General Chat

Yes you can use strawberries or blackberries basically any fruit similar


Hope you enjoy


Jan

Jan,
I am would like to do the Gin recipe but cannot find Raspberries here can I use any other fruit??

Thinking that after the end of this month we will be thinking of Christmas....lots more recipes I hope.

How time passes so quickly.

Bridget

Two quick recipes


if you have a glut of raspberries then why not make a liquer. You need a large coffee jar, fill it with raspberries, then granulated sugar shake the jar so the sugar goes down, then top up with either cheap gin or vodka. put on lid. Shake jar gently each day for two weeks, until sugar dissolved, then put in the dark for three months. Even if you do not like gin or vodka, I promise it tastes nothing like them. But makes a great Christmas gift or drink.

Similarly with sloes what I have done is freeze the fresh sloes and then defrost that breaks the skins, and saves having to prick every one, then follow what I have said above....

Jan

Just to say thanks go everyone for posting whilst I have not been on here or adding very much. My worries have significantly reduced thank goodness.

I will be in full swing by the weekend,

Bridget in Spain

I add bacon or pancetta to pork mince when making a meatloaf, burgers etc it just seems to bring out the flavour


Will post again later this week

Regards Jan, Norfolk UK

I fry cut up bacon and add it with crumbled feta to cooked beans... in fact I do it with pumpkin as well. The other night I had a roast of beef with potatoes cooking in the oven and then I added campari vine tomatoes near the end of cooking. On the stove top I did small pieces of carrot and added beans ( if I had had courgettes (zucchinis) I would have put them in) then added crumbled feta and when that blended with the juice of the vine tomatoes on the plate and it was really scrummy.
If I cook loose corn with beans I will add breadcrumbs, butter and garlic after I have drained the water off... put it back on a low heat and give it a quick stir for the butter to melt... or use garlic butter.
The other thing I quite often add is creme fraiche or cream cheese or parmesan.... etc.

Last night, I decded to use up a jar of Bacon Cabonara simmer sauce. It has been in the cupboard for so long, I couldn't find a 'use by' date on it.

I boilded some pasta until 'al dente', drained it, then added the sauce and heated it through - and voila! Scrumptious.

(Only problem - my diet calls for ONE small portion of pasta, OR potato, OR rice per week. This was very filling and left enough for to-day's lunch too).
Oh well, back to the diet tomorrow!

I hope that I have not posted this before!

Green Beans with Bacon Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

Not all green beans are alike. The longer the bean was on the vine, the tougher it can be. Fresh, young beans should be able to cook up perfectly well in less than 6 minutes. Tough old beans, you'll have to cook a lot longer to get them tender. Look for beans that easily snap in half when you bend them.
Ingredients

1 pound fresh green beans, ends snipped off and discarded, extra long beans, cut in half if you want
Salt
2-3 slices of bacon
Black pepper
1 Tbsp lemon juice or cider or red wine vinegar

Method

1 Heat a pot of salted water to a rolling boil (1 Tbsp salt for 2 quarts of water). Add the green beans and boil them for 4-5 minutes, until just tender enough to eat (you may have to cook longer depending on the particular green beans you have). Drain and set aside.

2 While the water is heating up to boil the beans, slowly cook the bacon until crispy in a large sauté pan set over medium-low heat. Use a slotted spoon or a fork to remove the bacon from the pan. Set the bacon on paper towels to sop up the excess fat. You should have about one tablespoon of fat left in the pan. Pour off any fat beyond 1 tablespoon. (Do not pour the fat down the drain or you'll stop up your drain.) If you have much less fat than a tablespoon left in the pan, add a little olive oil or butter to the pan.

3 Once the green beans are cooked, sauté them over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes in the bacon fat. Dice the bacon and add to the pan and sauté another minute. Put the beans and bacon into a large serving bowl and sprinkle generously with freshly ground black pepper. Toss with lemon juice or vinegar and serve at once.

Yield: Serves 4 as a side dish.

Bridget in Spain

Helen
If you google their are dozens of different cakes and menus that should give you everything you need. both meals and cakes sounded very nice indeed.
Let us know how you get on.

Good news today relating to why I do not have much time on here. Will keep you all informed as to when I shall statr posting more recipies.

Bridget in Spain where it is stiflingly HOT.

Goodness me, I am first on a new page !
:-) :-)

Greenfingers I like the sound of that one.

Greenfingers my OH will love this, I am not a sweet and sour fan, but as he is being so supportive at the moment I will cook this for him one day next week.
Thank you, I will try to add more sometime soon.

Enjoy your day everyone

Bridget in Spain

I know we talked about growing veg in planters and pots earlier....wellll
Had our first carrots today,lovely taste...and also our fiest runner beans.how is everyone else doing ?

Sweet Pork

tin of kidney beans drained and rinsed
450g minced pork, 1 chop onion, 2 TBsp demerara or soft brown sugar
2 TBsp worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp mustard powder, 432g crushed pineapple and 6 TBsp passata or tomato ketchup works well.

Cook pork in a pan with a little oil drain off fat after it goes brown. Stir in beans, sugar,worcestershire, mustard and 800ml water. bring to boil cover and simmer for 1 hour, or use slow cooker. Stir pin pineapple passata and season cook till all hot and tasty. Serve with rice

Really lovely quick dish
Serves 4

Lavender,you realise that we are now exppecting a good yummy recipe from you! Looking forward to reading it.

I will be back soon hopefully by the weekend.

Good news today was that I am going to be a Grandma again in February, so excited.

I need to buy a new food mixer, as I am baking more and more. Please can some one recommend one. I will have to buy it in the UK.

Thanks

The tiramasui recipe sounds a bit like Delia Smiths one I love so much. I don't think hers has any cream in it, just the mascapone. My mouth is watering just at the thought of it!

I've just got the booze in to make plum liquer with plums from our tree. I haven't decided on a recipe yet, I've seen a few on the web, either vodka and brandy or gin. I don't know which recipe is recommended and I'm teetotal anyway! Cheers! :-S

A nice dish for salmon from Bill granger an Australian chef
Caramel Salmon....serves 4

After prep time takes less than 30 mins

1 TBsp veg oil, 1 red onion sliced finely, 3 cloves garlis crushed, 3 TBsps dark soy sauce, 1/4 cup soft bron sugar (2 ozs) 800g salmon cut into cubes and without the skin,,,,,,,

Heat oil in a large pan or wok.cook salmon for 2 mins remove from pan. Add more oil if needed...put in red onion and garlic and cook for approx 3 mins, stir gently, put in soy and sugar, stir until thick and syrupy add back the salmon and gently turn salmon over so that it takes on carmel but doesnt fall to pieces. Serve either with rice, or a nice salad, pour over the remaining juices over the slamon

It was absolutely yummy..I think this sauce would also work with chicken, pork or cod

Enjoy

I deleted my message? So sorry to say that I still need "time out" as is said in some sports. My thread " sad and worried will explain why if anyone wishes to know why I need my time out.

Thank you Jan, I look forward yo you recipie.

Bridget in Spain

We will all try our best Bridget to keep things going.I will post a lovely salmon recipe from Bill granger (an Oz Chef) tomorrow hopefully.

Regards Jan

I am sorry to say that I will not be posting on here for a while has i have had some devasting news today re my only grandaughter who is in a specialist unit in a famous hospital for burns in the UK.
I have ben asked by her mother NOT to put any names or details on any site so that is all I can say..
I feel so sad and scared for my grandaughter

I hope that someone is able to keep this thread alive if not I may just bring it to a natural end.

Bridget in Spain

See how we help each other?


I had not thought about Vegan cooking, was put off many years ago when a girlfriend of my eldest son, who was a vegan caused mayhem in a restaurant when she noted someone put a serving spoon in a dish of vegetables immediately after taking some fish with the same serving spoon.

We have non stop visitors today....very nice that so many people come visiting but....... At midday our friends from Chester popped in with swim suits, towels, suncream and some wine. They left around four o'clock. They are very good friends butbsometimes a quick call would be nice, good job I did my cleaning early!

Then at around five o 'clock the couplevwe know who wanted to borrow our car seat for the 3 year old grandchild, 2 booster seats for the other two grandchildren and the pushchair. Not that we mind at all but as the original request was for the booster seats some warning would have been a good idea..

Anyway we sat talking until nearly 6 o'clock and finally left at half past.

We had pasta with home made tomato sauce with various herps and fresh crusty bread, .....delicious, just had ice cream as a desert, yum yum I love good ice-cream.

I am too tired to add the new dishes so promise to do so tomorrow

Bye bye for now from

Bridget in Spain at. 20.35 hrs


:-D

Thanks, Jan, I'll pass those on to her.