baby it's cold outside.....

.......what you need is a bowl of hot soup!!

Soup certainly warms you up and is so easy to make. A massive pot full can be split into portions and popped into the freezer for those cold frosty days when you don't feel like slaving over a hot stove making dinner.

My favourite soup is Fasolatha, or as it was more affectionatly known i my house, POOP SOUP. It sure helped keep the bed warm at night ;)

Greek Bean Soup (Fasolatha) Fasolatha is one of the heartiest dishes on the Greek vegetarian table, and one of the mainstays of Lent. Ingredients

1 cup Krinos extra-virgin olive oil

2 large onions, peeled, halved, and sliced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

2 celery ribs, trimmed and sliced thin

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1/2 pound great northern or other small white beans, soaked overnight according to package directions

1 cup chopped plum tomatoes

1 fresh hot pepper (optional)

8 cups water

Salt, pepper to taste

Fresh strained juice of 1/2 lemon or 2-3 tablespoons Krinos red-wine vinegar

1. Heat 1/2 the olive oil in a large soup pot and saute the onions until wilted.

2. Add the carrots, celery, and garlic and cook until soft. Add the beans and toss gently to coat with oil. Add the tomatoes, hot pepper, and water, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer soup uncovered, for 1 1/2-2 hours, or until the beans are very tender.

3. Just before removing from heat, adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and lemon juice or vinegar.

Yield: 6 servings Recipe courtesy of Krinos Foods

My wonderful DH made a pot of thick chicken soup on Sunday and it's filled the house with the most wonderful aroma :) Now I always need a recipe to cook but Stuart has just put this together out his head!!

What he did was boil one whole chicken to make the stock.

Then he peeled and chopped 3 large potatoes and 1 onion which he added to the pot with some salt and left it to simmer.

He soaked a packed of Sainsburys dried soup mix, Country soup in water till soft and added it to the soup and again left it to simmer.

Potatoes have a tendancy to absorb all the salt so you may need to add a bit more close to the time of serving.

For more soup recipes have a wonder over to this site!

haPPy coOKing!!

Caz

xx

Don't forget to sign up for the 2008 Art Journal Project :)

It's going to be such fun!!

Yankee Whipped Cream Cake

Hi, it's Joy here, with my all time favourite cake! :) This is a fun one to make for the autumn and winter.

My Nana (from Maine) taught my mother (who has taught me) to make this cake, which she made as often as she could in Texas. (You need to be in a cool climate to whip the cream!)

Whipped cream cake is easy to make - another great project for kids - but the ingredients require some creativity.

You will need graham crackers (try ebay or UK-US online food stores), Hershey's chocolate syrup (ebay or UK-US food distributors), icing sugar, and double cream. You could substitute digestive biscuits for graham crackers, but if you can find them, the graham crackers do make the cake amazing!

The ratio rule of thumb is 1/4 cup (@57 grams) powdered (confectioner's) sugar to 1/2 pint of heavy whipping cream. A medium cake that would serve 16 or more people (sliced lengthwise, then crosswise) would probably require two pints of cream, one cup (@227 grams) of icing sugar (powdered sugar for any US folks) sugar, and maybe two portions of a three portion box of graham crackers. The only other ingredient is Hershey's syrup. This is a no-bake cake. You whip the cream and syrup and build up layers with the graham crackers. The secrets are: do not to pack down the sugar when measuring, do not build the cake too high (it will slide sideways), and use plenty of cream between cracker layers . Another tip: too much chocolate syrup will make it too sweet to eat. For a medium bowl of whipped cream, a couple of squirts of Hershey's will do. Taste-test it and adjust as you wish. The colour should be barely beige. Whip cream and sugar until the mix is fluffy and stiff enough to frost the crackers. This takes about seven minutes for a big bowl. Add Hershey's chocolate syrup and mix a little more. It helps to put a little whipped cream on your platter before placing the graham crackers to build the cake. It helps the crackers stay in place. I usually use a three-cracker base, layer it with the cream, add three more crackers, layer with cream, and continue layering to desired height (probably no more than five inches). Cover sides of the cake with cream. I use a generous amount between layers. Refrigerate overnight. Easy! Enjoy the next day. xxx Joy

Tipsy raisins for Christmas...

Hi from Di.

TodayI bring you an easy peasy idea for Christmas. These are DELICIOUS! (and I do not touch brandy normally.) You can make them for home or for gifts and believe me with ICE CREAM they are delish!!!

Lets start with what you will need:

750 gm seedless raisins

1 litre of inexpensive brandy

2 jars ( I used empty coffee jars)

some fabric and ribbon for decoration

Day 1 Put the raisins in your jars and top up with brandy as shown Day 2: The raisins will have begun to "sup" up the brandy so mix up the raisins with a spoon and top up to cover with the brandy.

Day 3: The raisins are still "supping" up the brandy so again, mix up the raisins with a spoon and top up to cover the raisins with the brandy.

This is how much brandy you should have left. Now just leave then in a nice cool place to FERMENT LOL.

OK you cannot leave them too long they will last FOREVER.

But eventually decorate and give them away (boo hoo) or use them youself!!! I dipped two circles of cream fabric into a bowl of hot coffee, rinsed the fabric, let it dry then made a lid and tied with ribbon.

I decided to make just two gifts but you could easily decant the raisins into smaller jars and have about 4 or 6 gifts!!!

Eat them out the jar, pour them on ice cream, or serve with Xmas pudding. They will warm the cockles of your heart.

PS. Don't forget to to visit our Just Giving page where you can make make a donation to Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Woo Hoo as of this morning you have donated 100 Pounds!!! Great stuff Folks and THANK YOU!!!

Love from Di and thanks for visiting!!!

Scrummy Yummy Easy Chocolate Cake

This is my easy-peasy recipe for scrumptious chocolate cake. I am not known for being a Nigella Lawson so, if I can make this anyone can!!

Ingredients:

Cake:

8oz self raising flour

8oz caster sugar

8oz butter

4 eggs

2 heaped dessert spoons of cocoa powder

Dribble of milk

Filling:

4 oz Icing Sugar

2oz Butter

1 dessert spoon of cocoa

Drop of milk if needed

Big bar of cadburys chocolate

Baking Parchment or greaseproof paper

2 x 7" sandwich tins

Directions:

Mix the sugar and the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Mix the cocoa into the flour and alternate a spoonful of flour mixture and some beaten egg into the sugar and butter mixture until you've added it all.

If the mixture does not drop easily from a spoon add a dribble of milk.

Grease and line the base of the sandwich cake tins with a circle of greaseproof paper or baking parchment and divide the mixture between the two tins (leave enough mixture in the bottom of the bowl for licking!!)

Place in a preheated oven at 160 degrees in a fan oven (or equivalent) for approximately 25 minutes. When pressed with a finger the cakes should spring back when they are cooked.

Cool in their tins and then turn out on to a cooling rack.

To make the butter cream filling, cream the butter until soft and fluffy and gradually mix in the icing sugar and a dessert spoon of cocoa. Add a drop of milk if the mixture is too thick.

Remove the paper from the cakes and place one upside down on a plate. Spread the butter cream over the cake and place the second cake on top.

Over a pan of simmering water melt the chocolate in a bowl (making sure you've left a couple of squares for the cook!) and then spread over the top of the cake and decorate with icing sugar flowers, halved walnuts or smarties - or all three if you are extra hungry!

Try to wait for the chocolate to set before munching!!

Slow cooking with Maria

Hi, it's Maria here once again. Thank you so much to Di for yesterdays post I certainly learnt something new there.

As the nights are starting to draw in and there is a nip in the air I start to look forward to some comfort food. But, I don't always have the time or the inclination to be slaving over a hot stove and on days like that my slow cooker comes to the rescue. I love my slow cooker and it has paid for itself many times over so I thought that I would share a few of my favourite recipes with you.

Today I have two variations of my girlie wirlies favourite, cowboy stew. They love this and even asked for it during the summer. Mind you there were days when you needed to eat some stodge to warm you up.

Ingredients

Beef stew meat

Potatoes cut into cubes - I prefer to leave the skin on

Half a chopped onion

1 can of BBQ baked beans

1 can of baked beans

A big ole splosh of Worcestershire sauce

Method

Bung it all in the slow cooker, stir and leave for about four hours or until beef is tender. My cooker doesn't have a high or low setting so you will need to check your own cooker for timings.

I also have a skint student or store cupboard standby version for you.

Ingredients

Tinned stewing steak Tinned new potatoes Half a chopped onion 1 can of BBQ baked beans 1 can of baked beans

A big ole splosh of Worcestershire sauce Method Bung it all in the slow cooker, stir and leave for about two hours.

These recipes easily transfer to a crock pot in the normal oven and can be stretched a bit further with some crusty bread.

I have a fair few slow cooker recipes so let me know if you fancy anymore.

Toodle pip

Blackberry picking on a Sunday!

It's that time of year, just as the first signs of Autumn start to show, and the children go back to school for the new term, and the hedgerows are heavy with an abundance of blackberries. We went blackberry picking on Friday, a lovely way to round off the school holidays, and had no difficulty in filling our tupperware container. One of my many jobs for today, therefore, is to turn these shiny black berries into something delicious! With this in mind, I have trawled the internet for some suitable recipes, and I thought I'd share them with you. The first one is a super Bramley apple and blackberry crumble - I LOVE crumble, and I think that of all the things you can do with a blackberry, it's probably one of the best!! The recipe is here on the BBC food site. Also from the BBC site, recipes for blackberry and lemon fool, pear and blackberry upsidedown pudding, and blackberry brulee. From allrecipes.com the rather delicious-sounding blackberry chocolate chip pie, blackberry cobbler, and blackberry and blueberry pie. And finally, from the UKTVFood site, blackberry swirl cheesecake, vanilla and blackberry tart, and delightful mini pavlovas. So, if the weather's fine where you are, why not have a little meander out into the sunshine, and plunder the hedgerows! I'm off into the kitchen to cook up some treats with this little lot! Happy Sunday!

Another recipe - Apple Loaf Cake

Hiya, it's Cath here :) Thought i'd give you a little recipe today. I make this all the time and it never lasts more than 48hrs, very scrummy! And it's really, really quick and easy to make too! Heres the recipe - 1 Egg 8floz(250ml) Bottled or Homemade apple sauce 2 oz(55g) melted butter or Marg 3 3/4oz(110g)Dark brown sugar 1 3/4oz(50g)Caster sugar 10oz(285g)Plain flour 2 tsps Baking powder 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp Ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg 2 1/2oz(70g) currants or raisins 2oz(55g) Chopped pecans or walnuts 1. Preheat the oven to 350f/180c/Gas mark 4. Line a 9x5 in loaf tin wih greaseproof paper and grease. 2. Break the egg into a bowl and beat lightly. Stir in the apple sauce, butter and both sugars. Set aside. 3. In another bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold the dry ingredients into the apple mixture in 3 batches. 4. Stir in the currants/raisins and the nuts. 5. Pour into the prepared tin and bake until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean(about an hour). Let stand for 10 mins. Turn out onto a rack and let cool. And if you want to turn recipes and cooking into scrapbooking why not scrap your recipes and turn it inot a Recipe Journal which is what I am planning on doing!

We're Cooking with Gas today!!!

Hi folks from Caz and Di.

Yes we are 'cooking' today. Two summer barbecue ideas for those great summer days still to come. Caz's "colourful vegetable kebabs" and Di's "decadent brown onion potatoes" (to di(e) for).

Caz's Colourful vegetable kebabs: Ingredients

peppers (the more colours the better!!!)

about 12 mushrooms

3 onions

(you can also use cherry tomatoes, dried apricots, courgettes, marrow etc.) Preparation:

Chop the cleaned peppers and peeled onions into big chumks

Leave the mushrooms whole

Now just alternate the veggie bits on to skewers or kebab sticks (if using wooden kebab sticks then soak in water for at least 1 hour before assembling the kebabs and cook straight away)Marinade in a mixture of olive oil, crushed garlic clove and mixed herbs (origanum or whatever) Cook on the barbecue until tender or crunchie enough to eat (depending on your taste!!! )

Di's decadent brown onion potatoes: Ingredients

Potatoes ( I normally use a baking potato per person and add a few for seconds)

1 packet of brown onion soup (per 8 potatoes)

200gm butter (this is the decadent bit!!!) (per 8 potatoes)

Preparation:

Scrub the potatoes and partially slice

Melt the butter in the microwave or a saucepan

Add brown onion soup mix to the melted butter and stir

Lay the potatoes in a roasting dish sliced side up and coat well with the melted butter mix

Cover with tinfoil and cook for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours at : 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F / gas mark 4

We had great fun making and eating these yesterday - they were scrumpdiddlyumptious... eNjOy!!!

Love from Caz and Di