Best great budget recipes for 50% or less: Continental style warming winter pie recipe
I woke this morning with one eye puffy, bloodshot and streaming. It was agony. What had happened during the night? Danny was alarmed. “You can’t decorate with just one eye. Your painting will be asynchronous.” “What on earth does that mean?” “It’s an IT term. Meaning intermittent amongst other things.” He explained. Past caring I crawled under the duvet as he shot down to Newmarket to ask the pharmacist’s opinion. He returned with a small bottle marked Red Eye Drops. I applied the potion and snoozed in...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: a great slow cooked spare rib recipe
To celebrate Jalopy’s heroic performance passing her M.O.T. with flying colours, I ordered an organic belly of pork from The Carter Street butchers in Fordham. I also remembered to ask for the bones. Daniel, the butcher does not ‘bone out’ the joint but slices them off as a rack of spare ribs. What could be better than sticky sweet and sour ribs for Saturday night? As I was working that day I decided to try and find a recipe that could bubble away all day in the slow cooker/crock pot. I found Lyn Utsugi’s tempting recipe for...
read moreDelicious cheese, potato and parsley frittata recipe
We left the Pickled Walnuts Challenge evening with a box of beautiful blue and greeny blue eggs laid by Magic Cochin’s Spice Girls. “I think that those eggs are destined for a frittata.” Smiled Danny as we drove away. Our hens have not yet started laying again. I check the nesting box every morning. Our Senior Girls are now into their fifth year, so it will be a slow start. Peace and Hope should be laying by Easter. So a present of fresh, free range eggs is treasured. We haven’t had a frittata for ages. My favourite is the simple...
read moreBest great budget recipes for 50% or less: Plaice with a creamy prawn sauce recipe
We stopped eating fish for a while a few years ago as it was just so expensive. I made a fish pie one Christmas and the ingredients cost over £15.00. Then I realised that there are often amazing bargains on a late Sunday afternoon from the Waitrose fish counter. With these and the regular offerings from the Tesco condemned food section we now have access to quite a lot of great fish and sea food for at least 50% of their normal value. A lot of fish is tossed into the freezer to be turned into fish pies but if we find plaice or sole these...
read moreDelicious budget meals for frugal entertaining: Honey glazed gammon baked with star anise and tamarind recipe
Ham is generally superb to cook and eat. Gammon can be a bit disappointing with its rougher texture and stronger taste. A few weeks ago a good friend gave us two small joints of gammon, bought from the back of a lorry at a Bank Holiday market. The first one was simmered very slowly in the slow cooker and Danny gave it the thumbs down. “It tastes piggy.” The dogs didn’t agree. This weekend I spotted the other one, nestling in the freezer. Loathe to give the dogs another treat, I remembered Smart Wife’s deluxe budget dish. “I’m...
read moreOur best bolognaise sauce recipe
I love pasta. Danny was so so for years. When we visit Italy I am keen to sample as many of their sauces and starters as possible – looking for secrets and hints for the ultimate pasta sauce recipe. Danny sticks to steaks and puds. “They’re the same price and I love steak.” Danny is Chief Taster back home so he leaves the R and D to me when we are on holiday. We haven’t eaten spaghetti bolognaise for ages. So yesterday I thought I’d try and make a sauce with less meat. Cheaper? Yes. But I was aiming to create something that was...
read moreSunday roast: Breast of lamb stuffed with bacon and apricots recipe
We have got a craze for breast of lamb at the moment. It’s such an economical joint and it’s a great opportunity to play with store cupboard ingredients for the stuffing. I usually use fresh breadcrumbs in stuffing but I had such a lot of dried breadcrumbs I though I’d whiz them up in the food processor and give them a go instead. I also left out onions to speed up the preparation. The result was lots of texture and a satisfying crunchiness that balanced the sweet melt in the mouth meat. Following Nigel Slater’s tip...
read moreSunday roast: Melt in the mouth slow baked breast of lamb stuffed with chicken livers, apricots and pine nuts recipe
We have halved our paper bill by cancelling the Sunday paper (we are just weekend readers). We actually read the Saturday paper now rather than glancing at it and turning it into fire briquettes a week later. The one article that I always read is Mark Hix’s recipe ideas as we are eating our breakfast and Danny is chortling through the sports section of the paper. This week he had a tempting recipe for slow baked breast of lamb. A pretty brave move as everyone is probably planning to invest in the more expensive cuts of lamb for Easter...
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