Tag: kitchen

The one where I said ‘stiffy’ on the radio!

One perk of being a parent blogger is sometimes I get invited to do some interesting things.  The lovely Nick Coffer from Weekend Kitchen on BBC 3 Counties radio invited me into his show this weekend.  Each week he has a panel of 3 experts; a chef, a wine expert and an enthusiastic home cook. I’m not really sure how I sneaked on the panel.

It was quite amusing that I was invited in as I’m not known for my cooking prowess, but I’m a slow cooker fanatic and have been called the slow cooker queen on a couple of occasions.

Between the 3 of us we had quite a feast complimented by some very tasty wines.  The theme was Guy Fawkes Night.  We had Welsh rarebit (I panicked slightly as I thought they said rabbit), a sausage casserole, a bean casserole with squeaky cheese, blueberry crème brûlée and my now infamous Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake or should I say ‘stiffy’ Toffee Pudding…..yes, I did say stiffy on the radio and here’s proof!

stiffy (mp3)

When I was first asked to some on the show, I knew I had to make a main dish, which wasn’t a problem but when the lovely producer Emma emailed me and asked which pudding I would be doing, I panicked.  As a family, we don’t really eat puddings as we don’t have sweet teeth and I’ve never made a ‘proper’ cake before.  However, I rallied to the challenge, hit Google and came up with a recipe.

Too cut a long story short, it took three attempts to get a cake that was vaguely acceptable.  The first one went straight into the bin, it didn’t rise and at one point there was smoke billowing out of the cooker.  I thought the second one was a bit overdone and the apple slices on top had sunk like the Titanic.

As, I’m a huge fan of slow cooking someone suggested doing one in the slow cooker, so, at 10.30 pm the night before I had a go.  However, as it was done in foil and once it is finished you had to turn it upside down on a plate, we had no idea until right before the show whether it worked or not and to say the least….it didn’t.  The only way I can describe it is that it resembled ‘dog food that just slid out of the tin’ in both texture and colour.

Thank goodness I had decided to take cake number two in as a back up and in the end it was quite nice.  It was a Spiced Toffee Apple Cake, which I found on the BBC Good Food Website. I should have quit while I was ahead.

Thanks to Nick and Emma for a great day and fabulous experience.  One I will never forget.

 

 

Tour of my kitchen!

There was a meme going around awhile ago, unfortunately, I wasn’t tagged, but you know me, I decided to do it anyhow. The only rule was that you didn’t clean the kitchen beforehand…..*ahem*

Don’t get too excited, we live 20 minutes from London and you don’t get much bang for your buck!!!

I don’t want to formally tag anyone but would love to see @chickenruby, @annieqpr, @dadyougeek and @geekmummy’s kitchens.

 

Let’s Table it!

Photo Credit

Tonight we ate around the kitchen table as a family for the first time in a very long time.  Unfortunately, my husband works in the city and normally doesn’t get home till after 7 or 8 so it’s a little late to make Madame wait for her dinner.  So, she often eats on her own in the kitchen with me busying myself in the background.  Then her father and I eat on our laps in front of the TV much later.    I have a feeling that this is the norm for most families.  Sharing meal times seems to be a thing of the past.

I’d be interested to know how often you eat together as a family.

[polldaddy poll=3425898]

I’ve been doing a bit of reading and it seems that the benefits of eating together as a family is ten fold.  I’m in no way preaching or trying to make you feel bad, I was just curious. According to the articles I read, families who eat together have a stronger bond, children do better at school, they eat more nutritional meals, they learn how to cook, have better table manners and communication skills and you can save money.

I can’t change my hubbies work schedule and I’m sure this is only going to get more difficult when Madame starts school and a zillion other clubs and activities. However, I’m going to make an effort to eat together as a family on weekends.  I’ve also toyed with the idea of having breakfast together but I’m not a morning person.

Can someone remind me about this post the next time I order a Curry on a Saturday Night?