All posts tagged: Food

Brownie on a plate

Ultimate Chocolate Brownies

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Chocolate Brownies are hugely popular in the Letstrythisathome house.  They’re incredibly easy to make and pretty much foolproof, even with ‘help’ from the smallest chefs in the family.  The last time we made some, Chief Stick Collector announced that the mixture looked like Nutella.  Lightbulb moment! We added a large dollop of Nutella to the mixture, and waited even more impatiently than usual to see how they would turn out. Chief Stick Collector and Bird Girl were confident. I was tentatively hopeful. A very rainy Sunday afternoon was not the time to have to go out for more ingredients to make a replacement batch if it had all gone wrong.  But luckily, the random addition turned out to be not just as good as the original recipe, but, we thought, an improvement.  Light and flaky on the top but just the right amount of gooey inside, and really chocolatey.  This is now our go-to recipe for brownies. Ultimate Chocolate Nutella Brownies Ingredients 275g (10oz) butter, softened 375g (13oz) caster sugar 4 large eggs 75g (3oz) cocoa powder …

Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

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When it’s cold out, a good bowl of soup can be really satisfying.  This one really hits the spot, and it’s so simple to make. The addition of ginger boosts the warming quotient, and the coriander adds a subtle spice without being overpowering. I love this made with chicken stock, for a really rounded flavour, but vegetable stock works well too, to make this a vegetarian dish. I originally came across a version of this recipe in a book called ‘Easy Entertaining’, but the original used allspice berries instead of ginger and coriander.  I definitely prefer the ginger and ground coriander for the warmth and more subtle flavour; but if you’re making this at Christmas time, the allspice is a good seasonal variation. I’m lazy, and think life’s too short to toast your own pine nuts, so I buy ready-toasted ones, but by all means toast your own if you have the time or inclination! This works well with a scattering of fried bacon or pancetta as garnish, but again, only if you have the time …

Pumpkin spiced muffins with maple orange glaze

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We have had a busy couple of months here, starting a new job, starting school, starting preschool and celebrating a 40th birthday.  Milestones all round.   Between all those things and the increased layers of organisation that they have entailed, the unfortunate blog has been rather neglected. But it feels like we’ve turned a bit of a corner after the half-term break.  We’re finally settling into the new routines, and finding time for more activities together.  Autumn is giving way to winter, but before all the christmassy stuff starts, we decided to have a go at an autumnal bake.  And with halloween just gone, I decided that meant pumpkin!  In truth, the pumpkin decision was mainly because I had added tinned pumpkin puree to my online grocery order on a whim a few weeks ago, and it was sitting in the cupboard begging to be put to good use. As usual, the recipe below is an amalgam and adaptation of various recipes, based mainly on what we had in the cupboard and what sounded simple enough for a two-year-old helper to assist with! Pumpkin spiced muffins with maple …

Roasted Vegetable and Halloumi Pasta

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Do you always manage to eat your ‘5 a day’?  Count them up.  Be honest now – I’m pretty sure a glass of wine doesn’t count as one portion of fruit! When I feel like I’m edging into vegetable deficit, I make Roasted Vegetable and Halloumi Pasta.  It’s a really easy way to slam-dunk your 5 a day in one go, but the addition of the halloumi cheese stops it feeling too sanctimonious! What’s more, once you’ve chopped everything up, you can really just leave it in the oven to cook itself while you have that glass of wine, just for good measure. Roasted Vegetable and Halloumi Pasta Ingredients (serves 4) 1 Aubergine 2 Courgettes 1 red pepper 1 yellow pepper 1 green pepper 500g cherry tomatoes 2 leeks 250g block halloumi 1 clove garlic 1 dsp balsamic vinegar 1 dsp olive oil 2 bay leaves 1 tsp dried basil 400g pasta shapes Directions Preheat the oven to 170c (fan) or 180c otherwise. Slice the leeks into 1cm rounds, chop the other veggies and the halloumi into …

Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

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I have recently been thinking of cutting back on the amount of red and processed meat that we eat, not least after watching the recent BBC documentary investigating the relative health-and environmental impacts of eating various kinds of meat protein. But Chief Stick Collector and Bird Girl definitely fall into the carnivorous camp, and love their bolognese sauce and beef meatballs.  Vegetables are either just about tolerated (on a good day) or outright refused (unless hidden incognito in something else!).  So the question was whether I could replicate one of their favourite beefy meals with something else? Step forward Turkey Mince.  The challenge? Make some meatballs with turkey mince that were not only edible, but tasty. A bit of internet surfing revealed a large number of recipes for turkey meatballs, but none seemed exactly what I was looking for, so I mixed and matched and added and subtracted and threw in a variation of one of our favourite tomato pasta sauces, and ended up with the recipe below. The results? Well, the children loved the sauce …

Blackberry Oaty Cookies

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I love this time of year when it’s still summer, but the early mornings hint at the changing season to come, with a chill in the air and wisps of mist clinging to the fields and woods in the valley below our house. It seems early this year, but the trees and hedgerows near us are starting to reveal their autumn goodies, with cob nuts everywhere and ripe blackberries on show already.  So, we took ourselves off blackberry picking, joined by Bird Girl and Chief Stick Collector’s cousins and my sister. As luck would have it, blackberry picking is another thing on our list of 50 Things to do before 11 3/4. So we were hoping to be able to tick off another challenge, which sounded like it would be an easy and risk-free one to complete! We did have to be careful to avoid stinging nettles and blackberry thorns, so it wasn’t entirely without an element of danger (as far as that term is understood by preschoolers!).  But it didn’t take us long to pick enough to take home. …