...a fan of afternoon tea

The table is set...(before the tea things we added)

This is a long post, with two recipes. I suggest making some tea to have while reading it!

Last week, Dave and I arranged for friends of ours(one of whom is also his colleague) to come over for lunch today. Untzizu is Spanish, and her husband GP is Indian, and when we went over to their's for tea, they cooked us an Indian feast, so I wanted to do something traditional for them. On enquiring, I found out that neither of them has had afternoon tea (or even a wee cream tea), though Untzizu has lived here for 4 years! Afternoon tea is a cream tea - tea bread, scones, cakes, tea, with the addition of some savoury items to make it more like a meal. It involves tea, cakes and sandwiches, which I am all about, and it called for the use of my lovely cake stand and my tea things, which filled me with glee!

A cream tea requires cream, butter and jam...

Slightly stupidly, I decided just to do all the baking myself, and in one morning. On a Saturday. It was a(very warm) marathon, but I managed to make this in 4 hours...

Slice'n'bake biscuits, scones, date and walnut loaf, chocolate truffle

cake,cheese and chutney sandwiches, tuna and cucumber

sandwiches,cream cheese and smoked salmon oatcakes

...even though this is my workspace

Tiny space = the need for extreme organisation

Some of the items are things I've made before - chocolate truffle cake, vanilla biscuits (though they went cookie shaped this time, and scones. According to my nana, there has to be some sort of tea bread for an afternoon tea, and having looked through my cookery books, I decided to make date and honey loaf - which is actually really easy to do- even if you are a 'can't bake bread' type person like me!

Date and Honey Loaf

(adapted from Love Food's 'Home Baking Cookbook')

butter for greasing

320g strong white bread flour(plus extra for dusting)

1/2tsp salt

sachet quick action yeast(dried)

200ml tepid water

3tbsp sunflower oil

4tbsp blossom honey

10g dates, stoned and chopped

Before baking

• sift flour and salt into large bowl
• add yeast and stir well
• make a well in the middle
• stir to combine, then work with hands to form dough
• kneed for 5mins, till smooth and elastic
• place in oiled bowl, covered with clean tea towel, and leave for one hour(till doubled in size)
• after 1 hour, knock dough back and in three lots, fold in the dates
• put in a greased 2lb loaf tin
• bake in a pre-heated oven at 220 for 30 mins, till risen, browned and sounds hollow when tapped

It seems to me that at all the teas I've been to, their are fairycakes. I knew from sending a cake with Dave to work that Untzizu likes lemon cake, so I made lemon fairy cakes with lemony cream cheese icing

Lemon Fairy Cakes

for cakes

115g soft margerine

100g caster sugar

225g self raising flour

3 medium eggs

3tbsp lemon juice

For icing

55g butter

75g cream cheese

300g icing sugar

4tbsp lemon juice

1tbsp lemon curd

• put all of cake ingredients in bowl
• beat with electric whisk till smooth
• line a fairycake tray with cases(note than mine are red with polkadots
• fill each case till 3/4 full
• bake at 180c for 15 mins, till golden and springy to touch

• put all icing ingredients in bowl (notice that I don't do anything seperately if i don't absolutely have to)
• beat with whisk till combined
• put in fridge for an our to thicken
• should coat bake of spoon
• when cakes have cooled, top each one with a desert spoonful, and leave to set

Untzizu and GP are brilliant guests - they had some of everything, they have good chat, they like tea as much as I do (and they brought a really nice bottle of Rioja - always good!) GP said that he 'could see why Dave is so happy' which made me laugh, and very much enjoyed the food because apparently in India they sweeten food alot.

Tea! - we had Earl Grey and Spiced Imperial

They hadn't had clotted cream before, so I'm happy to have introduced that, and GP said that he could just eat it out of the pot with a spoon, which made me laugh as I had that very conversation with Ali via Twitter this morning!

After the event - quite alot eaten I'd say!

I have eaten too much and am full to the brim with cake, but I have to say, I really like being a host, and it made me happy to be able to say I'd made everything!

...making five dinners from one wee chicken(and some veg)

As part of our economy drive, Dave and I are trying to eat less meat, and be smarter about buying it too.I don't know if anyone has noticed, but meat is getting expensive! So this week, when we did our top up shop(we do a big shop at the beginning of the month and a top up in the middle if we need it) we bought a 1.5k chicken. The one thing I would say here is that if you are going to buy chicken, buy a free-range one, cornfed if you can, and don't buy cheap ones. They are pumped full of water, and you end up with half the meat you think. That's my rant over!

And that is the wee chicken in it's first cooked incarnation. This is what I did with it...

Meal 1 - Roast Chicken with asparagus and runner beans.

Free-range chicken

1 onion, quartered

3 cloves of garlic, 1 chopped finely

4tbsp olive oil

2tsbp parsley

1tsp ground cardamom(if you want)

salt and pepper to taste

6 asparagus spears

6 runner beans (broken into 1-2 inch pieces)

30g parmesan

• pre-heat oven to 180c
• put chicken in baking dish
• put onion pieces and 2 garlic cloves in cavity
• the yucky bit - here the neck is, push fingers under skin to make a space. put in 2tbsp of oil and the garlic as squish about.
• on top, ad the rest of the oil, the parsely, cardamom and salt and pepper
• put in over for 1hour 30mins (30 mins plus 20 per lb of chicken)
• baste every half hour
• when you have 15 mins left, half fill a small pan with boiling water, place on high heat
• add runner beans and asparagus and simmer for 5 mins
• put veg on plate and grate over some parmesan.
• add chicken breast

Having eaten my Sunday dinner, I had some work to do. I stripped all of the meat from the chicken, and then made stock - you can freeze it and it seems more flavour-some if you do it on the first day.

For stock

(made 1.5l ish)

Chicken carcass (inclusing skin and onions from roasting)

onion

carrot

tsp herbs

• Put all of the stuff in a soup pot
• cover with boiling water and simmer for an hour and a half(at least), topping up when bits of carcass show.

Meal 2 - Chicken salad(is salad a recipe?) with garlic toast

big bunch of spinach leaves

handful of watercress

1tbsp olive oil

200g shredded leftover chicken

12 baby plum tomatoes

half a yellow pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic (mmm garlic) finely chopped

2tbsp butter

4 pickled cornichons, sliced

2 slices of bread

half a ball of mozzarella

2 slices of bread

• put salad leaves and cornichons in bowl
• add olive oil to pot, and put in chicken, peppers,1 clove of garlic plum tomatoes
• cook through for 5 minutes till chicken is warm and peppers are cooked
• meanwhile, add butter and 1 clove of garlic to frying pan
• cook till butter is melted and garlic is sauteed
• add slices of bread and cook lightly till golden on either side
• top with a little mozzarella, add rest to salad
• eat!

We had this for tea on Monday night, and having stripped the chicken on Sunday, it meant I could just throw dinner together really quickly.

Meal 3 (and 5)- Chicken and Rice Soup

(this made a huge potful - about 14 little portions or 8 bowls)

1.5l chicken stock (see above)

1.5l water

150g leftover chicken(a handful) shredded

2 large carrots, diced finely

1 large onion, diced finely

2 stalks celery, diced finely

1.5 cups rice(mine is fragrant thai rice)

2tbsp parsely(more for the prettiness than anything else)

1tsp chilli flakes

1/2 tsp salt

tsp mustard

pinch cardamom

• chuck veg and spices in soup pot
• cook till onions are see through, stirring frequently(put a bit of oil in if they veg stick, though the celery juice should be enough to cook them in)
• add stock, water, rice, chicken and parsley
• bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour, till rice, chicken and carrots are tender, but not mushy.

There is so much of this soup that I've frozen a 2l tupperware boxful, have a 1l boxful in the fridge, and there's still some in the pot. It'll be tomorrow night's tea, which means I don't have to cook when I get home after work - though we are having people over on Saturday, so I will be baking. It'll also be Sunday's tea for me as Dave will be away.

Meal 4 - Tagliatelle with Creamy Chicken and Garlic Sauce

(2 portions plus a lunch portion)

8 Taglliatelle nests

1tsp oil

200g chicken

2 sticks celery, minced

4 large cloves garlic(seems like alot, but sauce is v creamy), minced

30g butter

30g flour

1pint milk(I used semi-skimmed)

75g parmesan, grated

• cook pasta as per instructions
• heat oil in saucepan, add celery and garlic
• saute till cooked through
• add butter to pan and melt, stirring frequently
• when butter is melted, remove from heat, add dlour and stir in- you should have a thich mixture with bits of garlic and celery through it
• add 1/4 of a pint of milk and stir quickly to combine
• put back on heat, simmer for a few seconds and add rest of milk, again stirring quickly to combine
• simmer until it thickens, and 60g of parmesan, stir through till melts
• drain pasta, add to sauce and stir through to coat
• serve topped with remaining parmesan.

This is clearly not the healthy of the meals, but we were at a gig last night(Gaslight Anthem, which was AMAZING!!!) then got very little sleep, and even with next to no alcohol, I have that unsettled, sleepy feeling, so I need the comfort food.

ON top of these meals, Dave has had chicken in two sandwiches this week, and there is enough leftover for another, and a portion of the pasta and sauce. We essentially got 4-5 days worth of dinners, 4 Dave lunches, and some save for an emergency soup from one chicken, some veg and some basic store cupboard ingredients. Not bad I'd say!

...loving homemade cards.

When I arrived at work yesterday, my boss gave me a gift ('spensive fizzy wine) and card for Dave for passing his viva, and on finding out what it was for (sort of, try explaining what an exam is to a 3 year old), Tom decided to make him a card too, and Anna decided about half way through doing a drawing. Pretty lovely of them I reckon!

Anyway, I get off the bus at 8.20ish most nights, and almost nothing in Dundee is open at that time. This is a problem when you've just given up you car, and used the last of your stash of card for all occasions up. I pretty much needed, etiquette-wise, to take thank you cards with me today, so I made them! Half an hour, some fabric from my stash, some embroidery thread, some button and a lot of double-sided sticky tape later, I had these...

I might just give everyone cards like this from now on!

... watching wedding videos

Dave has been looking through flicker today for photo's for his most recent blog post, and he happened upon this video of lots of people dancing at our wedding. The band you can here are Carnivores, who we are lucky to be able to call friends. The singer, Kenny also plays electric guitar in Dave's band, and is a close friend of ours.

Video by Alan Hughes (my father-in-law)

Until Dave showed me today, I'd forgotten this video existed. Watching it now, I see us lots of our friends and family dancing happily. I think (this is quite boastful for a Scottish person) ' look how pretty my dress is'. I think 'my wedding band wipe the floor with any other wedding band'. I remember how personal it made our wedding, having all of the music done by friends - the piper has been in many incarnations of Dave's band, and is a close friend, and we had my friend Lynsey, who is a cellist, play us out after the ceremony.

I really loved our wedding. It was perfect!

... public transport bound.

As I've mentioned before, Dave and I have been trying to work out our money issues, the big one being that we keep running out in the middle of the month. When we decided to get rid of the car, I didn't mind very much - it will save us a chunk of money each month, and we'll be cutting down on travelling to Paisley. Everything in Dundee is within walking distance and I already get the bus to most places, and we don't use the car much here at all. The person who's coming to pick the car up rang today, and is coming to get it tomorrow. Dave and I have just gone to the garage to hoover the car and give it a wash, and about half way through I suddenly felt very, inexplicably sad. I felt it was a bit weird to be attached to a car. But then I remembered...

...driving all the way to Kent for our Godson's christening

...driving away from our wedding in my wedding dress

... driving to our honeymoon hotels and all around Glencoe in it

...going to pickup our coffee table, the first piece of furniture we bought together

...numerous trips to and from seeing family

...listening to awesome music on sunny(and rain actually) days with Dave and singing along badly

... visiting to local places wherever we happened to be - I've seen a big chunk of Scotland in that car

... Driving to Newcastle and back in one night to see Classics of Love with Dave's brother Dan, and getting up at 6am because I had work in Glasgow the next day

... going to the Turner gig in Edinburgh, driving back and getting up at 5 for work (ick, but worth it)

...Dave driving me to Asda and the Tesco at midnight when I was on placement to buy laminator pouches

...finishing work at 4 and driving 80 miles to visit family in time for Christmas Eve festivities

...going to many, many gigs, and eating chips and having banter on the way back

...trying really hard not to, but falling asleep anyway when we were driving back late from anything

...driving carloads of stuff up from Paisley every week for about 2 months when we moved to Dundee

...driving down to Paisley on Friday with Dave for revision time, and driving back up with him, having gotten his EngD

Our wee car has been with us as we planned our wedding, got married, moved, finished being students and changed jobs. As Dave said, it's the end of an era.

... extremely proud of her husband!

Yesterday was what Dave has been referring to as 'Judgement Day'. Dave had his VIVA, the exam which determines whether a doctoral candidate has done enough work, contributed enough to their field and written a coherent thesis over the three years they have been researching.

Dave was the most nervous I have every seen him be, and I felt quite jumpy and anxious for most of the day. Dave has been working toward this for the whole 4 years we have been together, and It means the world to him, and so to me for him.

I would have been proud of Dave pass or fail, but, happily, I can say that he passed! He is now Dr. David Hughes EngD!!! We celebrated last night with a meal with Dave's parents and brother, and then many, many drinks with friends.

I am proud of you Dr Hughes! :)

...not someone who enjoys gardening

Dave and I are currently at the Paisley flat, because he has his EngD VIVA (big scary exam) on Tuesday, and as I have the week off, we are having a few different estate agents come to value the flat. I have never particularly enjoyed gardening - I much prefer reading books, going out for the day, or doing, well, anything that isn't boring, insect punctuated gardening - and only being here at weekends for the last 9 months, often when it was raining has been a very good excuse for not doing anything. We haven't been down for a couple of weeks, as we are trying to spend at least every second weekend in Dundee. During that time, it has been sunny and rainy on and off, and the result was this...

Yep, that wilderness is what was our once fairly pretty garden. At the back there, there is actually a whole patio and a pond with a rockery and a path, hidden among the bushes and trees. The grass has grown about a foot in two weeks, the bramble and raspberry bushes had completely taken over, and all of the trees at the back needed some severe trimming. It was quite clear that something had to be done, and so armed with our tiny Flymo lawnmower, some new garden shears and quite alot of frustration(there's some uni stuff and some job stuff going on that I was furious about, it's fine now), I spent four hours turning the wilderness into this...

I cut the grass, cut back all of these bushes, trimmed the bramble and raspberries (leaving all of the flowering bits so that we get the fruit,) and attacked all of the weeds. For someone who doesn't garden often, I think I did a good job! One of the really nice things about the amount of flowering plants in our garden is that there were lots of chubby wee bees flying around - I counted about 30 on one section of the mature bushes at the side. It's far from perfect, but it's nice being able to actually see where one thing ends and the other begins!

...making comfort food(otherwise known as how I ruined a heathy dinner)

Dave and I have been trying for the past year or so to eat more sensibly - we don't eat processed food at all really, and I make dinner almost every day. Recently, we've been eating less meat too, though we'll never cut it out completely (because as my friend Kenny would say 'meat is mega'). The plentiful days of bright summer made me really hopeful, and we bought lots of salad stuff.

And then it rained. I don't know about you, but when it rains, and is grey, all I can think is 'eat carbohydrates, eat carbohydrates!!'. In an effort to do this and retain some sort of healthiness, I made a sauce with ALOT of vegetables, and the addition of perhaps my favourite meat ingredient...

Pasta with Chorizo and Vegetable Sauce

(otherwise known as 'Lisa throws stuff in a pot')

1 onion, diced finely

1tbsp olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

2 stalks celery, diced finely

1 green pepper, diced finely

100g chorizo, diced finely

1 carrot, diced finely

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 cup(literally, I used a mug) veg stock

3 cups pasta(if you don't want lefotvers, use 2, i tend to make enough for Dave's lunch the next day) I used lumaconi, which does good soaking up the sauce.

• Put your pasta on, and cook to instructions(unless it's fresh, then maybe wait 15 mins)
• in another pan, chuck in the veg, chorizo, chilli flakes and oil, and cook till everything is soft and cooked through
• add the tomatoes and stock, boil and simmer to reduce slightly
• I left the sauce quite runny, because lumacomi is like giant macaroni and sucks the sauce in, and it is gooood!

I'm actually really pleased with this, and I'll make it again. The spice from the chilli and garlic are enough that there's a nip, and that it enhances the chorizo goodness, but not so much that it drowns out the flavours of the veg. It is SERIOUSLY good.

Now, I bet you're thinking,' but Lisa, the picture at the top of the post has peaches in it!'. You'd be right to think it, because after the relatively healthy dinner, I ruined it by making baked peaches with meringue.

Baked Peaches with Meringue

(Adapted from recipe by Rachel Allen)

5 peaches, cut into large slices(I didn't bother peeling them, I'm lazy)

50g brown sugar

1tsp cinnamon

pinch freshly ground cardamom(if you have it/can be bothered)

4 large free range egg whites

250g caster sugar

• preheat oven to 180c
• place peaches in a smallish baking dish(I used a pie dish)
• stir together brown sugar and spices, and sprinkle over
• whisk egg-whites with electric whisk, till a bit frothy
• chuck in sugar, and whisk till white and thick and slightly peaky
• pour over peaches, even out
• bake for 20-ish minutes, until puffed and golden brown, and meringue has only a little give in the middle

The addition of extra sugar has done two thing I wasn't expecting - the bottom of the dish had a layer of peachy, cinnamony, brown sugary syrup, and the bottom of the meringue was quite liquid, so the pudding was self saucing. The cardamon tasted lovely, but I think more might be needed, as I found the sugariness super-sweet (didn't stop me eating 2 portions though) and the caramom cuts through it. If you don't have an uber-sweet tooth, maybe do the meringue with brown sugar, as it would take the edge of the sweetness.

It was a REALLY good dinner. I'm about to have a portion of the meringue for my lunch too...

... strolling down memory lane

Scone with Dave's step-mum's bramble jam

I am really pleased to be able to say that the majority of the memories I have of my mum are good ones now, and I shall share one of them with you!

Even though it's almost summer, and the weather has been mostly good, today is a day which can only be described as rainy and dreary. It feels a bit like it's autumn, and on autumny weekends, my mum and I, and later on Hazel would bake. My mum was diabetic, and we often had scones because they don't have very much sugar, and you can make them quite small! My earliest memories of baking are of me sitting on the table wearing a massive apron that was my nana's, and rubbing butter into the flour and sugar between my palms - easier than fingers when you are five - into a big Pyrex bowl. We often ate them just with butter (again becuase of the not so sugary factor), but as a treat, we'd have them with clotted cream and jam.

Today I offer you my mums scone recipe for basic scones, and some additions!

Mum's Scones

450g self-raising flour(plus extra for dusting)

55g butter(chilled and diced)

2tbsp sugar

1tsp baking powder

250ml milk(plus extra for glazing)

• pre-heat oven to 220c
• put flour, sugar and baking powder into bowl
• add butter and rub in, till mixture has breadcrumb texture
• add milk and stir well to combine
• if your dough is quite sticky, sprinkle in some flour, and kneed quickly
• form into rough ball
• flour a flat surface, and place ball on it
• roll or squash dough till about 1 and 1/2 inch thick
• use a 2inch cutter to cut out disks of dough
• transfer to well floured baking tray
• leave space for rising!
• brush tops with milk
• bake for 10-12 mins, till risen and golden on top
• transfer to rack/plate to cool
• serve with butter, jam, clotted cream or honey, or a mixture of these!

additions

• add 100g of cheddar to mixture before adding milk, and sprinkle 25g of cheddar over scones after glazing - you can also add some pepper or herbs with the cheese)
• add 100g mixed fruit to dough( you could also sprinkle a mixture of 1ts cinnamon and 25g brown sugar over after glazing)
• add a grated apple and 2tsp cinnamon before milk
• add 50g chocolate chips and 50g fudge pieces
• add 100g chopped strawberries
• substitute buttermilk for milk for more moist but slightly more dense scones.

When I told friends at their (faboulous) barbeque that if they wanted to come for tea in the week there would be scones, Dave said 'only if they come early in the week, or there will be not point'. It's nice to have a husband who appreciates the effort.