* Smoky Sausage and Beans

I started this post with the pre-requisite "This Smoky Sausage and Beans.... yadayada" and got bored before the first punctuation mark. You can read the recipe then... maybe even cook it... to find out just how yummy it is, but it'll have to sell itself because today my legs feel like jelly  -which is far more important (and apparently affecting my ability to concentrate)...

... My legs feel like jelly because I walked a million miles yesterday in the pursuit of a Curly Wurly Thick Shake from The Terrace Cafe/Bar on Plymouth Hoe... and a packet of Cornish Clotted Cream Fudge from the Barbican.

After consuming both (and a panini - go me) within a one hour time slot I confess to feeling a little bit sick and a lot guilty. I hate feeling guilty about being indulgent - so I came home, knackered myself on the exercise bike then dragged my Boldest and her Bairn out for a bimble around the neighbourhood... then this morning I got on the exercise bike again.

In a minute I'm off out with Boldest, her Bairn and my Little Man for a stroll along the Cornish Coast from Lantic Bay to Polruan... where no doubt another panini awaits. I'm not sure I'll be able to stand upright by the end of the day.

If there's a fudge shop in Polruan I'm selling the bike when I get home.

* Slow Cooker Beef and Bean Hotpot

On Sunday we decided to steal a march on the Christmas shoppers and not go Christmas shopping at all. Read it again. It makes complete sense.

Instead, we decided to see if we could hunt down the perfect flooring for our bedroom - which we are in the midst of decorating - from a wood floor specialists in town.

I didn't want to have to muck about sorting a dinner out when we got home, so for the very first time I loaded up the slow cooker and... left the house...

... I never, ever, do this. Not with anything. Not the dishwasher, not the washing machine, the dryer...  nothing. Stuff happens when I'm not in the house. Things flood, break, block up, fall over, fall off, seize up, singe... leaving the slow cooker on was a real risk. REAL. RISK. I walked super fast through town to get to the shop, ran around the shop dismissing all but one type of flooring, asked for a sample and was handed a whole plank of wood... a whole plank of wood... who does that?!?... then literally ran through the high street home, leaving the plank of wood in a passing bin because it was just too random, even for me.

When I fell in the back door a couple of hours after I'd left.. with Neil following at a leisurely "What is wrong with you, woman?" pace behind me... my Slow Cooker Beef and Bean Hotpot was very gently bubbling away, minding it's own business. The dog was guarding the floor space directly in front of the kitchen counter that it was sitting on - just in case it happened to explode and leave the kitchen covered in minced beef and vegetables - ready to perform clean up duty... and the cat was sitting on the shed roof wondering where we'd been and what was all the fuss about?

Our flooring hunt might have been a dead bust, but dinner certainly wasn't.

The poor dog was disappointed, yet again.

This recipe is linked up on Foodie Friday at Simple Living and Eating, so please pop over and see what other wonderful recipes you can find!

* 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

* Chicken Chilli

Because I knew I was going to be out all day today, I cooked dinner in advance - I'm not normally this organised, but I have my moments... and they never last. I made a chicken chilli, because I didn't know what we'd be eating today and knew we could have it with or without rice/bread etc, depending on how hungry we were both were.

You wanna know where I've been? You do?!? ... I have spent an entire day sitting in my cousin's garden in Newquay - in the sunshine - with my weird and wonderful family. They are mostly women with a few men thrown in to prevent any fits of uncontrollable girliness... though occasionally it slips through in the form of a blinged up Dorkie.

We've eaten barbecued hot dogs and chips... and trifle. I loooooove trifle. Never quite liked the idea of it as a kid and apparently kicked up merry hell whenever my mum used to put it on the table... then always asked for a second helping. I don't make trifle at home because I love it with a layer of custard, and Neil doesn't eat custard. Neil doesn't like being in the same room as custard. His face distorts into an "I don't like custard" grimace and his whole body physically shudders.

When he does this, I have a hard time not throwing stuff at him. He has never been able to say a polite "No thankyou" if he doesn't like something. He pulls out the whole "I don't like custard" facial/body move at every opportunity - even when faced with something like strawberry ice cream...

Him - "What's for dessert?"

Me (from the kitchen) - "Sod all."

Him - "What. Nufink?" He's common.

Me (opening up freezer to have a gander - I'm common too) - "Errr... there's some strawberry ice cream if you want it....?"

Him - lip curls up, shoulders suddenly appear by ears as if to protect them from the infiltration of strawberry ice cream... aaaannnddd.... "I don't like strawberry ice cream" aaaaand whole body shudders... shoulders relax... lip moves back into normal place.

Me (still in kitchen) - "Did you just pull an "I don't like custard" face? With the body shudder? DID YOU?!?"

Him - "Nnnnnno."

Liar.

Anyway, we had a fab day with fab company and fab food and then we came home and ate this.

It was lush.

* Roast Chicken and Vegetable Soup

I've attempted to cook a chicken and vegetable soup on about four occasions just recently, and have remained unimpressed with each of my endeavours until this one. Each previous version has had similar vegetables in it, but every time it's all come out a bit... well... bleh.

The temptation to stick a load of herbs and spices in, or a spoonful of curry paste... or even a tin of tomatoes has been HUGE... but if I'd done that I wouldn't have had the soup I wanted. I just wanted something fairly simple and wholesome that would taste... I dunno... a bit... English, maybe. Or maybe I was aiming for a bit Summery. Who knows.

So... there I was, yet again thinking "Sod it, all these ingredients and I'm still not sure I like this bloody soup." I opened the fridge door and stared vacantly inside it, looking for divine inspiration (I do this A LOT... at least, that's what I tell Neil I'm doing when he comes in the kitchen and discovers me with my head in the fridge for the eleventieth hundredth time that day)... when I spotted the mustard, sitting in the top of the fridge door, frantically waving it's little hands in the air shouting "Oh! Oh! Pick me! Pick me!".

So I did. And it worked.

It took until this time to end up with something that I thought was tasty enough to share... and it was all down to a couple of heaped tablespoons of multi-grain mustard. There's a huuuuge chance that it's going to become my new spinach, and go into just about everything that I cook because it worked a little miracle on my soup. It gave it the flavour I'd been looking for that every previous version had been missing.

Even cream hadn't helped it's forefathers.

*Sigh*... I like cream.

* Spicy Butternut and Black Bean Soup {Meatless Mondays}

At last... it's a Monday and I have vegetarian fare to offer up for the band wagon that I am jumping onto - Meatless Mondays.

Before starting a food blog, I had no clue that such a thing existed and quite frankly I think it's brilliant.... and not just because I can finally "Get in there"... honest.

We're a family that don't have issues with meat, one way or the other... or issues with a lack of it - so I do manage to insert the odd meatless meal without anyone actually caring enough to go on a hunger strike. Plus, meat is so bloody expensive that occasionally it helps the budget to miss it out.

I have a friend who once, accidentally (after a few too many glasses of wine), forgot to put the chicken in a chicken supreme. We all ate it and thoroughly enjoyed it (we too were very, very sloshed). The fact that she got away with it, made me deliberately give it a shot a week later, and I made a chickenless chicken stew with dumplings. No one noticed. For years!!! Cheapest stew I ever made. One of the nicest too.

I KNOW that's not the idea behind Meatless Mondays! But a little slip up like that, does make you question your food priorities. Of which I have many. Priority number one being that "Thou must consume one's own body weight in chocolate... on a weekly basis". However, having meat on a daily basis, isn't one of mine, or my familiy's priorities. So... today I get to play.

I can't/won't guarantee that I'll ever join in Meatless Mondays again. I've been food blogging for nearly 9 months and this is the first time that I've coincidentally cooked, eaten and been able to blog meatless fare on a Monday.

So no holding your breath until next Monday...

... because you'll die. For real.

* Slow Cooker Chicken Brunswick Stew

Finally, I've had another success with my slow cooker!

The dog looked on in desperation as we cleared our plates (this time)- the poor thing actually starts to get excited when I pull the slow cooker down off the top of the fridge. She's so sure that whatever is going in it, is going to end up in her - whilst Neil and I eat fried egg sandwiches... again.

NOT this time!

Okay. So. It's not exactly a very original recipe, and it was designed to go in a slow cooker... which makes me feel like I'm cheating somehow (don't ask me why. I don't know why!!!)... but it was lush. Very. I'm not normally a huge fan of chicken thigh meat that has been cooked in any sort of liquid because the texture differs from dry cooked thighs, and can be almost rubbery...

NOT this time!

The meat was melt-in-the-mouth GAWJUS. Even if I do say so myself.

The original recipe called for almost twice as much sweetcorn and beans, but I wanted a chicken stew with veg in it. Not a veg stew with chicken in it. It also required flour, but quite frankly I figured it would thicken up enough when cooked, without any additional help, so I left that out too. It worked. I have super powers.

Amazingly, I did NOT stuff a wodge of spinach into this one, because I didn't have any. GASP!

I make no promises for the next one though.

Me and spinach... we is in a rel-AY-shun-SHIP.

* 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.

* Chicken, Chorizo and Borlotti Bean Stew

Yes, it's yet another recipe with beans in it - this time they're purple ones. Sort of. I can promise you that it's not the beans recipes that you're going to get sick of though -it's the chorizo ones. I bought a *job lot* because I LOVE IT and have had to use it up whilst it's still fresh. Which I don't mind at all, because I LOVE IT but you might not. So... I'll try to be kind and space them out a little, but I'm promising nuffink... because... well... I LOVE IT.

Apparently, I also love a lot of other food. Weight watchers has not been going well for at least the past 4 weeks - I haven't tracked my food intake, even though I have tracked the points for 99% of my recipes. My weight remained the same for 4 weeks - which is better than going up, but not as good as going down. Which disappointed my brain no end.

I think me and my brain need to have a conversation about what constitutes a miracle. It has much higher expectations of weight loss, than I do. It also has a nasty habit of making me keep my eyes shut when I get on the scales on a Friday morning. How on earth am I supposed to see how much I weigh, through my eyelids??!!??

Imagine our surprise (yes, I am referring to myself with a plural...) when I managed to prise my eyes open this morning, and we discovered we had lost 2lbs. My brain had a little party that involved streamers, popping noises and an imaginary kazoo... and I got straight on the phone to ask my mate if she'd like to go swimming again... at which point my brain caught up, stopped blowing on it's imaginary kazoo and put on it's swimsuit.

A frilly pink one with yellow spots.

I can't take her anywhere.

* Chilli Con Carne

I think everyone must have a favourite version of Chilli Con Carne. This is mine. It's based on a Jamie Oliver recipe from Happy Days with The Naked Chef and I'll confess that before cooking it Jamie's way, I had no clue how to make a chilli taste good. I could make a chilli. I just couldn't make one that I wanted to eat more than once.

The recipe called for two 400g cans of kidney beans, and I honestly thought "Whoa there cowboy!" I didn't even like kidney beans in the singular, let alone two whole plurals of them. Still, it's what the recipe said, so it's what I did.... that was many moons ago now, and the very beginning of my addiction to all things *pulses*. If I can stick a plural of beans into anything - I stick a plural of beans into everything.

You may have noticed this.

I fart A LOT. Which is fun if you are me, but not so much if you're with me. Or so I'm told.

There's no chocolate or coffee or horsemeat in this chilli - just good spices, the usual ingredients, BEANS... and love.

Yes.

There is love in my chilli.

It's how I roll.

* Sausage and Red Pepper Chilli

Today is my Weigh Day. I picked a Friday instead of a Monday, because I reckon that I always weigh more on a Monday morning after being unable to use the words "No, thank you." over the weekend. These words seem to disappear from my vocabulary on a Saturday morning, around about the time I discover the bacon and breakfast muffins in the freezer... where I put them the night before.

So, Friday seemed a better choice and more likely to grant me a modicum of success - I lost 1lb this week. Which is better than 4oz, and waaaaaay better than putting weight on, which is what I actually expected. I got on and off the scales three times, just to check. I even opened my eyes on one occasion.

The sun has finally put in a long awaited appearance, so I'm off out for the afternoon to walk the dog and talk myself into not ordering my own body weight in Nachos when I meet my girlfriends for lunch tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

* Mixed Bean and Barley Soup

I thought that giving up the job that I hated, would give me the time to get my home in order and perhaps give my brain a little TLC and a rest from the rigours of putting up with other peoples crap. I thought I'd be luxuriating in the happiness of being able to do what I want, when I want...

No alarm clock to get up to. No speed walk around the lake with the dog's eyeballs popping out of her head because I'm running late yet again and she's too old to keep up, even on her leash. No "He said, She said" upon arrival at work. No eternal clock watching until home time. No too tired to do anything but crash on the sofa and use the dog as a blankie when I finally make it home. No fish finger sandwiches for dinner because I. just. can't. be. arsed...

I am reaping the benefits of all of the above... but OHMYGODI'MBORED!!!!! I'm now only working at the weekend (at a job I love) and I have NO IDEA what to do with myself during the day. Do I do housework? Decorating? Visit friends? Do I join the gym (yeah right)? Do I take the dog for incredibly long walks in the rain??? Do I cook? Do I read? Watch TV? Rent a film? Go shopping?

What do I do?

... I eat.

I gotta get me another job.... and something with an elasticated waist.

* Italian Sausage & Cannellini Bean Casserole

When you keep a record of what you cook, in the form of a blog (or any other form), you slowly begin to realise that you have definite eating habits and penchants for certain foods... The evidence is right there in front of you, so cannot be denied.

Apparently I like beans.

And sausages.

And chocolate.

There's probably a recipe in there somewhere, but I'm not sure I'm the one to discover it.

The original joy at the evenings drawing in and being able to put the salad spinner away in favour of the crock pot - has faded. I'm fed up with it already and long for Summer. Mind you, I think the great British public are all longing for Summer, as we didn't actually get one this year. Or a Spring. Somewhere around April we were being told that we were in the midst of the worst drought in blah-blah years... and someone with a warped sense of humour must have been listening - because it started to rain and I have no memory of it stopping.

So... I decided to cook a casserole that had a taste of Summer in it.

No matter the weather. Only 8 more weeks and I'm going to Egypt.

Hah.