Spring means new beginnings

When I started this blog back in 2011 I had no idea what the future of it would be. My only wish was to write a collection of recipes that I could pass on to my son. Roll on a few years and life has changed completely and it is finally time to resurrect and reinvent this blog. We now number 4 people in our household having been joined by our second son in March 2013 and I decided not to go back to work as a teacher after my maternity leave finished. With life having changed lots, I think I'm not going to restrict myself to just food and recipes.

Spring is definitely here and I'm looking forward to new beginnings!

Easy fish pie

This is a quick and easy version of fish pie which is also a lighter version than a traditional fish pie can be. We had a mass of potatoes from our vegetable patch which we had dug up that afternoon. They just needed a good wash to get rid of the dirt, partly out of laziness we leave the skins on our potatoes when we make mash, but it is also where a lot of the goodness is. Sorry for the lack of exact measurements, if you make it yourself, use your appetite to guide you as to the size of your pie!

Easy fish pie (served 2 adults, 1 toddler)

1 small pack frozen fish pie mix

1/2 tub crème fraiche

2 tbsp frozen peas

New potatoes

Milk

Butter

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. In a microwave dish place the fish, cover with cling film, pierce and cook in the microwave according to the packet instructions.
2. Meanwhile, chop the potatoes into small pieces and place in a saucepan. Cover with boiling water and cook for about 10-15 minutes until they are soft. When cooked, drain and mash with a generous splosh of milk and knob of butter. You don't want the mash to be too runny, it should be easy to stir.
3. In another dish, cook the peas for 5 minutes. Drain.
4. Once the fish is cooked add the crème fraiche, peas and season well. Stir until everything is well mixed but take care not to break up the fish too much.
5. Place the mix in an oven dish (if different from the microwave dish for the fish). Spoon over the mashed potato starting at the outside, filling in the middle last. Spread evenly and use a fork to fluff up the potato.
6. Cook in the oven for a least 20 minutes, you could grill if you have one. The aim here is to get the potato to brown as well as finishing the cooking process.

Turkey burgers and salad

We don't have a barbeque but this summer hasn't given us the best weather so far for using one, so I don’t feel to sad about it! It doesn't stop us from cooking home made burgers though and these were a tasty alternative to using pork, lamb or beef burgers. We bought a packet of turkey thigh mince, which looked slightly darker than breast meat but was half the price. For something like burgers, it is a great meat to use as it shouldn't be as dry as breast meat could potentially be. As the weather is warmer I served this with a mixed side salad which used up any left over salads from the fridge.

Turkey burgers (served 2 adults and a toddler easily)

Small packet of turkey thigh mince

1/2 red onion

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 tsp dried oregano

Seasoning

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1. Get your hands in and mix all of the ingredients (excluding the oil) together really well.
2. Put the oil into a frying pan and place over a medium heat. Shape the turkey mix into burger shapes, I choose to make 7 smaller burgers so that I could be sure they would cook through evenly and wouldn't take too long.
3. Leave the burgers cooking until they have browned on both sides. We cut through a couple of burgers to make sure that they were well cooked.

Buttermilk and lemon lamb

This was a really random idea but it worked out really nicely. We went out for the afternoon to go fruit picking and visit a friend for a cup of tea and I meant to start marinating the lamb before we went out but forgot, so our lamb had the minimum of marinating time but was really tasty anyway. Marinating meat is often something that I don't do as it needs me to think ahead, but it is well worth trying when you get organised. We served ours with some buttery new potatoes and a green salad, followed by strawberries and raspberries from our fruit picking ventures.

 Buttermilk and lemon lamb (served 2 adults)

250-300g Diced lamb shoulder

1 lemon

2 tbsp buttermilk

1 tsp dried oregano

Seasoning

1. Marinate the lamb at least 30 minutes before you cook but if you can even earlier. Cover and leave it in the fridge if you are going to marinate earlier. To make the marinade, put the lamb in a dish and add the zest of the lemon, along with the buttermilk, dried oregano and seasoning. Stir to make sure all of the lamb is coated.

2. Once the lamb has marinated, place it in a pan over a medium to high heat. If like our lamb did tonight it releases too much liquid, drain some of this off. Towards the end of the cooking time, squeeze the juice of the lemon into the lamb pan. Brown off the meat, make sure it cooks long enough to be cooked through.

Picture of the taggie as described in yesterday's post.

Taggie for a baby

We have had a recent addition to the family and due to work commitments, I wasn't able to visit him with my husband. Rather than go out and buy a present from the high street I decided to make something using the materials already in my house. It was also a good opportunity to get my sewing machine out as it's been a bit neglected for a while whilst I've been busy with work. I remembered having seen taggies when my son was a baby so had a vague idea in my head about what I wanted to create. One thing that I wanted to do was to make sure that there was a range of textures and colours so that curious little hands would have lots to explore. I also knew that I wanted it to be as secure as possible as curious little hands and mouths can be strong.  

It was a great opportunity to raid my ever growing collection of materials and I had a good selection of fleece fabric, colourful prints (which were samples I had got when I was looking for my sons curtain material) and ribbons from all kinds of places. Measurements aren't necessarily set in stone because being honest, I didn't measure mine that accurately and I've already given it to the recipient. I don't think it matters too much as it could depend on the fabric you have available or the final size that you want to make it. You need a selection of fabrics, bright colours or soft fleece is a good idea. Two buttons of a similar size, a selection of ribbons, needle, thread.

Homemade taggie

1. Cut 8 squares of fabric so that they are equal in size. Mine were about 15cm so that I could incorporate the pattern on the fabric. Remember to leave a seam allowance of about 1cm (add this to your measurement so that you get the final size).
   
2. Lay them out, right side up, to get the pieces in the order you want. Pin two pieces rights sides together and pin. Sew together (you could hand sew but it might not be as secure as using a machine). Repeat again with the remaining three pairs of fabric.
   
3. Pin, right side together, two of the sewn pairs. Repeat with the remaining strips of fabric. You should now have your two squares. Normally, with patchwork you need to press the seams as you go along, but as I used fleece fabric, I didn't press.
   
4. Lay the first piece of patchwork on a table with the right side facing up. Collect together a selection of ribbons, choose study ribbons in a range of colours. I was lucky enough to have a range of ribbons in different textures, colours and sizes. Cut them into strips ranging from 8cm to 10cm long. Arrange them around the edges until you are happy with the layout. Leave a gap on one side minimum 5cm long so that you can turn the taggie inside out.
   
5. Fold the ribbons, the folded side should be on the fabric with the ends sticking over the edge of the fabric. Carefully lay the second piece of patchwork fabric with the right side facing down. I pinned each ribbon in place carefully before I used a contrasting colour thread to tack the ribbons in place.
   
6. Now using a sewing machine, sew together the layers of fabric. Remember that you need to leave a gap of minimum 5cm which isn't sewn.
   
7. Carefully trim off any excess ribbon and fabric, including trimming the corners. Turn the taggie inside out, carefully pushing out the corners. Fold the raw edges in and pin the opening closed. Sew the hole closed using a similar colour thread and a slip stitch.
   
8. Pin together the taggie so that it doesn't move. Sew around the edge of the taggie, about 5mm in, securing the ribbons again.
   
9. I found two similar sized buttons to place on either side and used a contrasting embroidery thread to secure the buttons.
   

Lamb with cambozola

Like I said in my previous post I haven't written an entry for ages, as work has been really busy. This has involved raiding the freezer on many occasions for meals when we've both been home late or have run out of energy to cook at the end of a busy day. I was trying to get him to take things steady the other weekend and this also meant that he needed to step back on the cooking front. This doesn't mean that we would be eating ready meals but it made us think carefully about what we wanted to cook. This is a meal that we've not eaten for a long time but it was really yummy and we ate the final lamb chops from the lamb we bought off the farm. My quantities don't have to be exact as we tend to buy ready sized packets from the supermarket, so it you like it with more cheese, add more cheese, or want the sauce more runny add a little more milk. We serve ours with potatoes and steamed green beans, it's a really simple meal that looks quite glamorous.

Lamb with cambozola

1 tbsp oil (I use sunflower)

Seasoning

4 lamb chops

175g Cambozola cheese

2 tbsp milk

1. Brush the lamp chops with oil and season well on both sides. Fry in a pan until both sides a cooked - cook to your preference, we like ours to be well done.
   
2. Meanwhile, slice the cheese, we include some of the rind but you can leave this out if you prefer. Add to the saucepan with one tablespoon of milk. Place this over a medium heat, once the cheese has started to melt you can see if it is a consistency you are happy with. If you prefer a more runny sauce add the next tablespoon of milk. If you still want more, add more milk.
   
3. Once the lamb has cooked, leave it a few minutes to rest before serving, add the sauce.