Let's talk lunch

Stir-fry it is! With noodles and delicious baked salmon. Now I could have this for dinner as well!

Orange and ginger cake

Well, I must tell you about this gorgeous cake. It looks and tastes amazing but it's been a real challenge because the initial recipe didn't sound quite right. To give you an idea of how wrong it was I will mention a couple of things. The initial filling was supposed to be made out of 3 eggs, 200g caster sugar, 25g flour (yes, that's right!), orange zest and 100 ml orange juice. But that's not all, the worst bit was the timing and temperature: 20 min in an 140C fan oven. NO WAY JOSE! I thought.
But I wanted it anyway so I went ahead and changed it. I kept the same ingredients but changed the numbers a bit. I used 100 g flour, 125g sugar, two eggs and one egg yolk, zest of two oranges and 100 ml orange juice. The biscuit base is made out of 250g ginger biscuits and 85g butter. It all went in a 150C fan oven for 45 min.
I hope I didn't confuse you lot too much (I do that sometimes!).
Now the assembling bit. Wizz the biscuits and butter in a food processor then line a baking tray with baking paper. Press the biscuit base evenly and then stick it in the preheated oven (140Cfan) for 20 minutes. While the base is baking  you have time to make the filling which is basically mixing all your ingredients together. It will look runny and you WILL think you messed it up but I promise you it will set while in the oven.
You can change the recipe some more and use lemon or lime instead of orange.
Give it a go, it's great fun!

Breakfast in Paris

This might not be Paris but it most certainty fells like it.

Nasi Goreng anyone?

How about Indonesian dish for lunch? It's rice like you never had before because why not admit it, rice can be BORING! But this one here has prawns and chilli and all sorts of little surprises that will make you feel like dinning in a special place. Yes, you can make it yourself!

Oat biscuits on a cold winter day

Now this is comfort food, I've been munching them away all day, they are crunchy and delicious and super easy to make.
All you need is:
70g oats
100g self rising flour
75g melted butter
50g caster sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp of golden syrup or honey
dried fruit (I used cranberries and apple)
Now all you have to do is mix all your ingredients together, make little balls of dough and place them on a baking sheet in a preheated oven, 170fan, for about 15 minutes. That's all, I promise!
Now enjoy with a mug of warm milk by the fire. That's what winter days are for, right?

Tell them you love them

Tell your little ones you loved them by treating them with this super easy and fast delight. They're perfect as an after school snack or between clubs when they need all the energy they can get.
All you need is 5 minutes, 50g melted butter, 2 generous spoons of drinking chocolate, crunchy nuts and cupcake cases. Are you still with me? Melt and mix all of these together and straight in the fridge. See? you're already on your way out but put together something delicious. Sticky fingers and naughty smiles will thank you for ever.
ps. if you add marshmallows they will love you even more!

Good morning, today we eat healthy

Breakfast can be whatever you want it to be, I love my buttered toasted bagel in the morning, sometimes i like to  have french toast, other times muffin or brioche. I've tried them all, I like them all. Some are healthier that other (some say!) but I think you can always get away with less healthy breakfast (but delicious altogether!) if you have your fruit and every now and again you commit to oats and porridge and nuts... Well, this one here is one of them but with a twist of coconut milk instead of normal one and i added some honey to make it sweet.
It's delicious and guilty free!

Brownies, anyone?

They're still warm.

Night Cravings

I made this delicious chocolate mint cake over a year ago, it's been a while. Craving for some right now!!!!

Breakfast on a frosty morning

Good morning, fancy one of these?

Good morning to the early you

It's been a while since I photographed my breakfast, I'm normally half asleep tripping over things but today I made an effort, breakfast is always such an enjoyable time, I need to do this more often.
We're in need of some natural light in this house at times so sorry about these dark shots, but they are charming even so, don't you think?

Relax, it's only tiramisu

Today I thought about a treat that's not too heavy or too difficult to make and I came up with this. It's one unconventional tiramisu because to be honest, I don't really know how to make a conventional one (oops?!).  So I went for a couple of packs of sponge fingers dipped in not-too-strong coffee, I sandwiched these with creamy mascarpone (and a splash or two of Baileys), also, I wanted to make it more interesting and found that chocolate flakes would be a good idea, just to give it a bit of texture and crunch. Easy as that, a must try!

Little treats

Saturday, the 4th

We love our new place, have I mentioned it? Alright, alright, I might have mentioned it a few times...
We're still investigating around so today we went out there looking for new places to spend our time. We've been pleasantly surprised to find Lichfield only 15 minutes away. It's a charming place indeed,  well known for its medieval English cathedrals, described as 'a fine, neat, well-build and indifferent large city' by Daniel Defoe, Lichfield is very much alive offering you a generous list of things to do and places to visit. We had lunch in a charming cafe called The Tudor of Lichfield, minutes away from the shopping center. I must say, their food is delicious and the place it's so warm and welcoming we didn't want to leave it. We did take home with us these lovely looking treats I will tell you all about in a future post - we like to support our local community by doing so. Speaking of which, we also shopped for fresh fruit from their local market. I always get excited when I do end up in a market, might be because my mum always used to shop from markets when I was young, people should definitely shop from local markets more often.  I like to think their products are healthier, I hope that's true!
Sales are on! woohoo! Time to go wild you all shopaholics out there! Mr T got me this lovely dress for no reason at all! How lovely is that, right?
We're happy we found this great place. Lichfield, we will return!

You shouldn't have tea fruit cake for breakfast too often

After all the Christmas madness we decided we're going back to our normal routine, back to fruit for breakfast and plenty of vegetables for dinner so the other night, just after 8, we baked this cake. I made it but Mr T made me make it! I was completely against it but then again, you see, we had this frosting that we had to use up!
Anyhow, all you need to be this naughty is:
two eggs
250g plain flour
100g golden caster sugar
50ml milk
50ml oil
vanilla essence
1tsp baking powder
100g dried fruit (we soaked it in some Kahula, you don't have to but it does give it a nice flavor)
Mix together and bake for 30 min, 175fan, leave to cool down and then generously frost it. It's really delicious. Enjoy!

It's over

It's all over indeed, we had a great time, lovely food (maybe a bit to much of it!) and superb company. Now we're back to normal, some into work, some not just yet, I am still enjoying my last days of this winter break!
A bottle of wine and a mince pie survived, I am not even sure that's a bad thing or a terrible one. We didn't eat ourselves to death but a few pounds closer to death.
Anyhow, hope you all had a great time, Happy New Year guys!
C x