Daisy Chains and Picnics

Jodie came home from work yesterday with a packet of tofu, I have never cooked or even tasted tofu so this was completely new to me. Darren said that it tasted of absolutely nothing so that was a good start!, he has a friend who is vegan and apparently she marinates the tofu before cooking so that was the way I decided to go, as it is flavourless I decided on strong flavours for the marinade in the hope that it would soak up the flavours well. I marinated it for a few hours to be on the flavour safe side! and stirred it every so often. The longer it is marinated the more flavourful it was, I tend to think it needs strong flavours to help flavour the blandness of the tofu. Ingredients 195 g Tofu cut into small squares 1 tbsp soy sauce 2 tsp hot sauce, I used buffalo wing sauce 1 tsp sweet soy sauce 2 cloves garlic, crushed olive oil to fry salt and pepper to season salad of your choice Method 1.  Combine soy sauce, hot sauce, sweet ...

Nothing screams summer quite like a gin & tonic icy pole or three 😜 because lets face it what is more refreshing on a warm summer evening than a tall cool G&T, well I can now say, these icy poles!! Really easy to make, just mix together the ingredients, pour into an icy pole mould and freeze overnight.  Ingredients 1/4 cup gin 1/2 cup fresh lime juice 3 cups tonic water cucumber slices Method Mix gin, lime juice and tonic together in a jug. Pop the cucumber slices into the icy pole mould, carefully pour gin & tonic mix, add sticks. Freeze overnight. Enjoy

Yorkshire puddings are a must every Sunday dinner time, it doesn't matter what I am cooking for tea, Cerys insists that I make Yorkshire puddings for her. I have tried various recipes with various results but this one is the best ever!!. I have been using this recipe for years now and the puddings never fail to rise, they are by far the favourite in my family. I make them for every holiday..Easter, Christmas, New Year, etc. The main ingredients are measured equally starting with the eggs, they are usually just above 200 ml, measure the milk and flour to the exact amount as the eggs. Ingredients  4 large eggs milk salt plain flour 1 tbsp water Method 1.  Crack 4 eggs into a measuring jug, check how much ml in volume they measure, pour into a large bowl, gently whisk eggs. 2.  Pour milk into the measuring jug to the same amount of ml's as the eggs, pour milk into bowl with eggs, add a generous pinch of salt. Whisk until we...

We didn't do anything special for Australia day this year. It was quite cool, a top of 21°C, unfortunately too cold to get into the pool. We collected Cerys from her friends in Margate. For dinner we had prawns and a barbecue lamb chops. All in all, it was a pretty uneventful day!

On the 25th of January the whole family banded together to play  CluedUpp ; a virtual murder-mystery game often described as a "giant game of Cluedo". It is completely app-based and requires a team of players to work together to solve a murder by walking around their town to locate virtual suspects and interrogate them, collecting clues which will aid in solving the mystery. The day before the event we came up with our team name: "Hobart's Hairy Haggis Hounds", and Jodie and Cerys put together this poster. Our game could be started any time between 10am and 1pm on the 25th, so at around 11:30am we headed into Hobart to begin solving the murder!. It was amazing how many other groups of people there were, some of them even dressed up for the occasion. Jodie took the role of team leader, with Scott navigating our route alongside. We spent just under 2 hours walking around, collecting information - even "chasing" after suspects who ha...

Fortunately we still had a couple of tins of haggis left, so I used one to make a haggis wellington see  here . We were out during the day and then had to take Cerys to her friends in Margate so I had prepared the wellington before hand. It turned out better than I thought it would, the pastry was flaky, the whole thing just went well together. I used the remaining whisky sauce to pour over the tatties. So that was it, another Burns supper done and dusted.

A bit of a Scottish take on a beef wellington. Haggis encased in flaky pastry topped with a creamy whisky sauce. We don't get haggis here, we get family to post out a couple of tins of haggis every so often, they are nice but not as delicious as fresh made haggis. But we can't complain, at least we get some for Burns Night. The tinned haggis is quite difficult to roll into a sausage shape as it is more dryer and crumbly than the ones in the cases, you just have to go slow and steady to manipulate it into as much of a sausage shape as you can. Use the remainder of the whisky sauce to pour over the haggis, neeps and tatties. Ingredients 392 g tin haggis 1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry 3 tbsp whisky sauce 1 egg, lightly beaten Method 1.  Preheat oven to 190°C. 2.  Remove haggis from tin, wrap the haggis tightly between 4 layers of clingfilm, roll the haggis into a thick sausage shape. Twist the ends to tighten. Refrigerate...