Tag Archives: Sunday

Feb 20 2012
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Sunday Cook Off

Sunday Cook Off: Chocolate Ripple Teabread

Didn't quite manage to get a picture before tucking in

 

This week I made Chocolate Ripple Teabread, taken from a Cadburys chocolate recipe book that I’ve had for years. At the moment I’ve got my eye on one of my signature dishes, a Chocolate Marble Cheesecake – but that’s for another week.

Recipe

200g milk chocolate, broken into pieces

200g unsalted butter/margarine, softened

1 tsp ground mixed spice

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence (as always, I used more)

225g self-raising flour

1/2 (half) tsp baking powder

100g milk chocolate, chopped (to decorate)

1. Prepare a 1kg/2lb loaf tin. Put the chocolate (not the stuff for decoration) in a heatproof bowl, place over a pan of gently simmer water and leave until melted. Stir in 25g of the butter and the spice.

2. Place the remaining butter, the sugar, eggs and vanilla essence in a bowl. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Spoon one-quarter of the mixture into the tin. Spread one-third of the chocolate mixture over the cake mixture. Repeat the layering of the cake mixture and chocolate sauce, finishing with a layer of cake mixture [how many times can mixture be used in a sentence?!]. Sprinkle with the chopped chocolate.

3. Bake in a preheated over, 180*C (350*F) for 1 1/4 hours or until risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. **I found that, after 45 mins, my cake was well done and starting to burn, I’ve no idea where they got an hour and a quarter from, but when I make this again I’ll probably put it in for 40 mins max.** Leave in the tin for 10 mins and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

4. Gobble.

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Feb 05 2012
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Sunday Cook Off

Sunday Cook Off: Cheese and Guacamole Toastie

Mmm...cheese...

On a snowy kind of day all you want to eat is a bit of comfort food, so I turned to my latest obsession – chunks of Double Gloucester and lashings of guacamole between two slices of crusty bread. Nom. It’s not particularly complicated (By which I mean it’s the easiest thing I’ve ever made), and it helps to fulfil my daily cheese quota. I am a great lover of cheese, my friend and I used to live by the rule that anything can be tasty as long as you add enough of the stuff.

There isn’t really a recipe for this one as it’s quite self explanatory, but I’ll give you a rough guide.

1 – Take two slices of bread and butter one side of each. Slice as much cheese as you think is necessary and set to one side.

2 – Heat a frying pan (don’t add oil or anything else, that’s what the butter is for) and put in one slice of bread, buttered side down. Spread the guacamole on top and add the cheese, then pop on the second slice with the buttered side facing up.

3 – Wait a few minutes for it to crisp up and then flip and repeat.

4 – Gobble it all up.

Apologies for the poor photo, but I was really quite impatient to get my teeth into the fatty goodness. And for some reason it’s come out sideways, again, sorry.

I’ve got to be honest, there aren’t a lot of recipes that I use that are particularly healthy, so maybe don’t come here on a Sunday if you’re struggling to be content with a Slimfast. I particularly enjoy cakes. But that’s for next week…

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Jan 26 2012
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Brainwave

Since I started this blog, I’ve been trying to find a way to write about all the things that interest me while keeping the entire thing a coherent series. Well, I’ve finally come up with something: I have 7 kinds of mind, one for each day. So every week I will log about something different every day, keeping with a theme.

So this is going to be my new format:
Sundays are for a cook off, whether it’s a new recipe I’ve discovered or my own personal little experiment, it’ll be on here.

Mondays are when you need a pick me up, I’ll post whatever has been amusing me to help get you through your case of the Mondays.

Tuesdays are when I get to escape on a travelling adventure, whether I’ve actually moved from my computer screen or not.

Wednesdays are when it gets serious, I’ll write about that week’s big issue/story in the news. If I’m honest, it’ll probably be a rant of some sort.

Thursdays are all about me, a little update of what’s been going on in my highly exciting life that week. It’ll be gripping I’m sure.

Fridays are for the best celebrity gossip or media news that I can find. From a review of the latest Sherlock (just how exactly did he survive?!) or the most titillating story of the pitfalls of fame.

Saturdays are potluck. Whatever I’ve wanted to write about that doesn’t fit into one of the above categories, it could be anything. How exciting!

So hopefully I’ll be able to stick to the new format, and I look forward to flexing my typing muscles as I try to keep up with the pace of blogging every day. Enjoy!

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