Category Archives: Soups, Starters & Salads

Spicy Black Bean Hotpot

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As a working mum my time in the kitchen is very limited during the week and so I’m always on the look out for recipes which I can make in my slow cooker.
I came across this wonderful recipe on Mel’s Kitchen Cafe and it was exactly what I was looking for!
Take a look at Mel’s site, it’s excellent. She has lots of other helpful goodies in addition to her wonderful recipes.
Mel calls this recipe classic and simple and it really is that. Flavorsome and perfect for the slow cooker (or on the stove top). Minimum effort for maximum flavor!!
This is a modified version of the original from Mel’s site.

Spicy Black Bean Hotpot

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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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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 →

Mushroom Soup with Parsley and Garlic

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Although the weather isn’t very seasonal at the moment I still find myself craving warming, comforting soups.

When I lived in the UK I really loved the range of fresh and seasonal soups from The New Covent Garden Soup Company and was delighted when I found out that you could buy a couple of cookbooks with some of their recipes. This recipe is taken from The New Covent Garden Soup Company’s Book of Soups – New, Old & Odd Recipes.

This was the first time I have tried this recipe and I was pleasantly surprised, I can really recommend the Covant Garden book since I have yet to try any of the recipes in this book and be disappointed. I have made some minor modifications.
Give this great soup a try and let me know what you think, both Stewart and I thought it was fantastic!

mushroom parsley and garlic soup

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Gran’s Recipe For Brisket Soup

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My new laptop is here at last so now my technical difficulties have been overcome I thought it was about time I finally posted my gran’s soup recipe which I spoke of in my last post.

As usual when I make soup I made enough to feed an army but it won’t go to waste as I froze it in batches, this will come in really handy as the winter progresses.

So enough babbling… on to the recipe…

homemade soup

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Soup of the Day!!

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Finally gotten off my backside and back into the kitchen!!

Today Stewart and I went into the city and visited the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). I just love this time of year, Basel is so beautiful!! We enjoyed some absolutely excellent rösti at a little bistro at the market mine with cheese, ham and onion and Stewart enjoyed his with Bratwurst and onion gravy! When we got home I got on with the task of finishing off making a pot of soup which I began cooking last night based on my grandmothers recipe.

Check back later for the simple but yummy recipe and some pictures!

UPDATE: Technical issues are hampering my posts. I’m currently waiting for my new laptop to arrive as my old one died a few weeks ago, it’s due for the end of the week so until then dear readers please accept my apologies. I will upload my recipe and pictures soon.

Blog Swap #2 – Gazpacho by Pamela

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Just in case you missed my blog swap posting over at Meeta’s place here is the recipe I posted.

Since the whole of Europe has been sweltering under a heatwave for the past couple of weeks, the theme for the Monthly Mingle is very appropriately “Beat The Heat”, in addition we decided to use this theme for our blog swap.

I got my thinking cap on and and tried to identify which ingredients really screamed summer sun to me. I didn’t have far to look for inspiration. My tomato plants on the balcony are in full bloom and within the next couple of weeks I will have a glut of tomatoes on my hands. What can be more summery than tomatoes?

So now I had my main ingredient in mind, what would help “Beat The Heat” ?

Gazpacho!! Delicious chilled soup of tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, here goes..

Gazpacho

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Sesame Prawns

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I finished work early today and spent this afternoon running about crazy. I ended up knackered and wasn’t really in the mood for cooking something from scratch and so I decided to make the sesame prawns which I bought from Co-Op yesterday. I served them with lemon, aioli and some tomato, chilli and red pepper salsa. They were really juicy!

Sesame Prawns