Family, food, travel, gin and a touch of hysteria…
Currently Browsing: Desserts
Posted by
English Mum |
Mar 27th, 2009
The Friday birthday photo: the pinkest raspberry meringue pie
So I had a lovely birthday, thank you so much for all your good wishes. I got lots of donations to my KitchenAid fund, which is now looking quite healthy, plus lots of lovely bits and pieces for my garden (including a fantastic Eucalyptus tree from the boys), and 6 new sparkly Denby mugs from Hubby to add to my collection:
Sensible Uncle I and Lovely L bought me Ching He Huang’s new Chinese cookbook,...
Posted by
English Mum |
Mar 8th, 2009
Sunday lunch: roast lamb, layered potatoes and rice pudding
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...
Posted by
English Mum |
Feb 9th, 2009
Chocolate fondant: gooey chocolatey yumminess
So you know how you can cook something with your eyes shut, and then the moment you invite someone round and do it, it all goes horribly wrong? The very thing happened when the Disreputable One visited once – I made the cheesecake I make successfully ALL the time, I presented it at the table with a flourish, tried to slice it and realised in horror that it was completely runny. Seriously dearest reader,...
Posted by
English Mum |
Jan 12th, 2009
Step by step: lemon meringue pie
I’m still struggling with this photography lark, y’know. It’s not easy trying to take classy pictures when you’re up to your elbows in egg whites. I’m going to wreck my camera at this rate. Still, here we go with another step by step: this time a classic lemon meringue pie.
Lemon curd
press the pastry into the...
Posted by
English Mum |
Jan 11th, 2009
Mr Lovely’s 100 cupcake birthday
So this week, Mr Lovely (D next door’s brother in law – it’s all so incestuous round these parts) turned 40. Mrs L has been, somewhat reluctantly it has to be said, planning a big party and we had a little brainstorming evening to sort out the finer details. Seeing as Mr L is a fireman, it made sense for someone to bake a fire engine cake. Mrs Lovely didn’t volunteer. Neither...
Posted by
English Mum |
Nov 16th, 2008
Vanishing sticky lemon muffins
So Friday night we went to see the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. It was really good. I’m loving these new Bonds – not just because of the eye candy that is Daniel Craig, but also the sheer beauty of the whole things: I love all the amazing locations… the flash cars… the beautiful girls. Ah, I’m a bit of a Bond fan, really.
Anyhoo – just before we left I made these...
Posted by
English Mum |
Nov 1st, 2008
Middle Lovely’s Chocolate Breakfast Pancakes… & grown up cranberry and orange ones
So it’s half term. And Middle Lovely came for a sleepover with #2. He’s a happy little chap; talks ten to the dozen like #1 and he loves to cook. So last night I got talked into having chocolate pancakes for tea, and this morning we all made a cake. He could never live with us full time as our arteries would probably explode. Here goes with the pancakes, then:
For the basic breakfast...
Posted by
English Mum |
Sep 8th, 2008
Chocolate Mousse!!!!
So we ended up having an incredibly late night on Friday round C and K’s (the ones with the boat – keep up), drinking vast amounts of champagne and Chablis and tucking into a takeaway Chinese. I was completely toasted and woke up the next day at midday with a hammerdrill playing havoc with the inside of my head (I know, I know – self to blame). Happily, I saw both C and K down the shop...
Posted by
English Mum |
Sep 3rd, 2008
Gardening news, steaks, potato wedges and rhubarb crumble
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...
Posted by
English Mum |
Aug 21st, 2008
Pear and vanilla tart
So pastry, then. Well it’s a bit of a sod, frankly and I try not to bother if at all possible. I always get it all stuck to the rolling pin (not being the dantiest of bakers) but hey, my family don’t mind my rustic baking. I was telling me Ma, then, about Bill Granger’s fantastically easy pastry made with melted butter. He pinched it off Patricia Wells so I, in turn, pinched it off...
