French Mac & Cheese

My mum brought me some bright yellow pasta home from France. So yellow because it was made using so many egg yolks. One of my absolute favourites, especially if I need cheering up!

Make a roux using butter (full fat) and flour. Slowly add the milk (full fat) until the sauce has thickened. Grate a huge amount of cheese (full fat) and stir in. I like plain old cheddar- this isn't the place to be getting fancy. Add some almost cooked pasta (preferably yummy yellow french stuff) and bake, or grill until crispy on the top. I love it with tenderstem broccoli. 

Raspberry and Almond Tart

Ah-maze. Especially with a cup of tea. With fresh raspberries and home-made pastry.

Beef Wellingtons

I haven't blogged for so long. But here we go...


I made some ah-mazing beef wellingtons last week, what with being off school I have actually had time to cook! They were monsters.

Fry the finest beef fillet in a hot- hot- hot pan to brown and remove immediately. Finely chop some big portobello mushrooms and season with a ton of salt and pepper and fry them in the same pan. Blanch some savoy cabbage and dry with a tea- towel. Roll out the pastry (despite being off school, I still haven't got enough time to make puff pastry...) and layer cabbage, mushrooms, steak, mushrooms and cabbage. Cover with more pastry and top with a heart (I am such a girl). Wash with free- range egg and much as possible (chilling in the fridge in between) and bake for 15 minutes, or unitl the pastry browns.

Rosemary and Garlic Roast Lamb

Another easy thing to cook. My favourite flavours are rosemary and garlic- they are so versatile, good for the summer and winter- amazing with homemade potato wedges.

Rub the lamb with olive oil in a big roasting tin. I have sliced  some leftover garlic butter and put that onto too. Stab it all over so you can pop in garlic cloves and sprigs of rosemary. Season with salt and pepper. Slow roast for ages(!). Eat- this is even nice to eat from the tray with bread.

Chocolate Strawberries

Always a winner with my friends. So simple, but dunking strawberries into posh chocolate and letting them chill in the fridge impresses everyone when they come to my house. Especially indulgent when served with M&S croissants and champagne for breakfast!

Cheesy Stuffed Baked Potatoes

My dad can sometimes be a questionable cook. He has been known to produce garlic scrambled eggs, worcester sauce on bread and the occasional broccoli with accidental caterpillar. However, sometimes he gets is spot on. When I was young, he used to make cheesy baked potatoes, where you bake the potatoes, scoop out the insides and mash with a great pile of cheese and butter, return to the skins and bake a bit more. I love this combo. But I have tried to add my own twist to it.

Cheesy stuffed baked potatoes:

Do as above, but to the cheesy mix add fried pancetta, steamed spinach, in fact any other things in the fridge. I have used mushrooms, feta cheese, red onions, cherry tomatoes... But the pancetta and spinach seems to be the winner so far.

I make these in bulk for lunches. Everyone in the staff room at work is jealous when I have these- they smell delicious and taste even better the next day.

Roast Cherry Tomatoes

One of my favourite things to eat are cherry tomatoes with loads of salt. I have only recently begun eating tomatoes- which now sounds crazy and I can't believe I have been missing out for years!

Roast cherry tomatoes:

Easy peasy- put the tomatoes (my favourite are pomodorino tomatoes) with lashings of olive oil in a tray with loads of sea salt and pepper. Slow roast for about an hour. Eat and be happy.

Intensely chocolatey mousse with Grasmere gingerbread sprinkles

With my recent health boost from the chicken pie, I decided to make some chocolate mousse. I used Green & Blacks 85% cocoa dark chocolate for this- and boy is it rich! But the real piece de resistance is the gingerbread topping. There is a tiny shop in Grasmere in the Lake District which sells the best gingerbread ever. I remember going on a school trip when I was at primary school and sampling the gingerbread. Delicious with a cup of tea, whenever I'm in the area, I always try to pick up a stash because it keeps in the cupboard for ages. It's also really good on top of vanilla ice cream.

Intense chocolate mousse:
Whisk 4 egg whites with a bit of sugar until soft peaks form. Mix the egg yolks with a splash of alcohol- I used Grand Marnier and add to 2 bars of melted dark chocolate (the big bars). Fold the chocolately mix into the egg whites. Chill in the fridge and once set sprinkle with chopping up gingerbread. Heaven!

PS Decided I really must invest in some photographable, presentable crockery!

Chicken, mushroom and leek pie

I haven't been feeling well this week so haven't felt like eating much. Although on a Sunday I feel like effort should be made to cook something half decent for dinner. Chicken pie (or any pie for that matter) always makes me feel better. Perhaps it's because I'm northern?

I went all out and even made my own pastry.

I'll try to give a brief summary of what I did to make each thing I cook.

So here you go:
Chop up 2 chicken breasts and fry with chopped leeks and mushrooms, put them into a bowl after 5 mins or so. In the same pan make a roux and instead of adding just milk to make a white sauce, use half milk and half chicken stock. Mix everything together. Make some shortcrust pastry by rubbing together butter and plain flour and bind with a little water. Rest and then roll out. Line the pie dish and put in the filling. Put a pastry lid on top and decorate with the scraps if you can be bothered. Brush with an egg wash and bake.

My first yummy foodie blog post. I can't make any wild claims but this pie has really made me feel better!

Yummy foodie blogging

I have decided, that since I eat an enormous amount of food, and am usually thinking about food, or looking at ideas for dinner, I am a bit of a 'foodie'. Not that I know much about food but I know I love it. I thought it would be interesting to document things that I eat. I start this blog at a normal weight, but expect to probably increase some, because it might give me an excuse to eat more. Enjoy!