An Award!

A big thank you to Beth at http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com/ for giving me this award:

Time for me to pass it along.

Cheryl at http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com/

Pam at http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/

Paula at http://itsallgouda.blogspot.com/

Emiline at http://www.visionsofsugarplum.com/

Candy at http://thecourageouscook.blogspot.com/

Blackened Szechuan Chicken

Whoops-a-daisy, I just realized I published the last post without a recipe.


Blackened Szechuan Chicken






Ingredients:

¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup szechuan stir-fry sauce
Juice of 1 small orange and a couple of teaspoons of zest
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
4 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
2 chicken breasts with ribs

Directions:

• Combine first six ingredients in a small bowl. Pour 2/3 of the marinade into a gallon size resealable plastic bag, add chicken and turn to coat. Marinate chicken in refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours. Cover and refrigerate remaining marinade.


• Pre-heat BBQ to low.


• Drain and discard marinade from chicken. Grill chicken, ribs side down, directly on the bars, basting occasionally with reserved marinade. Cook times will vary according to size of chicken breasts, and outside temps, so just grill to desired doneness, and until juices run clear.
  

The British One Hundred, and an Award

In response to the Omnivores One Hundred, Helen at Food Stories: http://helengraves.co.uk/ has created The British One Hundred. I love lists so I couldn't resist having a go.

Here are the rules if you would like to play along:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

4) Link back to Food Stories, if you would be so kind.


1. Grey squirrel. (Having eaten crocodile, wilderbeast, and zebra in Kenya, I think I’d give it a try).

2 Steak and kidney pie

3. Bubble and squeak

4. Spotted dick

5. Hot Cross Buns (A traditional Easter favorite)

6. Laver bread

7. Toad in the hole

8. Shepherds pie AND Cottage pie

9. Scotch egg

10. Parkin

11. Welsh rarebit

12. Jellied eels

13. Stilton

14. Marmite (I hate this stuff)

15. Ploughman’s lunch

16. Cucumber sandwiches

17. Coronation chicken

18. Gloucester old spot.

19. Cornish pasty

20. Samphire

21. Mince Pies

22. Winkles

23. Salad cream

24. Malt loaf

25. Haggis

26. Beans on toast

27. Cornish clotted cream tea

28. Pickled egg

29. Pork scratchings

30. Pork pie

31. Black pudding

32. Patum Peperium or Gentleman’s relish

33. Earl Grey tea

34. Elvers

35. HP Sauce

36. Potted shrimps

37. Stinking bishop

38. Elderflower cordial

39. Pea and ham soup

40. Aberdeen Angus Beef

41.Lemon Posset

42. Guinness

43. Cumberland sausage

44. Native oysters

45. A ‘full English’ breakfast

46. Cockles

47. Faggots

48. Eccles cake

49. Potted Cromer crab

50. Trifle

51. Stargazy pie

52. English mustard

53. Christmas pudding

54. Cullen skink

55. Liver and bacon with onions

56. Wood pigeon

57. Branston pickle

58. Oxtail soup

59. Piccalilli

60. Sorrel

62. Chicken tikka masala

63. Deep fried Mars Bar

64. Fish, chips and mushy peas

65. Pie and mash with liquor

66. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding

67. Pickled onions

68. Cock-a-leekie soup

69. Rabbit and Hare

70. Bread sauce

71. Cauliflower cheese

72. Crumpets

73. Rice pudding

74. Bread and Butter Pudding

75. Bakewell tart

76. Kendall mint cake (horribly sweet)

77. Summer pudding

78. Lancashire hot pot (I'm from Lancashire, I was weaned on this)

79. Beef Wellington

80. Eton mess

81. Neeps and tatties

82. Pimms

83. Scampi

84. Mint sauce

85. English strawberries and cream

86. Isle of Wight garlic

87. Mutton

88. Deep fried whitebait with tartare sauce

89. Angels on horseback

90. Omelette Arnold Bennett

91. Devilled kidneys

92. Partridge and pheasant

93. Stew and Dumplings

94. Arbroath smokies

95. Oyster loaves

96. Sloe gin

97. Damson jam

98. Soda bread

99. Quince jelly

100. Afternoon tea at the Ritz


I think I would add Bangers and Mash, Kippers, Victoria Sponge, and Jam Roly Poly.

Which ones have you tried, and are there any you would like to add?

Also, Beth at: http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com/ has given me this award





Thank you so much, Beth.

I’m a little pressed for time right now so I’ll be passing this on at the weekend.

Tuna and Pasta Bake

As I said in my last post, mid-week we had a lot of rain and our temps cooled tremendously, so I got the opportunity to make some soup. I had seen this recipe for Tomato and Basil Soup http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com/2008/09/tomato-basil-soup.html on Cheryl’s blog at: http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com and wanted to try it.

We still had loads of fresh heirloom tomatoes from our garden and tons of fresh basil so here was the perfect opportunity. I have to say this soup was absolutely delicious. The only changes I made to her original recipe are, I didn’t add any salt, as I don’t use salt in my cooking, I added a green pepper as well as the red, and I very naughtily doubled the amount of cream. This recipe is a definite keeper, and I’m sure I’ll be making plenty more over the fall and winter. Thanks a lot Cheryl.

Now I have a favor to ask of y’all. It’s my birthday mid-month (don’t even ask!), and I’d like hubby to get me a new cookbook for my presi, so I’m looking for some recommendations. I just want something that has great everyday recipes, nothing fancy or gourmet. Can you help me out?

Anyway, enough of that birthday humbug, back to the recipe. On Thursday, as it was still cold, and as I didn’t plan to make my pilgrimage to the store until Friday, I made this old store cupboard stand-by.

Tuna and Pasta Bake




Ingredients:

8 ounces tri-colored rotelle, or rotini pasta
1 jar of Alfredo sauce
1 12-ounce can albacore tuna
6 fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1½ cups sharp cheddar, shredded, or sufficient to cover the top of your baking dish.

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350°F
• Add pasta to a pan of boiling water and boil gently for 5 minutes, drain.
• While pasta drains, in a medium saucepan, heat Alfredo sauce, tuna, mushrooms, basil, and black pepper over a low heat until sauce bubbles gently.
• Add pasta and combine.
• Pour mixture into an 11 x 8½ -inch baking dish, top with cheese, and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the cheese gets a bit crusty looking.
  
  
  
  

Slow Roasted Pork with Garlic and Onions

Yes, you are in the right place! I’ve had to do a bit of a re-vamp on the old blog, because the margins on the other one were too narrow for the new Foodie Blogroll widget. It was overlapping my recipes, and that will never do.

After bitching on everybody’s blogs that it was too hot here to make soups and chilies, would you believe it’s suddenly got cold? Yesterday, it was 90°F, but it started raining last night, and has chucked it down all day today, the temperature has now plummeted by 25 degrees. But I have a sneaky suspicion that the weather is only teasing me into thinking fall has arrived. I’m sure there will be more hot weather lurking around the corner for me yet, but hopefully low 80’s instead of 90/100’s.

Even though the rain has never stopped the intrepid Brits from barbecuing before, I’m still going to cook something on the stove tonight, just for the sheer novelty value. But more about that later. Today’s recipe is what we had for our Labor day feed.

Slow Roasted Pork with Garlic and Onions




The slow cooking of this meat allowed the onions and garlic to virtually disintegrate into a galze, and to infuse the meat with their lovely flavors, it also kept it really moist.

Ingredients:

I pork joint, I think this one was called a boneless ribeye roast, but I’m not 100% certain.
1 onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped.
1 tablespoon olive oil
Fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

• Pre-heat BBQ to low.
• Place a layer of sliced onions on a sheet of heavy-duty foil and top with pork.
• Drizzle pork with olive oil, a generous amount of black pepper, top with garlic and another layer of onions. Wrap foil loosely around meat.
• Roast on grill until the little thermometer thingy pops out, approximately 1hour & 20 minutes. Unwrap foil parcel and cook for a further 20-30 minutes until browned.

I served the pork with roasted rosemary potatoes, I think I’ve posted these before, but they are so good here they are again. We also had a salad, but you can figure that one out yourselves.

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes




Ingredients:

6 red potatoes cut into quarters.
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves only.
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Fresh ground black pepper
A drizzle of vegetable oil

Directions:

• Pre-heat BBQ to low.
• Brush the center of a large sheet of heavy duty foil lightly with oil, add potatoes, pour over wine, sprinkle them with rosemary and black pepper, and dot with butter.
• Seal package loosely, and grill over a low heat, stirring frequently, for 45 – 60 minutes.

Balsamic Chicken and Orange Salad

I saw this recipe for Balsamic Chicken and Peach Salad in the chicken recipe booklet that came with the Good Food magazine, and I thought I would give it a whirl.

A few days ago, Mick came home with a big bag of homegrown peaches that one of his co-workers had given him. They were absolutely delicious, and I thought this recipe would be a perfect way to use a couple of them. Wrong! When I checked the bag there was one tiny little peach left in there.

As there are only two of us in this house there are no prizes for guessing who’d scoffed them all, and it wasn’t the cats. Smart as they are, I don’t think they’ve mastered the art of fridge cracking yet, although Alvin can open cupboards and drawers. And even if they had managed to break into the fridge, I don’t think peaches would have been high on their list of priorities.

The peach situation called for a little improvisation. We had plenty of oranges so this recipe became Balsamic Chicken and Orange Salad, and very tasty it was too. Also the recipe said to cook the chicken under the broiler, but we grilled it on the BBQ.

Balsamic Chicken and Orange Salad




Ingredients:

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small orange for juice and zest
A handful of fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 small oranges, peeled and cut into segments
2 cups spinach

Directions:

• Pre-heat BBQ to low.
• Put one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar in each of two small bowls. Add one tablespoon of olive oil to one bowl and two to the other. The first bowl is the marinade and the second bowl is the salad dressing.
• Grate about a teaspoonful of orange zest into each bowl. Cut orange in half and add the juice from each half to each of the bowls. Add a dash of black pepper to both bowls.
• Chop about a quarter of the basil leaves and add to the salad dressing only. Cover and store in refrigerator until required.
• Brush a little vegetable oil on a sheet of heavy duty foil.
• Dip chicken in marinade until thoroughly coated, and place on foil. Grill for approximately 15 minutes each side until golden brown.
• Spread spinach leaves over a serving platter, top with orange segments and remaining basil leaves. Slice chicken and scatter it over the top. Drizzle the salad with the reserved dressing and serve.
  
  
  
  

Cheesy Dribblers

I want to say a great big thank you to Beth at, http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com for sending me a copy of the BBC’s Good Food magazine, what a fantastic publication this is. I was positively drooling over it last night, and will definitely be making some of those goodies. But not tonight, as I’m too busy reading. There was another little booklet with the mag containing 40 yumptious chicken recipes, and as we eat a lot of chicken at this house it’s given me plenty of ideas. And as a special little bonus, there was also some Cadbury’s drinking chocolate and Bird’s custard powder lurking in the envelope. Yum!

Okay, tonight’s recipe is not rocket science, it’s only burgers, but they were pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself. I only made 3 burgers as we have one each for dinner and Mick takes one for his lunch, but you could make 4. The addition of the tomato while the burgers grill makes them nice and moist.




Cheesy Dribblers

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
½ cup onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce. I’m guessing a bit here because I just splash it in until it looks like there’s enough.
2 -3 teaspoons McCormick grill mates, spicy Montreal steak flavor, divided
3 thick slices beefsteak tomato
3 slices Swiss cheese
3 Kaiser rolls

Directions:

• Pre-heat BBQ grill to high
• In a large mixing bowl combine beef, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and 1 teaspoon of the grill mates seasoning. Mould into 3 or 4 patties. Sprinkle more of the seasoning mix on each side of the burgers.
• Grill burgers directly on the bars for 5 minutes. You will need to reduce cooking time if you have 4 patties.
• Reduce heat to low, turn burgers over and add tomato slices. Grill until tomato cooks, and burgers are of desired doneness. Add cheese slices, toast buns on grill while cheese melts. Serve immediately.