Spice and Spaghetti

Before yesterday, I can't remember the last time I had a white potato. When I have baked potato for tea, I always have sweet... I'm fact, anytime I have potatoes I have sweet. They're more nutritious and just plain yummy! But when I did my shopping for last week, I thought, hey, why not... A Friday night treat! I used half a baking potato and cut it into wedge and chip shapes. It was a mixture because the shape of the potato obviously made it difficult to get them all uniform! Not that I was too bothered. After cutting them, I boiled the potato for about five minutes, then shook them around in the pan with a drizzle of olive oil, some paprika and chilli powder. As I was having them with a pork chop, I put them in the oven for ten minutes, then put the pork chop in as well. A good Friday treat.

It's spaghetti Saturday today! I was flicking through my recipe books deciding what to put on the weekly menu, as I usually do, and came across a spaghetti bolognese recipe I hadn't tried before. Sure, it wasn't anything particularly new, but I had to try it! I really enjoyed it. We used to have it fairly regularly when I was younger, once every few weeks or so, but I haven't had it for ages. The recipe didn't actually have tomatoes in it, it was just a suggested variation, but to me it isn't a bolognese without tomatoes! Perhaps I'll try it one day. I'm glad I had this tonight because it reminded me how much I love it. Maybe you'll see a different version in a few weeks or so...

Rich, tomatoy, herby, meaty... just. Plain. Delicious.

Belated Birthday Baking

In this post, I am going to share with you some things I baked for my mum's birthday. It is belated because her birthday was on the 7th of June. But anyway.

The first thing I made was Strawberry Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake Custard Bar Thingies... Okay so I can't remember exactly. But it was something like that. The bottom layer was chocolate brownie. The top layer was a sort of custardy cheesecake mixture with chopped strawberries in it. So really my title is quite accurate. I made them to take to her colleagues at work, and apparently they were very well received.

The second thing I made was a cherry almond loaf cake; the same as the one I made for Easter. My mum wanted this as her birthday cake because we never actually got to try any of the ones we made at Easter, as we made them for other people! And we both adore fruitcake. So it was a natural choice.

I obviously didn't decorate it like that for Easter, but apart from that it was exactly the same. My mum decided she wanted this pretty much straight after Easter. You might think that is in advance, but I think I have chosen mine already as well. My birthday is in January. Look out for a birthday Battenburg in six months or so ;-)

I also made brownies. Of which I took, literally, the perfect photo. But the other day I decided I would be organised and clear out the photos on my phone. And then deleted said perfect photo. It was a sad moment, as I wanted to keep it, due to the fact that I don't think I am very good at photography so I like to keep the photos I believe are good! But I think you all know what a brownie looks like. And who knows, maybe I'll also have some birthday brownies to go with the Battenburg. In six months, you'll find out!

Gorgeous Green

An unfortunate thing happened. I said yesterday I would tell you about my procrastibaking. But I ate it all. I thought I'd taken a photo. Turns out not. I have loooooots more work to do though, so I'm sure  some more will happen at some point...

But I have some pretty things to show you anyhow. They are both, as the title of the post suggests, green.

Well, the first thing, my breakfast, is only partly green. But pretty nonetheless. I had my usual oats, but I added courgette... Which of course we all know, is green. The flavours I used were grapefruit, lemon and coconut. It was delicious, and quite fitting for a day with lovely weather, the first day of June of course. It was very refreshing, and quite got me in the mood for Summer.

And this is my tea (for tomorrow and Tuesday as well). Which, as you can see, is very green. Pea soup! Although this took no more than half an hour from start to finish, it didn't make it any less tasty than a soup that has simmered for hours. I also got to use my new handblender, which was a bonus! It only cost me £4.15, which I don't mind telling people because who doesn't love a bargain?! And I want to show people that you don't have to have super fancy equipment to make good food. I didn't blend it totally smooth, I left some chunks. I prefer my soup to have chunks, but it's just personal preference. You could blend it totally smooth, just a bit or not at all.


Another summery dish for the first day of June. Okay so it's not a heatwave, but that's all the more reason to cook things like this, to make it seem like it is.