Brownies!

Not the best photo I know

Sorry about the photo, I meant to take some photos of them cut up but totally forgot, and then they got eaten!

Anyway, something else I made on Sunday were some brownies for the boys, and for my workmates. I don't have any of my recipe books over here so I couldn't make the ones I usually would, but this recipe I found worked out pretty well I would say.

I made a double batch so Quentin, Seamus and my flatmates could have some, and my work mates as well. First I drained two cans of mixed summer berries from Waitrose. I wanted just raspberries but they didn't have that option so I got mixed instead. Then I melted 300g butter with 1 1/2 cup of cocoa on the stove. You need to make sure it goes slowly so it doesn't burn or anything.

I mixed 6 eggs with 2 1/2 cups of white sugar and a couple of teaspoons of vanilla essence until it seemed mixed and was sort of creamy and thick. Then I added 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 cup of flour and mixed them in so it was smooth. I didn't want to mix too much because I know that can ruin things sometimes.

By that point the butter/cocoa was cooler, it wasn't cold but it was just sort of warmish which I thought would be ok so I mixed that into the other mix. I poured it into two baking trays which I greased while waiting for the butter/cocoa to cool. Then I sprinkled the berries over the mix and put the two trays into the oven.

The oven was preheated to gas mark 4 which I am pretty sure is around 180 degrees Celsius. Then I cooked them until they looked cooked and sprang back when I touched the top. I think it was around 40 minutes.

They were pretty good, even I ate some and I don't even like that stuff really. It is a pretty easy recipe to make, and uses things you probably already have at home so its good if you feel like doing some random baking or feel like something sweet and don't want to go to the shop!

Sausage Rolls!

So delicious!

Mmmm close up

On Sunday after brunch we had a bit of a look around Fulham and went to the supermarket and then walked home (getting a bit lost, thanks Quentin). We were lucky because when we got home the weather turned mega crap and windy! It was a good day for movies (well afternoon by that point) so we hung out in the lounge watching movies and I made us some snacks.

One thing I made were these sausage rolls. Quentin LOVES sausage rolls and has been known to eat the meat ones at parties sometimes, shocking! Anyway I thought I would make some easy vege ones since I could.

I just got some pre-rolled puff pastry from the supermarket (jus roll brand, which is vegan) and some Linda McCartney sausages (red onion and rosemary) since we hadn't tried that brand before. So far our favourite sausages are the Asda brand ones.

Once the pastry and sausages were defrosted I spread the pastry with some sundried tomato pesto that I had in the fridge, lined up the sausages and rolled them up. There was enough pastry to roll 4 sausages up inside, giving me two rolls. Then I brushed the rolls with a little bit of milk and sprinkled some black sesame seeds over.

I cut them into sausage roll sizes and put them in the greased baking try and then grated some mature cheddar over them all. I cooked them for some amount of time, I really don't know how long, until the looked cooked. Since we have a gas oven with the flame at the back I have to turn everything around every now and then so they don't cook unevenly.

These sausage rolls were delicious and enough for a few people, we couldn't finish them between 3 of us, although we were eating other snacks as well. They would be good food for a party because they are cheap, easy and fast to make. I will make them again for sure.

Brunch in Fulham

Vege breakfasts!

Iced coffee

Quentin's brother Seamus came to stay with us for a few days, arriving on Saturday night so on Sunday we went out for brunch in Fulham. We hadn't been out to eat around where we live for ages, maybe since we went down to the markets! I did a little bit of internet research and found a place that sounded good which was only about 10 minutes away so we headed down there.

They have a small café but also a lot of tables outside which would be lovely in Summer but not so great in winter since it is cold and windy at the moment! We got a table inside anyway which was good.

They had a breakfast and a lunch menu but it seemed like you could just order off either one which was good and bad, good because we had more options, and bad because we had more options... I am terrible at making decisions! In the end I went with what Quentin was getting (vege breakfast) because I thought I might get jealous otherwise!

They also had a bunch of other vege stuff, all kinds of eggs, omelette's, wraps, a burger, sandwiches and so on. I think we will go back to try some of the other stuff because it all sounded really good.

We ordered some milkshakes and iced coffee as well and everything came out super fast! The iced coffee was good because it was blended with ice rather than milk/cream which meant it was more refreshing but it was definitely lacking in coffee flavour, I think Krys would hate it!

The breakfast was good, not great. You got lots of halloumi which was awesome but only one hash brown which is less awesome. The egg was cooked well but the bread was weird and made me cough. The baked tomato was delicious but the mushroom and spinach was not delicious. In saying that I don't actually like mushroom or spinach so it is not their fault. People should just not put them on every vege breakfast! The beans were beans, I can't really say any more about them.

I also forgot to take a photo before I started eating so sorry about that! Overall I would go back to try some of the other things because what I saw coming out of the kitchen all looked yummy. I think it was a good breakfast and reasonable value for money (about £10 each including drinks) but it could have been better. I will give them a 3 out of 5.

Ramen in England

Yum!

My workmates and I all went out to lunch together on Friday to a Japanese place in Putney called the Hare and Tortoise which is just down the road from our work. There are a lot of places to go in Putney which is awesome because I can slowly go to them all! I think most of them have lunch deals as well which is cool, you don't have to spend to much.

This place had quite a lot of choice for vegetarians which was cool, all the food I saw other people getting all looked super yum as well. I wasn't sure whether to get the ramen or a stir fried one which I cant remember the name of because they both sounded so good. I ended up picking the ramen since I remembered how good the one in Japan was.

This one was vegetarian rather than the traditional pork though so it was quite different. It came in a giant bowl, probably the same one that you get the soups in at Wagamama back home, the kind that you have no hope of ever finishing!

The noodles were different than I would expect from ramen, they seemed like 2 minute noodle type ones, but were yum anyway. It came with lots of deep fried tofu which was awesome because I love deep fried tofu but haven't been able to find it in the supermarkets here yet.

It also came with carrot, spring onion, mushrooms, something which may have been bok choy or pak choy and seaweed. I didn't eat the seaweed though because I don't really like it other than in sushi. The broth was not as tasty as the Japanese ramen, although it was still very good.

I will give them a 3.5 I think. The service was quick and the food was really good and filling, for a good price as well. However they did start clearing away peoples plates when other people were still eating which I don't like because it makes the other people feel hurried. They also didn't have any condiments on the tables which was sad because I usually like to add some extra soy sauce.

I would totally go back though because there are more things I want to try and the ramen was good even if it wasn't as good as the Japanese one.

Super easy weekday dinner

"Beef" and Broccoli

So tasty

I work slightly different hours in England than I was used to in Wellington, 9 til 5.30, and it takes around 20 minutes to get home so by the time I am back after work I don't feel like making an intricate dinner, at least not everyday!

This is another meal made with stuff from the vegetarian festival, the "meat" is one called chunky style strips which I think is meant to be similar to steak. With that I just chopped up a whole broccoli and a bunch of spring onions and stir fried it all up until the "meat" was well cooked and the broccoli was tender.

I added a packet of sauce from the supermarket, teriyaki and ginger, and stir fried it for a bit longer until everything was hot and mixed well. Before I served it up I added some black sesame seeds. It was so delicious! The packet of "meat" made enough for both of us for dinner and then I had it for lunch the next two days as well which was good.

It probably only took about 20 minutes to make this, maybe less, I didn't actually time it. And it was so easy, you just had to wait for things to cook really so you could tidy up the kitchen or something while you are doing it which is cool.

I still like to cook all the time even if I am getting home late because I find it much more satisfying than buying ready meals, and it is probably better for us as well!

'Bacon' and egg salad

So delicious!

I love the pretend bacon!

When we went to the food show we got some packets of "bacon" and had some bacon sandwiches with just white bread and butter which was amazing. We had some left over after our sandwiches so I decided to use it in a salad for dinner, with some eggs as well. Kind of like breakfast for dinner which is awesome since I love breakfast/brunch foods!

This salad was super quick and easy to make, I just fried the bacon and boiled two eggs and while that was cooking I put some salad leaves, a grated carrot, some chopped cherry tomatoes, grated cheese and pumpkin seeds into a bowl.

Then when the bacon was done I chopped that up, and chopped up the boiled eggs and put them in, with some vinegar as dressing, and just mixed it all up. It was so tasty I made it again for lunch the next day.

The "bacon" isn't as good as real bacon (from what I remember) but it is still totally tasty and probably a bit healthier than the real thing. It doesn't really crisp up as well as real bacon either, although maybe it would if I cooked it in oil rather than just a dry pan.

Anyway this salad is super quick and easy to make for dinner, and was still good for lunch the next day as well so you can take it to work. It probably has some good "health points" as Quentin would say which is always good. Just writing about it makes me want to have it again!

Cupcakes!

Strawberries and Cream

Chocolate and Coffee

Last weekend I felt like doing some baking to take into work for my workmates so I thought I would make some cupcakes since I hadn't really made any since I made so many for our wedding! Also I found these cupcake carriers at Poundland which are awesome, I wish we had them in New Zealand, they are super useful.

I made two flavours of cupcakes, one was strawberries and cream, where the cupcake has strawberries in and cream on top instead of icing. The other one I made was a chocolate cupcake with coffee icing.

The basic recipe is super easy, and you can just add what you want, like lemon, strawberry, cocoa or whatever to make the different flavoured cupcakes. Usually I would use fresh strawberries but I couldn't find any on the day I was making the cupcakes so I used canned strawberries which still worked out well.

The basic recipe is just 100g of butter, 3/4 cup of sugar, a little vanilla, 2 eggs, 1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/2 a cup of milk. Then I would just add half a punnet of chopped strawberries, a couple of tablespoons of cocoa or jam, basically whatever you feel like flavouring the cupcakes with.

You just need to cream the butter and sugar, mix in the eggs and then add the other ingredients and mix them in. I would bake them in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius, I think it was gas mark 4 but I'm not totally sure. I didn't time how long they took to cook but you can tell by touching the top and seeing if it springs back or not.

After the cupcakes have cooked and cooled you can ice them. I put just cream whipped with some vanilla essence and icing sugar (about two tablespoons) on the top of the strawberry cupcakes, and then swirled some strawberry icing on.

For the chocolate cupcakes I made coffee buttercream which is basically just heaps of butter whipped with icing sugar added, and a couple of tablespoons of strong coffee. I don't have a recipe for this, I just whip the butter then add the coffee and whip it more, then add icing sugar until it seems like the right consistency. I topped it with some chocolate curls as well.

Quentin ate about 4 cupcakes that night which was a good sign, and my workmates and flatmates liked them as well, yay! It was good to do some baking again since I haven't done any for ages, and it is nice to have people to bake for! I might make some chocolate brownies this weekend which should be tasty.