Toffee ice cream

Home made ice cream with no ice cream maker needed, and soft scoop to boot :-) easy to do honest ;-) 

Whip up a 300 ml tub of double or whipping cream, it needs to be soft but holding its shape. Then empty in a tin of condensed milk caramel. It's the tins right next to the condensed milk in the shops. Just whisk it through the cream until completely combined. Put into a freezable container with a lid and place in freezer for 8 hours or overnight. It is that simple. You can add choc chips or ripple through chocolate sauce or other delights to. 

Peanut butter cookies

Not the most attractive looking cookies I grant you. I don't like peanut butter but I loved these, go figure that one out! A spot of baking with my youngest son was on the agenda tonight and we made these simple but addictive cookies. There is no flour in these so don't go thinking it's been left out by accident. A friend gave me a recipe for these a few years back and I promptly lost it after making but I found one similar and think it's the same so here goes. Preheat an oven to gas mark 4 or 180/350 and prepare 2 baking sheets. In a bowl put 

1 cup of smooth peanut butter

1 cup sugar

I teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1 egg

 Used my mixer and mixed until thoroughly combined. I used a small scoop but you could roll into walnut sized  balls and place on tray leaving room to spread. With a fork flatten slightly and make a cross hatch pattern on the top. Bake in oven for 11-14 minutes. They will be just starting to colour and very soft when you take them out. Leave on baking sheets for 5-10 minutes until firmer then transfer to a wire rack to go completely cool before putting in an airtight container or into awaiting mouth. We ended up with 16 of these. 

Very quick and simple make and brilliantly textured. Crisp on outside but not hard and crunchy. And dense with a slight chew in the middle. Well worth a go. I used smooth peanut butter but I don't see why crunchy wouldn't work as long as you didn't mind bits of peanut in your cookies. 

Sewing for Ever

Meet my eldest Granddaughter :o)  She's been on my blog before and is growing up so fast and beautifully. With my interest in sewing returning lately I came across a you tube video >>>>here<<<<

on the channel A fate so twisted for making a ruffled skirt. 3 tiers of wonderful girlishness.

 

I found this fabric in my local fabric land and fell in love with it. Only thing I did different was did the ruffling by hand as no ruffle foot here that fitted my machine. 

I'm glad Ever and her Mum love the skirt.  we have another colour combination planned soon.  A big thanks to the lovely Renee on a fate so twisted for the free tutorial on her channel :o) Made it so easy to follow

A quick photo of day I started it and 2 tiers into the ruffling

And a quick finished but not yet displayed on a pretty model. Love this material, it just takes me back to the 80's somehow 

Oreo/chocolate ice cream

I don't make ice cream often.  When I do I do not want to be faffing about with putting ice cream machine bowls in the freezer for a minimum of 24 hours before hand.  I am just not that organised most of the time.  So when I do make ice cream it is a version like this or one involving cooked meringue. This one made 3 500ml tubs and starts with a base of

450ml double/whipping cream whipped to firm peaks

1 tin of condensed cream whipped into the whipped cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

This in itself would be lovely just frozen in a container for 6-8 hours or overnight.  But Luke wanted oreo ice cream so we added extras to it

We melted and cooled 250-300g of dark chocolate and let it cool so it wouldn't melt the cream. We did this before we even whipped the cream. 

And chopped half of a pack or Oreo cookies.  We made 3 tubs of ice cream but only one had Oreos in it.

we stirred in the chocolate when it was evenly mixed in and 2 of the tubs were portioned out and labelled Oreos got stirred into the rest and a few reserved for the top.  

So simple yet so effective.  OH and son are very happy and I have bribery in the freezer for days I need brownie points ;o)

Don't like chocolate how about lime and coconut? Stir together 

1 tin condensed milk

1 tin coconut milk

zest and juice of 3 limes

stir together thoroughly place in an airtight container and freeze as above.  

Chicken, sweetcorn and noodle soup

The weather today has been very wet and gray.  I had the dentist this morning which left me feeling a bit sorry for myself. So comfort food was needed tonight,  As a child I had a love for packets of Knorr Chicken noodle soup.  I think I may even still have a pack in the cupboard.  But I also found a recipe for chicken and sweetcorn soup in the Chinese takeaway style which I like.  So I made a compromise and made. chicken, sweetcorn and noodle soup.  It's not as 'gloopy' as the takeaway version but it could be with using more cornflour.  

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1.5 litres chicken stock ( using stock cubes is fine)

3 spring onions sliced, with green parts to

1 tin creamed sweetcorn

1 tablespoon cornflour

noodles

1 or 2 eggs

teaspoon of Thai fish sauce

I fond these noodles on my shopping travels a while ago from Lidl at 39p for 250g pack, they are ideal soup size.  However you could use any noodles or even broken spaghetti pieces or small pasta shapes.

Bring the stock to the boil in a big pot. place in your chicken and lower the stock to a simmer and leave to all gently simmer for 20 minutes. 

Remove the chicken to a plate or bowl and shred it with 2 forks.  Empty the creamed sweetcorn into the stock along with the spring onion and season to taste.

Mix the cornflour into a little water and add to the stock while stirring.  Stir in 100g roughly of noodles/pasta, and put the chicken back to the stock.  Give it a good stir and simmer for 15 more minutes with an occasional stir.  

At end of simmering time whisk up the egg with the fish sauce and stir the soup while dribbling slowly the egg to give the egg drop effect 

I love the eggy strands, just like I used to add to those Knorr packet soups years ago.

This went down well, even with the sweetcorn hater in the house. Decided I had better blog the recipe before I lose the recipe.  

Duffle or waffnut?

I just checked my email, and King Arthur flour announced tomorrow is National waffle day. I love waffles. Some days however, like today when wisdom teeth are causing me hassles, I don't have the drive to leap out into the kitchen and make them.  I was reminded about these though.  I made these back in May when I saw them done online.  Not sure where but thought I would share. They were sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good.

To start you need as many plain glazed donuts as your heart desires.  Krispy Kremes were mentioned, I chose 4 for a £1 at my local supermarket though. 

A preheated waffle machine, This is mine, it is about 20 years old and it's looking it, she however works beautifully for our needs.

When your waffle machine is ready and heated around medium on mine, simply place suitable amount of donuts in machine and squish down.  Follow your machines guidelines, these took around a minute or 2 until the green light let me know they were ready

They came out smelling and looking fantastic, the glaze had caramelised leaving sugar strands as I pulled them off the hot plates. Insides were warm, soft, compact  and densely fluffy with classic donut flavour.  The outsides had a light crunchy caramel coating. 

I've also in the past used my waffle machine to bake cookies and toast sandwiches,  I have also seen people make french toast in them too.  If you have a waffle machine in your cupboard collecting dust, why not drag it out and show it some love.  And remember why you bought one in the first place

Roasted mushrooms

I am the biggest mushroom lover I know and that is saying something as my OH loves them almost as much. Anything with the word mushroom in the recipe title and you usually get my full attention.  I was cruising the internet last week looking for not a lot really but found a version of roasted mushrooms.  Then I googled Roasted mushrooms, all good things popped up.  Being I have been doing slimming world plan since May I then adapted what I read and was very happy with the results. For this I used 

Button mushrooms ( chestnut or white)

Frylight ( 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil if preferred)

and seasoning 

Preheat oven to gas mark 6-7. Start by trimming the stalks off the mushrooms so they are level with the cap and place in a bowl. I found a double one and had to show you the cuteness.  Spray a baking tray with frylight and put to one side

spray the mushrooms in the bowl with frylight/olive oil, toss around and season and toss around again, then when each one has a coating place them cut side down on the baking tray.  Place in oven for 25-30 minutes, then take them out turn them over and place back in oven for another 10 minutes.

Although the look leathery and shriveled they should still have moisture in them and taste concentrated. You could of course play with the flavouring using herbs, spices, garlic or garlic frylight perhaps? The possibilities are endless.