These gin and tonic lollies are great fun at parties and barbecues. They’re perfect to make in advance for an easy dessert or for a refreshing summer treat once the kids are in bed. You can use whatever gin you have, choose your favourite gin and maybe spike it with some botanicals which complement your chosen gin.
You could also try using your other favourite drinks such as Pimms or Mojitos for a refreshing summer treat.
Gin and Tonic Lollies
Makes 6 lollies – Ready in 4 hours
Ingredients
35 ml gin
½ lemon, juiced and zest finely grated
45 ml (3 tbsp) sugar syrup (available in most supermarkets)
250ml tonic water
Method
Prepare the ice lolly moulds by first rinsing them with warm water.
Combine all the ingredients in a jug and pour into the prepared moulds, leaving a small gap at the top. Clip the handles onto the moulds and place in the freezer and leave for a minimum of about 4 hours.
To serve the lollies, run the lollies in their moulds very briefly under warm running water and serve immediately.
Warning – they’re so good you might not be able to stop at just one!
Cooks Notes – these days most people have a favourite gin or favourite style of gin. You could easily swap out the lemon and add whatever you would normally serve with your favourite gin. Cucumber perhaps, or mint; a slice of pink grapefruit or a sprig of rosemary.
Likewise, these days tonic water isn’t just tonic water. There are several different styles of tonic water available which have been designed to complement different styles of gin. So you can make these Gin and Tonic Lollies with whatever gin and tonic is your favourite, or if you don’t have a favourite, normal supermarket gin and tonic is absolutely fine too.
This recipe was developed in conjunction with an Appliance House Chef.
Yesterday, we received a lovely hamper from St Helen’s Farm. A lovely goaty hamper, which I will blog about properly at a later date. Right now we’ve got a fridge full of goats cheese, milk, butter and yoghurt and largely empty cupboards. The boys were due home and I had to think quickly about what to feed them. So I made this, tagliatelle with goats cheese sauce, courgettes and roasted cherry tomatoes. It took no more than 30 minutes to throw together and everyone cleaned their plates.
I’m a bit rubbish at weighing and measuring, I’m a dollop of this and a dash of that kind of girl, so I’ve tried my best to recreate the recipe for goaty goodness below.
Ingredients: (feeds around four people)
Tagliatelle – I use two nests of tagliatelle per person
One medium courgette per person
One punnet of cherry tomatoes
2 teaspoons of St Helen’s Farm Goats butter
Seasoning – salt, pepper & dried chilli flakes
For the sauce
40g St Helen’s Farm Goats butter
20g plain flour
425ml St Helen’s Farm Goats milk (I used skimmed)
120g St Helen’s Farm Mature Goats Cheese, grated
Seasoning – salt, pepper & dried chilli flakes
Method:
Slice the courgettes, melt the butter in a frying pan and sauté until they start to go soft. Meanwhile halve the tomatoes and place on an oven tray and season a little, roast for 15 minutes (check regularly) at 220c. Once the courgettes have taken on some colour and are starting to soften, transfer to an oven proof dish and put in the oven, but keep an eye on them.
While the courgettes and tomatoes are cooking, cook the pasta as per instructions on the packet.
In another pan melt the butter and add the flour, stir vigorously, then start to slowly add the milk, adding a little at a time and beating to ensure the sauce is smooth. Once all the milk has been added, season to taste and add the grated goats cheese and stir until melted.
Drain the pasta and combine with the sauce, add in most of the courgettes and stir. Serve on warmed plates, garnish with the remaining courgette slices and a pile of the unctuous roasted tomatoes.
Simple and delicious. This is going to be a family favourite this summer I think.
I didn’t quite have enough pasta in the cupboard so my picture looks a little on the saucy side.
Disclaimer: I was sent a free hamper of goaty goodies by St Helen’s Farm to try and see what I thought, that review will follow, but the clean plates mean my family genuinely loved it.
Biscuits. They’re the parents friend. Providing much needed energy to get through traumatic children’s bedtimes, afternoon energy lulls and for scoffing greedily with friends over a cup of tea. They’re also excellent for staving off the pre-dinner starvation which the small boy seems to get around 4.30pm.
It was not with undue levels of excitement that we opened a box of biscuit awesomeness sent by Bahlsen. They make a much admired and rather too moorish biscuit; you know the sort, plain biscuit one side, and a thick slab of chocolate on the other. It’s impossible to take just one of these out of the packet and leave it at that. Impossible.
We were given our mission (which we chose to accept) which was to take part in the Bahlsen Bake Off. The small boy loves helping in the kitchen, especially making cakes. Alas I am not gifted in the arena of baking, so my specialty pud is usually an Eton Mess, it’s basically an assembly job of all my favourite things, cream, broken meringue and strawberries.
For ease we prepped the component parts beforehand; whipping the cream into stiff peaks, smushing up the meringue and cutting the strawberries. At this was the Bahlsen Bake Off we added nearly a whole packet of the Bahlsen Leibniz Zoo biscuits which we broke up and mixed with the meringue.
We then set to work, you can see what we did in this short, pretty cute video. What do you think of our budding chef?
These Pork & Chorizo Kebabs with Harissa are quick and pretty easy mid-week meal. They went down an absolute storm with my meat-eating boys. Here’s how I did it. It makes around 8 good-sized kebabs, enough for 4 hungry people.
Pork & Chorizo Kebabs with Harissa
Ingredients:
500g of minced pork
4 large Spanish style chorizo pork sausages from our local butcher, skin removed
A bunch of coriander
2 dessert spoons of Maille Mustard with white wine, lemon and Harissa
One bag of salad leaves of your choosing
One tortilla wrap per kebab
For the salad dressing:
4 teaspoons of Maille Mustard with white wine, lemon and Harissa
2 teaspoon of honey
4 dessert spoons of cider vinegar
12 dessert spoons of olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Method:
Whizz up half of your bunch of coriander in a food processor, add two dessert spoons of Maille Mustard with white wine, lemon and Harissa, your pork mince and the chorizo sausage and whizz some more until it’s all blended but not smooth, you still want some chunky bits. Then form into sausage shapes around your kebab sticks. They should look like this:
Put on a non-stick baking tray and cook in a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes at 220˚ turning regularly.
In the meantime make your salad dressing. Use a clean jar and add all the salad dressing ingredients listed above. Put the lid on the jar and give it a good shake until it’s all mixed together. Taste and adjust the seasoning if you need to. Just before serving toss your salad leaves in the dressing. Chop the remaining coriander.
To serve take a warmed tortilla wrap, spread thinly with some Maille Mustard with white wine, lemon and Harissa and top with your dressed salad leaves, drizzling any remaining salad dressing on them. Put your cooked kebabs on top, scatter with some chopped coriander, roll your wrap and enjoy.
The kebabs were a big hit with the harissa mustard adding an additional layer of flavour to the dish. I loved it in the salad dressing too and I virtually licked the jar clean.
Recently I’ve given up bread. Not all bread, but leavened bread because I eat too much of it, and when I cut it out I tend to lose weight a bit quicker.
I’ve struggled a bit with breakfast as I love scrambled egg on toast. I’ve tried just having scrambled egg but it felt a bit too frugal and it needed something else.
Searching for inspiration I found some tortilla wraps in the cupboard and came up with this breakfast wrap. I doubt it’s a new, exciting breakfast concept; but I love it and coming in at under 450 calories for a pretty hearty, tasty breakfast you can’t go wrong. And yes, I’ll admit it doesn’t look stunning, but it does taste amazing.
Chop two tomatoes into bite size chunks, put into a microwaveable dish and season to taste. I used salt, pepper, dried chilli flakes and a pinch of sugar. Microwave for two minutes, stir and microwave for one more minute.
Scramble two eggs however you’d normally scramble eggs. I add a dab of butter, no milk, no seasoning in this because the tomatoes are seasoned enough.
Take your tortilla, spread with the cooked tomatoes, top with your cooked eggs, roll it into a wrap and eat.
I think it’d also be great with some wilted spinach or chopped parsley. Whatever you fancy.
Honestly this is my new favourite thing. If I can’t have it for breakfast then I’ll have it for lunch. It might look a bit bland but it’s so good. In fact I think I’ll go and make another one right now!
I love risotto and I love making it. I know some people really struggle to make it, but once you’ve cracked it then it’s a really handy thing to add to your repertoire. It’s one of our “nothing in the cupboard” meals and great for using up odds and sods in your fridge.
We have two favourites in our house. Tomato risotto and aubergine risotto. We cheese them up a bit more to make it more toddler friendly as he adores cheese. I’ve been asked a few times for my risotto recipe so I’ve decided to blog it. It’s fairly standard really. Here’s my basic risotto recipe with both tomato and aubergine options. It feeds about 4 and any leftovers (pah!) can always be turned into arancini the next day.
Tomato Risotto
Finely chop an onion and fry gently until soft in some olive oil. Add a crushed clove of garlic (or more if you like garlic) and cook for a minute. At this point I add the risotto rice. If I’m being sensible I weigh it (250g) but mostly just use about half a 500g packet. Stir the rice and cook it for a couple of minutes. Add a small glass of white wine if you have it open, but I tend to use a smaller amount of dry vermouth as we rarely drink wine and the vermouth works just as well.
Stir through and then start adding hot stock. I use veg stock but you can use chicken if you’re that way inclined. At this point I usually add my tomato or aubergine, but more of that later. Keep stirring and loving your risotto, adding stock a ladle at a time until the rice is cooked to how you like it. Give it a taste and check for seasoning, add salt, pepper and I like chilli flakes to your taste. Add some grated cheese (we use Pecorino and cheddar, as like I said, the boy loves it cheesy, but add as much or as little as you like), stir through and take off the heat, let it rest for a few minutes.
Tomato Risotto recipe
In a frying pan I chop fresh, good quality tomatoes in a dab of butter, usually some cherry tomatoes and some vine tomatoes. As they start to release their juice I add salt, pepper, a touch of sugar to bring out the natural sweetness and some fresh or dried herbs. I usually go for dried oregano and some mixed herbs.
Once the tomatoes are collapsed I pick out some of the skins. It’s a personal preference, I don’t mind them but some do. Then at the point where I start adding stock I chuck in the tomatoes.
You should note that as the tomatoes are very wet and juicy you really won’t need to add as much stock as you normally would. So do go easy.
You might want to add some tomato purée to the risotto if you think your tomatoes need a flavour boost, just don’t forget to cook the purée out.
If you like you can add some fresh spinach towards the end and stir through until wilted. I love spinach and it’s so good for you.
Aubergine Risotto recipe
I tend to buy a few aubergines when I see them cheap, prep them and freeze them so there’s always a speedy risotto ingredient available.
Finely dice your aubergine and fry in some olive oil until cooked through and soft. (This is the point where I freeze them, usually in 200g portions).
Add the aubergine to the risotto when you start adding the stock so some of the aubergine flavour imparts itself on the rice.
It’s a really lovely, subtle recipe. I often use mozzarella instead of cheddar because I think it works slightly better, but in terms of cheese just chuck in whatever floats your boat.
So that’s my basic risotto recipe. It’s really easy and there’s no need to be afraid of it. Give it a try. Although I’ve only blogged my two favourites once you’ve got the method then you can try it with other ingredients.
If you’re a novice baker, biscuits and shortbread are a great place. Biscuits are fairly easy. They don’t need to be light and fluffy and they don’t need to rise. The one thing I can successfully bake,which usually gets stacks of compliments is shortbread. I usually bake plain or lavender shortbread but I’ve decided to mix things up and bake a cinnamon and raisin shortbread instead.
I inherited the basic shortbread recipe from my Grandma who was a cook and a pastry chef. She used to make fantastic puddings. I’ve taken her shortbread recipe and added a few other ingredients. I’m really pleased with the results, they’re a buttery, short, crumbly shortbread with a lovely cinnamon and raisin twist!
Cinnamon and Raisin Shortbread
Ingredients: 225g butter
130g caster sugar
350g plain flour
3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
50g raisins
Caster sugar for sprinkling
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180. You’ll need to have a couple of baking trays covered with greaseproof paper ready.
Rub the butter and sugar together with your fingers or using a food mixer. Then lightly rub in the flour and the cinnamon with a wooden spoon (I do this in stages to avoid a flour cloud in the kitchen). Add the raisins and mix through the dough.
I find the following method tidier and it stops you manhandling the dough too much. Once the cinnamon and raisin shortbread dough is almost together; tip it out onto a large sheet of greaseproof paper. Bring the dough together with your hands and then fold the paper in half with the mixture sandwiched in between.
With a rolling-pin, roll it out between the sheets of paper, so it’s about 5mm thick and cut into rounds. I used a glass for this and carefully lifted each cinnamon and raisin shortbread biscuit onto the baking tray. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar over each round.
I managed to get 18 large shortbread rounds out of the dough and I got another 18 mini round shortbreads too. Bake the mini rounds for just 10 minutes, they’re lovely with a cup of tea and their mini size makes them seem much fancier.
Bake the large shortbread rounds in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes. Keep an eye on the shortbread, they don’t really want to brown. Once they’re baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool on a rack.
Shortbread can be a tricky beast, you don’t want your shortbread to brown, it needs to be pale in not over-baked. It’s tricky to see these shortbreads brown as the cinnamon makes them darker to begin with. Different ovens cook differently and I’ve found different butters behave differently too. So it’s best to keep having a peek. You want it to still be pale, but cooked through. You don’t want to dry it out and over-bake either.
Try if you can (I failed) not to gobble one down while they’re still hotter than the surface of the sun. Once cool, enjoy with a streaming mug of tea. They can happily be stored in an airtight tin for a few days, if they last that long.
These shortbreads were a massive hit, they were loved by all. I was cautious with the cinnamon as not everyone likes it. I think next time I’d put more cinnamon, but it depends how much of a fan of this spice you are. If you’re not sure how much you want to add, you can always taste the raw dough and add more if you think it needs it.
This is an old family favourite and perfect for batch making and freezing when you’ve grown a glut of courgettes (of any colour) or they are extra cheap in the shops. We grow our own so this is a summer staple for us and a cheeky way of getting veg into a toddler without him realising.
I admit it’s not pretty but it tastes delicious and you can make is as healthy or naughty as you want.
Here’s what I do…
Grate (in the food processor, life’s too short) 2-3 courgettes per person and then ping in the microwave or just cook on the hob until soft. Season generously with salt, pepper and dried chilli flakes then whizz up in the blender until smooth.
Return to the hob and reheat. Stick some spaghetti on to cook and grate some cheese (this is the healthy/naughty part) and add it to the sauce, stir until melted through. Use your judgement and taste as you go, you can always add more, but I added a dollop of soft cheese with garlic and herbs, cheddar and Parmesan. Melt through and taste for seasoning and cheesiness. Once the spaghetti is cooked drain and stir the sauce through and serve.
Yes it really is as easy as that. When dealing with a glut we freeze before we add the cheese as it seems to freeze better. It really is delicious, though admittedly it’s slightly prettier with green courgettes.
Like most people these days we live on a budget. We try to eat like kings on a
paupers pay packet, so when I spotted some really good looking vine tomatoes on the Aldi Super Six offer I couldn’t resist. All at the pocket-friendly price of 69p, I greedily bought 6 packets.
My plan was to roast them to go with a meal of quiche and salad. Now that is a lot of roasted tomatoes for one meal for three people, but being the frugalista I am, I had grand plans for the leftovers.
This is a great way to take care of a glut of tomatoes if you grow your own, or to take advantage if you stumble across a bargain in the green grocers or Aldi.
Roasted Tomatoes
Halve and remove the core from your tomatoes, lay them cut side up in a roasting tin, season with salt and pepper, I sprinkled over fresh thyme and oregano, but dried herbs would be fine. Nestle in some cloves of garlic, still in their skins, drizzle over some olive oil and roast in a hot oven for about 40 minutes or until they’ve semi-collapsed and oozing with their juices.
At this point they’re done. I love them on hot buttered toast fresh from the oven but I had other plans for my hot tray of loveliness.
As I’d roasted so many – two trays worth, I tipped the tomatoes and their juices, skin and all in the food processor, I squeezed the garlic from it’s skin and blitzed the lot. After checking the seasoning I decanted the roasted tomato sauce into storage containers. I’ve now got a litre of gorgeous roasted tomato sauce sat in the fridge waiting for another day.
So for my minimal effort I’ve got the following meals from my roasted tomatoes:
Sneaky, cheeky lunch of roast tomatoes on toast
Side dish to go with our evening meal of quiche and salad
Spaghetti and meatballs in roasted tomato sauce
Homemade pizza using the sauce as a tomato base
Tomato and mozzarella risotto
Plus a batch of sauce for the freezer for a rainy day
That’s not bad for £4.14 worth of tomatoes, a few herbs, some garlic and not a lot of effort. It really is worth trying, in our house tomatoes form the basis of a lot of meals and the deep, more intense flavour of the roasted tomatoes is something else.
I had a falling out with my kitchen around Christmas time. The turkey gave me the evil eye, the sprouts turned on me and quite frankly the stuffing can get stuffed. So ever since then my usual culinary enthusiasm has been somewhat lacking. Perhaps it was the change of season or the pile of leftover new potatoes glaring at me from the fridge, but inspiration struck and I decided to do my take on the Cranks classic – Homity Pie.
I’m not a massive fan of thick pastry, unless it’s covered in jam and cream with a big cherry on the top. So for a while I’d been musing about a homity pie made with filo. So I looked up the Cranks recipe, carefully read it, closed the book and put it back on the shelf. I was going to experiment and see if I could make it a bit healthier but just as tasty.
Skinny Homity Pie
Ingredients:
1 onion, finely diced
Olive oil
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon of fresh thyme (or dried if you don’t have fresh)
Enough sliced cooked potatoes to half fill your pie dish
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of mustard
3 or 4 pieces of shop bought filo pastry
50g grated Cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper
Method:
Sweat one onion in a dab of olive oil, when soft add a crushed clove of garlic and as much fresh thyme as you fancy (I used a lot, thyme and onions are the best of friends and I have a huge thyme plant in the garden).
Slice up a pile of cooked potatoes; I used new potatoes because that’s what I had.
Whisk up 2 eggs, some salt and pepper and a goodly dollop of your favourite mustard.
Grab your favourite quiche or pie dish, give it a light coating of oil, lay a piece of filo in the dish, oil that piece of filo and artfully drape another on top, repeat the process until you’ve got 3 or 4 pieces of filo piled up, greased and ready to go.
Mix your sliced spuds and the unctuous onion mix together, spread a layer in the bottom of your dish, sprinkle a handful of cheese over and drizzle your mustardy egg over, layer the remaining spuds, pour over your leftover egg and top with another handful of grated cheese.
I baked it in the oven for 25 minutes at 220 degrees or until it looks golden and gorgeous.
I served it with a huge green salad and some oven roasted tomatoes. It was a huge hit with the boys, impressive as the toddler is (oh joy) going though a picky phase. This Homity Pie is monumentally easy to do, half quiche, half homity pie and it’s a real family favourite!
