Homemade Recipes...

Valentines Day!

Yesterday was Valentines Day, and though I am not a huge fan of the holiday, I thought seen as I have a boyfriend this year I might as well celebrate it somehow. I decided to cook for us both, as I enjoy cooking and it's cheaper/ less slushy than going out on the night!

For starter I just did a homemade platter, which had french bread, brie, pate and olives. I find that the simple dishes are often the nicest, although I was pretty full after eating it all! 

For main course I made slow cooked beef bourguignon and dauphinoise potatoes. I was well prepared, as I chopped the 4 rashers of bacon, 3 onions, two handfuls of mushrooms and 2 carrots the night before, so that I just had to pan fry them in oil the following morning before adding them to the slow cooker. I covered 400g beef cubes in flour and then lightly browned them, before adding them too to the mix, and then poured half a beef stock cube, 150ml of red wine, a chopped garlic clove and 1/2 tbsp tomato puree over the top and gave it a stir. I then left it bubbling all day for about 6 1/2 hours. (Recipe from the Good Food Channel). 

To make the dauphinoise, I peeled and par boiled the potatoes for a couple of minutes, before thinly slicing them and placing them into an ovenproof dish so that they slightly overlapped. I then grated 2 garlic cloves, and added them to 175ml double cream and 100ml skimmed milk (this can all be cream if desired, I just wanted to lower calories slightly!) and poured it over the potatoes before topping with some grated cheese and baking them in the oven for approx 1 hr at 175c. (Recipe from BBC Food).

For dessert I made a tarte tatin, served with the remaining double cream. I peeled and cored 6 small apples, and sliced them in half before placing them to one side. I then heated 100g sugar, seeds from a vanilla pod and 50g butter until it was a bubbling caramel and tossed the apples in the mixture before pouring into an ovenproof dish. I then placed shop-bought puff pastry over the top, squashed the edges around the apple mixture and trimmed the edges before baking at 190c for 25-30 minutes. (Recipe from Jamie Oliver). When it was finished, I flipped it over onto a plate, and though mine was a strange shape due to using a dish that was too big to cook it in, it tasted delicious and was surprisingly easy to make.

It all went down a treat with red wine for me and Coronas for Mo, and there was plenty of dessert left for the day after!

Weekly Update!

Family Fortunes, Takeaway and an Impromptu Night Out!

I'll keep this post short and sweet seen as my last one was so mammoth! I also have little to talk about as I have spent the weekend in Liverpool (see tomorrow's post) so didn't do much else during the week.

On Tuesday I made a really tasty beef casserole with roast potatoes, which was a well needed hearty meal after what feels like weeks of turkey drummers, pizzas and chips (not that they're not tasty...). After tea a few of my flatmates from last year came round for a catch up, and quite a lot of alcohol! We ended up playing a Family Fortunes game that I got for Christmas, that my team obviously won; and then we got a takeaway at about 2am. Clearly I was hungry that day!

On Wednesday I saw Black Swan (see previous post) which was really good, but it also horrendously freaked me out, so much so that I gatecrashed my boyfriend's night out. This then turned into a mini bar crawl, and then cocktails in Lounge, so what I thought would be an early post-cinema night became a 3am walk to his friend's house for one beer (the irrational habits of the drunken mind!) followed by a mission to the other side of town to get home, and a bedtime of 6am!

Thursday was a lazy day of minimal work, and in the evening I watched The Hours and consumed copious amounts of Cadbury's Whole Nut chocolate while packing for my weekend away. Dissertation can wait!