Test Match Special

This is an old family favourite of Corned Beef Hash & Rice Pudding

It was named Test Match Special by my Grandfather as he could get it all ready & in the oven at 11am so he could watch the cricket & when the teams went into lunch at 1pm it would be ready!!

It feels like a cheat to describe such a simple recipe but here goes

Cook some potatoes, then mash them & add a tin of corned beef I add a little grated cheese as well. Put it into an ovenproof dish

Now for the rice pudding. In a ovenproof bowl I put 2 tablespoons of pudding rice, 2 tablespoons of caster sugar, 1 pint of full cream milk & a dash of vanilla extract

Put both dishes in the oven (rice pudding underneath) and cook for 2 hours at gas mark 3 (170C)

Eat
Enjoy

Beef with pasta & blue cheese

This is one of my left overs meals.

It's very simple & very tasty!

All I do is make a cheese sauce using double cream & whichever blue cheese is on offer (this time it was Shropshire Blue) with a bit of strong Cheddar thrown in!

I then add some of the cold leftover beef to the sauce to warm it through & cook the pasta

Then add the pasta to the sauce & the beef and serve!

Roast Beef & leftovers

Oh well I'm getting a bit behind with blogging & I keep forgetting to take photos!

Never mind though so here we go again. Whenever we have a Sunday Roast I use the leftovers to make dinner for the rest of the week

This week we had a beef joint so this was my menu plan

Sunday - roast beef & all the trimmings
Monday - cow in a hole (like toad but using beef not sausages)
Tuesday - beef with pasta in a creamy blue cheese sauce
Wednesday - for speed's sake it was pasties & mashed potatoes
Thursday - beef stir fry with honey & soy sauce
Friday - breaded haddock, mash & peas

I'll post some recipes & pictures later (where I remembered to take them that is!)

Saturday Lunch

Bacon

Brie

Baguette

That is all

Eat

Enjoy

Created by my gorgeous Husband

Home made meatballs

I made meatballs for dinner yesterday.  I use Nigella's recipe from Nigella Bites for these but replaced the beef/pork with turkey.

I also find that adding garlic to the meatballs is overpowering so I just leave it out.

Ingredients

500g minced turkey
3 tablespons of semolina
2 tablespoons of grated parmesan
1 egg
pinch of salt
good grind of black pepper

Method

• Bung all ingredients in a bowl and mix together
• Form the meatballs by rolling small amounts of the mix in your hands (approx 1 teaspoon but don't measure)
• Place the meatballs on a plate or baking tray lined with cling film and chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes before cooking.
• I cook these by adding them to the tomato sauce which is cooking on the hob - partially cover with a lid and leave to simmer for at least 20 minutes - don't stir as this will make the meatballs break up
• After 20 minutes I check if the meatballs are cooked by cutting one open
• Eat
• Enjoy

I use my homemade tomato sauce to cook these

I found that making this quantity gave me 97 meatballs so I cooked 33 (11 each!) for dinner last night and froze the rest in two separate batches so I have some ready for next time.

I served them with rice and very nice they were too!

My Tomato Sauce

I use this tomato sauce as the basis for a lot of dishes - especially spag bol, meatballs and lasagne.

Ingredients

1 tin/pack/jar of chopped tomatoes
Splash of milk or double cream
Splash of soy sauce
Splash of red wine
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
Herbs (basil, oregano, parsley etc) to taste
Few crushed dried chillis if you like

Method

• I whizz the tomatoes through my magic bullet to make a smoother base (like passata but a lot cheaper!)
• Pour this in a pan and heat gently
• Add other ingredients to taste
• I like my sauces quite thick so I let it reduce quite a lot
• Eat 
• Enjoy

You can make the sauce and then add the meat (as I do for meatballs and cook the meatballs in the sauce) or put the meat in first and then add the sauce (as I do for spage bol)

Birthday Cake

This is the cake that yesterday's sugar roses were for

It's my Gran's birthday next week & we're having a little gathering for her & I am providing the cake

I am very pleased with how it has turned out. It's a Victoria Sponge under the icing