Rachel's Egg Salad Filling

Whenever i make this Egg Salad Filling it always goes down well and never lasts very long.

It is good in a sandwich, with bacon and lettuce.

It makes a great baked potato topping.

It's good on crostini with Parma ham.

There are so many things you can do with it..........

4 hard boiled eggs crushed with a fork
1 cup of Cheddar cheese grated
½ cup Parmesan cheese finely grated
1 tsp Dijon mustard
¼ cup of mayonnaise
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Mix them all together and chill till needed. It is that simple!!!

Apple Pancake

My son loves pancakes so i thought i would treat him to an Apple Pancake.

Well needless to say they went down a treat, he loved them, I'd never seen his plate cleared so quickly.....

Unfortunately they had deflated quite a bit by the time i got to take the photos.

They may not be the best looking pancakes, but they tasted fantastic, the apples were soft and caramelised the pancake was light and fluffy.

One was most definitely not enough!!!

Pre heat oven, 200c, 400f, gas mark 6

90g self raising flour
pinch of salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
4 eggs beaten
185ml full fat milk

50g butter
3 tbsp light brown soft sugar
4 apples peeled, cored and sliced
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp lemon juice


You will need a frying pan a cast iron one would be great, if you don't have one, use one with an oven proof handle, if it fits in your oven. Unfortunately mine didn't so i warmed a pie dish in the oven and transfered the prepared apples to that.

Make the batter by putting the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl, make a well in the centre and pour in the eggs, milk and vanilla, mix till smooth, leave to rest for at least 20 minutes.

Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the apples and cook for 5 minutes over a medium heat.

Add the sugar and lemon juice and cook till the sugar has dissolved.

If your using a frying pan tip the batter over the apples and bake in the oven for 20/25 minutes. Till risen and evenly cooked.

If not pour the apples and caramel sauce into the dish you are using, and pour over the batter and bake in the oven for 20/25 minutes. Till risen and evenly cooked.

Mark's Easter Carrot & Cinnamon Cake with Lots of Frosting!!

I decided to make my husband a cake for Easter instead of getting him an Easter egg, as he kept telling me he didn't want an egg.

I know he loves carrot cake so i decided to make one with extra frosting!!!

He loves mini eggs so to make it more festive i decorated the cake with them.

So he did get an egg after all.......

Pre heat oven 180c, 375f gas mark 5

Cake

½ pint sunflower oil
8oz soft light brown sugar
4 medium eggs beaten
6oz golden syrup
12oz self raising flour
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
9 ½oz grated carrot

Frosting recipe follows next picture.

Grease and line 2 x 20cm round tin.

Put the oil, sugar, golden syrup and eggs in a mixer and blend together, add the flour, cinnamon, bicabonate of soda and grated carrot to the mixer and mix till just blended.

Pur the mixtures equally into the tins.

Bake in the oven for 30/35 minutes, or till a skewer or cocktail stick comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then take them out of the tins and let cool completely before you frost them.

Frosting

8oz full fat cream cheese

4 ½oz unsalted butter room temperture

1lb icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 bag of Cadbury mini eggs

In a mixer cream the butter till it's soft and pale, add the cream cheese and stir together, add the vanilla extract and stir it in, then stir in the icing sugar, till it's smooth.

Turn both cakes over so you have flat surfaces to frost.

Put a layer of frosting on the top of the first cake, then sandwich the second cake on top.

Spread the rest of the frosting all over the cakes, and decorate with mini eggs. 

My New and Improved Blog!!!!

Welcome to my NEW and IMPROVED blog!!!!

I have made it so you can find my recipes easily, as the blog grows.

The background picture is now one of my own photos.

I hope this makes it more enjoyable for you, while you explore the pages and recipes.

Maple, Pecan, Raisin & Oaty Cookies

I wanted to make a semi healthy cookie to snack on.

I came across this recipe and thought it sounded good. After looking at the ingredients i realised they weren't as healthy as they sounded, but decided to give them a go anyway.

I'm so glad i made them, they have to be one of the best cookies I've ever had, they are crunchie, chewy and SOOOOO yummy!!!
You got the sweetness of the maple syrup, but the salty pecans cut through the sweetness.

I felt the nuts, raisins and oats would kind of even out all the sugar and fat, well that's what i tell myself every time i have one, but it is hard to stick to just one!!

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!

Makes 24 cookies

Pre heat oven 140c, 275f, gas mark 1

140g oats
50g desiccated coconut
225g plain flour
140g salted pecans roughly chopped (if you can't find salted, just add ½ tsp salt to recipe)
100g raisins
140g unsalted butter
225g light soft brown sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp boiling water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

In a bowl mix the oats, coconut, flour, raisins and pecans.

In a saucepan over a medium heat melt the butter, with the sugar, maple syrup and golden syrup, when melted remove from the heat.

Combine the bicarbonate of soda with the boiling water and stir into the butter mix.

Stir the butter mix into the dry ingredients.

Form balls of dough about the diameter of a 10p coin, place on baking tray about 3 inches apart and flatten slightly.

Bake for 14/16 minutes, depending on how crunchie you want them.

Let them cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes, as they will be too sqidgy to move.

Spicy Rice Salad

Here is another great recipe from Ching He Huang, with a few of my touches to make it more to our tastes.

With this recipe you can basically add anything you like, i didn't change the ingredients i just changed the way i prepared some of them.

This salad is so flavourful and fresh tasting!!

Ching called for raw pepper and chilli, but i roasted mine.

1. So i could remove the skins.
2. Because it made them sweeter and gave them more flavour.

I also added some chilli oil to give it more of a kick, as we love hot and spicy food!!!

I served mine with Roasted Salmon and a green salad.....

Serves 2 as a main meal, and 4 as a side dish.

4 cups cooked rice
¼ of a cucumber peeled, de-seeded and cubed
1 red chilli roasted, peeled and finely chopped
1 red pepper roasted peeled and diced
6 radishes finely sliced
Small bunch coriander chopped
1 tsp chilli oil

Dressing

Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil


Whisk all the dressing ingredients together.

Mix the rice, cucumber, chilli, red pepper, radishes and coriander together with the chilli oil, then stir in the dressing.

Banana, Cinnamon & Chocolate Muffins....

I was making a batch of Banana, Cinnamon and Chocolate Muffins. I had made some snazzy cases from parchment paper and spooned the mixture in them all, that was time consuming.
I'd put them in the oven, then noticed the bowl of mashed banana still sat on the side!!!
I did wonder why the mixture was too stiff, luckily they had only been in oven for 10 seconds so I managed to save them.

Needless to say I'd had enough of making the cases, so reverted back to the normal shop bought ones.

They may not have looked so pretty, but they still tasted GREAT!!!

They were moist and light and fluffy too....

Pre heat oven 180c, 360f, gas mark 5

Makes about 12 muffins

2 large eggs beaten
125ml vegetable oil
200g light brown soft sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas mashed
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
50g walnuts toasted and roughly chopped
50g dark chocolate roughly chopped ( i use lindt 70% chocolate)


In a bowl mix the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla extract, then stir in the bananas.

In another bowl sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir in till just mixed, don't over mix or your muffins will be heavy and tough.

Gently stir in the  nuts and chocolate.

Spoon mixture into paper cases in a muffin tin, about ¾ of the way up.

Bake for 20/25 minutes, till a cocktail stick or skewer comes out clean.

Best served warm.

They freeze well, just revive them in the oven for about 4 minutes.

You can use other nuts like pecans or hazelnuts, and add raisins if you like.