Weezl and friends Phase 3 - sitting pretty with Kitty

Allegra

Not much Sian I don't think ! It's been a real life week for most of the CFR team, I think - we all followed your example and got off our PCs in order to live a little

Good to see you back, hope you had a fab time !

weezl74

Hi sian,

I've mostly designed a new months planner, featuring more normal schoolchildren's lunches and more typical british (not really the right word, but I hope you know what i mean! ) like sausage and mash type meals rather than panzanella or saag aloo gobi. I'm at a point where i think it is launchable after the christmas week menu has gone live and is all running smoothly. So there will be a further 17 new recipes (only I have tested these thus far, tho QOS has also prototyped one) it has meat, and still meets the 5 a day etc criteria. I have all the photography done and a bit of the html.

So that's my cfr news since you've been away I hope you had a nice time!

edit we also have two new cfr cheesecakes in the pipeline, and you'll be very pleased to know the new planner has an adaption of a pioneer woman recipe

edit 2: QOS also has an idea about us exploring some additional ways to use facebook to involve the cfr devotees who aren't on here. Watch this space!

weezl74

VenusFlytrap wrote: »

Hope everyone's having a good start to the weekend - and Sammi and Weezl, I await the cereal bar development with interest and would be a willing tester, love them but rarely buy them now as nice ones seem quite expensive and have never attempted making my own. Sounds a good idea!

thanks for the recipe venus

also I did try the cereal bars but I don't think the concentration was strong enough on my reduction of apple juice. Not sweet or syruppy enough yet, but I will persevere

Sami_Bee

Weezl what sort of method did you use on the bars? I'm not sure if you've witnessed the organix ones with your very own eyes? if not would you like a photo?

Also can someone tell me how strong the smoked salmon pasta is? I might just give it a whirl anyway but I don't really like smoked salmon, I'm thinking the creamy sauce would hide a lot of the flavour though?

nopot2pin

Sami_Bee wrote: »

Also can someone tell me how strong the smoked salmon pasta is? I might just give it a whirl anyway but I don't really like smoked salmon, I'm thinking the creamy sauce would hide a lot of the flavour though?

Im not a big fan of smoked salmon either, but I do like the hot smoked salmon... it has a better texture for me, and the flavour is subtler
I think I may have this for my dinner tonight now... I really couldnt decide what to have

Apricot

Sami_Bee wrote: »

Also can someone tell me how strong the smoked salmon pasta is? I might just give it a whirl anyway but I don't really like smoked salmon, I'm thinking the creamy sauce would hide a lot of the flavour though?

I made it and Im not fussed on smoked salmon but it really toned down the flavour - I found myself scraping the bottom of the bowl picking out all the tiny bits of salmon and eating it!:rotfl:

shanks77

I loved the salmon pasta however i do like smoked salmon but very nomnom.
Venus the sausage salad sounds lovely one for the recipe book methinks

Sami_Bee

princessleah_ wrote: »

I made it and Im not fussed on smoked salmon but it really toned down the flavour - I found myself scraping the bottom of the bowl picking out all the tiny bits of salmon and eating it!:rotfl:

:rotfl:now that is a website worthy quote :rotfl:
I think I'll drag hubby out to the retail park 2mo and pop into asda while I'm there for the bits I don't have in.
Christopher spent last night at Grandma's where he was allowed to eat ice cream at 9pm :eek: and stay up until some god awful hour so I couldn't go and buy the salmon on they way back as I'd planned as he was on the brink of sleep and I needed to get food into him ASAP! We ended up with pasta with a spot of cream & tomato pesto and some prawns I dug out of the freezer.
Hotpot tomorrow (cooked by MIL) then salmon pasta will be done on monday possibly with orange cake.

Weezl - The marmalade I bought has a bitter note to it, might I need to add a touch more sugar to the cake to balance or is the marmalade you used also on the bitter side? I've never had it before so I'm not sure if thats a feature of m'lade or not?:o

artybear

Well I ventured to the most amazing market in the world this morning, Borough market, where I bought enough fruit to feed the 5000:T. Then went to ikea and bough beautiful glass jars (amongst lots of other things I didnt need but were pretty) and so tomorrow is jam/chutney making day:). We have decided to make a twist on the strawberries and champagne jam we tested at the market ( we tasted all the beautiful expensive stuff just so we could recreate it rather than buy it:o)and are going to make a ''berries and booze'' jam (mr arty made up the name). So we have rasperries/strawberries and sparkling wine (cuz we couldnt afford champagne or even cava:rotfl:. We are also making a tomato and caramalised onion chutney. If it goes well I will post piccies, if not I'll just pretend we didnt have time to make them lol:p.

Mockmas next week...hope everyone has their cameras ready

VenusFlytrap_2

Well it's 4:15am and still can't sleep, just been chatting to the lovely QueenOfString and she has reminded me that I said I'd share my Carrot, Apple & Raisin cake recipe with you all, so here it is. It's not actually my recipe, I got it from a fellow MSE-er called MissCousinItt a while back and have made it many, many times since - it is gorgeous! I make them as buns/muffins in individual cake cases but the original recipe is for a whole cake, as follows:

Ingredients

8oz Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
5 tblsp sunflower oil
grated zest of 1 orange and 4 tblsp juice - I sometimes substitute 4 tblsp orange/tropical fruit cordial if haven't got oranges in
5oz light brown sugar - I use white with no problems
5oz finely grated carrot
1 medium eating apple, peeled cored and grated
3oz raisins
2oz pumpkin seeds - I skip these as always forget to buy them!
icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Heat oven 180C/fan160C/gas4. grease a 20cm round cake tin.
Mix flour, baking powder, salt & cinnamon together in a large bowl. Separately mix together orange juice, sugar and oil.
Add orange mixture to the flour with the carrots, raisins, pumpkin seeds and zest, stir until really well mixed. Spoon into tin.
Bake for 50 mins to an hour (20-25 mins if making as buns not a whole cake) -check with a skewer to see if its cooked. Cool on a rack and then dust with icing sugar if liked.

Right, feeling a bit sleepy now so gonna get myself to bed - hope the recipe is of use to someone, I still need to make CFR carrot cake in my new loaf tin, will let you know how it compares when I do!

Glad to hear you had a nice day at the market and Ikea Artybear, best of luck with the jam-making! And Weezl, shame about the cereal bar experimentation not going too well, let me know if I can help at all, am always up for trying things out... especially cereal bars! Ooh and Shanks, glad you like the German salad recipe, you'll have to let me know what it's like if you make it before I get to try it.

Night All

Venus xxx