Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 2

Sausages Braised in Cider

Made this the other night, was wonderful!

Sausages Braised in Cider

6-8 pork sausages
200mls chicken stock
500mls dry cider 
3-5 celery sticks
3-5 carrots
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves
Freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
Fresh or dried thyme
Tbsp plain flour


Heat a little oil in an oven proof casserole dish with a tight fitting lid and add your sausages. This is when disaster struck for me - the sausages completely fell apart... Ack! Fry them until they are browned all over
Remove the sausages once cooked, leaving all the juices behind. Chop up your onion, garlic and celery and place in the casserole dish and cook for a few minutes, until the onion starts to soften. 

Now stir in a heaped tablespoon of plain flour and coat all the veg with it. Slowly add the cider, ensuring to keep things stirred. Once the cider is all in, add the stock, again slowing while stirring. Then add your carrots, thyme and put the sausages back in.

  
Doesn't too good at this stage, I have to admit. I do promise that it will be a lot darker once its finished! Bring to the boil then place into the oven for 20-30 minutes. Serve with mash and green veggies such as peas. You can also fry up some apples in butter and garnish it with those.

No more pictures I'm afraid - as soon as it was out of the oven and onto the plates I was munching away! The smell is wonderful and too good to resist!

Monday, June 6

Hello again!

Although its doubtful that anyone particularly noticed that I wasnt about for a while, the gap between posts needs explaining I reckon. To cut the short story even shorter, my laptop died and I couldnt log my other half out of google on his computer so that I could use Blogger as he doesnt remember any of his passwords. Typical man! He was very kind today though and made an account for me on his computer so all my stuff (Firefox etc) is seperate. I can now get back to blogging and what have you! At least when he's asleep and not hogging his computer hehehe!

I've been up to a few things, mostly crafting and organising my flat. It's going really well - I can now find stuff in the kitchen and everything in the spare bedroom (my craft supplies mostly) has its own place. I'm currently writing a cleaning schedule so that I can keep up with the cleaning. I actually enjoy cleaning but when you have to do the entire house in one afternoon it can be daunting. I had the kick up the butt that I needed to get back on track with cleaning though - my landlord turned up out of the blue and the flat was a state! Luckily he knows that we generally keep it nice and tidy but it was so embarrassing for him to see it when I hadnt hoovered in a few days, dusted in a week and the night before dishes were on the worktop... Oops!

The crafting I've been doing is mostly felt stuff as I have a new found love of felt! I've been making all sorts, from keyrings to pin cushions. Not a fan of the pin cushions though, wanna know why? I had a pin cushion on my leg then by accident I slammed my arm down onto the pin cushion. Guess where the needles and pins went - my leg. Now, I don't do needles, let alone unsterilised sewing needles. My god it hurt! Luckily only three of the needles stayed in my leg when I pulled the pin cushion off. I had a number of holes in my left thigh for a few days. It's safe to say that that pin cushion wont be used for a while, nor will any other kind that doesnt have a metal base of some sorts!

Here's some of the things I've made, please excuse the creased sheet, I just needed something white to put under the bits and pieces and I most likely wouldnt be able to get the creases out by ironing it anyway - I seem to have an inability to iron (any tips ladies and gents?).



Back to the organising thing - my other half bought me a recipe book, the notebook type ones that you add your own recipes too, a while ago and I've started to properly use it. I've got 20 or so recipes in there so far, some are much loved favourites of mine, some are ones that I've yet to try but definately think I would love. I do have a lot of my tried and tested recipes to add yet and I have a massive stack of cookery magazines to go through but at least I've started!

I also have a "Household Organiser" that my mum bought me for Christmas last year. I absolutely love it but I hadnt actually been using it until now. There are two main things I use it for  - to do lists and meal/food shopping planning. I've got an emergancy/important number page in it too plus some useful magazine cut outs (eg a chart explaining all those little pictures you get on clothing labels that tell you how to wash it, the ones that most people either ignore or guess what they mean).

Here's my recipe book and organiser:

  

And a couple of pages from each (just to prove I do use them :P) - 



On the subject of notebooks and what have you - I have also thrown myself into writing my own Book of Shadows. My other half gave me a beautiful leather bound book with a pentagram on the front and handmade pages inside. This was well over a year ago now and I hadnt actually used it before as I was so nervous of going wrong. Plus my handwriting is awful. But I decided that I would rather fill it with information thats writtin in scruffy handwriting than just have it collecting dust with my books. Granted I've only done a couple of pages but hey, its a big book and the pages are bigger than A4.

Here's  the book, I dont feel comfortable sharing the pages I've writtin but maybe one day I will show you the inside!


Well thats it from me folks, I hope you're all well, I sure am glad to be back! See you either here, on your own blogs or on Twitter!