Missing Cake

Seb's birthday turned out good.

Looking back on my blog all the recent posts have been about birthdays.  From July to October we have a birthday every three weeks, its a very busy time of year for us.  Other half kicks it off on the 19th July then there is no rest till all six of us have celebrated our special days (or not as in my case).

I was cruel to Seb.  I didn't bake him a cake or cupcakes, I bought a cake instead but refrained from letting him know.

I waited until the Friday night and I told him that I was so sorry that I didn't have time to bake. He said that was okay and not to worry about it and that he would be just fine.  All day Saturday, which was his actual birthday I dropped in now and again that we didn't have his cake or cupcakes done. Each time Seb was really grown up and gracious about it.   He was given some chocolate from a friend so he even agreed that I would use the chocolate bar and put a candle in it to sing Happy Birthday to him.   We had a nice meal and afterwards I disappeared off to 'prepare the chocolate'.   Everyone was in on the secret.
When I walked back into the room with his cake this is what his face was like ...

You could not have faked that look for a million pounds.  He was thrilled with his cake and not one bit cross that I had tricked him.

We got him a kindle as his main gift, which he was delighted with.  He also got plenty of books, chocolate and a few other bits.

This year we didn't really plan any birthday parties.  Money was a bit tight for a while and to be fair I thought the children could have a choice of what to do now they are getting older.  Each child opted for a day out or a shopping trip.  Seb chose to go to the transport museum, despite visiting the museum on a previous birthday he still loved it.  

Caramel Cupcakes

I made 36 caramel cupcakes today.  Each caramel cupcake has caramel frosting with caramel sauce drizzled on the top.  I finished the cupcakes off with a Rolo for decoration.  I can't wait to try them.    

These are lovely moist cupcakes. Best eaten when they are a few hours old or even the next day (if they last that long). This recipe only took minutes to prepare so perfect for some who is too busy to hang around the kitchen for long.

Ingredients

1/2 apple peeled and cored. Chop it up into small pieces.
some lemon juice (though I didn't have any this time and it didn't change the recipe)
1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup of butter or margarine (nice and soft)
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups of self raising flour (sifted)

Frosting

1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup butter (room temp)
1 tablespoon of cinnamon sugar (I made this with granulated sugar & cinnamon)

Method

Preheat the oven at 160C / 320F, I think today my oven was a bit too hot so you may need to turn it down if it is fan assisted.

Lay 12 cupcake cases into a cupcake baking tray.

In a small bowl mix the chopped up apple with the lemon juice and the cinnamon.

In a mixing bowl beat the eggs, butter and sugar until light. Then add the milk and flour, beat for another two minutes or so until the mix looks creamy. Add the apple and stir it in.

Divide the mix between 12 cupcakes, this makes a generous amount so you get full cup cakes.

Bake for approx 18 minutes.

For the topping ...

I prepare my topping while the cupcakes are in the oven. Mix half of the icing sugar and the butter, then add remaining icing sugar. This half and half way makes it easier to get out any little lumps. Beat until light and fluffy.

Spoon the topping on the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Ice Cream Recipes for the Ice Cream Maker

We love ice cream, well who doesn't. There's something different about home made ice cream, its creamier, smoother, once tried you always have second helpings. Ice cream is best enjoyed once it has been out of the freezer for ten minutes, many people drag it out of the cold abyss and dig in. If you are one of those people you can never appreciate the smoothness of the frozen delight.

Here's a couple of recipes we enjoy.

Bourneville Chocolate Ice Cream
150g of caster sugar
250ml of milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon of cocoa
3 egg yolks beaten
50g of Cadbury's Bourneville Chocolate (any chocolate would do, variety is the spice of life)
500ml of double cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence or flavouring
I use an ice cream maker but I guess you can make it without by whipping your mix prior to freezing then whipping it every half hour through out the freezing process.

Combine the sugar, milk, salt and cocoa powder in a pan over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer, be very careful you don't boil this mix.

Place the eggs into a bowl or large jug, slowly, carefully trickle a little of the hot simmering liquid into the eggs and mix. (this bit is crucial otherwise you get scrambled eggs) Return the mix to the pan, if for some reason you get a couple bits of 'cooked' egg then fish it out, it wont affect the end result.

Simmer the mix until it thickens. Stir in the chocolate till it is melted and allow your mix to cool

Once cool, stir in the cream and vanilla and put into your ice cream maker for about 40 minutes. Now once this comes out of my ice cream maker its still quite soft and runny, I don't know if this is a flaw of my maker or this is how they all are so you need to put your 'ice cream' into the freezer for a few hours.

When you are ready to serve don't forget to bring your ice cream out of the freezer and allow it to sit for about ten minutes before you dish up.


Toffee Ice Cream
This recipe is so easy and versatile. I use different chocolate bars for different variations. One day this will be Toffee Crisp Ice Cream, and another day it will be Crunchie Ice cream, you get the idea. The brown sugar in this recipes, once cooked, will give a very convincing toffee flavour (lick the spoon).

you need
1 Table spoon of butter
200g of dark brown sugar
2 eggs beaten
175ml milk
175ml double cream
125ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Ice Cream maker or follow method in above recipe.

Heat the brown sugar, milk, 175ml of cream in a pan. Bring to a simmer. Once again put your eggs in a separate bowl and trickle in some of the warm mix, run it down the side of the bowl so it cools a little. Again watch out for cooked eggs! Return the eggs and mix to the pan and simmer this mix until it thickens.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. Once cool, stir in remaining cream and vanilla. Break up one or two bars of your choice and add to this cooled mix.

Run this mix in the ice cream maker for about 40 minutes then pour into a freezer dish. Freeze for several hours before needed.

For serving take this ice cream out of the freezer ten minutes before you are going to eat it.

Meet Your Maker

There are 'makers' for everything!

Well there are and they are all living inside my kitchen except one. Thanks to my friend I am going to end up with yet another maker, a yoghurt maker. I wasn't going to but I will probably succumb...

I cant see my kitchen worktops, and my cupboards are full.

The makers are taking over slowly, one by one.

I have a bread maker, which doubles (or trebles or maybe quadruples) up as a jam maker, pizza base maker and jam maker.
Then there is the ice cream maker which I am using a lot at the moment. I have a smoothie maker which was leaking but now with a bit on imagination is fixed. I broke it because I put it in the dishwasher without taking the blades out so the seal ring and it seals no more. I got some plumbers tape, you know that white stuff that goes a bit stringy, and its all better now back to making smoothies.
I got a rice maker, it doubles up to make something else I forgot what ... maybe its porridge.
Oh I don't have a chip maker or chip pan, cant stand those wretched things, nasty, stinky, have you ever put one in a dishwasher?
I did have a pie maker, it make gorgeous neat deep pies in 8 minutes, sealed them and they were the most delicious pies I had ever eaten. Trouble about the pie make was that it was a b****r to clean so I got rid of it. the burger maker quickly followed suit. Ooh what I would do with a pie maker or burger maker with removable plates.

Anyhow, please tell me about your makers, I am always on the look out for new ideas.

Oh and while you are at it, shall I get that yoghurt maker?

Mars Bar Cakes

I made these the other day with Seb and Sol, they haven't eaten them yet though, the cakes went straight in the freezer for another day.

Recipe
6 Mars bars
6 ounces margarine (or butter)
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
6 cups of rice krispies
10 ounces of chocolate to melt and pour over krispie mix.
Gently melt all the mars bars, syrup, and margarine in a heavy pan. Once melted pour on the rice krispies and mix. Press the krispie mix into a baking tin. I used a couple foil throw away dishes (not the small size but the next one up).

Simply melt the chocolate and pour over the top. Leave to set (if you can resist) and enjoy!

Cranberry Sauce Recipe

With Christmas looming I have done most of the preparations, including making some proper cranberry sauce. Keeping up with traditions I am going to share some of my recipes as the month goes by. We wont eat Christmas dinner on the day itself but will enjoy it on boxing day.

I cant really take the credit for this recipe as it is actually one Nigella Lawson shared in her Christmas book and also in her Christmas show which seems to be on every year without fail.

Recipe

340g fresh cranberries

200g caster sugar

45ml of proper cherry brandy (this is the best bit LOL)

75ml of water

Method

Put all of the above ingredients in your favourite pan and give them a good stir.

Heat the pan over a medium heat for about ten minutes, when the berries are popping then they are done. Stir the mix now and again to make sure they all pop and none get stuck to the bottom. Give the berries another good stir and leave to cool. That's about all there is too it - so easy, quick, and why would you bother ever eating supermarket cranberry sauce ever again?

I transferred all my sauce into tubs (I made double) and put them in the freezer. Take the sauce out to defrost at room temperature the day before you need to use it. When its defrosted give it a good hard stir to mix all the berries in and then just eat!

Getting ready

Well it’s the 4th of December! Don’t roll your eyes thinking I am stating the obvious will you!

I haven’t updated my blog site for so long people are beginning to think I have fallen off the face of the Earth. So here I am with a summery update for everyone, especially those who asked.

Anyway, there was a series of mini catastrophes happening such as the car breaking down while I was travelling at speed (we were ok), and the roof leaking in, and the car breaking down again, and needing repairs done at our other house and, and, and …oh there is a list.

My eldest child has been working incredibly hard lately, he has finished all his GCSE maths work and is finally ready to do his exam. That exam itself pretty much organised though forms still have to go in but the school who have accepted him are dealing with that. Mag’s first GCSE paper is in February so he has two months to revise and get everything up to scratch, if you take away time at Christmas it really isn’t that long. We have started the practise papers with him, he got an A this week, it was a low A but its still and A and shows that there is room for improvement. He is confident that come February he will be getting an A*, and of course I am really proud of him. The following academic year he will do his sciences exams and contemplate doing the advanced maths exam but we will see how it’s all going in a couple of months as there is no real rush for all this. Anyone who knows Mag will understand why he is doing these exams, he is a bright boy who has always excelled at everything he has done.

I am trying to get organised for Christmas (who isn’t?), and I am going to officially give myself a week off from cooking apart from the main event. We don’t have Christmas dinner on Christmas day usually, it’s just too much as I like to spend time with the kids and not slave over the proverbial hot stove. So I have spent several days cooking, baking, freezing, then cooking some more, vacuum sealing and freezing some more. I now have two weeks worth of prepared food in the freezers, everything from sausage rolls ready to go in the oven to lasagna that just needs finishing off and I am not going to let anyone near it till Christmas week. It feels good, and I have to say I do feel slightly smug about that fact too. Then I decided to get all of the presents done, which they are almost. The cards have yet to be written; I have written a few envelopes and will slip the cards in later. Now back to that week off ……… if only the laundry fairy could come in and do that for me then I would be all sorted.

The Children Made Irish Soda Bread

For all my American friends out there who asked about Irish Soda Bread, we finall got round to making some.

Irish Soda Bread

1lb 2oz of Soda Bread Flour
1 teaspoon of salt
12 floz of buttermilk

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl, when sufficiently mixed turn out onto a floured surface.
knead and work the dough into a circle shape and cut into quarters. This mix is enough to make a huge 'circle' and this will give you 4 generous quarters of soda bread. I made double the quantity and the soda bread lasted the kids a couple of days as a snack.

Cook on a hot heavy based pan or griddle with a little bit of butter.

Serve hot with butter and jam.

RICE PUDDING - LOW FAT RECIPE

I made rice pudding this week, it was a big hit with everyone.

Ingredients

200g pudding rice

100 g sugar (I used my vanilla caster sugar)

1.5 litre semi skimmed milk

nutmeg

Method

Heat the oven to 150, or 130 for fan assisted

grease the dish

Stir all the ingredients in the bowl together and that's all you have to do.

Pop your dish of rice pudding mix in the oven. I checked mine every 20 mins and gave it a good stir, though you don't have to I think its creamier if you stir it more.

After about an hour and ten minutes you need to keep check on your pudding though it could take up to two hours to be how you like it. Mine took about 1hr 25 mins, its all down to personal taste.

Sprinkle some nutmeg on the top. If you like a crusty top then you could finish it off in the grill or simply not stir for the last 30 mins.

BANANA JAM

You can use up all your mushy old brown bananas by turning them into jam.

1kg bananas (between 7 & 12) I simply pro rata the recipe
100ml Lemon juice
750g sugar (warmed opt)

Place all the ingredients in a good heavy pan.
Bring to the boil which happens very quickly.
Keep stirring periodically

turn the heat down to medium and cook for 2o minutes

then Summer for a further 15 - 20 mins

you know the jam is ready when it turns a nice red colour.

remove any scum

Spoon immediately into clean warm jars and seal. Turn upside down for two minutes then back up and leave to cool.

Store in a dark place for 6 - 12 months. Refrigerate after opening.

HUNGER PANGS

I am hungry.
I am cross with myself for two reasons, first is having these tests (not really), second is waiting so long to have these tests.
I have always had allergies and intolerances to since I was born. These allergies were not properly diagnosed till I was grown up. My parents struggled to find food that I would eat so took it upon themselves to hold me down and force feed me. This in turn made me very ill and have given me some serious food phobias.
All my adult life I have enjoyed preparing food but not eating it. I can't eat out as a rule, I am very particular so it would take me to really trust the chef in order to eat. I can however manage a curry made specially by the chef for me at the Phoenix in Bangor!
So here my food journey continues. Discovering what I previously thought were food phobias are actually allergies and realising this is my body's built in safety mechanism is a good start. Thattogether with my already known allergies I can move on and get healthy.
I have been asked in the past "why don't you just eat ...?" when faced with a meal, but at least now I can answer with confidence that I can't eat that food.
Back to now, I am starving! Can't eat cheese, can't eat ham, need to go cook some chicken to keep for my lunch. Breakfast is a tricky one too, can't have milk for cereal, don't like soya milk (it's rotten, have you ever tried it?). Need to find some nice tea you can drink without milk. I did manage a cereal bar this morning, of which we had two in the house (probably out of date!), I didnt enjoy the bar and struggled to swallow it so there is no way I am going to be able to eat one of those every morning.
This also explains where Seb has got his casein allergy from, I know how he feels now.

Sent from my iPhone

Food Allergies!

I have to post this as it is so weird.

I always knew I had certain food allergies, I am badly allergic to nuts, fish, onions among other things. Well the last while has been a struggle, yeah sure I am over weight and all that so it is prove I DO actually eat. My problem is I have never been able to eat food unless I have prepared it myself as I would always end up so ill. I have had so many highs and lows lately with regard to food I decided to get some allergy testing done.

Some of the results in part were not a surprise, but some things were a shock to me. With this information I hope I can adapt my lifestyle and diet to improve my health, and with a bit of luck speed up my weight loss in the process.

The results ...

Cow's milk
Cheese
Turkey
Salmon
Sardine
Prawn
Plaice (apparently Tuna is okay but I don't like Tuna)
Onion
Beetroot
Kiwi fruit
Almonds
Hazelnuts
Beer
Red Wine

Oh and some food additives
E102 Tartrazine
E251 Sodium nitrate (which is the preserve found in bacon, ham, sausages, processed meats)


Just wondering what I CAN eat now ... looks like BBQs are out then. On a serious note I am hoping that cutting all the foods out that make me ill can help improve my health. With some of the less allergic foods I will be able to reintroduce them at a later date.

BURNT OFFERINGS

Last week where we live the weather was very pleasant indeed. This fair weather unusual for our area, last year we had two good weeks of nice weather in May then it rained virtually every single day until October! So when the sun shines we tend to take advantage of it.

We got ourselves a new picnic table - both our old ones had seen better days.



This meant we didn't have to sit on the ground to eat our burnt food!
My husband's cooking, kidding, actually not kidding he cooked it but technically it wasn't his fault (so he says) the sausages got burnt! (And I believe him too!)

CHICKEN & HAM PIE

We made HAM & CHICKEN PIE yesterday. There is no exact recipe but this is how I make it.

Ingredients on no particular order
I used 3 chicken breast fillets
1 tin of ham
mushrooms
butter
stock made with Oxo stock concentrate (any will do)
flour
pepper
nutmeg
pouring cream single or double
Pastry - you can either use shortcrust or puff - I did shortcrust on the bottom and puff on the top which is my favourite pie combo.

First of all I cooked the chicken breasts in the grill (just cooked and no more) leave them to cool while you prepare the rest

roll out the shortcrust pastry base and put it on a greased pie dish. At this stage I popped it in the hot oven for a few minutes to give it a head start with the cooking.

I chopped up the ham and chicken and put them in a sandwich bag along with 2 or 3 spoonfulls of flower, plenty of pepper and some nut meg. I gave them a good shake until the ham and chicken were really well coated.

I chopped the mushrooms up small (simply because my kids say they dont like mushrooms - what the eye cant see and all that)

Put the ham chicken mix in the pie dish and sprinkle the mushrooms over.

Melt a good knob of butter and pour it over the chicken and mushrooms on the pie dish.

Then pour on a little cup of stock - you need to just use your judgement here you don't want your dish to over flow nor do you want your pie to dry out either.

Finally I put the pastry lid on the pie. Before you put the pie in the oven make a couple of slits in the top. Glaze what ever way you wish.

When the pie is cooked use a little funnel or jug, using the slits in the pie pour in some cream. Go slowly and carefully tilt the pie in different directions to make sure the cream has spread.

Leave the pie to sit for a few minutes while you dish up your veg and potatoes .... when you cut the pie it will be lovely!

I promise you that if you try my recipe you will never use another recipe for chicken pie again.

RECIPE - CRISPY AROMATIC DUCK

Get yourself a duck. Preferably from the supermarket!

Get a very sharp knife and cut the duck down the middle an flatten it.
Rub salt onto the surfaces of the duck.

Get one of those baking bags and put the duck in it.

Make a marinade
5 star anise broken up
1 tablespoon of peppercorns
1/2 tea spoon of cloves
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
3-4 slices of ginger (I used lazy ginger out of a jar)
a good few glugs of red wine, sherry, or black currant juice.

Pour the marinade into the bag with the duck, shake and seal.
Leave at least 6 hours, better still overnight.

In the morning you wish to eat the duck steam it for 3 hours, you will need to check periodically as mine was ready sooner. It is not pretty at this stage but please don't be put off with how it looks.

leave the duck to cool on a dish (away from the cats)

When its really cool divide the duck up into small pieces and fry in an inch of very hot oil. this is where the duck gets crispy.


Serve with Chinese pancakes or wraps and salad.



I also found a recipe of Chinese pancakes on Video Jug - looks easy enough though I haven't tried them yet. http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-chinese-pancakes

Green Fingers

We have been getting things ready for the summer in the garden. The children especially have been enjoying the whole thing. Between us we have planted peas, tomatoes, lots of herbs, peppers, lettuces, cucumbers, and plenty of flowering plants also. I am not sure that we will be successful in our quest to grow veggies but at least its great fun for the children.

This weeks efforts ...

decorating and gardening

I only wish I had taken some photos the last couple of weeks. Well I did take 'a' photo but I cant share it, its far too personal ... one of me wearing some new underwear that I had got. On that note I shall move swiftly on to the more publishable topics.

The decorating in the hallway continues, we cant go any faster because we are only doing painting at weekends. Well Roy is painting and I am keeping the children occupied mostly. I am hoping we will be done this weekend.

Gardening, we have done lots of gardening. Mostly we have planted things in containers for now, some to be planted out when they are bigger and some to keep in the containers. We would still worry a little about frosts so I think its best for now. We have tended to our trees, cleared the debris from under them and added a little peat. We have a fair amount of trees, some in the garden and a few young trees in pots waiting to be planted.

Summer has been one for funny quotes this week. You will laugh at this one, I was slicing up a pepperoni sausage, Sol our three year old is scooping the pepperoni slices as fast as I was cutting them. "Hold on Sol, we need them for our pizzas", "No mummy, I need them for my mouth!" what can I say.

Thirty Minutes with No Children

On Sunday last week we headed over to Ward park, as I already posted and it went downhill from there.

Tuesday Mag had a follow up appointment with the GP about his gastritis and other problems. Oh yes and the appointment went well, he is still on the medication for another little while but hes getting better.



Friday Mag was booked into to the library for an IT workshop. I dropped him off then found a girl's mobile phone - spent the morning trying to make arrangements to get it back to her. The children and I spent another couple of hours in the park and before we knew it the day was over. In the evening we found ourselves one child down - Toni was sleeping over at our neighbour's house as a sort of payment toward all the baby sitting we were about to do.



Saturday was pretty much a taxi day. The children had various clubs and birthday parties to go to. It was an interesting task with Roy and I both setting off in different directions to do the drop offs - we did manage to meet up for half an hour in the town with NO KIDS in tow. We stepped into a little cafe off the main street in Bangor, we ordered a 'late breakfast' (it was 2.30pm) and were looking forward to it until we started looking around the cafe. The cafe was filthy, the baby seat was filthy I would never have put any of my babies in it. The carpet on the stairs were black and the skirtings were not much better - to top it all I had to ask for clean cutlery. So we chocked down some food then ran for our lives. We met up with two of the children and took them to KFC, before heading back for the other two children once again in separate cars.

Seb slept in with Toni on Saturday night - you can imagine how much sleep everyone got.


Sunday afternoon found us looking after my neighbours two little girls while they went to a trade show in the city. We then looked after one of the girls from yesterday morning through to this evening because the same neighbours were gone at a wedding. The girl was good and our children too, but they are all very very tired now having had far too many sleep overs.

Decorating plates & Eating Healthy

I started the day with my free trial delivery from Graze. One of the other home educating mums suggested that we might like to try it so we did! Pop over to http://www.graze.com/ if you fancy signing up. They send you these little boxes of fruit, veg or other things which make up three of your five a day F&V. It was yum - not sure whether or not we will continue after the trial - I might have to talk out local shop into keeping more exotic fruit and doing this service them selves!

Then there was this - it is a finger mouse. I haven't tried it yet, it was £2.00 from ebay and is a mouse that goes on your finger funnily enough.

Toni is still not the healthiest girl on earth and her eye looks sore, she still made it through the day's activities though.

We decorated cups and saucers with special paints that you bake on. Oh did I tell you my oven has packed up so that is a tough one .... neighbours come in handy there.

acting the fool!

Oh this one I did ......

Just kidding.