* Pork Meatballs with Chipotle Tomato Sauce

I am currently going through yet another "use up everything in the freezers" phase. It's only going to last long enough for me to make enough room to stuff more stuff in them... and also long enough to discover a million different ways to cook pork mince - I have a crap ton of the stuff... of course, I didn't know this when I started this phase. If I had, I might still be endeavouring to cram everything into my freezers with a shoe horn. There's only so much pork mince a person can eat before they start oinking.

Or before one's husband begins to roll his eyes and ask... "Pork mince again??? Have we started a pig farm and this is your way of telling me?"

"No - but if you'd like to take over the cooking from now on.....?"

"Nothat'sokay."

"Thought so. Have another meatball... we have a freezer full of them."

We don't... but for the sake of winding him up, I just can't resist.

So... as you can see... I made these Pork Meatballs with Chipotle Tomato Sauce. They're  rich and spicy and busting with flavour and are also fairly easy on the calories.... yes... I am still dieting, or rather - since my last post I sort of, kind of, might have... eaten my own body weight in chocolate (again)... and decided I should probably start making an effort to ensure that I only ever require one seat on an aeroplane...

... to house my bum...

* Winter Minestrone

This is my absolute new favourite soup.

I know I shouldn't favour one recipe over any other... they are all my babies (kinda), but this one would get more pocket money than the others, for definite. I wish I could claim it as all my own idea with a touch of aren't I a complete genius thrown in, just to keep everything on the me, me, me.... but this Winter Minestrone Recipe is one I adapted from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa - to suit my own cooking style and recipe ingredients.

In otherwords, I made it as easy and lazy as possible. I really can't be bothered to cook pasta separately (as per Ina's recipe) then throw it in the pot when it's cooked - it cooks just as easily in the soup itself, as it does in a pot of boiling water - and there's less washing up to do. Win win.

I know it's on a Monday that I'm posting this, but it's NOT a Meatless Monday Recipe - it has bacon in it and chicken stock. I'm still no good at planning ahead when it comes to bandwagons I could jump upon. The fact that I've managed a few Meatless Mondays posts in recent months is pure coincidence and nothing to do with planning whatsover - I don't cook for my blog as much as I cook for me and Neil... especially in the cold, dark months at the end of one year and beginning of the next, because I have a hard time taking decent photographs in the light.

Which leads me to a favour I need to ask - Neil has mentioned buying me a decent digital camera for Christmas (I currently have a little point and shoot) and I was wondering what any of you might suggest I should look at? Our budget would be in the region of £300 (just under 500 American dollars). Any advice would be truly appreciated!

Thanks guys xx

* Butternut, Bacon and Bell Pepper Carbonara

On Tuesday, we decided to open up a cheap bottle of red wine we'd been given as a gift, only to discover that the cork was made of some sort of resin that the cork screw slid into and out of, without bringing the cork with it.

Cue mild panic.

We abandoned the wine in favour of a bottle of Stella, because dinner was about to burn.

On Wednesday morning, Neil's van was robbed and he lost his smart phone, a wad of cash, all his construction cards, his house keys and his car key...

Cue more mild panic.

On Wednesday evening, after dealing with the fallout from Neil's burgled van - we took a hammer to the imprisoned bottle of wine.

I had to sieve the wine through kitchen roll into a jug, to ensure there was no glass in it and we had to drink the entire jugful, because there was no cork big enough to stick in it.

Cue mellowed out, happy, happy.

Dinner was big pants though. Not even the wine could disguise the fact that I'd grabbed a load of convenience foods out of the freezer, whacked them in the oven, forgot about them whilst trying to emancipate the wine from it's prison, slightly singed everything and then stuck a tin of baked beans with it...

... I would absolutely love to be able to sell you a lifestyle, where everything goes swimmingly and we live in a beautiful bubble of fresh food and vegetables, ikea furniture and, like... totally fab dinner parties. But the reality is that we're living a life, not living a life style.

I don't cook decent, fresh food every single day. I've never been to ikea and even though I do throw like, utterly, totally and completely fab dinner parties... it's usually for just the two us.

On Thursday, I had time to make up for Wednesday's debacle of a dinner and thought I'd experiment with a butternut squash and a bit of bacon. I was going to make a "pasta bake" because you guys tend to love them (my traffic stats said so, so it must be true), but I had half a tub of creme fraiche to use up (no spinach, lucky you), so threw together a carbonara and hoped for the best.

You'll have to judge for yourselves though. I didn't cook enough for all of us.

DISCLAIMER: No wine was severely harmed in the making of this blog post.

* Chicken Cacciatore

I know. Long time no see. Don't pretend you've missed me.

If you're British you've been at the beach soaking up the rays of the first heatwave that the UK has seen since 2006. If you're from the rest of the world I have no clue what you've been doing. I just hope you were enjoying it, and if it wasn't legal you didn't get caught.

Me... I... have been with the rest of the UK. Enjoying the Summer. It really has been such a long time since we've had one. My oldest niece is five in September and this has been her first experience of what a British Summer can feel like, and how differently we all behave when the sun shines for more than a day or two at a time. Everyone has soaked up "the happy" to a point where even the British Economy has finally begun to surge in the right direction (upwards).

I've been in the garden. Barbecuing stuff. Then eating the barbecued stuff. There are no photos of barbecued stuff. We ate the barbecued stuff. Very quickly. We have also drunk copious amounts of wine, got drunk with the neighbours (very, very, drunk), been paddling in the river Tamar with Isla Joy (oldest niece), admired Zoe Valletta's (youngest niece) sun glasses and her amazing ability to eat a million plums (Glad I didn't have to change that nappy!), been swimming in an English sea (first time in 10 years), been out to dinner (A LOT) and generally had a holiday at home.

It has been heaven, but now the heat wave has passed and though it's still warm and occasionally sunny, the magic is fading.

My blog has suffered because I've hardly cooked in the past month. I haven't had time. Maybe if I was earning an income from it, I would have paid it more attention. But I'm not. It's a hobby. So I shall warn you now - if we get another heatwave this year... HIGHLY UNLIKELY... I may well disappear again.

I have actually missed cooking (little bit), and this Chicken Cacciatore was the perfect meal to cook on the stove in a warm kitchen with all the doors and windows wide open to let the air in. It doesn't take too long to cook and is absolutely GAWJUS with a glass of red wine...

... or three.

* Slow Cooker Spicy Sausages with Red Lentil Mash

I am very slowly falling in love with my slow cooker. 

It's taken it's sweet time, but is finally producing edible, tasty food that doesn't resemble something out of a Cow & Gate jar that you'd serve to a baby... or attempt to.

I hadn't really thought about the fact that I'd be able to use it on hot days, when I don't want to run the oven and fill the house with even more heat. I'm afraid I was thinking *inside the box* and honestly figured I'd have put it into the back of a cupboard somewhere by now (after experimenting), until the cold Autumn weather returned.

Not so.

It's absolutely perfect in the warm weather we've been experiencing the past week or so because I can finally get out into my garden and do all the jobs that are on a list somewhere that I have been ignoring with a vengeance... and whilst I'm beavering away pressure washing patio slabs and painting garden fences outside... the slow cooker is puttering gently away inside, cooking our dinner (I helped, of course).

This particular recipe is adapted from a book I bought a few weeks back - The Slow Cook Book by Heather Whinney... and so far so good. It's chock full of recipes that I want to try, so be warned - you may be inundated... especially as the weather is so bloody GAWJUS right now.

This doesn't even feel like real life at the moment. That glowing yellow ball in the sky is something that us Brits have not seen much of in the last two years and the entire country is going D.I.Y. crazy, including me! I've even given the BBQ a spray paint because it hasn't been used in two years and was looking slightly gnarly underneath it's cover.

I also managed to spray paint my ankles.

Black.

It'll be all the rage, next season... trust me.

* Creamy Leek and Bacon Pasta Bake

Hi. My name is Abbe and I'm a spinach-a-holic.

There. I've said it. Can we move on now? We can?!? Good.

In case you haven't guessed it already, there's spinach in this recipe. You don't have to use spinach, but something green and suitably easy to cook with - will do in it's place. I'll leave that up to you because I have no clue what you've got in your fridge. In my fridge... there was spinach.

I wish I could be the type of person that could lay out and shop to a menu for the week/month and cook according to what I'd written down. But I'm not, and I can't.... which is why I'm always using up the remains of a bag of spinach and half a pot of crème fraîche. If I even attempt to stick to a plan I feel like an utter failure on day one, when instead of eating a beautifully roasted chicken (because it says Day 1: Roast Chicken, of course)... we're eating pizza and garlic bread out of the freezer....

It's like there's a mini rebellion going on in my head, that I have no clue about until I'm half way through eating a meal that I didn't actually cook... and Neil says "Thought we were having roast chicken today?". I actually get pissed off with him. Not with me. With him. How dare he point out that yet again the rebellious part of my personality has won the day, because she has a bigger stick than the rest of them?

So... to avoid the feeling of yet again not quite getting it right, I hardly ever plan a meal but instead raid the fridge about 2 hours before we're going to get hungry, and cook a meal based on what needs using up the quickest...

... which is usually spinach.

* Sausage, Bean and Vegetable Casserole

This time last year, I'd put my boots in the back of the cupboard and swapped them for an array of sandals. My thick cardigans and jumpers were folded up, put in the top of the wardrobe and were being ignored in favour of t-shirts and light weight jackets... and my toenails were painted in spring colours...

This year is a little bit different.

...I've just walked the dog... in a woolly hat. Of course, I was wearing more than just that (don't even go there)... but a woolly hat? In April? I almost came back and got my scarf when the wind picked up as I walked down the hill! Last year on my birthday (which is around this time of year), I was wearing chiffon... chiffon!!! ... with my sandals et al when we went out to dinner to celebrate. This year - boots, jeans and a long black snug woolly jumper... and a jacket. The woolly hat would have spoiled my strategically messy hair or I'd have worn that too. One can't really sit down to dinner with a bad case of "Helmet Head" and feel that ones husband is finding one attractive.

Chiffon!!!

What on earth is going on? Didn't we have a bad enough year weather wise last year? Did it not rain cats and flippin' dogs from April until December? I so desperately want to blame the government for the weather... or people with really bad hair... or New Age Travellers (who are sooo new age that they don't actually travel)... but I can't. Because apparently it's not their fault.

The only comfort - other than turning the dial up to three on the electric blanket - is that warming winter recipes manage to find their way to the table a bit more often than they might otherwise... and this one fits the bill rather nicely.

I debated whether or not to call it a straight forwards "sausage casserole", but it's got soooo much in it, that the other ingredients were worthy of a mention. It's one of those meals that will take virtually any vegetable that you have at your disposal, that you want to use up. I had half a butternut squash and a slightly sad parsnip that were perfect for bunging in with the rest of the veg.

There's so much in it, that you really don't need anything more than a few thick slices of crusty bread to go with it.

...and some grated cheddar if you really can't help yourself. 

Which I couldn't.

* Turkey, Leek and Onion Meatloaf

Okay... so... it's not a traditional meatloaf. It's more of a meat... ummmm... bake? Cake? Big flat patty? Hah... it's a meat brownie. Sort of. Maybe. Let's just stick with calling it a meatloaf - it makes my life easier and this recipe a damn sight easier to sell. No one is going to click on a Meat Brownie recipe for anything other than the "Eeeeewwww" value.

It is a meatloaf - it's just happens to be having an identity crisis.

I love using turkey mince as an alternative to beef or pork, but I can't always manage to get hold of it. So when I do come across it - I panic buy. Actually, I panic buy a lot of food because it's rare that I can find what I'm looking for in the village shops (that's if I can find somewhere to park), and if I do find it I'm not willing to pay the hiked up price they ask for it.

A visit to a large supermarket is always a dangerous thing for me. I have the most wonderful intentions of buying only what is currently missing from my cupboards - like dog food, maybe some cheese and a pack of bacon... it all goes swimmingly to begin with. Then I get about a third of the way round and think "Wow, I'm doing really well today!" and whilst I'm patting myself on the back with one hand - the other hand is performing a smash and grab. It thinks that as we've been so good thus far, it's now a free for all.

The end result is a trolley that is overflowing, a cashier who can't quite believe that I've managed to strategically squeeze so much into it and is checking it for Tardis like qualities... and a bill that puts my eyebrows four foot above their usual location.

I really shouldn't be allowed out on my own.

* Bolognese Sauce

I have several Bolognese Sauce recipes, it all depends on the ingredients I have available at the time. Today I had everything I needed for this one.

When were kids, my mum's bolognese had mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and bay leaf in it. But no bacon or other vegetables. It was her standby meal for when she had a houseful of teenagers to feed... she always had a houseful of teenagers to feed. She'd finish work at 5pm and phone me to find out how many we needed to cook for, anything more than four and it was bolognese.

When I was nineteen, I started to take over a lot of the cooking for the family, because I had... ummmm... unwittingly.... added another family member. Nope. Didn't marry anyone (that would have been too easy). I had a baby. So... I did my bit to help out.

It was also around about that time, when my brother brought his first serious girlfriend home. So our somewhat chaotic household that had already got a gazillion teenagers camping out in the living room on a daily basis... suddenly added two more.

We ate A LOT of minced beef during our teen years. I think  that mum and dad considered building an extension to get away from us all, at one point. It didn't happen though, because although it must have been hard work, they were the reason that all of our friends felt so welcome, all of the time.

That and my mum's bolognese, obviously.

* Creamy Bacon, Mushroom and Tomato Tagliatelle

I've been attempting to stick to some sort of routine as far as updating is concerned, and I think I managed a week before it all went tits up! I was aiming for Monday, Wednesday and Friday - but for whatever reason I can't schedule a post for a certain time, so have to do it all *hands on*... I know. I can get it fixed. Just haven't got that far yet. Life has this godawful habit of getting in the way...

...aaaaaaaand I have a brain that flushes stuff out once it gets full. So I forget stuff. Never important stuff. Just... *stuff what I might need at some point in the future* - like (for instance) the ingredients that I used for this particular recipe. I've just had a mild panic attack whilst staring at the photographs and thinking "OhMyGodHowDidIMakeThis??!!??"

Not only did I forget all of the ingredients... I also forgot that I knew that I would forget all of the ingredients. Read it again. It makes complete sense.

So guess what I did?  Guess. Go on.

Apparently I rescued myself!!! I've just wandered in here to make a new post, debating (rather fervently) whether or not to blag it or cook the flamin' thing again, only to discover that in amongst the posts was a post titled "Creamy Bacon, Mushroom and Tomato Tagliatelle" in draft form.

I HAD ALREADY WRITTEN THE RECIPE OUT!!! Hah. Go me. With big brass shiny knobs on.

You know what this means don't you?

I am officially an adult.

I've stuck little gold stars all over my face, as proof.

* Spicy Chicken Jambalaya

I'm dosed up with Lemsip Max and because I can't taste mild flavours at present, I thought I'd better go with something spicy for dinner that not only will tickle my taste buds, but might actually clear my airways too.

I know that Neil would really love some bog standard mashed potato, meat and gravy - but yet again I'm in the mood for rice, and he'll eat anything if you serve it with warm bread - so I whacked a wholemeal baguette in the oven to accompany my Spicy Chicken Jambalaya and he loved it.

Or he said he did.

NOTE: This recipe was cooked in my fan oven - To cook in a conventional oven use less liquid and be prepared to double the time it takes... Why did I cook it in the fan oven?... I was hungry... it was quicker.

* Bacon and Zucchini Risotto

The only reason I've used the word Zucchini, instead of Courgette (I'm British)... is because I really like the letter 'Z'. That's it. That's the reason.... 'Courgette' sounds like a car with issues. 'Zucchini' sounds like something green, Italian and sexy. I've no idea if Zucchini is an Italian word or not. I don't care if it's Bulgarian for 'Breeze Block'. It's a nice word.

I also like the word 'plank', but it's hard to incorporate it into the title of a recipe.

Actually, it's hard to incorporate into an every day sentence unless used in context or as an insult.

Still. 'Plank' is a good word.

As is 'cheese'.

Back to the topic... Blondie - my partner in crime at work - brought a huge bag of baby yellow courgettes into work a couple of days ago - fresh from her garden - for the rest of us to share. I was really tempted to make another ratatouille hotpot, but as we've only recently had one and I really fancied rice tonight - I made a risotto instead.

Neil is not a fan of risotto, so I called it something complicated and asked if he'd eat it.

He said yes.

He'd cleared his plate and was licking his lips when he decided to ask if I'd just conned him into eating risotto.

I said no.

* Penne with Smoky Bacon and Tomato sauce

I KNOW...

Yet another meal with cheese on the top. There is a naked photo at the bottom of the page for food naturalists.

It doesn't look anywhere near as schmexy as this photo. This photo is VERY schmexy.

I like this photo.

It says "Eat Me."

That's what I did.

There was a brief scuffle just after I'd dished the pasta out and had grabbed five handfuls of cheese to shove in my mouth... Neil had wandered into the kitchen before I'd had a chance to shout "Come and geeeeehhhh-t iiiiittt!". He grabbed for the box of grated cheddar that I always have on hand... and the words "Step A-waaay From the CHEESE!" may have been used.

Bless him... Hubby does try to help with some addictions.

I stabbed him with the fork.

* Quiche Lorraine

Pastry and I - have been at war - since around 1995. I finally waved the white flag of surrender, about 10 years ago when my mum sat in my kitchen, giving clear directions on how to make pastry while I gave it one last shot... then sat back amazed at the end result and said "You're right. You can't make pastry!" I did tell her. She wouldn't listen. I had to show her. I was actually victorious in my proof of failure. "See, mum - I told you... hah!".

Idiot.

About a year or so ago, I had eggs, cheese and crème fraîche that needed using up and I had an urge to make a quiche, but had no shop bought pastry, so I thought "What the hell, one last try". It turns out that I had merely surrendered the battle and not the war. I won the war. I just needed a magi mix. I love my magi mix. My magi mix is my hero - when hubby isn't in the room, of course.