Quick and Easy Stuffed and Wrapped Chicken

I love a nice roast, but if you want something a bit quicker, this quick and easy bacon-wrapped chicken is a real treat. It's also reminiscent of Christmas Dinner without the hours of preparation!

Grab your favourite stuffing and make up a small amount. I used half a small pack and still had loads left over so made some stuffing balls to have on another day. I added in a bit of my home dried sage I talked about yesterday to this basic supermarket bought sage and onion stuffing to make it extra herby!

Take one free-range chicken breast fillet per person and slice it open from the side to make a pocket. Try not to cut all the way through, but make the pocket big enough to jam in plenty of stuffing! Add a sprinkling of pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

As you may have noticed I do most of my cooking in silicone dishes. Life's too short to be scrubbing at dishes... these can be chucked straight in the dishwasher and come out good as new!

Next up is some streaky bacon. Wrap it around the stuffed breast and fold it under the chicken to hold it in place.

Sprinkle a bit more pepper on top and pop it into a pre-warmed oven at 200C for about 30-40mins depending on how big your breasts are (so to speak!).

It's not long before a yummy aroma emanates from the oven and when Martha came to sit hopefully in the kitchen I could tell it was done!

The finished result is some deliciously moist and succulent. I served it with some simple boiled home-grown Anya Potatoes and carrots cooked with just my dried mint. Yum!

DIY Herbs - Dry It Yourself!

The rockery is a feature that's rather fallen out of fashion in recent years. Time was that no self respecting home owner would dare do-without a wonderful collection of alpines and heathers nestling between a carefully arranged pile of boulders. My rockery had been rather neglected. A mass of rampant bulbs and weeds had overwhelmed the structure and the rocks had sunk to a rather disappointing scale. So last summer I decided SOMETHING had to be done. Rather than do-away with the much maligned feature I thought I could give it a new lease of life with a rather more useful purpose. I tore it apart with my bare hands, disposed of all the weed-roots and reconstructed with a more stately arrangement and some lovely new compost.

And thus the Herbockery was born. I'm sure you can guess that the new purpose of my rockery was to house my collection of herbs (sadly I don't have a pic of it in it's summer glory so you'll have to use your imagination!), including 4 types of mint, lemon balm, chives, rosemary and borage.

The first thing you learn about mint is not to plant it directly into the garden. It's a rather rampant person and soon ran rather wild! As such I had a bumper harvest of delicious home-grown mint to grace my potatoes (and frankly every other dish!).

Of course mint is a perennial plant (like most herbs it dies back to nothing in the winter and comes back each spring) so after the summer glut I knew there would be a winter mint-famine. But there is no need to resort to supermarket dried herbs, just read on for the simple solution.

You could freeze mini portions of mint in ice cube trays, but life's too short to be digging around the freezer every time you want some herbs so I prefer to dry my own herbs using the microwave...

First lay out your leaves onto paper kitchen towel. This will adsorb any moisture in the leaves.

Next pop the leaves on the paper into the microwave for just a few mins (2-4 is normally enough) until they resemble drying autumn leaves.

Next use your fingers to scrunch the leaves to your chosen size.

Then pop the dried leaves into a jar (you can buy pretty mini-kilner style jars or just reuse an empty herb/spice jar to be extra eco-friendly!), you will need to do several batches to fill a whole jar!

This technique works a treat for all sorts of herbs. I also dried a nice big pot of sage and a mixed 'Italian' herbs pot (Basil and oregano), perfect for pasta and pizzas.

Old School Gingerbread

Gingerbread nowadays seems to refer to the classic, crunchy Christmas cookies, but even better is traditional bread/brownie style gingerbread! An aged family recipe card offered up this treat...

You will need -
8oz self raising flour
2tsp ground ginger
3-4oz raisins
2oz flora
2oz light brown sugar
4 oz syrup
1 free range egg and enough milk to make up to 1/4 pint

Mix flour, ginger and raisins in a bowl.

Melt flora, sugar and treacle in a pan. Add to the flour mix with the egg and milk. Mix well but don't beat!

 Pour into a greased 7" tin and bake for about 35mins. I used a silicone tin so if you have a regular tin, you may need a little longer.

This would be a perfect tea-time treat so serve with a nice cuppa!

More leftovers!!!

If like Katy and myself you are keen veggie growers you are probably starting to think about what you might like to grow this year. But do you have any leftover seeds from last year that you could put to good use first? A few weeks back, I had a rifle around and came up with some half used packets of salad leaves and radish seeds. I sowed them and so far, so good.....in a couple of weeks these tender shoots will be ready to add crunch to my salads and make my sandwiches extra yummy! I planted mine in the greenhouse but they would do really well on the kitchen windowsill too. Not sure how much of it I will actually get to eat, Kitty and her 3 friends will try to get there first I'm sure.....

Devil's Food Cake and Ganache Topping

Sometimes you just need a big gooey chocolate cake. Who am I kidding??! You ALWAYS need a big gooey chocolate cake.... So when I wanted a chocolate cake for a special birthday this seemed to tick all the boxes.

I think the sunflower oil in this recipe is the key reason that this cake is super-spongy and moist. It's so light and fluffy and it's very difficult to stop at just one slice.

You will need - 

2 medium free range eggs
5fl oz sunflower oil

5fl oz milk

2 tbsp golden syrup

4.5oz sugar

6.5oz self raising flour

1oz cocoa

1tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

Beat the eggs and then add all of the rest of the ingredients into a bowl. Mix thoroughly for a couple of mins.

Divide the mixture evenly between two well greased 7" sandwich pans (mine are silicone!) and bake for 30 mins at 160C for 30mins.

Once cool turn out and make the filling/topping.

For the ganache filling

125g dark cooking chocolate

125g flora spread

Chop the chocolate quite small and pop along with the flora into the microwave and heat in 30 second blasts stirring in-between until it has melted together.

Pour over one of the sponges so it just reaches the edges and then pop the second sponge on top. Pour over the rest of the topping helping it to reach the edges if you need to.

I'm not a big fan of those crunchy-sugary frostings so this easy ganche was perfect for both filling and topping this yummy cake. It's smooth, delicious and looks great too!

I made a fun cake topper using some patterned paper, cardstock and some alphabet stickers, and using some cocktail sticks to hold it in place.

Hope you enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Muffins

There comes a time when you've had just about enough of Christmas chocolates. It's the law to have a box of After Eight mints at Christmas but as I don't really like them, they are always the ones to hang around the longest.

This is a yummy classic chunky muffin recipe with the added excitement of some minty goodness!

You will need -
10oz plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
4oz caster sugar
2 medium free range eggs
9fl oz milk
6tbsp sunflower oil
1tsp vanilla extract
Thin mints
4 tbsp cocoa

Line muffin tins with paper cases - green is always a nice choice for mint!

Mix the cocoa, flour, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl.

Lightly beat the eggs in another bowl and mix in the milk, oil and vanilla extract.

Gently stir the wet and dry ingredients together - don't over mix!

Divide between the cases and then break the mints in half. Push vertically into the mixture so they are just sticking out.

Bake for 20mins at 200C and eat while still warm!

The mints partly melt while cooking, but are still intact enough to be a surprise in the centre of the muffin. Yummy!

Quick and Easy Cheese Straws

Another ingredient that will inevitably be haunting you after Christmas is the traditional cheese platter. After munching through countless crackers, something different, but still worthy of showing off to your visitors, to use up the leftovers is always welcome!

You will need

4-6 oz of cheese (hard enough to grate) - I used regular mature cheddar and a bit of red leicester.

Ready rolled shortcrust pastry - I use a light version! (or you may have some leftover from making mince pies)

1-2tsp of mustard (hot), if you have milder mustard you might need a bit more.

1tsp paprika

Unfurl the ready-rolled pastry and spread the mustard over with a knife.

Grate most of your cheese over the top. Save a bit for later! Sprinkle with a little paprika.

Scrunch up the pastry and kneed to mix the cheese thoroughly through the mix.

Roll out using a pinch of flour to stop it sticking your surface and pin.

Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over and lightly squish it in so it doesn't drop off.

Slice into inch strips and twist each strip. Sprinkle with the rest of the paprika.

Bake for about 10mins at 180C.

These straws are simply yummy and look good enough to offer up for a post festive-season gathering! I like to nuke the cold ones for a few seconds in the microwave as they are super-delicious when hot!