Wednesday 28 December 2011

Champion STEAK Frites

Champignon Steak Frites, Pour quoi? It seems that these trying times have a lot of people craving meat and potatoes, or as the French would have it, steak frites, that profoundly consoling combo of steak with chips or some other form of spuds. In my opinion one of the best meat and potato combinations of all time is steak frites. This bistro classic is hard to beat for taste, simplicity and food that just feels good. My dish, with the addition of marvelous mushrooms is a simply delicious, wine-friendly union.

Tuesday 27 December 2011

SANTA brought ME a KITCHENAID


I have had my eye on one of these for many years, but for one reason or another I never made the commitment required to owning one. But now I finally have and I wonder why it took so long, it's a dream and takes away so much effort especially when I consider the hours spent kneading dough in the past. Now my trusty dough hook does all the work. But where will it end, there are a multitude of attachments for this baby, one step at a time....

Wednesday 21 December 2011

UNBEATABLE BAGELS

It’s important to start the day with a good breakfast or brunch, depending on whether you managed to have that lie in or not. It is always nice to spend time over the first meal of the day, understandably this is not always possible during the working week so why not reserve this recipe for the week-end when you hopefully have the time to relax and enjoy them. You can always substitute the bagels with English Muffins which are equally as good, marvellous muffins. Why not try both...



INGREDIENTS: 
                            
Bagels x2 
Streaky Bacon x4
Eggs x2
Butter
Tomato Ketchup
Dijon Mustard
Olive Oil

Thursday 15 December 2011

FOOD JOURNEY


This long journey started well over a year ago with the ultimate goal of producing a range of fresh produce to supply the family kitchen. I transformed some of our back garden into a Kitchen garden to start growing and rearing some of our own food. When I started growing vegetables,  I spent a lot of time considering what I should grow, firstly what are the things I really like to eat and then tried to determine whether they would all actually grow outside here, needless to say there are many items which you need to grow under cover in a glass house or poly tunnel. So I whittled down my list and came up with the Top Ten veggies to grow, sticking to my idea of planting a little of lots rather than lots of a little. I also looked at veggies that should be planted together and considered rotation for future seasons, putting all this on paper inside, hoping to save me some trouble later outside.  Armed with my master plan I then spent time browsing seed catalogues online, reviewing and assessing the best varieties to grow. Finally I ordered some seeds from various sources and also purchased others in my local garden centre. Then the waiting game started, from sowing the seeds and decisions on staggering the sowings so as to have a reasonably continuous supply of veggies to harvest.