Food on Friday #5 Grasshopper Bark (sans Grasshopper's)

 

-Here's a little surprise for you!

- Chocolate.

- I can't eat it anymore, but it just looks so darn pretty! haha Chocolate and mint are some of my favourite flavours, and one night whilst perousing pinterest (!) I stumbled over this ingenious concoction. Borrowed from here.

- It didn't last long in our fridge.

 
- She's pretty simple really!

1. Do some crazy origami with some greaseproof paper inside your roasting tin!

2. Melt one bar of white chocolate over a bain marie, once melted, remove from the heat and stir in a few drops of peppermint flavouring and sufficient green colouring to turn the chocolate a nice shade of grasshopper green! - Pour into your prepared tin an allow to set.

3. Melt one bar of milk or dark chocolate in the same manner as the white, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Whilst cooling, chop up a handful of after eight mints (or Tekkies alternative if yer cheap like me).

4. Pour the slightly cooled chocolate over the white, and sprinkle on your massacred mints. 

5. Allow to cool.

No here's the fun bit, unfold your creation!




Now chop it up. Keep it in the fridge; and chomp on it whilst reading the latest novel!
 

Food on Friday #4 Vegan Coconut Ice Cream

Being Vegan doesn't mean you have to give up ice-cream! You just have to get a little inventive. . . . But Vegan ice-cream, doesn't mean you have to be Vegan!

I'm currently an accidental vegan, but I don't mind too much, I'm enjoying eating foods I probably would never have come accross otherwise. There really is a vast variety to choose from. I got home the other night and the boy had made me quasadillas with quorn mince, yum! anyway,

Here is my take on coconut vegan ice-cream. Enjoy. (and I know it's the end of summer, but in our household you eat ice-cream all year round, whether you like it or not!)

Take one tin of Coconut Milk, and one tin of Coconut Cream ( you don't have to use coconut cream, it works with just the milk, but the texture is closer to 'real' ice-cream with the coconut cream) 

  Measure out 600ml of soya milk (I know, some crazy substances are going into this, trust) 

   
In a small dish, add 1tbsp of arrowroot powder to a splash of soya milk, stir well and set aside for later.

  To the 600ml of soya milk, add 1/2 cup of brown sugar, stir until mostly dissolved and transfer entire mixture to a pan. Heat gently until sugar is entirely dissolved then stir in the arrowroot mixture, bring pan to the boil continuously stirring. When boiling point is reached the mixture will be thick like this (now turn off the heat!) 

   
stir in the Coconut Cream and the Coconut Milk and leave to cool. Once significantly cool either transfer into containers to freeze stirring hourly until frozen, or (my favourite method!) bung it in your parents' ice-cream maker, wait an hour and then devour! 

 

Food on Friday #2 Savoury Kale Cheesecake!

- I love brunch! who doesn't love brunch? when you can be really lazy, do things in your own time. It is the perfect saturday!

- I made this "cheesecake" - which is more or less a quiche, for a very special brunch!, it is my Granddad's 81'st birthday tomorrow so I decided to treat him to a yummy brunch.

 - Obviously there will be other things to eat, a selection of cheese and ham and salami, various breads, cinnamon rolls (coming next week!), croissants and (of course) cake! haha.

 - Anyway, whatever your saturday holds, I hope it is a good one, and I hope you all get your breakfasts' in bed!

Combine 8oz of Plain Flour with 4oz of butter- process in the food processor until they resemble bread crumbs 

with the processor still running add warm water (about 1 tbsp) until the pastry forms a clump and lumps around the machine (it will combine itself) (of course you can do this by hand, which is also dead easy, I just like to do it this way) roll out pastry on a floured surface, and line quiche lorraine dish 

chop up two handfull's of kale, 1 onion, 1 chilli, add 1tbsp of rosemary, 1tbsp of basil and 1tbsp of dried chilli flakes

 In a jug combine 8oz of soft cheese with 6 eggs, 2oz of grated sharp cheddar and 1 tbsp of milk

 layer the prepared ingredients into the pastry, and fill up the case with the egg mix. bake at 180 degreees c for 35 minutes 

 

Food on Friday #1 - Flourless Cake

- I am well aware I post quite a few of my adventures in the kitchen to my blog!

- Although I don't want this to turn into an entirely food obsessed blog, I still like to share my escapades! Therefore I thought I would start "Food on Friday" in order to share recipes!

 - As many of you who have been reading for a while may know, I have quite a few health problems! haha! - one of the newest dilemmas for me to overcome has been the strict dietary requirements, I've had to adapt the way I cook to suit my needs, so here is a recipe for a flourless cake, which just so happens to be very low-carb aswell!

 recipe found here.

   

I took 1/2 cup butter and softened in the microwave

4 1/2 ounces almond flour were then whizzed in the food processor with 1/4 cup dessicated coconut. 

I then added 1 1/4 cup granular Splenda (or equivalent of sugar if needed)

Stir in 1 beaten egg 

Then add 1 tablespoon lemon zest, from one large lemon!,1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence,1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Spread into a baking tin lined & greased with tin-foil 

( I used the small IKEA roasting tin- you all know this is my favourite tin ever!! seriously, buy one) 

Bake at 160ºC for 15-20 minutes. 

*These keep really well in the fridge and also freeze well

 

1 :1 :1 Coconut Creams

- It's been a while. Life always seems to get in the way.

- I'm currently employed on a 0-hours contract (to enable me to find a new job), but it has left me with quite a bit more time on my hands than I typically like.

 - I felt like sharing something nice, sweet, and summery! So here you go, coconut creams, with blueberries or rhubarb (It's recently been brought to my attention that there is no rhubarb in America?)

- Inspired by this Good Food recipe

- I speak for no one but myself when I say, I really love reading through people's recipe's posted online, but  I never really get inspired unless I see the steps (That's why I always put them in, when I can!)

1. Start by dissolving 2 tbsps of powdered gelatine in 2 tbsps of boiling water (you can use leaf gelatine, but I've never done so, I believe it works on the same principles, 2 sheets in 2tbsps of cold water, but don't hold me to it!) 

2. In a pan bring to the boil 200ml of double cream and 400ml of skimmed milk, add 1 tbsp of coconut milk powder (just one of those things we always have lying around! - but you can do it with coconut milk!)

3. Add a few drops of vanilla extract and the now-soaked gelatine

4. let cool slightly before decanting into serving glasses ( I used these colourful cocktail glasses, because they are of a good size - and they look super pretty!)

5. While the creams are in the fridge setting, brew a cup of herbal tea! (This is cranberry & orange) 

This step is not desperately needed, I was just faffing now!

6. Measure out 2 tbsps of blueberries (This is VERY approximate,  I just bashed a few into a ramakin!, you could use frozen too)

7. Take a bit of you tea, and bathe the blueberries!

8. Microwave for a minute! (Full power 750mw)

9. Take some rhubarb and slice into inch long segments (America : Take note!)

10. Heat over a low heat with a splash of water until tender - add sugar to taste (or, sweetner : whatever!)

(Forced, or early rhubarb is the pinkest - therefore the prettiest, it is also slightly sweeter)

Spoon the compote's on top of the now set creams

Refridgerate a little more before serving

Enjoy!

 

10 :1 Granola!

- Hello everybody, so, it's been a while!

- My life has been SO BUSY! I really don't know where my days have gone!

- Being that Im the ridiculously busy person I am in the morning, (i.e. I can't be bothered to get up in the morning on time!) I never really eat breakfast as well as I should -

- So recently I have been making a really big effort to at least eat something in the morning, which is where I discovered my love for Granola.

- I was also sat down one evening after working all day and I was talking to Pete (The favourite man in my life) who was mocking my choice in food, saying anyone else would just have a bacon sandwich and I have to go be ridiculous and want granola. . . you know what? I don't think it's that weird!! I like it!

- Long story short, he mocked, said it was easier to make a sandwich, I decided it would be fun to make granola. . . and here we are!

- The original recipe was found ** here **
buut I decided with a few tweaks it would be better!

- I used chopped prunes and a tropical fruit mix instead of the berries, I also changed the way it bakes, instead of baking with the fruit in, I find this can make it a little bitter (I really don't know why, but it does!) I add the fruit afterward.

- As a side note, I've been watching rubbish on youtube tonight, (no comments required, there was nothing on tv!) and I found this video. . . I really like her attitutde, a lot of people I know will start a fight out of nothing, so it was really nice to hear someone say, you know what, it isn't worth it!

- Apart from that. . . I hope everyone is well. and, Happy March!

Some interesting Factoids This Week!

❅Trains scare me, for good reason, this is so sad ❅The snow is back! after a light covering last night the mountains are looking really pretty ❅ This is odd, because here in town it has been super sunny and warm! ❅ seee ---> PRETTY ❅Angola and Andorra are NOT the same place, well done CNN.❅ Shopping online will be the death of me! ❅ I'm very against drugs. - This is just through the result of knowing some pretty heavy addicts in the past ❅I don't like how drugs are prescribed, and then afterwards the side effects are noted. DEATH is a pretty big side effect!

8 :1 Hairdye Remover Review (Scott Cornwall Colour B4)

- I am going to say, there are very few products that I believe in, that I think will actually work when they have such LARGE claims. I especially didn't believe in this product. So, these are totally my opinions.

-Ever dyed your hair and then thought 'oh sh*t!'?'

- I've done it, we've all done it! Trust me, my hair has been many colours! The hardest to get out? RED! If you're not sure, don't do it!!

- My friend, has been adamant that she will not be dying her hair since I have known her. Then one day - she turns around and surprises us all and says 'I'm going to dye my hair', now my friends know I have dyed my hair a LOT, so she asks me what I think, to which I reply 'you should probably only use a semi-permenant colour, I mean, If you really don't like it . . at least you won't have to wait for it to grow out. . .'

- Did she take my advice? did she 'eck as like!!!

- So she dyes her hair this gorgeous purple colour. Not in your face purple. . but a dark brown that gleamed in the light. I loved it. She hated it. Twenty-something years of staring into the mirror and having a nutmeg colour looking back at her had marred her vision (or something to that effect)

- Therefore, we set about trying to remove it with something called Scott Cornwall Colour B4 Hair Colour Remover Extra. (moouuuuuuthfull!)

- I do know of a girl I went to school with who had some luck with this product, but the reviews are all over the place, with some people screaming it's praises and some wanting to bury it in the soil. Salons? yea, we could go down that route. . . but who has the money? (says the girl who has just had a full head of foils done - woohoo! no more dark blonde! another time Han, another time!)

- I know in America, they seem to have a lot more choice when it comes to things like this, but here, we had the choice of this. or err this!

- With that in mind we did not have high hopes.

- The mixture, when mixed together, smells like cat urine. (and it lingers, every time you wash your hair for the next fortnight, it's going to re-smell like cat urine.)

- Our bathroom stank, our entire house stank, the kind of stink that makes your eyes water and you want to stick cotton wool balls up your nose!

- Clingfilming of heads is actively encouraged! allllriighhhhtttt! (no, I'm not 8, I just act it!)

- Buuuuuuut, after hours of applying, stinking-out, and rubbing, if we are completely honest, it got her hair back to it's normal colour. If a little redder to begin with, over the next couple of washes, it almost completely came out and her hair is back where she started. With NO visible death to the existing hair. (i.e. doesn't feel like straw, like it does when you bleach colour out)

- I feel the need to also mention, that this is for the removal of hair DYE, not bleach, I mean if you've bleached your hair, you're stuck with it, you haven't added colour to your natural hair, you've removed it, and it's quite likely you may end up looking like this. . .

(I learnt my lesson a LONG time ago)

7 :1 Hey You! Whaddya Goin'a Do With All That Turkey!?! : Turkey Pizza!

- I don't know about you, buuuuuuut we ALWAYS have waaaayyyy too much turkey left over at the end of Christmas!

- And the reason this is a day early - is that traditionally my family has dinner on Christmas Eve, so Christmas day is set free for making new things with Turkey!

- Once we have expired Turkey Soup, Turkey Cobbler, Turkey Curry, Turkey Salad. . . . . What do you do with the leftovers? Well I present you with. . . Turkey Pizza.

- One of my favourite Pizza Places in the whole world, Pizza House (ever in the area - trot on, it's a beaut!) Has the best Pizza that is created called BBQ Chicken, and this is the Christmas homage to that!

- Most ridiculously easy thing in the world! We create the base any way we please, (Here's a good one!) (but you can also use the dough from the flat breads I made here!) we chuck some tomato puree and sage on, some Turkey, some cheese and some BBQ sauce! We bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 190 °!

- Devour with family!

- Happy days guys!

5 :3 Interior Decorating With Hanna! (Sensible, Obviously) #2

Tie Dye Curtains?! - Yea go on then - (Have since been asked if I'm a hippy more than once, but I have no problems with this!)

- I just have this thing with colours . . . "If you have a positive environment. .  " and all that jazz! - you should see my kitchen knives. . .neon!

- This is how I created a spiral design on each curtain.  . the spirals are actually about two thirds up, which I was quite surprised at, I didn't know I was that good at measuring!

- I let them set overnight, allthough you can leave them for much longer, which if I did it again I probably would leave them a couple of days. It's a little worrying because the colours begin to bleed and you think it will end up one big mess. . . you'll surprise yourself!

- The quality of this picture is appalling, the yellow shows up as beige (and please excuse my dress hanging in the background! I'm apparenately too daft to crop pictures, which is ok, because if you look carefully at the picture of the washing machine you can see my face! haha. concentration 101!!)

-But the point of the picture is to give you a rough idea of the type of pattern it creates!

- I do have alternative curtains for this room, when I get bored. . . but I think it makes a change, being that all of our walls are painted magnolia!

- Anyway - toodles for now!

4 :6 Interior Decorating With Hanna! (Sensible, Obviously)

- So, as you may know (I've been banging on about it enough) I'm moving house! in two days!! . . . and when you are moving house, I know you start to think about the practical things like where are you going to put this bit of furniture etc etc. (I'm now panicing about this, I have no idea where to put anything, and, I've packed. nothing!)

- Not me, no not me, the first thing I think about when I'm moving house is that it MUST. HAVE. BUNTING!

- I know I know, not logical, nor is it very practical, nor is it very useful! but it's so pretty, and there is just something about bunting that makes me love it so much!!!

- So I went to the market and picked up this

- I know you can buy bunting - but let's just look at suspect numero uno. Urban Outfitters (totally not dissing, I love UO and as I'm sat here writing this I'm wearing one of their *more expensive* tops!) they currently have two lots of bunting for sale.

- The Rob Ryan Bunting which is 5 metres and costs £25 (who's Rob Ryan when it's at home!?) and the Scrumptious Bunting which is 3 metres and costs £10, and is made of 'shower proof paper' and ribbon.

- Now where else would you go to buy bunting?! I don't even know, I just think I can do better! (and now I know I can!)

-I also picked up as much tape as my £4 would let me (just short of 11 metres!)

- I know it looks a little complicated, but was really just one evening of sitting sewing whilst watching the television (bridezilla's - in case you were wondering!) all cut (three different fabrics 1 purple gingham 1 coloured polka dot and 1 floral - my mother thought I was going insane and that they needed to be colour coordinated, I informed her she was incorrect and that mis-matched was the way forward!) then sewed (we really didnt even need to pin them) then turned inside rightside out and onto the tape! (that was the bit that took the longest!)

- Bunting is awesome!

- This is obviously not in my new house yet - I just wanted to look at it because it was sooo pretty!!!

- And I have 11 metres of bunting, for about a tenner, beat that 'scrumptious' bunting and your 'shower proof paper'!!!

3 :4 The Best Homemade Chewy Cookies!

- I'm not even going to beat around the bush here. These are amazing. The best cookies ever, just chewy enough, just firm enough, just sweet enough. Perfect!

- 2 cups of plain flour

- 1 tsp of Bicarbonate of soda

- 2 eggs

- 1 1/2 cup of butter melted.

- 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar

- 1 cup of granulated sugar

- Handfull of butter tablet roughly chopped, & handfull of chocolate roughly chopped

-  15 minutes at 170°c

- Make sure they are well spaced on the greased baking sheet, because these will grow!

3 :3 Homemade Ginger Syrup for Ginger Beer!

- Nothing better than some ice cold ginger beer on a hot muggy day (muggy, humid, sticky, blegh, when is the snow coming?!)

1. Whizz 1 root of ginger in the food processor

2. Add the peel of 1 lime and 1 lemon along with 4 cups of sugar 6 cups of water and the juice of the lemon.

3. Slowly dissolve the sugar over a low heat, then bring to the boil, turn off the heat. Leave to infuse for at least 15 minutes, then let completely cool

4. Bottle it up all pretty like!

5. Serve over ice, with a measure of vodka (or not if there are children present), and topped up with agua con gas. (star shaped ice cubes make everything better!)