The Best Ever Oat and Raisin Cookies in the world

I dont say it lightly, but these cookies are amazing and never last in our house.  They truly are the best.  This is an American Recipe (it came on the back of some sunmaid raisins from the US), but that said is super easy for the boys, as I have some plastic cup measures that they use.

So here goes

Ingredients

3/4 cup softened butter or margarine
1 cup soft brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 cup Raisins

 

Method

Heat oven to 180. 
Beat butter, brown sugar, caster sugar, milk, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
Add to butter mixture and mix well.
Stir in oats, raisins and nuts, if using. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets.
Cool on wire racks.

Then get the children to clean up after themselves!

If you like them, then I am sure you will love the best carrot cake in the world ever too, dont take my word for it, have a look at some of the comments.

Easter Bakes, Making New Traditions

We have been busy in the kitchen this weekend, making and baking and bring in new traditions to TheMadHouse.

Hot Cross Buns

"Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns."

"If you have no daughters, 

give them to your sons,

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot cross buns."

These have gone down well with mini and MadDad, so much so that I had to make extra!

White Bread buns, which I make the dough in the bread-maker and then divide and leave to prove.  The temptation is to eat them hot, but my they really do give you indigestion.

Magic Mummy mentioned that Tesco had Easter Apron and Hats sets in for 78p and as Mini loves to dress up, we went and got him one and he decided that he needed a strawberry smoothie.

 

He loves making banana smoothies, just milk, natural yogurt and a little honey.  He likes the hand mixer too!!

Chocolate Simnel Cake

Neither MadDad or the boys are keen on fruit cake, so I thought we could try a chocolate Simnel cake.

Ingredients

100g/4oz dark chocolate, broken in pieces
100g/4oz caster sugar
100g/4oz softened butter, plus extra
3 eggs, separated
50g/2oz ground almonds
50g/2oz self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4/fan oven 160C. Butter an 18cm/7in deep round cake tin; line the base. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
2. Beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the yolks, one at a time. Stir in the almonds and chocolate.
3. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until stiff peaks form (see tip). Fold a quarter of the egg white into the chocolate mixture, then sift in a quarter of the flour and baking powder. Repeat three more times until the egg white and flour is evenly mixed in.

4. Pour the mixture into the tin. Bake for 35-40 minutes until risen and firm. Cool for five minutes, turn out on to a wire rack, peel off the paper and cool completely. 

 I then added some homemade marzipan and melted chocolate to decorate.

The Best Carrot Cake in the Whole Wide World

 

Receipe

140ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
2 Eggs
200g light brown sugar
300g grated Carrots, (grated weight)
100g raisins
75g pecans or Walnuts, chopped (optional)
180g self-raising flour
1 pinch Salt
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Mixed spice

Orange cream cheese icing - this rarely gets put on in this house, as everyone eats the cake before I get chance!!

50g cream cheese, chilled
50g Butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
275g icing sugar, sifted
1 Orange, zest only

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/gas 2. Oil and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper. I just use a silicone one.

2.Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, raisins and chopped nuts.

3. Sift in the rest of the dry ingredients and bring the mixture together using a wooden or large metal spoon until well combined.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

5. Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the tin for about five minutes before removing. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

6. For the icing: beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until well combined. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and finely grated orange zest and mix until the icing is smooth and thick.

Adapted from Rachel Allen, Bake (Collins)

 

Even people who say, oh I don't like carrot cake, love this cake.  My mum couldn't believe the amount of carrots that went in to it and I guarantee once you have made one, it will become a firm favorite.  I don't even peel the carrots before grating them anymore and can make it in 5 mins.

Anyway don't take my word for it, try it and you too will be calling it the best carrot cake in the whole wide world and with all those carrots in, surely it has to count as one of your 5 a day!

 

Meal Plan Monday and More Frugal Food

Sunday Dinner was Mince, onions, dumplings and lots and lots of vegetables, one of my big tips for being frugal and following your meal plans is to make it as easy as possible, so today food will follow on and utilise yesterdays leftovers and additional amount that we cooked.

Monday

Lunch - Leftovers

Dinner - Spaghetti Bolognese, utilising mince, onions and any left over veg with the tomato sauce we made over the summer

Tuesday

Lunch - Spaghetti on toast

Dinner - Lasagna, bulked out with cottage cheese and vegetables

Wednesday

Lunch - Leftovers

Dinner - Dahl and Naan Breads

Thursday

Lunch - Sandwiches and soup

Dinner - Sausage casserole and sweet potato

Friday

Lunch - Leftovers

Dinner, Fish, oven Chips and peas

Saturday

Lunch - Home made burgers (Maxi loves coming home from football and tucking in)

Dinner - Home made pizza

Sunday

Poached eggs on Muffin

Roast Chicken Dinner

Cooking in Bulk - Mads tip of the week

When I see vegetables or other food marked down I always see if there are ways I can incorporate them in our meals or meal plan.  I use tons of onions, so every so often, I get MadDad (I can not stand peeling onions) to do a big peel and chop and we then cook them off and pop them in bags and freeze them.

We did this yesterday.  20 onions chopped and diced and then cooked turned into six portions for the freezer and two for this week in with the mince.  I use onions a lot, with casserole, Curry's, dahl, mince etc, etc, etc

So what are your fail-safe recipes and favorite family meals?

No Cards, Just Cookies

I know that I am not alone in this as The Dotterel at Bringing Up Charlie blogged about it too.  I HATE CHRISTMAS CARDS.

Yep, I shouted.  It possibly stems from the fact I am a Christmas baby and I would rather have my measly few birthday cards up instead of Christmas cards. This issue with cards has grown year on year, especially as I have to write most of them.

It was fine when I worked, I would send out an e-mail saying Merry Christmas and that we wouldn't be sending out cards, but donating to the NSPCC instead.  MadDad still does this with his work colleagues now.

But it seems that sending cards at school is a big thing, both Mini and MaxIiMad have brought home masses of cards.  Now not only do I have anywhere to put them, but the boys cant read who they are from anyway and show no interest in sending any of their own.

So, we decided, well I decided and they had to go along with me, that we would make cookies for the teachers to hand out instead of cards. 

Ingredients

• 345g plain  flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• half tsp baking powder
• 225 g butter, softened
• 300g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar together and then add the rest, this will make a very loose dough.  You can either pop in the fridge for an hour and then roll and use cookie cutters or use soft by spooning on to the tray.

Bake at 180 degrees for approx 7 minutes or the cookies are golden.  They will seem quite soft, but as soon as they cool they are hard and crispy.

They went down a treat, now to convert the rest of the world that we do not need Christmas cards.

You could also decorate them too, I bought some coloured writing icing in tubes a while ago in Aldi and the boys and MadDad spent one evening this week decorating some too.

The boys had a lovely time, yes most of the icing went straight in to their mouths, but it is Christmas after all!

Spiritual Sunday

Today is traditionally also know as "Stir it up" Sunday

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;

That they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

So as you stir three times each (east to west to represent the three wise men) say the prayer and make a wish.

My Christmas Pudding recipe can be found here

Cooking with Children - Tarka Dal and Naan Bread

I love cooking and more than that I adore cooking with my children.  I love watching them measure, weight, pour and get excited about the tastes and textures of the food we grow, make and eat.

MiniMad and I made dal and naan breads last night, a real store cupboard meal, which is warming, filling, inexpensive and meat free, oh and it is also dead easy too, especially with a little prep work.

Firstly I rinse and soak the lentils, we use split yellow ones (chana dall??), they need at last 40 minutes. I used 200g ish for all four of us.

Then we make the naan bread to prove.

We use a recipe from Anjum Anand and all I will say is once you have made and tasted them there is no going back to shop bought ones.

250g plain flour

2 tsp Sugar

half tsp salt

half tsp baking powder

2 tbsp veg oil (whatever you have to hand)

130 ml of milk.

I basically put all the ingredients in our magimix and then let it do the work, but you could do it by hand kneading for about 8 to 10 minutes.

The turn out in to an oiled bowl, cover with a hot damp tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise for an hour.

Then roll them out (or get the children to do it, as I do - slave labour is OK) in to naan shapes and prick with a fork (approx 4 or 5) and preheat the grill as hot as it will go with a heavy baking tray under it.  You cook them on the hot baking sheet for 1 - 2 mins each side. 

You can brush the finished naans with butter if required, you can also cover with seeds prior to cooking.

Now for the dal

There is two ways of adding the flavourings to the lentils, cook them separately and add at the end (we do this) or add them whilst the lentils are cooking for the last 10 minutes.  I dont have a fixed recipe, we kind of use what we have, this is a mix of Keith Flloyd and Anjum Anand.

last night we used

Cooked and frozen onions from the freezer (whenever we see inexpensive onions MadDad chops and cooks a load and pops them in to freezer bags for me, as I can not deal with the tears involved), so approx 1 onion chopped, diced and softened.

1 tbsp Cumin Seeds

chili (either fresh or dried), we used dried, but only a small amount so was OK for all.

20g of ginger (again fresh or frozen - we have some in the freezer) in small strips

Garlic 2 cloves crushed

3 large tomatoes (we used paste, but you can used tinned or fresh)

three quarters tsp ground turmeric

1 half tsp ground coriander

three quarters tspn Gram Marsala (we batch made it in a coffee grinder, but you can buy premade)

Cook onions, add cumin seeds, ginger, chilli's until golden. 

If using fresh tomatoes puree with the garlic and add with the powder spices and 100ml of water and cook.

If using tinned tomatoes no need to add the additional liquid.

I cook the lentils in about a litre of water and give them a good mix to break them up near the end of cooking (approx 40 mins) and then drain if necessary and add to the curry.

Enjoy, we always do and yes both the minimads cleaned their bowls, they love curry and I am so pleased as it is one of our favorites for using up leftovers!!

Pumpkins and all that

We decided that we would carve our precious pumpkins today.  We are so proud that we managed to grow them ourselves in the garden.  Like all things in TheMadHouse, it was a family affair, but MadDad took centre stage.

Although MiniMad is a super duper scooper

Watch out man at work and concentrating hard

Nothing too scary, the minimads dont like scary

A face and a bat

Then roasted pumpkin seeds, delicious and so simple.

All you need do is scoop out all the seeds and clean them.  We like ours salted, so I boil then in salted water for 20 minutes, then toss them in garlic butter or olive oil and pop in a roasting sheet (single layer) in the oven for about 30 mins at 180.

The mini's were waiting for them as they came out of the oven and they lasted all of an hour.  I have orders to buy any inexpensive pumkins I see for more!!

We also harvested some of our sprouts today to go with the roast chicken and Yorkshires. I love the way they look for architectural.  I also love the fact that my children know that sprouts grow on a stick!!

 I am not keen on the taste, but will eat them and grow them as my children love them and I am all for encouraging eating vegetables when they want them.

Pear Butter

We were given a bag full of pears from my wonderful sister in law, off the tree in their garden at the social club.  Now the mini's love pears and ate lots, but I wanted to do something with the rest of them to remind us of Autumn all through the dark and cold winter and also to give as gifts for our Thrifty Christmas.

So we decided to make a pear butter/jam thing.  MadDad set too pealing all the pears, whilst I cored them and he then chopped them.  We put the in the slow cooker with a little water and left them to cook over night on low.

I then blended them in the Magimix and popped them back the slow cooker, along with the zest and juice of 4 oranges and a teaspoon of all spice and let it cook down until it mounded on the spoon.

Whilst they were cooking I popped all the jars and lids in the dish washer and set it on a hot wash.

Then I Jared them all up and popped them in a large casserole pan of boiling water for 10 minutes.

Et voila yummy pear butter.  Now to make the labels and store.

All this productiveness makes me feel so much better.  Sorry for all the self pity.  We will manage and Christmas will be fantastic because I am going to be fine and we will spend it together as a family.  Thank you for all the kind words and thoughts.  Things can only get better.