Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 December 2009

I Heart a Vintage Breakfast....x

You may have seen this or not on the omnipotent Mr Jamie Oliver's Family Christmas programme. It is genius simple! J. Oliver's children made them and so did mine. This is the way that pancakes should be made, with no faffing, mess, whipping of egg whites etc etc! You should be able to make them practically still asleep; with a Christmas "head"; with a kitchen full of folk or simply before heading out for a much dread post "Roses" run!(eeeeeewgh!)

Grab yourself a mug/ large cup (of any dimensions). Use it to scoop up a mugful of Self Raising Flour, dump it in your new fabby Christmas pancake jug (......big thankyou's B juniors!) or bowl! Add a pinch of salt and a tsp of baking powder. Pour milk into your mug now, in it goes and one egg. Using a whisk, whip up all your ingredients, till you have a smooth batter.

You are good to go! Grab a reliable frying pan, crank up the heat, melt a knob of butter in pan and pour in about a tbs of batter. Let it cook until bubbles appear in the surface and a slice slides underneath easily. Flip it! Yipee watch it rise up! Lovely fat pancakes! (please bear in mind the first pancake is always, always a disaster....unless perhaps you are Mr Oliver?!) Keep a plate in a warm oven to pop them onto while you cook the rest of the batch!

Serve up with fruit, honey, greek yoghurt, jam, butter....whatever looks pretty and takes your fancy! And a good pot of hot, fresh coffee (in delicious teeny tiny 1950's red, red cups on a gingham table cloth......love a vintage breakfast table, everything looks homey and warm on gingham!)

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Granola....

You have to say it with an American accent "Granola".... I don't think we have an equivalent name for it in the UK? it isn't muesli, because muesli is loose and not toasted. So we must call it Granola!?
I am not going to repeat this recipe verbatim as it is in NIGELLAS CHRISTMAS book and it doesn't seem necessary as i didn't alter it much from there. Also because, granola really is just toasted seeds, nuts, oats and spices so you can add what you like.
Mine is a few 100g rolled oats with blanched almond / normal almonds / banana chips = but i put all these in a plastic bag and smashed them all into tiny pieces as i don't like BIG bits in my cereals.
Then i mixed the oats with this smashed mixture in a big bowl with a spoon of sunflower oil + 2 large spoons of honey + tiny sprinkle of cinnamon + couple of spoons brown suger + poppy seeds + pumpkin seed. I turned it all and mixed it wearing plastic gloves and gave gloves to my daughter and her friend too so we all had a good 'hands on', gooey experience.
It was toasted for about 50mins on a low heat in a large oven tray - turning every 10 mins till it was brown and toasted all over.

When it came out the oven, i added a really generous bag of dried of cranberries and mixed well.
Popped it all in a clean Kilner jar and closed it when cooled.
OH my - what a shame. Now no other breakfast cereal will do!! This made a huge jar but i keep dipping my hand in and stealing little treats like a squirrel. THIS will become a staple in my home from this day forward x