Bonus find

Look what I found on my way into work.  I love blue glass too.  How fab was that?!

This image found on-line here makes me chuckle inside every time I think of it - really cheered me up yesterday after another day of evil office 'politics' - AKA back stabbing.  Is it really so much to just want to get on with my job?  Anyway - this is currently my 'go-to' pic to brighten my day.

Another rather wonderful find was at the continental market on in Exmouth last weekend.  A cheese bus!  How fantastic - I think I may have found my true calling.  :-)  We stocked up on cheese and also got some rather lovely olives, toulouse and merguez sausages (him), geranium soap (me) then watched the rugby in a local pub.  A weekend of win.

Random Recipe - Store Cupboard Stuffing Bake

With all this time on my hands recently I've been blog surfing a lot more than I normally do and have stumbled across many new to me fab blogs.  Several of which have been inspiring me in different ways and one of those is the lovely Belleau Kitchen blog and the monthly challenge 'Random Recipes'.  
Now normally this involves picking a recipe at random from a cookbook; similarly picked at random, and having to make it. (Assuming I've understood that correctly, I have a feeling that there may be themes involved sometimes too.)  This month however is slightly different in that it's a store cupboard ingredient that must be picked, then you make something with that.  Now although I had more random items available than the stuffing mix I used, everything else needed me to visit the shops for additional ingredients which as I'm off my feet as much as poss at the mo didn't seem like the best of ideas ever.  It's not quite an 'essential' trip like the doctors is you know?
So - I decided to use up a couple of the 5 packs of stuffing mix I had in the upstairs store cupboard from a past Approved Foods order.
Right - next step - find a recipe - from your cookbooks. Hmmm - now surprisingly enough none of my cookbooks have any recipes listing 'packet mix stuffing' in the ingredients list, not even quasi healthy 'mixed seed wholemeal' stuffing.  I know - I'm as shocked as you right?

So I thought (in an admittedly slightly tortuous justification after the fact sort of way) that I could treat my blog as a recipe book too - as a load of the stuff on here I scribble down very roughly as I make it then transcribe to here which is then it's lasting format.  And enough people seem to search my slow cooker carrot and coriander soup for me to feel the reference aspect could at least be argued for, if not fully justified.  So - I'll go ahead and we'll see if I'm allowed in the challenge.  This is all quite apart from the fact that today is the deadline.  By which I'm not sure if it means submissions should be in by today or up to and including today.  Yes - I'm a pedant when it comes to language and that's just waaaay too open to interpretation for this virgo!  :-D
So - witteringly long intro / justification / obfuscation in the hope the host will give up and just allow my submission through out of pure boredom aside - here's my frugal, quick and simple 'store cupboard stuffing mix bake'.  As 'inspired' (ahem) by this one I previously made, with the added advantage of also using up some of my stocks of cheese, or 'dairy crack' as we now prefer to call it in our household, the need for which was highlighted in my last post.

Vaguely Italian themed Stuffing Mix Bake:
2 packets stuffing mix - or you can make this with one if you don't have a massive overstock of stuffing in your cupboard like me
0.5 tbsp dried basil
0.5 tbsp dried oregano
Boiling water - amount as per packet instructions
2 tbsp tomato puree
Black pepper
Cheese - I used about half to 2/3 of a 300g tub of soft cheese.  You could totally use a harder cheese grated here, whatever you need to use up really.  Some parmesan over the top would work too.
Little butter for greasing dish

 Put oven on to heat as per instructions on the pack of stuffing.  Put kettle on to boil.
Put stuffing, herbs and a few grinds of black pepper (to taste) in a large bowl and give them a quick mix.
Add water as per the stuffing packet instructions.
Add the tomato puree and stir really well.

Grease your ovenproof dish; I use a ceramic one, and spread half the mixture evenly over the base of the dish.

Evenly spread your cheese over - a little easier said than done using this soft cheese as it wanted to move the existing layer of stuffing about.  I found leaving it resting on top of the hot stuffing for a few seconds softened it a little and made it easier to spread out; as did placing it on in smaller amounts than the big dolloping spoonfuls I started out with!

Spread the second half of the stuffing over and place in the oven for the time specified on the stuffing packet.

Ta daa!!  Bit messy to serve and please bear in mind I'm not a professional food photographer but served with a little refreshing salad this was a nice wee snack.
Very cheap to make with items you're likely to have in the house already and taking little time this ticks both the £'s and time frugality boxes.  You can jazz it up as pleased - I'd perhaps add more tom puree next time.  Oh - and if you want to photograph it letting it cool and firm up for a few minutes would be a good idea.  Not one I had until after my messy photo efforts mind you...

Cheese - the 'dairy crack' danger in our homes... ;-p

Cheese is addictive!!!  Who knew??!  Well apparently quite a lot of people, just not me. 
Coincidentally I had been wondering yesterday why I had felt so dissatisfied after finishing my lunch and had been noticing this rather more often than normal recently.  I had put it down to the general sitting around I've been forced into for the last few weeks meaning I'm more bored and therefore wanting to eat more - always a danger with me. 

Later for my dinner I made a very simple dish of bulgar wheat; flavoured with a veggie stock cube in the soaking water with a handful of peas, sweetcorn and broad beans added then a generous portion of grated mature cheddar cheese stirred through.  Other than a grinding of black pepper that was it yet it was soooo much more satisfying to me.  I had figured it was the flavour and to a lesser extent, the fats from the cheese as it's not exactly the most inspiring looking of meals right? 

Well apparently dairy has trace amounts of morphine in, plus the casein protein when digested releases casomorphins which also have opiate effects!  Blimey!!  So in fact - you can be 'addicted to cheese', or as that article calls it 'dairy crack' - fantastic phrase. 

I feel I may be verging on a dairy crack addiction myself.  A quick scoot in the fridge has produced this lot; that's 17 different types of cheese.  That's normal right?

I just stumbled across this information this morning whilst bimbling around on the t'internet and once again, am in equal measures awed, impressed, humbled and slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of random factoids and ways to waste your time that are available.  Although I'm also thankful for it given my enforced house bound state recently. 

[Although it's truly silly this still made me smile; then I must admit, full on giggle out loud.]

Right - guess I better think up something to use up some of that cheese huh?

Lovely things - and cheese!

It's fatal - they have a farmers market at work now!  Look at all these things I bought. 

Chilli choc from a different chilli farm - though it's not all for me!  Lovely tasting cordials - the lemongrass and ginger one tasted like it'd be fab in a G&T.  Seasoned salts and some 2 year old mature cheddar and a blue goats cheese from Tickelmore that do the Beenleigh blue I had a while back.  Not a bad little haul for a friday at work!

Caesar on the island

This years BOAT (Brownsea Open Air Theatre) offering was Julius Caesar, not a Shakespeare play I'd seen before.  For once we'd managed to assemble both sides aunt and uncle as well as both the big sis's and my bro in law.  We took the customary picnic (see last years trip here) over on the boat to the island, enjoying the views of Poole harbour and the crenellated cottages on the island on the way.
Upon alighting we were 'welcomed to Rome' and met again at the entry to the grassed area the stage is set up in.  This is a nice touch they haven't utilised before; although met with traditional English reserve, downcast eyes and shuffling feet from many of the boat passengers who were obviously somewhat startled to find they were having audience participation thrust upon them at this early stage of the proceedings!

We trailed off to our favoured spot and for once this year there were no skirmishing raids mounted by peacock attack teams on the goodies spread out.  My job this year was cheese [can't think why ;-)] and I assembled a nice selection of Quickes applewood smoked cheddar - don't let the 'smoked' appellation put you off.  This is about as far away from that plasticy smoked cheese from Europe as you can get.  It's done using their mature cheddar which is a lovely full flavoured cheese in it's own right and the smoking just adds that touch of difference.  I wouldn't consume masses in one go but as a change it's very good.  Little big sis really liked it though and ended up going off with what was left of the block!  Also along were 2 diffferent blues, one cornish [Tinners?] and one Devon - I think.  Have to admit I need to check which they were!  Then a block of the regular Quickes Cheddar too and some lovely brie.  [Incidentally has anyone ever come up with a fulfilling re-use for the wee wooden boxes camembert and brie come in?  Seems such a waste to just pitch them out...]  We had a fabulous picnic then went to watch the show.  I'm afraid the taking of photos is rather frowned upon in the auditorium so I don't have any for you.  Suffice to say it was very good with plenty of blood and fight scenes which were very well choreographed.  The costumes and special effects really made it too.  Afterwards tired and happy we bundled back onto the boat to cross back over the harbour, agreed to meet up next day and took our seperate ways home to bed.  Except once back in the village we opened another bottle of wine...  :-)

Cheese - it's spesh and you know it!

Well I promised to tell you more about our cheese purchases yesterday and here you go. I mentioned the Beenleigh Blue - it's made by Tickelmore Cheese in Devon. It's a blue cheese made from Sheeps milk. Slightly misleading to look at as it doesn't show a lot of blue veins but it's a robust and strong flavoured blue, although not too 'claggy' or 'wipe out' with the taste. Very very nice, although also fairly expensive, do try it if you see it available anywhere.

The others we got were a good bit of Dorset Blue Vinney, some tasty mature cheddar - Brue Valley Vintage, a Capricorn goats cheese (not pictured) and some Raclette - I've wanted to try this Swiss speciality that's eaten melted for a while so I'm looking forward to having it. We got the 2 jars of loveliness pictured as well; now for a lazy evening dining on cheese, crackers, chutnies, olives and the like. Ah bliss!

Speedy 'Hola'

We had a nice weekend both in Dorset and at the allotment. Beautifully sunny day and much digging yesterday has left me rather knackered today!
Over the weekend we had lunch in the Wise Man pub in West Stafford. Pretty little village and a lovely looking pub, nicely done up inside. It is a meat eaters menu though, very definitely. There was a total of one veggie and one fish choice on the main menu; and as the fish was battered I chose the veggie option of sweet potato and butternut squash Thai curry. Oh dear - it was quite hideously sweet. Now - I'm not an idiot so I know both the veg in this are naturally sweet and I also eat and actively like both of them. However the sauce this was done in tasted basically like apricot jam had been used to make it. I found it quite inedible I'm afraid. That was once I'd waited 10 minutes to even try my meal as the dish was supernova heat when it was brought out!!
The chap had a steak purporting to be medium-rare but which was a little overcooked on arrival. As his plate was also supernova it was a lot more overcooked looking once a few minutes had passed but he said it was nice. Ma and big sis had a pork, cider and apple casserole and aside from leaving a few larger lumps of apple on the side of the plate declared it very good. A mixed bag then. I did mention to the guy who collected the plates that I found the curry to be very sweet. 'Mentioned' you'll note, not complained. Anyway he came back and told me that the chef said that 'all Thai curries are sweet' said in a slightly bolshy 'you're an idiot' manner that I found pretty offensive. [I used to work in customer service and in fact used to be a manager so I do know what you do and don't act like to customers even if they're kicking right off, or downright lying or whatever. None of which I was doing.] This was a shame as otherwise, as previously mentioned, this was a nice pub sympathetically done up after a fire a few years back. Also - as a big afficionado of Thai Green curry [to the extent of keeping a jar of the paste at work] I take issue with being told all Thai curries are sweet. No they're bloody not. A lot of them have coconut in yes - that does not however equate to sweet. Anyway - if you're a meat eater you'd probably find something to tempt you here, personally I don't think we'll be returning though.
As for the rest of the weekend Chap fixed some leadwork on Ma's roof and took apart the old coal bunker, earning brownie points in the process I'm sure! We visited the Fridge, a very good deli in Dorchester and spent the best part of £20 [!] on cheese, medlar jelly and a jar of pickled walnut chutney!! [Very nice cheese though - of which more tomorrow.] We watched the home nation rugby games in the 6 nations - unfortunately missing Italy beat France for the first time ever [YAY!] as that's when we were lunching.
We also dug over more at the allotment [oh woe my broken fork - how I miss thee] and now I'm aching a wee bit. At least the sun came out and I could get my hands in the earth once again. :-D

Brass Monkeys in Brixham

At the weekend we visited Brixham for the Christmas Market. My it was blimmin' parky with a howling East wind whistling off the sea and up through the narrow streets of this small fishing town. No snow though so let's be thankful for that.

The market was in a big marquee so we were sheltered whilst in there, it was pretty busy as well so not too chilly. There were craft stalls, cakes, cheese, deli products, clothes and some parrots! Many lovely handmade items and I was really pleasantly surprised at the prices.

I realised once we got there that I haven't actually thought about who I need to get anything for but we enjoyed browsing round, starting off with a mulled wine and mince pie from local concern, the Lytehouse. This is a coffee shop / bar which is on the high street of Brixham. [According to the link they specialise in Tapas but as we only saw them at the stall I can't comment on that.] I can vouch for the friendly nature of the guy who served us though, who I presume is the owner. Thanks!

Wandering round I soon spotted some 'lovely things' [see 'Absolutely Fabulous' for why I would put this in '_'s] and after asking took this photo. The lady asked me if I was planning on making some but instead I bought some from her - they were only £1 each after all!

Next spot was these lovely metal tags, also £1 each and from the same stall some silver metal stars and hearts ornaments at a grand 50p a go. I'll have to post a pic of those tomorow.

We also got some cheeses - Cornish Yarg and Devon Blue from 'Cheezeboard' and some indian bite things (bhaji, pakora &c) from 'The Veggie Deli' stall, along with a frozen nut roast in a foil box for Sunday roast. Oh - and another ornament; a pretty filigree cut felt star with little beads inset for a grand total of 75p. Another pic for tomorrow.

Leaving the marquee there was a seond small market on in a nearby hall - this one all in aid of the RNLI and complete with brass band. That did make me feel nice and festive I must admit.

I've been on the look out for a hat in recent weeks, favouring something quite plain. There were some hand knitted ones on a stall but on closer inspection they either had chunky cable patterns on, or an edge of bright pink (not me) or a massive fluffy bobble (also really not me) that put me off them. Then - tadaa - a nice cream number with a little red stripe was unearthed near the bottom of the pile and - well, I'm now fully hat-equipped. Damn - another pic for tomorrow as well then! This hat was the grand cost of £1.50 which I think is pretty bloody good for a hand made brand new item. Gotta love those charity old ladies. Couple of other bits I got was a jar of quince jelly (£1.50) and a pretty silver bauble (20p) along with some little satin ones for re-purposing (55p). All in all not a bad haul.

We had a fun day even if Brixham was; as mentioned, decidedly on the chilly side thanks to the wind. [I was very glad of my new hat by the end.] As we wondered round the town I spotted some of those things that make you pause and smile and thought I'd share them with you.

Lobster on the roof of a seafood cafe:

Cow outside the butchers:

Who would want to cycle up this??!

Finally; some heartfelt graffiti. If you live anywhere frequented by seagulls you can appreciate the sentiment!! :-D

A rare bit of Welshness

No - I don't mean an underdone slice of lamb but the cheese / beer / mustard / bread concoction that seems to have passed me by most of my life. Now you'd think a cheese fiend like me would have virtually been brought up on this posh cousin to the humble slice of cheese on toast but no - until a recent visit to a certain HFW's canteen [more of that later] I'd never had it before let alone made it myself.
1st job - find a recipe. Ought to be easy surely, especially with a shelf stuffed with cookery tomes like mine, but was there a rarebit to be seen? Was there buggery. After 20 minutes fruitless searching - including checking the index of "Winning Ways With Cheese" at least 3 times thinking 'if any book will have it surely this one must' I remembered the 'Welsh' part of the name and thereafter things moved rather more swiftly on. ;-)

I adapted the recipe from WWwC - incidentally a fantastic book - so very very of it's time. It's beautifully photographed in 1980's brown and orange and features a somewhat younger and frillier Mary Berry as the judge of what was the tie-in title to a National Cheese Board competition. Brilliant piece of social history! You probably wouldn't make a lot of the recipes though... [Incidentally I remember that Union Jack made of cheese logo with great fondness. Todays British Cheese Board seem to have done away with it. :-( ]

Rarebit - the Welsh one [This makes a fair bit - enough for a whole short baguette sliced in half and another roll.]

1oz butter - softened (zap in the microwave for a few secs)

1tsp wholegrain beer mustard / your favourite

0.5tsp worcestershire sauce

Pinch cayenne

1tbsp beer (actually I must admit to using lager as that's what was about)

1tbsp milk

4oz grated tasty chedder / cheese of your choice

Pepper

Tomato - sliced [optional]

Mix everything bar the tomato together. That's kinda it - other recipes fiddle about with roux and eggs and what have you but this is pretty simple and adaptable I think. I may try it with mushroom ketchup in place of the worcestershire sauce next time.

Anyway - what I did with mine was use it on part baked baguettes; as I baked them off I sliced a large vine tomato, sprinkled the slices with a little salt and pepper and chucked in the oven for 5ish mins. [Watch the salt as mature cheese can be surprisingly salty I find. It helps draw the juices out of the tom though so I think you need a bit.]

Slice baguettes in half, lay tom slices on, cover with cheese mixture and pop under the grill to melt.

Nice, easy, tasty. Not the healthiest snack maybe but I'll leave that up to your own conscience. :-D
As this is Welsh in origin I'm going to submit it to Chris's 'Bloggers Around the World - Great Britain'.

Top notch

Apologies for the absolute dearth of posts - been a tad busy to say the least. You can blame that on the UKBA and their damn fool ways of bringing in sweeping changes with about a weeks notice. Grrr...

Got round to trying the Manchega cheese I got in Wareham recently. Ooh it's good - so very glad I got 2 lots! :-) It's rich, nutty, buttery, pliable at the outside edges and a little crumblier towards the centre. Going by this site I'm guessing it must be the 'Curado' version, medium aged. Went very nicely on a Rich Tea biccie in a passable imitation of breakfast this morning. Of course really I should be eating it with membrillo - quince 'cheese'. As it happens there's some in the fridge at home so may have to go another round of this later. Nom nom nom...

Now some of you may be well aware that I've been somewhat tardy in determining the postcard art pay it forwards 'winner' - if getting a random postcard from me can be called a 'win'. I had some typically convoluted and grandiose ideas of holding a snail race to pick the name but frankly I realised I was just making life rather harder for myself than it really needed to be. Therefore I will devise some less elaborate method of name picking today and announce it in the very near future. Probably. If you're lucky... ;-D

Oh - big shout out to the 'Northern' boys without whom the campus would be a much quieter and less muddy place to work. :-) If you're reading this C (you know who you are) you can see my favourite door in this post.

Dorsetshire weekend part 2

Saturday of the weekend had us planned to go for a traipse along the coast the other side of the Purbecks but a rather inclement start to the morning put paid to that. Grump - missed out on visiting my fave pub in the world for a pasty!!

Instead we settled on a visit to Wareham with a stroll along the river and a pub lunch before they headed back up t'North. I must confess that this decision was in no small way influenced by me having heard there was a market on the quay with a cheese stall and needing to stock up on Blue Vinney for myself and a couple of friends I have got hooked on the stuff, mwah ha ha haaa... :-p

So, first to the market and the cheese stall. Mostly the market (small) was the general selection of bric a brac / clothes / household bits / massive packs of crisps that you find at lots of markets but it's saving grace was that there was a small fresh fish van, a very good looking sprawling veg stall complete with yellow courgettes, romanesco caulis (the cool ones that look fractal), fresh lemongrass &c &c and the aforementioned cheese stall. Ahh - the cheese stall. It was a goldmine, I ended up spending over £12 and that was holding myself back!! (I'm very definitely not expecting to buy any more cheese this month!!) They had short dated Camembert at £1 each or 2 for £1.50 [2 - of course I got 2, did you really think otherwise?], the Dorset Blue Vinney I was actually there for, various Cheddars, Stilton, Smoked Cheddar et al. I came away with a very nice mature cheddar called Coastal, which although aged for 15 months isn't the kind that destroys your taste buds but remains still smooth and very, very good. I got a couple of chunks of Manchega at £2 a pop, one can go in the freezer. I have yet to try this but am hoping it's good. I got to like Manchega when I had it in Spain but then got some from the S'bury's deli counter last xmas and was bitterly disappointed at the flavourless plasticy product they'd somehow substituted for something actually edible. A big wedge of blue Vinney as it was being split 3 ways and the most intriguing for me, a blue cheese I've never come across called Fourme D'Ambert. Not knowing what it was like I opted for a small piece of this - MISTAKE!! It's like a blue brie or camembert is the best way I can describe it and super good. Deffo got to stock up on that next time I'm down that way! [On the subject of cheese, as we ever are, I may have to go to this - a cheese festival - what could be better!!]

Laden with cheese we then decided to take a short stroll down the Wareham River (the Frome) to Redclyffe at the end and back. (Yep - shoulda done the shopping after, I know, I know.) New since the last time I was there are these stone benches carved with lines from a poem about rivers. I love this kind of functional item elevated to art by something relatively simple, and wholeheartedly encourage any local councils with a modicum of funding left over to follow suit.

Spotted this intriguing garden across the river, equipped with teepee, birdcage type seating area and 'love' stones, it made me want to be able to have a poke around but this was the closest we got.

After a pleasant stroll - it had turned sunny by now as if to taunt my lack of a visit to the pasty pub - we decided on the Black Bear for lunch, based on this specials board outside. Although we were having a light lunch if the calibre of the specials board is anything to go by you can be pretty sure the rest of the menu should be alright. Everyone else plumped for the crab sandwiches, which was my original choice until I saw they had a pint of prawns on the menu - that's for me then!! Given the moniker 'activity food' by a sister this falls into that area of food where you really are going to have to get your hands dirty, like with moules, or whole crab etc. I love it!! I have to say these were excellent, plump, fresh as anything prawns with that slightest edge of sweetness that tells you just how fresh they are. My only quibble was the distinct lack of a finger bowl but hey, there was soap in the ladies so who's complaining. I'd recommend this characterful old boozer, there's fascinating old photos of the area on the walls in the main bar and they do very good Badger beers, the local beer to this part of Dorset.. Although the pub has a fairly narrow frontage it goes back and back through different rooms until you emerge into the courtyard garden at the back so there's plenty of space. They have a music festival in Wareham on the bank hol weekend and this is one of the venues so I may get to revisit it then. Here's hoping!

Spinach & blue cheese stuffing bake - otherwise known as making it up as you go along food #2

I had planned on soup last night. [Yes - actually last night - I finally caught up!] I was feeling a bit like a mahoosive cold was bearing down on me as the day wore on and thought soup would be the ideal solace whilst I nested on the sofa and felt generally sorry for myself. However, not getting home until 7.30 then by the time I'd faffed about I'd lost nearly another hour I was really no longer in the mood for lots of chopping and messing about so I turned my thoughts to what I could chuck together quickly and easily and then for preference, bung in the oven. This was what I came up with.

Spinach & Blue Cheese Stuffing Bake
2 lumps frozen spinach - approx 4oz frozen weight
1 pack S'bury's Basics stuffing
1-2oz Blue Cheese - I used approx 1.5oz Cornish Blue
Black Pepper

Preheat oven to Gas 6 / 200c. Butter oven dish.
Cook spinach. Meanwhile make up stuffing to pack instructions.
Drain spinach really well once done; I used a sieve and pressed the excess water out with the back of a spoon.
Mix well with the stuffing.


Roughly chop / crumble the blue cheese and mix in a little at a time until you achieve your desired taste. You may want to add more if you're a real blue cheese fiend but I just wanted it to offset the spinach nicely but not dominate; as mentioned I used 1.5 oz of a Cornish Blue, a fairly mild cheese though it has been in the fridge maturing a while.
Grind in some Black Pepper and mix thoroughly.

Tip into prepared oven dish and smooth evenly with the back of a spoon. Place in oven and bake for 30-45 mins until golden and as set as you want. Keep an eye to ensure the top isn't burning - if necessary cover with foil.

I baked mine for 30 mins as that's what the pack said for the stuffing mix but it was still pretty sloppy at the end of that time. if I did this again I'd either bake for longer or possibly add a little oats to the mix to help soak up the extra liquid from the spinach and cheese. Tasty though and not overly salty like the last time I used this mix.
I served this up with comforting yorkshire puds, sweetcorn and gravy. Very nice it was too!

Making it up as you go along / can't be bothered food

Sometimes when I've had a long day at work followed by a busy evening I lack all inspiration when it comes to making something to eat. I just want something quick, preferably tasty and on this occasion hot; with which I can collapse in front of a dvd.

This is not good food, it's not even good for you food but I think we all have these moments. In this case it was 'open the cupboard door and see what I could throw in' night.

I'll give you what I did, then I'll tell you how it could be improved. Then I'll express my amazement that anyone would even consider following a recipe such as this much less imagine me making it again. lol

Storecupboard bake

0.75 pt veg stock

Dried Celery - small handful

Oats - large handful

Pinch Cayenne

Large pinch - prob approx 0.25tsp - garlic granules

1 tsp black onion seeds

1 pack S'burys Basics Sage and Onion Stuffing (85g dried weight box)

Knob butter

Small dash Worcestershire sauce

Grated cheese - something with a decent bit of taste to it - cave matured cheddar for me!

Black Pepper

Preheat oven to Gas 5.

Bring stock to the boil. Add celery, oats, cayenne and garlic granules and boil for approx 5-10 mins.

Lower heat to a simmer and add stuffing mix, onion seeds, worcestershire sauce and butter. Stir well and watch it doesn't stick on the bottom.

Once liquid has been absorbed remove from heat.

Stir in grated cheese - amount depends on you / strength of your cheese. I added a good handful.

Butter a ceramic oven dish and place mixture in, levelling off the top. Sprinkle with grated cheese and ground black pepper.

Bake in oven for 20 mins.

Serve with greens / carrots / salad. Or not. I actually just had mine with a dollop of mayo.

First thoughts - too salty. I think this is a combo of the use of stock, the cheapo stuffing and the cheese. Cheese has salt in it - can't do much about that.

Stuffing - another brand may give a better result; interestingly the Basics is listed as giving 0.50g salt per 50g serving but 3.25g salt per 100g serving. Not quite sure how that works? The regular S'burys stuffing has the same 0.50g for 50g serving but a lower 2.5g per 100 serving. Paxo only lists sodium content so that's a fat lot of help though I get the feeling their's would be lower still.

Stock - try with plain water or half the stock cube / powder for the amount of liquid.

Having said this it was ok in a puffy spongey sort of way. I had mine with mayo to combat the saltiness. Once it cooled down a little I think it was nicer although I'm hard pressed to put my finger on why.

You couldn't notice the black onion seeds so wouldn't bother with those another time.

I've only recently started using oats in savoury cooking so am very much a novice in their uses but I foresee them becoming quite useful as a cheap 'bulker outer' of food in the future. As I've a mind to set myself another frugal challenge month next month this could be good practice.

PS - apologies for the awful quality of the photos on this post. I use my phone for almost all the pics on the blog; yesterdays blossom being an example and generally it's not bad but these however leave a lot to be desired. Also - I think the lens may have steamed up slightly on these.

More loveliness and adventures in food

Realised I hadn't shown my beautiful olive bowl set to the wider world yet. I originally bought one of these for my parents about 5 or 6 years ago for xmas and have wanted my own ever since. Theirs is a cobalt blue though; which is actually the colour I'd normally go for but this one was so gorgeous it just edged the lead. Made by these people, and I'm seriously considering asking if they'd do me a mug I love the colours and glaze effects so much. It was my first buy of the festival and cost £10 which for a handmade delight like this I think is pretty good. I know I paid more than that for my parents one all those years back from a local gallery. Always better to buy direct from the artisan if you can.

In addition to my cave aged cheese previously mentioned I also got smoked cheddar from Quickes Traditional - they of the monster cheese in the post below. They're based just outside Exeter so a very local product. I like the taste of smoked cheese but so often the cheese is that slightly 'plasticy' type (like Edam) and I'm not a big fan of it. Next up I got some Cornish Blue cheese - one piece for me and another two at the request of friends. This company had a new product this year which was pate made with their blue cheese and either pear and walnut or fig. I went for the pear and walnut option, after tasting some of both of course. :-)

The other thing I got was a couple of oysters. I've never had them before and although there was a company at the festival last year shucking them and selling them to eat right there I didn't really want to do it with an audience in case I really hated the thing and felt like I had to spit it out or something terrible like that. I wanted to buy one, take it home, work out how to get in the damn thing and eat it in the privacy of my own home. Anyway, I ended up with 2 by accident because the lady (wife of the fishmonger) wasn't sure of the cost and when I went back at the end to pick up my one oyster (they kept your purchases on ice for you) she'd overcharged me so they had given me 2. Hmm - wasn't sure what'd happen if I hated it though.

Well - if you've never opened your own oyster they are a git to get into, they really are. I had checked online of the best way to do it, wrapped a tea towel round my hand and carefully tried to gain ingress. One broken off tip of knife later... However, I managed in the end and ate one straight and the other with a splash of lemon. Do you know what? I'm still not sure about them. I just can't decide if I like them or not. I think I had quite massive preconceptions of the texture before I tried them and this had coloured my judgement (negatively) to such an extent that to make an objective assessment eludes me. I think I may have to try again, I'd like to grill one and try it cooked as well.

The last lovely thing I had at the festival (along with a couple of pints) was a rather fine 'Mushroom & spinach with hazelnuts & white truffle oil' pie from the locally based Tom's Pies. It was mightily good I have to tell you - should you be in a position to lay your hands on these it's a 'double thumber'* from me.

Well, you may have gathered I'm quite fond of cheese, think I'm well stocked for a fair while now though!

* 'Double thumber' - a phrase my friend invented meaning a double thumbs up. I like it. :-D

Food festy

Saturday visited the snappily titled 'Exeter Festival for South-West Food and Drink.' Long winded title but a top day out. Lovely time with family and got to try lots of gorgeous cheeses and a few pints of nice ale. Check the size of this cheese out!!

Now have a fridge stocked with cheese and a beautifully glazed olive and stones bowl set.

One of the many bars - I just loved that the whole thing was named the 'Doom Bar'. It's actually the name of a local beer here, apparently named after a notorious sandbar that has wrecked many a ship over the years.

How's this for food snobbery - not just any old mature cheddar but 'cave aged' not less!! lol. Actually this was one of the bargains of the day - 900g cheese wrapped in cloth for £5 - brilliant! I hacked a bit off for ma and sis as well and still have plenty left to keep me going.

Ruth's random take on Dauphinoise

Inspired by luscious images of various potato combos yesterday I went home determined to make a delish dish for dinner. Armed with my freebie pot of cheese spread I perused a couple of dauphinoise recipes and came up with my own version. What follows is the recipe as I made it, followed by amendments if I was doing it again. Not half bad in the end though!

Ruth's Dauphinoise-stylee spuds

Spuds - approx 400g (mine were Romano)
1 small onion / half a larger one

2 cloves garlic

150ml dbl cream

100ml milk

100g dairylea cheese spread

0.5 tsp dried basil

0.25 tsp grated nutmeg

Hard cheese - I used Cornish Yarg - whatever's your fave

Sea salt + freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven Gas 5 / 190c.

Parboil spuds 10 mins until just softening. Drain and rinse in cold water to cool down.

Finely chop onion. Finely chop and crush garlic. Put both in pan with the milk, cream and black pepper. Gently warm and stir in the cheese spread to melt it through. Bring to a gentle simmer for 5 mins to soften the onion. Keep a close eye on it to ensure it doesn't boil over!

Remove from heat and stir in basil and nutmeg. [I forgot to do this so sprinkled them over the dish after pouring the cream in!]

Slice potatoes thinly - approx 3-5mm. Butter your oven dish - to be honest I forgot to do this and I'm not sure how much difference it actually makes. Stand slices in dish on edge, building up row by row. Season with S + P. Carefully pour the cream over, leaving space in the top of the dish for bubbling in the oven. [This is the point at which I remembered the basil and nutmeg and hastily sprinkled them over the top instead.]

Grate cheese over and bake in oven 30ish mins. As previously mentioned I used Cornish Yarg, a lovely cheese with a softer flavour than the mature cheddar which was the other choice in my fridge. It's wrapped in nettle leaves too!

Now I found I had too much sauce so would make it more like a total liquid content of 150ml next time. You could just use 150ml of straight double cream but I think that would be too rich and cloying with all the cheese spread added so I'll try 100ml dbl cream + 50 ml milk next time.

I'd also reduce the amount of onion - using half a small onion or perhaps just 1-2 shallots.

I also found my potatoes were very slightly less cooked than I like after 30 mins so would add another 5-10 mins to the cooking time.

Anyway - I found it tasty, filling and rather comforting on a chilly evening with enough left for another 2 portions. If you try it let me know what you think - enjoy!

Total apathy

My lack of enthusiasm for my work knows no bounds. Hey ho - here's a couple of cheeky nice free things instead:
Cheese! - There is no conceivable time free cheese could be a bad thing lets face it!
Seeds - Finally the BBC Dig In website went live and you can sign up for 5 free packs of seeds.
Go to it my friends. :-)