Friday 28 November 2014

Colourful Chicken Risotto

I have said previously said that my girls are fussy eaters. Technically Elizabeth is the fussy one and Rebecca copies. However, Rebecca is usually more willing to try new things, especially when Elizabeth is not around. So my new cooking challenge is to introduce new food to Rebecca at lunchtimes during the week when Elizabeth is at school.

Today I tried Colourful Chicken Risotto from The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook by Gill Rapley & Tracey Murkett.

I have never tried risotto, it's not a dish that appeals to me, but as Rebecca is such a great fan of rice I thought I would give it a go. How hard could it be... (nicknamed the "Death Dish" on Australian Masterchef)?

The recipe is as follows:

1tbsp olive oil
25-50g butter
1 small onion chopped or sliced
200-300g chicken diced (I used one chicken breast)
750ml chicken stock
1 small red pepper sliced
1 small courgette sliced
1 handful of sweetcorn tinned or frozen
250g risotto rice
2tbsp Parmesan cheese grated
Pepper for seasoning

Method:
Heat the oil and butter in a large pan. When the butter is melted, add the onion and fry until soft. Add the chicken, fry until it is sealed.
Put the stock on in separate pan (a small one will do).
Add the peppers & courgettes to the chicken, fry for about 3-4 minutes until they are beginning to soften. Add the sweetcorn. Add the rice, mix it in until it is all coated with the butter/oil mixture.
Add the stock one ladleful at a time. Mix until the liquid is absorbed. Then add the next ladleful and mix until it is absorbed into the rice. Repeat this until the rice is plump but still has a bite and the overall consistency in the pan is creamy (this took me about 30 minutes).
Take the pan off the heat, stir in the Parmesan cheese and black pepper.



The overall result was ok. I'm fairly sure I cooked it correctly. It was creamy and silky, but not really to my taste or Rebecca's. I did enjoy the veg and chicken though but I think I'll stick to long grain and basmati rice.

I give this meal 4/10.

Friday 21 November 2014

Birthday Cakes

Cakes, Cakes, Cakes
I've been challenging myself to be creative when it comes to birthday cakes.
I've made some progress as you can see.

Elizabeth's 2nd birthday January 2012
Vanilla Layer Cake from Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery

Elizabeth's 3rd Birthday Cake, January 2013
Chocolate Layer Cake from the Primrose Bakery

My birthday, May 2013
same as above

Rebecca's 2nd Birthday, November 2013
This is Lorraine Pascale's "I can't believe you made that cake" from Baking Made Easy. It's a great cake, really yummy and looks fab. Elizabeth insisted I make it for her next birthday too. I now constantly see variations of it on the internet.
What I learned from Elizabeth's cake Jan 13, was to leave the smarties until serving. If you put them on the cake too far in advance the shells lose their crispiness.

My birthday, May 2014
Red Velvet Cake from Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy. I think I made the medium cake. I did NOT use enough red colouring, so it was really just a chocolate cake.
This was my first attempt at using Fondant Icing. I got the ready to roll stuff! I didn't make the flowers.


Jeff's Birthday, October 2014
And, of course there's the Candy Cake I made for Jeff's birthday last month. It's funny because since then it seems that "surprise cakes" are the in-thing! I got my idea from a conversation with Elizabeth about pinatas, and thought it would be cool to combine the cake with Jeff's love of sweets.

Rebecca's 3rd Birthday, November 2014
Finally, last week's Mystery Machine Cake that I made for Rebecca's birthday.

I think I've made some progress!



Friday 14 November 2014

Scooby Doo Mystery Machine

Scooby Doo Mystery Machine Cake

This year the girls have both really been into Scooby Doo. So when thinking about Rebecca's birthday cake, I came up with the idea of making a Mystery Machine cake. It seemed like the easiest Scooby Doo design to make.

I had pictures of the van which I drew and used to cut out templates for the decorations on the side of the cake.

I used two loaf tins to bake the cake, using the same sponge recipe as I used for the Candy Cake.
While that was baking and cooling, I started cutting out the designs for the sides of the cake using my templates and ready rolled and coloured fondant icing.


I sandwiched the cakes together with buttercream and covered all the cake with buttercream. Again I used the recipe used to make the Candy Cake.
I then covered the cake with a blue fondant icing, and used water and a pastry brush to add on all of the decorations.

It wasn't as neat as I would have liked, but I was pleased with the final results. More importantly, Rebecca loved it!

A couple of points that I had issues with.
* I don't know how to smooth down the sides of fondant icing. When you put it over the cake, there are always flaps and they end up making the cake look messy. I will research this more next time.
* Next time I will make the designs to stick onto the cake after the cake had it's main layer of fondant icing on it and add them as soon as they are ready. Because I made them in advance they were hard and some of them broke when I picked them up.

Friday 7 November 2014

Krakow with Children

My children are fussy eaters. That's why most of my updates are sweet treats. It's hard to spend time creating something delicious for them to eat when you know at the end of it you're probably going to have to make beans on toast because they haven't touched it!

Anyway, we visited Krakow in Poland at the end of October, and it was a challenge to find somewhere to eat that wasn't McDonalds. In my opinion, the best place we ate was at a little Milk Bar. These are the Polish versions of a cafeteria, but they were just like nice cafes open late. We ordered omelette, scrambled egg, paninis, chips, toast and rice. So there was a nice selection of food to eat and the girls were happy with it. The history of the Milk Bars is fascinating. They were originally set up after the war by the Communists to encourage workers to drink milk instead of moonshine, especially given the large surplus of dairy products in Poland at the time. When times were really hard, the cutlery was often chained to the tables so people wouldn't make off with them!

I think if the girls are still fussy the next time we visit Poland, we will have to try more of these Milk Bars!

Recommendations for some things to do with children in Krakow:


The Castle in Niepolomice. We stayed in the hotel in this castle for the first half of our trip. It was exciting for the girls that we stayed in a real castle. They enjoyed the visit around the museum, especially the stuffed scary animals. The restaurant here was lovely. We had high quality food for very little money, compared to what it would have cost in the UK. And they had kids meals, so the girls had chicken nuggets and chips for tea. Whereas we had things like chicken wrapped in parma ham with mustard puree and steak with potato puree and beetroot cooked in red wine. For pudding, the pistachio creme brulee with chocolate sauce. Unfortunately the girl's ice cream had too much cream, too much strange fruit (we struggled to identify all the fruit) and not enough ice cream for them. It looked amazing though, but it was not a children's dessert.


The Wawel Dragon. We walked up Wawel Hill and saw the stunning Castle and Cathedral. The views from the top of the hill were spectacular. After taking some photos, when we walked down the spiral staircase into the dragons cave. We came out of the cave to where this statue of the famous Dragon stands and breathes fire!


Krakow Old Town. One evening we walked past a little girl who said to her mum "Why do we just come here every day!" Elizabeth said to us "I don't know why she doesn't like it, we get food and toys every time we come here!" One of the highlights, and another Foodie link, in the Old Town for the girls was the sweetie shop, where they made sweeties in front of you! Cukier Artist
Under the town square is the Rynek Underground Museum which is child friendly. It very hi-tech with holograms and touch screens. It documents the history of the town.
The town came alive in the evenings with street performers, horse and cart rides and cafes with outside seating areas. It was very European. 

I would like to go back to Krakow when it's a bit warmer to appreciate being outside. And when the girls are a little bit older and don't need to be carried on our shoulders when their "legs are tired".