Stewed Fruit Dessert!

A dessert that I've used twice in two days is this Jamie Oliver stewed plum and peach malarky that is delissssh. Serve it with vanilla ice cream with the fruit still warm and bam, party.
Again, this is a variation with Jamie's depending on the ripeness of the fruit I could get or what I discovered I thought tasted better.

Serves 5
Ingredients!
15 peaches
6 plums (I found them a bit bitter)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 orange
sprinkle of cinnamon (I found it hard to find a stick of cinnamon)
1 tub of fab vanilla ice cream

*Halve and stone the fruits and put them into a large roasting tray.

*Drizzle over the vanilla and caster sugar.
*Add the zest from half an orange and squeeze in all the juice.
*Add the cinnamon and place on the bottom shelf.
*Leave for 15 minutes or until the fruits are all soft and juicy.
*Serve with vanilla ice cream and tuck in.
Yesterday's version

Again, enjoy! This dish is dead handy as you can pop it in the oven during dinner and it'll be ready in time for dessert. Mmmm....

L x

Vegetable Lasagne for Cat & LJ!

Today I had Cat and LJ over for a dinner and a hang out and I again took out Jamie's 30 Minute Meals. I'm ploughing through it at this stage and it's holding well!

Today it was the Summer Veg Lasagne, but after a late-afternoon trip to Tesco, I picked up nearly all of the veg I used- for actual pennies. My shopping for the meal for three (with another portion left over) came to about €25 which included all of the lasagne ingredients, salad, a baguette, fruit and ice cream for dessert. Amazing like.
If you're buying ingredients for the dinner you'll be making that night, buy the discounted stuff! You'll save loads of euros, obviously, and there's nothing wrong with them. Obviously scope them out before you buy them, but all of mine were perfect.
For the healthier option I went for a wholemeal baguette and to save some monies, bought a ready made salad bowl so I didn't have to get all the little ingredients. Plus all the chopping is done for you.
My recipe varied a bit from Jamie's cos I got the 'cheap veg buzz' and put in veg he didn't tell me to. And left some ones out cos I either couldn't find them or I found a cheaper alternative.
Also, Jamie's recipe is VERY generous with the ingredients, so this is my take on it. It feeds four.

Ingredients!
small bunch of spring onions
1/2 a 30g tin of anchovies
5 cloves of garlic
250g asparagus
about 15 cherry tomatoes
500g frozen peas
fresh string beans
300ml veg stock
2 x 250g tubs of cottage cheese
300g fresh lasagne sheets
Parmesan cheese
sprigs of fresh thyme


*Preheat the oven to 200C.
*Pour the oil from the anchovies into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. Finely slice the spring onions and half of the anchovies and then add them to the saucepan.
*Crush the six cloves of garlic into the pan and fry for a few minutes ensuring that the garlic doesn't burn.
*Trim the pointed tips off the asparagus and put aside, then trim the woody ends from the other side and discard. Finely slice the stems of the asparagus into 1.5cm pieces before adding to the pan with a splash of water.
*After five minutes, add the peas and beans along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well.
*Give everything a good stir and cook for a few more minutes.
*Take the vegetables off the heat and spoon around one quarter of the mixture into a deep dish. Top with a lasagne sheet and a generous grating of parmesan cheese. Keep repeating these whilst adding chopped cherry tomatoes, until you finish with a layer of lasagne.
*Mix the remaining 250g of cottage cheese with a splash of boiled water and then spread over the lasagne.
*Drizzle olive oil over the asparagus tips then place onto the lasagne. Sprinkle over the thyme along with another good grating of parmesan and a final drizzle of olive oil.
*Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes until the topping has browned.


Drizzle some balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil over the salad mix and tear up the baguette. Serve and enjoy!! We all tucked in and were feeling very full afterwards.

I'm going to write the dessert in another post, or this will be the longest one ever.

Big love!
L xx

Fusili & Chorizo Sausage Dish

Hi there!:)

I'm sitting on my bed with literally a giant tub of the Glenilen Farm all natural yummy raspberry yoghurt with an episode of Criminal Minds. Great way to wind down the day! I'm also feeling quite tired anyway after a late BBQ last night with the Lukes and Caitlin with work this morning. It could very well be one of those nights where I'm asleep as soon as the fairy lights are out.

I'm on a bit of a health kick since I got back from a holiday in New York, so this next recipe was the first to get me back into the cooking buzz! I strongly debated ordering in against walking to Tesco with Luke in the misty rain, but I decided I'd had enough processed food and a bit of cooking would do me good. Plus, I missed cooking if I'm honest!

So, this is another one from Jamie's 30 Minute Meals, but is just the main course, and the ingredients are all very handy. It's called "Pregnant Jools' Pasta" but it's still just as AMAZING even if you're not having a baby...

So, this version serves 2 people and all you need is:
-2 spring onions
-1 carrot
-1 fresh chilli
-4 good quality sausages
-1/2 tsp dried oregano
-2 cloves of garlic
-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
-half a tin of chopped tomatoes
-some basil sprigs
-100g fusili pasta

*So all you need to do is roughly chop up the spring onions, carrot, chilli and sausage and blend them all in a food processor.
*When it's all blended well, tip it into a hot frying pan with some olive oil.
*Put on the pasta to boil for ten minutes.
*Keep stirring the sausage mix to make sure it all cooks. Add a tbsp of pasta water if you need to loosen it up a bit.
*Crush the garlic cloves into the sausage mix, the balsamic vinegar and chopped tinned tomatoes. Simmer for 2-3 minutes. Tear in the basil and stir it up.
*Drain the pasta and serve with the sausage mix on top with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.


Tesco had a two for €5 deal with their 'Finest' range of sausages when I made this the other day, so I used their chorizo ones and it was absolutely amazing.
Also, my food processor isn't great, so I chopped up the sausages separately as it really wasn't working out well. Jamie also calls for celery, but I don't think it was missed.
But DO make sure you have that most angelic of ingredients, the balsamic vinegar. It is so completely wonderful.
Anyhoodle kids, I'm going to bed, I'm absolutely shattered, but I hope you enjoy this one!
Night! L x

Lunchtime, Summer Style!

It's summer!

Well hello there!
I am currently roasting in this heat which has been bestowed upon us and shall pay no heed to the neighbour outside my window who is complaining over the hedge "Ah sure it's far too warm." With a heat wave about to start, he better get used to it.

Anyway, FOOD TIME.
Yesterday's weather was equally as fabulous, so I whipped out my incredibly handy Urban Cookbook which has really cool and handy recipes from around the world. So, to make the most of this sunshine, and to continue collecting my freckles, I made a wonderful lunch of chicken tenders, baby potatoes and a mixed salad. It's really quick and easy to make and can be mostly made with stuff you already have at home. YUM.
To make your own summer salad...
-Pre-heat your oven to 220C.
-Parboil your chopped (only into halves) baby potatoes. When they're finished, pop them onto a roasting tray and drizzle them with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Mushrooms also go well here too.
-Get a medium sized pan and fill it with about 3cm of sunflower oil. Heat the oil until it is quite hot.
-Get your chicken strips (Tesco handily sells chicken breasts already sliced perfectly for €4) and dip them in some beaten egg.
-Roll them in the batter mixture of 140g of plain flour, with a sprinkling of salt, pepper and the seasoning of your choice. I used smoked paprika and sesame seeds.
-Place the chicken strip into the pan and repeat with all the strips. The chicken will only take about 10 minutes, so make sure the potatoes are in the oven before you start this.
-Rotate the chicken strips and when they're golden brown, place them on a plate, ready to serve.

-I just got a bag of mixed leaves, cucumber (pre- E-Coli outbreak...) and tomatoes for the salad and gave it a drizzle of balsamic dressing.
-The potatoes will be done by the time you're finished making the chicken and the salad.

-Serve out the back in the sunshine with some lovely dips for the chicken. Tesco does a nice piri piri mayo.

Now, I know the frying of the chicken isn't the healthiest of options, but alternatively you could fry them quickly in a small amount of oil for a minute or two, then bake them in the oven too. I hope you enjoy it!
Also, a huge hello to the new people who are following my blog! Thank youuu!:) Let me know what you think of a few things!
Another post will follow soon! x

Oh my...

Don't even look at the date of my last post.
No!
Don't!
...darn.
But I'm back! Woo! I have a gorgeous new netbook who I can bang around with me it's that dinky and I'm gonna sort out proper internet for myself in the next week.
Bam.
Back on track.
Even though I have not been blogging, I have been baking. I'm going to put up some pics of the yummyness that has kept me going in the past few months. I've been getting some amazing new cookbooks, namely The Hummingbird baking books, The Urban Cookbook and one of the Avoca books, Tea Time.
Cupcakes, as always, have been really popular for gifts and recently I made the vanilla Hummingbird ones as well as the marshmallow ones, for Luke's Mom and sister. For his sister Rachael, I also made her one of those giant cupcake cakes. It was a tad stressful to make (I'm not sure if I'm a fan of this silicone baking equipment phase), but it tasted really good, so that's all that matters really, I guess!:D







The marshmallow cupcakes were mad to make, the absolute stickyness of the melted marshmallows was a little tricky at times, you had to add it to the cupcakes straight away, when the goo was still really hot and not a moment after, otherwise it just stuck to the spoon and your fingers.
Another yummy cake that I've made were Strawberry Jelly Squares. You just made the cake, added the fresh cream, cut it into squares and dipped into sort of solidified jello and then dipped/ rolled it in coconut. Mmm...



The delishishness of a lemon drizzle cake can never be beaten, so I made one way back when I was still living with Cat for her dad who may have a sweet tooth to rival mine. I don't think there was any left when Cat got home that evening...
Apologies for the grainy phone photo...


Then of course many cards have been made since I last posted, with birthdays and Christmas, so I'll stick them up now before I toddle off to bed. It's getting late and I've driving practice in the morning with Luke's mom Helen, so I must be chipper and aware!









Well, that's all for now folks! I'm definitely back on form now, I'm going to post loads, I have loads of new books to keep me going for aaaaaages, and many fun things coming up, so la dee dah, I should definitely be posting way more regularly now.
Night night!
L x

It has been far toooo long...

Great Scott, it has been such an embarrassingly long time since I blogged.
I do apologise:( I've been so busy though, things just sort of all kicked off in the space of a week for me at the end of the summer, so I'm now living with my best pal and her family in their garden room til I move into my own place.
Life is absolutely wonderful.

Loads of things have been happening since I last posted and I really miss crafty nights/ baking days.
Must soon get back into the swing of things!
Also, my laptop has decided to no longer recognise my camera's memory card, so until I get that sorted, I'm afraid grainy photos from my phone will have to suffice!
I had a lovely little bake sale in my old (*sniff) college back in September which earned me some extra monies. I sort of took over the O'Mahony's kitchen (not randomly, I am living with them) and baked for a day with the help of Luke who ended up making Cat's birthday cake!:) I'll make a baker out of him yet!

Some of the cakes for iadt



I've been gathering loads of lovely things that I will soon document, like the teapot Grainne got me for my birthday, some fabulous charity shop bargains and the exciting fact that I am moving into my own place the day after our college graduation.
It's all go!
I can now use the wall stickers Griffin got me months back and I can't wait to put my stamp on my new room. The house is beautiful and I'm so excited to create a space for all my wonderful chums to come chill in.
Oh, and after a wonderful day of shopping with Cat, I finally got a travel mug I have been wanting for about 2 years since I first spotted them in Urban Outfitters. I can now go back to my eco tea ways when I'm on the move!:D
It's like this, only with red flowers:)

My new love


Also today I nabbed Jamie Oliver's new cookbook which I can't wait to dive into! Full meals in 30 minutes you say? I'll be testing that one!:)



And I'm currently reading Stephen Fry's wife's diary.
Very entertaining altogther! Nearly finished, so I can get stuck into the many luscious books I've been gathering from charity shops and the like. Oh it's wonderful (at times) to be finished college and to be able to read for fun!:)

I'm thinking I might start book reviews on this too...

I'm so very busy, but I shall try my utmost to update more frequently! I hope all is equally as lovely in your life!

...Cat just brought me in tea and an ice cream. Win.

Love love love to you all,
L xx

50th post with cake to celebrate!

I'm really quite proud to be on my 50th post! Wowee! And to celebrate here is a most fabulous cake that is quickly becoming my new favorite.
I made it yesterday for tea with my Lovely Auntie Kathleen and quilting mad cousin Cathy! I made two loaf shaped ones today for my stupendous Caitlin who is back from Belarus with her lovely boyfriend Luke, so I'm bringing that down to them tomorrow! Yay!

It's called a Hummingbird Cake; 'interesting', I hear you say. It is! It's in that Women's Weekly 100 Classic Cakes book I got a few weeks back.
Now, it really doesn't look very nice in the tin:

but that's mostly due to using oil rather than butter I think.

The icing you make for it is like the icing for a carrot cake, and so is DELISH. Icing is a problem for me... I think my teeth are starting to tell me to go easy...


It turned out very well, I must say! I was a bit cautious making it cos the ingredients seemed a bit strange to me- pineapple, banana, ginger, cinnamon, coconut (which I didn't have, so it's not in this version) etc! But it's soooo good. A tad crumbly, but fabulous.

nom nom nom...

Another perk of it is that you only need like 2 bowls to make it- so minimal clean up! I've made a few little changes that I did while making it.
Give it a go- it's incredibly yummy and we'll say sorta healthy with all the fruit in it;)

Hummingbird Cake
serves 12

450g can crushed pineapple in syrup
150g plain flour
75g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
220g firmly packed brown sugar
40g desiccated coconut
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 large ones)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
180ml sunflower oil

cream cheese frosting
30g butter, softened
60g cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
240g icing sugar
(I also added about 2 tbsp of milk just to make it easier to spread)

- Preheat the oven to 180C fan assisted. Grease a deep 23cm square tin. Line the base.
- Cut up the pineapple rings and smush them for juice.
Or just make sure you save 60ml from the tin.
- Sift flours, soda, spices and sugar into a large bowl. Stir in the pineapple, reserved syrup, coconut, banana, egg and oil.
- Pour mixture into tin; bake for 40 minutes.
- Stand cake for 5 minutes in tin before turning, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool.
- While it's cooling, make the frosting: Beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla in a small bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually add in the sifted icing sugar.
- Smear the cake with frosting and tuck in.

When Mom and I returned home from our tea date, we were excitedly brainstorming a few ideas for a crafts/ baking charity fundraiser... I'll keep you posted!
I'm tres excited to say the very least!

In other news- my darling Sarah Griffin (last seen here making Rainbow Cakes) has joined the blogging world ahead of her Masters adventure! Catch her here: Write the Title Last
Milk and Cookies Round Nine is also on tomorrow night! Goooooo to it!

I have a few more things to put up, but I am rather tired and have buses ahead of me tomorrow, so I'll post them after my exciting weekend!

Mwah!x

Peanut Butter and Fudge Cookies. Nom.

The other day Siob came home from our cousin's and with her she had 3 boxes with fudge white chocolate and milk chocolate. Yum! These came in handy as I wanted to bake cookies and found a recipe for the above mentioned!

We always have peanut butter here in the house, and just so happened to have the fudge, so all systems were go!

They were quite yummy and not as heavy or sweet as you might expect. Mom was a bit wary when she heard what was in them, but she agreed that they're pretty good!

It's an American recipe, but the quantities aren't very big, so you should be okay! Let me know if you need a hand!

milk and cookies, always a win!

Peanut Butter and Fudge Cookies

makes about 16 nice size ones

4 tbsp butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth is best)

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 large egg

3/4 plain flour

a handful of diced fudge

Oven to 180C/ 350F

-Cream the butter and sugar.

-Add the peanut butter and vanilla. I recommend you have a sneaky taste right about now...

-Add the baking soda and salt, and then whip in the egg.

-Add the flour and then the fudge pieces.

-Drop the mixture onto a piece of baking parchment on a tray. They don't spread too much, so you should be able to fit at least 12 on a tray.

balls of cookie dough!

-Bake for 15 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!x

Competition Coffee Cake

Today is the judging for the Virginia Show, so Mom, Siob and I are going down to drop our things in. I made the coffee cake earlier and realised I never put up the recipe for it!

It's really nice (well, the last time I made it it was, I can't cut this one and taste it!), and pretty simple, so you should give it a go!

They want it undecorated sadly, so that's why mine is lacking some nice coffee cream, but I'll add the recipe here:)

Mocha Cake

(serves 10-12)

175g self-raising flour

50g cocoa powder

225g soft light brown sugar

175g butter, melted

4 medium eggs, separated

60ml very strong coffee, cooled

3 tbsp water

Coffee Butter Icing

100g butter, softened

200g icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp milk/water

3-4 tbsp cooled very strong coffee

- Preheat the oven to 190C/ 375F/ Gas Mark 5. Oil and line a 13 x 23cm loaf tin with parchment paper so that it comes over the sides of the tin.

- Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a large bowl, add the sugar and stir to combine.

- Using a wooden spoon or whisk, beat in the melted butter, egg yolks, coffee and water until smooth.

- Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until fairly stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the cake mixture in 3 batches. Make sure there are no white lumps left!

- Turn the mixture into the loaf tin and smooth the surface. Make a small well in the center so that the cake bakes level and doesn't crack! (You'll see from my photo I forgot to do this!)

- Bake in the oven for 35 mins, then reduce the temperature to 160C/ 325F/ Gas mark 3 for the last 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

- Allow the cake to cool for 10mins then lift out by the parchment paper and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

- Make the icing. Beat the butter until very soft and paling. Add the sugar, then milk/water, and then add the coffee.

- When the cake is cold, remove the paper and cut the cake horizontally and spread about a third of the icing on the lower half with a palette knife. Place the other half of the cake on top and put the remainder of the icing on it. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings or chocolate sprinkles, which I like to use!

- Leave it to stand for about 30mins before cutting. If you can wait that long.

(This also makes 12 cupcakes at 190C/ 375F/ Gas Mark 5 for 15mins.)

Yum! x

Cross Stitched Apron Cupcakes!

I wanted to put this in a separate post, though while I said goodnight in the last one, I'm seriously going after this one!
My Mom is quite the wizard at cross stitching and is even entering her cross stitched Zac Efron cushion she made Siob for, as you might guess, best cross stitched item at the Virginia Show. Seeing as I am incredibly slow on the crochet/ knitting uptake, I have decided that the next few presents I have lined up to make are going to be cross stitched.
Cos I can do that. I just need Mom to help me start it (all that finding the midpoint etc).
Recently she cross stitched cupcakes onto a plain white apron for her friend's daughter Maeve who would always be baking something in preparation for her Junior Cert Home Ec practical when Mom was over. I think it's really pretty, so took a photo of it to post here! I just made her a little card too to go with it.



Next stop: a cross stitched bookmark for a darling dear.

Sidenote: I am more than delighted that my laptop is now completely fixed and I can work so much faster on it!

Thank you Mr. Doug Computer Man for fixing it, you lovely man you.

I hope your day was nothing short of lovely, my dears.
And now I must sleep. x