Tomato and Bread Soup

I came across a recipe in the free paper last year while on my 3 hour daily commute (I'm not kidding - read about why I did it here) for a frugal tomato and bread soup.  And, just like my mother, who when I described it to her this weekend said, in a disgusted tone: "Bread in soup?? Ugh", I too thought it sounded less than appealing when I had read it (not sure why - bread is probably the most popular accompaniment to soup).  Alas, there is a reason we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, or a recipe by it's ingredients.  I made this soon after finding the recipe and it was the ultimate in comfort food as far as soups go.  Chunky tomato soup loaded with carbs - don't mind if I do!  I had used cheese topped bread as well which made it that much better.

So this weekend when I came across these cheese topped scones reduced to just 15p on the day old bread rack, I thought of this soup.

I shouldn't have.

The soup is still one of my faves.  Just don't make it with scones.  It turned out very doughy and it was a bit much but I still ate it.  Even if it made me feel a bit sick.  Stick to bread.

Recipe - serves 2 or 1 hungry gal (or guy)

Ingredients
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 diced onion
2-3 crushed garlic gloves
150 ml chicken or beef stock
1 tsp cinnamon
olive oil
4 thick slices of stale bread cut into chunks - not scones (doh!)
salt and pepper

Saute the onions in a little oil until softened.
Add the crushed garlic.
Stir in the tomatoes and add half of the stock.
Add the cinnamon and simmer for about 10 minutes or until thickened.
Add the rest of the stock and toss in the bread chunks and simmer for a few more minutes.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lamb Leftovers Take 2

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I still had loads of lamb leftover from my roast on Sunday and not wanting another wrap I had a look in the fridge and cupboards to see what I could come up with.  I love mixing up a lot of different ingredients without a recipe to follow.  It's fun to see how it turns out.  Sometimes it's fantastic but other times it goes straight in the bin!

I thought some sort of tagine would work nicely with the ingredients I pulled from the fridge.  Here's what I had to work with:

 And these are the spices I thought might work best:

Ah - just noticed the spelling mistake on my spice jars! The horror!

The roast vegetables (butternut squash, red onion, carrots and garlic - still in the skin) were also from Sunday's dinner and the sundried tomato paste was starting to near its expiry date.  This way I could use up all the leftovers one go.

Here's what I did:

Saute finely chopped onions in a little oil for a few minutes until soft.  Add a tsp each of cumin, turmeric and cinnamon.  Take roasted garlic out of the flesh and mash in with onions and spices.  Thinly slice red chili (or finely chop- however you like it and include the seeds for extra spice).  Chop tomato in sections and add to the pan.  Toss in the lamb already cut into chunks.  Add one can of chopped tomatoes and 2 tbsp of sundried tomato puree.  Simmer for about 10 minutes or until desired thickness.  Add the vegetables in at the end as they are pre cooked.  (For uncooked veg I would par boil or add in at the beginning with some stock to allow them to cook through)

I also tossed in a handful of raisins and dried cranberries (they are already pre mixed in a container as I have them on cereal).  This added a little sweetness to the spice and was really good.

I ate this over couscous. Really delicious.  It's fun to play around with different flavours and I hate waste.  So I gave myself a little pat on the back for this one.  Nothing ended up in the bin and there was enough for 2 servings too!  Win win.

Lamb Leftovers

Last Sunday I made a roast dinner because I had bought a huge frozen leg of lamb and there were actually people here to eat it.  My brother was visiting before he heads off to France for the winter.  It was delicious but try as we might we were unable to finish it off.  And then he was gone and I was stuck with loads of leftovers. 

I didn't fancy eating the roast dinner as it was the night before so rummaging in my fridge I found some wraps (it's only a small fridge - there really wasn't that much rummaging to be done) and thought a lamb wrap of some type might be nice for lunch.  I took to Google for inspiration and realised I was missing a vital ingredient for a lamb wrap - tzatziki.  I had a looky loo to see how I might make my own - cucumber? check! (I actually had 2) Everything else?  Nope!  So I improvised.

 I had some sour cream (the base of tzatziki is supposed to be natural yogurt but hey, it's in the same food group) and herb and garlic cream cheese.  I stirred about 2 tbsp of each together until blended well and added finely chopped cucumber (about half).  I shredded some lettuce, thinly sliced some red onion and chili and then layered everything on the wrap, heating the lamb through while I fried the leftover roast potatoes to make hash browns.  Then I dug in!

It was delicious and super easy.  Sure, nothing probably beats the real thing but you gotta do what ya gotta do!  There was still some lamb left after this meal and I'll tell you all about that concoction in tomorrow's post.  Anyone else get creative with lamb leftovers or totally fudge a recipe by substituting pretty much every ingredient?  Do tell!

This has nothing to do with cooking...

...unless you are some crazed version of Cruella Deville??

Those dogs are stuffed - I'm not crazed (well not THAT crazed)

Although, saying that, they are so darn adorable that I do want to eat them up most of the time!

Our little Patterdale terrier George, who you met here, had seven gorgeous little puppies back in September.  Yet another thing that has kept me busy.  I'm sure a baby would be easier (not 7 of them of course - though if that happens to me I'm totally getting my own reality show to share the madness - oh jeez, now I'm thinking of a catchy title - focus woman!)  Here's George after giving birth.  She did such a good job.  I was more freaked out than she was.  She was so calm and quiet and it was all done in a matter of a couple hours.  I spent so much time researching prior to delivery yet she knew what to do from the get go.  Instinct is an amazing thing!

I'm still not sure how 7 pups managed to grow in there.

 She has been a great mum; feeding and cleaning them and keeping them in line.  They are approaching 7 weeks now and just keep getting cuter!  They go through pretty much the same development stages as babies but at such a tremendous speed.  Nearly every single day has brought on new growth; beginning to walk, opening their eyes, gaining teeth and becoming more playful and curious.  They are so much fun...and so much work.  But how can you resist 'em?

This will be her first and last litter.  We planned this as we are going to be keeping one of the pups.  All of the other pups have new homes to go to (friends of ours).  We had looked at rescuing a pup but we could not find one that was suitable both with other dogs and children.  Rescuing was definitely our first choice but it was just not possible at this time and George really needed a friend. 

I'm really looking forward to becoming a two dog household.  I'd love to be an 8 dog household and keep them all but for that I think we'd need to buy a farm - and I'm really not cut out for farming!

Is anybody still out there??

It's been awhile!  I'm sure you've been wondering where I've been...no? Oh well, I'm going to tell you anyway.

Over a year ago I started a blog -this blog.  I was looking for a creative outlet to share my favourite pastime - cooking - from my favourite place in the house - the kitchen.  Little did I know, just over a week later I would spend very little time here, on the interweb.  I tried my best to keep up with blogging, like this Thanksgiving post and this belated Christmas post  - but with very little cooking going on, it was tough.  Things were pretty crazy around here.  At the end of August last year I had an interview for the teacher training programme at university and was offered a place - on the waiting list.  While I waited, W was offered a new job - abroad.  He accepted and two days later I was offered a place on the course.  Let the crasiest, busiest, year of our lives begin (we haven't had children yet - so my opinion could change)!!

 I commuted by train for 3 hours while W commuted by plane for 4.  We'd meet up some weekends but these were mainly spent discussing anything and everything wedding related; the venue, the guestlist, the band, the flowers, the cars, the suits, the colours, the songs, the readings, the favours, well, you get the idea.  Some W took an interest in (cars, band, suits) and for everything else he simply heard "Bridesmaids dresses blah blah turquoise blah..."  Picture the teacher from Charlie Brown - that was me.

When I wasn't wedding planning and crafting, I was laminating, lesson planning and laminating some more.  In February I found time to fill out my British citizenship application form - cause I just looooove paperwork!  It was surprisingly easy this time around.  I had already passed the test (and got 100% I might add - though one of the questions was "When is Boxing Day?" so...) and this was just a matter of filling out the paperwork and waiting - for 6 months.

So...
You can guess that cooking (and sadly blogging about it) was not high on the priority list.  I hate to admit it but I ate a lot of meals for one from the supermarket, take aways, frozen pizzas and yes, sometimes I had toast for dinner!  Nothing to write home about people.  And with a wedding dress to look good in I ate a LOT of salads.  My brother came to stay for awhile and he was a huge help, walking the dog for me and taking over general "boy jobs" like taking out the rubbish and mowing the lawn, while W was away.  But since I'd been so busy and had no one to cook for a lot of the time, I'd given up on my "girl jobs" (we're very divided in household chores 'round here - I don't change flat tires, W doesn't clean toilets - and we're happy that way!) I barely cooked for the kid.  He lived off steak pies from the supermarket and of course, my salads.  He was going to fit better in my dress than I was!  I upped the food intake for him but this just meant bigger pizzas and suplementing salads with sandwiches.  I missed cooking but I really didn't have time to think about it.  And it also helped me to feel less guilty about eating ready made meals.  I wouldn't want to do it again long term but I realised that sometimes it's okay to eat ready made pasta and sauce in a packet (I used to think - who the heck doesn't have time to boil pasta??!!  Well...I didn't!)

The year has flown by!  I'm now a married British teacher (unemployed, but let's not focus on that shall we?!)

Studio 25 Photography

And so, with that little update, I'm going to give this blogging thing another go.  I still take pictures of my food (everyone does that, right?) and have a few posts in the pipeline and I have a few diy projects to share too.  Hey - can't spend all my time in the kitchen!

Ghost...Uh Dinner of Christmas Past

I hope Christmas isn't too much of a distant memory.  Some of you very busy people may still have your tree up?!  There was once or twice, growing up, that ours was threatened to have Easter eggs hung from it!  Thankfully, I took all our decorations down the day after I arrived home from Canada - otherwise there's a good chance we'd be hanging some Valentine's hearts on it!  I have been extremely busy, and have neglected this blog somewhat.  As part of my new year's resolutions, I plan to make time for the things I love and find balance.  For those who don't know, I am currently training to be a teacher and planning a wedding - both of which will come to fruition in less than 6 months!  Can we say "steeeeressed"?!

So, a Christmas catch up is in order!  Because I would be going to spend Christmas in Canada with my family and friends, I began decorating much earlier than usual, so I could enjoy it!  Although, I did worry that the other half  Grinch would spend Christmas day throwing my holiday cheer into the fire.

I also don't feel Christmassy until I bake cookies (and Bailey's in my coffee helps too!).  So I spent a few evenings in December spreading flour around the kitchen.  I like to give tins filled with cookies to family and friends.

I made sugar cookies, buttertarts, gingersnaps, peanut butter cookies, Skor and chocolate chip and cranberry and white chocolate.  Shortbread and gingerbread men usually make an appearance but I didn't want to go overboard!  I won't list all of the recipes but I get most of them from The Joy of Baking website.

I flew to Canada on the 18th of December and enjoyed a plethora of Christmas goodness over the next two weeks.  I spent a few days in Timmins before making the trip to Toronto for the holidays.  Lots of time was spent eating, drinking, shopping and more eating.  Our Christmas Eve feast consisted of my mom's meatpie, homemade fried rice and lots of nibbles - cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, chips and dip etc.  This is standard and I can always count on it.  I thought I could count on Christmas Day being what I remembered it to be, but no.  We now have pork for dinner.  I was counting on turkey but apparently Turkey is reserved for Thanksgiving and my mom no longer makes it for Christmas.  I tried to fight it but pork was sitting firm on the menu.  I prepped the roast vegetables and par boiled the roast potatoes (English style) and when it came time to start cooking, I somehow took over.  Then it happened...

Dinner was just about ready (okay so it was burning slightly) and someone (you know who you are) decided to "help" and poured cold water into the Pyrex dish the pork was crisping burning up in. If you want a pipe bomb type explosion in your oven then this is the move for you. Glass went everywhere - in the food, in the oven, in my mother.

And so, this is how we ended up having pork (after slicing the bottom off it was glass free - at least I hope it was) frozen vegetables and mashed potato (I was not having leftover fried rice on Christmas day so I whipped some up quick).

 

When all was said and done it wasn't too bad.  I'm very thankful we had food to eat and family to share it with.  I had a great time with my family and friends, and there was plenty of snow!  Anyone else have any little Christmas dinner hiccups? 

Rock on!

Love my family!  Being away from home and most of my family members can be especially hard so when I get the chance to spend time with them in England I get very excited about it.  Back in September we visited my aunt and uncle (mentioned before here and here).  Their son, his wife and their gorgeous baby boy were visiting from Canada and there was a hoopla in their honour.  My uncles family came over and family friends - there were over 20 of us!  We drove up on a Saturday morning and arrived just after lunch.  Just in time to hit margarita ville!  Don't worry, I was quite sensible - there was no mexican hat dancing, let's put it that way!

Dinner was a sweet sweet carb fest!  We had pasta, chilli on jacket potatoes, garlic bread, a mashed potato and cheese bake (I opted not to ask how much cheese was actually in it - best not to know!), swedish meatballs (IKEA style), fried rice, and a few salads (gotta get your 5 a day).  I had two, yes two (don't you judge me) big plates full.  I had to, I couldn't get everything I wanted all in the first helping.  Then there was dessert...

I had mentioned to my aunt that I would be bringing cupcakes for dessert (any excuse to make and eat cupcakes) and thought in honour of the newest little family member I would make some decorated with little baby footprints.  But then I remembered it had been my cousin's birthday a few days earlier and I thought - as he is a guitar player, I could hone my skills in cake making, and make a guitar shaped cake.  I saw a recipe for one in my Canadian Living magazine and thought I might give it a try.  I have had a go with a few novelty cakes before but never quite like this.

First, I made 2 chocolate cakes in 8 inch square tins.  I followed the recipe from the Canadian Living magazine (my aunt in Canada gets me a subscription every year for my birthday-love it! and her!) with a few tweaks.  Here it is:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder (this I tweaked since I couldn't find any-I melted 2/3 cup of milk chocolate and reduced the oil by about 3 tablespoons)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups of cold water or coffee (I used coffee)
1 cup vegetable oil (I reduced this by about 3 tablespoons)
2 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp cider vinegar (I used distilled malt vinegar and at first I was a bit worried but there was no taste, not even a hint of maltness)

Grease and line cake tins (I used sillicone ones and just lightly greased them).  Bake in 350°F or 180°C for about 25 minutes or until cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes and invert onto rack.

While the cake cooled I made the icing.   A huge batch of buttercream.

1.5 cups of butter, softened
6 cups of icing sugar
1/4 cup milk or cream
2 tsp vanilla

Beat the butter until smooth and then alternately add the sugar and milk and finally beat in the vanilla.  The measurements can vary depending on the consistency I want.   Add a little more liquid or sugar as required.  This can also be made in advance, covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days.  Allow about an hour to stand at room temperature before use.

I cut out a template for a guitar from plain paper.  After the cake had cooled, I placed the template (in 3 sections-bottom of guitar, middle and the neck) on the cakes and cut them out using a small knife.  Then I divided and coloured the icing as I went along, so as to try and not make too much of a mess (bit late since there was icing on the walls, floor and probably ceiling!) 

I then needed a plate long enough to accomodate the nearly lifesized cake instrument.  My cutting board was too small, and so was a baking sheet.  So I got my saw on!  I found a piece of wood-with all the DIY going on around here it's not hard to find - and neither was the saw what with all the tools hanging on the kitchen wall!  I ended up with a good sized rectangle and covered it in foil.  I put the cakes together and used a little icing between each piece to secure.  Then I gave it a crumb coat.  A new thing for me.  Which worked a treat!  I have always just dived right in with the decorating - no preparation for this gal.  The crumb coat seals in all the crumbs and gives you an easy working surface for decorating.  Here she is:

I cheated and used a packaged chocolate icing (it was nearing 10pm at this point so I thought it would be allowed).  You could always add cocoa powder or melted chocolate the the buttercream (or at least I think so-I've never actually made chocolate icing).  I used about a cup of the vanilla icing and tinted it blue.  I then spread the different colours with a knife (I really need some icing tools) like so...

Then using about a quarter cup for each I tinted the icing red, orange and yellow.  I used about the same amount to tint grey and green.  I spread the white on the cake first.  The yellow for the flames went on next, followed by orange and red and finally, I did the frets in grey and used licorice for the strings.

Turns out my cousin doesn't really like a fuss!  Whoops!  We didn't sing or anything and kept all birthday kerfuffle to a minimum.  And everyone loved the cake and cupcakes, even without the baby feet decor!

Scrummy cupcakes with edible blue glitter!!