SUNDAY KITCHEN

do you have this book?

It feels like such a long time since I did some home cooking for us all, so thought today I would change that.
Got out my Jamie Oliver book to see what I could do with the bits I have in the house seen as its big shop day tomorrow! Who else has a big shop day btw? I opted for the potato and pea puff pie.
The shop didn't have any puff pastry so had to go with shortcrust, big mistake that was haha, as it all broke so now I'm using it to dip into the dinner! I think its a good idea though works well.
Dinner was no longer a pie but a baked stew haha, smelt amazing!

I started by chopping the onion and peeling and chopping the potatoes into thin strips. Then popping the onion on to fry for about 10 minutes. Then added the potatoes, some frozen peas, vegetable stock, garlic powder, flour and butter. Left to simmer till was thick and creamy.

To the right is what it looked like mid way through when the butter had just melted. After leaving it took cook for a little longer it went thick and the stock was all soaked up.
As I didn't have any pastry to make it into a pie, once I transferred it into a pyrex dish I added on some golden breadcrumbs and popped in the oven for about 7 minutes. This just added a bit of a crunchy layer on top.  

Now I've eaten it  I can say its one of the best meals I've ever done, I will actually be doing this again, maybe give the pie option another try :)

Alex and I did make dessert today too, some Lemon cupcakes, which were also really nice. Alex scoffed his! Its only within the last 6 months or so I've been baking as I've never really been good at it. The first ever cupcakes I made were disgusting haha, so things have definitely improved as i can now eat them instead of going straight in the bin!

I just used a simple cupcake recipe; adding caster sugar and butter together, then adding the eggs, flour and baking powder to a mixing bowl. This works best for me, but everyone has there own little ways. Alex loves baking as he likes to help mix the ingredients together and is always standing next to me to watch what's going off. As he gets older I'll get him to help with other things too. Do your children like baking? 

Anyway, I'm going off tangent haha I added half of a lemons juice and grated in some lemon zest to add the flavouring. Now I'll be honest it wasn't very lemony but I didn't want it to be too sour, so I know for next time to add more. All about trial and error with me!

Once all mixed in and placed in the cake tins, they were put in the oven on 180c for about 20 minutes. I've got to say these are the best ones I've made so far as they were just how I like cupcakes to be all hard and crunchy on the outside with a spongy middle.
Once cooled I added on some ready made icing and placed a slice of lemon in the middle. I know the icing looks rubbish but I'm really not that good at it haha! 

Here's the finish product and they were yummy, a refreshing after dinner treat. 

It been a pretty successful cooking day as both things turned out really well, this isn't always the case. so I'm really happy about that!

If you have any questions leave your comments below, like and share.
Giz a follow too :)  xx