Earth Mother meets Gadget Queen

It's so cold today I wanted to cook a healthy, wholesome and most importantly warming meal so I turned to my trusty slow cooker and chose to make a Hungarian beef goulash. As usual I used a variety of recipes (some for slow cooker, some for normal cooking in the oven) and just picked the bits/ingredients I fancied and hoped the outcome would be good. The main recipe I used was from the Waitrose website but it was for conventional oven so I did my best to adapt it for the slow cooker as well as adding a tin of chopped tomatoes, red wine (of course!), a couple of carrots and a stray parsnip I found lurking in the fridge. You'll find the recipe below or at least my best guess at what I think I did.

Once all the ingredients were doing their thing in the slow cooker I felt somewhat inspired to revive another kitchen gadget hiding in the bottom of a cupboard and I got the bread machine out! 3 hours or so later and we have all just enjoyed the wonderful goulash, buttery tagliatelle and delicious French bread - crusty on the outside and still warm on the inside. Fantastic!

Alison’s Hungarian Beef Goulash for the Slow Cooker

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp plain flour
500g Aberdeen Angus Diced Steak
2 tbsp olive oil
25g butter
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots (feel free to add other similar veg you want to use up)

185g jar Dantza Pimientos del Piquillo, chopped up (sort of)
400g tin chopped tomatoes

2 tsp Paprika
200ml beef stock

200ml red wine
Sour Cream

Method

1.     Season the flour and use to coat the beef. Heat the oil and butter in a pan and fry the beef in batches until the outside is sealed and browned. Use a slotted spoon to remove the beef to a plate and set aside.

2.     Return the pan to the heat and fry the onions and carrots gently for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown. Add the pimientos and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the paprika, cook for 1 minute, then pour in the stock and chopped tomatoes.

4.     Return the beef to the pot, pour in the wine, stir to combine all ingredients and bring to the boil. Transfer to slow cooker and cook on low for 5 – 6 hours.

5.     Stir in the soured cream and serve with buttered tagliatelle.

What Happened to the Past Three Weeks?

Is it just me or is it the most frightening thing how fast time goes by these days? I cannot believe I haven't written in this blog for more than three weeks! Don't ask me what I've been doing that has been so all-consuming that I haven't found the time because I'd have to lie as the truthful answer is so depressingly mundane.

Surely there must have been some highlights or at least slightly raised molehills in this sea of mediocrity that is my life - let me see....

Ok so there was Bonfire Night and that meant two celebrations in our house, one on the actual night just for the children and my nine year-old's friend from school who stayed for a sleepover and then a second do on the Saturday for extended family members as well. The first was a completely traditional affair with hot dogs, baked potatoes, toffee apples and sparklers but for the second I wanted to keep it along the same traditional lines but at the same time make it a bit more special - in terms of the food at least. I chose to cook Venison Sausages Braised in Red Wine from Delia Smith's Winter Collection served with mashed potato and red cabbage. The venison sausages weren't cheap but they were good and fitted the bill perfectly. A simple chilli con carne as well ensured there was enough food for everyone and a bottle of Hot Tabasco sauce on the table meant people could spice it up as much as they wanted. The fireworks weren't anything special but the venison sausages were such a hit you could say the the evening went with a banger more so than a bang!

Pumpkin Pie - not for me

We went away for a few days over half term and had a lovely time in Burford in the Cotswolds. Luckily the weather was kind to us and the rain kept itself to night time so we managed to get out and about every day. There were a few places to go with the kids and even though it is always expensive to go anywhere as a family of 5 I managed to be quite clever with vouchers and offers which helped keep the expense down slightly. One day we went to the Cotswold Wildlife Park where I think the memory of a huge Anaconda sliding into the water will haunt me for the rest of my life. We also had a good visit to the Cotswold Falconry Centre in Moreton-In-Marsh with a great display and talk by one of the keepers with hawks, owls and other birds flying free above your heads including a Bald Eagle who flew off for about 30 minutes before he decided to come home. My 9 year-old was enthralled but the twins were a little more concerned about the dead baby chicks that were being consumed.

Of course it was Halloween on Sunday and two witches and one small pumpkin boy had great fun trick or treating (but only at Grandparents house - don't want to upset the neighbours!) I failed miserably to get a real pumpkin on Sunday so I scoured Bristol on Monday morning and eventually tracked one down in Sainsbury's (everywhere else had sold out!). So our pumpkin carving was a day late and it was such a small one that I found it proved rather hard to see his mouth as it was too near the bottom. Despite this my kids all thought it was wonderful - so well worth the effort.

Sadly for the pumpkin he has now been turned into Pumpkin Pie which I have to admit I was not a great fan of but my two girls loved it.

I didn't have any evaporated milk so used the following recipe instead (maybe that was why it didn't taste as sweet as I was expecting).

Pumpkin Pie Recipe without Evaporated MilkIngredients

• 0.5 kg/1 lb pumpkin
• 200g shortcrust pastry
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 100g/4 oz caster sugar
• 4 x 15 ml spoons/4 tablespoons milk
• pinch ground ginger
• pinch ground nutmeg
• 2 x 5 ml spoons/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preparation

1. Cut the pumpkin into pieces, remove any seeds and stringy bits and cut off out-side skin. Steam or cook in microwave until tender. Mash well with a fork or puree in a blender.
2. Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 20 cm/8 in flan case or deep pie dish. (I always blind bake my pastry cases as I have a ceramic pie dish not a metal one and if I don't I tend to end up with a soggy base.)
3. Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the pumpkin, milk and spices. Blend well and pour into the pastry case.
4. Bake in a hot oven (220°C/425°F, Gas Mark 7) for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to moderate (180°C/350°F, Gas Mark 4) and bake for a further 30 minutes or until the filling is set.
5. Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

Hopefully if you try this, you'll enjoy it as much as my girls and more than me and my little boy did!

How much squash do you have to eat before you turn orange?

You find me slightly less enamoured with my Simple Butternut Squash Soup today than I was yesterday; it still tastes as good but it appears to have fallen upon me and me alone to eat it all up! Mental note to self - if I make it again, halve the quantities as I feel in danger of giving myself a perma-tan from the inside! Just hoping I don't see David Dickinson staring back at me in the mirror tomorrow.

Going to have to cut this short now as I'm going to watch the new Channel 4 drama "The Event" and it looks like it's in the same vein as "Lost" and "Flash Forward" so I'd better give it my full attention or I'll be the one that's lost. Will let you know if it's any good.

What to do with a butternut squash

My parents were given a butternut squash the other day by a keen gardener friend but as they were going away they passed it on to me. This seems to be getting a bit of a habit as they did this to me once before with a marrow. I remember being a bit stumped as to what to do with the marrow ending up making some delicious chutney with it but this time I thought I'd stick with the less involved soup option so this morning the twins and I made Simple Butternut Squash Soup (see recipe below). If this soup had come in a tin then it would have lived up to the saying ... it was exactly what it said on the tin ... extremely simple to make and nothing but butternut squash ... apart from the onions, garlic and stock. It looked great with its wonderful autumnal colour and quite thick consistency so we had some for lunch. I have to say that I obviously enjoyed it more than the twins but they did have some so I feel like I've been a good parent today and managed to get some fresh vegetables into my little ones so well done me.

Ingredients
15ml (1 tbsp) olive oil
30g (1 oz) butter
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
900g (2 lbs) butternut, peeled and sliced
900ml (1½ pints) vegetable or chicken stock
salt and freshly ground pepper
parsley, for garnishing

Method
Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan, add the onion and garlic and gently sauté.
When the onion has softened after about 5 minutes, add the butternut and stock and stir well. Bring to the boil. Simmer for 25 minutes or until the butternut is soft.
Blend the soup with a hand-held blender. Season to taste and garnish with parsley (or a swirl of cream if you're a bit naughty like me).

The high points and the lows of a 'foodie' weekend

I just don't seem to get a chance to write anything for my blog over the weekend - but that's probably to be expected when you're a Mum.

We had a very 'foodie' weekend which is always good. On Friday night I went to Pizza Express with friends, but for the first time in all the years I have been going there, we had an unpleasant waiter! Now I know PE pride themselves on customer service (I even remember a case study on this very subject when I was doing my Masters degree in Marketing) so maybe he was just having a bad day but our waiter was impatient, pushy, curt and even my three year-old twins say please and thank you more than he did! At the end of the meal one of my friends mentioned his behaviour to the manager who handled it exactly how she should - being apologetic and offering us a bottle of wine to take home as compensation which we poitely declined but I hope she had a serious word with him. Everything else about the evening was very pleasant.

Saturday night we really pushed the boat out at home and cooked Scallops with Sweetcorn Salsa followed by Lobster Thermidor and Fondant Potatoes. It was a joint effort in the kitchen with Hubby doing the scallops and lobster and me the salsa and potatoes - I think I got off lightly! It was all delicious but having let the little ones see the live lobsters before they went to bed it took some explaining (or should I say lying) to say what happened to them when they woke up on Sunday morning and rushed downstairs to see their new pets!

On Sunday we had a traditional roast chicken dinner followed by Lemon Meringue Pie - the first time I've ever made this from scratch (i.e. without a packet mix for the lemon filling). I used Delia's recipe although I doubled the meringue quantity (this was to use up two egg whites left over from the thermidor sauce the night before which called for two egg yolks.) Not wishing to sound big-headed but I have to say it was the most delicious dessert I think I've ever made and I'll definitely be making it again.

So you see it certainly was a full-on foodie weekend - I dread to think how many pounds I put on in just a couple of days - let alone how many pounds we spent!

Spooky goings-on

Feeling much more optimistic today as I've seen a job vacancy to apply for. It's the first one to come along for some time and although it's not exactly in my area of expertise which is internal communications, it's close enough and with a little manipulation of my CV I'm hoping I can make myself look like a suitable candidate.

The other reason for my improved mood today is that I'm going out with friends tonight - another rare occurrence these days. Unfortunately I won't be able to spend hours getting ready as before I go I need to get my eldest daughter dressed up as a zombie for her school's Spooky Disco. The costume's all ready - jeans cut into tatters, a ripped and blood stained shirt and a black trilby. The part thast's going to take time is the make-up to give her a suitably deathly palour, and plenty of talcum powder to make her look old and dusty. Then I'll be using make-up to try and achieve the completely opposite effect on myself! Wish me luck!