Bistro Ready Meal range

Last Sunday we tried the £10 meal offer ready for Valentine's Day from Morrisons.  Sometimes you just don't have time to cook but want something nice.

For £10 we got a main dish from the Bistro Range, a side dish and a pudding.  You could then choose from a bottle of wine, or rose cava or chocolates...so a good deal.

We chose the Shepherd's Pie with Minted Pea and Potato Crush, with herby potatoes, and for pudding the Belgian Chocolate Pudding.

The shepherds pie base with the minced lamb was yummy and I particularly liked the rough crushed potatoes with the pea, the mint element was nice but perhaps a little overpowering for my husband.  The chocolate pudding was amazing and just enough for two portions.  Definitely recommended as an alternative to the original Dine in that another supermarket offers....although we will review one of those i am sure in the not too distant future.

Everyone needs a little help sometimes

Yes here he is, he sleeps whilst I am cooking, loves my Victoria sponge cakes I made last week and helps me tweet and write my blog......yes he is the most gorgeousness bundle of fluff, he is my woof.  Is pacing up and down whilst I am writing oh here he comes..........

Not just a berry day but an orange day

Today I stayed in again to finally knock this bug on the head as I need to go back to work tomorrow not negotiable.....so first thing I squeezed and chopped seville oranges even wrapping the pips in a muslin cloth (yes found one with my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish supply) and after several hours of boiling I came out with 1 3/4 jars of Seville Orange marmalade.

My Seville orange marmalade

Approx 1.5kg of seville oranges
1/2 lemon
3/4 kg of preserving sugar

Squeeze oranges, chop a bit of the rind from the oranges as much as your preference.  Squirt in the juice from 1/2 lemon and wrap the pips in muslin.  Boil then simmer for around 1 hour.  Add the preserving sugar and boil rapidly for a further 30-40 minutes test and see if there is a set, boil a bit longer if needed.  Jar up.

Then to this afternoon well Mary Berry had to make an appearance and what an appearance.  I made her Devon Scone recipe from the Complete cookbook, they are amazing so light and yes the only cutter i could find was in the shape of a flower however they swelled in the oven so they became round.  Two of them I chopped up leftover cheese in and had for my lunch. I used skimmed milk and they turned out fine so I suppose a bit low cal.

Devon Scones by Mary Berry

2 oz (60g) butter plus extra for greasing
8oz (250g) self raising flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1oz (30g) caster sugar
1 egg
about 150ml (1/4 pint) of milk plus extra for glazing
butter and jam to serve
2in pastry cutter

Lightly butter a large baking tray.  Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl.  Rub in the butter with the fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sugar.  Break the egg into a measuring jug and make up to 150ml (1/4 pint) with milk.  Beat lightly to mix.  Add to the bowl and mix to a soft dough.  Lightly knead the dough until smooth.  Roll out until 1cm (1/2 in) thick, cut into rounds with the pastry cutter, and put on the baking tray.  Brush with milk.  Bake in a preheated oven at 220°c (200°c fan oven, gas mark 7) for about 10 minutes until risen and golden.  Cool on a wire rack.  Serve on the day of making if possible with butter and jam.  Makes 12

Recipe is by Mary Berry and taken from her book Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook published by Dorling Kindersley and available to buy through Amazon by clicking on the link above.

Poachers Pie

Last night I made Poachers Pie....okay have to admit I was still a bit poorly so shop brought pastry was used.  However the rest was followed to the letter and with another lovely front facing floral arrangement to adorn the table comprising pink tulips, carnations, my favourite flower freesia, bouvardia, mimosa and sweet avalanche roses it made the meal really special.  I finished the meal off with a Raspberry and Elderflower Fizz as really it should have had a nice red wine such as a chianti, however I don't like red wine so complemented the flowers and used a less heavy drink as the meal is quite hearty, almost medieval in look and taste taking me back to pictures of the medieval tables with their hearty pies. 

The pie in itself was amazing I used beef steak, chicken and ham for the filling, the sausagemeat gave it another dimension and was really tasty.

For details of how to make Poachers Pie it can be found in Paul Hollywood's How to Bake book which is published by Bloomsbury.

The flowers were supplied courtesy of Dutch Flower Auction Direct.

Floral Arrangement - Mary Berry's Sea Bass with Lemon sauce

The flowers that were used in the arrangement for the Sea Bass dish were yellow tulips and mimosa, white lilies and pink sweet avalanche roses.

I would like to thank the Dutch Flower Auction Direct for supplying the flowers that I used in this weekend's blog.  For more details of the Dutch Flower Auction Direct please click here or on the logo to the right hand side of this blog.

There will be more flowers tomorrow.

It's Mary time

Whilst I was suffering with the lurgy this week, I had two pieces of exciting news (no three) to cheer me up.  One was my letter from Felicity Kendall (more of that another day), and the second was an email from Lucy Young allowing me to use Mary and her recipes within my blog well you can imagine how excited I felt.  The third was that Haagen Daaz was on special offer in Morrisons my favourite chocolate and mint leaves....

Last night in our quest to stay healthy (i have lost 11.5lbs already this year since we started the diet in January with the treats at weekends) we had Seabass.

The recipe I used was Sea bass with lemon butter sauce which is from Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook published by Dorling Kindersley.

So basically put some lemon into the cleaned and filleted seabass, add some sprigs of tarragon and place in foil along with a couple of tablespoons of dry white wine seasoned with salt and pepper.  Bake for 30 mins.  For the sauce whisk single cream, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 egg yolk, plain flour, pepper and tarragon together and keep warm to then serve when the fish is cooked.

The meal was complemented by a small floral arrangement comprising white lilies, yellow tulips, mimosa and sweet avalanche roses with a little foliage from the garden.  The yellow tulips and the mimosa along with the white lilies went well to co-ordinate with the fish and the creamy lemon sauce.

The wine chosen to complement the meal was a white Pinot Grigio

Triple chocolate cake

This week has been a dreadful week, I caught an awful viral infection that is doing the rounds.  Monday was the start of what felt like I had been gargling with razor blades, and then wed, thurs and friday out of action.  However when you are a normally active person, Friday afternoon the boredom had really set in....help no more Loose Women or This Morning...and after seeing Paul Hollywood on Alan Titchmarsh making an afternoon tea I felt the need to make something and treat myself (oh and the husband for putting up with nights of coughing and loud snoring).

So I made a Triple Chocolate Cake, I did adapt the recipe a bit by adding some strawberries on top and to be honest my picture was not quite as perfect as in Mr Hollywood's book but hey I am ill so the cake didn't look as perfect either....it felt sorry for me so had to look a bit awkward.  Mind you the taste was amazing.

For details of how to make the Paul Hollywood Triple Chocolate Cake, the recipe can be found in his book How to Bake by Paul Hollywood which is published by Bloomsbury