Busy Busy

Hey y'all, I guess most of you now know that I have been a tad busy recently with the birth of my daughter Rosie...

so I'm going to make this post a little roundup of recent foodie stuff!

Well, while we were in the hospital I did partake of the hospital's restaurant, which has graced these very pages in the past. It used to be called The Spice Of Life restaurant but is now operated by a new company, Serco, and is now known as Food You Love.  It's otherwise essentially the same. You can get a decent brekky there, 7 items for a mere £4.40, so a few hours after Rosie's birth at 3:52 am, I toddled down to partake of some noms.

The day before, I went down to the restaurant in the afternoon for a bit of dinner. I had the mac n cheese with mixed veg, not bad value either...

Amy was with me and she just had a plate of chips which were pretty fab too.

Since leaving the hospital I've been in the mood to make stuff at home. Mostly I've done soups and things and the other night I did a mixed veg curry - try to imagine a large aloo gobee saag with extra veg like carrots in it. But I neglected to take pictures of those so you'll just have to take my word for it.

However I did bake some rather epic Pueblo Bread the other day. I sprinkled some oats on the top prior to baking, just for grins.

Delish. 

Here's the recipe (I didn't follow it to the letter but here goes anyway):


1 package active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm (110 degrees F) water
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted and cooled butter or margarine
2 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour

Sprinkle yeast over water and sugar; let stand until yeast is softened, about 5 minutes. Add salt, butter, and flour; knead. Let dough rise 45 minutes to 1 hour; mix or knead on a lightly floured board to expel air bubbles and form a smooth ball.

Pat ball to flatten slightly. Roll into an 8-inch-wide round. Dust top lightly with flour; fold about the round onto other side, leaving about 1 inch of bottom rim exposed at center of curve.

With a floured knife, make 2 equidistant cuts about 2/3 of the way across loaf from curved side and down through dough.

Lift loaf into an oiled 9-inch pie pan; spread cuts apart so ends of loaf are flush with pan rim. Lightly cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until puffy, 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove wrap. Bake in a 375|degrees~ oven until bread is deep golden brown, about 50 minutes. Serve hot or cool; to cool, transfer from pan to a rack. To store, see page 156. Makes 1 loaf, about 14 ounces.

Per ounce: 75 cal. (12 percent from fat); 2 g protein; 1 g fat (0.5 g sat.); 14 g carbo.; 87 mg sodium; 2.2 mg chol.


Today I made a fabulous orange cake using a recipe I found on a great website called Leite's Culinaria.  I had the inclination to bake a cake and I had a surplus of oranges to use up, so this recipe fir the bill perfectly. Here's the link, and here are the pictures of the result.

Straight out of the oven.

On to the cooling rack, re purposed from a roasting rack

The glaze

Close up of those delicious bits of orange

Adding the deliciously sticky glaze

Mmmmmm!

I took it over to my sister's for dinner, and then on to the local quiz night. I hardly need tell you it's just about gone!

Kooshti sante!