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[food] chicken, tarragon & nutmeg pie, with added sweetcorn*

Ingredients:

Leftover roast chicken from one accidental “chuck it and chance it” lunch (approx 1/2 chicken, but you can adapt to your own preferences)

Most of a pot of Elmlea single – you can use actual single cream, I just didn’t have any

Salt & pepper

a glug of olive oil

A random amount of sweetcorn – I like lots in mine, so it was at least equal to the chicken, but is up to you

Pastry, preferably readymade as it’s quicker. I use shortcrust, but this also works well as individual small pies with puff pastry lids

A couple of tablespoons of dried tarragon, or, much preferable, a decent handful of fresh, chopped

Two teaspoons of nutmeg

1 cup of cider. or wine. or apple juice if you’d prefer no alcohol

Method

Pull all the chicken off the carcass and shred into small pieces. If using raw chicken, chop into small pieces.

Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan, and add the chicken. Cook till no longer pink in the middle (if using raw pierces) or heated through (if using cooked chicken)

Pour in the cream, closely followed by the cider or apple juice.

Add the tarragon, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste, and stir well.

Chuck in the sweetcorn, and when it’s all heated through, take off the heat and spoon into pie dish(es). I completely forgot to blind bake the bottom of the pie and it actually turned out ok!

Add the pastry lid and any decorations – I’m going “rustic charm” rather than “slightly wonky heart”… you can brush with beaten egg or milk, whichever is closest, for a shine.

Bake for half an hour or so at 180 degrees ish – till it’s all nicely golden brown.

When it’s finished, serve with chips or mash, and peas… or just on its own as a rather lovely work lunch.

*my apologies for the single photo – it was all eaten before I had a chance to photograph a slice!!

January Storecupboard Challenge

It’s January. Christmas and New Year seem but a distant memory, and most of us were paid early from the day jobs, or haven’t had much income from our own businesses due to the festive break, and there’s all the Christmas and New Year cash haemorrhaging that happens when you’re somehow not paying attention. (Or is that just me? One minute I’m in control of my finances and next, boom, I’m teetering on the edge of exceeding my overdraft…)

medium_68576640 Image courtesy of dogwelder, via Photopin

In an attempt to avoid bankrupting myself in supermarkets, or giving yet more of my money to Ocado (who are great, and reasonable, and save me throwing unnecessary offers into my basket, but do have a minimum order which I can’t currently justify), I thought I’d try a Storecupboard Challenge.

This unimaginatively titled challenge involves trying to cook from my fridge, freezer and storecupboards without adding to them during this month (essentially, until 28th January which is payday). I’m allowing myself trips to the uni shops for essentials (bread, milk, eggs, frozen veg).  The intention is to both save money and release some space in my freezer for lovely things I’ll be making later in the year!

So far I have used up the remaining burgers (one beef, one beef with chili, one pork and apple – very nice too), some sweet potatoes, microwave rice and made a pork & cider casserole in the slow cooker, which is well on its way to doing three meals. My parents fed me on Saturday and I made chicken and tarragon spaghetti last night, with (almost)homemade rosemary and garlic rolls. And managed to make some cakes to take over to Mum & Dad’s on Saturday too! 

Next up – watch this space!

*I’m also trying to get a bit more control over my finances full stop – but won’t bore you with the details!!

The first weekend… a photographic miscellany

My final day in London was 26th October. I was rather tearful and overwhelmed, having been entirely unexpectedly presented with a lovely card, a vintage mannequin (they know me well) and THE BIGGEST KIT KAT IN THE WORLD (you think I’m joking… look at it!! Was very touched that my director had bid on it in a charity auction for me.)

You can see the mannequin, now named Delilah, in the background of an Ink Drops promo pic here…

Carla at desk

and the KitKat here, all three kilos of it, and better photos coming soon. My plan is to photograph it properly and then take it home for Christmas so the kids can help me eat it. With a hammer. It would be a shame not to eat it!

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Caroline helped me carry all my stuff to St Paul’s station, and then I hopped on a tube, hopped on a train for the final time and headed home to shower, collect Poppy and drive up to Nottingham. Rob had promised to have celebratory cocktails at the ready, though the fact that I didn’t get there till twenty to one in the morning scuppered my plans to drink lots, lol!

On Saturday we popped to town and accidentally helped break a Guiness World Record (for the most people doing a science experiment at the same time – slime and rockets, what’s not to love?!), experimented with Shakeaway and tried not to buy the whole of Lakeland, and then went home to celebrate some more by cooking ridiculous amounts of food…

Recipes and the beginnings of chicken & tarragon pie…

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We might have cheated a tiny bit with the pastry but doing a good job of pretending to be proud, no?!

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Finished pie!! It was AMAZING.

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(yes, extra big pic, I was proud of the pie)

And I wanted to test my new spoons mould from Lakeland… with chocolate orange…

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Never miss an opportunity to pose like an idiot, me…

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And just in case you’re interested, this is what four chocolate spoons look like when I’ve accidentally eaten the one I was posing with. (I’m actually quite excited about the concept of doing these in marbled chocolate to go with dessert for dinner parties…) The chocolate orange stays softer once it’s been melted and mixed, so they were very dangerously moreish pleasant when set.

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It was gloriously relaxing and a lovely way to mark the end of my London adventures and start my new life… and I finished it by meeting Anna in Loughborough for dinner, and Dad unexpectedly joined us for a drink too, to break his journey.

All round lovely 😀