RECIPE: Potato and Sausage Hubble Bubble

This is my version of the first dish I ever learned to cook, from a recipe in a children's annual in the 1960s. I didn't know then that "Hubble Bubble" is a traditional British dish, after all, it isn't one you hear mentioned very often. I think it must be the kind of thing that would be served up for breakfast in stately homes. The traditional version doesn't include cheese but I like it - this is my own version that I've evolved over the last forty-odd years. It's cheap and warming, perfect for this time of year.

To serve 4:

6 sausages
3-4 rashers streaky bacon
1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced
500g potatoes
400 ml milk
3 eggs
100g grated Cheddar cheese
seasoning.

Set oven to 180C, gas 4. Peel and thickly slice the potatoes and drop into a pan of boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes then drain and set aside.

Cut each sausage into 4 pieces and the bacon into strips about 1cm wide. Place in a cold non-stick frying pan and heat gently until the fat runs out. Add the onion and increase the heat. Fry, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened and the sausages browned.

Beat together the eggs, milk and seasoning.

Arrange half the potato slices in the base of a greased ovenproof dish,  put the bacon, sausage and onion mixture on top and top with the remaining potatoes. Pour the egg and milk mixture evenly over and scatter the grated cheese on top.

Bake in the preheated oven for around 45 minutes, covering with a lid or foil if the cheese looks as if it is browning too fast.

Good served with baked tomatoes and a green vegetable,

I am joining in with Credit Crunch Munch, hosted this month at Dinner With Crayons  thanks to Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All

A Winter Scene

This card is made using images from the CD "The Very Best of La Pashe 2012" (I wonder if they are going to do a 2013 one?) and since it's a snowy image, I'm going to join in with this month's challenge at Christmas Cards All Year Round - Winter Wonderland
as well as Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for November  

Getting more out of my Actifry

I've made a decision. From now on, my gadgets are going to have to earn their keep. I really don't have enough kitchen space to allow an unused gadget to take up space. So they work - or go.  The food processor is in daily use, so that stays. The rice boiler too, stays, although the current one will have to learn to behave itself a bit better or it will get replaced. The bread machine is usually in use several times a week but since I was ill in the summer I've lacked a bit of enthusiasm for using it. However I've dusted it off and right now there's a mixed grain loaf churning away in it.

That leaves two items that are going to have to start to work a LOT harder, the slow cooker and the Actifry. I've made a start on the slow cooker...... no, I've not actually cooked anything in it. But I have pinned an awful lot of recipes to try on my Pinterest recipe board. Well, it's a start, isn't it?

That leaves the Actifry. The poor machine doesn't see the light of day very much. I make chips in it. I cook sausages in it (have you ever cooked sausages in one? They come out really evenly browned, it's by far my favourite way to cook them). And that's about it. I'm aware it can do so much more, so I'm going to play with it a lot more often.

For my first "playtime" I added baby potatoes, halved Chantenay carrots, a chopped shallot and some chopped fresh thyme, drizzled over a tablespoon of rapeseed oil and cooked for 35 minutes. The result was a delicious roast root mixture

To go with this, I cooked some duck breasts skin side down over gentle heat until the fat had run off, then finished them in the oven. I tipped off most of the fat from the pan (and saved it for roast potatoes) then added a chopped onion and softened it. Then I threw in a handful of cranberries, a good slug of post and a bit of chicken stock and cooked it until the cranberries were soft.

 

Finally I served up the meal with some tiny and delicious Brussels Sprouts, fresh from the garden.

 

 

Crafting with Children

Last week, as you UK based parents and grandparents will know, it was half term in much of the country. And that gave me and my four year old granddaughter Lara  the chance to have a full day of crafting together, without interference from Mummy, Daddy and little sister.

Lara has loved crafting since she was a baby, and learned stamping before she learned to hold a pencil!

We started off at her house, making some paper chains and snowflakes to set aside for Christmas, then headed off to a craft superstore where we stocked up on some new supplies we could use together. Then we came back to our house where I could allow her to use things that are usually too dangerous for her little sister's tiny, inquisitive fingers - punches, a  Ribbler and best of all the Cuttlebug.

When it was "quiet time", instead of reading books and watching children's TV together, we read craft magazines and watched the Create and Craft channel. Lara's eyes got wider and wider with every photo and every demonstration - I don't think I've ever heard the word "WOW!" used so many times!

Here are a couple of her creations. Apart from measuring the right diameter for the cirsle used for the cupcake topping, all her own work!

Inspired by our holidays

In August, we had a family week in Cornwall, and in September Mark and I had a long weekend on the Isles of Scilly. In both places, one of the characteristic sights is the bright blue balls of agapanthus flowers with the coast in the background. I have tried to re-create this feeling in a card.

The subtle mini-landscape was made by masking the area, lightly sketching with watercolour pencils then blending gently with a water brush. After drying, I added some grass and birds with markers, and stamped the agapanthus flowers.

I'm joining in with:

Addicted to Stamps and More #69 - Clean and Simple
Addicted to CAS #25 - One layer

Stripey for CD Sundays

At last I have time to craft again! It's been a very busy few weeks, but hopefully things will be a bit quieter for a while. I hope so - I need to finish making all my Christmas cards.

This week at CD Sundays, the challenge is Stripey. Now I have lots of stripey designs and papers on various CDs, but I really wanted to make a Christmas card and nothing seemed to go with any of my Christmassy bits.  Then I opened the Winter edition of Crafter's Inspiration from Crafter's Companion, and found the CD in it to be positively OOZING with stripey papers and co-ordinating toppers. The ones I've used here are from the "Traditional Christmas" section of the CD.

Oh, and apologies for the rubbish photo. I'd no idea it was so bad until I put it into this post. I really must ask Santa for a new camera - or some lessons in how to use my current one properly!

Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus

A few weeks ago I spotted this yummy looking recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus on Recipes from a Pantry and bookmarked it for when I wanted a make-ahead meal. Last week I had just such a day - a free morning before a hectic afternoon, so I made the  hummus in the morning and paired it with some home made pitta bread from the freezer. That just left me with a few minutes' work preparing a bowl of crudités to serve with it.

I was in such a rush that evening I forgot to take a photo - fortunately there was some left to have with a slice of granary toast next day, hence the lack of pitta bread in the pics.

I've not experimented with adding things to a standard hummus before, but the squash was a great success - it made it smoother than ever and added a hint of sweetness to it. Definitely one to be repeated (although maybe not on such a wet, windy evening...... perhaps I should have made soup instead).

I'm joining in with Bookmarked Recipes at Tinned Tomatoes