Weekly bake off : cupcakes

Mary Berry Cupcakes

Meal planning w/c 27th February

Well, daddy is off to the US for a couple of weeks so it's planning for one pretty much !

Monday: left over roast chicken probably with risotto

Tuesday: Thai green curry mussels (these are Scottish mussels and will just need some bread with them!!)

Wednesday: Omelette Arnold Bennet (with smoked haddock)

Thursday: pizza

Friday: Sis and BIL arriving planning shepherds pie but dependent on shopping and time available !

Saturday: Sis and BIL still here so smoked haddock and leek risotto

Sunday: just me and the girls. We will probably go out for lunch so just something light for us.

I get my fish delivered every couple of weeks from the wonderful John at Delish Fish. It's very reasonable but because they are individually wrapped, I just pop them in the freezer and then take them out as we need them.

I'm really keen to make sure we have two portions of fish every week - most weeks we do more than that as you can see. If you need help adding fish to your family's meal plans, check out Fish is the dish

Meal planning - Monday 20th March

Ah well, another Monday another week.

I was thinking about this in bed last night and really should have got out of bed to tap it into the keyboard. But I was too lazy.... So here it is, a little bit late but my meal planner for the week.

Monday:
Beef and chorizo stew with spatzle.
I went to Earthy yesterday and got some beef from Hugh Grierson. I then made a sort of sofrito with onion, red pepper, chorizo and pancetta, pan fried the beef mixed it all in my slow cooker with most of a bottle of red wine, 3 or 4 heaped tablespoons of paprika, one of smoked paprika and a good dollop of tom puree. Left it for 4 hours and, bob's your uncle !

Tuesday:
Griddled halloumi cheese with beetroot and cucumber using a recipe I spotted in this month's Olive magazine.

Wednesday:
Prawn noodle soup. My other half makes a mean dashi stock which we freeze in bulk. Then it's really easy to heat, add some prawns, noodles, spring onions, sugar snaps and red pepper. Ready in 10 minutes.

Thursday:
Girls night out - so a quick spagbol with the girls before I head out to the cinema

Friday:
Dinner out at the Tower Restaurant before we have date night at The Museum of Scotland.

Saturday
Thai green chilli Scottish mussels with homemade sourdough bread.

Sunday:
Final supper with daddy before he heads to California for a fortnight, so we'll have roast chicken with all the accompaniments. I might even let him cook !!

Bucket list?

I'm not sure that I should cast this to the bloggersphere but I've been thinking about the things I'd like to do while I can still enjoy them.

Some people have family to do lists, other people have 'places to see before they die', mine is a kinda-combo of the two.

Here we go:

1. Climb to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
2. See the Big 5 in africa
3. Watch the Opera in the open air in Verona
4. Walk (some of) the Great Wall)
5. Get to Everest Base Camp

These are mine - I'd love to hear yours!

Another obsession: food photography

I do feel sorry for my other half - we sit down to dinner and before he can "dig in",
out comes the camera and I make him wait....

It started when our DSLR popped it's flash and Him Indoors decided to make an investment in a new version. Here you are mum - you have the broken one.

Then I joined Blipfoto and started a journal. I was good to start with - but without a working flash it's difficult in the winter.

It developed into a work obsession. I work on the fantastic Fish is the Dish project where we are trying to encourage more families to eat more fish by showing them how easy it is.  With a small budget it was a case of do it yourself.....

I think I've improved hugely. This is tonight's dinner - smoked haddock and leek risotto. Easily cooked and thanks to a flash investment, looking quite good.

Other shots have been less successful but it's a learning process isn't it.

Last night we had pork stir fry in noodle broth - tasted ok but would have been better if we had used dashi stock and the photograph is decidedly mediocre.

I thought the colours would lift it but it is just a bit too boring.

The plates have become important. I am sounding even more sad than I did before but I invested in one black plate.

Food and fish in particular seems to benefit from strong colour around it and I am really enjoying playing with it. I thought the peas really seemed to burst out of the plate here and I am particularly happy with the cakes from the weekend.....

I am hopeful that I can continue to improve my photography skills, and if not at least I'll eat well !!

Silent Sunday: Cakes

Practising: cake making, decorating and taking photos.
Nice day.

Pan seared scallops with morcilla and risotto

Mummysknee was talking about her scallop and black pudding recipe - so gorgeous and so easy. 

Here's my take - a tale of three countries: - scallops from Scotland, Spanish black pudding and Italian Risotto.

The scallops were gorgeous - Scottish scallops compete with the coral (which some people don't like and discard but personally I think adds something to the taste).  They are easy to cook in a couple of minutes and have an amazing sweet taste. I'm not the biggest fan of our black pudding - I wanted something a little different and am lucky enough to live around the corner from a deli which specialises in Spanish sausages. They do an amazing spicy chorizo which is what I normally serve with scallops but Him Indoors decided we should try some Spanish morcilla- their version of a black pudding.

I wanted to make a little more of a meal of this and so served it with a white, plain risotto. It would have benefited from some truffle oil but Him Indoors had already used it.

The risotto was the time consuming part but once that was done, I heated a pan with a little oil in it until it was smoking hot ! The scallops where placed in a clock face (thank you Gordon Ramsay) then I placed the morcilla in the centre of the pan and began to turn the scallops. Once the scallops were all done, I added a touch of butter, let that froth then took it off the heat.

It was delicious, very easy and very tasty. The Spanish black pudding was a bit less sweet and more spicy than it's British cousin. Well worth a try. After all, you only live once.

*Apologies for the lack of photography, I seem to have misplaced my SD card !!! *