Meals aren’t always invented by choosing the ingredients that go best together, often meals come together from necessity. From whats left over, from whats kicking around at the back of the freezer, from snatches of other meals prepared or sampled.
That is what this is: sausages from the freezer, chard from my veggie box and polenta, well because I have seen so many amazing looking polenta dishes recently (and to be honest a complete dearth of rice or potatoes).
I am jumping from one extreme to the other on this blog recently, from slow cooking to super-fast cooking. I love cooking and baking, but my love for it is somewhat diminished on a Tuesday evening after a long day at work.
This is when I like things super-fast, I always have stir-fry vegetables in my fridge for those nights when the temptation will be so strong that you might just phone a takeaway instead. The funny thing is that preparing a stir-fry often means dinner will be on the table much faster than waiting for the delivery guy!
One of the problems when you are first trying a new slow cooker recipe is the anticipation. You have picked from hundreds of recipes online or in cook books, you have hunted out all the ingredients, entrusted them to the large pot and placed the lid on top. Yet at this point you have to wait, often for 8 hours.
If I am in the unfortunate position to be home while I am slow cooking, I’ll spend too much time peering through the condensation.
An ongoing internal dialogue as to whether I should lift up the lid, only for a moment, just to check.
They say lifting the lid on a slow cooker adds 30 minutes to the cooking time, I say lifting the lid on a slow-cooker is tantamount to opening Christmas presents and resealing before putting them back under the tree.
It ruins the surprise.
When you do eventually lift the lid off it can all to easily be a disappointment after being built up for so long. This recipe, however, will be no disappointment.
Being on holiday is wonderful, your bed gets made for you, there is no cleaning to do, and you don’t have to make your own meals. Unfortunately I kind of enjoy making my own food!
After a week when the only vegetables I saw were between a burger and a bun it was necessary to get some vegetables and healthy food into me. Lunch today was a large salad, not unlike this Tomato and Red Pepper Salad, the crisp fresh lettuce leaves were a world away from the pale limp ones I found inside any burger.
What happens if you cross Chinese New Year with Pancake Day? Well you get these Chinese inspired savoury pancakes.
The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.
Everyone has their standard method of cooking a steak, usually I fry mine, some people grill them (or broil them), my mother-in-law* bakes them.
On New Year’s Day my she made steaks for 13 people by baking them! These are a definite crowd pleaser, and are much simpler than if you wanted to fry or grill that many steaks.
*(almost) mother-in-law, it might feel like it, but we aren’t married yet 🙂
Slow Cookers are under-rated and I use mine less often than I should, however I have learnt that when it comes to cooking a meal for a large number of people nothing beats them.
On New Years Eve I got up at 9 o’clock in the morning, and put my lime sorbet in the freezer and started preparing my main. By 9.30 am the main meat part of my meal needed no further preparation from me (well not until half an hour before serving).
This gave me plenty of time to make all the delicious additions to my Mexican themed evening.
The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.
I love salmon, but unfortunately the other half does not, and because it was on special I went for Venison rather than the alternative Beef Wellington.
I topped mine with a set of holly leaves and berries for the festive touch.
When it’s getting dark at 4 o’clock in the evening and the drive home is flecked with rain that might just be snow. Or when you’ve been in all day with the wind is howling outside and it is absolutely freezing.
You want something quick and tasty for dinner, but add to this the warm glow that comes from realising that Christmas and the holidays are only three weeks away.
If you, like me, haven’t done any Christmas shopping, put up your tree or sent cards, then this recipe is for you. It will inject you with a little bit of a Holiday Season kick, to push you on your merry way.
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