Moving house is stressful!

This the house move that feels it has taken a year, realistically we found the house a year ago, but only moved in March.  I have neglected my cooking and all kinds of other stuff to deal with moving, packing and generally house related rubbish.  Things are now normalising (well as much as they can in my nut house) so I am Turing my nose to the grind and getting back to my cooking.

This week I have made bread, (last week I started a sourdough mother again, poor old mother was sadly neglected!) lamb and minted gravy pie and salmon and potato wedges.  Tomorrow is a chicken korma I found in the freezer I made some time ago, Friday is possibly homemade pizza.

I promise to try and get my cooking mojo back. X

Sauces and sausages!

Trying to be a little more organised food wise these days and hoping to eliminate the waste.  So, tonight's dinner is  mini toad in the holes (stretching four sausages between three of us!!). I've got a seeded loaf in the oven and I've prepped a BBQ sauce (experimenting and doing it in the slow cooker) which I will be using for dinner on Wednesday (out Tuesday so no cooking for me!), there looks to be enough to do for several meals so I may bottle or freeze the unused sauce.  I think the first meal with it maybe pulled pork, homemade slaw and jacket potatoes or wedges.

Busy, busy, busy!

Life never seems to slow to a walking pace, but this continual trying to catch up! So tonight after a lovely, but busy weekend, I am prepping some food for tomorrow.

Mondays dinner will be toad in the hole - stretching four lonely sausages between three of us!  Shall chop up and may be make mini toad in the holes, probably serve with veg and gravy.

I have also for the first time made tahini paste!!! I am going to make baba ganoush for my lunch and probably serve either with salad or on toast with fresh tomatoes.  Watch this space it could all change!!!

Winter is Here!

Well, it's definitely cold and autumnal now (though there is news we may have more warm weather coming!!) so in the slow cooker today, (yes I'm still trying to use the sc) I have a ham broth:

Ham (leftovers found in the freezer made a while back)

Ham stock (see above)

1 large white potato

1 sweet potato

Swede ((chopped a bit off a large swede)

2 carrots

3 cloves of garlic

2 large onions (I fried before adding to raw ingredients)

Broth mix - bout 2 handfuls

All cubed and and put on low from bout 8.30 till it's needed tonight.

Slow Cooker Strikes Again

The turning of the weather really makes you want to find your happy cosy place! So, as life seems uber busy recently the slow cooker is a real delight in the ability to throw things in and leave it to cook gently away. 

Today's slow cooker surprise is a tomato sauce with veg and bacon pieces which will be served later with pasta.

I've also got another loaf on proving ready for tomorrow's breakfasts.

Slow Cooker Pork

I'm on a bit of a, we must eat what's in the fridge and stop wasting things drive so for lunch today, I made a stuffed squash.  The squash had seen better days but once roasted tasted fab.

Having freezer issues so for the next few weeks I am using it all up before the poor old thing dies completely.

The weather has definitely turned autumnal and it feels the time to produce food to warm you to the core.  I have therefore got the slow cooker on the counter and put in it a pork shoulder on a bed of herbs and veg and some ham stock I found in the freezer.  I've also put in the same slow cooker in a oven bag some root veg (white &sweet potatoes) which are made into mash.  

In the oven has been a loaf of mixed grain bread.

Another batch of tomato sauce!

I had a glut of home grown tomatoes so what todo as they were looking a little sad, so I've thrown together a very colourful sauce.

In the mix was:

Fresh tomatoes (several varieties)

1 red onion

1 brown onion

Mixed fresh herbs

3 garlic cloves

Balsamic vinegar

Sugar (to taste)

1 yellow pepper

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

Tin of water

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Cook together and then blitz.  I then froze for a later date.