This week, the stuff I am eating is this surprisingly good apple cake.

I had a total flop day on Sunday, collapsed in a heap on the sofa with a blanket and a hot water bottle, just feeling a bit bleugh and achieving absolutely nothing. Luckily, I woke up on Monday feeling fine, but with the nagging sensation I'd been robbed of a Sunday, so decided to take the afternoon off and cook. 🙂 One of the many benefits of working from home. I've worked from home for yonks as a freelance (it's not just a Covid thing) so am a total expert at taking time off when work is slow.

It was a really good decision. Not only did I make the best choc chip cookies in the world, I also made this apple cake, which, while it won't win any beauty competitions, is delicious (and healthy right - apples...? No?) My main problem now is that we have a big cake and loads of cookies to eat between 4 of us (the eldest is now at uni) before they go stale. The race is on.

Here's the recipe (adapted from a BBC Good Food one, which you can find here. It said to use Bramleys but I didn't have any and neither did the Co-op, so I used Cox's which work really well.)

225g butter, room temp
450g apples (I used Cox's)
lemon juice (for the apples)
280g caster sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tsp vanilla extract
350g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
demerara sugar for sprinkling liberally over the top

Heat the overn to 180C or 160 fan (gas 4 apparently - does anyone have a gas oven anymore?)
Butter and line a rectangular baking tin (27cm x 20cm or so)
Peel and slice the apples - I did skinny little crescents, and halved them (put them in a bowl with the lemon juice to stop them browning).

Cream the butter and caster sugar till you can't be bothered to do it anymore. Stir the baking powder into the flour so it's evenly spread. Add half the eggs and a bit of flour to the butter and sugar and combine. Then add the rest of the eggs, the vanilla, and the rest of the flour and mix everything with a big spoon till it's looking pretty even. It will be quite stiff.

Spread half the mixture into the prepared tin with a fabulous silicone spatula (can anyone do any cooking without one of these babies?), as evenly as possible. Place half the apples in a single layer over the top of the mixture, then repeat the layers - so you end up with apples on the top. Finally, liberally sprinkle over the demerara sugar.

Today the stuff I ate was a Chorizo, Chicken, Bean & Kale Stew.

We quite often have a beany bacony soup version of this, but I fancied more oomph, so swapped bacon for chorizo, and chucked in some chicken breasts.

It would have been better with legs or thighs, but breasts was all I had.

We ate it with a HUGE white bloomer from Tesco, a bargain at £1 & so big it barely fit in the oven. I forgot to get it out the freezer beforehand, so popped it in the oven for 15 mins on quite high (the little one had just come in from swimming and was starving so I was in a bit of a rush). It nearly burnt but was still frozen on the inside… Hmm - don't let me near a bbqq - I chopped in in half, and popped in the micro for 1 min. Perfect.

Everyone loved this.

Here's the recipe:
1 onion
2 carrots
1/4 chorizo sausage
2 chicken breasts
tin tomatoes, chopped
2 tins beans (eg borlott/cannelini/butter)
800ml good chicken stock
bag kale
herbs

Fry an onion in olive oil, add a couple of finely sliced carrots & saute for a bit. Add ¼ chorizo sausage, sliced, 2 chicken breasts chunkily chopped – stir to coat and seal the chook at bit.

Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, 2 tins of beans – 1 borlotti, 1 cannelini, and about 800ml of super good homemade chicken stock. Cook for a while, say 20-30 mins, bubbling away gently.

Add the kale and beat it into the pot until it submits (or wilts a bit) and throw in any Med herbs you can get your hands on (I used bay, rosemary, fresh oregano, thyme & parsley – might be best with just parsley, but when it’s summer I quite like throwing in a bit of everything). Cook for another 10 mins and serve.

Verdict: Lovely, hearty, wholesome, tasty chuck-it-all-in meal
Score: 9/10 (should have used legs not breasts)
Would I make it again: Definitely, until we get bored of it

This week the stuff I ate was this chicken, sweetcorn, hidden mushrooms and saucey chicken pie.

Hardly ever make chicken pie as it always seems like it's going to be a massive faff. But after a slightly competitive chat with a school-gate mum, I was inspired to make this (her son had helped, it was delicious, so easy, just a bit of milk in the sauce... blah blah blah). Anyway, turns out she was right, apart from the son helping part. 

I did get the smallest son to help with the pastry part - he found a penguin cutter (closest shape to chicken we had), and we popped a few penguins on, which basically disappeared in the cooking. One is vaguely visible - but you can't have everything.

So, for the filling, ingredients other than chicken were items that were hanging around in the fridge (half tin sweetcorn, leftover spring onions, old pot of dried mushrooms, tired herbs getting a bit brown round the edges). It was surprisingly good. The hidden mushrooms are because the same smallest child refuses to eat mushrooms. I rehydrated some dried porcini, and chopped them up SO small that he didn't have the slightest inkling. I even bare-faced lied when he asked (before trying) if the pie had mushrooms in... Is this bad? Only felt a teeny bit guilty.

RECIPE (Serves 5 or 6)

4 chicken breasts
2 med onions
couple of garlic cloves
stick celery
olive oil
half tin sweetcorn
handful dried wild mushrooms, rehydrated
3 spring onions
thyme & rosemary
1 tbsp plain flour
400ml chicken stock
100ml milk
50ml cream
salt and pepper
pack of puff pastry
1 egg

Slice in half and season the chicken and bung the pieces in the oven (190C) on a meat tray with a bit of olive oil for 20 mins, till cooked but still moist. When done, rest the meat for 10 mins then chop it up - nice and chunky.

In a big frying pan, fry the onions in a decent amount of olive oil till softish (or you get bored waiting), add chopped garlic, finely sliced celery, sweetcorn, spring onions, tiny bits of mushroom and chopped herbs. Cook on low-med for about as long as it takes to make a cup of tea, eat a biscuit and read half a magazine article.

Now for the fun bit. Add the flour to the pan and stir in well. Gradually add the chicken stock till it forms a thickish sauce, and keep adding till good and saucey. Add the milk, stir in and leave to bubble gently to thicken up if it needs it.

Finally add the cooked chicken and cream, season, stir and leave off the heat.

Roll out the pastry. Cut off a bit and force your child to make shapes to alleviate the guilt of him spending 4 hours on his ipad.

Put the filling in a pie dish, and pop the pastry on top, pinching the edges well, so they stay put. Beat the egg and brush over the pastry. Add your child's shapes and brush those. Poke a couple of holes in the top and cook for 30 mins at 200C.

Verdict: Excellent pie. Will make again, maybe even for level B guests.
Score: 9/10 (may add a chix leg or 2 next time) 
Would I make it again: For sure. Family all liked it, though the eldest got weighed down half way through, saying 'This is SOOOO filling.' He can be a bit dramatic at times.

On Saturday, the stuff I ate was homemade marmalade. 

This involved my annual pilgrimage to The Greengrocer on Port St in Stirling (love this cafe/greengrocer/deli, despite its unoriginal name) for Seville oranges, where I also had a cheeky cappuccino (topped with real chocolate), then popped home to begin.

January is marmalade month. Marmalade is the best, and almost as good as Marmite. Making your own is quite a faff, but it tastes better than anything you will ever have bought (I'm even looking at you Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade). Do it. It also means you have gifts to give people - and when they accept with a slight sneer because they don't actually like marmalade you never need be friends with them again, because they're wrong and therefore bad people. So, win win. 

Here's the recipe (adapted from the ever faithful Good Housekeeping Cookery Book), plus my tips.

1.5 kilos Seville oranges (only available in Jan)
2 lemons
2.7 kilos granulated sugar
3.4 litres water
You'll need:
a muslin square 
big pot
about 10 clean jam jars with lids
greaseproof paper

Lay the muslin square over a dish. Halve the oranges and lemons and squeeze em. Pour the juice into the biggest pan you have (I use a stock pot). Keep all the pips and membrane and put them in the muslin square over the dish.

When all the juice is squeezed, use a sharp knife to remove all the white pith from the peel. Add the pith to the pips and membrane on the muslin square.

Next, slice the mostly pithless orange and lemon peel into thin or thick slices and add to the juice in the pot. Now tie up the muslin square full of pith and pips and stuff. Make sure it's very tightly tied then pop it in the pan. Pour in the water and heat the whole lot gently. Leave to simmer for about 2 hours until reduced by about half and the peel is soft. at this point your kitchen will smell divine.

Meanwhile, pop the clean jam jars and lids in the sink and pour over boiling water. This is my way of sterilising them. I then dry them with an ultra clean T-towel or kitchen paper and lay them out ready. Cut circles out of the greaseproof paper - bigger than the tops of the jars.

When the orangey loveliness is ready, leave to cool. Then it's the horrible bit - squeezing the bag of pith and pips. You have to do this as it's where all the pectin is, which helps the marmalade set. When you squeeze, orange slime comes out and you have to scrape it off into the pot. It's really messy, feels like it's never done and is quite stressful as the bag may pop - don't let any pithy bits get in the marmalade - and it's horribly slimy and a right pain if you have a cut on your finger. Stir in the gloopy pectin-laden slime. Merrily chuck the bag.

Warm the sugar in the oven for 10 mins. Then add to the big pot, stirring over a medium heat to dissolve the sugar. Make sure it's all dissolved. Then turn up the heat and boil it all hard for about 15 mins. Test if it's set by putting a spoonful on a cold saucer and popping in the freezer for a minute. If it wrinkles it's set. Alternatively use a thermometer - the internet said 105C for setting point, but I took mine off at about 102.5. I don't like really dark thick-set marmalade; if you do, boil for longer and wait for a harder set.

When it's all cooled down, stir to distribute the peel evenly, then ladle into the jars, trying to make as little sticky mess as possible (hard). Put a greaseproof circle over each full jar then screw the lid on tight. 

Wipe everything down about 10 times. That's it, apart from the fun bit of putting the labels on.

Verdict: First taste on a toasted bagel... delicious. This bitter sweet orangey goodness makes an easy gift, ideal for those, 'Oh crap, we haven't got Auntie Whatsit a present!' moments
Score: 9/10 (my labels were a bit hastily made this year) 
Would I make this again: Yep. Next Jan, without fail, it's a tradition

Today the stuff I ate was Banoffee Cream Caramel Biscuit Pudding.

Boy oh boy, the 11 yr old and his pal went on a summer holiday cooking day at the youth club. They were allowed to make what they wanted - 'Soup?' suggested the Youth Worker, 'Or cupcakes?' 

Luckily for us, they made this extravaganza... Digestive & butter base, caramel in the middle, banana and whipped double cream topping, all topped off with grated chocolate... Can't say fairer than that.

It was delicious; probably about a million calories a scoop but who's counting?

Verdict: Lovely to have pud made by the weans. And what a pud - delicious.
Score: 9/10
Would I have it again? I think it's become their signature dish, so a resounding Yes.