Hi everyone,

Well I've been in the kitchen for 2 days now, baking cupcakes and today putting butter icing on them, for a breast cancer charity event for QVC on Friday, my 1st attempt and not blowing my own trumpet they are not half bad, maybe I'll be baking lots more cupcakes in the future, it was so much fun and I enjoyed every moment of it, I even made some gluten free cakes too.

Well I found this film today in the shop and didn't really know what it was about but bought it and watched it, How uncanny this film was, and it really made me think. I work full time and don't really get a lot of time to blog as much as I'd like, but wondered does anyone actually read this?????.

I work to pay the bills but my one love is to cook, it makes everything feel so much better, its my biggest Passion, and if no one does read it, just writing about cooking makes me feel better anyway. I don't get enough time to blog regularly but when I can I will be putting lots more recipes on here, so please bare with me.

Well my allotment is coming along nicely, picked a nice green pepper today, and some carrots, even though they don't look much they are so sweet and really tasty.

Spice Cupboard

Before you can really start experimenting you have to 1st have a cupboard full of weird and wonderful things, this one above is mine and I love it. Also above, I have truffle oil that I bought in Tuscany and 25 year Oak aged Balsamic, which is also from Tuscany, gorgeous but I use these sparingly as its very expensive, and right at the top of the photos is Orzo Pasta, fab alternative to rice, this is what I used in my Pasta dish recipe I posted on here the a week and a half ago.

Trio of desserts

My Trio of desserts

Individual Banoffee Cheesecake, Lemon and honey cheesecake, and white chocolate and mint mouse. Recipes to follow.

Moroccan Tagine

Well the dinner party went well lots of nice food Moroccan food is so easy to do, its all about the spice. What I do is I make up my Moroccan spices in a tin 1st, Today I will tell you what spices you need for the blend, and in the next couple of days I'll give you a nice Lamb Tagine recipe you can try at home.

Moroccan spice blend

• Ground Cumin
• Cumin seeds
• Dried Coriander
• Smoked Paprika
• Dried Garlic
• Dried mint (I always add fresh mint to the Tagine also)
• Black pepper
• Salt
• Mustard powder
• Cinnamon

To the actual food I always add fresh cooked onion and dried apricot, but mire about that later.

Tonights Dinner Party

Hey there everyone,

tonight I'm having a small dinner party for 2 of my best friends and thought I'd pull out my Tagine and cook up a Moroccan storm. Lamb Tagine I think, and a trio of desserts, I'll upload my photo's and recipes in the next couple of days.

Also look what I picked from the allotment today, a nice courgette, which I planted as a seed about 10 weeks ago, I will have to use this in my Tagine tonight.

light lunch or light supper

Orzo Pasta with smoked salmon and Swedish thin bread

Ingredients

• Smoked Salmon
• Dill
• Sugar
• Sea Salt
• White pepper
• Orzo Pasta
• Red peppers
• Roasted tomatoes
• Red onion
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Basil
• Garlic
• Chives
• Spinach
• Parmesan Cheese
• Swedish thin bread from Ikea foods

Recipe

If you don't have much time to cook or fancy a light lunch at home or to take to work try this. I've just had it for my dinner.

- Roast some cherry vine tomatoes in the oven for about 15mins at 2000c or use raw if your in a rush.

- Boil some Orzo pasta for about 6 mins.

- Whilst pasta is boiling, cut up some red onion, peppers, basil and chives.

- Gently cooks some spinach until its wilted.

- Cool down all elements and mix together in a bowl with chopped basil, chives, oil and vinegar.

- Make the dressing by liquidising a big handful of fresh basil, garlic, parmesan cheese with extra virgin olive oil, you'll need a quite a bit of this, just keep pouring in until you have a nice runny dressing.

- Place the smoked salmon on a plate and sprinkle a pinch of sugar, sea salt and dill on top.

Plate up

I use a round rosti ring which I place in the middle of a plate and place the pasta in it, then take away the rosti ring, and grate fresh parmesan cheese on top and using a squeezy bottle drizzle the pesto dressing on top and around the edge as shown in the picture above. I then cut the thin Swedish bread into triangles and drizzle with pesto dressing.

Free from dairy, if you are on a gluten free diet you can use rice instead of pasta and leave out the bread. Free from nuts, and suitable for fish eating vegetarians.

Just a few things growing on my allotment at the moment.

Allotment

My husband and I had our name on the waiting list for an allotment for 3 years and this April we were given one, unfortunately the previous owners had done nothing to it but plant hundreds of potatoes. The allotment was covered completely with weeds and rotten potatoes, a lot of time and effort has been made over the last few months, most the manual labour by hubby and the planting and germinating by me.

I went over there today and this is what is looks like now. Its coming on really well, I just love watching the vegetables grow from seedlings into big plants and some are now fruiting. I can't wait to harvest my goods and cook them, its all soooooo exciting.

Deep fried Lamb with Aubergine Caviar & Caramillised onions

Deep fried Lamb with Aubergine Caviar

(Some of this dish needs to be prepared the night before or in the morning at the latest.)

Ingredients

• Lamb fillets
• Large Aubergine
• Small cocktail onions (if you can't find these, use pickled ones and just drain and soak in water for several hours)
• Fresh Mint
• Organic caster sugar (normal is fine but I like organic)
• Unsalted butter
• Salt and plenty of it
• Port or red wine (I prefer Port for cooking)
• Good olive oil (preferably Italian, to make it more authentic)
• Sunflower oil
• Jiffy cloth (don't worry your not going to eat this)
• Small French bread.
• Aged Balsamic if you have it.

Aubergine Caviar Recipe

- 1st to make the Aubergine caviar the night before if possible or the next morning at the latest.

- Peel and cube a large Aubergine

- Heat a good old glug of Olive Oil in a saucepan until smoking, add the Aubergine and 2 x tbsp of salt you may need more later, go by your taste buds. Stir continuously until golden and till they have softened and look mushy, remember Aubergines soak up oil, that's why we need to leave them overnight.

- Drain and put in a bowl lined with a damp jiffy cloth overnight.

Caramelised Onions & Port/Red wine reduction

- Peel your small onions or drain your pickled cocktail onions and place in fridge overnight.

- Place about 50g butter in a pan till smoking and add the onions and 3 tbsp of caster sugar and stir continuously until golden and caramelised, you may have to drain off any excess butter.

- Add a cup of Port or red wine and simmer for about 20 minutes until it has reduced, stir occasionally.

Aged balsamic Croutons

- Cut the French bread into very thin slices, drizzle with olive oil and fry or lightly toast under grill under golden.

- When toasted drizzle with aged balsamic, leave for later.

Deep fried Lamb

- Turn on your deep fat fryer to highest setting, or heat oil in a pan. Use sunflower oil as it gets hotter than olive oil.

- Slice you lamb into small bite size thick pieces.

- Put your Aubergines back in a pan to heat up but add in some chopped fresh mint. Do not let this burn, just heat gently

- When your oil is hot enough, put your Lamb in the fat fryer and fry for just 1 minute. Longer if using a pan, and longer if you like your meat well done.

- Drain on kitchen paper and then time to plate up.

When plated up as picture above put your onions in place you'll only need about 5-6 per plate, spoon over the Port/Red wine reduction.

(I cooked something very similar to this in the restaurant on Masterchef, but this is my own version & I love it yummmmmmy, fab for dinner parties)

If you do not add the French Bread croutons then this recipe is Gluten/Wheat free, it is also nut free, it does contains butter so not suitable for those with dairy allergies.

1ST RECIPE MANY MORE TO COME

HOT CHOCOLATE FONDANT

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 50g unsalted butter + extra to grease tins
• 2tsp cocoa powder to dust tins
• 50g 70% min bitter chocolate
• 1x free range egg
• 1x free range egg yolk
• 60g caster sugar
• 50g plain flour
• 2 tsp icing sugar to dust
• strawberries
• single cream

*optional a chocolate truffle to put in centre*

Recipe

- Preheat oven at 1600c/Gas mark 2.

- Grease 2 tins/ramekins

and dust with cocoa shaking off excess.

- Melt chocolate & butter in a bowl over pan of hot water on the hob.

- After this has melted take off heat and let it cool for 10 minutes.

- In a separate bowl mix together whole egg, egg yolk and sugar and whisk until pale and thick.

- Mix in the chocolate mixture.

- Sift in the flour and fold into the mixture using a metal spoon. *optional you can place a chocolate truffle in the centre for added flavour and ooze*

- Divide the mixture into the tins and bake in the oven for 12 minutes. The timing of this dish is very important if you want the middle to ooze out.

- Take out the oven and gently turn upside down on a plate, you may need to gently run a knife around the outside. Now to decorate.

To decorate I sift icing sugar on the top, and cut and fan out a strawberry on top. I then liquidise strawberries with Madeira wine and icing sugar and place in a squeezy bottle, (you can get these in cooking shops or cookery website) they are fab for decorating your food. (I tend to do this before cooking the chocolate fondant). When the fondant is on the plate in position I squirt little pea size shapes of strawberry sauce around the plate with a pea sized bit of cream in between, I then get a cocktail stick and put it in the middle of the sauce a drag it around the plate, this gives a nice heart shaped pattern around the plate.

Happy eating, this is my tweaked recipe and tried and tested many times, and hasn't failed me yet. Just remember its all about the timings.

Contains wheat/gluten, diary and not suitable for vegans. Doesn't contain any nuts, but check the chocolate you buy.

Right its time to get started. So what is my blog going to be about then? I'll be posting different types of recipes to suit different budgets, dietary requirements recipes (focusing mainly on gluten free), quick and easy recipes after a hard day at the office. Low fat recipes (as I'm always on a diet). Romantic dinner menus for that important person in your life, dinner party menus, kids birthday party buffet ideas, seasonal buffet ideas (like Halloween parties, new years eve parties etc). Recipes from around the world from Italian - Moroccan, and good old British grub. Vegetarian recipes, desserts the list is endless. I'll also be talking about my allotment, and tips to grow veg. I will also be posting photos of my food and show you how you can make your food look like art on a plate. So bye for now, I'll be posting some recipes very soon.

I did it!

After a year of contemplating sharing my cooking passion, I have set up my blog. yay! I plan to post yummy recipes, critique, my experiences on Masterchef 2010 and all sorts of fun cooking stuff.