puff pizza

Today was food shopping day so with a fridge full of fresh veg and a sheet of pastry left from last week and had to be used today I wondered what to do with it! I decided to do a pizza but with puff pastry... a puff pizza if you will.


This is the easiest food you could ever make, you just throw what ever you have in the fridge onto it!


Ingredients


one sheet of ready made puff pastry or make your own if you have the time
3 tablespoons tomato puree 
4 mushrooms
3 salad tomatoes
3 slices of sandwich ham diced
basil
handful of spinach
grated cheese of your choice 


Direction


• Take the pastry out of the fridge 20 minutes before your about to use it.


• Preheat oven to 200c/400f/gas 6


• Roll out the pastry onto baking paper on a baking tray.


• Spread the tomato puree over the pastry leaving an inch around the edge.


• Chop the basil and place over the puree, can also use dried basil.


• Scatter the ham, mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach over the pure and sprinkle the cheese over the top so all the other ingredients are covered remembering to leave that inch around the edge.


• Place on middle shelf of oven for 15 minutes or until pastry is golden.

Nutella cookies

So while laying on the sofa in total agony looking at my gorgeous little boy playing on the floor I felt so bad for just laying there not playing with him. I asked what he would like to do and he said he wanted a chocolate biscuit. It was half an hour before dinner and I didn't want him having chocolate before food so I though why don't we make some to eat after dinner? so this is what we did.


I got sent a link for a Nutella cookie recipe from my sister in-law, I've made it a couple of times and over this time i've added to it. It is so simple to make I thought i'd share it with you guys too. So here it is...

Ingredients


4 tablespoons of Nutella chocolate spread
50g caster sugar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
50g unsalted butter
1 egg 
125g self raising flour
handful of chocolate chips


directions


• Preheat oven to 190C/375F/gas 5


• Put the nutella, sugar and butter in a bowl and mix all together. 

• Add the egg and flour and mix until its firm(ish)


• Spoon onto baking paper on a baking tray making sure you keep them quite far apart as they do spread and are quite big. This is where I put the chocolate chips on but you can mix them in with the dough. 

• Bake for about 8 minutes if you still want them a little gooey in the middle or about 15 minutes if you want them a little firmer. 

and when your finished........

Kids do like to lick the bowl!

my first caving adventure....

I had a super time caving yesterday. It was in an amazing place by Worms head, the only way to get there was by climbing down a cliff face. while down there I was told that the cave was completely submerged in water for 9 months of the year and only the last couple of weeks they have been able to go down there. This scared the crap out of me! 

The entrance was a shock, I really did think "shit i'm going to get stuck in here!" I was reassured that they have had 'heavy people' come down this cave and that the first few metres were the hardest.... they lied through their arses I can tell you! the first few metres were the hardest but so was the next 6 hours! don't get me wrong I had an amazing time! I used muscles I never knew I had and managed to get myself in positions only a gymnast can do! Once I got through a few passages, chambers and got deeper into the cave I saw some amazing stalactite and stalagmite it was beautiful!


http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/stalactite_and_stalagmite.aspx

Once we got as far as we could they went through a bolder choke so they could start digging... that was my limit and refused to go through, it didn't look safe enough and thought we shouldn't all go through incase it fell.. yes I pussyed out! I stayed behind with another caver while the other two started digging. while in this beautiful chamber I was told what to do in emergencies and what would happen if the cave flooded while we were inside. this did not help my nervousness one little bit! I was told to turn my helmet light off and be quiet, so we both did... absolute silence and absolute darkness... have you ever seen the film 'the decent'? this immediately popped into my head and shat myself! 

I was asked to go into a hole that no one had beed down due to it being so small and that I was the only one who would be able to fit, what did I do? stuck my body in and thought 'screw this no one has ever been down here before! I might get eaten' crawled back out. 

It was time to make our way back out, by this point I was exhausted and had to crawl and drag my body back out by just my arms while carrying a bag of heavy drill batteries that I had to be careful with hmmm.... ok. I don't know if I thought getting back was harder than getting down there because I was absolutely shattered or because it just was! I got out and the first thing i did was take all my gear off and collapse on the rocky floor my knees and elbows were red raw. My shoulder killed and did not want to hike another 45 minutes up a cliff with a heavy backpack in the blistering heat! but i made it.

today I woke in total agony but it was totally worth it! 

The cave bottom left

Who doesn't like peanut butter and chocolate?

So, I took my little boy to see his two cousins before going to his dads who live in the next town,  which is also about a 20 minute bus ride away. We were getting ready to leave the house it was at this point I decided to not take my sons buggy with us for the first time EVER... this could potentially end in disaster but being in a calming mood I decided to just do it.


 He got a little bored on the bus and started playing up so I thought we would play a little game which I will now name -


'what side is the...?'


Basically trying to teach my child his left and right.... which to my surprise he already knows! so I guess he was listening to me every time I put each shoe on and saying which foot it is. :) this was a happy moment for me.


  I decided to pop into Tesco's after the little ruffian had been picked up to get a few ingredients for this fantastic peanut butter cheese cake recipe I saw online.


This recipe will make 4 individual portions. I have converted each ingredient into grams instead of ounces as I discovered it was quite hard to shop for items in ounces when everything in the UK is in grams! resulting in having to work out everything in my head and what should have been a 5 minute shop turned into a 30 minute one! I also put my own little twist on it as some of the original ingredients were American and not available in the UK.... enjoy!


makes 4 individual servings, easily doubled. 


ingredients 


For the crust -
10 Oreo cookies
2 tablespoons unsalted butter


For the filling -
1/2 cup thick double cream
115g soft cheese
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
200g sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions.


. Place the Oreo cookies into the bowl of a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs. In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs and melted butter and stir.


. Evenly divide the crumbs between your individual serving dishes and press into the bottoms of the dishes to form a crust layer.

. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the double cream until stiff peaks form. Transfer whipped cream to a small bowl and place it into the fridge while you prepare the rest of the filling.

. Place soft cheese and peanut butter into the mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until smooth. Reduce speed to low and gradually add in the icing sugar until well combined. Add in sweetened condensed milk and vanilla and beat on medium speed until mixture is creamy and smooth.

. Stir in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the remaining whipped cream until well blended and no streaks remain.

. Evenly pipe or spoon the filling into individual serving dishes. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. If desired, garnish with whipped cream and some chocolate.

everyone loves pasties!

Well it was another rainy day and me and my son were stuck in the house. With the rarity of a full fridge and cupboard i decided to do some baking to keep him amused for at least half an hour! 


After searching through all my food i decided to make some vegetable and cheese pasties. My son got very excited and immediately put on his Thomas cooking apron (in which he took off half way though because it was annoying him!) and climbed up onto his booster seat. 

My little boy does love to cook! 


Ingredients 


375g of puff pastry
60g grated cheese
handful of spinich leaves
1/2 tin of Ratatouille or homemade if you have the time
1 beaten egg


Directions


- Sprinkle work top with plain flour and roll out pastry.


- use a round pastry cutter to cut out 10 circles. 


- tear the spinach up into a bowl and add most of the cheese then mix in the ratatouille with a little black pepper.


- Prick all the pastry circles with a fork and place on some baking paper on a baking tray, Spoon on the mixture in the centre of five of the pastry circles.  


- Use a pastry brush to brush the egg around the edges of the filled pastry circles like an island, and stick the remaining five pastry circles onto the top of each. brush a little egg on top and add the remaining grated cheese. 


- Place in a pre-heated oven at 200ºC fan/ 220ºC/Gas 7 for around 15 minutes, or until puffed up and golden.


These can be frozen for up to one month.