andythanfiction:

At the moment, my parents pay for the food in return for me doing all the cooking. This is a good arrangement. HOWEVER, I have lived on very, very, very broke, and I’ll give you my ten best tips:

1. Racism and classism cost money. Basmati rice is $3.99 for a 1-lb bag at Fresh Market, the…

Lots of very good advice in here.

I’d recommend this blog to people wanting recipes too. At the moment andythanfiction is a bit more proactive than me when it comes to that sort of thing.

I’m sorry everyone, I’ve been swallowed by full time work and wedding planning. I will be back. I promise.

So I made little gingerbread minions… They’re too small to be gingerbread men, but they are delicious.

Made from squishing 5 oz of baking fat together with 3 oz of caster sugar, then mixing in 7 oz of plain flour and 2 teaspoons of ground ginger with a knife until the mix forms a stiff dough. Roll out to 1cm thick and then cut out - I bought the little cutter in a pack from Wilkinsons - and bake for 15-20 mins at 180C, until just starting to turn brown.

One batch made me 45 little minions!

Lovely with a cup of tea for plotting world domination!

I love working at home on Fridays, because it also becomes Baking Day. Today’s to-do list included Bara Brith (Welsh fruit loaf), Mixed Spice loaf, Cheese-and-Mustard Scones and a loaf of everyday bread in the bread maker. Some of the recipes I use have been handed down through family (the Mixed Spice loaf has been passed from mother to daughter for at least 3 generations), some I get from cookbooks, some I make up (like the Cheese and Mustard scones) and some are gifts from friends. My wonderful Matron of Honour, K, and her husband A put together a gorgeous hand written book with some sugar free recipes in it, as my partner is diabetic and should avoid sugar intake where possible. We’ve been able to add our own savoury and sweet recipes to the book, but K’s sugar free scone recipe has without doubt been the best. 

Would people like to see cake recipes as well as main meals? 

Ok, who wants a special Friday night recipe? This is a great versatile dish, ideal for vegging out in front of the telly or sharing on a girls’ night in. I love this, I would make and eat it every week if I could. Are you ready? Let’s go.

If you remove the meat this is a totally vegetarian friendly recipe - just add more veg to pad it out. Mix up your red and white onions, add more coloured peppers, just go for it and experiment. For vegans, again remove the meat but instead of using wraps, serve the mix with rice or fresh green salad, or boiled baby new potatoes to dip into the mix. My fiance doesn’t like wraps, so he has his with fries. 

TOTAL TIME FROM CHOP TO CHOMP: Roughly 30 minutes

Serves: 2 people

Ingredients: 

• 1 red pepper (or a yellow/orange pepper)
• 1 green pepper
• 1 large onion - red or white
• Roughly half a dozen closed cup mushrooms per person
• One chicken breast or thick pork steak per person
• One can of chopped tomatoes
• A tablespoon of tomato puree (optional)
• Spices to taste (I use a tea spoon of each of the following: Garlic granules, paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander and a good coating of ground black pepper from a grinder)
• A small amount of cooking oil
• A packet of tortilla wraps 

You will need:

• A big wok
• 2 plates
• A big bowl
• 2 tablespoon (and as many teaspoons as you want for condiments)
• 2 wooden spoons
• A sharp knife 
• A chopping board

1) Chop your ingredients before you heat the wok. Cut your chicken/pork into thin strips across the breast/steak. If you are using pork, remove the fat first. Cut your pepper in half length ways, remove the seeds and then slice it into half moons. You can halve these if you are enormous. Slice your mushrooms into cross sections. Halve your onion and then slice it into half moons. 

2) This step is optional, but I pre-mix my spices, and then half the mixture. With the first half, I coat the chicken or pork and leave it to one side whilst the wok heats. The other I set to one side for when I add the veg. 

3) Heat the oil in the wok and after a couple of minutes add your meat. Stir until the meat has been coated and sealed by the oil and no raw flesh is visible. 

4) Add the onion tomato puree and stir for 3-4 minutes. Use the two wooden spoons to stir the mix as if you were tossing a salad or stir fry. 

5) Add the peppers and stir for 2-3 minutes. When you add the pepper, add a quarter of your remaining spice mix. 

6) Add the mushrooms and stir for 3-4 minutes. When you add the mushrooms add another quarter (the same amount as in step 5) of your remaining spice mix. 

7) Stir in your can of chopped tomatoes with the rest of the spices. Leave the mix to simmer until most of the watery juice has gone and you are left with a slightly thicker sauce. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pan or burn.

8) Spoon the mixture into the big bowl and serve peasant style - everyone gets a plate for their wraps and a spoon to dig in.  

And now … the million dollar question - how the hell do you wrap and eat a fajita?

Here it is. 

1. Lay your wrap flat on the plate
2. Add two tablespoons of fajita mix to the centre of the wrap. Look at a clock and see where the hands are when it’s 12 o’clock - that’s where your mixture should be, down the centre for about two thirds of the length.
3. Add condiments if you want them - a teaspoon of whatever extra thing you want from the optional extras list. 
4. Fold the bottom of the wrap up so that it holds in the mixture.
5. Wrap the left edge of the wrap overtoward the centre.
6. Repeat step 5 with the ridge side of the wrap.
7. You should now have a sausage shape wrap with fajita mix in the middle and a sealed bottom to prevent leaking. Don’t overfill your wrap, or it will burst out and spill everywhere. 

Do you want to show off? 

• Make your own condiments! There are recipes around for salsa and guacamole, I don’t make them myself but it’s super impressive if you can. 
• Honestly - eating a fajita wrap without spilling the stuff down your clothes is impressive enough

WARNING - as may have been previously mentioned I *adore* spicy food, so you might want to adjust the spice levels if you don’t have a great tolerance. When I make this for my non spice tolerant friend, a quick sprinkle of paprika and a twist of black pepper and a pinch of garlic granules with each new thing added to the wok is plenty good enough for her. Be careful you don’t knock the heads off your guests. Sour cream is good for taking some of the heat out of spicy food but whilst keeping the flavour, so keep some on hand in case you overdo it.

Are you bored of sandwiches? Cuppa soups? Unappetising salads? Fast food? 

Are you starving by mid afternoon?

Do you find it hard to get organised with making lunches for work the night before? 

If you are lucky enough to work somewhere which gives you access to a kitchen with a microwave during the day - this blog post is for you.

I am - quite often - office based for my job and my fiance works in a bank, so we both have access to kitchens for our lunches. So this worked really well as a tactic for us. Whatever you make for your evening meal, if it can be varied in portion size, take some to work for your lunch the following day. 

Invest in a medium sized solid plastic tupperware-style box. They’re not expensive, and they are easy to clean. Make sure it is air tight and try to get one with a solid lid. Recycle if you’re short of cash, us an old icecream tub, or a family sized margarine tub. And this is how it works: 

When we dish up our evening meals, we cut our portion size down a little, and put some into boxes for the following day. Meals which have been successful for doing this have included:

* Pasta Bolognese

* Lasagne

* Curries with rice

* Stirfry with rice (or just the Stirfry mix with some insta-noodles heated up using boiled water from the kettle)

* Stew/Hotpot with mashed potatoes or roast potatoes

* Toad in the hole (with bits of sausages rather than whole ones) with roast potatoes or mashed potatoes

* Fajita mix (this will be my next recipe!) with wraps

* Pies - Chicken Pie, Steak Pie, Corned Beef Pie, any pie! Heat it up and it tastes so much better. 

If your food needs gravy, you can do that if you have access to a kettle. Take some gravy granules with you in a little bag or pot - I use an old spice jar. Mix them with half a mug of hot water from the kettle, stir and pour into your box when the microwaving is done.

A few scoops of these into a box makes an excellent lunch the next day. Whack any of it in the microwave on high for 4 minutes - it won’t burn, honestly, and better to have it slightly overdone rather than underdone.

I usually remove the box half way through and give whatever is in it (rice, pasta, mix, whatever) a good stir to mix it up. If you’ve got mashed potatoes, give it a fluff up with your fork. Microwaves are supposed to heat things equally, but the ones I have encountered never do. This is especially important for dishes with re-heated rice because it’s *so* important to heat the rice properly all the way through, to avoid the risk of food poisoning. 

But won’t the food make a mess in the microwave? I hear you cry.

That’s why you ideally need a box with a solid lid. Remove the lid so that the airtight seal is broken, and then balance it on the top to keep some of the steam in to keep your food moist.

DO NOT LEAVE THE AIRTIGHT SEAL CLOSED - YOUR BOX WILL EXPLODE! I AM NOT KIDDING!

Also - BE CAREFUL WHEN REMOVING IT from the top of your box once the microwaving is done, because the lid will have trapped steam underneath it. Use a tea towel to protect your hands from burns. It is easier to do this with a solid lid. You can do it with a floppy one, but it takes a bit of practice.

My lunchbox is great because the lid acts as a tray, it fits under the base exactly - so once I’ve carefully removed it and rinsed it in cold water to stop it being boiling hot, I can place the box on top of it and use it to carry it to the eating area without risking burning my hands or dropping the box and making an almighty mess. 

This also means that I don’t use up any plates in the kitchen, I just eat my food straight out of the box and then rinse it afterwards before taking it home. I’d recommend taking a spare fork with you if you’ve not checked what’s available - they tend to disappear in communal kitchens.

Obviously if you work at home and have a microwave - this would be perfect for you too :-) 

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By doing this, we have found the following:

* We enjoy our food in the middle of the day far more and we’re more awake and alert in the afternoon

* We save money because we’re not spending money on McDonalds, Subway, KFC, Sandwich shops, Deli Food and convenience food from Supermarkets

* We are fitter and healthier because we have made all of our food ourselves - everything is fresh and good for us without additives and nasty chemicals, like some convenience microwave foods have. 

* We look forward to eating in the day a bit more than we did when it was ham sandwiches… again… 

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WARNING:

Do not try to reheat anything that was made with cream or creme fraiche. No matter how well you heat it up, we have found that dodgy stomachs and lengthy toilet breaks tend to follow :-( 

FUNNIER WARNING:

Your workmates will walk in, sniff the air and go ‘ooooh, that smells good, whatcha got?’. Do not give them a taste. You will have no lunch left. But do give them the recipe and let them in on the secret of leftovers-for-lunch :) 

This still on? Oh excellent!

I am coming back. And I’ve got a new project on the go. I’m giving up alcohol! So there might be a few more posts on here about drinks, non alcoholic cocktails and so forth too!

goingteetotal.tumblr.com

Watch this space for the next set of tips and recipe…

Things have ground to a halt here whilst I concentrate on my college course (due to end in Sept) and search for new jobs (still got one, but need to move on).

I have, however, requested that my first ever basic cookbook be unearthed from the kitchen of the guys who still own it and I will start getting that scanned in and loaded up here asap.

Back soon everyone! Happy cooking! Has anyone tried any of the recipes yet?

Not sure how popular this is in America, but it damn well should be. It is cheap, delicious and easy to make and is a great addition to all roast dinners (think the sort of meal you would have for Thanksgiving, or Christmas - roast turkey/goose and veg and gravy and all that)

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire_pudding

It’s vegetarian friendly, but not vegan friendly unless you do some substituting. You can use soya milk and egg subtitute I guess, but I hasten to add that I have never tried that and cannot vouch for it’s success.

TOTAL TIME FROM CHOP TO CHOMP: About 30-40 mins depending on whisking

Serves: 2 people (but me and my boy eat BIG portions of yorkshire pudding!)

Recipe:

• 1/2 pint (250 mils) of full cream milk
• 2 eggs
• 4 heaped tablespoons of self raising flour
• Pinch of salt
• Small splash of cooking oil or 1/2 teaspoon of fat/lard/butter - I use oil, it’s healthier and easier

You will need

• A jug
• A whisk (or a fork and lots of energy)
• A round cake tin (for a big one) or a muffin tin

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C (If you’re making a roast meat dish, obviously you can skip this step if your oven is already on :P )
2. In the jug, pour out the half pint of milk and crack in the eggs.
3. Before whisking, add in the pinch of salt
4. Now whisk! Whisk with all your might until the mixture is cream coloured and frothy.
5. Add in the four tablespoons of flour
6. WHISK! WHISK AGAIN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN! (Tip:  Tilt your jug slightly to one side and whisk at an angle. The whole point of whisking is not only to mix, but to try and fold air into the mix. That’s what makes cakes and batters rise so well.)
7. Leave the mixture to settle for a few minutes. Put a splash of oil in your baking dish of choice and put it in the oven to heat up.
8. Once the mixture as settled, check the surface. If all you can see are bubbles, you’re good to go. If you see small flour lumps, whisk again and repeat the process.
9. Remove the baking dish from the oven *CAREFULLY* and pour in the mixture. Be careful not to splash, that stuff will hurt.
10. Return it to the oven and bake for about 20 min, but check regularly to make sure it is not burning black.
11. Yorkshire Pudding should look like this when cooked:
12. Remove from your baking dish when cooked and serve with roast dinner, veg and gravy. MMMMMM!

Extra things you can do to show off:

• Add herbs to the mix
• Add garlic granules to the mix
• You can try a British dish called “Toad-in-the-hole”, which is sausages baked in the centre of huge yorkshire pudding. Use a bigger baking dish for this - it doesn’t matter whether it’s tin or pottery so long as it is clean. Doesn’t matter what shape either! To do this, preheat your dish with a bit of oil. Remove and place your sausages in the dish - either whole or in little chunks if you are stretching your meal further. Once the sausages have cooked for about 10-15 mins, remove the dish and pour the yorkshire pudding mix all over the top. Return to the oven and bake for 15-20 mins until the yorkshire mix looks like that *points above*. Remove, carve up into however many slices you want and serve with chips/mashed potatoes/roast potatoes and lots of gravy :-D

Mmmmmmm! Who’s hungry???!

2 simple rules for shopping:

1) Don’t buy brands if you don’t have to. Sometimes generic is good enough.

2) Sometimes it is easier and cheaper to buy in bulk and keep it for later.

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There are times when it pays to pay for quality, and there are times when it does not. My partner and I buy very few brands but quite a lot of generic stuff.

This includes:

• Ketchup / Brown Sauce
• Mayonnaise
• Tinned Tomatoes
• Tinned Carrots
• Tinned Sweetcorn
• Tinned Chicken in sauce
• Stewed Steak
• Cordial/Juice Drink
• Orange Juice / Apple Juice
• Butter (yes, Butter, not margerine…)
• Dried Fruit
• Biscuits (if we are reduced to buying them rather than making them)
• Salsa
• Wraps or Naan breads
• Jam (for cooking and cakes)
• Dried Pasta
• Tinned Tuna
• Tinned Corned Beef
• Baked Beans
• Gravy Granules
• Dried Yeast
• Salt
• Pepper
• Mixed Herbs
• Garlic Granules

All of these things can be enlivened with imagination and effort and a sprinkling of herbs and spices. Some of them are fine on their own. Don’t rely on food producer to do the job for you in making stuff interesting - that’s what they charge the extra for. Buy simple and do it yourself and that goes for fresh stuff too. We also buy the following fresh produce from our supermarket’s ‘own brand’ selection:

• Peppers
• Onions
• Chicken breasts
• Mushrooms
• Apples
• Citric fruits (lemons/limes)
• Pate

Things that we never ever compromise on:

• Sausages (This was my boy’s one concession on moving in with me. No crap sausages. 5 years down the line I heartily agree with him)
• Bread (We usually make our own, but on the times we don’t, we like good quality and fresh baked stuff)
• Frozen Chips (cheap and nasty equals pale, soggy and fatty - not good)
• Flour (we bake our own bread and cakes so we use a lot!)
• Coca Cola / Pepsi Max (economy cola is bad for my boy’s diabetes)
• Crisps (A rare luxury)
• Eggs (Bad egg =  poor cooking/baking)
• Milk (Ditto the eggs)
• Rice (Poor rice turns starchy and gooey and rinsing just won’t help like the pasta will)
• Stock Cubes (Poor stock cubes don’t dissolve properly and you just get yeasty lumps in the mix)
• Cheese (I don’t eat it, so my boy indulges with the best as a treat)

These are the things where we have noticed the difference because they are the staples of our cooking and or they are not so easy to liven up. With many of these things, if you start cooking with crap you will *get* crap.

There are things we look for special offers on:

• Wine - there is always an offer on Wine somewhere. You never ever need to buy wine at full price or put up with cheap crap. Shop around, don’t stick to one store. In the UK, if Sainsburys aren’t running an offer, ASDA will be, or TESCO will be. Ditto for Beer. And Cider. Buy when it’s cheap, keep it for later.
• Cola - The day that neither Pepi Max / Coke Zero is on offer somewhere, I’ll give up and go live in a shack. We mass buy whichever is on offer at the start of the month on payday.
• Fresh Meat - one week it’s chicken, next week it’s pork, if you’re lucky it’s some sort of fish. Buy bulk and freeze it until you want it. Invest in some small plastic freezer bags, divide up your meat and freeze it.
• Pasta - once in a while it’s easier to buy a huge sack rather than the smaller ones. Sainsburys run some stupid offers sometimes, like £3.30 for a sack or £3 for two sacks. Yes, that’s right, it’s not a misprint.
• Rice - again, the sacks offer. Buy in bulk and store it. It’s not going to go off, so get it when it’s cheap and keep it for those days when you’ve run out of money.

I love this recipe, we have several versions of it now including one that comes from a slow cooker (crock pot) but this one still, to my tongue tastes the best. I hope you like it. It is an excellent ‘show off’ recipe for parents/new partners. Done correctly, it tastes like it came from a posh restaurant.

I recommend cooking this with alcoholic wine, even if you don’t drink it, because it really does enhance the flavour, but I guess non-alcoholic wine works well as a substitute if you are particularly picky. Again, I have been told that tofu works well as a substitute for chicken, or you can make it with more mushrooms to replace the chicken instead. Naturally, you can use cream substitute (Elmlea for the Brits), butter substitute for the garlic bread (Vitalite or free-from spread will do) and gluten free pasta if that works better for you.

TOTAL COOKING TIME FROM CHOP TO CHOMP: 1 hour

SERVE WITH: White Wine (Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio if you’re fussy about types, Chardonney tends to be a little too sweet in combination with the creamy sauce.

Serves: 2 people

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Breasts
• 1 medium sized white onion
• 1 teaspoon mixed herbs (OR half a teaspoon of sage and half a teaspoon of dried tarragon)
• Half a dozen closed cup mushroom (1-2 inches in diameter)
• Sprinkle of salt and ground black pepper to season
• 1 teaspoon of garlic granules OR 2 cloves of fresh garlic
• 1 chicken stock cube
• Small splash of cooking oil
• Half a glass of white wine (about 125 mils does the trick)
• 300ml of fresh double cream
• 4 cups of dried pasta (shells works really well for this as they absorb the cream and create a lovely texture)

Optional Extras:

• 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh tarragon
• White sauce granules/Corn Flour to thicken sauce
• 4 slices of smoked bacon

WANT TO SHOW OFF?

• Garlic bread (make your own! Get some soft bread rolls or 2 slices of bread, split them in half and butter them, sprinkle a bit of mixed herbs and garlic granules on the top and save them for later)
• You can use fresh pasta instead of the dried stuff. The recipe is for dried, but if you decide to use fresh pasta then skip step 7, make sure you leave the cream mix to simmer for at least 15 minutes after step 8 and leave cooking the pasta until step 11 - it should literally take 5 minutes to cook through)

Utensils:

• Wok
• Large saucepan
• Chopping board
• Sharp Knife
• Wooden Spoon
• Colander
• Ladle
• Baking Tray (for garlic bread)
• To dish up: 2 plates and a small side plate

1) Fill and boil the kettle for your pasta. Pour a small splash of cooking oil into your wok.

2) Chop up all your vegetables before turning the stove on:

Your mushrooms should be sliced once across the middle, then turned and sliced twice across at right angles, so each one is cut into six small pieces.

Cut your onion in half and turn the halves onto their flat sides. Dice each one firmly across into small strips, then turn it 90 degrees and cut across the middle. You will have lots of very thin, quarter circle pieces.

Don’t forget to open your wine.

3) Dice your chicken into small bitesized pieces. Place in a bowl and add your salt, pepper, garlic granules (if you are using fresh garlic, peel it and chop it as finely as you can and add it now, or if you have a garlic crusher use that instead) and dried herbs and stir together so that the chicken is coated.  If you are using bacon, slice the bacon into thin strips and add to the bowl with the chicken so that it is coated in the herbs and seasoning.

4) Heat the oil in the wok and add the onion once it is hot. Cook the onions until they turn slightly yellow and become softer.

5) Add the chicken (and bacon) to the wok and stir in with the onions until the bacon turns light pink and the chicken turns white.

6) Once the meat has changed colour, pour in the wine and as soon as it bubbles up, add the mushrooms and stir them into the mix. Turn the heat down immediately and, if you have one, cover the wok with a lid.

7) Start cooking your dried pasta at this point. Cover it with boiling water and star cooking it on a high temperature, and then turn down the heat once it bubbles up. Remember to stir it with a wooden spoon occasionally to stop it sticking to the pan. If you are making garlic bread, remember to preheat your oven at around about this point.

8) Crumble your stock cube into the mix and stir until it melts and the wine colours slightly. Then add your cream and stir slowly until a smooth mix is achieved. Turn the heat down, recover with the lid (if you have one) and leave it to simmer while the pasta cooks.

9) Be a good chef - while your pasta is cooking and your chicken mix is simmering, clean up your chopping board and knife, set the table, get rid of your packaging and mop up any spills or seeds from your work. Be a good host too - pour your guest a glass of wine (or whatever else) and take five minutes for a chat.

10) Once your pasta is cooked, drain it using the colader and rinse it with the clean hot water from the kettle. Dried pasta can be very starchy, and I’ve found it tastes better if given an extra rinse.

11) Remove the lid and give your mix a stir. If it is too thin for your taste, add some white sauce granules or corn flour to the mix to thicken it up.

12) While you are dishing up your pasta and mix, put your garlic bread into the oven to warm up. If you are adding fresh tarragon, stir it into the mix before you start dishing up your pasta. I recommend heating your plates for this meal, as it can lose its heat very quickly otherwise.

13) Time to dish up! Serve your pasta onto the plates and add the chicken and cream mixture to the middle of the pasta. Once you’re done, rescue your garlic bread from the oven and serve it on a side plate. Don’t forget to turn your oven and hobs off.

And there you have it! Chicken and mushroom a la creme, served with pasta and garlic bread. Perfect with a nice cold glass of dry white wine.