Recipe for Happy Children. A Happy Home Recipe. To Preserve a Husband

This first one, or something very like it, was printed on the inside of my Grandma's Recipe Box, which I hope to inherit one day but I love the other two recipes/poems too:

RECIPE FOR HAPPY CHILDREN

1 lg field 1 pinch of brook

6 children, mixed sizes A few pebbles

2-3 dogs

Mix children and dogs well together and put them in a field, stirring constantly. Pour the brook over the pebbles. Sprinkle the field with flowers. Spread blue sky over all and bake in the hot sun. When children are very brown, they should be set in the bathtub to cool

A HAPPY HOME RECIPE

Take love and loyalty, mix thoroughly with faith. Blend it with tenderness, kindness and understanding. Add friendship and hope. Sprinkle abundantly with laughter. Bake it with sunshine and serve generous helpings daily.

TO PRESERVE A HUSBAND

Be careful in your selection, do not choose one too young, and take only such varieties as have been raised in a moral atmosphere. When once decided upon and selected, let that part remain forever and settled and give your entire time and thought to domestic use. Some insisit on keeping them in a pickle while other are constantly keeping them in hot water. But even poor varieties may be made sweet and good by garnishing with patience, well sweetened with smiles and flavored with kisses to taste. Then wrap them up in a mantle of charity, keep warm with a steady flow of devotion and serve with peaches and cream. When thus prepared, they will keep for years

Gizzi's healthy pasta (with some adaptations)

 I am a big fan of Gizzi, she takes regular recipes and reinvents them in a healthier less fatterning way.

This is the second time I have cooked her Chicken, Courgette and Lemon Pasta Bake and I did make a couple of adaptions but I will highlight these as I write.

Here's the recipe:

Serves 4

Preparation time 10 minutes

Cooking time 35 minutes

Nutritional Breakdown

Chicken, Courgette and Lemon Pasta Bake – 596kcals and 18.1g of fat per serving



Ingredients

• 4 large portabella mushrooms (or whatever mushrooms you have)

• 350g dried linguine (or whatever pasta you have)

• 300g courgette, grated

• 300ml low fat crème fraiche

• 200ml low fat Greek yoghurt

• 1 large free-range egg yolk

• 35g Parmesan cheese

• zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 200g cold roast chicken, shredded (or a couple of pre-cooked chicken breasts)

• A small bunch of fresh chives, snipped (a handful of fresh rocket works very well here too)

Method

If you are pre-cooking chicken breasts as an alternative to using left over roast meat then do this in a small frying pan on a high heat with a couple of spritzs of olive oil and some garlic (nb. doesn't matter if the meat isn't cooked all the way through at this point because you will cut it and then add it to the rest of the ingredients to cook again in the main pan later in the recipe).


Heat the oven to 200C. Heat a pan and spritz in a few spritzes of olive oil. Fry the mushrooms then remove from the pan and set aside. Fry the grated courgette for a couple of minutes. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet, but cook it for a minute or two less so it’s a little underdone.

Meanwhile mix together the crème fraiche, yoghurt, egg yolk, Parmesan, lemon zest, salt and pepper.

Drain the cooked pasta, leaving a few tablespoons of water in the bottom of the pan. Return the pan to a low heat and pour in the sauce.

Toss the pasta in the sauce, then add the roast chicken and chives, giving it all a good mix round until it’s evenly incorporated.

Philadelphia Carbonara with a few adaptations

Philadephia cheese has very sucessfully added themselves to the recipe book market in the last couple of years. This recipe is based on the Philadelphia Spaghetti Carbonara recipe below:  

Serves 6 people

Prep time 10 minutes

Cook time 15 minutes





Ingredients

500g spaghetti (or whatever other pasta you have to hand)

6 rashers bacon cut into strips (1 packet)

180g Philadelphia Light (preferably garlic and herb for extra flavour and can be any brand of soft cheese which you fancy/have available)

2 egg yolks

3 stalks flat parsley leaves picked and chopped (rocket or any other fresh herb can work just as well)

300ml veg stock

Shavings of Parmesan to garnish

5-8 sundried tomatoes, cut into thin strips with a knife for best results

Handful of Pine Nuts





Instructions

1. Cook the pasta according to the pack instructions (usually 100g per person and 10 mins boiling for dry and 3 minutes boiling for fresh ). While it’s cooking fry the bacon pieces in a large pan (cutting directly into pan using scissors is the easiest way which I have found).

2.Beat together the Philly and the egg yolks in a separate bowl.

3.Once the pasta is cooked, drain it. Add the veg stock to the bacon pan then add the pasta and mix together.

4.Add the Philadelphia and egg mixture and stir through well to combine everything.

5.Divide between 5-6 bowls scatter with the parsley and a few shavings of parmesan.

NEW INGREDIENTS: Truffle Oil

I've been meaning to buy some for ages to try it out and so I finally got round to it and bought this Quintessence Porcini Mushrooms & Truffle oil on eBay. Any recipes suggestions? Please send me some......

Some I might try:

• Pan-fried fillet steak with dauphinoise potatoes    
• Asparagus with Truffle Oil Vinaigrette
• Mixed Greens with Truffle Oil Dressing
• White Pizza
• White-Truffled Vinagrette Recipe
• Bailey's Truffle Fudge Recipe 
• Spaghetti with truffle oil, garlic & rosemary
• Nigella creamy mushroom soup
• Nigella Lone Linguine with white truffle oil