I love to cook and bake, both for us (husband and I) and our dog. Husband loves to grow vegetables and fruit. I like to batch cook and freeze meals, so I can have a day off cooking occasionally! We eat meat and fish, but not every day. We make bread about twice a week, I bake a cake about every other week.

Thursday, 24 January 2019

Small shop, smashed spuds and loaded sprouts

I actually remembered to take photos yesterday.  Another reason why I don't put photos on here very often is that they take so long to load - our broadband speed here in the sticks is so very slow (less than 1mbps) and I'm not very patient.  Never mind, I'm just grateful we have the internet at all.


The pizza I made for dinner yesterday, prior to baking.  It was very nice, we'll have the rest cold for lunch today.
The chocolate and orange cake.  The choc topping looks a bit grainy, and it is....I melted the choc in the microwave, then stirred in some finely grated orange rind.  I thought the chocolate was going to seize - it didn't quite seize, but the texture did change, it went from silky smooth and pourable to thick and grainy, so I spread it on the cake quickly before anything else happened!  It tastes ok though, thankfully.

 Shopping this morning, we don't need much at all, just a couple of things we've run out of (red lentils and stuffing mix, both of which I use a lot) and some fresh veg.  We're eating so much more veg nowadays, I do use quite a bit of frozen veg now, but you can't beat fresh for some things.  

 For dinner this evening I'm doing vegetarian.  I saw a recipe the other day (can't remember where...oh, I think it popped up on my Facebook feed) for smashed potatoes.  What you do is boil small to medium size potatoes in their skins until nearly soft, drain and leave to cool, then press on them firmly until they're squashed and the skins split.  Then put in an oven tray, toss with melted butter, herbs and grated Parmesan, then bake until crispy.  

 I'm also doing roasted Brussels sprouts.  I only discovered a couple of years ago that roasting sprouts changes their taste entirely - I love sprouts anyway, but roasting them until the edges go brown and crispy makes them taste all caramelly and a bit smoky and they're just delicious.  I shall mix pecan nuts (there's a handful left in a bag in the cupboard) and some dried cranberries in with them and a bit of oil, then roast for 20 mins.

 Carrots and parsnips roasted with honey to go alongside.  I might make a cheese sauce too.
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8 comments:

  1. MarleneS24 January 2019 at 08:08

    Some pictures of you food, how lovely, it looks wonderful, homemade pizza is a great way of using up bits and bobs lurking in the fridge isn't it. I always have trouble melting chocolate in the microwave so I tend to stick to a basin over a pan of water now. Roasted sprouts are nice, so different, we had a sprout and cheese risotto the other day the sprouts were pan fried and I loved them like that as well.

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  2. Joy24 January 2019 at 08:48

    I've seen Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson (can't remember which) doing smashed potatoes and they looked so delicious The squashing creates lots of crunchy opportunities. And roasted sprouts - mmmmmmmmmmmmm
    A delicious day's food!
    xx

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  3. Poppypatchwork24 January 2019 at 08:50

    Sue, we do not eat any pulses, have you a couple of recipes you can share, I have already got them, I just need to use them. PS no cheese in recipe, hubby can't eat it.

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  4. Rosemary24 January 2019 at 09:20

    I have realised, rather late in life, that you can roast all manner of vegetables successfully. I have recently started roasting beetroot after parboiling it first in the microwave, and tonight I am roasting broccoli which I sprinkle with crushed garlic, a little lemon juice, and rapeseed oil then mix together.

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  5. Brenda24 January 2019 at 12:44

    Yum vegetarian!!!!

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  6. Anonymous24 January 2019 at 15:15

    I have done smashed potatoes before now, there is a definite tasty difference to them isn't there?

    No more sprouts for me - the organic ones I cooked at Christmas were so strongly flavoured that I could not eat them.

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  7. Catriona24 January 2019 at 19:37

    Hello again-nice to have found you. I like smashed potatoes very much and I can eat sprouts anyway including raw. I even used up tired looking ones recently by shredding them and tossing them into veg soup ai was making. I wonder if the oil in the zest emulsified the chocolate? As long as it tastes good, we eat food that is not picture perfect.

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  8. Janice24 January 2019 at 20:33

    Good to have found your new blog Sooze. You are sharing some delicious looking baking and Betty is getting some delicious food!

    ReplyDelete

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