Cook - lemonade on a sunny day

I've never attempted to make homemade lemonade before and my youngest has been urging us to have a go for a while, so we took a bag of lemons and turned them into this:

It's another Nigella Lawson recipe from Nigella Express (Cloudy Lemonade for a Sunny Day). The recipe's not on her website but it's very simple and involves blending up roughly chopped lemons with sugar and fizzy water. It was lovely and refreshing, although I might do it slightly differently next time (using the blender instead of food processor and blending with a sugar and water syrup first, then adding fizzy water later). Or I may not make any changes at all, as the whole litre that we made this time disappeared very quickly!

Run - craft - read - cook : a bit of everything

A minor technological fail, a few other real-life distractions and do you know what? It's suddenly 3 weeks since I last blogged.  I have been doing a bit of this and that, but not really enough of anything, it feels.

Despite running along seafronts and through exciting gates, it feels like my running is on a bit of a back burner at the moment.  I really want this to change so I'm trying to schedule runs with friends to make myself feel obliged to go out - fingers crossed it works.

Crafting is currently all about crochet - I'm on a desperate mission to finish the enormous blanket by next Friday. I think it can be done if I focus really really hard ... I'm on the border (the swatch in the photo) and it's looking ok but taking ages to do each round now the blanket's so big. And there are STILL about 50 ends to sew in - booo

Reading is happening (a bit)  ... The Goldfinch was such an epic read that I had to take a little breather for a while, but I'm just finishing off  The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, which is absolutely lovely (I will blog about it properly when I've finished reading it).

Cooking is actually something I've been doing a bit more of.  I was very inspired by Angel Jem to do some proper meal planning and make more use of recipe books, and it's been going ok. Despite the photographic evidence, we've been surviving on more than luridly pink marshmallow cakes, but this was a recipe I made with my youngest who thoroughly enjoys both the process and outcome of cooking. I will try and share some of the meals that have been popular in my house as I always find food inspiration very helpful (and meal planning quite laborious). Recently I've cooked a few dishes from Nigella Express : Croque Monsieur Bake, Rapid Ragu and Quick Chilli (not on the website) have all been surprisingly successful in our house.

So - I'm not sure what exactly led to my blogging hiatus - I think it's just very hard to get started again after losing the momentum.  But I'm going to really try and keep going this time - off to check comments and have a good catch up with some of my favourite blogs now to keep me inspired.

Cook - Saturday brunch

I had a lovely stay at a friend's house last night - a night away from home meant a leisurely morning, with a gentle run followed by the most delicious brunch.  My friend has 5 hardworking chickens and a resulting abundance of eggs, so we had eggs lots of ways - scrambled, poached and most successfully made into these  Pea and Sweetcorn Fritters (I need to work on my food photography, but honestly they are very, very tasty).

Although we had to make a couple of substitutions (normal onion for spring onions, cheddar for feta) they still came out well,  and definitely a recipe to make again for brunch / lunch / breakfast / tea - I think they'd work for any meal.

We had them with eggs as mentioned above, plus avocado and smoked salmon.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the whole ensemble, but believe me, it was the perfect post-run brunch!

Cook - Welsh cakes

After buying some Welsh cakes in the supermarket on Monday I thought it must be possible to make my own - so I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website and had a go. The only tweak I made to the recipe was using all butter instead of a mixture of butter and lard, as that was all I had in the fridge.

They turned out very well, with the proof being that they disappeared extremely quickly, with even currant-hating members of the family managing to overlook the fruit content and consume at least 2 apiece.  Definitely one to make again.

Cook - hot cross buns

Today I've managed to do 3 out of 4 - a fab 5 mile run this morning, a relaxed couple of hours on the sofa this afternoon, crocheting away at my spotty blanket while watching Penguins of Madagascar with my youngest, and a lovely hour or so baking with my middle child.  We don't do this so often now, so it was a real treat.  He made Snickerdoodles (from How to be a domestic goddess) and I made a pizza dough (for our tea) and some hot cross buns.  The pizza dough rose quickly and enormously; the hot cross buns took an age to increase in size - and then needed a second proving, so I've only just finished baking them.

It was quite a complicated recipe with tea involved (supposed to be Earl Grey, but I substituted Lady Grey as that's all I could find) - it's in this month's Waitrose Kitchen magazine.  I have just sampled one and I don't think the tea flavour really comes through and it was a bit on the dry side, but I'm sure they'll taste ok toasted tomorrow.  Hot cross buns are a favourite in our house so  I'm intending to make another batch over the weekend (I think I'll try a different recipe though).

Tomorrow we have the rare luxury of no sporting engagements for the boys, and I don't need to go or a run as it's taper time,  so I'm planning an extremely relaxed (=lazy) morning of reading, pottering and staying in my pyjamas till lunchtime!

Cook - kale crisps, a revelation

Who would have thought sticking a load of kale in the oven for 20 minutes could have such a delicious result?

I had Kale Crisps from Pret the other day and thought it must be possible to replicate them at home, so I found this recipe for Kale Crisps on the BBC Good Food website and followed it exactly.  They were awsome! I say 'were' because they've been devoured by myself and my middle child (just hoping eldest doesn't see the evidence or we're in trouble for not leaving any). The ras el hanout adds just enough spiciness, and I sprinkled a bit of salt on too.  They were as simple as anything to make (I particularly enjoyed massaging the oil in!). I'll be be making them again very very soon.

Cook - roasted cauliflower soup

Cooking! Haven't done anything apart from day-to-day sustenance for a while and excitement has been sadly lacking.  Today I decided to do something with a cauliflower which has been sitting in my fridge for some time.

I roasted it with a splash of garlic oil for about half an hour. Then I softened an onion in butter on the hob, chopped up a parsnip and a couple of small potatoes and stirred those in.  After letting it all sweat gently for 10 minutes or so I added the cauliflower and enough stock to cover (I used chicken, vegetable would be fine).  Simmered for about 20 minutes until everything was soft, then blended and added seasoning and milk to get the right consistency and flavour.  Simple and tasty - lunch is sorted for the next few days.

Cook - experimental smoothie

I like a smoothie for breakfast - the composition is usually dictated by what's in the fruit bowl or freezer.  Today's was a bit of an experiment and there's certainly quite a lot of room for improvement.

Avocado and mango smoothie

Ingredients (1 serving): 1/2 avocado, 1/2 mango, c.200mls soya milk, 1tsp or so almond butter
Method: Blend together and drink

So it was lovely and creamy, but a bit too avocado-y for my tastes - I think next time it needs more mango than avocado, and maybe a touch more of the almond butter. Maybe I should also mention that I had a headache and stomach ache for most of the day (but I'm sure it wasn't smoothie related!).

Cook - peanut butter honey granola

This is one of my favourite recipes - easy, cheap and immensely satisfying.  The recipe was published in the Guardian and led me to Jack Monroe's brilliant blog (A girl called Jack) - which is full of fantastic recipes, most of which are also very cheap to make.

The full recipe and quantities are here: Peanut butter honey granola , but all you need to do is melt butter, peanut butter and honey together, tip in some oats and mix well, spread out on a baking tray and cook for 15 mins then leave to cool.  Simple! I usually make double quantities which is just enough to fill my big Kilner jar and lasts about a week, depending on how many of us are around (the orange scoop measures out a medium portion - but some of us eat a lot more than that!)

I've started having it (maybe with a chopped up banana - I'm still experimenting) as my pre-long run / pre-race breakfast as it's easier than porridge (both to prepare and to eat - less stodgy) - it's also more portable so if I'm away overnight or need to eat on the move, it will be easy to take with me.

Cook - cake

A quick post today - I've spent this afternoon (between naps to re-energise after a late night and early run this morning) making a cake for my friend whose birthday it is today. I'm quite pleased with the result.

A simple all-in-one sponge flavoured with lemon zest and juice, layered with lemon curd, blueberries, whipped cream and strawberries and topped with fruit, cream and chocolate curls.  Hopefully it will go down well tonight (literally).

Cook - mmm soup

I love soup, especially homemade, so thick you can stand your spoon up in it soup.  The soup I made at a ridiculously early hour this morning wasn't quite that thick but it was a good way to use up lots of slightly limp looking bits from the fridge to create 5 lunch-portions of soup. It was based loosely (as always) on another recipe  (Covent Garden Russian Vegetable Soup) but with variations due to what was available in my fridge.

First I sauteed some chopped onion and leek in a mixture of oil and butter till quite soft, then added some diced potato and let that soften a bit. Next went in about half a finely sliced savoy cabbage, outer leaves and core removed. While that was softening slightly I added 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg and 1/2 tsp ground cumin and lots of black pepper.  Finally I covered the whole lot with boiling water and added a couple of teaspoons of vegetable bouillon powder and left to simmer for about 15 minutes (while I had a shower). Once everything was all cooked. I blended it up and portioned it out.  4 portions to go in the freezer for other days - I had the 5th portion today for lunch - yummy!

Cook - batch baking

Hopefully we'll be doing lots of walking in the next few days, so we've been busy making fuel to keep us going.  With a bit of help my youngest made the cupcakes (caramel flavoured - and they'll have a chocolate topping tomorrow but bedtime arrived before we could finish them), and my middle child made lemon drizzle cake unaided. I made flapjacks as usual.  It looks like a lot but I don't think it's going to take long for these to go.

Cook - Friday treats

I love Fridays. I didn't used to - I used to have a Friday evening committment that filled the preceeding day with anxiety as I worried whether everything had been organised properly, had I forgotten anything, was all the paerwork correct? And then, when I got back home afterwards, I was anxious again about all the things that needed following up before the next Friday.

But I gave it up just over a year ago and I still get a delicious feeling of freedom on the way home from work every Friday afternoon, as the weekend truly starts for me. Often we have things to do after school or places to be, but today we came straight home and I started some easy baking with Alt-J playing gently in the background as the boys depressurised from busy school days. Half an hour later and a plate of flapjacks was ready as a pre-tea snack.

My flapjacks are loosely based on Delia Smith's Whole Oat Crunchies (although this is slightly different from the recipe in my battered cookery book) but I usually wing it by throwing 4oz butter (this is the only recipe I measure in ounces), 4oz sugar (any sort - usually a mixture - these contain dark muscovado hence the toffe-colour) and a splodge of golden syrup in a pan, letting it heat up till bubbling and then adding enough rolled and jumbo oats to make it a stiffish mixture.  Plonk in a lined tin, bake for 15-20 mins around 175 degrees and you're done.  Actually, on reading Delia's recipe again, I think mine have evolved into something completely different.

I've even managed to take a photo in (grey-ish) daylight today!

Cook - refuelling

Running this evening was speed work with the group. Scheduled to run on roads which were quickly becoming icily treacherous, we relocated and ran laps of a local field instead. When we got home we needed food fast,and a bacon and avocado salad was just the thing.  

While a few rashers of bacon sizzled away I chopped lettuce, avocado, tomatoes and cucumber. As soon as the bacon was crispy I popped it onto the salad, added a slug of balsamic vinegar to the pan and reduced it slightly then poured over everything. Simple, swift and tasty - perfect post run food.

Cook - Lemon drizzle cake

It's not really lemon drizzle cake, it's 'Lemon-syrup loaf cake' from How to be a domestic goddess , but we always forget to call it that.

I take a more slapdash approach than Nigella and bung everything in the bowl together, mix fiercely and bake - seems to work out ok most of the time. I made this because a lovely friend came round for a cup of tea and a chat and it always feels welcoming to offer freshly baked cake.

Too much glare and the odd shadow in this photo.  I think I need to work on styling my photos - not much in my life is 'styled' but it might help a bit here.