Pancake Day Party

Spring is Here!

The display at Jamie Oliver's Recipease in Brighton.

Valentine's Lunch

Dinner is a bit too expensive on Valentine's Day.

And it's a bit cliche and I'm not sure if I like it to be honest.

Tomorrow Matthew is taking me out for lunch, instead. Cheaper, nicer, a lovely walk during the daylight hours and a cosy up on the sofa watching When Harry Met Sally or something to similar effect with a bottle of something sparkly and some chocolates.

Sweet and simple and something which will make me very happy!

Easy Brownies

To me, there is nothing better than being able to whip up something tasty with things that are in the cupboard. Especially on these cold February nights.

I love cooking and baking and I during my time at university I would often spend a day making treats and take them along to wherever I was working at the time to hand out to my colleagues. Mainly because I liked seeing people happy, but also a little bit because there was no way I could eat everything I had made without ending up the size of a small whale.

The only problem with cooking and baking (but mostly baking) is that you have to go out and buy things specifically. Mini marshmallows dent the bank a fair bit, and I don’t like spending a lot more on making treats, than if I had just bought them out of a packet.

That is why this recipe for brownies is just perfect. No good quality organic chocolate required. I usually double it, as the recipe is for brownie ‘thins’ and I like mine good and chunky. But you can choose to make as much or as little as you like. And everything is a classic ‘store cupboard’ ingredient. Which also means that if you’re sat watching telly in your Pjs and fancy some brownies - you don’t even have to get dressed to go to the shops.

115g butter
200g caster sugar
40g cocoa powder
2 eggs
50g self-raising flour
60g walnuts – or as many or as few as you bleeding well like

Melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the cocoa power. Stir in the sugar. Beat in the eggs. Fold in the flour. Add walnuts. Pour into deep baking tray. Put into pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

It actually couldn’t be easier. And my mother-in-law told me they were the best brownies she’s ever eaten. So not only are they the easiest brownies in the world, they are also the cheapest and very very tasty!

I even have some top tips – buy a pack of any old butter. Cheap stuff. Stuff that you wouldn’t normally put on your sandwiches – and use that to bake with. It saves you a few pennies and you get to keep the better butter for when you really want to taste it.

And whack some tin foil in your baking tray so you can lift them out easier and minimise the washing up!

Midnight treat? Sorted.

The Kitchen Cupboard

When I moved into my own flat at University the first thing I did was go cupboard shopping.

I bought all my stock items so that I could always find something to make. But everything I bought was necessary. Things for baking, tomatoes, beans etc. It was only when I moved in with my boyfriend, Matthew, that I started buying more herbs and spices.

You see to me, herbs and spices were just another added extra cost. An ingredient which I looked at and thought *an extra pound to my shopping bill for half a teaspoon of this? No thanks. I'm sure it'll be fine without it.* And I was right. It was fine. Not amazing, but fine.

But Matt did things differently. I remember him making a pasta sauce that was bursting with flavour - all because of herbs and spices that he had in his cupboard. It would have cost over a fiver to buy all those ingredients for that one dish, but because he'd bought them one by one over a period of time, now they were just there - waiting to be used. A pasta dish which would have cost nearly a tenner if I'd have got each and every thing specifically cost us the price of some mince.

Always, always have things in stock. If you pick up 1 or 2 items every week you'll have a stock cupboard full of things just waiting to make your food more interesting. And when food tastes more interesting - it tastes more expensive. And that makes you feel as though you're eating luxury rather than bog standard I-eat-because-if-I-don't,-I'll-die food. Plus, you'll find that all those recipes which you thought were expensive - aren't.

Some things may be obvious to have in stock, but as Jamie Oliver has proven in his Food Revolution, not everyone sees a stock cupboard as an obvious thing to have.

So without trying to be condescending, my kitchen cupboard list is as follows:

Salt

Pepper

Chilli Powder

Dried Chilli Flakes

Mixed Herbs

Oregano

Cumin

Cayenne Pepper

Paprika

Bay Leaves

Vegetable Oil

Olive Oil

Tomato Puree

Tomato Ketchup

Worcester Sauce

Dark Soy Sauce

Penne

Spaghetti

Arborio Rice

Basmati Rice

Brown Rice

Beans

Chopped Tomatoes

Chickpeas

Tinned Sweetcorn

Tuna

Stock Cubes

Gravy Granules

Plain Flour

Self-Raising Flour

Bicarbinate of Soda

Baking Powder

Granulated Sugar

Caster Sugar

Light Brown Sugar

Honey

Jam

Chocolate Spread

Peanut Butter

Raisins/Sultanas

Dried Apricots

Walnuts

Cocoa Powder

(Things which aren't actually considered store cupboard items because of their shelf life, but which should be available are bread, eggs, milk and butter)

This is... a lot.. when you see it in a list. It's even more if you buy it all in one go. But if you buy each item one by one, and keep your kitchen cupboard stocked up - you should always be in a position to enhance any meal you've got going for you.