Raspberry and Amarreto cheesecake

Now as I've mentioned before,I'm not really a measurer (is that even a word?), I make recipes up as I go along and quite often adapt them to use what I have in the house and this is how my now favourite baked cheesecake recipe came about, I fancied cheesecake but I didn't have enough digestives and I wanted to make it a little bit alcoholic ( who in their right mind wouldn't ) and the only alcohol that I had that I thought would give a nice flavour was Disaronno! This is how I cook! I hope it works for you if not, do what I do......make it up as you go along!


the recipe is of course a bit of a guesstimate for some of the ingredients ( I will buy kitchen scales honest ) and it's for a 10 inch spring form cake tin, so you're all clever people adapt it for your cake tins, families etc and I'm sure it will turn out beautifully, do let me know!

Ingredients

200g crushed Amarreti biscuits
200g crushed digestive biscuits
Around 50g of butter, but use your eye it should be enough to keep all the biscuit crumbs together without making it wet.
250g soft cheese
250g ricotta cheese, remember it's up to you you could just use one kind of soft cheese whatever you have or is easy to get.
2 eggs beaten
200g caster sugar
And Amarreto or your favourite alcohol, to taste
Raspberries for decoration, my favourite, flavour also I had them in the fridge! See what I mean!


Turn the oven on to around 170
Grease your cake tin
In a saucepan melt your butter then add your biscuits crumbs, mix until combined then pour into the cake tin, press down to form the base. put in the oven for about 10 minutes while you prepare the cheesecake mixture.

In a bowl the cheeses, the sugar, the beaten egg and your alcohol of choice( if you want to make a plain one just add a teaspoon of vanilla extract) try not to over beat as you don't want the mixture to become too sloppy.


Take your biscuit base out of the oven and pour your cheesecake mixture in on top, return to the oven for around 50 mins. The top should just be turning a light golden brown ,come away from the edge of the tin and perhaps cracked a little on top.

Pop it in the fridge for a few hours to cool down and set properly then decorate as you wish!

we sometimes add popping candy to the decoration its a nice a surprise in the mouth!

Enjoy x

But what do I call it?

I made this yesterday, it's not quite what you'd call a terrine, it's not quite what you'd call meat loaf so if I tell you what's in it and how I made it can someone name it please?

I first made it 15 years ago and to I haven't made it for about 5 and quite randomly when I asked the kids what they would like for dinner my daughter said what about that thing you used to make with bacon and chicken and apricots so I made it , here it is!

And here's the recipe!

You'll need a 2lb loaf tin , no need to grease it .


Ingredients

Around 16 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
500g sausage meat
2 chicken breasts sliced to fit length and width of tin
250g soft dried apricots


This is so incredibly simple yet so incredibly tasty!

Heat the oven to 170

Line the loaf tin with bacon, including both ends of the tin, leaving the Bacon overhanging as it will be folded in across the top when finished.
Next fill with a layer of sausage meat, then slice your apricots and lay on top of the sausage meat, next layer on the sliced chicken breast, then another layer of the apricots and finally a layer of the remaining sausage meat, then simply fold the overhanging bacon across the top to cover the sausage meat completely

Now place the loaf tin in a roasting tin and fill the roasting tin with water up to about half up the loaf tin then just pop it in the oven for about an hour.

When you take it out of the oven drain off all the fat then turn out, if you wish to brown it a little more simply pop it under the grill or in a hot oven until brown.

Leave to settle for about 15 mins then slice and serve! We had ours with new potatoes and wilted spinach , delicious


Now all you lovely people have to do is make it, enjoy it and please name it for me!

Procrastination by another name is Life!

So I haven't done any of the things that I set out to do yesterday, well not strictly true I did head out to buy a hair dye to finally bid farewell to the orange that is my head but when I got out the weather was so lovely that all I could think about was doing the garden so I thought I'll do that then weigh myself, do my hair etc but of course the garden took longer than expected and then I thought I'd better feed the children, they had that may round on each other and eat the weakest look! so I had to do something fairly quick to appease the savage beasts and a hungry vegetarian so I rustled up this which was quick( if you have the ingredients indoors) and extremely tasty, I've called it a Italian tart but that reminded me of a friend from school so the kids called it pizza tart so take your pick!

Ingredients

1 pack puff pastry
1 jar sun dried tomato pesto
1 onion
1 medium sized courgette
1 ball mozzarella
And some grated cheddar to taste

Heat oven to 200c

You just roll out the puff pastry to an oblong the size that will suit your family or baking tray! Pop the pastry on a baking tray then leaving about a 2cm border all around the pastry base spread on the pesto,thinly slice the courgette and lay that on top, next the same with the onion then finally I roughly break up the mozzarella and sprinkle it on top along with the
grated cheddar. Pop it in the oven and bake until golden in my oven around 20 mins.

I served it with new potatoes and spinach it was lovely and for all the carnivores out there it would be lovely with pancetta on top too I know this because my one daughter cried where's
the meat? And I told her there was some pancetta in the fridge if she was that desperate, she was! She dry fried the pancetta and put it on top, it was really good! So next time I'm going to do with meat one without.

So you see sometimes it's not procrastination, it's life getting in the way but I will weigh myself today and I will dye my hair although the sun is shining and there is a bit more work to be done in the garden ......


I will add a pic later honest,using my iPad to write this and can't get anything to sync with it because technology is not my friend!

If life gives you lemons make Lemon and poppy seed cake

Blog post earlier really made me fancy this so here we go with recipe, it is easy to make and sooo delicious!

Ingredients
cake

250g butter or butter like spread both work
200g sugar
3 eggs
250g self raising flour
Zest of one lemon and juice of around 3 or about 100ml of the bottled stuff
Around 50g poppy seeds

Syrup
100g castor sugar though I have used granulated and it does work
100ml lemon juice

Cake
Put the oven on to 190c
Cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs with a little of the flour to help it come together easily , add the rest of the flour, mix, add the poppy seeds and lemon juice and zest and mix until creamy. Pour into a greased cake of loaf tin and pop in the oven and bake for around 30 minutes or until you put a knife in and it comes out clean.
While the cake is cooling make the syrup, put the sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over a medium heat, keep stiring until all the sugar had melted and there's your syrup!

Now the part I like take a skewer and stab the cake all over as many times as you like, pretend it's someone who's really pissed you off, that the fun part!
Then spoon the syrup all over the cake, the syrup seeps in and makes the cake so moist and delicious.

I sometimes make icing to drizzle over which is just some icing sugar and lemon juice mixed together then just drizzle over the top and sprinkle some lemon zest over too and it looks lovely.

Hope you enjoy, please let me know x

Nutty chocolate tart

As promised on twitter my recipe for my nutty chocolate tart, it's really rich so you'll only need a small slice, though you might want more!

Ingredients

1 pack ready made shortcrust pastry( you can make your own if you like but mine never quite comes out short enough, anyway real recipes for real people with real lives remember!)
125g butter or one of the butter like spreads works just as well
200 g caster sugar
150g plain chocolate
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
100 g chopped mixed nuts
4 tbsp plain flour


Heat the oven to 180c/gas 4. Roll out the pastry and use to line a tart tin, line with baking paper and baking beans and bake for 10 minutes.Melt the butter and plain chocolate together, I use the microwave but just do it an 20 second bursts and stir well each time until melted.Whisk in the sugar,2 eggs,vanilla extract and plain flour. Stir in the nuts pour in the tart case and bake for 25 minutes.
Serve warm with cream or chilled both ways it really is delicious even if I do say so myself!
I will post a picture later having some technical issues at the mo! Crappy camera and phone broke!

Sunday bloody Sunday

It's Sunday morning and the sun is actually shining,how long for is any ones guess but at the moment it looks like spring has finally sprung!
The thing about Sunday's is you never quite know what to do with them should they be a lazy day? I wish! With kids that's impossible, a day out with said kids? Sometimes more stress than it's worth, A day of DIY there's always something to do that never quite gets done but for me as I imagine most parents with children of school age it's going to be a day of getting school uniforms ready for tomorrow, cleaning the house, cooking Sunday dinner(my favourite part) and nagging at children to get uniform sorted bags ready and rooms cleaned, ah the excitement, I may just explode! But that my friends is the reality for most of us normal folk and we either embrace it and get on with it or spend the day in moaning and groaning about all that has to be done! For me I intend to embrace it, the sun is shining, my family is healthy and for the most part happy so I'm going to cook Sunday dinner.... Roast pork with crackling,roasted root vegetables and lovely spring greens with lemon puddle pudding for desert, with a nice glass of wine in hand and I'm going to remember to count every single one of my blessings no matter how small. And if anyone is reading this and feels a little less than happy make the lemon puddle pudding it is so delicious I promise it will put a smile on your face!

Lemon puddle pudding

Ingredients

50g butter
200g caster sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
100ml lemon juice
3 eggs separated
50g plain flour
250ml milk


Heat the oven to 180c/gas 4, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest until pale and creamy then add the egg yolks, flour lemon juice and milk and mix together until you have a smooth batter.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until firm but not stiff and then fold into the batter.
Pour into a buttered ovenproof baking dish and put it in a roasting tin half filled with hot water.bake for 45 minutes until the top is lightly browned and set and there is a gooey lemon curd below. Serve hot with cream or even on it's own . It really is delicious the recipe I've done serves 4 so if you have a large family like mine or you just feel greedy double the recipe but you only need to increase the cooking time by about 5 minutes , hope you enjoy and it brightens your Sunday. *


* Disclaimer : Emma_ps would like it known that she is not usually one of those bright breezy positive people and 'those people' do in fact freak her out but with all that is going on in the world at the moment she thought what the hell lets try this positive thing!

I'm wearing mens pants! we all have days like this.....Don't we?

I'm wearing men's pants, not in cute quirky sexy kind of way, no I'm wearing them in a I have no clean underwear except thongs kind of way! This really is my life and lets face it and be honest girls and guys if you like that style, (no judgement here) the thong is not the most comfortable item to wear and I feel should be resigned to the days when you're wearing something that you really don't want that knicker line or Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries etc when you know sex is as good as guaranteed anyway I digress the point is my life is such that my laundry pile, yes I did say pile is always growing no matter how much I wash they add to it. My 2 year old pointed at it and said "can I climb the mountain mummy" that to me says it all! I have now given strict instructions to all that if they go near the washing machine and its not on , fill it up and put it on, its kind of working the mountain is now more of a hill but I still don't have any clean knickers so I need to get on top of that immediately.

So this it would seem is my life not enough days in the week not enough hours in the day and trying to figure out how to get the most out of what I do have so for me one those ways is to come up with meals that don't take long to prepare, taste great and hopefully please all, which is no easy task with one vegetarian in the family. I often make a meat option and a veg option along the same theme but today I'm making a one meal fits all dish that tastes great is really quick and easy to do and looks impressive enough for a dinner party. What is this amazing dish I here you ask? well ok I can't technically hear you but you get the gist anyway here it is my recipe for The amazing spinach and feta pie served with my extra tasty herby potato bites, hope you try it and love it , I will update with a pic later providing it turns out as well as it normally does, It will of course go wrong now but sod it either way there will be a pic , you've been warned!

ok here goes with the first recipe of my blog

Spinach and Feta pie with herby potato bites

Pre heat the oven to 200-220 c (gas make 6-7, 400-425f) everyones oven is a bit different you will probably know whats best for you.

Herby Potato bites
Another nice time saver here no need to peel your potatoes

Ingredients

Potatoes (enough to serve you or your family)
Italian herb mix or any herbs of preference
olive oil
salt and pepper to season


Chop the amount of potatoes into about 2inch chunks, sprinkle herbs and seasoning over them along with a good glug of olive oil , use your hands to liberally coat all the potatoes pop them on a baking tray and there we go just pop them in the oven on the middle shelf well you get on with the pie.

Spinach and Feta pie

Ingredients

small knob of butter
1 onion
1 bag spinach I prefer baby spinach but totally up to you
200 grams feta cheese
1 pack of filo pastry( around 12 sheets )
1 small cup of melted butter for the pastry 
salt and pepper to season I also add a sprinkle of all purpose seasoning but it tastes good without 

In a large pan over a moderate to high heat melt butter.
chop onion and pop in the pan allow to cook stirring occasionally until onions are translucent add spinach and  seasonings give it a stir and put the lid on and turn off the heat , spinach wilts down quickly and by time you finish the pie case it will be ready.
I use a 9 inch spring form cake tin but trust me what ever you have will work as well. I use the cake tin to make it easy to turn out so I can show people how clever I am!
Grease the tin with some of the melted butter then put in one layer of filo just line the tin and let the pastry hang over the sides , butter the pastry and then add a another layer at a different angle , then butter and the same again now back to the filling.
the spinach should be ready now so all you need to to is crumble the feta into the mixture give it a stir and then pour it into the pastry case. now for the fun and effective top, take the remaining filo sheets and just scrunch each one up you can be as arty as you like , I just scrunch like paper balls and put it on top of the pie until its covered. brush with remaining melted butter pop it in the oven until a lovely golden brown and there we go!

hope that was easy to understand and I hope you enjoy it as much as me.x