Apricot chicken

I love cooking and baking (mainly because I like eating!) but I don't like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I really like seeing a short list of ingredients :)

This is a recipe from Kin's blog. It is so easy and is yummy - even Dion likes it and he doesn't generally like fruit in food (like you, Annie)!

Ingredients

800g skinless chicken with bones (this time I used boneless and it's not as nice)

1 pkt brown onion soup

1 tin apricots with juice

Here's how you do it:

• Pre-heat your oven to about 180 degrees
• Rinse the chicken and place in an oven-proof casserole dish
• Sprinkle the brown onion soup all over the chicken
• Then pour the apricots all over the chicken. I like to open the can, and slice the apricots haphazardly with a sharp knife while still in the can. That's why some of them look mangled :)

Cook uncovered in oven for about 35 - 40 minutes and serve with mashed potato or rice and a vegetable.

It is yummy and is now one of our favourite dishes.

Baking muffins

These are my oatmeal yoghurt muffins. I, of course, love anything with apple and cinnamon, so that's how I always make them.

Which are your favourite muffins?

I had to make a gazillion because it was my birthday

always use muffin cases - less washing up to do :)

little baby ones - very cute!

I pushed chocolate discs into the big ones - they were a lovely, chocolately surprise

for Dion - cheese and onion savoury muffins. Aren't the little ones in the cupcake holders cute?

Pastrami, tomato and potato salad rolls

The mayonnaise post inspired me so much that I got the ingredients to make these delicious rolls.

Ingredients

• Portuguese rolls
• Tomatoes
• Pastrami/ roast beef
• Potato salad
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the roll open and spread with low-fat margerine

Add a slice of pastrami

and some sliced tomato.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper (my pic with the seasoning was too blurry to post)

Place a dollop of potato salad.
Don't put more than this because when you take a bite, it will all fall out :)

And there you have it - delicious!

Enjoy!

Pineapple chicken

Pineapple chicken

• a tray of chicken thighs, skinless but with the bones (I think mine was about 800g - 1 kg)
• 1 packet brown onion soup
• 1 tin pineapple pieces
• 3/4 can water

My "lazy cooking" tip

• Whenever you use a casserole dish, spray with some non-stick spray (Spray and Cook, or similar) first
• It will be SOOOOO easy to clean afterwards.
  
  Method
• Preheat the oven to about 180 degrees Celsius
• Wash and rinse the chicken pieces and place in a casserole dish
• Sprinkle the entire packet of brown onion soup liberally over the chicken pieces (it looks like there's too much but it will all make a yummy sauce later)
• Empty the can of pineapple and then add 3/4 of the can of water to the mix
• Cook for about 30 - 40 minutes (my oven is hot so 30 minutes is plenty)
• Serve with some vegetables and rice

Sweetcorn and potato bake

Ingredients

• About 4 - 6 medium potatoes
• 1/2 onion
• Mushrooms (I use about 4 - 6 button mushrooms - use more or less, as you like)
  
• 1 can creamed sweetcorn
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Any spices that take your fancy (I like some dried chili)

(Can you see I'm very free and easy in the kitchen? It's the only place where I'm totally flexible :))

• Wash the potatoes and dice into smallish pieces.
• Add cut onion (have I told you before how I LOVE cutting onion? There's nothing like a nice sharp knife slicing an onion!) and mix it all up.
• Add sliced mushrooms and mix.
• Add spices, salt and pepper
• Add about 1/4 cup of water
• Microwave for about 8 - 10 mins (that's in my 1000 watt microwave) until potatoes are almost soft
• Add the can of sweetcorn and mix it all up (I like to add more pepper at this point)
• Microwave for a further 2 - 3 mins until all the flavours mix

If you want to be really decadent, grate some cheese on the top!

Yummy :)

Serve with chicken and a salad

An Irish weekend with Irish Soda Bread

When we visited Ireland in May this year, I bought this oven mitt fully intending to bake this Irish Soda Bread. I eventually got my act together and bought the buttermilk just so I could bake this bread.

Ingredients
4 cups plain flour
4 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margerine, softened
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees/ 190 degrees Celsius.
• Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
• In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients.
• Stir in the egg and buttermilk.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead.
• Form dough into a round and place on baking sheet.
• Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes (mine only needed 20 minutes!).

Verdict: delicious!

Coincidentally, I happened to rent a DVD called Once this weekend. It is a beautiful story set in Dublin and if you love the gorgeous Irish accent, get it!

Does anyone know how to rescue fudge?

I've been very good, which means I buy 3 pieces of fudge every week and make it stretch :)

Then I got the bright idea to make my own. Just call me Frugal Barbie!

I followed the recipe on the condensed milk can and the bit of fudge I dropped into the glass of water wasn't setting into a "soft ball" so I boiled it for another 45 minutes. The original recipe said 40 - 45 minutes.

It kind of set after that so I thought all was well.

Um, no.

It is now a consistency like toffee and goes even more gooey when I leave it out of the fridge.

It tastes yummy - it's just not fudge!

Any ideas on how to fix it?