* Spicy Mexican Cheddar Scones

I bought some Spicy Mexican Cheddar a few days back, with the the full intention of grating it over the top of some enchiladas and somehow... I forgot.

It's hardly a surprise, considering the fact that firstly.. well.. I'm me.. and secondly - I have a variety of cheese on the go at all times, and I can never use it up quickly enough. Currently I have Gouda, Soft Goats Cheese, Feta, Parmesan, Mozzarella, Mascarpone, Full fat Cheddar, Half fat Cheddar... uuummmm... Philadelphia Light with Grilled Peppers... and a chunk of Gruyere.

I don't know why I have all of this cheese. I don't know why I have to have all of this cheese. I just know that if I see cheese... I buy cheese. Unless I have that cheese already, in which case I pick it up and put it down a billion times, trying to convince myself that I really don't need this cheese. Doesn't always work though.

I no longer have any Spicy Mexican Cheddar Cheese left, because I used it up in these scones. They were lush, straight from the oven, cracked open and spread with four inches of the buttery stuff. I'd made another batch of Broccoli Cheddar Soup (I bought a cr@p ton of broccoli) and they were lovely dipped in that.

Looking at that list of cheeses - I have no idea why I bought the Feta. I don't even like Feta.

However... there are tongue marks in the Mascarpone. 

They're mine.

* Sweet Potato and Caramelised Onion Quiche {Meatless Mondays}

I know I keep saying that I'm surprised when a recipe works, but I genuinely am. This Sweet Potato and Caramelised Onion Quiche was an experiment because I used my favourite Parmesan and polenta pastry with it. I thought I might have gone for overkill with the flavour combinations and ended up with a dish that was all over the shot.

Happily I was wrong.

I made the quiche to take to mum's on Sunday as my brother and his clan were donning their life jackets and coming to Cornwall to visit. So.... an "occasion" was at hand. An "occasion" always requires copious amounts of food in my family, so you're guaranteed to have at least one individual who likes what you've put in front of them.

Both Neil and my brother, demolished my quiche. I've no idea if Josh ate any. Josh is a Ninja at family gatherings. He appears from nowhere with a plate. The plate is suddenly full to brimming. Then both Josh and his plate disappear... as if they had never been there to begin with!!! There's not even a throwing star lodged in a wall somewhere. It's like the air is displaced with his image, and a plate... then *piff paff poof*... gone.

I wish I could do that.

Especially just after I've farted.

* Mexican Cornbread Muffins {Meatless Mondays}

I absolutely LOVE cornbread, but Neil isn't usually a huge fan. Possibly because most of the time I use a medium grain polenta to make it, and he finds it a tad too gnarly. In which case I usually end up eating the whole lot - not in one sitting... but it's too close to call.

I managed to get hold of some fine polenta in Tesco's the other day, and seeing as I'm always trying to conquer my oven's urge to C-4 small cakes and muffins - I thought I'd have a go at making mini cornbreads... because I am determined to win this particular battle (with the oven) and selling Neil a Mexican Cornbread Muffin was going to be a damn sight easier than saying "I made cornbread". 

I was keeping my fingers crossed that he wouldn't connect the dots.

He didn't. Or maybe he did and decided to play along. He does that A LOT. It's part of his charm.

"Oooh look what my mum bought me!"

"Your mum bought you a new desktop for £600?"

"Ummm... yes?"

"With our debit card?"

"Ummmmmm...mmm... yessss???"

....... "That was nice of her."

What's not to love?!?!!!

He actually enjoyed the muffin that I let him taste test, warm from the oven. I taste tested two. One of them was eaten very quietly in the kitchen, away from all eyes but the dog's. Her eyes said "If you don't give me some of that I'm telling." 

So I shared.

* Chicken Mozzarella with Tomatoes

OhMyGod this recipe was LUSH! I didn't know what to call it.... Chicken Mozzarella With Tomatoes... Smothered Mediterranean Chicken... Pizza Pepper Chicken Bake. Seriously, food naming is almost more complicated than baby naming. At least it is for me.

All the while I was pregnant, my baby was going to be called Thomas (even if it was a girl)... but when they plonked him in my arms I took one look at his strawberry blonde hair and ginger side burns and realised he was actually called Joshua. See... simples.

Not so simple when naming a recipe... When I look at food - the possibilities are endless. You want to tell everyone what's in it without giving them a list of ingredients. Which is really hard... especially when you're like me and stick bell peppers into virtually everything. It all starts to sound a bit "samey" after a while... so... I stuck three different titles into a hat... and... well... lets just say I put the first two I pulled out, back in...

This was another of those "hate food waste" recipes, that involved using up a couple of fresh chicken breasts, and some mozzarella - I very nearly made a pasta bake (stop groaning) - but I'm getting a bit bored with those (stop clapping), and whilst I'm doing the 5:2 diet I feel as though everything that I can eat on a normal day has to be worth eating.

I rather desperately wanted carrot pancakes for breakfast this morning. I have never made nor eaten a carrot pancake in my life. I have no idea if they are awful, if they are gawjus or if they even work as a recipe. I have not yet delved into google to find out... but you know I'm gonna... and you know I'm gonna share when I do...

... Oooooohhhhh I feel a Meatless Monday post coming on...

... unless they're sh*t.

* Creamy Chicken and Tomato Pasta Bake

I'm becoming the "Queen of Hate Food Waste" just recently, with all the food I'm managing to use up. I think it makes me just slightly more inventive when I cook based on need rather than on want.

I'll try to explain....

I occasionally buy ingredients to cook for a specific recipe that either I have come up with, or I've found whilst trawling through various cook books or across the interwebz. It's really satisfying to cook from a recipe, but I often have half a jar of this or half a tub of that left over when I'm done - because I mostly use fresh ingredients when cooking. I then get left with an ingredient or three that has a shelf life.... like spinach, creme fraiche, harissa paste, cream cheese (never, ever do I have chocolate anything left over... ever) - to name but a few. If you're a repeat reader you already know about the spinach and the creme fraiche - if you're not a repeat reader - go do your homework... links have been supplied!

This Creamy Chicken and Tomato Pasta Bake made use of some cooked left over chicken and the remnants of a tub of Philadelphia, and I honestly don't think I'd have come up with it if Melanie Jean on my facebook page hadn't made a request for a chicken and tomato pasta dish with no basil and only a little garlic. I was just gonna bung the chicken in a sandwich for Neil and eat some cream cheese on crumpets until both were gone. Not overly inventive, eh?

This was one of those meals that you could cut the time in half by simply not baking it in the oven, just dish it out straight from the pot if you're in a hurry and grate some cheese over the top. I baked mine because I had the time.

It was nommy.... and there were left overs.... 

... Be still my beating heart ;-)

* Buttered Parmesan Chicken Thighs

Sometimes, just a simple change to how you'd normally prepare something for cooking and eating - makes you feel as though you've just discovered that you can't get pregnant simply by kissing a boy.... yup... honestly thought that could happen and had, in fact, planned to have a baby that way. Right up until I was seven and asked a few too many questions one Sunday morning, when lying in bed with my mum, dad and baby bruvver...

...Since then I have lived by the philosophy that if you don't want to know the answer... don't ask the bloody question.

I did want to know whether or not I could use melted butter, instead of eggs and flour as a base/glue to coat these chicken thighs with though (before dipping them in everything else)- so I gave it a shot and I am NEVER going back. I made "MmmmmMMMMMM" noises all the way through  dinner until Neil put his knife and fork down and raised his eyebrows at me. Neil never puts his knife and fork down until he's finished inhaling his food. I shut up. For about a second.

No, it's not overly health conscious of me to have used butter, but I rarely use it in cooking and on this occasion it was worth it. It took a rather familiar and placid meal and added a comforting depth of flavour to it, that it was previously missing.

We ate ours with new potatoes and vegetables, and the leftovers went into a couple of tiger rolls for Neil's packed lunch the following day. 

Just looking at the photographs of this, whilst I'm typing, is making me think we'll be having this again - or something else dipped in butter - pretty soon.

Oh Oh OH... SPINACH DIPPED IN BUTTER... food heaven or what?!?

* Cheddar and Chive Scones {Meatless Mondays}

In a bid to use up a few store cupboard ingredients that I don't use on a regular basis (I don't use any of them on a regular basis, but for the sake of having something to write about.... just go along with it)... ahem...

IN A BID to use up the wholemeal flour that was... ugh.

Okay. I was bored. And hungry.

I really shouldn't have been, because we went our for a humongous English Breakfast yesterday morning, that was not only the equivalent of an entire day's food on one plate - it was also absolutely scrumptious. The only HUGE disappointment HUUUUUUUGE - from my stand point - was that Neil ate his black pudding for the first time in 20 years....

... WE HAVE... AN... AGREEMENT!

Neil gets my egg white and I get his black pudding and grilled tomato. Yes. It is slightly tilted in my favour. However... WE HAVE AN AGREEMENT. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to word this on the divorce papers. Irreconcilable differences, perhaps? Or emotional abuse. Either way - it's over. I've already written a letter to Hugh (Jackman), telling him what time my aeroplane lands... and that we need to stop off at Maureen Shaw's for a roast dinner (she's holding the gravy) before carrying on our way to wherever our love nest is...

... but before I hop on a plane to *Laa-Laa Land* (and I don't mean Australia)... I baked some cheese and chives scones to take with me (to Laa-Laa Land, not to Australia.... Hugh won't be there (in Laa-Laa Land) Get a grip), or to eat with Butternut Squash and Tomato Soup for tea tonight... when I forgive Neil...

... for eating my black pudding. Yeah. Not gonna happen.

I'm curious - do any of you have similar agreements with your partner's when it comes to food? And do you want to stab them in the face with a fork when they renege on the deal? Do tell.

* Smoked Sausage, Tomato and Watercress Tart

It's actually a Smoked Sausage, Sun Dried Tomato and Watercress Tart in a Parmesan Polenta Pastry (try saying that once, without tripping up, when completely sober.... now have a glass of wine... and try again... much easier, wasn't it)... which is waaaaay too heavy a title to put on a recipe. It's almost a pedigree, and I'm hardly entering it into Crufts.

Food gets a bit *samey* sometimes, in this house. I don't always have the time or the inclination to cook much more than something that goes in a pot and will sit happily with rice or pasta... but occasionally, my need to use food up and make space in my fridge for another, fresher, culinary rainbow of vegetables - gives me enough incentive to become a bit more inventive, if not adventurous.

It was watercress that needed using up this time. I had been inspired to buy it, by a recent trip to The Finnygook Inn, for dinner. They served it with steak. I liked it enough that I bought a bag. That's how most stuff gets into the fridge. I have a moment of "oooooooh... what a nice idea, I think I can make *this* a part of my everyday diet"... and I really can't. There's a LOT of watercress in one bag. Enough to go with several steak servings, not just one or two.

I didn't buy steak. I only like steak, in any form, when someone else has cooked it. This is a constant disappointment to Neil.

Neil would eat shoe leather if I put it on his plate and told him it was steak. This is most probably because when I have cooked steak, it has resembled shoe leather... I'm really inspiring you with confidence in my cooking right about now, aren't I.

Back to my Tart... it worked a million times better than I had imagined it would. It really was one of those surprising successes (I am always surprised when I have a success). I experimented with the pastry and if I only ever make one pastry again, it'll be this one. Using up the watercress in the tart was also a success...

... Now all I have to do is work out what the hell I'm going to do with a ton of Marshmallow Fluff.

* Chicken Pizza Pasta Bake

I love home made pizza and make it all the time but as yet have never taken the time to photograph and share it. Possibly because I know there will always be another opportunity.... which is good, because I'd fully intended to make and photograph a pizza this time but I was halfway through making the pizza sauce when I realised I didn't have any strong bread flour to make a pizza base, so I had to raid the cupboards for something else to take it's place... which is par for the course in this house.

Thankfully, I've developed a new shopping addiction... it doesn't replace the old one - there will always be spinach in my fridge (well duh!)... I've been on a bit of a pasta purchasing splurge just recently, and have gone from the bog standard macaroni, penne, spaghetti and fusilli sitting in neat rows in glass jars on my shelves... to just about every type of pasta I can lay my hands on that I have never cooked with, including the tortiglioni in this recipe, all wedged into various nooks and crannies throughout the house.

It's a small house.

So.

This is one of those recipes that just sort of 'happened' in a good way. Neil loved it. I loved it. I'll be cooking it again. I have a positive plethora of pasta to use up.

If we have a nuclear war - I'm set. Though it could get a bit dull after the seventh year. Perhaps I should turn my purchasing power to rice and grains as well...

...just in case.

* 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.

* 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.

* Cheese and Mustard Scones

I keep hitting my self destruct button on this diet. Yesterday we went to Chiquitos for a late lunch after watching The Hobbit in the cinema, and I thought I'd been really good - even if I had just consumed 170g of galaxy minstrels.... and a bowl of nachos. I don't know why I thought this was okay - maybe because I was still hungry I decided that I couldn't possibly have been too seriously naughty...

There are 24 propoints in 170g of minstrels... 24 propoints... 24 propoints.... THAT'S ALMOST AN ENTIRE DAY'S ALLOWANCE!!! Oh. My. God. I thought maybe 10 or 15... but 24??!!

Who knew?

I certainly didn't.

Now those of you that are somewhat slender and that disappear when standing side on to a lamp post... are probably thinking "How on earth did you manage to eat THAT MANY minstrels??!!?"

The answer?

...one. at. a. time.

* Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake

This is my absolute FAVOURITE pasta bake. I think the cream in it hits my sweet tooth button, and of course it has oodles of cheese - and that hits the... cheese button.

It's one of those dishes that once you've cleared your plate, you'd like to go back to the beginning and eat it all over again. It's not too rich, or too savoury, or too cheesy. NOTHING is too cheesy. It's just right.

This is the yummy fare that we had for dinner yesterday.

Today I have been shopping for food (again) and have bought sooo much that I suffered a mental block over what to cook tonight. The cupboards are full, the fridge is sporting a new rainbow and the freezers have been propped shut with chairs.

It'll have to be fish finger sandwiches.