple Upside Down Cake

 

Anybody here like cake?

Hands up?

Yes, me too. And this particular cake is a bit of a sweet-toothed 80s bright coloured throwback, to a time when exotic fruit in a tin was the highlight of the week.

Making this seems a long time ago now, as it's two weeks since I last ate. 

(Not strictly true, but I am sticking to the diet pretty well and cake is not currently happening).

This cake is the perfect comfort food for a winter's evening.  Enjoy with custard.

Ingredients

butter (melted)                   100g

brown sugar                       1/2 cup

pineapple rings (drained)     440g can

Pineapple juice                    2tbsp

Cream cheese                    125g

butter (softened)                150g

caster sugar                        1 cup

rind and juice of 1 orange

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

self-raising flour                    1 cup

Method

1. Preheat over to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Tip the melted butter into a 24cm round cake tin, brushing it up the sides to grease. (If you're using a loose bottomed tin, like me, be aware that it will ooze out in cooking).
3. Sprinkle brown sugar over the butter and then arrange the pineapple rings over the base of the tin.  I popped glace cherries in the centre of each one for a really vivid pop of colour.
4. Mix the cream cheese, butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  
5. Add the orange rind and juice, 2 tbsp of pineapple juice, eggs and flour.  Mix well until smooth.
6. Spoon the mix into the prepared tin over the pineapples.
7. Put the cake into the oven for 40-50 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
8. Leave to cool for 10 minutes and then turn out carefully onto a wire cooling rack.

This is one of my creative endeavours this month in my year of creativity.  Considering I had five creative things to do this month I've made a remarkably slow start. 

The crochet is going well, but I'm not sure if I'll finish this month.  I have at least bought the bottles I need to make the wine. I haven't even begun to think about the cushion covers or the macrame and the stuff to make the little dolls is just sitting there waiting for some attention! 

On the other hand, I have been running two Beaver meetings and two Cub meetings via Zoom, I have a lot of Phonics videos on my YouTube channel, and the children are getting on well with their home learning. There's certainly been some creativity going on in the house, even if it hasn't all been mine.

Endangered animals masks made with Beaver Scouts

I really don't know the purpose of the cardboard fort or the Harry Potter x Victorian costume - sometimes it's best not to ask.

Charlie's tin can tealight candle holders that he made with Scouts.

Charlie's pelican, penguin, cat mash-up that he did for an Art lesson.

A Mediterranean Diet

Turn on the news these days and nearly every week you'll find some advice on what you should or should not eat - much of it contradictory.  Fad diets - 5:2, superjuice, "you are what you eat" (I know a brilliant joke about that one),carb free, gluten free, red and green days and all the rest make me want to go and stick my head in an oven.  I really like food - tasty and delicious food.  Some foods I like are healthy, some are very unhealthy (chip shop chips, blackforest gateaux etc.).  

I don't want to feel guilty about any food.  I want to nosh it down whenever I feel like it... within reason.  

I also want to be healthy.  

I accidentally lost quite a bit of weight between the Summer and Christmas.  I just lost my appetite through some combination of Vasculitis or the drugs I'm on to treat it, and managed to shift some weight that I've been trying to get rid of for about ten years.  Now that the appetite has come back, I'm keen not to pile the weight all back on if possible.  Hubby is also conscious that he's approaching half a century at the end of this year, and is anxious to lose some weight and live a healthier lifestyle.

One type of eating that we keep hearing about in a positive light is the "Mediterranean Diet".  Nobody is quite sure what it is about this diet that appears to have health benefits and support longevity - whether it's the red wine, the olive oil, the abundance of tomatoes, fruits and vegetables, the sea food, the cheese, the nuts and pulses, the convivial shared eating experience of "picking at" dishes or whether its some combination of all the above (or more sunshine), we just don't know.  What we do agree on is that both Hubby (and usually the children) love the flavours.  Spanish, Provencal, Greek, Turkish, Moroccan, Italian - all are food cultures that we thoroughly enjoy. 

This January I've heard Hubby harping on about extolling the virtues of both smaller portion sizes and "a more Mediterranean diet" a lot so on a trip to Waterstones decided to see if I could find a suitable new cook book to support the crusade.

Enter...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mediterranean-Cookbook-Marie-Pierre-Moine/dp/1409347249/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483903522&sr=8-2&keywords=mediterranean+cookbook

It's always a good sign when reading the cookbook makes your mouth water and you can't wait to get to the shops and buy in some of the ingredients you need to get started.  In this family there will always be room for Pie and chips or Staffordshire Oatcakes, but maybe we'll insert a bit more pitta with houmous, prawns dripping with garlic and chilli, olives and delicious salads in between and just possibly be a little healthier for it.  Or we'll have friends queueing up to partake of a bit of convivial red wine, cheese and garlic, and we won't care how healthy we are!

What's your latest new cookbook and what will you be cooking from it?

It looks naughty... but it's healthy!

 One ingredient, super easy to make, banana ice-cream

One of the items on our Easter Holiday List was "make ice-cream".  A quick internet search revealed a plethora of no-machine ice-cream recipes, but this one really caught my eye.

I found it here, on www.thekichn.com.  Yes, it's true!  Ice-cream made using only bananas!

First, chop the bananas, it doesn't matter how roughly.  Bug did ours. 

Put the bananas into the freezer for a couple of hours.  

Then stick them in the blender and blend them.  This turns them into frozen banana puree/cream.

At this point you can add extra ingredients like honey, peanut butter, raisins or mini-marshmallows.

Put the banana ice-cream in a bowl and back into the freezer to set a bit further.

Serve!

I also froze a Mars bar, and roughly chopped this, served on top of the banana cream.  It makes what looks like a very decadent dessert, but is actually one of your five-a-day, with 1/4 of a Mars bar added!

We didn't actually let the bananas freeze for long enough, as I had forgotten to chop and freeze them before we went to the recycle centre, so ours ended up more like chilled banana puree, but it was still very, very tasty and met with approval all round, so this is certainly something we'll be making again.

What to do with limes

I have five limes sitting in my fruit basket.  They've been there for a couple of weeks and are definitely now past their best.  I needed one for a recipe, but this particular supermarket only sold them in packs of 6.  For some reason we aren't drinking much G&T at the moment, so the limes are just sitting there.  So a quick web-search has revealed the following uses for my limes:

image from www.journeytom.com

Get a case of Corona, put a wedge of lime in the top of each bottle and drink.  I'm liking this one, though I'll need to drink a lot of Corona to use up 5 limes!

Squeeze the juice and freeze it to use in future recipes.  Very practical.  I'm liking.

image from www.whatscookingamerica.net

Slice and freeze, ready for when we are back on the G&T in the future.

image from www.freeextras.com 

Yoghurt, mint and lime marinade - for any meat.  (from Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef): 1 pint natural yoghurt, 2 handfuls of chopped fresh mint, zest and juice of two limes, 1tbsp coriander seeds (crushed), salt and pepper and a couple of tbsp olive oil.  Mix together all the ingredients and smear over the meat - leave to marinade.

image from www.jamieoliver.com 

Refreshing drink - slice the limes, add a cupful of white sugar.  Mash the limes and sugar until all the sugar has dissolved.  Leave to stand for ten minutes.  Top with 6 cupfuls of water and a cupful of ice and serve in tall glasses.

image from www.ocado.com 

Pancakes with lime and sugar instead of lemon and sugar.

I'm loving these ideas!

Best stand-by recipe in the world.

My best ever stand-by recipe is... tuna pasta bake.

It's easy to cook, all the main ingredients are always in my store cupboard, and the children love it.

Cook some pasta until al dente.

Hunt around for any stray vegetables in your fridge or cupboard - any of the following are good: courgette, peppers, sweetcorn, olives, onions, mushrooms or tomatoes.  If you prefer, fry them off a little.

Mix the al dente pasta, a tin of chopped tomatoes, a few herbs, a tin of tuna chunks and the vegetables.  Top with grated cheese and bake in the oven for 15 or 20 minutes at 180 C.

As an alternative you can exchange the tuna for some fried off lardons or pancetta or chopped bacon, or cooked chicken.

Cooking with toddlers - thumbprint cookies

We tried this recipe for the first time today, and it was very successful.  It's from the brilliant "Kids First Cookbook:

You get 4 ounces of light brown (or muscovado) sugar and 4 ounces of butter and beat them together until light and fluffy. 

Mix in one egg.  C is just learning to crack an egg into a bowl at the moment, and loves any chance he gets to practice this new skill.

Stir in 2 ounces of plain flour, 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda, 2 ounces of cocoa powder and 4 ounces of oats until really gooey.

Now get your hands in there and roll into sixteen little balls.  Lightly press them on to your baking tray, leaving plenty of space for expansion.

With a thumb dipped into flour, press a dent in the top of each one.

Bake at 180 C for ten minutes, then leave on the tray to set for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Use two teaspoons to put a blob of chocolate spread into the dent in each cookie.

Lick all bowls and spoons because they are all delicious!

Try very hard to wait until after dinner to devour your treat.

Busy Mum's Magic Recipe

Home made soup.


Warming, filling, healthy, hearty, delicious.


Grab the bits and pieces, start them off, fill the house with tempting aromas, come back to yummy lunch.


First off - saving veg:
When I  dig up a whole load of veg all at once that'll never get eaten, I'm never sure how best to store it.  So I peel and chop and throw it in a freezer bag and into the freezer in the garage with a label.  I don't know how well the structure would survive defrosting, but when it comes time to make a soup or a stew I just head down to the garage and grab a handful of whatever I want - it means I always have home-grown veg to hand.  This is also a useful trick for when you see fruit or veg "reduced for quick sale" in the shop, just slightly past it's best.  Peel, chop, throw out any manky bits and freeze for purees, pies, stews or soups.

Now here are two soups I've made this week.


Roast butternut squash, sweet potato and red onion.

• Peel a butternut squash, a sweet potato and a red onion and chop into large chunks.
• Place on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and roast for 45 minutes at about 180C.
• Put into a blender in batches with a little stock and blitz.
• Transfer to a pan, stir in as much stock as you like for the consistency that you want and reheat to serve.
• Lovely with a swirl of creme fraiche or double cream.

Veg delight.

• Peel and chop half an onion or a couple of shallots (whatever you have lying around), and saute in a little oil.
• Throw in any bits of frozen root veg from your veg saving (see above) and add any bits from the bottom of your fridge or from your garden - today I used a handful of turnip and a handful of potato from the freezer, two carrots from the garden and half a butternut squash from the fridge.  Also add a small handful of lentils if you like.
• Pour on enough stock to cover the veg.  Bring to the boil.  Reduce heat and leave to simmer for at least an hour.
• Remove from the heat and allow to cool a bit.  Blitz with a hand blender (watch out because it will probably splash and may still be hot).  Add some more stock if required for the consistency. 
• Reheat to serve.

I love the way that these soups take hardly any effort, but I am creating something delicious, I know what's in it, and my children love it.

Little C dunks his bread in, leaves it on the plate to cool down and then tucks in.  Once the bread has finished he sets to work on the spoon.

Little Sis, still only seven and a half months can't get to grips with the spoon yet, so I just give her plenty of dunked bread, which she smears all over her face with gusto.

Recipe: Roasted mackerel with bay, lime and olives.

I had to include this recipe as it was not only super easy to make, it was also very healthy and delicious!

Ingredients - serves 4
4 mackerel fillets, 2 tsp cumin seeds, 4 tbsp thyme leaves, 2 limes (sliced), 3 bay leaves, 12 black olives, juice of 2 limes, 8 tomatoes, handful chopped basil leaves, 4 finely chopped shallots, extra virgin olive oil, fresh crusty bread.

Method

• Preheat the oven to 220C.
• Lay the fish fillets in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with cumin seeds, thyme leaves, lime slices, bay leaves, black olives and lime juice.  Season generously and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast for 15 minutes.
• While the fish is cooking, slice the tomatoes and lay in a serving dish sprinkled with torn basil leaves, chopped shallots and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.  Drizzle generously with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (we used bog standard cheap olive oil and it still tasted lovely).
• Serve the fish, tomato salad and fresh bread in the centre of the table for everybody to help themselves.

Easiest recipe ever - cheesy pastry shapes

This is the easiest recipe ever.


All you need is some shop bought shortcrust pastry, some margerine, Marmite and grated cheese (I used Cheddar and Parmesan).


Roll out the pastry.  Spread with margerine and Marmite, sprinkle with grated cheese, then fold and re-roll.  We repeated this process about three times.


Then use the shaped cutter to cut out the pastry shapes and then re-roll and cut some more.


Lay out the shapes on a floured baking tin, and then spread about half of them with a bit more Marmite and sprinkle with a little more cheese.


Bake at 180C for 20-30 minutes.


Yum, melt in the mouth deliciousness, and it's all easy enough for a toddler to get stuck in with.

Recipe time - Easy chicken stir-fry

A totally delicious recipe that is fabulously easy to make.

Ingredients (to serve 4): 
3 chicken breasts (chopped into strips), 3 tbsp dark soy sauce and 3tbsp light soy sauce, 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped), 1 cm fresh ginger (finely chopped), 250ml chicken stock, 1 red chilli (cut into rings), 1 red pepper (cut into strips), 200g sugar snap peas (topped and tailed), 1tbsp cornflour (mixed with a little water), dry egg noodles (3 blocks).

Method:

• First, make sure your toddler is stationed ready for action.
• marinate the chicken in the soy sauce for at least five minutes
• start cooking the noodles
• heat some oil in a wok and fry the ginger and garlic for a minute.
• Add the chicken and marinating juices and cook for a further couple of minutes.
• Add the chicken stock and cook for another 2 minutes.
• Stir in the cornflour paste and then add the pepper, chilli and sugar snap peas and cook for another 2 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
• Serve on a bed of noodles.

I made a couple of changes to this recipe:  

• I used frozen stir-fry chicken from Tesco, so took it out of the freezer a couple of hours before cooking and put it with the soy sauce to let it start defrosting and marinade at the same time.  This also meant that I fried the chicken for a few minutes before adding the garlic and ginger, and then added the marinading juices.
• I also used some chopped chilli that I keep in a small zip-lock bag in the freezer rather than cut into rings - you know how supermarkets only sell chillies in packs and you only ever need one or two so the rest go manky, I just chop them up and stick them in the freezer to use as and when required.
• I cooked for longer than specified, partly because of the frozen chicken, and partly because I have a baby and toddler, and don't like to be rushed because you never know what might happen to interrupt everything!

My little monkey, part way through cooking, spotted a box of Jacobs biscuits for cheese - the cheeky monkey looked at them, looked at me and came out with, "Would you like some biscuits?" (read - I would like a biscuit mummy, but this is a cunning way around it!)  He's not even two yet - how did he learn such cunning?  Of course I gave him a kiss and a biscuit!  Here he is enjoying the biscuit, and below, stirring the cornflour paste.

Lovely dinner party

As usual I forgot to take photos, but last night we had some friends over for dinner, which was lovely and something I'd like to do more often.  Next time, once Little Sister settles more consistently in the evening, we're going to invite some of our neighbours over. 


I carefully selected my menu so that I could do as much prep as possible at nap time, leaving me little to do when little people needed feeding and putting to bed.  I also took my guests up on their offer to provide dessert, which was a spectacular pavlova (I'm still drooling just thinking about it!).  Of course, it didn't quite work out as planned.  To start with I was up at 5.30am yesterday feeding Little Sister, so by nap time I definitely needed to lie down for a bit of sleep too - so the food prep was hurriedly completed after nap time, while Little C played and Little Sister watched me, before a hurried walk with  the Waggy-Tailed-One.  Incidentally, no walk in  this village can be hurried - after I'd stopped to chat with neighbours three times before I even got to the bottom of the road I gave up on the idea of Little C having a bath before his tea and just relaxed and enjoyed a stroll punctuated with neighbourly chats. 


Anyway, here are my recipes:


Starter - Salmon and Chorizo fishcakes
These were delicious and I hope that they'll become one of my signature dishes (you know, the ones that people talk about and ask you to make again... so far I only have a signature pudding - chocolate bannoffee pie - mmmmm).


250g peeled chopped potatoes; 250g salmon fillet; 75g chorizo; zest of 1/2 lemon; 4tbsp veg or sunflower oil; 1 egg - beaten; 100g fine breadcrumbs;

• Boil the potatoes for 10-15 minutes, and grill the salmon for ten minutes;
• Chop the chorizo into small pieces (a decent pair of scissors does a treat) and fry until crispy, then drain on kitchen paper.
• Drain the potatoes, flake the salmon and mix with the chorizo and lemon zest - a food processor mixed it all up much more effectively than I was managing by hand, though obviously involves more washing up.
• Shape into small fishcakes (it should make about 20), and chill for at least 30 minutes (or as long as required to walk dog).
• Heat the oil in a pan. Dip each fishcake in egg and then breadcrumbs and fry for 30 seconds to a minute on each side.  If you are doing this ahead of time you can then just reheat in a moderate oven for ten minutes before serving.
• Make a dip by mixing 6tbsp of Greek yoghurt with a crushed clove of garlic, zest and juice of half a lime and some salt and pepper.  Serve on a bed of salad leaves with the dip on the side and a wedge of lemon or lime.

Main course - Roasted lamb steaks with herbs and garlic

Perfect springtime flavours.  I liked this but the presentation wasn't great.  I served it with roast potatoes and fine beans.

4 boneless lamb leg steaks; 1 bulb garlic, split into cloves but unpeeled; 2 shallots - peeled and finely chopped; 4tbsp chopped herbs - you can use lemon thyme and parsley, but I used lemon balm and golden thyme; a handful of chopped mint; 3 finely chopped anchovies; zest of 1 lemon; 75g pitted kalamata olives; 2 tbsp olive oil;

• Mix together all the ingredients except the mint, and allow to marinate (while you walk the dog, cook tea for your kiddies and greet your guests).
• Cook at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes, then cover with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with mint and serve.

An easy and tasty lunch with friends

Some friends were coming for lunch.  

There wasn't much in the fridge (a lettuce, some cheddar, half a ball of mozzarella, half a tin of tomatoes and some bacon).  

I was out swimming with the little ones during the morning and then needed to head home to feed one and settle the other for a nap, so no time to roam around the supermarket.  

Instead we hopped out at the local co-op, grabbed some milk, some cherry tomatoes, a baguette and half a cucumber and then made our way home.  

While Little C sat chatting in his cot (not napping) I stuck Daisy in the sling and got busy.  Using the contents of my store cupboard I prepared a "tea-cup fruit loaf" (recipe below), and while it was at the cooling stage before going in the oven, made eight french bread pizzas and some salad.

Result - a yummy lunch with next to zero effort, to which the lovely Gemma, Louise and Steve added some crisps, some more bread, tuna etc.  Daisy and Little C did me proud and were duly admired and I had a lovely restful, sociable afternoon.

Tea Cup Fruit Loaf:

 - 1 cup sultanas, 1 cup raisins, 1/2 cup currants, 1/2 cup soft brown sugar, 1/4 cup soft sunflower spread, 1/2 cup cold tea, 1/2 cup apple juice, 2 cups self-raising flour, 1tsp mixed spice.

• Put all the ingredients except the flour and spice into a pan and warm over a low heat until the fat has melted.  Then bring to the boil and bubble for two minutes.
• Remove from the heat and allow to cool until lukewarm.
• Mix in the flour and spice and then tip into a lined loaf tin.
• Bake in the oven at 180 degrees C for 1 and 1/4 hours.
• Turn out from the tin, remove the greaseproof paper.
• Serve sliced, warm or cooled and with or without butter.

For the French bread pizzas (vegetarian):

 - 1 baguette, lump of Cheddar cheese, half a ball of Mozzarella cheese, 1tsp Herbes de Provence, 1/2 can of chopped tomatoes.

• Bubble the tinned tomatoes over a high heat for five minutes to reduce.
• Chop the baguette into quarters and then cut each piece in half lengthwise.  Arrange cut side upwards on a baking tray.
• Grate a chunk of Cheddar cheese and roughly chopped half a ball of mozzarella.
• Spread the tomatoes onto the bread, sprinkle with the cheese and then a sprinkle of Herbes de Provence.
• When friends arrive, put in the hot oven (hot because you're making the fruit loaf) for five or ten minutes and serve!

For the salad:

 - Romaine lettuce (allow 1 leaf per person), a handful of cherry tomatoes, about 10cm of cucumber, a spring onion per person, 1tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp olive oil.

• Chop the lettuce leaves and then rinse and drain.
• Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and then slice (about 1/2cm thick).
• Trim the spring onions and cut into pieces about 2cm each.
• Mix the spring onion, cucumber, lettuce and cherry tomatoes and sprinkle with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Chocolate Brownies

Today's recipe:

Ingredients

• 225g dark chocolate
• 175g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 75g plain flour
• 55g cocoa powder

Method

• Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 20x30cm baking tray with foil.
• Break the chocolate up into bits and melt with the butter in a bowl over a pan of boiling water.  I actually melt mine in the microwave which seems to be just as effective.
• Whisk the sugar and eggs together in a large bowl.
• Stir the chocolate and butter mixture into the sugar and egg mix.
• Sift the flour and cocoa powder mix in and stir well.
• Pour into your lined tray, smooth the top and bake for 20-30 minutes. 
• Allow to cool for a while and then cut into squares - should still be slightly squidgy.
• Enjoy!

Little C had a morning out with daddy on the bike today allowing me to go shopping and have lunch out with Daisy without needing to entertain a toddler or rush back for nap time.  Once home I popped Daisy in her bed (which unusually she did not protest!) and spent some time with Little C.  He wasn't sure that he fancied baking, but as I got the ingredients out he got more and more curious until he actually started to climb into his highchair.  I did very little of the mixing - he's getting really good at it.  Big C couldn't believe the sight of Little C trying to "break up the chocolate" by eating it!  I also did very little of the bowl licking - every time I tried to get some Little C made claim to it - c'est la vie - he's gone to bed now so I can have as many brownies as I like!

Chocolate butterfly buns

It's still cold, snowy, icy and beautiful out here.  What else is there to do but get on and do some baking?  After all the Christmas gluttony has made short work of all those extra treats, and when it's cold and you're pregnant who wants to start the New Year on a diet or health kick?


Recipe for Chocolate Butterfly buns

Ingredients
Bun: 
110g margarine
110g caster sugar
2 eggs
85g self raising flour


Butter icing:
60g margarine (I needed a little more than that)
110g icing sugar
85g cocoa powder (I used drinking chocolate powder and needed less than this)

Method

Rock Buns

Little C and I made rock buns together.  I'd let you have a taste, but I'm afraid that there aren't any left - a combination of Little C, Big C and me, well... they didn't last all that long.  I was brave enough to offer one to a guest though, even though I did feel the need to warn them that a toddler had had his paws in the mixture all the way through the process.  Actually, I didn't mind him grabbing at the margarine and raisins/sultanas all covered in flour, but I was a teensy bit concerned at munching on the mixture once I'd added the egg.  I decided though that I had licked out enough baking bowls and spoons in my childhood, many with raw egg in, and I'm pretty sure I came out OK at the end of it - debatable I know!

Cooking up a stew

I watched the delightful "Julie and Julia" last night.  A Nora Ephron film starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

It reminded me how much I enjoy cooking.  It tends to be one of those activities that I just get on with, usually while also involving Little C as much as possible, which doesn't make it any easier.  Watching this film reminded me that the process of creating something delicious in the kitchen, while sometimes stressful, is also immensely satisfying.  Getting Little C involved is teaching him a huge range of skills, as well as eventually nurturing his own creative outlet.

Yesterday we made Liver and Bacon Casserole (which by the way was delicious!).  Here's how we went about it:

Recipe for creating Liver and Bacon Casserole with mashed potatoes and carrots (with a small person)