ENGLISH MUM

Ahhh summer is finally here.  The garden’s like a jungle, the washing basket is overflowing, but I don’t care – there’s a sun lounger in the garden and that’s where I’ll be if you need me.  Summer is also salad central, but I don’t know about you – I get a bit bored of leafy salads.  The Death Wish Child won’t touch them with a barge pole either, so I...

You might remember that I took part in a little challenge a while ago with Lean on Turkey, supporting our fantastic British turkey farmers, to create a turkey dish for a family of four for under a tenner.  The result was my Moroccan style turkey with Ras el Hanout.   This time, and happily for us it coincides with this gorgeous weather, my challenge is to cook a low fat, healthy turkey recipe, again costing...

The afternoon we arrived at Bodegas Monje was utterly stunning. The sky was a shimmering turquoise and the rows of vines glowed emerald green, rolling down towards the sea. What a gorgeous place. First up was a tour of the winery (meaning that we had to head into the gloom of the cellar… boooo.)  Still, I learned absolutely loads about wine making (the winery produce a stunning range of wines, mostly...

We LOVE lentils.  The texture is almost creamy, satisfying in that way that only a big dollop of mashed potatoes is usually satisfying, plus of course they have the added bonus of being VERY good for you and low fat too.  This recipe is one of our favourites – I often make double and blend the leftovers with stock the next day to make soup.  It’s best, though, served with some big, fat, meaty...

So, after promising you a couple of healthy recipes, I then buggered off and promptly forgot all about them.  Sorry. Anyhoo, here I am, back live and a week into my alcohol free month.  It’s going well.  It’s going really well.  I feel fab – and after the amazing facial, my skin’s feeling fab too.  I’m drinking much more water (Katy told me that your body often mistakes thirst...

I’ve been writing on Ready for Ten recently (I would link to it but it’s not published yet – patience, grasshopper) about the age old dilemma of getting the kids to eat enough fruit and veg. I make this sauce a lot (I use it as soup as well) and although it’s got plenty of green veg in, it still looks like plain ol’ tomato which puts paid to ‘ewww – what’s that?’...

Soooo here comes the big day!  There’s just the four of us this year, but whether you’re catering for 15 or it’s just you and your other half, the golden rule is the same as ever: Christmas day is a happy, family day.  Please don’t get stressed and fall apart.  Just think of it as a big roast dinner – a turkey is very forgiving and will happily rest for a good hour (and probably...

Easy peasy one, this.  Tomato sauce forms the basis of a large number of our meals as it’s one thing that everyone really likes.  I tend to buy the large jars of passata (sieved tomatoes) as de brevren are not over fond of lumps (insert your own joke here).  You can use this sauce for masses of other things, or keep the chicken, ditch the paprika, and just serve with rice or potatoes.  Oh and if...

One of my favourite recipe books is a very old and slightly crusty ‘Curry Club’ book called 250 Favourite Curries and Accompaniments that my Mum bought me years ago.  I was searching high and low for it earlier as I’m currently suffering from a glut of courgettes, and knew that I’d seen a recipe for spicy fritters in there.  But no, it was nowhere to be seen (it’s since turned...

So that’s it, then.  The big day is shortly upon us and I’m looking forward to a small family Christmas  at our new little house in Hertfordshire. Wherever you are and whoever you’re with, I wish you all a wonderful, indulgent Christmas. And as always, remember to chill out, have fun, stick on your glad rags, enjoy your precious loved ones, have a few cocktails, don’t shout at the...

So one of my happier experiments in the garden were these little beauties.  They did have a name, but I’ve bloody forgotten now, although I’m sure Poppy’s Mum or GrowUp, my gardening gurus, will let me know in due course.  Yesterday, then, we decided to pick one and test it out.  ‘Ooh’, said #1, ‘cauliflower cheese!’.  ‘Yum’, said I.  ‘Bleurgh’,...

So the ongoing battle here at English Towers is between the chilli lovers and the not-so-chilli lovers.  Hubby and #1 would have us eating amounts of chilli that, frankly, would have normal people running madly around in circles, flapping their arms and making choo choo noises with steam coming out of their ears, whereas me and the small, accident-prone version can only handle a gentle amount of spice. ...

Righto, then, following swiftly on from the butternut squash risotto, here’s another curry that is used in so many different guises here at English Towers, I’m struggling to know which photos to use.  As you know, I’m a big fan of butternut squash, so here’s the basic recipe used with squash, but it’s equally good made with potatoes or cauliflower: 1 butternut squash, peeled...

I love butternut squash.  I love its sweetness, its softness, and its beautiful orangey colour.  I love risotto too, and the combination of both of them is one of my favourite meals.  I happened to mention to the lovely Matt, fellow blogger and ’Wine Evangelist’ (I love that title) at Curious Wines that I was going to knock up a butternut squash risotto and he very kindly offered to send me...

So it’s bank hols here in the Republic and yesterday dawned the most beautiful, hot sunny day.  There’s nothing quite like a sunny day in Ireland.  Not only is it very unusual and therefore all the more welcome, but the whole greenness of the place gives it an almost luminous, lime green glow.   The kids started off mucking about spraying each other with water guns, then hubby disappeared to...

Ah, Mother’s Day.  A day for eating cremated bacon sandwiches whilst smiling broadly and going ‘mmm, delicious!’, drinking the half-cup of dodgy tea that was delivered to your bedside whilst secretly worrying how long it’s going to take you to remove the other half that’s been slopped up the stairs, and being the recipient of approximately fifteen hardly squeezes and twenty five...

Sunday lunch, then, and even though I say so myself, this one was rather a cracker.  Given a unanimous 10/10 (unheard of in our house) and with the added bonus of being one of the easiest too.  First up then is the main course: Roast lamb with creamy layered potatoes ½ leg lamb (about 1kg) 1 kg potatoes 50g butter 300ml milk or cream So for the lamb, just preheat the oven at about 180/gas 4, rub all over...

So I sometimes think my little carpet monsters don’t know when they’ve got it good.  Take last week: #2 went out shopping with D-next-door and seriously, dearest reader, you’d think he’d won the flipping lottery: ‘D gets curly fries!  And chicken nuggets!  And spicy wedges!  And we walked straight past the fruit and veg without buying anything!!  And we got chocolate fingers!’,...

All this talk of recession has done me no end of good, y’know.  For one thing, I’m trying to use up all the stuff we had left over in the freezer since Christmas (I’m down to two massive bags of frozen prawns and the kids are sick of them, but needs must, eh.  Green Thai prawn curry anyone?).  And I’ve hardly been out shopping at all, save for a couple of trips for school essentials...

Golden rule first then.  Christmas day is is a happy, family day.  If you’re cooking, don’t stress about it, just think of it as a big roast dinner.  It’s just a roast and some veg.  I mean, open any food magazine or cookbook and there’ll be a different way to cook your turkey on every one – timetables for this, that and the other and enough information to turn you several different...

So I’ve had ups and downs with my first year of vegetable patch ownership.  For example, the sweet peas went completely mental but didn’t give me a single bloody flower, the pumpkins, coriander and basil all died (too cold? we didn’t really have any sunshine) and the cucumber covered the whole plot in huge leaves and spidery tentrils, but no cucumbers (well how was I to know it was a...

So I often get emails asking after Little C and Lou.  D battles cheerfully on, holding down a full time job as well as combining Mum/Dad duties at home.  It’s now, unbelievably, nearly two months since their Mum died and with the added childcare pressures of the summer holidays, it’s a wonder he doesn’t spontaneously combust. Happily, Little C and Lou are cheerful, muck-in with everybody...

So last night we all sat down for a nice family meal to celebrate the end of term/prizes/the promise of good reports to come (#2 looked slightly green at the mention of those), etc.  I made little meatballs with my lamb kebab mixture, which I baked in the oven, along with some of #1′s famous tomato sauce. Hubby, generally a stranger to the kitchen (unless there’s scrambling of eggs or anything to...

So yesterday, then.  I knew J and C were coming to lunch so I popped down to the nice butcher’s on Saturday to get an enormous leg of lamb (I appreciate I have plenty next door, but they’re all still attached and somewhat fluffy).  Oh dear.  The horror stories I read in the paper about lamb legs selling for 50 euro a pop due to Easter being so early were neither confirmed nor denied as they were...

 1 pack of new potatoes 1 white cabbage 1 good quality Irish black pudding Frozen peas Vegetable stock Okay so I know some people are repulsed by it, but here in Ireland they do the best black pudding ever.  If you hate the idea of the stuff, do me a favour and just try it before you totally write it off.  It’s lovely stuff.  Otherwise replace it in this recipe with some fat good quality herby sausages,...