Recipe Courgette and Potato Soup

Another tasty, tasty soup for you today- also made with produce from my MIL's allotment.

We've been over to visit this weekend, as my brother-in-law was up for a visit.  It's half term for both he and Dave, so it was a great way to start the week off.

Speeking of produce, while gathered, we shared out the giant pumpkin that my MIL has grown- I love pumpkin!  I think its the fact that it's only in the shops for the two weeks leading up to Halloween that makes it so appealing- hard to get hold of.  Anyway, I'll be sharing some pumpkin based recipes with you all shortly.

To the Soup- Serves 6

Ingredients
1kg Courgette, chopped
600g potoatos, chopped
2 onions
Glug of oil
1 pint of stock
(anyone seeing a pattern in this yet?)

1. Fry the onions until soft then add the potatoes and stock and boil for 10 min.
2. Add the courgette and boil for a further 5 min.
3. Blend.  Add extra water to get it to the consistency you want, and season.

Easy as pie, this will freeze for a couple of months.  I've made bags of this and all the soups I've mentioned for the freezer- ready for those chilly winter days (as if they're not here yet).

Hope you've enjoyed reading my soup recipes.  As you must see, soup is soo easy, I hope you have a go.

Freya May

Squash and Red Pepper Soup Recipe

Another great soup to warm the cockles of your heart :D

This is a beautiful and easy soup that I made with butternut squashes from my MIL's alotment, I LOVE fresh produce!

I've been really enjoying making and freezing soups for us for cold lazy days, when we get home from work and don't want to put any effort into cooking.  It's been a busy week so far, I'm working hard to stay on top of uni work, and Dave's slogging it out for school as usual.  Man, those kids are darn lucky to have a teacher who puts in this much work.

Makes Thee Portions

Ingredients
2 small to medium butternut squashes cut into 2cm cubes
3 Red peppers
2 Onions
A glug of olive oil
1 pint of stock
(Isn't it awesome how few ingredients you need!)

1. Fry off your onions in the olive oil until soft,
2. Put in the squash and the stock and bring to the boil, simmer for 5 min.
3. Add the peppers and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
4. Take off the hat and blend until smooth.
5. Season to taste.
6. Serve with crusty bread- Yum!

And we're done, in about 25min- How easy, quick and (trust me) tasty!!!

Have a go, let me know what you think!

Freya May

*For my potato and leek soup recipe, click here*

Potato and Leek Soup Recipe

Autumn is really here, I unpacked my hats and scarf's today, stocked up on thick tights last week and honestly can't leave the house with out at least three layers (I really feel the cold).  If you didn't know, I'm not the biggest fan of autumn/winter.  Unlike most other bloggers I've read, I dread the cold weather, including having to wear layers!

There is, however a saving grace to the change of the seasons, and that is the food! I love soups and casseroles and all that hearty, comfort food that seems out of place in the warmer months.

I'm going to share with you some of my favourite soup recipes, this one is a classic. 

I make it in bulk and freeze it, as it keeps for up to 3 months.  This recipe serves four and is super easy!

Ingredients
Four large potatoes
One large leek or two medium ones
One pint of vegetables
Glug of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

• Chop up the vegetables, and sauté the leeks in the heated oil.
• Add the chopped and peeled potatoes and the stock, and bring to the boil.
• Let the pan simmer for about 10 min or until the potatoes are soft.
• Use a blender, we have a handheld, and blitz! 
• Add extra water if you like to get it to the desired consistency, I added about another half pint.
• Now is a good time to season if you like.
• Serve with a swirl of cream, and croutons or a grilled cheese sandwich- Yummy!

Enjoy!

Freya May

Chutney Crazy (Recipe)

As has happened over the last few years, we've been getting a whole lot of vegetables from David's parents allotment-  genuinely we get boat loads of courgettes, broad beans, cabbages, and blackberry's that need to be eaten, frozen or preserved.

I've been lucky over the last couple of weeks and had a lot of time on my hands, so I have been making lots, and lots, and lots of chutneys and preserves.

It's so fun, I love making things in general, and producing beautiful jars of colourful yummyness is totally up my street!

I've made Spiced Courgette Chutney, Sweet Tomato Chutney, Nectarine and Vanilla Preserve, and Bottled raspberry's and blackberry's.

You can find the recipe for the Spiced Courgette Chutney on the BBC Goodfood website- HERE

You can find the recipe for the Nectarine Vanilla Preserve on THIS website

Both the Sweet Tomato Chutney and the Bottled Fruit are from my 'Woman's Own Cookbook' by Alex Barker from 1981 that I was given when the Food Technology dept. at work were having a clear out last term- I love old cook books, they really are fonts of knowledge that is often missing in today's cookbook world.  Anyhoo, they are such good recipe's I just have to share.

Sweet Tomato Chutney
1.5kg Ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 green pepper, seeded and sliced
2 medium onions, sliced
1 tbsp salt
275g soft brown sugar
900ml malt vinegar
1 knob of fresh root ginger, bruised
1 clove garlic
2 bay leaves
6 cardamoms
6-8 peppercorns
6-8 cloves

Pop the chopped tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, the onion, salt, sugar and vinegar in a large pan.

Tie the herbs and spiced in a small muslin bag, and add it to the pan.  Let the whole thing marinate for around 24 hours.

The next day, stir the mix and bring to a simmer and leave it bubbling away for an hour and a quarter, regularly giving it a good stir so it doesn't burn on the bottom.  Then boil until thick, you can tell when it's ready when you run a spoon through the mixture a small amount of liquid fills the trail.

Remove the muslin bag and bottle.

I didn't want to go over how to bottle chutney because I was sure that there would be a simple and consise explanations already out there on the web, but I have to tell you that in a quick search, I couldn't find one. So, this is what I do based on the instructions in the book and advice from other recipes.  I'm in NO WAY an expert, so please find other resources too.

Storing Chutney
Wash your jars and lids carefully in very hot water, then dry in a oven at 100 degrees for at least 30 min.

Put the food in the jars while both are still hot.

Fill to the top of the jars and top with a wax disc.

Recycling jars with pop up lids is possible, as the mixture cools, the lids button should stay down, if it doesn't the seal is not made and you should try to reseal or eat asap.

But if you haven't got those lids use cellophane jam pot covers.

Store in a cool, dark place, date and label all jars and rotate the store.


Freya May

Recipe: Amazing Rocky Road

Heya!

This rocky road recipe is a little bit of a mash-up between classic rocky road and tiffin, which I also adore!  It's the recipe I was raving about on Facebook last week, and trust me, you will love it and it's so easy!  You'll be able to whip it up in no time.

Ingredients

2 tbsp golden syrup
100g butter


300g plain chocolate

200g digestive biscuits
100g mini marshmallows
150g raisins

Step One:  Melt the chocolate, syrup and butter in a pan and stir until combined.  Put half the mixture to one side for later.

Step Two:  Bash up the biscuits until they are a good combination of large lumps and crumbs! Pop the biscuits, the marshmallows and the raisins in to the chocolate mixture left in the pan.

Step Three:  Pour the beautiful mix of chocolate, biscuits, fruit and marshmallows in to a tray, and flatten out with the back of a spoon.

Step Four:  Get the chocolate mixture you've put aside earlier and pour it on top of the biscuit mix so it creates a lovely topping.  Pop the tray in to the fridge for a few hours or overnight, and enjoy!

Makes about 12-16 bars.

Freya May

Apple Crumble Tastiness

Apple Crumble is one of my favourite puddings to make for one simple reason- its super simple!  And it doesn't hurt that Hubby loves it :D

What is also great, is that it can be made in small portions as well as a whole dish.  I often make two ramekins of crumble for just the two of us during the week.

Here is my fool-proof recipe, enjoy!

Ingredients

• Apples (aprox 1.5 per person)
• Sugar (or sweetener if you prefer)
• Flour
• Butter
• Brown Sugar

Method

Cut up your apples, pop in a pan, with a cup of water and a table spoon of sugar/ sweetener.

Stew until soft.  Now, you have two choices, you can stew until the apples are just soft- how I prefer my crumble- or until you've got apple mush (also very yummy).  Obviously the second choice takes longer, so you'll need patience.

Once it's soft, about twenty minutes later, drain excess water and pop the apples into a ceramic dish.

For the topping on a pudding for 4-6 people use a cup and a half of flour and two heaped table spoons of butter, and rub them using your finger tips into the consistency of bread crumbs.  Then add a cup of brown sugar.  Pour this mixture on top of the apples and bake for 25 minutes.

If you like, add cinnamon into the mixture before pouring it on the apples- yummy!!!

Serve with custard or cream or ice-cream.  Like I said, easy, yummy and perfect for week day meals.

Freya May

Mini Fridge Cheese Cakes

I L.O.V.E. Cheesecake, itz my favrate!

And I keep seeing pins of an amazing idea all over pinterest- cupcake cheesecake!

Source: annies-eats.com via Freya on Pinterest

I love it even more.

So, being super lazy, I have had a go at making my own chilled cheesecake recipe, which takes 20 minutes from start to finish!

Makes 18ish

Ingredients

• 150g Digestive Busicutes
• 2 Tablespoons of Butter/margarine
• 285ml pot of double cream- I use Emelea for lower cals
• 300g cream cheese
• 1/2 Vinilla pod/ teaspoon of vanilla extract
• Half a lemon peel- grated
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/4 Cup of sugar/ sweetener

1. Melt the butter in a small pan and crush the buscites.  Mix the buscuits in with the butter and devide the mixture between cupcase cases, roughly one teaspoon of mixture in each case.

2. Whip the cream, add the cream cheese, the vanilla seeds or extract, the lemon and the sugar.  Devide this on top of the buscute base, aprox. two teaspoons for each cake.

3. At this point you can add fresh berrys, lemon rind or chocolate on the top, if you so wish.

4. Put in the fridge for a hour or so, then enjoy!

Only 164 cals per cake.

Try it, enjoy!

Freya May

Coffee Cupcakes, Yes Please!

Ingredients

• 150g butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 200g flour
• 4 tea spoons of instant coffee desolved in 2 table spoons of boiling water (adjust acording to taste)

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then add the flour, and add the coffee at the end.

Divide between 12 cupcake cases, cook at 180oC in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, or untill they spring back when lightly pressed.

Take out and let cool while you make icing!

Icing Recipe- Cream Cheese Coffee Icing

• 100g cream cheese
• large spoon of butter
• 400g icing sugar
• 2 tea spoons of instant coffee desolved in boiling water

Cream all the ingredents together, add more icing sugar if needed for thickness.

Tasty! Enjoy!

Freya May

A Signature Bake...

After seeing a pic on pinterests (which I've since lost) I had to have a go at making something similar.  Lucky for me, opportunities to bake are not scarce, so I made one for Hubby's colleague for her birthday!

It turned out brilliantly! I will totally be making it again :-) and if you need anything baking, let me know!  I'm looking for any opportunity to bake at the moment. 

Recipe

• 300g Sugar
• 200g Butter
• 3 eggs
• 300g Flour
• Vinilla Essence
• 1/4 cup milk
• Hundreds and Thousands

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, fold in the sifted flour, add the vinilla essence and the milk.  Add the Hundreds and Thousands just before dividing the mixture between three cake tins and bake at 180 degres C for 30min. 

• 500g of icing sugar
• 250g butter
• dash of milk
• Any food colouring you'd like.

Cream together all the ingredients.  Simple.  Sandwich the cakes with a liberal amount of icing, and cover the whole cake with very thin layer.  Fill an icing bag, and pipe dots of icing all round the cake, and accross the top. smudge the dots around the edge of the cake with a back of a tea spoon.  Sprinkle hundreds and thousands on the top, and your done!!!

Freya May

Chocolate Orange Delights!

I've been playing in the kitchen, one of my Life Time Ambitions is to get published in some form, and a cookbook would be a great idea and achievement!

This is the recipe for my very own Chocolate Orange Cupcakes, this is a super easy and very tasty cupcake, that Hubby has declared his love for!

Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 200g Caster Sugar
• 200g Butter
• 2 eggs
• Rind and juice of one orange
• 200g flour
• 1 table spoon of cocoa

1. Cream the sugar and the butter, then add the eggs, orange rind and juice until smooth.
2. Sift in the flour and the cocoa.
3. Divy up into large 12 hole cupcake tin ( I chose orange cases, 'cos I'm like that)
4. Bake for 20-25 min, until the cake is spongy to the touch.
5. Cool ready for icing.

Ok, there are two types of icing you can use, and they are both very sweet.

The one I used in the photos is orange butter cream.

Ingredients

• 250g icing sugar
• 100g butter
• juice of one small orange
• 1tsp of orange colouring (if you want, gives the best colour but isn't necessary)

Cream all ingredients them pipe on to the cooled cakes.

or, Chocolate Ganache, which I'm doing on my second batch of cakes.

Ingredients

• 400g dark chocolate
• 375ml cream

Melt the chocolate over a saucepan of boiled water, off the heat, add the cream, and let cool, out of the fridge, before use, pipe on before it sets.

And the decorate how ever you want!  I've used orange segments, but go wild, have fun and put anything you want to finish them off.

Happy Baking!  If I ever write a cookbook, this will totally be in it!

Freya May