Extreme swinging and just the right number of linear!

I've just realised that the title may be a bit misleading for some.....I am obviously referring to swinging on a swing. Had friend over for a bbq and one little girl (older than Isobel) was doing some great gymnastics on the swing - one leg, one arm, trying to climb up the side etc etc.

'It won't be long until Isobel is doing that' said her mum.

5 minutes later, there she was, trying to copy her - so a bit faster than we were imagining and filling me with terror as she dangled off about to fall but somehow saving herself! I'm trying to remain calm - inside thinking, OMG, she could fall and quite hurt herself. But she is a brave little thing and I don't want to instill fear - she wouldn't have broken anything, just added another few grazes to her battered legs! What would social services say?

Anyway, a tart update. Well, the pastry didn't shrink and the egg wash (I didn't know about this - thank u Jamie!) stopped it getting a soggy botty. Now then I'm writing this on my phone so its hard to organise the photos to do a 'here is one Jamie made' and 'here is mine' but needless to say, Jamie's was all perfect on the top and mine was, well, a little bit brown. But, suffice to say with a bit of icing sugar sprinkled on it looked good and tasted good - just the right amount lime apparently as I was told! Not sure its the healthiest option with 8 eggs and 300 ml cream but who cares, its pudding!

The pavlova went down a treat too - great for kids and you can hide a relatively small piece under loads if fruit!

I also kept the asparagus theme going with another naked chef recipe - asparagus, broad bean and French bean salad with a mustard dressing. Now the recipe called for French beans and I must say we improvised and added fresh peas but it was still lovely. And interestingly, I used to hate broad beans but I followed the recipe and off I was eating broad beans! Quite nice they were too! Arty also enjoyed it so a hit with the kids which is always good.

And, as we were in a Jamie mode, we also made the potato salad with a salsa Verde which was good - full of capers and anchovies and yummy yummy!

So, another Jamie verdict - good sweet crust pastry recipe and tips, great salads and another asparagus option for that lovely veggie!

Tired now. Have a few days off from the kids as am off to sunny Norfolk for training! I wonder if it will be rude to just go to be at 630 when the course finishes each day? Imagine, 12 hours sleep. What is that? In fact, what is 6 hours sleep?

Feeling crafty.....

For some reason I feel I've been quite productive today - especially when I was out for lunch for most of it with the kids! Maybe it's the sunshine!

I also know I must be careful though. After both kids were born I just did too much I think - I baked, made stuff, went out....and what happened? I got exhausted. I think that played a big part in the whole PND thing. I am just not good at not being active....and I also need to remember that when I see Isobel who has clearly taken after me - I find it hard to deal with her craziness but basically she is just doing what I do - running around like she has ants in her pants, wanting to try things, expend energy, not seeing the point in sitting....ha ha. Arthur doesn't appear to have inherited that....well not yet anyway!

So I started the day with a run. Not just any run but a run 'off piste'....followed the signs for some public footpath and ended up in a sea of oilseed rape flowers intermingled with stinging nettles.....and then got rather lost passing the same man and his dog about 3 times. He surely thought it was odd but was too polite to say 'nutter'.  Ended the day with some crazy disco dancing in the bedroom with Isobel and Arthur....probably not best practice in getting them to calm down before bed but how we all laughed!

In between I've started a dodgy homemade lantern (needs spray painting, pink of course), and started another Jamie Oliver recipe.  Shock of shocks it isn't asparagus.  No, its a tart. Oh a lovely tart.

The first stage this evening was to make the sweet pastry. Now then, last time I made sweet pastry it shrank into a tiny weeny ball in the oven....so, am wondering if Jamie will do me proud.

He has quite an interesting way to make it - after whizzing it up in the Kenwood (behaving this evening), the recipe calls for it to be pushed together into a dough with the fewest possible moves and then wrapped in clingy in the fridge.

So far, so good. Although its really a wee bit crumbly - hoping that means it will be lovely and short and opposed to dry and rubbish! Then he calls for it to be sliced into 5mm slices and pressed into the tin, then frozen. Not tried this before. Anyway, it seemed to go in ok and I appear to have about 3 large tins in the freezer now for all those tarts!

Made a pavlova with the left over whites. It is summer after all ;-).  A kid of delia meets nigella combo. Peter is so excited at the prospect of pavlova he can barely contain himself....well ok, he's on the sofa with me watching LOTR the two towers with some lovely cider.  God bless England in the summer.

Next pie installment tomorrow - will the pastry melt in the mouth or shrink to be smaller than a hobbit!

It's a naked chefess asparagus-thon!

Well we went to Crystal Palace earlier in the week, to see the dinosaurs.  Now then, Isobel was very excited about seeing the dinosaurs.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the dinosaurs, they were built by the Victorians in about 1854 and represent the first dinosaur sculptures in the world! They were designed and sculpted by Benjamin Hawkins and Richard Owen.  They were based on the best scientific info to hand at the time but are now seen as inaccurate in many ways.

Anyway, I digress.  Yes, the dinosaurs.  It was the first time for me to visit them and the first time for Isobel and Arthur.  The excitement built in the car....

'Mummy, are they real dinosaurs'....

'Why aren't they real?'....

'Are they pink?'

'Are they big ones or very very small ones?'

Upon arrival at said dinosaur park, Isobel saw the mural on the side of the cafe - 'look mummy, that one is eating carrot pie with bones in it and that one has a blueberry drink'.  When she actually saw the dinosaur, she wasn't that impressed....she was too busy wanting to scoot off with her friend and climb up muddy banks and tree stumps, play in the sandpit, eat sand, eat food generally and graze her knees almost out of existence.

Oh well.  I enjoyed it anyway!

So, onto the next step in the Jamie Oliver cookathon.  As it's English Asparagus season I have decided to do all the asparagus recipes from the Naked Chef - why not, saves food miles!  There are about 6 including some exciting home made asparagus and ricotta tortellini!  But, that excitement is for later.

We decided to have asparagus with anchovy butter.....not a combination I had thought of I must say.  Anyway, my trusty kenwood failed me - the recipe calls for the soft butter, anchovies, chilli (yum yum), lemon juice and black pepper to be whizzed in the food processor.....the kenwood seemed to just mush it up and then refuse to blend it at all! So I resorted to using a large knife and attempting to cut it in to a smooth consistency....

As you can see....I don't think it really worked....

But anyway, I kept going! Not going to be swayed by such a small think as a dodgy processor.

The asparagus was tossed in the butter as per instructions et voila - and it was yummy, very yummy.  Peter even thought it was a particularly good combo and he doesn't like anchovies!


I thought I would share two examples of the final product, one from the book and one from my plate:

Now this is Jamie's version - with flash

And mine - much better don't you think????

So, so far for Jamie's recipes - maximum points - tasty, easy and quite healthy too!

How not to make marmalade

Mmmh, marmalade

So, a busy week.  I've ended off the day with a quick blast of the Sound of Music - Isobel loves it! Good to get them started young on singing 'How do you solve a problem' really badly!!! Although, perhaps she will sing well...who knows.

Had a bit of a bad day last Friday - was it because it was Friday 13th? Was it the moon? No, I think it was basically the fact that I was tired and I thought that finishing off the marmalade I'd started the day before would be a good thing to do whilst also looking after Isobel and Arthur.....surely it couldn't be that difficult - all I needed to do was let it bubble away for 3 hours......or so I thought.

I decided to make marmalade as frankly, I love marmalade.  I could eat marmalade toast every day, probably for every meal (though that might not be the healthiest of diets!).  I've never made marmalade and in the age of austerity thought that making it would surely be cheaper than buying jars of the stuff.  So, I followed the recipe of the trusty Delia:

http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/preserves/how-to-make-marmalade.html

Now the problem was I started it on an Isobel free day - all the poaching etc was done whilst Arthur was asleep.  I read the instructions and I thought I could just do the boiling the next day, get it started and then play with Isobel and Arthur until we needed to test it to see if it was done.

Problem 1 - Arthur was teething and not wanting to not scream and want lots of cuddles and attention

Problem 2 - Isobel was not wanting to make marmalade

Problem 3 - I was completely convinced that if I could just get the marmalade on to simmer for 3 hours I'd be laughing....

Problem 4 - the pan was far too small......ah, and the blood pressure went up as the marmalade spewed over the sides, Isobel wanted to try to eat it (despite the fact it was bubbling on the cooker) and Arthur was screaming.....

Note to self - get a bigger pan

Oh the joys.  Anyway, I made vats of marmalade - loads of it.  It's lovely and dark, slightly runny but still really really yummy.  And the ingredients? About £9 I think to make probably about £35 of marmalade.

I need to learn - don't try to do these things when the timing just isn't right!

Anyway, we then went off to the lovely Coolings (voted the no. 1 Garden Centre in the UK don't you know!)...not to do any gardening but to look at the nature trail.  However, by the time we got there (some tantrums and massive baby poos delaying the process) it was practically pitch black so we had to make do with the polar bears instead!

Christmas baking - yummy yummy

Chocolate covered orange peel - yummy yummy

 

I have made a few Christmas presents this year and had a lot of fun doing so!  Isobel has also helped - though the big Isobel moment is coming tomorrow when we attempt to ice the cake!!!

Firstly, I made some chocolate covered orange peel - oh I love this stuff.  It costs a fortune in Brussels chocolate shops so I was beside myself with excitement when I saw a recipe in the Waitrose magazine.  And I got to test out my free citrus peeler which I got at a Jamie at Home party.  It's really quite good despite being a bit of an unnecessary item.  Here it is together with the resulting orange peel pieces:

Now, I've tried to find an online version of the recipe to link to but can't so here it is:

- take 2 large oranges and remove peel.  Cut peel into strips about 0.5 cm wide;
- plunge strips into boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes;
- drain and then repeat;
- put 250 g of caster sugar in a pan with 250 ml of water and heat until the sugar is fully dissolved;
- add 5 cardamon pods (bruised) and a tablespoon of orange blossom water (which you can get in Sainsburys and such places) and the peel;
- simmer for one hour until the peel is soft and translusent;
- leave to cool on wire rack (put some greaseproof under it as it sticks to everything!) for 24 - 48 hours or until it's basically dried out.

- then melt 150g plain chocolate over a pan of water and dip the orange peel in the chocolate.  Sprinkle with cocoa powder and chopped pistachios (we used about 20g cocoa and 30g chopped nuts).
- leave to set.  Then eat...or should I say, wrap as gifts!

My second baking effort was biscotti - I remember talking to Mrs WP about it whilst out looking for coffee mugs in Starbuckles.  How do you make biscotti we wondered? Surely it's low in fat/sugar and high in goodness we thought (??!).  So, I had a go at the BBC recipe for Christmas Biscotti:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8022/fruity-christmas-biscotti


And they were pretty good really - Mrs WP should comment as we gave some to her and Mr WP for a gifty.  And suprisingly easy to make!  Really recommended.

Oh and another - danish pastries

Yummy yummy, I'm pleased with these

 
OK, another blog-a-thon seems to be happening (although I'm about to be called for dinner - am multitasking whilst attempting to sell stuff for Peter on ebay!).

I'm feeling very happy as I did more baking yesterday.  I was going to make a pumpkin pie but got sidetracked by the idea of making danish pastries.  I've never made them before and I have to say, the result was good, not perfect but good. And I got another chance to use my Lakeland baking tray which is great!

So, I used a recipe from the Good Housekeeping but I only made half quantities (I'd love to say for health reasons, but mainly because I wanted to try it out and didn't want to waste a lot in this age of austerity!).  I now realise quite how much butter there is in a danish pastry!  Oh, and the first attempt at dough had to be binned as I forgot to add the sugar!

Once I was a bit more organised this is basically what I did:

(a) Take 150g of unsalted butter out of fridge and let it warm up until it's soft.  Meanwhile, put 225g, 1/2 tsp salt in a bow and mix together.  Then rub in 25g lard (I presume you could also use vegetable marg) and add 3/4 tsp dried yeast and 1 tablespoon of caster sugar.

(b) add 75ml of handhot water and one beaten egg and mix together, then kneed for about 5 mins or until you have a smooth, elastic dough

(c) Cover and put in fridge for 10 minutes.  Then, and there is where I tried to guess the details of the recipe as there was a really long description with no pictures to clarify, mould the soft butter into an oblong and roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is 3x as wide.

(d) Fold the sides over the butter until it's covered and then roll it out so it's length is 3x it's width. 

(e) Then fold the top 1/3 down and the bottom 1/3 down.  Cover and rest for 10 minutes.  Then turn the dough round and repeat steps d and e two more times (so I think you end up rolling it out 3 times)

(f) Cover the dough with cinnamon butter which you make by creaming together 25g caster sugar with 25g butter and 1tsp or so of cinnamon (I didn't used enough cinnamon - I love cinnamon and would add more next time).  Sprinkle over some sultanas.

(g) Roll it up like a swiss roll and then cut into rounds about 1inch (2.5cm) thick.  Put on the baking tray and leave for about 30 minutes in a warm place and covered up.  Preheat the oven to 220 deg C.

(h) Brush with beaten egg then bake for about 15 minutes.

(i) Remove from oven and let cool a bit before eating!  You can also cover with thin glace icing apparently (according to les instructions in the book).  Yummy yummy.

I know, I've used this pic before!

Yet more bagels!

Mmh, cinnamon and raisin, my favourite.  Having had a poorly Arthur for a few days, Isobel and I made bagels on Friday whilst Arthur was in bed!  It was fun - though you have to be in the right mood to cook with a toddler I think.

We decided that we didn't have any bagels left in the freezer so action was needed and a change of bagel was also needed.  Found a few recipes, and mixed and matched a bit.  We ended up doing one which you left in the fridge overnight and cooked first thing so you have lovely freshly baked bagels for breakfast - lovely (though not so lovely for the waistline!).  We only made 6 as we were testing out the whole leave in the fridge thing.

So here, goes:

(a) Sift 1lb of bread flour into a bowl with 2.5 tsp of cinnamon and about 3/4 tsp of salt.  Mix together then make a well in the centre.

(b) Measure out 280ml of hand hot water and add to that about 3g dried active yeast (we used about half a sachet of the Allinsons yeast which is 7g in total but I wasn't being hugely accurate!) and 3g sugar.  One recipe we saw asked for Malt Extract instead of sugar but as we didn't have any and the previous recipe we used only used sugar, we plumped for sugar.  Seemed OK!

(c) Add this warm water to the flour and mix it in, then kneed for about 8 - 10 minutes until you have a smooth dough.

Toddler kneeding - not sure how effective it is!

(d) Add about 135g raisins (or mix of raisins and sultanas - we had to use sultanas as the raisins were no more!) and kneed those in.

(e) Then make the bagels - divide the dough into 6 balls.  We used a more prescriptive technique this time - after the random shapes last time (which were quite fun though!).  Found some instructions on an American blog which I'll try to find the link to.  Flatten each ball with your hand.  Then fold over one side into the centre and press down.  Do the same with the other side - so you get a seam in the middle where the two sides have come together.

(f) fold this in half and press down again and then roll into a sausage about 20 cm long and tapering at one end.

OK, so this isn't 20cm long but this is a sausage shape - roughly....

(g) Open up the seam at one end and then put the tapered end into it to make a bagel shape.  Pinch them closed.  Put the finished bagels on a floured towel on a baking tray.

There is a little Isobel one in there somewhere.....

(h) Cover with cling film and leave in fridge overnight.  Now, ours didn't rise that much overnight which we were a little concerned about but decided to keep going anyway!

(i) Preheat the oven to 250 deg centigrade (or max temperature) and put pan of water on to boil.  When it's boiling add 2 tbs sugar and then, using a slotted spoon, pop in about 3 bagels.  Turn them over after about 45 seconds and leave them to poach until they float.  Take them out and put them, seam side down, on a baking tray.

(j) Bake in the oven for about 14 minutes or until brown and lovely looking.

'I want my bagel'

(K) Cut open, add some butter and eat! Yummy yummy.