Sticky stuff!

Peel-offs, outline stickers - whatever you call them, I bet you have a pile of them that you never use, don't you? It seems that every new crafter sees them and thinks "Ooh, what a brilliant idea!" and stocks up on them. And then can't think what to do with them, apart from the occasional word and a few simple borders, yet can't quite bear to part with them. Having been lured by a few bulk buys on the shopping channels I've got dozens, stored in clear plastic wallets, most of which must be over 10 years old now.

So when I saw that the Use it Tuesday challenge is Sticky Situation! I just had to play along!

I started off by making a square frame from double sided peel offs and glitter. And immediately remembered why I have only ever used double sided peel offs once before..... I'm going to have to so some serious cleaning up after I've posted this!

The flower is made from a sheet of stacking peel offs, and finished off with the very last self adhesive gem from an ancient sheet!

Random recipes - Beancurd Satay

For this month's Random Recipe challenge, Dom has presented us with a nifty little widget to help us to choose a random book from our collection.

I won't tell you how many recipe books I have. I'll just say that the 181 I have listed on Eat Your Books don't tell the full story.... but the randomiser came up with a nice safe 29. Counting along my shelves, it took me to the Ken Hom classic, Travels With A Hot Wok.

I used the randomiser again to pick a page and it took me to page 176, Beancurd Satays. Great - we love beancurd, we love satay, we had all the ingredients in the house - what could possibly go wrong?

I must confess I was a bit anxious about the texture of the beancurd. I was using a firm one, and the recipe instructed me to drain it pressed between several sheets of kitchen paper,  which made it firm up a bit more - but even so, wasn't it going to break up the moment I started to skewer it?

Actually the breaking up started before then, when I was stirring it into the marinade. But I was extra-careful and didn't lose too much, and even managed to get it all on to the sticks without too much damage.

The next step was to make the sauce. I have a super-simple and very tasty recipe of my own, but for the sake of the challenge I followed the version in the book. It was also very easy but came out as a very thick, viscous mixture ..... I won't tell you what Mark said it resembled.....

 

Now the moment of truth.... cooking the satay. I used a table top grill, to give me plenty control as they cooked, but nevertheless as soon as they started to cook, the disintegration started.....

 

Eventually we gave up, removed the sticks and gently turned each cube individually

We ate it with fried rice (I'd anticipated disaster so chosen to make the meal-in-one dish of fried rice to make sure we at least had SOMETHING to eat!) and, as suggested in the book, a cucumber and onion salad

The verdict? The beancurd was far more trouble than it was worth. Cubes of fried beancurd with a satay sauce would have been much easier -and a better texture too. As for the sauce - well, if I hadn't been trying to follow the recipe exactly, I could have adjusted the texture, but it was also far too heavy on the raw garlic. I'm really not a fan of eating raw garlic in large quantities. And it simply didn't taste as good as my own version. 

So here is my own version of satay sauce. It's served me well for the last 35 years, and I think in future I'll stick with it!

2 heaped tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1 tablepsoon Ketjap Manis (thick, sweet soy sauce - if you can't find this, use Chinese soy sauce and add a teaspoon of black treacle)
½ teaspoon Sambal Oelek or dried crushed red chilli flakes
juice of 1 lime
200 ml water

heat all ingredients together, stirring constantly. As it comes close to boiling, it will appear to curdle, but just keep stirring and after a few seconds of boiling it will come together to form a smooth paste. Set aside to cool. You can make this hotter or milder, to taste, or add brown sugar or treacle to sweeten it, thin it down with more water or thicken it with more peanut butter,  or replace the water with coconut milk - it can be different every time you make it. Tamarind juice and - if you can face it- blachan are interesting additions.

I'm joining in with Random Recipes at Belleau Kitchen

 

 

Crunchy Pesto and Mozzarella Baked Mushrooms

The full recipe for this can be found on page 15 of the May issue of Good Food magazine. Large mushrooms are topped with a mixture of mozzarella, mascarpone, pesto and lemon rind, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and baked.

We ate these with home made rye bread and a green salad with tomatoes and avocado

A delicious and colourful meal - and absolutely crammed with vitamins too!

Two for the price of one

This week the challenge at CD Sundays is Through the Window. I  printed out a sheet of Jeremy Fisher toppers and two co-ordinating background papers from a freebie CD I got from Create and craft, a compilation of highlights from the Crafters companion Beatrix Potter series.

The topper sheet had two window-related pictures on it, one of Jeremy climbing out through his window and one of him basking on the windowsill reading his newspaper, and I couldn't decide which to use - so I used both!

The blue pearls I added to the blue card were actually natural ones that I coloured with peel off pens. I never seem to be able to find gems or pearls the right colour and my trusty peel off pens often save the day!

Meal Planning Monday April 11th

First a little look back at last week. Monday's Mozzarella and Pesto Stuffed mushrooms were a great hit - I'll be posting more about them later in the week but here's a photo to whet your appetite.

Tuesday's Mac'n'hock-aroni cheese was nice enough but not as nice as my own version of a classic macaroni cheese, so I'll probably not bother to make it again. The game casserole was, as usual, rich and unctuous and there was enough left for a weekend lunch which was a bonus. The star of the dishes I cooked last week was the Mexican Veg hash, which changed from the recipe in the magazine to one of my own, which you can read about here.

I have to thank everybody who has featured lasagne on their menu plans over the last few weeks - I'd not made it for months and months so it was a great treat to tuck in to.
Mark cooked on Saturday, two brilliant courses. I won't give away any secrets but the details will be on his blog on Wednesday and Friday - he usually posts late afternoon.
Finally last night's roast chicken. We usually buy a small free range organic bird but as I wanted to have meat left over for at least one meal, possibly two, I picked up a bargain large bird - a 2kg one for £6 - in the supermarket. It was a rather disappointing dry, tasteless bird. It's good to know that if were ever in straitened circumstanced we could  feed ourselves so cheaply, but I think we'd need to do a lot to improve the flavour if we had to buy chickens like that regularly. Plain roasting just doesn't bring out the best in them!

Now where was I? Oh yes, enough of last week, I'd better move on to THIS week.

Monday Chicken and mushroom pie with Brussels sprouts, carrots and new potatoes. I'll  make stock with the carcase and there should be enough meat left for one more meal.
Tuesday Chicken, ham and leek risotto using the last of the chicken and the home made stock
Wednesday Lamb Brochettes with apricot and pine nut couscous
Thursday tofu satay
Friday fresh beef burgers with home made onion bread rolls
Saturday/Sunday Mark cooking one day, the other day Nigel Slater's Pork and Beans

What are you eating this week? Come along and share your plans over at At Home With Mrs M

Lime and Black

This week's Less is More challenge is a colour challenge, using the colours Lime and Black.

My card today is so simple there really isn't anything to say about it, apart from one thing - sticking the delicate die cut down. I used tiny dots of tacky glue on the larger areas, but still ended up with some of it showing.

I've tried glue pens (they drag and tear the delicate areas and never seem to make a firm hold), spray adhesive (it gets everywhere, on the front of the die cut as well as the back, not to mention all over me!), Xyron (getting it off the backing strip means the delicate parts tear) and sticky dots (again, they drag and tear the delicate areas). The result is that I hardly ever use this beautiful die. If anyone can suggest an adhesive that actually WORKS on something this fragile, I'd be very grateful!

Mexican Veggie Hash - my version

If you read my Meal Planning Monday post last week,  you will see that Thursday night's dinner was to be Mexican Veggie Hash from the Good Food magazine.

However I got home tired and hungry, opened the cupboard and found that I didn't have the right ingredients after all. So I made up a dish of my own, partly inspired by the recipe, partly by the ingredients I had to hand and partly by a breakfast dish called Chasse which I first read about in The Pauper's Cookbook by Jocasta Innes.

This makes a main course for two hungry people or a light lunch for four.

Jane's Veggie Hash

1 medium onion, finely chopped
350g cooked, halved tiny new potatoes
1 small can sweetcorn
1 large can red kidney beans
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 large tomatoes, diced
4 medium eggs
1 ripe avocado, chopped
1 tbs light olive oil and a small knob of butter
½ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp dried oregano

Fry the onions in butter until soft  in a wide, shallow pan with a lid then add the potatoes and fry until browned.  Stir in the garlic and spices and cook for 1-2 minutes longer. Mix in the drained, rinsed beans and corn and heat through gently, then stir in the diced tomato. Make four hollows in the mixture and slide an egg into each, then cover and cook until the eggs are set to your preference- I like mine very hard which takes about 7 minutes. Sprinkle over the avocado and serve.

I'm joining in Mrs M's Recipe Link Party