Posh egg and soldiers!

2 large free range eggs with wholemeal toast and butter.
Served in sherry glasses on vintage china!
Enjoy!

Now this is interesting.

Please help...
I made rye bread on Saturday I used 3 parts rye flour to one part self raising flour. I used dried yeast and an assortment of seeds including poppy, sesame and mixed, I also crushed some pecans and popped these in the mixture. Once I made my dough I then halved it an put some grated beetroot into it and carried on with the process.

Well when the bread had cooled and I placed it on the bread board on SATURDAY this is what it looked like:

As you can see all of the beetroot has stayed in the middle and the crust, the tastiest part kept crumbling off as I sliced it.

Anyway this is was it looked like today, MONDAY. Something magical has happened here and I don't know what - has the beetroot and its juices been absorbed?
Can anyone explain this?

The second day of soup - An almighty italian style broth.

Using the left over roasted pumpkin, some beetroot and sweet potato I made an almighty broth.

I fried some red onion in olive oil and butter

And some rosemary from the garden.

I made some hearty Italian seasoning, using fennel seeds, peppercorns, greek mountain oregano (bought on Saturday from Lark Lane farmers market) and chillies.

Add to a pan with lots of vegetable stock

Finish with some dried oregano and grated parmesan.

Enjoy!!!

Pumpking Soup!

This is a king of a soup with beetroot rye bread to accompany.

I absolutely loved cooking this late lunch for Jessica and my mum, the effort that goes into baking bread, grating beetroot, roasting pumpkin and then enjoying with your loved ones is something I cherish.
Enjoy with a chilled glass of Chilean white wine.

Pumpkin bites.

Wedges of raw pumpkin ready to go into the over with chopped chillies, olive oil, balsamic glaze and black peppercorns.

I roasted the pumpkin wedges for 2 hours on a very low heat.

The topped them with houmous and feta cheese to make sumptuous pumpkin bites, perfect for any Halloween/Bonfire night party.

Enjoy!

Fresh Autumn vegetables.

Linda McCartney's sausages - spanish style

I love Linda McCartney's sausages, I think they are quite versatile and stay juicy and flavoursome whatever you do with them. I decided to cook them in some olive oil and balsamic glaze, spanish olives, red onion and chillies. I also used my tomato of the moment "the yellow baby plum tomato" I find these hold their form and sweetness when cooked.

I topped the dish with some buffalo mozarella of the finest quality, fresh baby leaf spinach, grated parmesan and olive oil/balsamic glaze.

Enjoy!

Carb-less tapas nibbles.

I could eat the tapanade all day every day, I use raw garlic, olives with pimentos, fresh spinach leaves, lime juice and herbs and blend. I cooked some aubergine in tumeric and cumin and then fried some slices of halloumi. These stacks are perfect as starters or as part of a main tapas style platter.

The Grapes Pub

The Grapes Pub in Liverpool city centre is a perfect pub all year round, but in the autumn you can pop into this cosy little pub and listen to some amazing live jazz on a Sunday.
I love the fact that it is ready for Christmas, in fact these decorations are up all year round.

Fresh Fruit Salad

Delight in simple things!

Home made croissants (ish.)

I love the trip to the supermarket on a Sunday morning, fresh orange juice, fruit, the papers and fresh pastries. On this occasion I spied croissant pastry in a can... Jus-roll do a can of pastry that you roll up to make your own croissants. This was super easy and it's a great way to impress brunch guests, I convinced the boy that I had made these myself.
The only thing I would say was that these didn't last well, they were a little tough after about an hour. But anyway... here are the pictures:

Today's lunch

I made a beautiful salad - full of colour and flavour.

Hope you are enjoying your Monday!

Jessica's broccoli and stilton soup

And here is the soup she made, broccoli, vegetable stock and onions. Blend together then add your own stilton to taste.

Perfect with the wholemeal buns!

Ehjoy!

Jessica's perfect wholemeal buns!

I think the bug for baking is spreading in this house! Jessica made brocolli and stilton soup and I suggested she try baking some bread. "You can't go hungry if you can make your own bread" was my advice to her!
And look at them!!
Aren't they amazing!?

Ingredients for the Tom Yum Soup

Sorry there aren't any pictures of the soup as it was so delicious that everyone ate it all up. Pronto!

Oops. Nearly forgot I had this.

I am trying to do this every time I make something different. It reminds me what ingredients I purchased and what I used. Kirsty went to the supermarket and she bought...
Sushi Nori
Sushi rolling mat
Coconut milk
Rice noodles
Seaweed
Sushi rice
Lemon Grass
Galangal
Packet of exotic mushrooms
Etc..

The menu was for Sushi with mange tout, chilli and ginger with Tom Yum Soup for main and then exotic fruit salad.
The fruit salad was a real success we dipped the Physalis in to melted chocolate buttons and left to set then used THE most delicious (shop bought) coconut yoghurt - I highly recommend Asda's version as it was so delicious.

More Brunch ideas!

Jessica fancied poached eggs and I knew she would be very jealous when she seen my fantastic omelette!! So I made her two pieces of wholemeal toast buttered and then put two soft poached eggs, chesnut mushrooms done in a little butter, rocket, poppy seeds and parmesan! I could just eat this now!!

Happy Egg Week!

Brunch ideas for National Egg week.

In a small pan and a little olive oil I fried some chesnut mushrooms, yellow mini plum toms, rocket and goats cheese. I then added one full egg and an egg white to the pan and left to cook. Once cooked and on the plate I drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and scattered some poppy seeds on the plate, seasoned, parmesan and done!

Guess what I made!!?

My favourite. It is super easy I threw all of the ingredients, flour, eggs, caster sugar, vanilla essence and butter in a bowl gave it a good mix. Filled the baking tin half way, scattered raspberries and blackberries on and then the rest of the mixture!!!

WOW!! Home-made sushi!

The reason for the excited WOW in the title is that sushi is really easy to make, as long as you have the right ingredients. I fancied a challenge so I visited Asda in Smithdown Road Liverpool and I was delighted to find all of my ingredients, sushi nori, sushi rolling mat, sushi rice etc. The only thing I would advise on is that you need plenty of time. The sushi rice takes a looooong time and there are specific instructions to follow. The first sushi roll I made was huge a bit like a Sayers sausage roll that was because I put too much rice in it.
Anyway I made a filling of sliced sugar snap peas, fresh chilli, ginger paste, seasame oil and soy sauce.

The key is to put a little rice in the sushi nori before you roll it and spread it out then put the filling in and then roll!!!

Enjoy!

Driving Snack.

These were a gift from one of my fashion interns, I enjoyed them on my drive across the north west and felt incredibly guilty the next day. However a box of chocolates for ones self means I can bite half as a taster and put it back if I don't like it.
Nobody to shout at me!!

Enjoy!!