*Greek yogurt *Runny honey *Whole hazel nuts
I make my own yogurt so I have to remember to put it on in its giant thermos flask 7 hours before hand at least.
I just spoon some of the thick yogurt into wine glasses, throw on some of the hazel nuts and drizzel the honey over the top.
Then serve.
This works well as a breakfast or a desert and I first ate a version of it in Greece in 2002 funnily enough.
In April we went to see Daren Brown in Southend. The Theatre had a resturant and we had arranged to go there – this turned out to be a grave grave error. The staff were rude to us for turning up at opening time and told us to go away.
When we came back they sat us in the corner next to radiators that were so hot that they melted the menu that my friend put between her and it as it was burning her. We didn’t get served for an age – I’m not talking about the standard 20 minute wait here and we told them that we were there for the show. We were running dangerously low on time so asked them to bring the coffee that came with the set meal with the deserts. They forgot – oh no they hadn’t forgotten they just hadn’t turned the coffee machine on yet. The deserts were so rock hard in places we couldn’t get our forks in and the only reason we paid – without getting our coffees and being presented with inedible food, was that we were desperate to see Darens performance.
I am never ever eating there again – I have personally never seen something so dreadful and call itself a resturant. The shame of it was I was impressed with the rest of the theatre and the bars and the veiws etc…
The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth metaphorically and physically. I can only hope they have since improved as we complained at the time.
I like to add Tabasco suace to certain dishes but until I met my husband I had never had it and he had a tiny little bottle full of this gloopy looking baige stuff that he had had for years – I steadily used it up by adding it to baked beans and things so imagine my suprise when I went to buy a new bottle!
The new stuff was a nice reddy brown colour and really quiet a thin liquid – I also got it in a large bottle which is about the size of a small tomato ketch-up. On the box however I found several recipes and a url – I thought they might have online recipes and lo! that is exactly what they have. You might want to have a little looky at the site – I’m going to add it to the links as well as I think its a useful resource.
This is a cheat meal that is really very quick and conventient.
*1 jar of Uncle Ben’s Oriental Sweet and Sour Sauce Extra Pinnaple *Tesco’s value chunky chicken breast *1 cup of rice
Cook the rice and then put the suarce into a deep frying pan, this is an expensive suace but it is jam packed full of carrots and pepper and of course pinnaple – it pretty much is sweet and sour vegetables on its own!
I then threw in the chicken breast and stired it around until it was all thourally hot – the chicken was chicken breast and was already cooked – it would have been cheaper to cook my own chicken but my husband hats the smell so this seemed like a good compromise.
I then served the rice and sweet’n’sour chicken up for me and my dad. I would say that it was a bit too much for two people but that between three it would not have been enough but add in another dish – say vegitables in black bean suace and it would have been perfect!
I find that in the summer salad is a main stay of both my lunch and dinner meals but salad is something that it is easy to become bored with and disatisfied. It can also end up getting expensive.
I have the luxury of a garden, which though not mine I am allowed to grow things in. I have vegitable patches which tend to see alot of action. But half of one bed is from early spring pretty much taken up with leaf salad.
There are many many different types of lettice, rocket and spinache you can grow along with certian varieties of mustard and cress which grow fine big leaves just right for munching on. The seeds are not that expensive and for the cost of 3-5 shop bought lettices you can have continual lettice all summer.
I tend to by mixes as I like just having a jumble of leaves which can be harvested young and grow up again. I also grow some varieties to maturity for that different crisp taste you get. Living where I do in Gloucestershire I also have access to lots of wild leaves some of which I was shown how to harvest as a child. I like adding dandilion leaves, hawthorn and wild garlic/ransom leaves plus things like sorrel – if you don’t know what any of these look like and want to know you might find something in your local country park – when I lived in essex me and Dad would go on special edible food walks there were even nettle craft sessions but I had unfortunatly moved before I could go on them. This was all going on in Dagenham which is very close to London (some would say is London) so even people in built up areas may have a chance of doing my wild leaf salad.
Allotements are a good idea and can pay for themselves but lets face it they require time and effort and in some areas are hard to find. But I think that growing your own salad is so cheap and easy that it is a good thing for everyone to grow. I even grow them on the window sill during the winter and know people in flates who do this to get their herbs and salad.
The none leaf salad is a bit more tricky but doable as well – I will hopefully get round to some experiments on how easy these are to grow inside. Again I tend to grow things like carrots, radishes and spring onions though I have so far failed at cucumber and peppers!
The other salad thing that is easy to do is bean sprouts of various types – you pretty much need a dark cupboard water and jar for this and they are lovely in salads, sandwitches and some even go in stir fries!
I am even lucky enough to have water cress in the garden, but again land cress, mustard and radish can be grown on tissue paper until about 15cm high cut off and put in salads and sandwitches. These save the penies taste good and are supposed to be better for you that all the shop bought stuff!
Sorry I just felt I should share the wonder of salad with every body.
Microwave a sweet potato for between 5-10 minutes depending on size. Make a slite along it but try not to actually cut it in half and fill the slit with cream cheese.
The contrast between the hot and cold is nice plus the taste and texture contrasts are pleasant I find.
One my favorite snacks is to get the out sticks of a celery was them and stuff them full of cream cheese, or cream cheese with chives. You then just munch this stick.
This also works well as a party food I have found.
In Cheltenham there is sometimes a French Market and me and my Husband found this lovely cheese stall that had an interesting green cheese. We went to look and had samples of this cheese with sage in it and came away with a block to eat with crackers.
Interestingly my friend tells me there is an English version called Sage Derby so I am now on the hunt for that as the French market is rare.
*onion *cucumber *tomato *Fresh corriandar
Chop the onion really fine Chop the cucumber to the same size Cut open the tomato and remove the seeds – it needs to be very firm for this, then chop the flesh into small pieces to match the cuccumber Pick the corriander wash it and finially chop Mix them all to gether Serve with warm popadoms, yogurt and mint dip, chutney and lime pickel – great as a starter
Muffin Pizzas *3 English breakfast muffins *1/4 of a jar of Marrisons Better Value pasta suace *Grated cheddar *Waffer thin ham
Salad *Sorrel *Sweet Sicily *Mint *Salad bowl lettice *Soft leaf lettice *Leaves from the Suttons Speedy Seeds Leaf Salad Californian Mix this included Land Cress, Red Russian Kale, Red Chard, Salad Rocket and Spinach
