Category Archives: Burgers & Snacks

Goats Cheese and Tomato Tartlets

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I spent yesterday morning at a Guy Demarle presentation at a  friends house in France.  During the course of a couple of hours the woman demonstrating the products baked bread, made the most amazing chocolate cake, beautiful little almond shells in which she served a really tasty raspberry sorbet and then some little Goats cheese and tomato tartlets.

I was really blown away by the tartlets, they were really quick and simple to make and tasted wonderful.

I didn’t have the actual recipe but thought I’d give it a try today and I was delighted with the results!

Tomato and goats cheese tartlet

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Tex-Mex Cheddar Chicken Burgers with Caramelized Onions

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It’s grill season and so it’s time for me to dust off my favourite summer cookbook – The Great Big Burger Book!

For anyone who loves BBQ’s this is an essential piece of kit.

This recipe is based upon one from the Great Big Burger Book but it’s not exactly the same so I give you my version:

Tex Mex Chedder Chicken Burgers with Caramelized Onions

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Mince Pies

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I’ve never made Mince Pies before but this year I thought I would make some to give as a gift and to enjoy at home.  When I tried to get the right size cutters I drew a blank so they’re not as neat as I’d hoped they would be but I guess that just adds to the rustic homemade charm.

I looked at several different recipes and this is the one which I liked the sound of the best, it’s from Ainsley Harriot and I found it on the BBC food website.  It’s a little bit cheaty since it uses shop bought mincemeat, but I decided that conquering the shortcrust pastry was enough of a challenge for this year so maybe next time I’ll try making the mincemeat too!

According to Ainsley this makes 18 but I think my muffin tray must be much deeper than his as I only got 12.  I also refridgerated the pastry overnight in a zip lock bag and that may have contributed to my pastry cracking quite alot.  All in all though I thought it was a pretty sucessful first try.  Give them a try and see what you think.

Mince pies

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Burgers Diane And Homemade Wedges

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Having an 18 week old hasn’t left me much time in the kitchen lately but this is slowly changing. For dinner this evening I turned to one of my favourite cookbooks and one which has featured on this site on a couple of previous occasion, that is The Great Big Burger Book by Jane Murphy and Liz Yeh Singh. I used organic minced beef for added flavour, I really think it makes all the difference.

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Couscous Stuffed Roasted Peppers

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Sorry for the absence dear readers but as you can tell from my last post all those weeks ago we’ve been really busy here since Matthew arrived!

Stewart my darling husband has been taking care of mealtimes as I take care of Matthew’s bedtime routine.

I’ve been breaking myself in gently back into the way of cooking and so last weekend I made a huge pot of chilli. The weather today was really hot and we decided to go for a picnic so when we got home we weren’t in the mood for anything too heavy and so after trawling through the cupboards I came up with this quick and healthy snack.

COUSCOUS STUFFED ROASTED PEPPERS Continue reading →

Guinness Pub Burgers

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One of my favourite dishes to make with minced beef is of course burgers!! I was really happy yesterday when Stewart reached for my copy of The Great Big Burger Book when I asked him to pick something for me to make with the minced beef I had in the fridge.

The Great Big Burger Book by Jane Murphy & Liz Yeh Singh is an essential for any burger lover or BBQ fanatic and I’ve featured recipes from it here in the past (See Guacamole burgers with Spicy Chili Con Queso & Braised Fajita Turkey Burgers with Fiesta Corn Salsa).

Stewart decided he wanted to give the Guinness Pub Burgers a try, I read through the ingredients and everything seemed pretty straight forward so without further ado..

Guinness pub burger

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Roast Chicken, Ruccola, Mozzarella and Marinaded Sun Dried Tomato Sandwich

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Since the other night when I made Cod Wrapped in Parma Ham and discovered the most wonderful marinade sun dried tomatoes from Betty Bossi stocked in the Coop I have been trying to think of other ways of using them. For lunch today I decided upon another, when I looked into the fridge I saw that there was an incredible sandwich pleading to be made out of some delicious Italian ingredients.

How could I possibly resist?

roast chicken, ruccola, mozzarella and marinaded sundried tomato sandwich

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Lean & Tasty Burgers

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I really love making burgers and I’m always up for trying new recipes. A couple of weeks ago when we were back in Glasgow I picked up a couple of new gadgets from Lakeland. Lakeland is the most amazing homewares company and the great news is that they deliver overseas!!!

My new gadgets were a burger maker and a quarterpounder press. Here is how I put the my burgerpress to good use… It’s similar to a previous recipe but still a work in progress in my never ending journey to find the perfect burger recipe.

lean & tasty burger

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A Simple Yet Tasty Breakfast – Bruschetta With Egg Mayonnaise

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Ever since I was a small child I have always had a real aversion to egg mayonnaise. I love eggs and I love mayo but the combination of the two I have always detested. That was until a few years ago..

Back in 2002 I had the misfortune of being diagnosed with acute cholecystitis or an acute inflammation of the gall bladder and I was told I would need surgery to remove said gall bladder.

Any know who has ever suffered from cholecystitis will back me up when I say that the pain is excruiciating and due to the nature of this condition many foods consumed can aggravate the pain.

It was to my surprise that whilst awaiting surgery I found myself cravings egg mayonnaise and for days that was all I ate.

After surgery my cravings disappeared along with my gall bladder and to this day egg mayonnaise has never passed my lips again.

That was until this morning…

egg mayo 1

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