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!

I've gone global!

I'm so excited - I've just found out there are some kind (maybe mad?) people out there who are actually reading my posts and thank you so much to David Chin from New Zealand for bothering to write a comment. I'm still baffled as to how people have come across my blog as the search engines are still proving to be oblivious of my existence. All I can assume is that the 'Next Blog' button is giving me a helping hand.

This afternoon my little boy announced that I needed to make him a pudding. Fair enough but when he says pudding he means proper home made Apple Crumble. Luckily my neighbour has given me some apples from the tree in her garden so I had everything I needed but I just didn't fancy Crumble. Instead we made Baked Apple and Almond Pudding. Don't report me to Trading Standards but as long as I still called it Crumble he was quite happy and did a fantastic job mixing the sugar, butter and eggs with the electric whisk. Unfortunately we forgot to add the ground almonds before I spread the topping over the apple. It would have been impossible to try and get the topping back off the apple so we had to sprinkle the almonds over the top and mix them in as best we could. Despite this faux pas the pudding tasted fab although it did seem to have a layer of what I can only describe as egg custard just below the slightly caramelised topping. Nethertheless my son had three helpings and his sisters and I finished off the rest.

Not sure how I can go from a mundane recount of what we had for tea tonight to mentioning the rescue of the Chilean miners which is still going on as I type (I think 25 have been freed out of 33 so far) but what an uplifting story this is and what a gift for Hollywood!

Sitting in the back row

Well how rubbish am I? I enthusiastically start my first blog - post daily blogs for three days in a row, then get so bogged down in the nitty gritty of trying (and yet still failing) to make it so others can actually find my blog that I don't get round to posting another entry for the next three days!

My apologies.

Anyway in my last post I was telling you how I had some photographs taken of the children and I was looking forward to seeing the proofs. Well they were posted online yesterday and I was certainly not disappointed. I know I'm biased but they are superb. Obviously I won't be posting any of them on here but I am happy to say once again that they were taken by Vicki Brown of Looking Glass Photography and if you want some lovely natural pics done then she's your lady. The problem now is in choosing which of the gorgeous pics to have copies of and limiting myself on how many I order!

Thanks to the nice people at Sky I managed to cop 4 free tickets to see an advance showing of the new 3D animation Despicable Me last night. I took my 9 year-old daughter and two of her school friends and it was good fun. The 3D'ness was the best I've experienced to date but that may be just because my three companions insisted on sitting in the back row and maybe that is where you need to be to get the full effect. Also the free popcorn we found waiting on our seats with our 3D glasses was a very pleasant extra surprise but made me slightly annoyed that I'd spent around £4 on a box in the foyer (along with three ridiculously overpriced fizzy drinks) and now we were overflowing with the stuff. Thanks for the nice gesture Sky but maybe you could let us know in advance next time!

Blogging therapy

I’m pleased to report I have sorted out my double blogging persona and now have just the one account. Having said that I’m still having a few issues – the main one being how to get the search engines to list my site! I’ve submitted my url to Google as I’m supposed to but so far nothing doing. Maybe it takes a while. I guess the nice people at Google are quite busy and I can’t imagine that I’m high on their list of priorities. Typing away with the likelihood that no one but me will ever read this drivel does make me feel slightly sad though – as if I’m in some kind of therapy programme. Maybe I’ve stumbled on a new business opportunity - therapy for unemployed twin mums. Write down your thoughts and submit them to the ether or should that be Ethernet...?

They had a photographer at the twins’ pre-school yesterday and we went along with elder sister to have some pics taken. To get a photo of all of them together has been a considerable challenge to me ever since the twins could move but to get a photo of all of them together in which they all have their eyes open and are actually looking at the camera and not killing each other at the same time has proved impossible but I am delighted to say that although I haven’t seen the proof yet, Vicki Brown of Looking Glass Photography  achieved this and more. She was fantastic! To get my little boy to remove his shoes and socks without so much as a murmur is a feat (no pun intended) in itself! Then she got him and his sisters laughing, jumping and generally looking too cute for words - tickling me with a feather with one hand (to get them to laugh I hope you realise) whilst shooting them with the camera with the other. Brilliant! We see the results on Monday and I can’t wait.

Meet and merge

Day 2 of my blogging experience and I have to admit I'm having a few teething problems. The main one being that I appear to have managed to set up two accounts with different email addresses, one which has the blog linked to it and the other that has all the other gubbings I might need - my goal is to get the two accounts to meet and merge! Wish me luck!

In case you're wondering, the Coq au Vin was delicious last night although there was far too much sauce which just goes to prove what I was saying yesterday - there is no need to waste sorry I mean use a whole bottle of wine in it, half would have been plenty.

Most satisfying though was the fact that the twins liked it (except for the shallots that is). They woofed down all the chicken before Nina and her Neurons had even taken their coats off - maybe it was the high wine content that appealed to them!

It's a beautiful sunny autumn day in Bristol today and we all enjoyed a romp across the Downs this morning. Now the twins are safely ensconced at pre-school for the afternoon I need to set my mind to what they are going to have for tea once again - probably best to find something with a slightly lower alcohol content than last night. Spag Bol should do the trick.

Coq au vin tonight - but no vino left for me

Pushing the boat out today and cooking Coq au Vin for tea in the slow cooker. Real earth mother stuff this ... So I’ve fried the bacon lardons and browned the chicken pieces and now I’ve discovered I’ve no carrots in the fridge (proof that I do manage to get the twins to eat veg but only if it’s raw, unpeeled and they can steal it). Oh well, undaunted I’ve found a rather limp looking leek lurking where the carrots used to be and I reckon that’ll do. It’s joined the shallots and garlic and now horror of horrors I find I have to add a WHOLE bottle of red wine! Who on earth wrote this recipe – obviously not a mother of three who was banking on being able to down at least one glass of red later on (that means sometime after 4 p.m. and exactly when will be determined by how nicely the little darlings play together this afternoon).

Ok I’ve got over the wine disappointment by deciding to open another bottle, drink at least half of it before hubby gets home so that he thinks it’s been used in the cooking thus leaving just enough for a glass for each of us with dinner. I’ll let you know what it tastes like tomorrow (that’s if I manage to resist the other half of the bottle and can actually remember what it tastes like!) Here’s the recipe just in case it’s good and you want to try it yourself.

Ingredients

3tbsp olive oil

200g/7oz bacon lardons

4 chicken legs

6tbsp plain flour

200g/7oz shallots, peeled

2 red onions, chopped (oops just realised I didn’t have these either)

250g/9oz carrots (or a limp leek!)

70cl bottle red wine

4 sprigs of rosemary

4 sprigs thyme

2 bay leaves

125g/4oz button mushrooms (only had bigger ones so quartered them – seems ok)

400ml/14fl oz chicken stock

Method

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan, add bacon lardons and fry for a few minutes ‘til golden. Tip into slow cooker. Season chicken and sprinkle with flour. Fry for a few minutes to brown, then put into slow cooker.

2. Pan-fry shallots, onions and carrots for a few minutes, then pour in wine and add rosemary, thyme and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Pour vegetables, wine, mushrooms and hot stock into slow cooker. Season, cover and cook on the high setting for 4 hrs, or low setting for 8 hrs. Serve with creamy mash or potatoes.

Enjoy!