I scream for Ice Cream!

Left-over Blueberry Crumble Icecream. Photo credit: SimoneySunday

Ice cream should be a food group all by itself. I absolutely love it, but I do not love the fuss and expense of an ice cream maker. Too many kitchens have too many unused gadgets and, according to friends who do have and use their ice-cream makers, they have to put so many ingredients in, and it takes time.

Personally, I love this recipe for ice-cream using just two base ingredients and whatever you choose for the flavouring. All you need is a bowl and a hand-held blender (or infinite patience with an old-fashioned whisk).

This ice-cream takes 10 minutes maximum to make with a blender and freezes within eight hours - perfect for an evening meal or to prepare several days before a big dinner with friends and family.

How To: 
Simply buy 500g of whipping cream and 1 300g tin of condensed milk (get the normal one as the light version crystallises too much and takes longer to set).

Whip the cream in a cool bowl (I put mine in the fridge for a few mins beforehand so it is not room temperature). Once the cream is thickly whipped into stiff peaks, fold in the condensed milk. Stir it together (do not worry if the mixture starts to look a little runny). Then add your chosen flavouring.

Fold your flavour into the cream - do not completely mix it in but allow for veins and chunks and swirls of flavour throughout. Then freeze and forget about it for eight hours.

To serve, just let it stand at room temperature for about five minutes, scoop and enjoy. My problem is I am too impatient to let it stand for 5 minutes, so I whack it about with a knife, hence the slightly square-ish image in the above photo.

My favourite flavours so far are:

• Honey and honeycomb pieces (see my hack on how to liquefy honey that is crystallising in your cupboard)
• Left-over blueberry crumble (as pictured)
• Strawberries and cream.

For the strawberry flavour, I simply washed and de-greened the tops off some strawberries I had frozen a few weeks earlier, defrosted them slightly in the microwave for two minutes and then blitzed into a sorbet with the blender.

However you can make what you want: chocolate, cookies 'n' cream, raspberry swirl, apple and cinnamon - the list could be endless!

Utter Peanut Butter Nutter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies. Picture Credit: Simoney Sunday

Ever had that urge to eat some amazing, home-made cookies just before you settle down to watch a film at night, but realise with only 20 minutes to go that you don't have any? I get that feeling a lot!

Do not panic, and do not rush out to the local gas station to buy an overpriced pack of preservative-laden biscuits.

Check your food cupboard and fridge first. If you have one medium egg, one cup of white (granulated) sugar and one tub of peanut butter, you're in luck.

This is also gluten-free so is perfect for people who have an intolerance to gluten. However it might not be so good for people who are allergic to peanuts. Well, you cannot have it all. And they do look delicious, oui?

Ingredients
1 Egg (medium or large)
1 Jar of peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
1 cup of white (granulated sugar)

How to
Mix the egg, peanut butter and sugar in a bowl until you form a paste. I particularly like crunchy peanut butter, but smooth will do.

Get a dessert spoon and use one scoop per cookie on a sheet of greaseproof paper (or a very lightly greased baking sheet). Using a fork, pat the cookies flat first one way, then the other to create a chequered effect (see picture).

All the above takes a maximum of five minutes.

Whack them into the oven at 190 degrees Celcius (or 180 for fan-assisted ovens. This will be gas mark four to five for conventional gas ovens.

Leave for six to eight mins - no more - and take them out. Leave them somewhere out of the reach of smaller people/animals and cool. It takes approximately 10 mins for them to cool enough for you to have a plate of delicious, crunchy on outside, chewy on the inside, cookies.

You could...
For an additional twist, add a spoonful or two of chocolate spread, or chocolate chips for an extra kick.

Rocky Road Easter Cake

Rocky Road Easter Cake. Photo: SimoneySunday

My hubby is not a great fan of chocolate eggs or bunnies. Nor does he rave over marzipan and dried fruit, which means making him Easter eggs and Simnel cakes, while ostensibly appreciated, is futile (I have to eat them myself).

Therefore as he does love eating chocolates and chocolate cakes that are stuffed full with bits, such as brownie squares, cookies and fridge squares, I decided this year to make him a Rocky Road Easter cake. The question was, how should this best be done to look professional enough as a gift?

I did have a round cake mould, plenty of chocolate and plenty of digestives. I always keep stacks of chocolate and digestive biscuits for baking, as well as marshmallows for entertaining the youth group. Sure enough I also had glacé cherries in my cupboard so I set about my fiendish plan.

Preparation time: 30m
Keeps: two weeks in a cool, dry and sealed environment.
Serves: 12 easily, 14 if you are stingy. 2 if you are dedicated to eating it every day for two weeks.

Ingredients
Chocolate (I used Sainsbury's Basics range of chocolate bars, three dark and three milk. This came to about £2.10 worth of chocolate)
1 bag large marshmallows
Half a tub of glace cherries
1 pack of Basics digestive biscuits
1 pack Sainsbury's white chocolate
Various leftover icing decorations from the previous Easter (they keep mostly forever)
A cake mould (ring looks cool but I am sure you could do this with a loaf tin)

How to
I melted all the milk and dark chocolate in a large saucepan on the lowest possible heat.
Once the chocolate was stirred and melted the pot was removed from the heat and I then mashed nearly all the digestives into it using the end of a rounded rolling pin.
Some biscuits fell into my mouth by accident. It was great.
Don't mash the digestives up too much - leave some fairly chunky to give texture and crunch to the finished product.
Cut each cherry into half and stir into the mix.
Cut the marshmallows up (if they are large) into quarters. I found that I had to keep bathing the knife in warm water as it was getting sticky, so I gave up, washed my hands and tore the marshmallows up myself. Some may have fallen into my mouth by accident. I plead the fifth.
Stir the marshmallows into the mix.

Once it is all stirred, spoon into your cake mould. I should have put greaseproof paper in first but I didn't.

Leave to set in the fridge overnight.

Now the next day, if you have sensibly used greaseproof, simply lift it out of the mould. If you didn't, then like me you will have to warm it up a tiny, tiny bit so it melts enough to slide out without being a mess. To do this i left it sitting in a bowl of warm water for five minutes.

Once it is out and on a plate, decorate with melted white chocolate. I drizzled this over using a honey stirrer, from a fair height, and then dotted last year's sugar icing decorations around it in a fairly even pattern, and left it to set.

For the finishing touches, I wrapped it in clear polythene. I had bought a huge roll of this years ago from Woolworths for sweets I was making to put into little teacups for beautiful, unusual birthday presents (I will hunt for pictures and write up the recipe soon) and I still have plenty of this left.

Ready for Easter Morning. Photo credit: Simoney Sunday

A tiny scroll of shiny gold ribbon, an Easter verse from the Bible and some colourful Easter paper cut-outs and voila! A professional looking Easter Rocky Road cake.

And it was delicious.

Food hack #101: Getting Honey Runny

Honey honey honey... It's a rich man's world

Honey does not come cheap - good honey that is. So when a fair bit remains in the jar in the cupboard and is approaching or even a little after the use by date, you may see that it has started to crystallise or solidify.

Do not throw it out!

Put a little lemon juice - either a squeeze or three of a real lemon or one of those bottled lemon juices used for flavouring - into the jar, and warm it up in the microwave for about two minutes. Let it cool slightly before using it!

Tip: Do not try this with plastic bottles. Learn from my fail.

The No-Bread Budget Pizza

Chicken and Olive Budget Pizza. Credit: SimoneySunday

I am attempting to diet. Not successfully, I might add. But I have been experimenting with ways to cut down on the carbs, boost the protein and decrease the snacking. I have also endeavoured to avoid the temptation for a take-out after work, particularly my husband's favourite post-press day go-to culinary delight: the two-for-Tuesday.

Mostly this has been a success. I have not purchased or partaken of my darling treat, a bag of crisps, for a couple of weeks. I feel healthier, less bloated and more energetic despite the growing workload that is inevitable in the run-up to the end of the tax year. Sadly today an enormous chicken, bacon and brie baguette leapfrogged the canteen counter and forcibly entered my mouth. I did fight it off bravely but I was overcome. I lived to fight another day...

One of my favourite experiments so far has been the no-bread pizza which I believe I have invented although no doubt if I could be bothered to search online, I would discover had already been discovered. So I believe that if I do not search, I will not find, and therefore will not have to feel bitterly disappointed.

It is basically a thick egg omelette, so no gluten or starches at all. Usually my omelettes are light and fluffy affairs, folded gently like an eggy cocoon around sun-blush tomatoes and cheese. But to create a decent pizza-dough like base for two people, I used six medium eggs instead of the usual four.

Obviously apart from being gluten-free and lower-calorie than shop-bought or pizza delivery, it also costs far less, especially if you are using up leftovers.

Ingredients
6 medium eggs
Herbs and spices
Tube of tomato puree (or ketchup would also work although it tends not to have as good a texture)
Grated cheese
Ham
Chicken
Olives
Or any topping of your choice.

How To
Mix eggs well with herbs and spices of your choice. I used a pinch of salt, a crackle of pepper, a scattering of tarragon and a shaking of paprika.

When these are beaten, pour half the mix into a round pancake pan, which has already been heated up with a little olive or sunflower oil. Make sure it spreads evenly, and use a spatula to stop it sticking. When it has almost solidified on top, gently place it onto a pizza tray. Spread some tomato puree over for a base. This can get wonderfully gooey, so have fun and don't worry if it does.

Whack on your chosen ingredients in a roughly even pattern to cover up the bare bits, then grate a shed load of cheese over it. Put it into a warmed up oven and bake at about 160-170 degrees Celcius (gas mark 3-4) for 3-5 minutes or until cheese has melted. Timing will depending on your type of oven.

Ham and Chicken Budget Pizza. Credit: SimoneySunday

Hey, yeah I said lots of cheese. What? I said this was a no-bread pizza, not a no-fat pizza. What do you think I am, a monster?

Food Hack #99: The Gravy Train

I do not subscribe to the Bisto fan club. Every time I go to someone's house and the Bisto comes out, I sigh a little inwardly. 'Ah. Bisto'. I haven't got anything against Bisto per se and personally I love using Oxo and Knorr stock cubes for flavourings in sauces, pies, stews and soups.

But the art of using good natural stock seems to have gone down the (sauce) pan these days.

FREE gravy is the best gravy! It is healthier, not packed with salts and preservatives, and perfectly complements the food you are serving.

All you need to invest in is some supermarket own-label cornflour. I use Sainsbury's own and it has kept me going for almost two years.

Suppose you are cooking a roast dinner? Firstly, are you boiling any vegetables? Do not strain the water into the sink. Pour a tiny amount into a bowl or jug, allow it to cool and then mix in one to two tablespoonfuls of cornflour, depending on how thick you want it to be. Stir until it has become a white liquid. Add a little more water as necessary. It should look like milk.

Pour more veg water into a small saucepan and add the liquid cornflour from the jug. Add some salt and pepper, and put on a moderate heat. Stir occasionally. You will see it start to thicken.

Never add cornflour powder directly to a saucepan of hot vegetable water. It will not thicken but congeal in weird white lumps that look like snot.

Take the meat from oven and use a baster or large spoon to gather up some of the meat juices from the bottom of the dish. Add this to the saucepan and stir. If you fancy, add some herbs or spices. Sometimes to darken it up I add a tiny squirt of brown sauce, but only if I am cooking with beef or lamb.

What this gives you is gravy made from the very food you are about to eat, so the flavours match what you have cooked, instead of competing with it.

It is also extremely cost-effective and much healthier for you. Get on that budget gravy train!

Food Hack #98: Get that Salad Dressed!

Cheat's salad dressing

Do you ever have an urge to eat salad when you get in from work? You do? Crazy child. But who am I to judge? In fact I am here to help. If you have any leftover honey or Dijon mustard in a jar, here is how to create your own vinaigrette dressing cheaply and quickly.

Let's face it, paying £3 for an upmarket, home-style dressing is just nonsense when you can do it yourself for free!

Ingredients
Honey
Dijon or other grainy mustard
Vinegar
Olive Oil

How-To
If you have a smattering of runny honey left in a jar, add a few teaspoonfuls of Dijon mustard. Likewise if you have some Dijon mustard left in a jar, add a few teaspoonfuls of clear runny honey.

Then add a few ml of olive oil - about two teaspoonfuls, and a few dashes of red wine or white wine vinegar, replace the lid and shake what your mother gave you, and well.

Once it has all mixed together, et voila! You have a delicious salad dressing made up of leftovers.