Pampered Chef Party for my hen at home!

As part of my hen party next weekend my lovely friend Kelly is doing a Pampered Chef party. It's a really fun home party with gorgeous kitchen products, no pressure to buy and as part of the party they will cook a couple of recipes to show and tell the products. So I thought this was a good opportunity to list some of their yummy recipes and some of their yummy products too. These are my favourites from their current recipe list:

• Apricot-almond baked Camembert
• Black Forest Brownie Desserts
• Blue cheese & bacon potato crisps
• Cheese crisps
• Chocolate-almond crescents
• Mexican chicken “lasagne”
• Molten Camembert muffins
• Pink cocktails
• Spinach carbonara pizza
• Warm dark chocolate truffle muffins
• Warm Griddled Salmon & Asparagus Salad
• White chocolate & cranberry gateau

To find out more please go to the Pampered Chef website:

And/or Kelly's Facebook page:

Plum & Rum Jam

The most delicious jam with just three ingredients: Over ripe plums, same amount (by weight) of sugar (granuated, caster or jamming) and a shot of rum - yummy!

Nightmare accidental deletion from stupidly set up phone! - Warning!

FYI - I use a Samsung Galaxy S2 and had to take the phone back to factory settings and delete everything in order to solve a battery life problem I was having. I, as part of this went into my gallery, on my phone and deleted all photos stored there so I could start a fresh. Little did I know that this would delete, and irreversibly!, all my Google picasa online albums, because it syncs with my Google account! This is where all my blog photos for both my blogs were stored and sourced from! And basically means that I am now going to have to individually re-upload all photos for both my blogs :(

This will take forever, but at least I have all these photos stored on my PC, but I will work through this when I can, best I can to try and reinstate each photo in turn. Please bare with me and please heed my warning, do not make the same mistake as me.

I have now gone through my Google account settings on my phone and un-ticked the box which states "sync with Google picasa" - in the phone it does not (STUPIDLY) separate your photos taken on your phone from the ones on your picasa online photo album - something that really should be addressed (@Samsung). Anyway, what's done is done, rant over on both blogs :) I just wanted to give an explanation as to why all my blog photos have disappeared.

xx

Abel & Cole Pesto

My own version of Abel and Cole pesto made with kale, rocket, Parmesan garlic, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and oil from the jar and sunflower seeds, just taste tested and it's yummy! Now time to as it to left over roast chicken and pasta...

mixed with leaf over roast chicken, pepper and onion...

Add pasta...

Put the left over pesto in a jar.....

(it keeps in the fridge for a week)

Philly Meatball Pasta

Seriously yummy dish, add sundried tomatoes for extra flavour and texture and kale to the pasta for extra greens and texture - both these additions work really well. Also you can you sausages out of their skins if you don't want to use pre-made meatballs, or left over burgers work well too. 

Ingredients

300 g spaghetti/ or any other pasta

300 g ready-made meat balls/ or sausages

1 dsp sunflower oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

150 g Philadelphia Original

2 tsp wholegrain mustard or 1 tsp English mustard

approx. 75ml beef stock

Instructions

Fry the meatballs in a little oil until browned all over and cooked through. Remove the meatballs from the pan.

Add the onion to the frying pan and cook gently for several minutes to soften the onions.

Add the Philly to the onions with the stock (or a little water) and mustard. Gently heat until the Philly has melted then stir in the meatballs.

Meanwhile drain the pasta and divide between 4 pasta bowls. Top with the meatballs and spoon over the Philly sauce to serve.

Philly user tipsIf you've got any hints or tips for making this, or any of our other featured recipes, we want to hear from you. Please use the link below to drop us a line, and we will do our best to include your suggestions on the site.

Squash, goats cheese and walnut pasta

Ingredients:

Extra virgin olive oil
Butternut or kombucha or spaghetti  squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 onion, diced into 1/2-inch pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g pasta
1 cup (8 ounces) soft goat cheese
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted in honey (see Cook's Note)
1 packed cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan

Directions

Put an oven rack in the upper third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Mix the squash and onion together and arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bake for to 40 to 45 minutes until the vegetables are golden and cooked through. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.

While the squash mixture is cooling, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve about 2 cups of the pasta water. Put the pasta, goat cheese and 1 cup of pasta water in a large serving bowl. Toss until the cheese has melted and forms a creamy sauce. Add the squash and onion mixture, the walnuts and the basil. Toss well and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with Parmesan and serve.

Cook's Note:

To toast the walnuts, arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven until lightly toasted, about 6 to 8 minutes Cool completely before using.

Broccoli & Goats Cheese Soup - YUM!

So I got my first Abel & Cole veg box this week and therefore had a bunch of veg which I wouldn't usually (actually one of my reasons for buying it, to challenge myself with different ingredients), so broccoli, not exactly exotic I know but not something I usually buy either and when I do I tend to just cook the same cheesy pasta and broccoli recipe which I found in Jamie at Home and haven't stopped cooking it since. It is delicious but it was time to try something different. I found this Broccoli with Goats Cheese recipe in one of my many 101 recipe Good Food books and liked the sound of all the ingredients so thought I would give it a go. Very impressed with the very yummy result, this is how I did it! (PS. I also love that you use every part of the broccoli, no waste at all!).

Ingredient

• 
  
• 900.0g broccoli
• 50.0g butter
• 1 large onion , finely chopped
• generous grating fresh nutmeg or ¼ tsp dried
• 1.0l vegetable or chicken stock
• pint of semi skimmed milk
• 100.0g medium-soft goat's cheese , chopped (rind and all)
• a splash of sherry

Enough for 4 for lunch or 6 as a starter

Preparation and cooking times

Takes 40-50 minutes

1. Chop the broccoli stalks and florets, but keep them separate. Melt the butter in a pan, then add the onion, broccoli stalks and nutmeg and fry for 5 minutes until soft. Add the broccoli florets and stock, then the milk. Cover and simmer gently for 8 minutes until the broccoli is tender.
2. Splash in a little sherry to make everything golden and take the carmelisation off the bottom of the pan
3. Blend with a hand blender, until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste (The soup will keep in the fridge for 2 days or you can cool and freeze it and keep the croutons in a plastic food bag.)
4. To serve, reheat if necessary and scatter with  croutons and goat's cheese.

Per serving

435 kcalories, protein 23.0g, carbohydrate 24.0g, fat 28.0 g, saturated fat 15.0g, fibre 7.0g, salt 1.99 g