What's in a name...

I'm not meaning to post once a month, it's just turning out that way. I've been tagged and awarded and I have a list of people that I need to reciprocate and I will... I have a little project going on which is very exciting but it takes up brain space... we all know what that means. Anyway Aidan tagged me to "list one fact, word or tidbit of information that is somehow related to your life for each letter of your first or middle name". It was fun and quick so here it is...

A - Amused - I like to be amused, it's not difficult to amuse me I laugh at most things, even perhaps when it's not appropriate occasionally.

M - Married - happily, to the most amazing person I know. Take your fingers out of your throat - please!

A - Adoring mother - the children come before everything. Shall I get you a bucket now?!

N - Northern in body and soul but not verbally - I was lucky enough to spend two days in the North East of England the other week, staying with my Mum and Stepdad. Although I speak with a few plums in my mouth nowadays and I've lived in the South since I was a young child, the North East is definitely in my soul. When I arrived at Newcastle airport, there were marketing signs up saying Passionate people, Passionate places and it's SO true.

D - Dizzy - sometimes on purpose, sometimes because it comes naturally. If people think you're a bit dizzy their expectations go down and you can just be yourself. Makes life much simpler.

A - Amusing - comedy genius that's me. I just missed my vocation!

I also liked what Aidan did so I've done a food one too...

A - Asparagus, white, cooked like this... This boy is going to be a super star, I've said before he already has Super Hero status in this household!

M - Married food - Got married, flew to Bali, days later on a certain famous beach - Jimbaran Bay, the best seafood dinner I've ever eaten. In a shabby shack we chose the fish we wanted from big water tanks, they then cooked it while we sat drinking at tables and chairs sunk into the sand, oil candles burning, sand between our toes, the sound of the sea, a bottle (possibly two) of chilled white, watching the sun go down. Perfect.

A - Avacado, made into any type of dip like guacamole or cut in half, then baked in the oven with a spicy tomato sauce and mozzarella on top.. or with prawn cocktail on top for fond memories of my 70's childhood.

N - Noodles, any sort, rice noodles, egg noodles, pasta noodles.... Oodles of noodles.

D - Damp cake is what sprang to mind first of all... haha! Then I changed my mind... Dark roast coffee cupcake.... maybe two - fat cow!

A - Aubergine, made into a dip like baba ganoush. I loves me a dip I do!

I will tag others but will have to come back to do it... Later, or sometime soon, I will also load the pics from the Lebanese bbq... May even write some words about what we made, including the flat breads from scratch.

Rock Cakes - cinnamon and raisin

The lovely Pig in the kitchen (who incidentally writes a rather splendid blog) made rock cakes here. I saw them and immediately wanted to make some... and eat them of course. They looked fabulous and would have taken a very good picture, but this is all that's left...


Cinnamon and Raisin Rock Cakes
Makes enough for a family of 4 to enjoy over a few days with enough to let the next door neighbours (family of 3) have one each.

200g unsalted butter
450g plain flour
100g raisins
100g soft light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
3-4 tablespoons of milk

Preheat oven to 175C.
Grease 2 baking trays with butter or oil.
Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together well using a wooden spoon or your hands...
Using your hands, get some dough, about golf ball size for small ones and half a tennis ball size for larger ones. Don't work it too much they look better when cooked if they haven't been smoothed over.
Place each ball (or blob) on to the baking sheet as you go, leaving space between each one as they spread when cooking.
Cook for between 10 and 20 minutes. 10 minutes for the smaller ones and up to 20 minutes for the larger ones. They should be a light golden brown and if you insert a skewer into the middle it should come out clean. Don't let them get too dark or they really will be like rocks!

If you want to you can sprinkle golden granulated sugar over them before cooking. That's how I had them as a child and having not put sugar on these ones I will do next time...

We're continuing with Middle Eastern food today with our favourite way of having lamb, butterflied and bbq'd. Today served Shawarma style - can't wait!

Doing a Delia - will this now mean something different?

Delia's Cheating Banana Bread Pudding

I meant to post this some time ago... but then I'm at my most relaxed when I'm late.

I'm not a huge Delia fan but I think she's okay. I can cook and I'm confident with food, probably because I was taught from a very early age. I've mentioned before the whole family thinks they're experts when it comes to food. Nicknamed a chemist in the kitchen from very early on is maybe why I wasn't bought any Delia books when I first moved out of home and why I didn't then become a lifelong fan. If I'm honest I didn't really understand when people used to say that she'd taught modern day Britain to cook, I assumed that everybody could cook, but some people just chose not to.

Where am I going with this? When Delia's new book and TV series came out it was earlier in the year when things were difficult here. I SKY +'d the series and then was a bit surprised when Hubs bought me the book as one of my birthday presents. I thought he was taking the proverbial **** out of me. But then I watched the series and I read the book and I thought - What's the big deal, why are people so cross? So she's brought out a book that lists shop bought ingredients that we can assemble. Sometimes I like to cheat, putting something on the table that isn't a ready prepared microwave meal but something that hasn't taken me hours of preparation and cooking. especially some things which require more exotic ingredients.

I actually like Delia's new cheating book because somebody else has tested all the things which are available to us which are going to make life a bit simpler SOMETIMES, not every single day but sometimes. Okay I would never buy a tin of mince, the thought makes me want to heave, and there are other things which I wouldn't buy, but I have failed where a jar hasn't. I've not been able to make a Thai Green Curry from scratch that compares to some made using one of the very excellent jars of paste that you can buy (admittedly I haven't tried that hard on this one, but it's because I know I can put a great result on the table using a jar of paste!). It's nice to know which products came out best, it saves me wasting money on some which are inferior or wont give the best result.

I don't like is how we love to bash people, we seem to make it personal and I just don't get that. Gordon Ramsay, I think he's great, I like his wife too, I didn't join the band wagon of people who said she was just cashing in by bringing out a cookery book. So what, so what, so what. If she wants to do a cookery book or two and people buy them, then all well and good. He's there on TV saying that Delia has sold out or something along those lines but then I go to my book shelves and pick up a book by Jo Pratt that has a fair few assembly recipes in it and across the front is a quote from Gordon Ramsay saying 'Jo's food is vibrant and fun' - Now Jo Pratt looks vibrant and fun, but one of the recipes is for a tin of Heinz tomato soup with a bit or cream or sherry added, okay so it also gives a recipe for ham and cheese croutons to go with it. She also lists Banoffee Fingers which are another assemly recipe, they sound delicious too, but you can't tell me it's that different from what Delia has done, she's just taken it a step further.

How many people own cookery books but have only ever cooked one or two things from them? How many people own a cookery book that they've cooked every single thing from? I've cooked two (correction three) things from Delia's cheating book so far. That's two more things than I've cooked from a lot of my cookery books. The Pananag red seafood curry is excellent and as for the banana bread pudding well I'd make it any day and if I don't feel like cheating then perhaps I could whizz up some breadcrumbs from some stale bread instead of using a packet, either way I'm sure it will taste great. I also made the lemon tart in a hurry, 30 minutes before leaving the house to take to a BBQ party at the weekend. It went down very well and was still warm when we served it.

I know some women (some of them stay at home mums) who do not cook, they say they can't cook, wont cook, don't have the confidence to cook. Delia's cheating book would be ideal for them because surely it would be better for them to take some of the ideas/recipes and put meals on the table that are not totally pre-prepared/packaged, laden with salt and goodness knows what else, maybe giving them some much needed confidence to then go on and cook more things. Unfortunately we live in a world now where you have to be SUPER brilliant at everything. You can't just be thin you have to be super thin, you can't just be a mum you have to be a super mum, you can't just cook, you have to be a super foodie, you can't just have a car, you have to have a super car - it's all a load of hairy round things!

Delia - your books more than alright with me. If anything it's turned me from a sitting on the fence Delia fan to an outright Delia fan.

We interrupt with a small toe in Little Foodies India

I'm waiting on the arrival of some sumac and other things before we continue with Arabian days and nights. In the meantime we've had a very small glimpse of India. Not strictly true as we eat Indian food at least once a week, but it's the first time that we've really done it in a learning experience sort of way.

Our neighbours have a daughter, Little is very good friends with her, (she's a year older) and I think it's really lovely that they get on so well. Anyway her class is looking at India at the moment. I'd said that during the half term we could cook some Indian food together. We did this on Friday last week, I had planned on doing a lot more but earlier in the day while out walking in the woods with other friends, we got lost and were out for a lot longer than we'd originally planned. It's the first time ever that I really regretted watching series 1 and 2 of Lost before it went to Sky.

So, after rushing home and changing muddy clothes we began... I got most of the spices out on the table and we started by smelling all of them. Black cardamons smell woody and smokey. Green cardamons smell sweet and spicy, Cloves smell of Christmas. It was really good to see them smelling and describing what the various spices were like for them. We also compared the smell of the uncooked spices to how different they smell when cooking and cooked.

We then made a simple meal of fish tikka with basmati rice, salad and poppadoms.
The children mixed the tikka spices with yogurt, garlic and lemon juice before coating the fish with it. I then dry fried the fish before putting it in the oven to finish off. I got the children to wash the rice before cooking and explained why we do this. I then cooked some poppadoms. We also talked about why in England we automatically assume rice is served with all Indian food when in actual fact most Indian households would only serve it with a handful of things and be more inclined to serve chapati to mop up the dishes with sauce.

The verdict on the food. Our guest said it wasn't really to her taste but I give her lots of credit for trying everything and not just trying one mouthful and then leaving it, actually trying a few mouthfuls of each. She was also a very enthusiastic helper. Little and Small loved it and want to make it again. Great, as it was very healthy and dare I say slimming. No I dare not and take that bit back.
I also explained that most Indian families would have a spice holder like this one (can't get picture to load will try again) in their kitchen. Our guest will take it to school at some point this term when I've cleaned it and filled it with freshly ground spices to give the most impact to their nasal passages.

We'll re-visit India for some more in-depth learning and then we'll share some of the many Indian foods we cook on a regular basis and I'll also try to come out of my comfort zone and try cooking some new things. There are plenty of blogs that I can draw inspiration from Foodies Hope in particular, and also, Meeta's What's for lunch honey,also One Hot Stove, Fun and Food, Malabar Spices, and Saffron Trail. A lot of these ladies write for the Daily Tiffin, a good read but for all sorts of things, family and food among other things.

Little Foodies Arabia - Lebanon

In the book Arabesque, Claudia Roden explains why Lebanese cuisine is so well known. Representative of food throughout the Middle East, often when a Syrian restaurant opens in London it calls itself a Lebanese Restaurant. This is possibly because most people will have heard of Lebanese food but she puts this down to the Lebanese being great entrepreneurs, making the best of their food heritage, and they were first people in the Middle East to develop a restaurant trade which spread to Europe and the rest of the world in the 70's and 80's. Both books (edited to include links to Amazon so you can see what I'm talking about), Saha by Greg and Lucy Malouf and Arabesque make fascinating reading.

Sambousek Bi Jibne - Little Puff Pastry Cheese Pies
Taken from Claudia Roden's Arabesque. I halved the recipe as didn't want 32 pies. If you want the full recipe and instructions then please refer to the book. Below is what we used.

250g puff pastry, flour for rolling out, beaten egg for brushing the pies prior to cooking.
For the filling: 125g mozzarella, 125g feta, 1 egg (beaten)

I took the pastry out of the fridge about an hour before we used it.
Blend the mozzarella in a mini food processor. With a fork mash the feta in a bowl. Add the blended mozzarella and mix together using the fork. Add the beaten egg and mix well.
Heat the oven to 200C.
Roll out the pastry very thinly on a floury surface. It's easier if you cut the pastry in two and work with them separately. (We cut out an even number of medium size hearts and then larger circles using a cereal bowl.)
For the circles place a spoonful of filling on one half of each circle. Dab water around the edges of the pastry with your finger. Then fold over the pastry to make a half moon shape, matching up the sides and press down firmly to create a seal. Transfer to a baking tray.
The hearts needed a top and a bottom. If you're doing shapes that need a top and a bottom then put a little of the filling in the middle of your shape, dab water around the edges of the pastry with your finger, then place the top pastry over the filling, making sure that the edges match up with the bottom. Press the edges firmly together to make a seal. Transfer to a baking tray.
You can use a fork to press around the outside. Beat an egg then brush the tops . Bake in the oven for approximately 12-20 minutes until puffed up and golden.
Some of the filling spilled out on a few but we just trimmed them off to neaten them up a bit.

Tabbouleh
120g bulgar wheat
Half a large red onion, peeled and VERY finely chopped
Approximately 8 medium size tomatoes, finely chopped
Large bunch of flat leaf parsley, washed and chopped
Bunch of mint, washed and chopped
Juice of two lemons
6 tablespoons of olive oil

Cook the bulgar wheat in a pan of 600ml of boiling water for 15 minutes, pour into a sieve then rinse with cold water. Let it sit to drain as much as possible. When ready to use, squeeze out any excess water by pushing down in the sieve.
In a separate bowl mix the red onion, tomatoes, flat leaf parsley, mint, lemon juice and olive oil. Season with salt and black pepper then when ready to serve add the bulgar wheat and mix thoroughly. (I forgot the flat leaf parsley this time and it was still good so if you're not a mint fan it doesn't matter, add whatever you like).

I just wasn't in the mood for following a recipe so we made our own slow cooked lamb dish using flavours inspired from the Middle East.
Pomegranate and Red Pepper Slow Roasted Lamb
Approx 700g diced lamb
1 tin chopped tomatoes (and water to fill the tin)
1 large onion peeled and chopped or two small
1/2 an onion peeled and chopped
2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 roasted red pepper from a jar
1 tablespoon of lime juice
1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses
1 heaped teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika
1 tablespoon of oil for frying
Small handful of chopped fresh coriander to add on serving

Turn the oven to approx 175C, medium heat.
In a mini blender/processor add the pomegranate molasses, smoked paprika, lime juice, roast red pepper, ground cumin, garlic and the half of an onion. Blitz to a fine paste.
In a large heavy bottomed pan gently fry the large onion. Move to one side and add the lamb to brown. When the lamb is browned add the paste from the blender, let it bubble for a couple of minutes, keep stirring. Add the tinned tomatoes, fill the empty tin with water and then swill this around the blender to get the last bits of paste out then tip into the pan. Bring to the boil then cook in a medium heat oven for approximately 2 hours. Just before serving add the fresh coriander and stir through.
We served this with the Tabbouleh above. It got very big thumbs up from all!

Strawberry Jam Tarts with rose water and orange blossom water
Now these would have been a triumph if I hadn't totally messed up by putting too much jam in. Also I should have used shortcrust pastry and not puff but I was trying to be economical and use up the puff pastry from the cheese puff pies... Oh well. they still tasted great and as Little said 'Minus infinity looks but top tasting'.
I wont bother with a recipe, all I did was add a few drops of rose water and orange blossom water to some jam, mixed it up well then filled some pastry cases. You can see the disastrous results below. I like to show you my mistakes too!

There will be more Arabian inspired food later in the week.

Little Foodies Around The World

A while back Little asked when we could carry on learning about food from around the world. I said soon, but at the time the thought of researching countries and their food wasn't that appealing. I did ask them both what they liked about our virtual travels. Small (who remember is only three) said he liked cutting up the baking paper and stuffing it with food and covering it up. I think he might not have understood the question and he didn't like it much that Little and I fell about laughing. Little said he liked tasting all the different foods and thinking about the children in other countries and what their lives are like. Small said 'I feel like that too.' More laughter...

So finally we're back on track for our virtual travels around the world and our next choice will be flavours of Arabia, starting with Lebanon today. I'll be drawing on inspiration from Claudia Roden's lovely Arabesque, Greg and Lucy Malouf's very beautiful book Saha, a chef's journey through Lebanon and Syria. We'll also be making up a few of our own recipes.

In the meantime here's something I made last night which was really very good. I'm not sure what we should call it... Harissa Chicken with Marsala Wine? It's no bad thing that you can take inspiration from all around the world, mix it up a bit and make something great.

2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
3 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
Handful of fine green beans, trimmed
6 chicken thighs
Cup of passata
Cup of marsala wine
Half a glass of flat Cava (optional, I'm sure it didn't change the taste that much)
1 dessertspoon of rose harissa (if you know it's a really hot harissa and it's for children I'd add less)
1 pint of boiling water
tablespoon of oil for frying

In a large heavy bottomed pan, fry the onion in the oil for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes. Take the onion and garlic out, putting in a bowl to one side. Add the chicken thighs and brown on all sides. Add the cooked onions and garlic back to the pan, turn the heat up, then pour in the Marsala Wine. Let it bubble for a few minutes then if you have a spare half glass of dry white wine or cava add this too and let it bubble again for a couple of minutes. Add the boiling water, passata, harissa and green beans, then let it cook on a medium heat for about 45 minutes. You could add other vegetables. We served this with steamed white rice and we all loved it.

AWOL in the Little Foodies veg patch

Fading bluebells which were absolutely beautiful this year.

Now I hadn't intended to leave it a whole month without posting but before I knew it weeks had passed. I'm sorry that I haven't been actively reading or commenting and I do really appreciate all of your comments and e-mails, thank you and big hugs to all. I can't sit at the computer for too long (woe is me). Also, I've only really been cooking old favourites and had lost the enthusiasm for taking pictures. (Although I have cooked a couple of new things from the very controversial cheating Delia book... More of which another time.) As for my spine - I now can't wait for the hard physio to start as I know then that it wont take long to strengthen the old girl and everything will magically feel better. It does rather feel that Tinkerbell visited while in one of her naughty moods and cast a spell of doom and gloom on the house for a period of time.

Anyway, the weather has turned, along with our emotions and we are basking in sunshine. This morning Little and Small packed, prepared and consumed a picnic very early doors. On the strict understanding that it doesn't interfere with their other planned picnic, scheduled for this afternoon. In other words "Mama, if we have a picnic now we can still have another picnic later yes?!" For their impromptu picnics the boys are happy with anything. This morning they had whole raw carrots, sultanas, bread, thinly sliced chorizo and apple juice.

I love the whole adventure of a picnic, even ones consumed in the garden. Though I do believe that the rug (or blanket) spread out on the floor is what makes a picnic a picnic and not the food. I've had some very fancy picnics but if there hadn't been a rug then it just would have been food eaten outside.

Hubs has been working hard in the garden. Clearing out of control areas and generally tidying things up. I've been growing things from seed. I'm super proud of the pumpkin plants. The tomatoes are possibly a little late but hopefully if we get a late Indian Summer they'll be alright.

My old herb patch is going to be turned over to vegetables so Hubs has prepared a new area that will become my herb garden. So far there's just rosemary, bay, thyme and lavender. Soon, and all grown from seed, there will be mint (I'll try and contain it this time as in our last house I sort of let it run wild and it took over - lovely memories of the many mojitos it made, along with it's culinary uses of course). There will also be tarragon, flat leaf parsley, oregano, chamomile, hyssop, basil, coriander and chives.

The strawberry plants survived the winter and seem to be thriving.

We finally planted the apple tree which I bought from a nursery that was closing down last year.

One of the blueberry bushes.

The pumpkin plants, grown from seed. These have been great fun for the children and me. We planted the seeds in compost and then sealed the pots in plastic freezer bags. Within 10 days little shoots appeared and now after only a few weeks they look like this.

A chive flower.

We're growing the potato plants in tyres this year.
These are almost ready to be topped with another tyre and then filled with more compost.

The thyme is starting to flower.

This elderflower really makes me smile.
I thought we'd lost it as it was growing entwined with an old apple that we had to have cut down a few months after we first moved here.
I can't wait to make things with it.

Fairy flowers

...and despite the fact that after the children have blown them all over the garden we know that more dandelions will grow, because Small picks them all and gives them to me with such a delighted look on his face makes me not mind at all. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and trophy lawns can wait. Though Hubs did stick a sign on the gate when we had a family party last year which said 'RHS gold medal winner - best kept lawn.' If only you could have seen it, having had the tree house built and numerous other work it looked dreadful, it still does. Thank goodness for a sense of humour.

For now my friends... I'm off back to the garden for a little potter around. My inner sloth is now definitely my outer sloth!

Little Foodies - one year on....

Something that never made it...

Hard to believe, a year ago today I started this blog... Time has flown by at a rate of knots. On April Fool's Day I turned a year older too... When I think back over the past year it feels like I stepped into the Tardis and pressed fast forward 12 months. I've made friends all over the world. I've learned things, I love it that you can learn more from food blogs than you can from picking up a book. I think that's because quite often it's like reading a note from a friend and a little like being in the kitchen with them. People can scoff at blogs all they like but you rarely get that in a book. In a book the author is often unreachable. Food bloggers are oft friendly more than not and have the ability to welcome you to their kitchen with open arms, serving great food and chat all at the same time.

After a few minor complications post surgery, I've been back in the kitchen, and my does it feel good! Thank you to everybody who has left comments, sent heart warming e-mails and to those who I see and speak to, (those who tell me your opinions to my face or over the phone), without your support over the last few months, things would have been a lot harder.

Hubs did the whole house husband thing with aplomb, baking bread every other day, sometimes every day (and really good bread too, it got better with each loaf!). He drove me mad, but for all the right reasons. The house seemed tidier, I found that really annoying and thankfully it didn't last. He's been too busy to hi-jack the blog which is a shame as he's very good with words and has a great sense of humour. He's also served up some amazing food, all made with love, all served with a smile. I did think at one point he could at least get one thing wrong just to make me feel better, but no.

Before I get back to blogging about what we're cooking, I thought I'd reflect on some things from the past year...


...and one of the first events I took part in which I posted about here, A Taste of Yellow 07, this event was incredible and Barbara of Winos and Foodies is doing it again A Taste of Yellow 08, so give your support to this incredible lady. Go on, head over there, cook something yellow, post about it, spread the word.

Happy Easter

Hope you all have a fantastic Easter weekend!

Good Friday was indeed good for me as I was allowed home from hospital. As Hubs described it in an e-mail to some of you - missing some disc and a few bits of vertebrae. Hard part is over, have to lie flat for just over a week with a small shuffle around every 90 minutes or so and physio exercises which are nothing like exercises. So pleased to be home but typing this from such an angle is hard work... Thank goodness the man I married is a great cook, just about to be served with chicken parcels, mashed potato and purple sprouting from the garden.... lovely!

Thank you so much for all your kind words. When I can laugh about it I'll share the funniest things about the last few months. There have been a few.

Soon... xx