Lemon balm shortbread biscuits

These have to be the quickest and easiest biscuits that never go wrong and can be done in a hurry, I’ve used lemon balm from the garden, roughly torn up to add in some extra flavour, though you can use whatever you like to them.

Ingredients:

250g melted butter

250g plain flour

125g sugar.

Method:

These are SO easy – add the flour and sugar (and whatever extra you are using, in this case lemon balm) to the melted butter and mix until it is bound together, I find a metal spoon best for this. Roll into little balls, squash down with a fork and place on a baking tray (no need to grease/use grease proof paper), 200C for 10 minutes or until slightly browned and they’re done!

‘Handmade Monday’ – Felt sweet potatoes

Now that the little kitchen is in use it has inspired me to make some more play food, I made these sweet potatoes this week, little ‘T’ was very pleased to see them sat in her little saucepan ready to play with, we’ve also made sure to buy a watermelon in this week’s shopping as T doesn;t know what it is so thought it a good idea for her to try some, fingers crossed she likes it!

Why not take a look at 1st Unique gifts for a nosey at others participating in ‘Handmade Monday’

Play ‘tent’

I ventured into the very messy shed this morning to rescue the clothes airer, grabbed T’s blanket that her Grandma knitted her and made a little tent……..it has been up all day long and she has really enjoyed playing with it, we have played ‘peek-a-boo’, snuggled up and read books, crawled through it, played with her kitchen in it, she has been smiles all day long playing with it whenever we were in the house, will be putting it up tomorrow for sure.

Tofu Thai red curry with coconut steamed rice

We ate Thai food every day for 2 months whilst we travelled around Thailand in 2007 and since our travels we have found a real taste for it! It’s a great healthy meal, we have it when we have little left to cook with as we always have these ingredients to hand:

Ingredients:

Tofu – pre-cooked until browned

1 x onion, roughly chopped

1 x red pepper

1 x green pepper

1 x cup rice

several kaffir lime leaves

2 x tbsp red thai curry paste

1 x tin coconut milk

1 x sachet coconut cream

heaped teaspoon butter

pinch coriander

1 x tsp chopped ginger

2 x chopped garlic cloves.

oil for cooking (we use sesame or groundnut oil for this kind of dish, but any would do)

Method

Curry:

Once the tofu has been browned, add  in the onion and cook until softened, then add in the peppers, paste, garlic, ginger, kaffir lime leaves and coconut milk, simmer gently for 20 minutes (as there is no meat in this dish, it can be cooked like this in the morning and then as soon as it is cool, put in the fridge until dinner time, heat up until almost boiling and then simmer again before serving).

Rice:

Add the rice, water and butter to a pan, bring to the boil on a high heat. As soon as the rice has started bubbling, mix, cover with a lid wrapped in muslin, add in the coconut cream and turn off the heat. The rice will cook in the steam and heat left over which makes it really fragrant and fluffy, you will need to stir a bit to distribute the coconut cream evenly, leave for at least 20-30 mins before serving for best results.

Learning colours

I thought that it would be a good time to start teaching little ‘T’ her colours as she seems to (try) to say a new word every day at the moment, I put together a collection of some of her favourite things in little groups and with her baskets we played a little game of sorting the different colours in her little baskets, I have no idea how much she took in though it’s a nice little game and makes use of various things in the house. We’ll be doing it most days I think!

Marble cake with cream and strawberries

Having invited friends over for dinner at the weekend, I needed to make a quick pudding with what I had in the house already, so I put together this marble cake from an ancient recipe book that I used to use when I was little, for some reason I always made marble cakes when I was a child and still end up making it most frequently now, I filled it with whipped cream and strawberries, although it didn’t taste as good as others I have made in the past (had to substitute some of the sugar for brown sugar as ran out of white!) it has all disappeared now so that’s a result in my eyes!

New toy – the ‘Kitchen’

We bought this beautiful little cooker for Little ‘T’ months ago in a sale and we were going to put it away for Christmas though after seeing how well she played with a similar one last week we decided to get it out to play with early – it has been such a hit! She has been sorting out the fruit and veg, putting lots in the oven, and pretending to feed her dolly, it has been such a joy to watch her play so happily. Now I think I’m going to have to make some more felt fruit and veg!

Chicken with creamy onion and pepper sauce served with asparagus recipe

This has to be one of my favourite dinners of all time. A few of my (long!) list of favourite foods all in one meal! When doing this one I usually pre-cook the potatoes, season the chicken and srap up the asparagus in the morning so that when dinner time comes, all I have to do is transfer to a pre-heated (and oiled) tray and cook. The sauce can also be prepared in the morning and stored in the fridge as soon as it has cooled and then re-heated at dinner time. I served it with some fresh rocket – just because I  love it so much!

Ingredients:

1 x chicken thigh per person

olive oil

seasoning

fresh thyme

1 large potato per person

rocket

bacon

asparagus

Method:

Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes, cook until almost don, drain and set aside. Whilst they are cooking, wrap the asparagus in trimmed bacon and season the chicken with salt and pepper, thyme and olive oil. Once all is ready transfer to a large baking tray and cook at 230(ish)C for around 35-40 minutes. Add butter for extra crispy potatoes and chicken!

For the creamy onion and pepper sauce:

Ingredients:

1 x onion, finely chopped

100ml double cream

2 x garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard

1 x cube ‘oxo’

a splash of white wine

a splash of hot water.

Method:

Add the onion to a pan with some oil and cook until soft and brown. Add in the garlic at the end so as not to burn. Once cooked, pour in the cream, add the mustard and cook until almost simmering, at this point, crumble in the oxo cube and stir until disolved. Add in the splash of wine and water, turn up the heat to cook off and then lower the heat again to keep warm.

Spinach and carrot savoury cakes recipe

My dear friend brought over a lovely spinach, cumin and carrot muffin to go with my little girl’s dinner this evening, after seeing her gobble it up so fast (and sneaking a little nibble myself) I decided to bake a similar batch myself (with the ingredients that we had in the cupboard!) My friend used a ‘River Cottage’ recipe, and hers were better than mine, but here’s how I did them:

Ingredients:

80g butter (softened)

1 x finely chopped onion

1 x teaspoon garam masala

150g spinach

250g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb

1/2 tsp salt

2 x eggs

200 g milk

150g grated carrot

Method:

Fry the onion in a little of the butter until softened and goldem, add in the chopped up spinach and cumin until wilted, set aside.

In a bowl mix up all of the other ingredients together, add in the spinach and oinion mixture, mix again. Add into muffin cases (makes 12) and bake for approx 20 minutes at 200C

‘Handmade Monday’ – mini-quilt finished!

Finally! The little patchwork quilt is finished! It’s a little wonky but I quite like it like that! I hope that Little ‘T’ enjoys playing with it over the years to come!

Don’t forget to head over to ‘1st Unique Gifts’ to catch up on some other blogs!