20/02/2012

Well yesterday I managed to tick off a massive 4 recipes making vol au vents for my gorgeous nieces 1st birthday party.
First I made Delia's rough puff pastry - I've never made pastry like it before! Basically involves distributing massive chunks of fat throughout the pastry - quite tricky to work but with a fantastic result. So I turned the pastry into mini vol au vents, and made the two suggested fillings - cream cheese and herb, and bacon and mushroom.

Tonights tea was sage and apple pork chops served with swede and crispy bacon... Both very yummy!

Recipe update

88 recipes in 7 weeks... 461 to go

17/02/2012

Tonight I attempted Delia's quick flaky pastry which I am massively impressed with - tastes as good as any shop bought puff pastry. First of all I made a couple of kinda Parmesan straws with the offcuts and I made her flaky fish pie for main.

It was really good so thank you Delia but no photo as it didn't look quite as good as it tasted!!

16/02/2012

Well I've made a pact to start eating more - the baby weight I had lost is starting to creep back on rather rapidly and I think it's from not eating proper meals through the day and snacking on the wrong things. On Sunday I batch cooked a huge vegetable curry and a mixed bean chilli for me to have for my lunches (all based on the slimming world principles at minimal syns), and I must start eating a decent breakfast. So today I had poached egg a la delia and amazingly it cooked perfectly, and I'll be using her technique for poaching in future. Great as the eggs were a good few days old too.

I'm also vowing to eat more fruit rather than naughty snacks - it's only fair as our daughter is starting to eat solids and we'll be wanting her to have healthy snacks.

14/02/2012

Our valentines supper, with a little help from the M&S meal deal!

Starter was Italian antipasti (which I can tick off as Delia's charcuterie starter idea) although instead of serving with peppers and pickles we had ciabatta with a balsamic and oil dip, and a balsamic and Parmesan dressed salad.

Main was steak au poivre served with dauphinoise potatoes and mixed veg. Very tasty indeed along with a good bottle of Rioja!

12/02/2012

Bit of a lazy tea but didn't stop me making a gorgeous dessert of lemon meringue pie. Yum yum

13/02/2012

Lovely hearty Monday dinner - thick pea soup made from yellow split peas and bacon, served with quick wholewheat bread which I loved making as it needed no kneading, and I hate kneading!