For some there is therapy, for others there is chocolate

What has happened to Cadbury Milk Tray?  I was so excited to receive that large purple box on valentine day, I was actually salivating at the thought of getting my teeth into their delicious centres but what a disappointment.

The most obvious change is the coating used to wrap each centre.  I don't know what has been used but it is not Cadbury milk chocolate.  The coating has more in common with the cheapest, waxiest, cooking faux-chocolate covering than it has with a Cadbury chocolate button.  And don't tell me it is my taste buds because I do not have this problem with a flake or a bar of dairy milk.

As for the centres, where do I start?  English chocolate recipes for the English please. If I want to eat American nauseously sugary, bland concoctions, then I will import them for myself.

Let me real off the disappointing contents of the 360g box for you;

1. Hazelnut Swirl - the fact that Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate has NOT been used, makes this lump of wax inedible.  This options is as far away from a UK milk chocolate as it is possible to get.
2. Surprise Parcel- well this was a surprise.  White 'chocolate' covered in 'milk chocolate'.  A better description would be white bland wax covered with brown bland wax.  If you expect to bite into a creamy milky bar centre, forget it.  I have no idea which European country is responsible for this but it is not based on a UK recipe.  How have Cadbury fallen so far from the target?
3. Apple Crunch - where the heck did this come from?  No flavour at all.  I anticipated a tangy English brambly apple but got nothing.  What my mouth received was a crunchy sugar grit, not white chocolate as promised, and no discernible flavour.  Apparently, this one was specially crafted to celebrate 100 years of Milk Tray.  Can I ask crafted by who?  Do Cadbury no longer employ tasters?  Did someone switch an approved recipe with one from the junk box?  There was nothing wrong the Turkish delight it replaced.  
4. Orange Truffle - misleading.  A truffle is traditionally a fresh cream ganache but this Cadbury orange truffle centre is quite a firm, orange flavoured disappointment.  Had the centre harked back to the original orange oil based Terry's Chocolate Orange, the misuse of the word truffle could have been forgiven but unfortunate, this centre comes from the Polish artificial chocolate orange era.
5. Strawberry Temptation.  Okay but not the best.  The centre is less of a strawberry fondant cream and more of pale strawberry flavoured nose-bleed.  The consistency just was not there. 
6. Salted Caramel Charm.  Why?  There is nothing wrong with a traditional English toffee.  If it is not broken, do not fix it.  Salted caramel everything is not a move forward.  Plus, this is a hard toffee and definitely not a caramel as described.
7. Perfect Praline.  The Belgians have nothing to fear from Cadbury.  This one is an uninspiring, gritty let down.  It is neither perfect nor a true praline.  Have Cadbury not heard of the Trade Description Act?
8. Caramel Softy.  This is okay at a pinch but what ever charm the centre may have is destroyed by the cheap chocolate substitute surrounding it.  Heads should roll at Cadbury.  
9. Fudge Duet.  I agree with the vanilla flavoured fudge description given in the guide, but challenge the 'covered with milk chocolate' part.
10. Truffle Heart.  Another trade description foul I am afraid.  Double whammy of wax unfortunately.     

Had my husband not have purchased these from a well know supermarket, I would have sworn this box came from a counterfeit, street market.  Boring box of bad - big valentine thumbs down rip off from Cadbury

Cadbury Milk Tray 360g

I have listened to all of the flapping from confectionery companies regarding a shortage of cocoa. However, there is no excuse for marketing rubbish such as these Milk Tray.  After all, lets face it,  the only reason there is a cocoa shortage is because cocoa farmers are switching to other, more profitable, crops.  Had those in the confectionery business offered farmers a fair price for their product, the farmers would not have been forced into taking such action.  Consumers are being sold shockingly substandard junk in order for incompetent managers to continue to rake in excessive remuneration, and so greedy shareholders get extreme returns, rather than a moderate one.

An egg today is better than a hen to-morrow. Benjamin Franklin

Eggs may not be a first choice for a family dinner but they are so reasonably priced it would be wrong not to consider them as a contender.  Now I appreciate a soft boiled egg with soldiers will not hit the right spot after a hard day at work, so I was thinking bigger.
A traditional English omelette served with wedges or maybe new potatoes and a salad is worth entertaining, but how about really pushing the boat out with a Spanish Frittata?
Equally, a Spanish Tortila is both satisfying as well as economic.

Classic Spanish Tortilla
1 large onion
4 tablespoons olive oil or sunflower oil
4 potatoes, around 500 g -  thinly sliced
5 large eggs, beaten and seasoned

Serves 2-3 
Cut the onion in half, then slice thinly length-ways and separate into slithers.  Heat 3-tbsp of oil in a 20-cm frying pan.
Add the potatoes to the pan in layers, alternating with onion slithers.  Cook for 10-15 minutes over a medium to low heat, turning occasionally until just tender.  Remove the potatoes and onion from the pan and drain in a colander, reserving any oil.  Put the eggs and vegetables in a bowl and mix gently.
Heat the reserved oil in the pan, adding a little extra if necessary.  Add the potato and egg mixture, spreading it evenly in the pan.  Cook over a medium heat until the bottom is golden brown and the top is almost set.
Put a plate on top of the frying pan and invert to remove the tortilla.  Carefully slide the almost cooked tortilla back into the pan, browned side up, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Serve with either a mixed salad or cooked vegetables of choice.

Field Mushroom Tortilla
20 g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cooked potatoes, diced
200 g flat field mushrooms
1 garlic clove, crushed
125 g baby spinach
4 eggs
100 ml milk

Serves 4-6
Heat the butter and olive oil together in a frying pan, add the potatoes and brown on all sides. Transfer to a plate, then cook the mushrooms for 5 minutes, adding a little more oil if necessary. Transfer to another plant, whilst returning the potato's back to the frying pan.  Sprinkle in the garlic, then add the mushrooms and spinach.
Mix the eggs and milk together, and season before pouring over the mushroom and potato mixture. Cover and cook gently for 5 minutes.
Pre-heat the grill to medium.  Pit the torilla under the grill for 6-8 minutes or until the top is golden.

Mushroom Tortilla

Sun-Dried Tomato Frittata
6 large eggs
8 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
1 tablespoon chopped sage leaves
50 g pitted black olives, sliced
50 g Parmesan, grated
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced

Serves 2-3

For an intense flavour, mix the tomatoes and sage into the eggs an hour before cooking.

Place the eggs, tomatoes, sage, olives, and Parmesan into a bowl and season.  Mix together gently.
Heat the oil in a 20-cm frying pan before adding the onion.  Cook over a low heat until soft and golden.  Increase the heat to medium, pour the egg mixture into the pa and stir just long enough to combine with the onion.  Cook over a medium to low heat until the base of the frittata is golden and top has almost set.
Pre-heat the grill.
Slide the pan under the grill to finish cooking.  Alternatively, put a plate on top of the frying pan and invert to remove the tortilla.  Carefully slide the almost cooked tortilla back into the pan, browned side up, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Sun-dried tomato and olives Frittata

Just like in omelettes, you can combine almost any ingredients into a Frittata or Tortilla.  Try adding baby spinach, artichoke, Mozzarella, leek, goats cheese, feta, sausage, chorizo -  you get the idea.

Food is an important part of a balanced diet - Fran Lebowits

I understand that Stovies originates from Scotland, however, this recipe has travelled well.  The meat element may change from region to region, or the budget, but the base remains the same.

Sausage Stovies

Serves: 4 - 6

• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 454g beef sausages
• 1.5kg floury potatoes,(Maris Piper), chopped in quarters.
• 1 cube beef stock

Method

Prep:10min  ›  Cook:1hr30min  ›  Ready in:1hr40min 

1. Place onions, sausages in a pan and brown.  Add the potatoes and stock cube into the pan and cover with water.  Bring to the boil.
2. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until potatoes are starting to break up. Top up with water if the pot starts to look dry.
3. Stovies is ready when the vegetables are soft and the sauce is thick. Stir in a little corn flour if the sauce is too thin. Season before serving.

Tip - Use your favourite sausages but always buy the best quality you can afford.  Add any vegetables you have to hand to liven up the basic stock - leeks, carrots and swede all work well.

Scottish Corn-beef Stovies, also sometimes referred to as Corn-beef Hash

Serves: 4 

• 25g beef dripping (or oil if prefer)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 6 to 7 large potatoes
• 1 beef stock cube
• 1 tin corned beef
• pepper and herbs to taste

Method

Prep:10min  ›  Cook:35min  ›  Ready in:45min 

1. Melt beef dripping in a stock pan and add finely chopped onion.
2. While onions are cooking begin to peel and slice the potatoes. Keep occasionally checking the onions but you want to really cook them until they start to brown as this is what makes this recipe so tasty. Even if they burn do not worry, the burnt bits come off the pan as potatoes cook and enhance the overall taste.
3. When you are happy that onions are browned nicely add the sliced potatoes, then slowly add enough water to cover approximately three quarters of the potatoes, usually anything from 500ml to 1 litre. Add the crumbled stock cube and then open the tin of corned beef and add one large chunky slice (about a quarter of a tin) to the potatoes and onion. This really adds flavour to the potatoes as they cook.
4. Simmer until potatoes are softened, around 15 to 25 minutes depending on how thick you have cut potatoes. You want them to be just soft, not mushy. Occasionally prick the centre of a potato with a knife until it starts to go through.
5. When you are happy that potatoes are soft enough add the remaining diced corned beef and warm through. It can be served immediately, but I like to transfer it to an oven dish and put it in the oven at around 200 C / Gas 6 just long enough to add a crusty topping, around 20 minutes. I also create a crusty top by putting it under the grill for 5 minutes with the grill door closed. I add a bit of butter to the top, too.

Tip - Never add salt to Corned-beef Stovies, you really don't need it.  As with the sausage Stovies, there is limit to the vegetables you can use.

Just like Stovies, a basic tomato pasta sauce is extremely versatile.  Sausages or salami sliced into thin rounds turns this vegetarian meal into some uplifting and hearty for carnivores.  Cut the sausages into one inch chunks and the resulting meal resembles spaghetti meatballs, a favourite with children as well as adults.

“The heart of vegetarians is healed sooner than those of flesh-eaters.” ― Virchand Gandhi

Meat Free Monday with Fish on Friday

During the past twenty years, food producers and supermarkets have set about changing British eating habits, pushing more meat onto our plates along with high salt, high sugar, and high fat accompaniments. 

As I was growing up, my parents kept to the Fish on Friday Christian tradition although we did not have a Meat Free Monday.  I am a believer in colloquial customs, a believer in Old Wives Tales.  All of the modern dietary advice published today, all of the research into nutrition, and the only thing that has been proven is that our ancestors had gotten it right.  Consuming too much meat has always been expensive but those old wives also knew that too much of it was not good for the family. 

In the days before washing machines, Monday used to be wash day.  Washing the family linen was a hard, labour intensive chore.  Being sensible people, the housewives of the day prepared extra food on a Sunday ready to reheat and serve on a Monday.  Sunday’s left over mashed potato and cabbage, became Mondays reheated Bubble and Squeak and so do not be afraid to turn the clock back by enjoy meat free meals without going completely vegetarian.

Cheese has always been the poor man’s meat, making it a family budget staple.  Roasted onions in cheese sauce, cauliflower cheese as well as macaroni cheese, all make cheep meat free Monday meals.   Add roasted carrots/parsnips/sweet potato to bulk out the plate for pennies or even a 70p crusty supermarket loaf.  My personal favourite is a hot macaroni cheese with a cold crunchy side salad.

Creamy Baked Onions;

6 Medium Onions

100ml Double Cream

3 Bay Leaves

25g Hard Cheese (Parmesan if you have it)

1. Heat the oven to 200 c / Fan 180 c / Gas 6.  Peel and trim the roots of the onions but leave them whole.  Cook in a large pan of boiling water for 25 minutes until tender, then drain, reserving a little cooking water.
2. Season the cream and mix in 2 tbsp. of the onion water.  When the onions are cook enough to handle, slice each in half through the root.  Lay the onion halves, cut side down, in a large baking dish with the bay leaves.  Poor over the cream, scatter with cheese and bake for 25 minutes until the cream is bubbling and onions are just beginning to brown.

Serves 6

TIP – prepare the onions up to a day ahead, assemble the dish without the cheese, and then chill.  When wanted, add the cheese and bake. 

Vegetable Stew with Dumplings

Vegetable Casserole with Dumplings (January 2017 ASDA ingredients equate to 81p per portion)

1 tbsp. olive oil

350g shallot onions, peeled

2 leek, thickly sliced

½ swede, chopped into chunks

2 parsnip, quartered

350g Carrot

175g pearl barley

225ml white wine

1l vegetable stock

1 bay leaf

3 sprigs thyme

Small bunch parsley, finely chopped

For the dumplings

100g self-raising flour

50g unsalted butter

50g mature cheddar cheese, grated

2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1. Heat oil in a large casserole dish.  Add shallots and cook for 5-6 mins until starting to soften and brown.  Add leeks for 2 mins, and then stir in swede, parsnips, and carrots.
2. Pour in barley and wine, cook until wine has reduced by half.  Add stock, bay, thyme, parsley, and seasoning.  Cover pan, bring to the boil, and then simmer for 45 mins until barley and veg are tender.  Stir occasionally to stop it catching.
3. Meanwhile, make the dumplings.  Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.  Rub flour and butter together to form breadcrumbs.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Sprinkle over 2 tbsp. water, mix to form soft dough.  Divide into six and roll into balls.  Dot on top of stew and transfer to oven.  Cook, uncovered, for 20-25 mins until dumplings are golden.

Serves 6

Vegetable and Bean Chilli

Vegetable and Bean Chilli (January 2017 Asda ingredients £1.06 per portion)

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Thumb-sized piece ginger, finely chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 courgette, diced

1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

1 yellow pepper, deseeded and chopped

1 tbsp. chilli powder

100g red lentils, washed and drained

1 tbsp. tomato purée

2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes

195g can sweetcorn, drained

420g can butter beans, drained

400g can kidney beans in water, drained

1. Heat the oil in a large pan.  Cook the garlic, ginger, onion, courgettes, and peppers for about 5 mins until starting to soften.  Add the chilli powder and cook for 1 min more.
2. Stir in the lentils, tomato purée, tomatoes, and 250ml water.  Bring to the boil and cook for 15-20 mins.
3. Add the sweetcorn and beans, and cook for a further 10 mins.

Serves 4

Easy Seafood Risotto

Easy Seafood Risotto (January 2017, Asda ingredients equate to £1.56 per portion)

1 onion, finely chopped

1 head fennel, finely sliced

1 tbsp. olive oil

300g risotto rice

500ml fish stock or vegetable stock

300g bag frozen seafood mix, defrosted

100g frozen pea

3 tbsp. grated Parmesan

1 lemon, grated zest and juice

Handful parsley leaves, roughly chopped

1. Tip the onion and fennel into a bowl, toss in the oil and microwave on High for 5 mins.  Stir in the rice, pour over the stock, cover the bowl with a plate and continue to microwave on High for 10-15 mins more or until the rice is just on the verge of being cooked.
2. Throw in the seafood and peas, cover and continue to microwave on High for 2-3 mins until the rice is cooked.  Stir in the parmesan and lemon juice and leave to stand for a moment while you mix the parsley with the lemon zest.  Spoon the risotto into bowls and scatter over parsley and lemon zest

Serves 4

Tip – value frozen fish pieces work out cheaper.

Creamy Haddock and Tatties

400g smoked haddock, skinned and cut into chunks

1 Leek trimmed, finely sliced

Handful of parsley, finely chopped

142ml Double cream

2 Medium baking potatoes, about 200g each unpeeled and sliced as thinly as possible.

1. Scatter the haddock, leek, and parsley over the base of a shallow microwave dish and mix.  Drizzle over half the cream with 5 tablespoons of water.  Lay the potato slices over the fish and leek base.  Season with salt and plenty of pepper.  Drizzle over the balance of the cream.
2. Cover the dish with cling film and piece a few times.  Microwave on high for 8-10 minutes until everything is bubbling and the potatoes are tender when pieced with a knife. 
3. Remove cling film and put under the grill until the potatoes are golden.  Leave to stand for a few minutes before serving.

Serves 2

Haddock Gratin 

Smoked Haddock Gratin (January 2017 Asda ingredients equate to £1.20 per serving)

500g leaf spinach

Butter, for greasing

About 500g (2 fillets) smoked haddock, skinned and cut into 4 portions

12 cherry tomato

For the topping

200ml double cream or crème fraîche

Juice ½ lemon

100g cheddar cheese, grated

2 spring onion, sliced

Small grating nutmeg

Handful dried breadcrumb

1.       Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.  Place the spinach in a large colander in a sink and carefully and slowly pour over a kettle full of hot water to wilt it.  Cool again under the cold tap then squeeze out as liquid from the spinach as possible.  Butter a medium gratin dish.  Roughly chop the spinach and scatter evenly over the base of the dish.  Season the spinach lightly with salt and pepper and lay the haddock fillets, skinned side down on top.  Nestle the tomatoes among the haddock fillets.

2.       Mix all the ingredients for the topping, except the breadcrumbs, in a small bowl and season with lots of pepper and a little salt.  Dollop and spread the mixture over the fish and spinach.  Scatter everything with the breadcrumbs and bake for 30 mins until bubbling and golden.  If you like things really grilled finish for a few mins under a hot grill.  Serve straight from the dish.

Serves 4

Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. Mark Twain

I have just read an article in The Sun newspaper on Danielle Ross of Colchester.  Her Facebook page on feeding a family of five and her dogs for just £38 a week, has clocked up 22,000 followers.  https://www.facebook.com/Budgetfamilymealsuk

Some of Danielle’s menu ideas work but some do not – that’s life.  However, a failed meal is not an excuse to give up.  It is merely an opportunity to learn from a mistake before moving on. 

As a wife and mother, I have am the sole cook in the house.  I am responsible for meal planning and production.  My job title includes buying food supplies, storing all produce in a way that maximises its shelf life, as well as preparing and cooking it in a way that appeals to five adults.  I guess because God likes to see mortals rise to a challenge, the only fruits my eldest young adult eats are tomatoes and peppers with potatoes being the only vegetable.  My middle young adult is lactose intolerant plus reacts badly to Monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is a salt form of an amino acid.  It triggers migraines and as MSG is used in food preservation and flavourings, it appears a lot in oriental meals including takeaways, all processed meats as well as in canned goods.  I have to make everything from scratch if this young adult is eating with the family.  As a rule, my baby adult eats anything except pulses.  There is no medical reason for the aversion; it is solely based on texture.  All beans, green peas, lentils, and chickpeas.  He also avoids pear barley which is actually one of my own favourites to add to soups.  Thank goodness, hubby is easier to please, although his dislike of spinach is rather childish in my opinion.

Luckily for me, not everyone is home for dinner ever night.  I do have some evenings when one or more offspring either eat out or else prefer to make their own meal.  It is unfortunate though, that some of the meals the male members prefer to make for themselves include enough meat to feed an entire family, but I guess that’s the price I pay for taking an evening off.

On such evenings, my meals of choice are either a Lamb Cassoulet because this requires very little otherwise expensive lamb, or a vegetable curry.  The latter is most likely to be made if my night off occurs toward the end of the week.  Just about any left over vegetables can be used in a curry although I personally do not like adding cauliflower, broccoli, or sprouts.  I find some sprouts can be bitter whilst cauliflower and broccoli have a tendency to break apart into mush but you may feel differently.  I often do not bother with boiled rice as an accompaniment to vegetable curry, preferring the more calorific option of naan bread – it is a night off after all.  There is just something about scooping up lumps of vegetables, split lentils and chickpeas with a hunk of bread that adds to the meal experience.

  

Easy vegetable curry

If I do have vegetables that require using up but I have not had the chance to make a curry, then on a Saturday mooring you will find me making a batch of soup.  Just like curry, you soup anything so long as you have a good homemade stock in your freezer.  As a thickener, I use either split lentils or pear barley, so long as I remembered to soak it over night.  

I blitz most of my soups because that way I can –

1.     Forget to mention some of the vegetables it contains and

2.     Hide the fact that it contains pulses.

It may be wrong but it is my job to make sure each meal contains the maximum nutritional goodness possible.  I cannot be the only mum who resorted to liquidising peas and/or carrots in with the base stock for a Cottage Pie or Spaghetti Bolognese can I?  FYI peas remain easier to detect than carrots to any eagle eyed critic.

As a final note on vegetables, sweet potato oven chips are gorgeous so long as you can get them crispy.  They make a colourful change to white potato and work equally well as wedges to liven up a midweek meal.  When in season, try oven roast fresh beetroot as an alternative to roast parsnips or roast potato. 

Mary Berry has a recipe –

Serves 6

8-10 tennis ball-sized fresh beetroots, ideally red and yellow (golden), cut into quarters

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

·         Pre-heat the oven to 375F/190C/gas mark 5.

·         Toss the beetroot wedges with the olive oil, thyme leaves and salt and pepper, so that they are well coated.  Tip them into a shallow roasting tin.  Roast for about 40-45 minutes until they are charred around the edges and tender.

·         Serve warm (not hot) or cooled to room temperature.

Cauliflower with cumin, coriander and chillies

And if you are looking for alternative way of using cauliflower, try Jamie Oliver’s roast cauliflower with cumin –

Serves 4 - 6

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

Sea salt

Olive oil

1 knob butter

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1-2 dried red chillies

1 handful blanched almonds, smashed

1 lemon, zest, and juice of

• Preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
• Blanch the cauliflower in salted boiling water for a couple of minutes then drain in a colander, allowing it to steam dry (you don't want any water left in your cauliflower or it won't roast properly).
• Toss it in a good lug of olive oil and the butter.
• In a pestle and mortar, bash your spices and chillies with a pinch of salt, then mix them with your almonds and put in a hot, dry ovenproof pan to slowly toast them.  
• After a couple of minutes, add the cauliflower.  When it gets a nice bit of colour on it, add the lemon zest and juice and mix around well.  Fry for about a minute longer then pop the pan into the preheated oven for about 15 minutes to crisp up.

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. Mahatma Gandhi

Bread has formed an important part of working family’s diet since the repeal of the 1815 Corn Law.  For those who do not recall their high school history, the 1815 Corn Law was introduced by a parliament predominantly consisting of landed gentry, set on protecting their private income against cheaper foreign corn imports.  It took the Irish potato famine, a natural disaster, along with poor British harvests before a stagnant UK economy was revived in May 1846 with the repeal of the Corn Law.

Today, 99% of households are believed to include a bread related product in their diet.  Unfortunately, bread has a relatively short shelf life making it top of the waste list both in the home as well at the point of sale.

 

Cut price bakery products are the most likely to be picked up for a knockdown price on a regular basis at local supermarkets.  So long as your freezer has a decent capacity, it is easy to pick up a variety of bakery items for pennies.  I am not just talking about sliced bread, but Danish pastries, scones and cakes.  Just think, with a little planning you could be enjoying an indulgent weekend breakfast of Danish pastries or afternoon teas on a regular basis.

Getting back to waste in the home, those last few bread slices or roll too stale for sandwiches can still be included in the domestic menu.  Any savoury bread product can be whizzed into bread crumbs in a food processor and frozen for future use.  If you do not have a food processor, leave the bread out to dry even more before grating it into crumbs.  I collect crumbs from different bread types in one bag as this makes for an interesting coating on breaded chicken or pork recipes’. 

I have turned left over garlic bread into crumbs and successfully used it to top a lamb cassoulet.  However, be sure to mark up any strong flavoured products separately.  Bread crumbs are an ideal way of bulking out mince when making burgers or a meat loaf, making a little meat go a long way.

Bread and butter pudding may be old fashioned but it is a great way to use up six slices of stale bread.  In addition, it is filling and good for children due to its milk and egg content.  

English Bread and Butter Pudding

6 slices of bread, crusts removed (turn crusts into bread crumbs)

50g English Butter

50g Sultanas (currants work just as well)

40g Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

568ml Milk (1 pint)

1. Thickly spread the bread with butter.  Cut into fingers, squares, or triangles depending on your preference.  Lay half the bread in a buttered 1-litre ovenproof dish.  Sprinkle with all of the fruit and half of the sugar.
2. Top with the remaining bread, butter side up.  Sprinkle with the balance of the sugar.
3. Beat the eggs and milk together before straining over the bread.  It is important to strain the liquid to ensure you do not get a layer of scrambled egg.
4. Leave to stand for 30 minutes in the fridge, or overnight if prefer, so that the bread can absorb the milk. 
5. Bake in the oven at 160°c for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until set with a crisp golden top.

  

As an alternative, spread the bread and butter with marmalade and omit the fruit. 

I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage. Erma Bombeck (American humourist)

Gravy begins to break down if stored too long so refrigerate promptly and use within two days but remember, gravy can be frozen in manageable portions.  Flour-thickened gravy keeps frozen for up to four months.  However, the fat can separate when thawed so skim off before freezing.  Alternatively, in order to maintain the flavour locked into the fat, run the gravy through a blender or food processor before freezing.

If you are having a Sunday roast, why not make extra gravy to freeze ready for those evening when you intend to have sausage and mash or maybe chops.  Shop brought instant gravy may be handy but it is full of salt as well as other nastiest.  Left over cooked meats store and freeze better in their own gravy.  The gravy keeps the meat from drying out as well as proving an instant mid-week meal with the addition of a jacket potato or a few potato wedges.

On the subject of the Sunday roast, don’t be tempted to throw away the bones / carcass.  Boil a chicken carcass for one and half to two hours in water, together with carrot tops, leek tops, onion, herbs, in fact just add anything you have lying around, to create a tasty stock.  Strain the liquid before reducing it down.

This stock makes the ideal base for homemade soups.  Lamb and beef bones make a good stock too.  Freeze either in zip lock bags to save freezer space or in ice cube trays to make your own stock cubes. 

Eating too much salt may raise your blood pressure, and having high blood pressure increases your risk of developing coronary heart disease.  Despite dozens of firms signing up to a voluntary deal to cut salt levels, health campaigners say too many everyday foods still contain too much salt with major brands at fault.  Added salt has increased in food products you would not associate with being salty such as corn flakes, cheese, soups, as well as ready meals.  Keeping an eye on the salt content of the stock cubes and gravy granules you add to each meal can really make a difference to family's health.

How much is too much per 100g?

	Low	Medium	High
SALT	0g – 0.3g	0.3g – 1.5g	More than 1.5g
SODIUM	0g – 0.1g	0.1g – 0.6g	More than 0.6g

Take a look out for the following;

Meat QUIXO gravy granules 0.84g salt per 70ml made up gravy

Chicken QUIXO gravy granules 0.61g salt per 70ml made up gravy

Vegetable QUIXO stock cube 4.2g salt per cube

Beef QUIXO stock cube 3.9g salt per cube

Vegetable KNORR cube 0.95g salt per 100ml made up

Organic Chicken KALLO very low salt cube 0.1g salt per 100ml made up

With those kinds of figures, you must be tempted to make your own.  Just imagine what all of that salt is doing to your child’s brain.  The bodies of babies and young children can not process salt resulting in quite severe health problems. 

Pour yourself a cocktail, put on your lipstick, and pull yourself together. Liz Taylor

://www.brit.co/how-to-make-pina-coladas/

Officially, January is the most depressing month of the year.  Party season is over, the holiday season has not yet began, and the weather outside has been grey and drizzling for days.
So how about bringing some sunshine into the house in the form of a bright yellow cocktail?

You will need:
- 1 pineapple
- 1 banana, sliced
- 3 tablespoons agave
- 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 1/2 cups Malibu rum
- shredded coconut
- maraschino cherries

Piña Colada ingredients 

Instructions:
1. Cut your pineapple into chunks. Spread pineapple pieces along with banana slices on to a baking sheet, lined with grease proof paper. Freeze for 25-30 minutes, until firm.

2. Add the frozen pineapple, banana, agave, coconut milk and Malibu to a blender. Pulse until completely blended.

3. Pour into a cocktail glass. Garnish with shredded coconut, a slice of pineapple and a maraschino cherry.

Enjoy!