Baking cakes using vegetables.

Cold damp and misty this morning, but up early and off to pick up the vegetables for the coffee morning from the cold stores at Pollybell Farm. I really don't know how they stand the cold working on the land in this weather, most of its done by machine but still you have to get your hands dirty, it must be freezing!

For a bit of fun and to promote the veggies we decided to have a themed refreshments day, just to show that  vegetables can be used in other ways than just steamed or boiled and what better way to get your 5 a day than in a bit of cake :-)

 Carrot Cake with Walnuts

 Chocolate Beetroot Cake

 A lovely moist rich cake with pieces of chocolate in.

 Good old faithful Victoria Sandwich, just incase anyone thinks the others are weird.

Savoury Cheese and Leek Scones.

 All together now...

And the silly smiling cook just finishing the washing up.....cup of tea time now....

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

30grams Cocoa

115gm   Plain Flour

1 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder

pinch of  Salt

170gm  Caster Sugar

240ml Corn Oil I used Sunflower Oil

1 teasp Vanilla Extract

3 Eggs beaten

125gm cooked Beetroot Pureed

90gm Dark Chocolate  Chopped small

Oven 180*c   375*f   Gas 5

Sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl, stir in the sugar.

Add the oil, vanilla extract, eggs and beetroot and mix well then stir in the chocolate. The mixture looks very oily but trust me it works!

Pour the mixture into a lined 7 “deep Cake tin.  Bake 1hour or until when tested with a skewer it comes out 

clean.

Please note for the above size cake

I used one and a half times the recipe and split it between 2 x7" tins and adjusted the timing, then sandwiched together with butter cream.

 I have added the links for the other recipes just click on the cake name.

Eta. We made a total of £164. 00 :-)

Thank you for popping by

Freezer UFO

Looking in the freezer this morning for something for tonight's tea I found a plastic bag with what looked like sausages and bits of chicken inside (UFO = unidentified frozen object) so my thoughts went to a sausage casserole, but it would need something to pad it out and give it some flavour.  Another frozen  plastic tub revealed roasted veg and in the fridge we had a sweet potato which had already been peeled and was surplus to requirements on Sunday, we also had a quarter of a large onion and a small pack of  button mushrooms to use up. Now for the liquid....should we have gravy or a beef casserole mix, well lets settle for the beef with red wine and shallots I bought from Approved Food last month, its actually one of those mixes with the roasting bag but I just used it as a normal sauce mix. Mmm  this could be interesting .....

 Slap it all in the slow cooker and make sure its all covered with the liquid, it doesn't matter how much you stir the mushrooms always float to the top! Stick the lid on and leave about 5 hours on low.

 Well its smelling good and its definitely cooked, hubby has requested Dumplings....Approved food mix to the rescue, and for me some cauli and broccoli that needed using up too.

 It turned out to be a nice tasty hearty meal with plenty leftovers.  I haven't costed it out but it won't have been an expensive meal as the sausages were reduced before Christmas, I know that because I never buy those cocktail sausages unless they are really cheap! The sweet potato just added the right amount of sweetness and balanced out the richness of the sauce mix.

Fabulous frugal fayre for a February night.......

Thank you for popping by

Making the most of a freebie

Today was the time to make the most from some lovely beetroot I had been given, they were a little soft on the skin but absolutely fine once cooked. I managed to cook and pickle half and now need to seek a few more empty jars so I can cook the rest. I will use some of them in my Chocolate Beetroot Cake for Saturday.

The golden beetroots are really nice just boiled and served as a vegetable, their sweet nutty flavour is perfect with fish or just as an extra with a crunchy salad.  Today we are having salad with tuna and a jacket potato so I will cube some of the beetroot up to top the salad, we will probably finish the rest for lunch tomorrow with some fresh crusty bread and cheese.

Its been a lovely sunny day here today, a sure sign that spring is just around the corner......we hope!

Thank you for popping by

Karen xxx

Savoury Scones

On Saturday it will be our Coffee Morning at the study centre and as usual we will be selling fresh organic vegetables supplied by Pollybell Farm, just for a bit if fun I am basing the refreshments around the veggies from the stall. I will be baking Carrot Cake, Chocolate Beetroot Cake and I thought some kind of Savoury Scone to serve with homemade chutney.  As we sell Leeks I thought it would be nice to incorporate some in my scone mix, I haven't tried this before so its a bit of an experiment and guess what...they are amazing!! So being kind, I wanted to share them with you :-) 

My ingredients are

225gm SR Flour

50 gm Margarine or Butter

100gm strong cheese. i used Red leicester grated

1 small  Egg...sorry I forgot to add to the photo.

Enough milk to mix

Half a small Leek finely chopped and softened in a drop of oil.

Just a pinch of salt.

Rub the fat into the flour, add the salt, stir in most of the grated cheese, just keep a little back to sprinkle on the tops

Add the softened leek and the egg with enough milk to make a softish dough

Gently roll out to about 1 inch thick and using a 2 inch cutter i managed to get 9 out of my mixture

Brush the tops with a little milk and sprinkle on the remaining cheese

Bake for 15 minutes at 200*c fan oven or until golden brown

Remove from oven to a cooling rack.

Serve with a knob of butter and some cherry tomatoes, or pickles, absolutely delicious!

They would be lovely with some homemade soup or use instead of dumplings with mince or stew.

These are definitely going to feature on my refreshments table on Saturday.  I think I will play safe and take a plain Victoria Sandwich cake and a selection if biscutes just incase someone doesn't like vegetables!!

Thank you for popping by and enjoy your day.

Karen xxx

Lovely weekend.

We have just had a really lovely family weekend. My son Daniel and his wife travelled up from Plymouth on friday for the weekend to suprise my step grandaughter Dannielle, who is studying at Sheffield Uni, she had absolutely no idea that they were coming even though we had planned it before Christmas no one let  it slip. There has been a lot of tooing and frowing from Doncaster to Sheffield and back but we all managed to sit round the table and share some lovely food. Danny is still in quite a lot of pain after his mishap last week, but was determined not to let it spoil things. I suspect there will be a lot of resting tomorrow Before back to work on Tuesday. The rest of our family, David, louise and Willow all came over today to bring Danny's birthday presents ready for Tuesday, I can't believe my baby will be 34!!

 They have set off home now, calling first at Sheffield to take Dannielle back to Uni, I suspect there will be a few tears.....from mum! Then on the long long road back to Plymouth, I probably wont here anything until midnight, but they always give a quick ring to let us know they are home. It will most likely be May before we see them again, when its our turn to travel down to them, I will be watching for a good deal from Travel Lodge in Saltash! 

It didnt take long to get the house ship shape and everything back to normal, just hoping for a nice sunny, blowy day tomorrow for washing the bedding. Then its back to the mundane stuff for the rest of the week :-) 

Take care and thank you for popping by.

Karen xxx

Dentists

Up early this morning to take hubby and his car to the garage for its mot and service, on the way home we called at our Dentist to see if I could get an emergency appointment, I was in luck...1:30 this afternoon.  I really dont think i could have lasted much longer.  I have an abscess in my gum between 2 back teeth...ouch! So she gave me a course of antibiotics and a free tube of toothpaste :-) no charge for the consultation just £7:85 for the tablets, hopefully a week and I will be back to normal.

The garage has rung to say the car passed its mot and just needs the service doing :-)

Just waiting for the painkillers to start working and I am going to cut another patchwork bag out, I wont need to buy anything as there is enough fabric left over from another project.

Thats about as exciting as it gets today folks :-)

Take care and thank you for your good wishes.

Karen xxx

Sunday bargains and a good curry!

Its a while since we called at our mill shop to see if they have any good bargains plus we were getting a bit low on the tomato cup a soups.  Last night hubby was craving a packet of crisps to go with a beer shandy he made us and all we had was a few basics tuc style crackers, not really a substitute for a bag of Walkers is it!

So we bought. 3 bags Sensations £1 . 3 boxes of cup a soup £1 so we bought 9. 3 packs of Bisto melts £1. Chicken gravy mix £1 the Season and Shake were 20p a packet so 12 of those, 4 Chunky kit kats £1 Special K bars 2 for 99p Nutri grain biscutes 20 packets of 2in a box £2, white vinegar £1.99 and 3 x 200gm bars Galaxy £1.98 ( buy 2 get 1 free) this will be handy for the coffee morning cakes.

6 packs of 6 Walkers crisps 49p per pack and Fox's Melts 49p, we also bought a huge net bag of Onions and a 10kg bag of potatoes which are stored in the garage. £24.26 spent in total.

I have been feeling a bit off it this afternoon.....toothache!!.. So i have been dosed up with pain killers and had a sleep on the sofa, my hubby took pity on me and cooked a gorgeous chicken curry, he used our homemade curry base with some sharwoods tikka paste onions and orange pepper...it was absolutely delicious, I stirred in a spoonful of greek yogurt :-)

Phil's Chicken Curry with Rice and onion bahjis.

Not much else happened today, its been a very lazy Sunday......

Enjoy your evening

Karen xxx

Weekly happenings and freezer Saturday

Monday started off with a walk, pictures in my post below, a new duvet and pillows were bought from Lakeside Outlet at 70% off the rrp. The old ones were so flat and just not keeping us warm and comfortable, the new ones are working a treat and we are toasty warm :-) Then during the afternoon my son down in Plymouth had an accident at work, he was out on a building site and slipped onto a scaffolding pole and broke his coccyx in 3 places...ouch!!! Poor thing he is in agony..can't sit or stand comfortably, the hospital have told him 3-6 weeks to heal, but it might be a lot longer. I spoke to him this morning and he is struggling with not going to work, he tried on Thursday but sitting in his office all day wasn't ideal, he must take it easy, I think he will work from home next week. Get well soon Danny xx

Tuesday is knit and natter day with my friend so apart from a quick tidy up nothing else happened.

Wednesday and Thursday the usual mundane stuff...oh what an exciting life!!

Friday a busy day.....coffee morning at the local library....delicious coffee and carrot cake and the company of friends...a quick lunch then off to Thimbles....back home and get ready to go out to a concert...more on that tomorrow.  Hubby was shattered as he had been on a fire training exercise in the morning, running around in full fire kit putting fires out on the airfield...he passed..no problems.

Today, Saturday is a yellow sticker, freezer use it up day

A couple of quiches dated August 2013 found in the depths of the freezer, a fruit pie some ciabbata rolls and a pack of Christmas ham.

Fruit pies are not something I usually buy but at that reduced price I couldn't not have it.

We had some homemade Leek, Potato, and celeriac soup to use up in the fridge, I think its my favourite soup, so tasty and warming, the vegetables were free :-) and the stock was also from the Christmas ham, frozen in small tubs and ready to use.

Tea tonight was the quiche with a nice crunchy healthy salad and home preserved beetroot and of course the dollop of mayo.  We had a quarter each of the fruit pie, I had fat free yogurt on mine while hubby had some instant custard, bought from Approved foods.  I think custard will be featured quite a bit as the 2 packs of instant custard I bought each make 19.25 .litres!! A bargain at £2 a bag!

The weather is calm at the moment and very cold, but I know we will be lovely and warm under the new duvet tonight.

Take care and stay safe

Karen xxx

Quackers!

We took advantage of the nice dry weather this morning and went for a lovely walk around a nearby lake. There wasnt many people out and about but we did get mobbed by all the ducks, swans and geese, they thought we had food  for them, sorry my feathered friends but our dry bread gets used in stuffings to have with a roast chicken..........shhhh.....

According to the weather forecast we might have snow tomorrow afternoon!!!

Take care

Karen xxx

Sunday bargains.

A quick nip into asda at 3pm was a success, 11 packs of 4 nice breadcakes @ 10p 2x 2 custard doughnuts 10p per pack an apple & blackberry tart 30p and 2apple turnovers 20p all nicely tucked away in the freezer :-) the mango was for my grandaughter instead of sweeties and the cream was acontribution  along with a cheesecake from our freezer for dinner at my sons. My daughter in law went with me and she bagged a few bargains too!

Woth going that extra couple of miles!

Hubby was doing a couple of electrical jobs for our son and putting up a new curtain rail and as payment we were invited to a lovely gammon dinner. Its been a lovely Sunday all round.....how was yours....

Take care

Karen xxx

Saturday night fakeaway!

Its blowing a hoolie and lashing down with rain, thank goodness we are snuggled up warm inside. Time for our Saturday night fakeaway.....burger and chips!

Homemade burger, using minced beef, onions and seasoning, served on homemade bread with a few oven chips and a nice crunchy healthy salad with a lovely but unhealthy dollop of mayo.

Delicious, cheap as chips and we didnt have to go out to get it or have it delivered....

Are you having a fakeaway tonight or will you be reaching for the menu and the telephone, which ever you choose.....enjoy!

Time for a cuppa...

Take care

Karen xxx

Another creation.

A couple of days being fed up has resulted in another patchwork bag, the purple fabric was just a few offcuts from making Willows bunting and cushion last year and the black is a piece I bought from Dunelm, I have used some batting to give it a slightly padded feel. It feels lovely, I shall take it to Thimbles tomorrow to show it off. I had a look in my box and found some blue to go with the remaining black to make another for our sale table at a fundraising event next month.

You can just about see the button detail.  Sorry the photos are rubbish they are taken with the ipad and the light in my craft room isn,t good.

Nothing to report, just the run of the mill housework and cooking, its still blowing a hoolie and raining at some part of everyday, mustn,t grumble...my son in Plymouth is having it much worse.

Take care and stay safe and warm.

Karen xxx

Update

Just a quick update on the Coffee Morning......we raised £120 from the sale of vegetables and refreshments :-). All the cake sold and the comments from people were lovely. We had a really good time, the greetings card lady and the lady from Country Markets did well too.  The next one will be March 1st.

Thank you for your lovely comments about my cakes.

Karen xxx