Total DeliciousNess

Well hello there! I realise it has been a very very long time since we last spoke. I thought I would return with something rather yummy and very simple to create on these freezing cold winter nights.

This is a bit of a made up recipe I’ve created after seeing a few different recipes and none of them being quite right, but a mix of them is perfect!

Ingredients:

• 2 leeks. topped & tailed and sliced
• 6 slices smoked streaky bacon. Diced
• 400-500g chicken breast. Diced
• 2 cloves garlic or teaspoon lazy garlic
• generous pinch of dried tarragon
• 200ml chicken stock
• 2 heaped tablespoons half fat creme fraiche
• 7-8 large potatoes. Mashed
• Grated cheese for the top. (Optional)

The Chicken Mixture Cooking

Method:

1. Put the potatoes into boiling water and boil until soft enough to mash
2. Fry the bacon in olive oil over a medium heat for 4-5 mins
3. Add the sliced leeks to the bacon and fry for a further 3 mins stirring occasionally
4. Add the diced chicken and garlic and cook for a further 5 mins
5. Pour in the chicken stock and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
6. While the chicken mixture is simmering your potatoes should be ready. Drain them and put back into the pot with milk and plenty of butter and mash well.  Season with salt and pepper.

1. Take the chicken mixture off the heat and add the creme fraiche and salt and pepper to taste
2. Pour this mixture into an ovenproof dish and spoon the mash on top and spread evenly before forking the top
3. If you want to add grated cheese, now is the time to sprinkle on top.
4. Put the dish into the oven for 30 minutes
5. Serve with vegetables, we had brocolli and baby corn

The Aftermath

I must apologise, I forgot to take a photo of the finished pie until Jamie, Sam and I had all tucked into it…quite a lot! It really is very yummy. We demolished the lot and it should feed 4 people!

Ness x

Genius! Gave me a right chuckle when I saw this on the tv today. JML, whatever will you come up with next?

Today was such a horrible day, weather wise anyway. Really dreich, as they would say back home.  The only thing for it was to make a stew or soup. As I hadn’t taken the beef out of the freezer to defrost, soup it was.

I tend to make soups out of whatever I have in the fridge or cupboards. Today, I had some chorizo and sweet potato and here is the recipe I came up with.

Ingredients:

• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled & diced
• 1 ring of chorizo, sliced
• 2 carrots, peeled & sliced
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, grated or crushed
• 1 parsnip,peeled & sliced (not essential, I just had one that needed used)
• 2 handfuls red lentils
• 2 litres (or thereabouts) or chicken/vegetable stock

Method:

1. Put your chopped onion, garlic, carrots, parsnips & sweet potatoes into a large pot with some olive oil over a medium heat
2. Cook for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are soft
3. Add the chorizo and cook for a further 5 minutes
4. Add the lentils and the stock and give a good stir. Season with salt and pepper
5. Simmer over a low heat for 20-25 minutes
6. Take off the heat and blend with a hand blender in the pot. If you don’t have a hand blender then let the mixture cool a bit and blend in a food processor
7. You have your soup!

I think that this would taste nice with some finely chopped chilli ir chilli flakes in it and a dollop of creme fraiche. I may try this tomorrow but was making it child friendly to start. Serve with crusty bread & butter. Yummers

Enjoy!

My week 1 roundup:

1. XFactor hairdressers STEP AWAY from the razors/clippers
2. A newspaper does not a dress make – I don’t care how edgy the girl wearing it is
3. Singing “Collecting your jar of hearts” can sometimes be misheard as “Collecting your jar of Farts”
4. Telling someone you love how much weight they have lost is not ok Louis Walsh
5. When wearing bright pink lipstick, ensure it’s not smeared all over your face after your performance
6. If you see someone with bright pink lipstick smeared all over their face then tell them and give them a tissue, don’t just pretend it’s not there
7. When you have a “larger” lady singing then please don’t make her look like Peter Kay’s Geraldine, she has a great voice but that really detracted from it
8. Can somebody please check that Johnny doesn’t have some kind of terminal illness. He doesn’t look long for this world
9. Kitty needs new eyebrows that don’t make her look so surprised and harsh. Maybe use some of the hair that has been shaved off – just a thought.
10. Kitty in general – WTF???
11. Janet Devlin is proof that 16 year olds should be in the XFactor. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

Looking forward to tomorrow night’s show already!