Red current jelly

School holidays & fruit picking. Kids loved it, in particular picking red currants which sort of surprised me. So back home with a punnet full of red currents I wondered what to do with.

I came up with this simple red current jelly & it was delicious served with homemade burgers, sweet potato chips and salad.

Easy to make - equal weight of red currants and sugar. Put the red currents in a pan and put on the hob. Add a bit of water and bring to the boil. Add the sugar, giving it a good stir until all dissolved. Cook for a further 5 mins. Strain through a small holed gauzed drainer.

Dark Indulgent Chocolate Brownies

We've got friends coming over for lunch tomorrow.....good friends of the "don't really need to make an effort variety". And I'm not saying that to be mean. More that we've come to a happy pact....if going to lunch, there is no need to bring anything - so no chocolates, flowers, alcohol or dessert required. And if hosting lunch, you can happily serve up pizza, garlic bread & salad - nothing more is required. How fab & easy is that! The adults get to catch up, the kids get to play and there's no stressing over food.

Having said all that, this time I decided to make a treat dessert. In the past, I've bought dessert...nothing wrong with that especially after a busy week. But this time, I decided to knock-up some deliciously rich brownies for Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book. I'm sure I've raved about this book before....it's fab and usually my first port of call if I want to bake a cake.

These taste great and are perfect on their own or served with cream & strawberries.

Dark Indulgent Brownies


Source: “Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake Book” by Mary Berry.

• 8oz or (225g) margarine
• 12 oz (350g) of chocolate, broken into pieces
• 2 teaspoon of instant coffee
• 2 tablespoons of hot water
• 3 extra large eggs
• 8oz (225g) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 3 oz (75g) self-raising flour
• 6oz (175g) walnut pieces, chopped
• 8 oz (22g) plain chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 109 OC / 375 degrees F/Gas Mark5. Grease and base line a 12x9 in (30x23cm) baking tin.

Melt the chocolate slowly in a bowl with the margarine over a pan of hot water, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool. Dissolve the coffee in the hot water.

In another bowl, mix together the coffee, cocoa, eggs, sugar and vanilla essence. Gradually beat in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the flour, walnuts and chocolate chips, and then pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes or until firm to the touch and a dull crust has formed. Leave to cool in the tin. When the brownies are completely cold cut into squares.

Quick lunch

I was after a quick lunch "no-carbs" lunch today. I don't normally follow a no or low carbs diets it's just that I know dinner is going to be carbs laden (having Italian with the hubbie) so trying to be slightly good.

I threw together this quick salad - lettuce, cucumber, beetroot, half tin of tuna, spoonful of colesaw, sprinkling of walnuts & seeds.

Yum, loved the result!!

Oh and I know it's not really no carbs....by that I mean no obvious carbs!!

Mince & veg pie

I think pies are the ultimate winter food and the other day I made really tasty mince & veg one. I have to admit that I cheated and bought the puff pastry but even so it tasted great and went down really well with the kids. For extra veg, I served it up with broccoli.

Mince & veg pie

1 x puff pastry, rolled

1 x pack of lamb mince

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 cup stock made with Bouillon

2 carrots, cubed

handful peas

black pepper

I sauteed the onion & garlic for a few minutes and then added the mince & carrots. Once the mince had cooked I added the tomato puree, stock & peas and let it simmer for a while adding a bit of black pepper.

I then turned into an oven proof dish and laid the puff pastry on top. With the bit of pastry I had left over I made the kids initials and a couple of leaves - that's very artistic for me!

I brushed a bit of milk over the top & put it in the oven for around 20-25 mins.

Hey presto, a delicious pie for dinner.

Sticky baked salmon

Last night, I made sticky baked salmon based on a recipe in the My Daddy Cooks recipe book. It's a really tasty yet easy recipe to make.

Sticky baked salmon

The only thing is that the serving suggestion is noodles and my kids aren't too keen on noodles so I swapped them out for rice. Well, I was going to swap out for rice and then realised I didn't quite have enough rice for all four of us. So it ended up half rice & half couscous! Why not just all couscous...because the hubby isn't too keen it, thinks it's a bit bland (although isn't plain rice bland too?!).

The recipe also lists sesame oil but as my kids are allergic to sesame I substituted this for olive oil.

Serves 4

Prep time 5-10mins

Cooking time 35 mins

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1.5 cm fresh ginger, grated
• 3 tsp Chinese five spice powder
• 3 tbsp honey
• Oil
• 4-5 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 carrots, peeled & cut into battons
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped
• handful of frozen peas
• 1 courgette, cut lengthways
• 4x150g salmon fillets
• Noodles, rice or cous cous to serve!

To save time after the school run, I made up the marinade before I went out. So in a cup I mixed together the garlic, ginger, 5 spice powder, honey, dash of oil and the soy sauce. I mixed with a fork, covered & left it until I needed it.

When I was ready to make dinner - around 4.15pm in my house - I put the oven on to 180C/350F. Then poured the marinade into a large roasting tin and roll in the chopped veg (except the peas) and the salmon so it was all well covered.

I then removed the salmon onto a plate and baked the veggies in a oven for around 35 mins, turning a few times.

Meanwhile, make up your carbs...whichever you decide to go for!

With 10 mins to go, I add the salmon to the tin too. (If the sauce looks like it's getting a bit burned, I often cover the whole roasting tin with foil and cook like that for say 5 mins & then just remove & cook without for the last 5 mins).

To cook the peas, I simply put them in the micro for a couple of mins in a bowl with water.

Once the salmon is cooked, remove from the oven, add the peas & serve.

The kids mainly had rice & I didn't add any extra soy sauce to the rice. I did add a few dashes to the couscous just to stop it being so bland. There you go hubby, I do listen to you ;-)

Thrify...."free" face cream

Yesterday I was really chuffed to get this pot Nivea Pure & Natural anti-wrinkle day cream for "free" using my Boots points.

The pot I had been using - No 7 Protect & Perfect - had run out and I was debating what to buy next, torn between a budget buy and wanting to keep my skin looking okay.

And then I came across one of the those free samples in a magazine for this Nivea Pure & Natural. I thought I'd slap it on and didn't think much else about it until the next morning when my skin was looking better than usual. Now, perhaps it was a fluke or one of those one-time wonders but I thought it was worth another go.

And for free, what more could a girl ask for!

"Buy me" stationary!

I popped into Paperchase today and saw some fab bits of stationary. Managed to refrain from spending too much - I just love their Japanese style designs - but did come away with some useful bits.

Paperchase - stationary

A 2012 diary as I don't currently have one. In general, I use my phone for all events/appointments but I do like having a paper version too. This one has several tabs including planner, dairy & notes.

Got the box for all current school letters & ongoing homework. I tend to have a pile of papers sitting on my dining room table, this way I can neatly put them away but there are easy to hand for when I need them.

And finally a pack of pens which I thought were quite a bargain!

Diary - £8

Box file - £7

Pens - 4

Total - £19