This week Pinterest officially launches in the UK. For those of us Brits that use Pinterest already we are happily Pinning away on the dotcom site: I just scroll past the über American pins that involve products I don’t recognise.

Pinterest is just a free online tool for collecting, organising and sharing things: An online Pinboard, if you will.

You can “pin” things from around the web onto your personalised pin-boards.

Just for lolz I pin all the stuff that we make: so I have a things we made board.

I also have boards for ‘Kitchen Design Inspiration’ to help me collect my random and varied thoughts about how I want our kitchen to be, a ‘Things I want to cook’ board along with boards for ‘Funny’ and ‘Photos I like’. It’s really useful for planning an upcoming event, or for showing people a general concept that you have in mind.

Like Twitter it can be whatever you want it to be, depending on what your interests are and who you follow. If want endless posts about ‘how to fishtail plait your hair’ or ‘make an ombre cake’ you will be well catered for, but there are boards to cover anything you care to imagine.

I have a fondness for the tiled layout. It pleases me that everything fits in the same size columns to give you an ever scrolling page of images. 

When Apryl first told me about Pinterest I didn’t quite understand what it was. It was a bit of a secret society and ‘by invitation only’. Since I have become a fully fledged Pinner…or is it Pinnee? I have had many similar conversations, watching blank faces as they try to understand what the point of it is. Then I smile to myself as I see their pin boards gradually fill with ideas and images over the coming weeks.

Sometimes certain pictures get in a loop of being re-pinned over and over again. Our ‘Honey Cloud Pancakes‘ is one of those. It’s been the most popular re-pinned post for months now, this photo alone has brought ¼million people to our blog! Madness.

On any given day the thingswemake page looks like this:

Pancakes, pancakes and more pancakes.

Truth is, it’s not even one of my favourite posts, but the people have spoken: The people want pancakes.

Now, when I have a spare 10 minutes I would rather have a scroll through some purdy Pins than read irrelevant snippy updates on Facebook.

If you don’t have an account, you can come and play with us by using this registration link or click on it anyway to give me a follow.

We are taking part in a wee thing called ‘Pin It Forward’ where we introduce you to someone else on Pinterest…to get you going so to speak, so may I introduce you to Joanna Marshall from At Home with Mrs M.

Come and join us on Pinterest.

Pin ya later…dudes.

I actually made cheese.

This first batch is nothing fancy…just plain, soft white stuff.

I haven’t decided what to do with it yet, other than photograph it and show it to you. I think it would make a good filling for fresh pasta, but I have used up my creativity allocation for this week so I am not sure that’s going to happen.

I can’t deny I am a bit scared of it. It’s like some sort of witchcraft; the alchemy that goes on with just 2 litres of milk, a pot of yoghurt and a teaspoon of rennet. The process doesn’t feel natural to me yet. Although it’s reasonably simple there are a few rules to be followed and lots of waiting around whilst things ‘drip’. I’m not very good at either of those things.

Everything needs to be scrupulously clean, and boiled before use, you need to get things to exactly the right temperature – the digital thermometer helped with that. I did break two of the rules, and it still worked ok: I searched for milk that was not pasteurised but couldn’t find any, I just used whole milk; I also realised, in the middle of the process that the jam kettle I used was aluminium not stainless steel; another no-no, but no one died. (yet)

Pretty isn’t it?

I have fancied making cheese for a while, and I finally got around to it because Lakeland sent me their cheese-making set to try. There are some much more interesting cheeses in the book but I held myself back from diving straight into anything like Mozzarella. Although it would be a great to have homemade Mozzarella, I saw that even Kavey had a bit of a nightmare making it.

Baby steps.

The most exciting thing I have done with it so far is to pick some fresh wild garlic from the garden, shred it up and make my version of Garlic and Herb Boursin®. Oh and I wrapped some wild garlic leaves round it in a ‘you could serve it like this‘ stylie.

We have oceans of wild garlic in the garden. The chickens gorge on it at this time of year, so they constantly have a garlicy hum. If you stick your head into their coop at night (which I do…I count them to make sure they are safely tucked up) they smell like self basting chicken kievs. I used the leftover whey in the bread that you can see here, and Ernie the dog liked a bit on his biscuits too.

I might make the Halloumi next. That recipe looks nice and simple.

You never know, this sun might stick around and I can griddle some on the barbecue at the Weekend.

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Lakeland provided me with the cheese-making kit that included the soft cheese making book and some other cheese making paraphernalia. The kit came to £14, so not too expensive, but get some bigger muslins as the ones it comes with are way to small.

People often ask me how I manage to stay slim when I seem to be baking and cooking lardy things all the time.

Firstly – I’m not that slim. Being tall allows me to carry it well. True story.

Secondly – We very rarely eat all the things I make. I try to save rich foods and fancy stuff for when people come round, or to take to an event or to give as a gift. I just talk (blog) about it more than most ‘normal’ people.

It’s certainly the case that making your own food allows you to be very aware of what goes into ones cake-hole. I don’t shy away from using real butter, cream and even lard, but there are no hydrogenated fats or hidden sugars in what we eat. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pious about it; I eat all sorts of shoddy stuff when it suits me, but I know we can make up for a hefty day, or week, by going a bit lean the next.

Onion bhajis kind of fall into the hefty zone. They are fried after all, but they are so very easy and satisfying to make that they are now on my regular list. If you get the oil hot enough, they hardly soak any of it up so they can’t be that bad.

There is one slightly faffy stage to this, in that I salt the sliced onions before I add them. This process draws out the moisture, and although you have to get in there with your hands to squeeze out the salty, slimy goo that they exude, it makes the end result extra tender and delicious.

I’ve just realised that I so cancel out the fried thing by dipping them in raita, made with 0% fat Greek yoghurt.

It’s all about the balance.

Onion Bhajis

Makes about 24

4 small or 2-3 large onions
1 tblsp fine table salt

1½ cups (150g) of gram flour
½ cup (60g) of self-raising flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp chilli powder
¼ tsp ground turmeric

Preparing the onions

Thinly slice the onions and then chop so that you have roughly 2-3″ pieces.

Sprinkle the salt over them give them a good stir round
Leave in a colander to drain for a couple of hours
Once or twice, when you are passing, give them a squeeze to remove any liquid
Rinse the onions really well (or they will be too salty) and squeeze out the excess water
Dry them by pressing firmly between plenty of kitchen paper

Making the batter

Mix all the other ingredients together
Stir in the onions
Add ¼ pint of cold water (perhaps a bit more) until you have a very thick clumpy mixture

Cooking 

Heat 2″ of sunflower oil in a small hefty saucepan until very hot
Drop forkfuls of batter into the oil (spoonfuls if you like them neater)
We go for ping-pong ball sized blobs, 4 at a time
Turn once then lift out onto kitchen paper when rich golden brown

Serve hot.

We eat them with yoghurt and mint dip made with 4 tablespoons of Greek yoghurt, the juice of half a lemon and 4 teaspoons of mint sauce.

Well. What a lovely week we’ve had.

We spent a few days with friends in one of our favourite places: North Wales.

It really felt like a different country this year as, suddenly…shockingly, we saw sunshine for the first time in months. Also, although the roads were clear, the mountains were all completely covered in snow. This meant we had the surreal blend of picnics on the beach with a backdrop of some very alpine looking pointy white hills.

I think those rays of weak spring sun have done us some good though, as we have come home feeling refreshed and ready to face this year head on.

First job was creating some segregation in the garden which will not only allow Ernie to wander outside without being bothered by the beaky ones, but will also allow us to get the garden back on track, the lawn to recover and some vegetables to be planted.

Today Ed built himself another desk, as I am constantly sitting at this new one so he still had nowhere for his laptop. George and I had a game of lawn darts, did some general garden tidying and lay on the tree platform and looked at the sky for a bit. Then Ed and I cracked open a bottle of red and we all sat down to this lovely sausage casserole.

I write the recipe below in the way that we normally make it, although the one in the photo above (the one that I am still licking from my lips) is made without the chorizo and with dried flageolet beans instead of the canned cannellinis. To be honest, using dried beans is a right old faff, the soaking, the changing water, the hard boiling then the 1 hour simmer. Next time we will revert to the version below, as although the firmer texture of the beans is nice, and the ‘price per bean’ is infinitely less; sometimes life is too short for bean soaking.

Oh – and I am sure that you all know how to make a sausage casserole…maybe some of you buy a sausage casserole mix from the supermarket. Who am I to judge? All I know is this is a hearty supper dish that we eat quite a lot.

I like it because you get to eat all the sausages.

Sausage and Bean Casserole

10 sausages (we usually use thin ones)
A handful of chopped chorizo
1 onion
2 sticks of celery
1 pepper
2 carrots
1 large clove of garlic
1 tin cannellini beans
1 tin plum tomatoes
a pinch of chilli flakes or hot smoked paprika
a stock cube or one of those stock ‘melts’
Seasoning options – salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce, fresh herbs, red wine, sherry

Chop the onion, celery, pepper and carrots into small chunks
In a large pan that has a lid –  fry off the chorizo for a few minutes
Add all the vegetables and stir well, then add the sliced garlic clove
Cook them down for 10 minutes whilst you brown the sausages in a frying pan
To the veg pan – add the beans, tomatoes and a can or so of water to make a loose sauce
Add the chilli/paprika to taste and the stock
Add the sausages, cover and simmer for an hour, adding more water if needed
Check the flavour then add any of the seasonings listed above that seem right to you
Cook for 10 minutes more
Leave it to cool a little before you wade in

We eat it with crusty, buttered bread.

I am a ditherer.

That might seem surprising for someone who appears to get a lot done, but I endlessly analyse decisions about the smallest details of a project. Sometimes the things I spend hours considering aren’t even visible in the finished piece. I make sketches, produce 3D CAD models, discuss things with friends, build prototypes, seek opinion on twitter and internet forums all as part of my decision making process. I love Walt Disney’s quote that “the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” it’s just that working in that way is not for me.

This writing desk (although let’s be honest, no-one really writes things anymore, it’s for a laptop) has been in the planning for years at some level or other. The original inspiration was a table made by Chris Schwarz, although I’ve tinkered with lots of little details and construction methods (well I would, wouldn’t I?) Every aspect of this desk has been thought and re-thought.

When I have a project in the making I often have workshop time available in little chunks; an evening here, a weekend day there. This suits me fine as I can do all my dithering (or design development and planning if you prefer) in the gaps in between.

I find the result of thinking through every element of a project is a higher level of quality in the finished piece. More than that though, it means that I’ve already pre-worried every detail so I can feel familiar and comfortable with something from day one (this has the effect of making me feel slightly broken when I make something for someone else and it leaves here as soon as its finished) Let’s finish with a quote from me “attention to detail is the way to head towards perfection”

Too late. Just did.

This could just as easily be called Gypsy Bacon, with the differences between a bacon joint and gammon joint being difficult to discern.

It is probably more politically correct to call it Gammon – Irish Style, but I like the idea that this is something you could cook in a big pot, over an open fire at the side of the road.

We just do the ‘big pot’ bit. We have a nice house so we have no need to make this in a lay-by.

The clear broth that you get from everything cooking in the same pot is delicious and good enough to eat on it’s own.

You can turn any leftovers into soup the next day. Or use the stock to make my favourite boulangère potatoes. It’s a very economical and easy one pot meal.

We eat this with hot English mustard and always wish we had some crusty bread to ‘go with’.

Gypsy Gammon

1 unsmoked gammon/bacon joint approx 700g.
4-6 carrots
6-8 large new potatoes
1 small white cabbage
2 bay leaves
a handful of pearl barley (optional)

Rinse the gammon joint then place it in a large casserole dish or pan.
Add peeled potatoes (try to keep them whole) and peeled carrots cut into chunks.*
If you are including barley rinse it and add it now.
Add bay leaves if you have them.
Fill with cold water until the meat is just covered.
Bring the pan to the boil then turn down to a simmer.
Cut the cabbage into segments leaving some core attached.
Add the cabbage to the top of the pan.
Cover with a lid then simmer very gently for 1.5 to 2 hours.
It’s done when the meat starts to ease apart.
Make sure you pour over plenty of the cooking broth.

*If your gammon is more than 700g check the boiling times on the pack as it may need a bit longer. If so you can simmer the meat alone for a while before you add the vegetables to stop them falling apart before the meat is tender.

Slurp.

If you want to make ‘Next Day Soup’

Take out any leftover gammon, cabbage and potato and chop into small pieces.

Boil the rest of the hammy liquid in the pan then stir the meat and vegetables back in to heat through.

Boulangère Potatoes - Post

This is a good option to use the remaining stock…just in case you have used the gammon in a late night sandwich.

Y’know. Just saying.

On Saturday I said to the man “We are having nibbly starters when our friends come round tonight. It would be nice to spread it all out on a board like they have at Jamie’s Italian. Can you make one?”

“I’ve got a big piece of oak. How big do you want it?” He says.

Just one of the benefits of having a man with a workshop and woodworking tendencies.

Sometimes our evenings are rounded off with half an hour of food based tv.

I don’t know why we do it, because then we start craving things we can’t have. We ponder if we have the wherewithal to create what we’ve seen out of the dregs in the fridge. Usually the answer is no. No, we cannot create a whole smoked pork shoulder out of half a piece of dried up pastrami and 4 sprouts.

We often end the evening hankering for Mexican food. It just seems so tasty, fresh and easy-going. Can food be easy-going? That’s how it seems to me.

With this in mind, for my birthday Ed got me a whole host of Mexican ingredients and food based paraphernalia to play with. So far we have experimented with tamales, hominy, adobo chillies and salsa verde, and had all sorts of issues with the ‘magical’ self heating tortilla warmer.

The things we have made most often are corn tortillas.

True corn tortillas would be made from fresh masa but you’re not going to find that in Derbyshire, so we buy masa harina flour online.

Also in my Mexican bag of tricks was a traditional imported tortilla press. I love this cronky looking thing with its rough edges and simple construction.

After you’ve made the simple flour and hot water dough it’s just a case of squashing ping-pong ball sized balls of dough between a couple of sheets of plastic. Actually you need to half squash one, then spin it around and complete the pressing, otherwise you end up with an uneven thickness. Be careful to peel them off the plastic slowly so they don’t tear.

Preparing these is a family affair, George is particularly good at sizing, shaping and pressing the tortillas, whilst I do the cooking. We let Ed chop things to make a fresh pico de gallo.

You need a flat, heavy based pan to cook them in. Get it as hot as you dare, then dry fry the tortilla until hot, flip it and heat again, then flip it once more until a little singed on the edge. It is the miraculous ‘third side cooking’ that slightly puffs up the tortilla and let’s you know that it is properly cooked.

I’ll be honest, we didn’t manage this the first few times, and it’s not the end of the world if they don’t, but they are much lighter if this puffing up business happens.

We’ve had these at Christmas with spiced up leftover turkey and as a weekend dinner with crispy chicken. George’s favourites are ‘fish tacos’ with crispy cod and pica de gallo.

This week’s version was roast chicken with Mexican salsa verde and avocado…plus some cottage cheese masquerading as queso fresco.

We plan to make our own cheese soon as I have just got hold of this soft cheese making kit.

Freshly made corn tortillas are whole different ball game to the large, doughy flour tortillas that you buy in the shops. I can see why they are such a popular street food. It’s not often there are any leftover, but when there are we cut them into 6, brush with a little oil and bake them into tortilla chips

As soon as I replenish my stocks of masa harina I shall make a double batch, with plenty of leftovers.

15 Corn Tortillas

225g Masa Harina
A good pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
325ml hand hot water (approximately)

Mix the ingredients together with a fork.
Let it stand for a few minutes then knead for 5 minutes.
Add more water if it’s needed to get it to a soft dough.
Cover with cling film and leave for half an hour.
Shape up balls of dough, a little bigger than a golf ball.
Press a dough ball between 2 sheets of plastic (I use zip lock bag plastic), flip it and press again.
Cook in a very hot dry pan, turning twice.
Wrap them up and keep them warm until you eat them.

Usual sketch: These were supposed to be something different.

The plan was for them to be apple and ginger, as Ed had suggested that this time I crumble up ginger nut biscuits between the pastry layers. But due to lack of ginger nuts (no hilarious comments about my hair, thanks) I went for a pantry standby: canned caramel, or Dulce de Leche if we’re being fancy.

I have made these before with apple, cinnamon and sultanas and very nice they were too, but this version is a bit special so I thought I would share it with you.

We’ll ignore fact that George just pointed out that the photo makes it look like a meat pie. It is not a meat pie. It’s a delicious crispy, buttery pastry filled with tangy apple and rich toffee sauce. Damn. I should have called them Toffee Apple Tarts. That’s much more pleasing. Imagine that’s what they are called for me will you?

Oh, AND…it only has four ingredients. Count them:

Caramel Apple Tarts

Makes 4-5

2-3 Bramley Cooking Apples – peeled, cored and chopped
75g Melted Butter
1/2 Can of Caramel/Dulce de Leche
Half a pack of filo pastry (4 large sheets)

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C
Heat the apple chunks with a splash of water in a lidded pan, shaking occasionally until they puff up and soften.
Stir in a large tablespoon of caramel, until marbled.
Square off the filo sheets then cut out 12cm/5″ squares.
Spread one with a little melted butter, lay another on top at an angle and butter again.
Repeat until you have 4 layers of pastry.
Don’t forget to keep the rest of the pastry well wrapped so it doesn’t dry out.
Gently push the buttered pastry squares into a muffin tin.
Spoon in some apple/caramel mixture and top with a teaspoon of caramel.
Take the offcuts of pastry, brush with butter and scrunch up on top of each tart.
Bake at 170 degrees for 18-20 minutes then cool on a wire rack.
Serve with cream or ice cream and if you like…heat up the remaining caramel and drizzle it over.

Do not count calories.

It’s a new playground for me. Somewhere I can run free with clean white backgrounds and splash around with bright, full width images, without succumbing to my need for metaphors, alliteration and cake.

Because over there, it’s all about the photographs.

With the launch of the site I am offering Party Photo Shoots:

Do you know any girls that like showing off for the camera? If so, point them in my direction as I’m offering the next 3 Photo Shoot Parties at half price.

Well, I’ve got a pink* background and I know how to use it.

*Other colours are available.