Tripple chocolate chip cookies

Amazing, only way to describe these:

Beef in black bean sauce

Home mad Lasagne and garlic bread

I've been complimented on my lasagne by a few people, I have to say I do think it's amazing myself. This time I also made some garlic bread to go with.

Tiramisu

Made this for Brian... he said he liked it but I wouldn't know what it was like as I dislike anything coffee flavoured

Blondie

Not quite a brownie, but still as good.

Chocolate puddings

The ones with the liquid centre? Mmm oh yes.

Chicken Caeser salad

Everything was self made, dressing and croutons.

Chocolate cake

Sticky Toffee Pudding

So good I've made it a few times

Nigella's quick chilli

Taken from Nigella Express from what I can remember this was lovely!

Chocolate chip muffins

All I can say is these were amazing!

Cajun chicken with yogurt dip and salad

Spicy sausage pasta

Because I haven't updated for so long and have pictures from quite literally months ago, some of these entries will just be photos until I get to the more recent ones and I apologise for this!

Spiced chicken kebabs with Pilau rice

Bit different to what I usually make, I mean I've tried Korma and Tikka Masala but this dish was dry with no sauce and I've never really made a successful rice dish before. I do like this dish but the rice was missing cashews and pistachios. We had onion bajis and naan bread to go with this, mmm.

Quesilladas

I got this recipe from my Nigella Express book. Both Brian and I quite like Mexican food but these are a bit different from your normal fajitas and burritos. All quesilladas are, are tortillas filled with different food such as ham, cheese, jalepenos etc - we had that combination and coriander. You then fold the tortillas in half and grill them (I used the George Foreman so both sides were grilled nicely). Once cooked, cut into portions and serve!

Yum, yum:

Cupcakes

This post requires no words, only pictures:

Marinated steak with some form of potato?

Both these recipes are from Delia's how to cook two. The steak was marinated in red wine, Worcestershire sauce and garlic all day in the fridge. It was b-e-a-utiful! The potatoes were layered with onions and rosemary and a veg stock/milk sauce combo over the top with butter to crisp the top potato layer. I quite liked the potatoes, they were something different (note to self: less rosemary next time) and the steak was divine as I've already mentioned. Think I'll make it for mum when I go home at easter.

Chicken with tarragon

This was from one of the BBC's good food 101 recipe books. To be honest with you I wasn't all that keen, I discovered that I don't care much for tarragon! I'd probably substitute it for basil if I were to make it again. Still, my presentation skills make it look alright!

Steak casserole with cheese dumplings.

I simply love casseroles and I'm quite sad that the weather and seasons are changing which mean less stodge and more light food. Casseroles are gorgeous if done right, and that doesn't take much doing really! This recipe was one from a new book of mine: From My Mother's Kitchen which I bought on a recent weekend at home. It's full of good old recipes and some yummy looking deserts too!

Anyway so the recipe is enough to feed a small army to be quite honest, 8 dumplings for two people is quite over the top but I believe only one was not eaten! (Brian had 5, I had 3 small ones). Brian did say to me that he preferred how I usually flavoured the casserole as opposed to this one but the dumplings were a winner.

So here it is in all of it's glory:


(I did take pics of our full meal but it didn't look as pretty once on the plate!)

Sausage rolls

Never really made baked or cooked with pastry before so I thought I'd try my hand at sausage rolls. Brian ate most of them as I'm only a fan when they're fresh from the oven. Very tasty though!

Scones

I love scones, they're so English. I made some following a recipe in my humongous cookery book. They were gorgeous, just perfect. I upset Brian as he'd tried to make them and failed.

Before the scones went in the oven:


Freshly baked scones:

Birthday cake!

Behold the amazing birthday cake!

Steak sandwich and caramelised onions

Mmm this was tonight's dinner and it was gorgeous. Steak, caramelised onions and mayonnaise on toasted ciabatta served with salad and coleslaw.

My caramelised onions:


Nom:

Truffles!

I decided to make truffles as a surprise for Brian for valentines. I asked Claire for her recipe as she makes gorgeous truffles but I won't reveal her secrets. The truffles came out pretty well but I still think Claire has more skill to this one!

Anyway here's the truffle 'mix' being melted together:



The final result, yum!:

Macaroni cheese

Macaroni cheese is proper stodge food. I always make too much of it and never manage to eat it all. It's really cheap and easy to make which is also a bonus.

Italian Beef stew

This was tonight's dinner. I like casseroles so I thought I would try a stew instead. Really simple and quick to make which was a bonus. I served it with garlic potatoes and carrots.

Creamy tomato pasta

I loved this, gorgeous sauce. A lovely mix between cream and tomato. Brian said he wanted meat in it but I liked it just the way it was, with parmesan on top.

Cake

Hmmm not so convinced with this one, the white chocolate mudcake was gorgeous. This came out disastrous but nothing that a load of ganache icing couldn't fix...

Soda Bread

The second result of my baking day yesterday was my Soda bread. Oddly enough I don't think I'd even heard of it until somebody on a forum posted photos of some they had made and then I remembered there being a recipe for it in my Rachel Allen book. Anyway, it's gorgeous if I do say so myself.


Before going in the oven:


Fresh out of the oven:

Cross section (if you look close enough you can see the steam):

And this is what we enjoyed for our dinner last night: