A Trio of Pies

First day of a week off with Henry from school hols so we were planning on a trip out to beamish museum ( http://www.beamish.org.uk) but as we have a years pass we may do it tomorrow instead as we decided to bake.  

I had prepped a chicken, bacon and leek filling the day before from leftover chicken and a reduced ham hock. I made some short crust aided by my trusty assistant Henry, I had enough filling for two pies, one of which went in the freezer for a meal next week.

There was still so much pastry left and instead of wasting it I made a treacle tart with some stale bread that was lying around.

Tonight's pie will be baked and served with potato wedges and salad I think ... Watch this space!

It's all cobblers!

It's the school hols and the weather is lovely and hot and I just can't find my cooking mojo, but I'm attempting to be organised the day before so I can work all day and spend some time with Henry after I finish. So last night I prepped the sauce for a chicken cobbler, I just have to add the pre cooked chicken I had frozen a few days ago and make some cobblers for the topping.  I shall be serving with new potatoes and carrots and peas. Hopefully, there will be enough for tomorrow's dinner so one less thing to consider!

Henry is off out today with friends to a local farm so I may get some work done today!

Lamb Leftovers

This weekend we had friends over for dinner and in this ridiculous heat I decided a lamb joint was sensible to cook (nuts!)!!!

Now I have leftovers so I'm thinking lamb biryani and I'm probably going to do something like this but tweak it to fit with what I have in my cupboards:-

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4815/quick-lamb-biryani

Fryday!

Friday is always a mad dash day as Henry has swimming lessons (5.30 pm at mo but will be moving to 6.00 pm in the new term) so no time to prep things as I like to get some cleaning done on Friday after work (joy, these things have to be done!!,). So, I do something very quick for Henry usually, and we have a mixtures of takeaways, but tonight I treated us to some gorgeous steak from our local Farm Shop http://www.knitsleyfarmshop.co.uk well worth a trip if you're ever nearby. So for ease I'm using frozen chips and peas and I'm not feeling guilty as there are only so many hours in the day and I am pan frying the steaks and keeping it simple.

The weather has turned wet here but hope it bucks it's ideas up as we're supposed to be going on a picnic on Sunday! 

Leftovers and sourdough

Well, I started the day by falling down the stairs, for which I recommend you not doing this as it hurts, realised we had very little bread in the house so to the flour Jar I go.  I've slung a sourdough loaf together, I'm having mixed results with my sourdough recently, sometimes I'm getting a fab loaf, other times it's flat as a pancake, so watch this space who knows how today's will turn out.

Dinner is yesterday's lasagna which is handy as it's Henry's swimming lesson so always a rush so something pre done just to heat up is great.

It's another lovely sunny day, but I shall be stuck inside working, but at least it's cheery out there!

Feeding and Working

As a working mum I have to balance making money and looking after the family and making sure we eat right.  So, tonight is my usual Tuesday late night meeting and I need to cook something in the morning that can either go in the slow cooker or can be prepped in the morn or something that just needs a quick heat on the cooker top.  Tonights meal is a lasagna which I have prepped this morn and I will serve with salad and a homemade coleslaw.

Here is the finished article, I love lasagna, not sure why I don't make it more often, probably 1990's overload!!! Enough time has passed to love this dish once again!