If you like my homemade Jaffa cake recipe you might want to check out my homemade party rings recipe too!

homemade Jaffa cake recipe

I know what you’re thinking – ‘A homemade Jaffa cake recipe? WTF? Why on earth would you go to the effort to make your own Jaffa cakes when you could just crack open a packet of McVities?’

Well yes, I can see your point, but making your own Jaffa cakes is more something you do for the activity than for the end product.

It’s like any kind of cooking really, or gosh, anything in life at all when you start to think about it. It’s satisfying making things for yourself from scratch, and fun in the process. (Sometimes. Unless it’s a complicated pastry or something.)

It’s the journey not the destination and all that.

PLUS, when you make your own Jaffa cakes you get to do things along the way like eat a casual square or two of Bournville and lick the cake bowl. View Post

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Here are two things I love:

  • Trying new things
  • Cheese

I was pretty much guaranteed to have a good time then when I visited the Boursin Sensorium at the Alexandra Palace Foodie Festival last weekend, to have a go on their Oculus Rift Boursin experience.

Boursin Sensorium View Post

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One of the most tedious tasks for me as a parent is cooking. It’s not so much the cooking itself, it’s more the planning of it – trying to think of something new and interesting every single bloody day, only then to have it rejected by a fussy child, gets rather dispiriting after, say, 20 years.

Enter fiancé, stage left.

(You see? I did it! I called him fiancé!)

For the last month or so, my fiancé has taken over in the kitchen. He does all of the cooking, and even the washing up when Belle’s away. I’m barely even allowed to make myself a cup of tea. It is absolute bliss getting to four o’clock every day and not having to start fretting about what I’m going to cook.

A couple of weeks ago we were treated to a food delivery from Marley Spoon, one of these food box companies where you’re sent a recipe and the exact ingredients. I love the idea of this as it’s such a pain buying things like herbs, spices and oils for recipes, when you know you’re only going to use a tablespoon and then have them sat in the cupboard for years. View Post

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Today you can win a copy of ‘Licking the Spoon’ by Candace Walsh.

My memory is not great. I can barely remember anything that happened as a child and am constantly letting my own children down by not being able to remember their first steps, first words, and other important occasions that mothers really should have etched in their minds forever.

A lot of the memories I do have are connecting with food, primarily the smell of certain foods and of meals being cooked. View Post

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When you imagine Aunt Bessie, slaving over a hot Yorkshire pudding tray, what do you picture? A homely looking elderly lady maybe? A neat grey bun keeping her hair safely out of the batter, a lace pinny tied tightly around her not unsubstantial waist?

Me too.

But think again.

Although Aunt Bessie started baking up frozen Yorkshire puddings for Butlins back in the 1970s, it’s only since 1995 that you’ve been able to buy your own frozen Aunt Bessie’s puds in the supermarket. I know – crazy isn’t it? They feel like something that’s been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Last week I went to find out more about Aunt Bessie, and to test my own (poor) kitchen skills, creating some roasty treats alongside a group of other mummy bloggers. They gave me my own proper sharp knife and everything. And I only dropped it once.

After being shown the full Aunt Bessie’s range, we were set to creating our own lunches, to be accompanied of course by lashing of Yorkshire puddings, carrot and swede mash, and Aunt Bessie’s gravy. Purple Mum and I were on the stuffed aubergine station. If you’d like to make your very own stuffed aubergines, and why wouldn’t you, watch and learn:

Gather all your ingredients together in smart white bowls as though you are presenting a cookery show. (You don’t really have to do this bit, but it looks nice and professional.)

Preheat the oven to 200c/gas mark 6. Cut two aubergines in half length wise. Cut almost through them in a criss cross pattern.

Cut out the centre of the aubergines, leaving four empty halves that you can stuff later. Roughly chop the flesh.

Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a pan and fry a chopped onion for about five minutes.

Add the aubergine and cook for another five minutes or so. Stir in one crushed garlic clove, half a chopped red pepper, a chopped courgette and a pinch of chilli flakes. (Try to avoid chopping any of your nail varnish into the red pepper. Just saying.) Season well and cook for another five minutes.

Tip into a bowl and stir in 200g chopped chestnuts, 100g of mixed nuts, toasted and chopped, 2tbsp of freshly chopped parsley, the zest of one lemon, a beaten egg, 25g grated parmesan and one slice of stale bread, cut into small cubes. Season again. If you have an incredibly phallic looking pepper grinder all the better. (Cue much cackling from mummy bloggers).

Spoon your mixture into the aubergine halves, drizzle with a little more oil, and bake for 20 minutes. Eat all the leftovers while you wait. (optional).

Meanwhile, cook your Aunt Bessie’s Yorkshire puddings, carrot and swede mash and gravy according to instructions. Crack open a bottle of wine or two, gather your three favourite family members, and tuck in!

 

 

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Tuna and mushy peas on rice cakes.

I know, sounds delicious right?

I was feeling a bit uninspired by the thought of another ham sandwich, so had a rummage through the cupboards instead and found a can of tuna from the Reel Fish company:

Now I’ve not eaten much tuna lately since it started becoming a bit on the pricey side, so when you do buy tuna, you want to buy something Proper and Good don’t you? The Reel Fish company catch all their tuna one by one, using an actual pole and line, so nothing else gets caught that shouldn’t be. Plus, it’s really delicious.

I also found a tin of mushy peas, a bargain at only 9p from Aldi, and half a pack of slightly squidgy rice cakes that needed using up.

And then my delicious recipe came to me, like a bolt of lightning!

I like tuna, but I find it a bit dry on its own. Mayonnaise is yummy, but has about a million calories. Mushy peas on the other hand – all the moistness of mayo without the fat! Plus you get a bit of pea goodness too. Foolproof. I mixed them up together, and piled my mixture on top of my rice cake.

Tada!

"Tuna and mushy pea rice cakes"

Not only was it very tasty, but one of these works out at less than 100 calories and is really filling. Nigella eat your heart out.

If you have any other ideas for interesting ways to use a can of tuna, do let me know…

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When Boyfriend came back from a three-week trip to China last week, I wanted to impress him with my new-found culinary skills. I’m not normally known for domestic goddessness, but while he was away, to prove I was capable of cooking more than super noodles, I had been practising. A weekly delivery from Hello Fresh helped, but that’s definitely still cooking.

On his first night back, I decided to cook lamb and feta burgers, with oregano potato wedges, courtesy of McCain. Nothing impresses a boy more, so I’m told, than a home-made burger.* If you’d like to woo a boy of your own, here’s what you need:

"potato wedges"For the burgers:

  • 500g lean lamb mince
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
  • ¼ tsp ground paprika
  • 1 tsp ground allspice
  • ¼ tsp cumin powder
  • 3-4 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, freshly chopped
  • Grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 100g feta cheese, roughly crumbled
  • Salt and pepper to season

To go with your burgers:

  • ¼ cucumber, peeled and sliced
  • 1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
  • 6 olives, sliced

For the oregano wedges:

  • 300g McCain Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Wedges
  • ¼ tsp dried oregano

To serve:

  • Four crusty bread rolls, halved
  • Large G&T for the chef to help recover from stress of smoke alarm going off three times

I’m not going to bother with a ‘how to make’ section, as it’s so easy – mix all the burger ingredients together into burger shapes, sprinkle the wedges with oregano and stick in the oven as instructed, and that’s it really. The recipe card suggested the grill or a barbecue for the burgers, and as it was pissing down with rain, I went for the grill. Unfortunately, there seems to be a bit of a design flaw with our grill**, and after about ten minutes, the house was full of quite an acrid black smoke, and flames were flickering out from the oven.

When Boyfriend came down from the shower to ask why the attic floor was full of smoke, I decided to transfer the burgers to a frying pan, to reduce the risk of the fire brigade being called by a helpful neighbour, and that worked very well.

All in all, a very tasty dinner, despite me cooking it, although I’m not sure I made quite the impression I was hoping for, jumping up and down waving a tea towel under the smoke alarm.

*And taking your clothes off obviously. Do that bit later though – you don’t want to get splashed with burger fat.

**Definitely the grill’s fault, and not mine.

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This week we’ve been eating what my children like to call ‘real meals’, thanks to a new food delivery service from Hello Fresh. If you’re thinking of giving Hello Fresh a go, have a read of my review and you could get £25 off your first order. Do leave your own comments too if you’ve given Hello Fresh a try recently.

Quite frankly, I think my inspired pasta dishes count as ‘real meals’, but apparently just mixing up pasta with whatever you happen to have left in the fridge doesn’t count as cordon bleu. What do they know?

Still, I have to admit that there is something satisfying about using Actual Ingredients, and following a recipe. It’s not my normal style, mainly because recipes are usually so expensive. You may only need a handful of chopped fresh coriander, but you can’t buy it by the handful can you? You end up spending out loads just to get a teaspoon each of five weird herbs you don’t have and will never use again.

This is why Hello Fresh is so good. Not only do they send you the recipes, but they send you all the ingredients you need, in just the right amounts. Costs are kept to a reasonable level, you aren’t left with an almost full bottle of red wine vinegar sitting in the back of your cupboard for the next five years, and you get lots of cute things in mini packets. It’s really very sweet.

"Hello Fresh review"

Om nom nom

This week we ate a yummy fresh prawn linguine, a smoked mackerel, new potato and green bean salad, and a couscous dish with chicken, chorizo, salad leaves and courgettes.

They were all delicious, although the couscous dish did make us a bit farty…

Hello Fresh isn’t not cheap of course, but the quality of the ingredients really was superb – the meatiest, most flavoursome prawns I’ve ever tasted – and with free delivery and no waste I reckon it’s pretty good value for money. So much so, that I’ve actually placed a regular order. Recommendations don’t come better than that.

If you fancy giving it a try, use this link or the code JOMID for £25 off your first order.

Bon appetit!

Have you tried the service? Leave your own Hello Fresh reviews and let everyone know what you think! 

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Today I have a recipe for you, a recipe for the ultimate cheesecake.

We were out for lunch at a lovely restaurant today called At The Chapel in Bruton, to celebrate my sister’s birthday, when I came across said cheesecake recipe. While we were finishing our lunch, the venue was being prepared for a wedding party, and the wedding cake, made of cheese, was taking pride of place on the bar.

"cheesecake recipe"

Please pass the crackers

To make this beautiful cheesecake for yourself, follow my simple cheesecake recipe:

  1. Place one massive cheese on a large wooden board.
  2. Place a slightly less massive cheese on top.
  3. Then add another large, but more manageable cheese.
  4. Finally, finish the tower with an ordinary sized cheese.

Enjoy!

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