Simple Apple And Blackberry Tart

As a general rule I prefer savoury foods, however, every now and then I fancy a little bit of something sweet for dessert. I like my desserts a little old school, I like them to remind me of my childhood and I personally can't think of a more nostalgia inducing, homely and satisfying dessert than apple and blackberry pie. Unfortunately I'm lazy and for the most part I don't want to invest the time and effort required to make a full on pie. That's where this recipe steps in, now I know this is technically a tart, but this is probably the quickest and simplest tart recipe imaginable.

You will need:
200g white sugar
50ml water
50g butter
6 medium apples, halved and cored
100g blackberries, frozen or fresh
1 sheet ready-made puff pastry

Method:
1. Add the sugar and water to a 20cm heavy-based ovenproof frying pan and cook over a low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture turns a caramel colour, avoid stirring at this point as this will cause the sugar to crystallise.
2. Take off the heat, add in the butter and stir until well combined.
3. Arrange the apples in the pan, round-side down, put back on the heat and cook for 4 minutes.
4. Fill in any gaps between the apples with blackberries, cook for a further minute before taking off the heat and allowing to cool completely.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
6. Unroll the puff pastry onto a floured surface and prick all over with a fork.
7. Drape the pastry over the top of the apples and blackberries and trim with scissors leaving 2-3cm of excess around the edge.
8. Tuck in the excess pasty around the edges of the apples and blackberries.
9. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.

Notes:
To make this a little bit more seasonal add 1 tsp of mixed spice to the mixture when you add in the butter. recipe, food, foodie, food blog, cook, cooking, cooked, home cook, home cooked, home cooking, home made, homemade, old school, nostalgic, apple pie, apple tart, tarte tatin,

Better Self-Care?

Is that when you decide to blow the budget by getting all fancy and upgrading your normal 27p ramen noodles, that you eat for dinner 5 days a week, by adding half a tin of slightly questionable tuna, a small handful of whatever green leafy vegetables you find in the back of the fridge and a 4 day old hard boiled egg?

Some Days A Guy Just Needs A Bit Of Filth In His Life

After what felt like a particularly long week at work, and some fairly healthy eating during said week, I decided to treat myself to a little bit of filth over the weekend. Saturday morning I made a full on cooked breakfast of a couple of Cumberland sausages with fried mushrooms, stewed balsamic tomatoes, fried eggs and a pot of honey sweetened Scottish breakfast tea. Lunch was a large bag of Burt’s roast beef flavoured crisps. Dinner was a homemade, including the base, ham and mushroom pizza with a bottle of beer. And I finished off the day with half a Terry’s dark chocolate orange and a small glass of whisky.

Simple Larder Bean And Cheese Burritos

It’s January and for a lot of people, myself included, that means short rations and making what little money you have left after the holiday period stretch as far as possible. This recipe uses very cheap ingredients that you’re likely to have lying around in your larder, store cupboard or pantry.

You will need:
2 cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
4 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tin chopped tomatoes, drained (can be substituted for chopped cherry tomatoes)
1 red onion, grated (can be substituted for grated brown onion or finely chopped spring onions)
40g chopped pickled jalapenos (can be substituted for 2 chopped fresh chilis)
200g of mature cheddar, grated (can be substituted for pre-grated cheddar)
1 250g packet of cooked brown rice (can be substituted for 250g of any type of cooked rice)
8 Wholemeal tortilla wraps (can be substituted for any type of wrap)

Method:
1. In a large bowl, using a fork or potato masher, mash the kidney beans with the spices until fairly smooth.
2. Add in the remainder of the ingredients and stir until combined.
3. Add a good sized portion to the top half of a tortilla, fold in both sides and then the top of the tortilla before rolling from the top down. Roll them as tightly as possible, tucking in any escaped filling as you go.
4. Wrap each burrito in foil and put in a 150° pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes, until steaming hot throughout.

Notes:
Wrapping them in foil prior to baking means that, not only are they great to eat straight out the oven, these are great to take as a packed lunch or as part of a picnic, put them in a thermal lunch pack and they’ll stay warm for hours. If you want to keep these to use at a later date skip part 4 and simply wrap them in foil, or alternatively cling film if to be heated in the microwave, and freeze.

Personal Goals Vs Earning A Living: The Working Persons Dilemma

I’m getting old, I’m already considerably older than my parents were when they bought their first house and had their first child, neither of which I’m anywhere close to attaining and both of which are things I would like to have at some point. As I become increasingly aware of my own mortality, and my body clock slowly winding down, I’m starting to want certain things from my life and from my career. To a certain degree a good number of the things are my own to achieve and will only be achieved through my personal hard work and perseverance, however, some of these are reliant on my finances and my finances are directly linked to my job and, therefore, my employer.

I have worked for my current employer for the last 8 years of my life and during that time, whilst I may not have always been a model employee (in part due to my general disregard for authority), I have been one of the most hard working, consistently performing and reliable employees in the company, a fact that is often noted by my direct superiors. Unfortunately this hasn’t seemed to make much of a difference when it’s come to career progression or getting pay rises. When I first joined the company I initially made some forward momentum, but this plateaued fairly quickly and I ended up at a dead end. Since then I have taken several lateral moves within the company, to attempt to regain some forward momentum, only to end up with a greater workload at the same salary and to discover yet another dead end.

For the last 3 years I have been working in the same role, operating under the assurance from middle/upper management that I will be getting my own team to manage and that accompanying this will be further training opportunities, a higher pay bracket and greater potential for career advancement, something that would give me the financial stability and additional income that I need to start achieving some of my goals. Seeing as none of this has materialised, and is showing no sign of doing so any time soon, has left me with a little bit of a dilemma. Do I take the secure route and persevere with my current employer, in my current role, continuing to put my goals on hold and hoping that their promises come to fruition? Or do I throw caution to the wind, risk losing it all and gaining the potential of becoming unemployed by handing in my notice and trying to find a new, better paid job?

Feeling Expendable

Today was my first day back at work after a well deserved Christmas break and I'm already ready for another. The way the company I work for treats their front line staff, the two facedness, general lack of caring and almost complete lack of thought is really starting to get to me. I've felt this building for a while, but, whilst I've been casually keeping my eye out for other opportunities, I've stayed put for the sake of convenience and job security. Unfortunately my general dissatisfaction is now starting to outweigh the convenience and it's getting to the stage where I think it's time I put some real thought and effort into finding somewhere that is better for me.

Simple Chicken Paella

This is another one of those simple one pot dishes, that uses ingredients you’ll probably already have in your fridge/freezer, that still hits that winter warming comfort food spot and will make a change from all the roasted meat, boiled spuds and sprouts generally served over the holiday period.

You will need:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
200g paella rice
1 ½ tsp of smoked paprika
½ tsp of turmeric
1 red pepper, roughly diced
1 litre of chicken stock
100g frozen peas
Small handful of fresh parsley, torn
Pinch of black pepper

Method:
1. Pour half the oil to a large, flat bottomed, non-stick pan and heat over a medium/high heat.
2. Add in the chicken, cook until lightly browned, remove from the pan and set aside.
3. Pour the remaining oil into the pan, add in the onions and cook for about 5 minutes, until softened.
4. Add in the garlic and tomatoes, turn the heat down to medium and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
5. Add the rice, paprika, turmeric and chopped pepper to the pan, stir through and allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Return the chicken to the pan, pour over about half the stock and stir through, lightly scrape the bottom of the pan to ensure no flavour is lost.
7. Allow to simmer gently for about 15-20 minutes, until the rice is just tender, stirring regularly and adding more stock if it starts to dry out.
8. Add in the garden peas and parsley, stir through and cook for a further minute or so, until the peas are warmed through.
9. Season to taste with black pepper, it shouldn’t need any additional salt thanks to the stock, and serve immediately.

Notes:
If you want to add a little extra depth to the dish add in some small chunks of chorizo with the onions or add in a handful of cooked frozen prawns with the garden peas and parsley.

A New Year's Resolution Of Sorts

I'm regularly referred to as "the saddest person I know" by friends, family and the other people who know me. This year I thought I might try to remedy that, for the last few days I've been reading articles about simple ways to make yourself happier. Some of the things that appear in these articles simply aren't currently possible for me, others I don't have the time, drive or financial means to do and some would simply take too much effort, however, something that has appeared in most of these, and also seems to be something fairly simple for me and not particularly time consuming, is making time every day to write in a diary, journal, blog etc. or to simply spend some time writing down your thoughts, feelings and ideas. I don't know whether or not this is going to genuinely help, or even if I'm going to be able to find the time, or the inspiration, to write something every single day, but I'm going to give it a go. Hopefully the act of simply getting things off my chest, and out into the ether, will be somewhat cathartic and help me to become a little bit happier and maybe even allow me to achieve some of the other suggestions that regularly appear in the articles, for example gaining a more regular sleep pattern that allows me to get a full 8 hours a night.

Breakfast Teapot

There’s just something deeply satisfying about a breakfast tray with a teapot on it.

Charity Shopping

Been out doing a bit of charity shopping and picked up a couple of vinyls, a rather special cushion and a cute little T G Greens teapot. The teapot is a bit of a triple threat for me, not only am I a local boy, I was born and raised in Church Gresley, but my Nan worked as a cleaner at the T G Greens pottery for years and the piece it’s self is named after the mine my Grandad worked most of his adult life down.