usingmainlyspoons.com
Open in
urlscan Pro
192.0.78.25
Public Scan
URL:
https://usingmainlyspoons.com/
Submission Tags: falconsandbox
Submission: On February 19 via api from US — Scanned from DE
Submission Tags: falconsandbox
Submission: On February 19 via api from US — Scanned from DE
Form analysis 6 forms found in the DOM
GET https://usingmainlyspoons.com/
<form method="get" id="searchform" action="https://usingmainlyspoons.com/">
<input type="text" class="field" name="s" id="s" placeholder="Search">
<label for="s" class="assistive-text">Search</label>
<input type="submit" class="submit" name="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search">
</form>GET https://usingmainlyspoons.com/
<form method="get" id="searchform" action="https://usingmainlyspoons.com/">
<input type="text" class="field" name="s" id="s" placeholder="Search">
<label for="s" class="assistive-text">Search</label>
<input type="submit" class="submit" name="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search">
</form>POST https://subscribe.wordpress.com
<form action="https://subscribe.wordpress.com" method="post" accept-charset="utf-8" data-blog="1061080" data-post_access_level="everybody" id="subscribe-blog">
<p>Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.</p>
<p id="subscribe-email">
<label id="subscribe-field-label" for="subscribe-field" class="screen-reader-text"> Email Address: </label>
<input type="email" name="email" style="width: 95%; padding: 1px 10px" placeholder="Email Address" value="" id="subscribe-field" required="">
</p>
<p id="subscribe-submit">
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="subscribe">
<input type="hidden" name="blog_id" value="1061080">
<input type="hidden" name="source" value="https://usingmainlyspoons.com/">
<input type="hidden" name="sub-type" value="widget">
<input type="hidden" name="redirect_fragment" value="subscribe-blog">
<input type="hidden" id="_wpnonce" name="_wpnonce" value="d2533690e3"> <button type="submit" class="wp-block-button__link"> Follow </button>
</p>
</form>GET https://usingmainlyspoons.com
<form action="https://usingmainlyspoons.com" method="get"><label class="screen-reader-text" for="cat">Categories</label><select name="cat" id="cat" class="postform">
<option value="-1">Select Category</option>
<option class="level-0" value="9680">baking</option>
<option class="level-0" value="1466619">Baking basics</option>
<option class="level-0" value="178">books</option>
<option class="level-0" value="62534">eating out</option>
<option class="level-0" value="223041187">Friday food links</option>
<option class="level-0" value="111947">home cooking</option>
<option class="level-0" value="2708">how to</option>
<option class="level-0" value="374">ideas</option>
<option class="level-0" value="123053">Links</option>
<option class="level-0" value="5309">parenting</option>
<option class="level-0" value="2832">recipes</option>
<option class="level-0" value="349">writing</option>
</select>
</form>POST https://subscribe.wordpress.com
<form method="post" action="https://subscribe.wordpress.com" accept-charset="utf-8" style="display: none;">
<div>
<input type="email" name="email" placeholder="Enter your email address" class="actnbr-email-field" aria-label="Enter your email address">
</div>
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="subscribe">
<input type="hidden" name="blog_id" value="1061080">
<input type="hidden" name="source" value="https://usingmainlyspoons.com/">
<input type="hidden" name="sub-type" value="actionbar-follow">
<input type="hidden" id="_wpnonce" name="_wpnonce" value="d2533690e3">
<div class="actnbr-button-wrap">
<button type="submit" value="Sign me up"> Sign me up </button>
</div>
</form><form id="jp-carousel-comment-form">
<label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-comment-field" class="screen-reader-text">Write a Comment...</label>
<textarea name="comment" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-textarea" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-comment-field" placeholder="Write a Comment..."></textarea>
<div id="jp-carousel-comment-form-submit-and-info-wrapper">
<div id="jp-carousel-comment-form-commenting-as">
<fieldset>
<label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-email-field">Email (Required)</label>
<input type="text" name="email" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-email-field">
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-author-field">Name (Required)</label>
<input type="text" name="author" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-author-field">
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-url-field">Website</label>
<input type="text" name="url" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-url-field">
</fieldset>
</div>
<input type="submit" name="submit" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-button" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-button-submit" value="Post Comment">
</div>
</form>Text Content
USING MAINLY SPOONS
READING BETWEEN THE LINES OF RECIPES
Search
* About
* Recipe index
* Archive
* Baking using ratios
* Blogging advice
* Cooking Resources
POST NAVIGATION
← Older posts
SUNDAY FOOD LINKS – 12 JUNE 2016
Jun12
This week we have been on holiday in Cornwall. Like a fool, I packed based on
the chilly, grey London that we had the previous week, all layers and thin
jumpers, opaque tights and jeans. And we’ve had a glorious week of mainly
sunshine, with a few stints of thin cloud. It’s being wrong for all the right
reasons.
We’ve been taking full advantage of this lovely spot on the Cornish coast by
playgrounding, exploring, chilling, reading, eating, ice-creaming and generally
being as lazy as you can get away with when you have a two year old.
In the quiet bits, I’ve been occupying myself with readying this blog for a move
to a self-hosted site (watch this space), reading blogs and ‘The Essex Serpent’
and more experimenting with my bullet journal (for which I also bought some new
coloured pens – yay!)
Obviously a week of being catered for means no cooking, but we’re back to usual
next week.
RECIPES/WITHOUT A RECIPE:
None of that – on holiday!
READING:
In addition to The Essex Serpent, and various bullet journal posts:
* Joy the Baker tells you everything you need to know about whisks in her
Baking 101 post.
* Five things to do in the kitchen on Sunday night. What did I take away from
this? I need some portioned cookie dough in the freezer!
* Jenny Rosenstrach’s (of Dinner: A Love Story) next book is about celebrating
all aspects of family life with feasts, and it looks great.
* On the same site, I really like Eric Ripert’s suggestion of how to include
kids in making Sunday meals fun.
* And an award-winning piece on why telling everyone they ought to make dinner
is the wrong approach.
* An investigation of the best way to make chana masala from Food52
* Via the New York Times Cooking newsletter, this 2003 column from Nigella
Lawson is a really good description of how to put a menu together, how the
different elements should balance out, and how to make sure it’s easy to make
with guests arriving.
* Other recipes I’ve bookmarked: White chocolate pistachio cups from The Little
Loaf; Strawberry, Vanilla and Soured Cream cake from What Kate Baked; Grilled
salmon and black bean taco salad from Gluten Free Girl; a bright green
crushed-herb pasta from Food52.
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment Posted in Friday food links, Links Tagged food links,
photography course
SUNDAY FOOD LINKS – 5 JUNE 2016
Jun5
There is a tipping point before going on holiday. On Thursday of this week, I
could feel myself teetering on the brink. On the one side is a headlong rush to
get things sorted, pinned down, handed over, squared away before leaving. A
feeling that if it isn’t done now, you might not remember what you were in the
middle of when you get back. Or that others will be missing some vital piece of
information without you around. This mainly goes for work, but also for all
those little jobs around the house that suddenly seem so urgent when you are
about to leave. I always feel the need to clear out the vegetable drawer, even
if I’m going away for a week (I often leave things languishing in there for more
than a week at a time anyway).
On the other side is the blissful freedom of dropping it all where you stand and
walking out the door. Knowing that you don’t have to deal with any of it for at
least a week, and actually, nothing much will happen in the interim.
Once I’m over the line, I find it hard to go back, even if I then discover
things that I should have completed before the deadline. I am now fully over the
line, and very thankful for (accidentally) planning a sequence that allowed a
day off from work, then a day to pack and do the first stretch of travel,
followed by two more days off, and then the final leg of travel to Cornwall.
Partly due to pre-holiday busyness and preparations, and partly because I was
parenting solo for some of the week, this has been largely a no-recipe week of
patched together meals. I leaned heavily on ready meals or pre-made ingredients,
including those old toddler staples, sausages and fish fingers
RECIPES:
* Justin Gellatly Sourdough (from Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding)
* Foccacia for an Italian potluck lunch at work – from James Morton’s Brilliant
Bread
WITHOUT A RECIPE:
* Fish pie / fish fingers with peas and sweetcorn
* Oven bake of mushrooms, quartered tomatoes, a tin of cannellini beans and
sausages
* Lasagne leftovers
* A somewhat dodgy combination of the leftovers from the two things above,
mixed with tomato sauce and some leftover ham, and baked with breadcrumbs and
cheese on top. Possibly not complying with all health and safety regulations,
but definitely winning points for clearing out the fridge. And very tasty!
* M&S fish cakes with sweetcorn
* Pizza with asparagus and sweetcorn – using a frozen pre-baked crust – pretty
good, if a little soggy on the top surface.
READING:
* Christopher Kimball is moving on from America’s Test Kitchen. One of the most
distinctive voices in American food is starting a new venture. He sounds like
he still has incredible energy to start something new.
* Some lovely recipes from Guardian Cook this week, full of herbs and
elderflowers: Anna Jones’ herb pesto and spring stew with artichokes and
peas; Rachel Roddy’s lamb chops with potatoes, green beans and pesto; a
gorgeous looking reader recipe for Cranachan ice-cream.
* Dan Doherty’s nostalgic last meal is his mum’s Sunday roast – ahh. I love
that he specifies the ratios to make it perfect: “These are my rules for a
roast lunch for two: potatoes for six, meat for four and everything else
(vegetables) for two. You just have to accept that the potatoes take centre
stage! … Oh, and I always do gravy for 20. A roast dinner should be a quarter
gravy.”
* Food in books makes coconut raspberry cakes inspired by The Essex Serpent.
I’ve just started the book, but really looking forward to it as holiday
reading.
* Joanna Blythman goes through all the ways that official food guidelines are
misleading, and sometimes plain wrong.
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment Posted in Friday food links, Links Tagged food links, herb
recipes, holiday, spring recipes
WHAT PARENTS DON’T DO – MAKING IT WORK BY LETTING THINGS GO
May31
Sometimes a work space, sometimes a tea table for toys
This is a bit of a digression for me. But I have read quite a few things about
parenting recently that I wanted to respond to. (Don’t worry – normal
food-related service will resume soon).
The particular spark for this post came from a discussion between food bloggers
Molly Wizenberg and Ashley Rodriguez about ‘how do you do it all’ with kids, a
question that they rejected and turned into ‘what don’t you do?’
I really like this idea: that instead of sharing our ‘tips’ for ‘having it all’
or ‘making it all work’, we should share more often what things we choose *not*
to do as parents, to make time for the things we want or need to do. It feels
like a more human and achievable way to make progress.
So, in that spirit, a list of things I deliberately don’t do. I’m not proud of
all of these, but they are all conscious choices that I make in order to fit in
the things I want to do. I’m also aware that some of these are luxuries that I
am very fortunate to be able to afford.
* Cleaning – I have a cleaner who also does the ironing. This makes an
incredible difference.
* Tidying up – Our house is full of clutter. All surfaces are covered in
paperwork, unopened post, and magazines I can’t bring myself to throw out
(even 6 month old copies of The Economist).
* Cook dinner every night – I do prioritise cooking from scratch, because its
something I enjoy, but lots of dinners are assemblies of previously cooked
things, and lots are just bread and cheese and maybe soup. Or beans on toast
for those in the house who will eat them.
* Work past 9:30pm (most days) – I aim to be at the office from 9:30am – 4pm. I
make the best possible use of my 1 hour commute in and out, but I am usually
off-the-clock from 5pm until whenever my daughter is in bed. That usually
means I get an hour to an hour and a half of work in the evening – unless
there’s something that needs urgent attention.
* Books – I no longer read books that much. I listen to podcasts when I’m
travelling to and from work. I Instapaper lots of articles and blogs to read
when I have some spare time, but I never get time to read as many as I
bookmark. Part of me is sad about this, but it’s the right thing for me for
now.
* Follow the news – I don’t watch/read/listen to the news. This is sometimes a
bit of an issue for work, but I don’t read newspapers (although I sometimes
buy them for the food section). I no longer really listen to radio news,
except sometimes in the car.
* Go out in the evenings – It might go without saying, with a 2 year old, but I
don’t go to the pub, bars, the cinema, the theatre, restaurants in the
evening. This is a bit of an exaggeration, and it’s not completely
child-induced: we did relatively little of this before she came along too.
And I scarcely drink, so it’s not a big sacrifice.
* TV – Again, I’m not proud of this, and it’s not a high-minded stance. I don’t
watch TV. Again, that’s not completely true (and I watch plenty with E), but
I don’t watch box sets or TV series. I don’t know what’s happening on
Masterchef. I have never seen an episode of Game of Thrones or House of
Cards. I didn’t make it all the way through The Wire.
* Go shopping – this isn’t a big sacrifice for me, as I was never a huge fan
of shopping-as-leisure activity. But everything is ordered online now –
groceries, jeans, kids clothes, stationery. My last visit to a shopping
centre was probably 6 months ago.
The other side of this is that there are a team of people behind me helping me
do things:
* My amazing and supportive husband
* A cleaner
* An amazing nursery that looks after E three or four days a week, 8am-6pm.
* My parents and parents-in-law, who are always ready to step in and cover the
inevitable gaps that emerge with one-off work events, travel, illnesses and
the like.
I don’t have a nanny at the moment, but one of the things reading lots of other
women’s stories has taught me is that it can be an important way to make things
work when you are working. I am well aware that I am extremely fortunate to be
in this position, and to have all these resources to draw on. But I think it’s
helpful to be honest about how things work from the inside, what it takes to
keep things on the rails. Only by being honest with each other can we set
realistic expectations.
So it’s not that I’m ‘doing it all’. I am deliberately not doing things. And I
am part of a network of support, so what we do, we do together.
INSPIRED BY:
There are lots of blogging mums that have helped me figure out what I want my
parenting life to look like. This post was particularly inspired by:
Anna Whitehouse a.k.a Mother Pukka – her ‘I quit’ post was a great description
of what it looks like when it’s not working, and how even well-meaning companies
can make parenting incredibly hard.
Rachel Jeffcoat at Make a Long Story Short is one of my favourite
I-will-read-anything-she-writes writers and her post on kicking smug parenting
to the kerb is a great encouragement to be honest, and to be understanding of
however other parents make it work.
Cup of Jo has a short series of interviews with mums making it work for them.
Selfish Mother is a great desintation for all sorts of articles on realistic
parenting. This one is on redefining having it all.
The Dualista is a blog that doesn’t seem to have kept going but the whole
premise of its short life was to interview women combining the home and work
parts of their lives. What switched me on to this was an interview with the
brilliant beauty writer Sali Hughes.
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest1
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment Posted in ideas, parenting Tagged making it work, parenting,
work-life balance, working mum
SUNDAY FOOD LINKS – 29 MAY 2016
May29
There aren’t really any food links this week, as I haven’t found much time for
food reading. That’s not quite true – I have done some offline reading. The new
issue of Delicious arrived, and I’ve also picked up this month’s Good Food. I’ve
been dipping into some old books as well: MFK Fisher, Elizabeth David, and Nigel
Slater’s third kitchen diaries. But it has been a busy week with work, so there
hasn’t been much room for leisurely reading.
I have made good use of the weekend so far, though, by spending some quality
time with a new notebook! I am a big fan of Bureau Direct, an online stationery
shop run by serious stationery geeks (that used to have a real-life shop in
Leicester Square). They have been describing the virtues of a bullet journal in
this month’s blog, and I decided that a fresh notebook, and a new month was the
perfect time to get into it.
If you haven’t come across the term bullet journal (or #BuJo as the bloggers and
pinners disturbingly insist on calling it), you can find the whole system
explained very simply in a video by its creator, Ryder Carroll. Basically, it’s
a to-do list combined with indexed notetaking, and relies only on a notebook and
a pen. There are lots of others offering advice online, and I found Boho Berry’s
post and video on combining bullet journaling with GTD particularly useful (and
she has some beautiful page designs).
Basically, I’m hoping this is a good way to combine the part of me that loves
good notebooks, and crossing things off lists, with the part that enjoys the
comprehensive list making of GTD. We will have to see how that works in
practice.
RECIPES:
* Baked pumpkin risotto – loosely based on both Donna Hay’s recipe in Modern
Classics 1 and The Food Lab’s advice on risotto. I par-boiled the risotto
rice the night before, and then when ready to bake, I combined a sweated,
chopped onion (in the Thermomix) with finely chopped butternut squash, the
rice and hot chicken stock before piling into a baking dish and cooking
covered in foil for 30 minutes.
* Yotam Ottolenghi’s butterbean and oxtail stew – made with beef shin instead
of oxtail, and in the slow cooker. I can’t say this completely converted me
to bkeila, the fried spinach condiment it’s made with, but it was very tasty
nonetheless.
WITHOUT A RECIPE:
* Pasta bolognese
* Waitrose pizzas
* Lasagne (made by my mother-in-law) with bread and salad
* Pasta with sausage, tomato and broccoli sauce
READING – BOOKS, RATHER THAN FOOD ONLINE:
* With Bold Knife and Fork – MFK Fisher
* An Omelette and a Glass of Wine – Elizabeth David
* Kitchen Diaries III – Nigel Slater
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment Posted in Friday food links, ideas Tagged baked risotto, bullet
journal, food writers
SUNDAY FOOD LINKS – 22 MAY 2016
May22
I’ve had a lot of support this week. With my co-parent working away all week, my
Mum and Dad helped out a lot, so I didn’t have to worry about dinner most nights
this week – such a luxury! And for the other days, the leftovers came in very
handy (as did the brownies made last weekend).
This week is also a busy one, and calls for more simple cooking. I’m going to
try Yotam Ottolenghi’s butterbean stew from last weekend’s papers, but with beef
shin instead of oxtail. I have chicken stock from last night’s roast chicken to
make into risotto. And there are still quite a few leftovers too.
I ordered a copy of The Food Lab this week too, planning it as holiday reading
(!) but I think it might be a bit too big to take away! It’s a doorstep-like
tome covering every sort of food science question and experiment. But unlike
other examples of this approach, Kenji Lopez-Alt, from the website Serious Eats,
focuses on showing you the outcomes of his personal kitchen experiments, and
only talks about the science when it’s a route to a better version of a dish you
want to eat. This makes it very practical, whilst illuminating lots of kitchen
puzzles. I’ve already learned about pre-salting eggs for scrambling (it makes
them more tender), and using vinegar to keep boiled potatoes together, and the
importance of properly emulsifying your vinaigrette to stop the salad from
wilting. I’m looking forward to getting into some of the chapters in more detail
soon.
RECIPES:
Pretty much nothing cooked to a recipe this week, with Mum providing meals
Sunday – Thursday.
WITHOUT A RECIPE:
* Pasta bolognese
* Roast chicken with garlic and thyme, roast potatoes
* Salad with carrots, kohlrabi and croutons, and a yoghurt-mayonnaise-lemon
dressing.
* Slow-cooker chicken stock
READING:
Not much spare time for reading this week (though I did managed to watch some
David Attenborough and Mary Beard on TV).
* Nigel Slater picks 15 of his recipes, one for each of the Observer Food
Monthly’s 15 years.
* I’m not sure I can imagine an occasion that merits both Claire Ptak’s
chocolate glazed doughnuts *and* a chocolate babka (to use up the leftover
dough!) but they both look fabulous.
* A lovely piece about Anna Jones in the New York Times, and an
implausible-sounding salad: Kale, Coconut and Tomato.
* And reading The Food Lab.
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest1
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment Posted in Friday food links, Links Tagged brownies, chicken
stock
SUNDAY FOOD LINKS – 15 MAY 2016
May15
One of my close friends had her first baby this week. It made me cast my mind
back to those early newborn days. Of course, these are such a blur of feeding
and sleep deprivation that it’s very hard to remember accurately. I did make an
effort to write some thoughts at the time, and I also went back and culled my
private mum’s Facebook group posts at some point, so I could try and capture the
feelings at the time.
> 3 weeks: “Today is a day when it’s hard. Can’t sleep, can’t do anything else
> useful, feel weird and overtired, don’t want to eat anything but sweets and
> junk. Feel like a milk-generating zombie today.”
There were also better days:
> 4 weeks: “Objectively, she’s been trouble today – feeding every hour or more,
> seldom sleeping, and crying much of the time in between. But for some reason,
> today I can mostly just see big blue eyes, sweet, strokable hair, chubby
> cheeks and tiny fingers. As we keep saying, more with love than frustration,
> “it’s a good job you’re cute!””
I am reminded that very small victories were important, and built confidence. I
went after them very deliberately in those first weeks: a walk to the park, a
drive to the breastfeeding clinic, making it out of the house on our own for a
walk. Little bits of progress that were enough to hint at changes to come, and
give the idea that all of those would pass.
Now the changes come more slowly, but seem to creep up in a more unexpected way,
ambushing you when you feel unprepared. Today she seems suddenly taller, leaner
and more capable. She has been ‘taking care’ of us recently – asking if we are
alright if we cough, patting us to send us to sleep. It’s a lovely glimpse into
the little girl she’s trying to become, but also a reminder of how much baby has
already disappeared.
This week’s eating was mainly quite simple, to minimise the complications
swirling around us at the moment. A very quick but delicious coconut curry from
Anna Jones. A slow cooker pot of beans. A few bits of take away. And then a good
baking session on Saturday night, to go with Eurovision. I like to think the rye
flour theme was a nod to the Swedish hosts.
Recipes:
* Anna Jones‘ coconut, sweet potato and quinoa bowls (though I used rice in
place of the quinoa).
* Chocolate rye brownies – Claire Ptak’s Violet Bakery cookbook
* Sourdough – Justin Gellatly’s Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding
* Chorizo and butter beans – Slow Cooked
* Lamb nihari – loosely adapted from Slow Cooked and using a small Riverford
lamb shoulder joint instead of the specified chops
Without a recipe:
* Beef ragu and pasta (the ragu created from some frozen beef shin stew +
passata + roasted tomatoes)
* Quesadillas – leftover butter beans, with cheese and avocado
* Franco Manca take out pizza
Reading:
* Ruby Tandoh writes a piece of clear-thinking brilliance on ‘wellness’ and its
links to disordered eating. Full of common sense, and illuminated by her
personal experience.
* Yotam Ottolenghi does butter beans in the Guardian. I’m intrigued by the
long-cooked spinach condiment he mentions – will have to give that a try
(though maybe on a smaller scale than his 1kg of spinach!)
* Melissa Clark in the New York Times puts phyllo pastry into a bundt tin to
make a pie – interesting idea.
* An interview with Thomasina Miers about the current state of mexican food in
London.
* Bookmarked recipes: David Lebovitz’s Sables Bretons; porridge rolls; coconut
custard babka; oat, raisin and almond cookies; rhubarb strawberry pie.
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment Posted in Friday food links, Links, parenting Tagged home
cooking, newborn days, slow cooker, spinach, wellness
SUNDAY FOOD LINKS – 8 MAY 2016
May8
Today is my gran’s 104th Birthday. Here she is, fourth from left, on a sunny
holiday in Jersey with her sister. She says she felt ‘set free’. And here she is
when she turned 100:
It’s hard to remember how remarkable she is, as she’s still so much herself, the
Gran I’ve always known her as. She had brothers who fought in the first World
War (she was the youngest of nine). Her husband spent most of the second World
War in India, while she brought up their son at home. Before she married, she
helped run the office for the family business. She cajoled one of the employees
into teaching her to drive on the firm van! She has seen the arrival of
television, microwaves, video recorders, the internet. We often use FaceTime so
that she can see Ellie playing and say hello. She still lives on her own (albeit
with lots of support from my mum and dad), cooks a little for herself, and reads
voraciously.
Where do you even start with celebrating a 104th birthday? It gets harder every
year to think of presents. But what she really appreciates is seeing us all, so
we all came down to Somerset to celebrate, with food and cake, and E insisted on
adding balloons too. She’s pretty clear that birthdays are all about balloons.
She also insisted in opening all her cards and presents on my Gran’s behalf –
she’s helpful like that. It was lovely to spend time all together, and for her
to see some more of E in person: she’s changing so fast at the moment. I hope
she remembers her Granny May, but even if she doesn’t we will have so many
stories to tell her.
Recipes:
* That banana cake, again
* Rachel Roddy’s broccoli pasta – Five Quarters
Without a recipe:
* Supermarket pizza
* Oven fish and chips
* Steak sandwiches, with chutney and cornichons
* Pasta with beef ragu, roasted tomatoes
* Baked chicken with fennel, lemon, garlic and potatoes
Reading:
* Some great recipes around for spring veg at the moment: Yotam Ottolenghi’s
olive oil recipes includes a green veg stew with trout; Rachel Roddy writes
about mixed, sauteed Roman greens, called misticanza; Nigel Slater’s broad
bean and asparagus recipes;
* The New York Times has created this great interactive guide to knife skills.
* Never was there a better case of the headline not doing justice to the
article. Shauna brings her beautiful, heartfelt writing to the most
unexpected subjects: roasted garlic bean dip.
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
1 Comment Posted in Friday food links, home cooking, parenting Tagged birthdays,
great-granny, knife skills, spring vegetables
ALMOST INSTANT BANANA BREAD
May3
I have a real problem with throwing bananas away. I like them when they are
already quite spotted, so for me, the line between perfectly ripe and brown and
shrivelled is not that big. Added to that are the bananas that travel around in
a bag in case of toddler snacking needs and emerge a bit bruised from the
experience, but otherwise edible, and there are often bananas that are a bit
past it in our house.
When this happens, I like to make them useful, and make banana bread, or banana
muffins. Not everyone enjoys the smell of banana cake. It is certainly
distinctive. I’ve read that bananas that ripen on the tree smell quite
different, and that there are many varieties of banana, with different scents.
I like to think that baking with a very ripe banana recaptures some of those
tropical aromas and complexities. For me, it’s a buttery, fruity smell,
reminiscent of toast and apricots and flowers.
Banana bread is a quick bread, meaning that it’s not structured the same way as
a cake, and is risen with baking powder or bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
rather than eggs or yeast.
Bananas add a lot to a muffin or quick bread mixture. They bring sweetness,
allowing you to cut back on the sugar. They help bind things together, removing
some of the role that eggs would usually play. They provide a flavour in their
own right, and some added liquid for moisture.
As banana bread is a solution to a fruit problem, I like the recipes to be as
quick and easy as possible. I have posted on here before about my go-to banana
muffin recipe. I have also tried a banana cake recipe, made in muffin cases,
which uses dates as the sweetener, and seems to work well for my toddler.
More recently, I’ve been looking at ways to make banana bread in my Thermomix
(or food processor), without getting any other dishes dirty, and having some
success.
BEHIND THE RECIPE
This is a cake made much like a muffin, with oil, not too much sugar, and
leavened with bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). The usual direction for this
sort of recipe is to mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, and then
combine them together very gently, even leaving in a few lumps so as not to mix
too much.
While this will probably give the optimum texture, a great virtue of these
recipes is speed and convenience, so if you can apply a little power with a
blender or food processor (I use my Thermomix), it makes these even more
feasible on a weeknight (or during naptime).
As a quick bread only needs the ingredients mixing briefly together, it’s
important to not overmix using the motor. If needs be, stir the last bit
together by hand. It also helps to layer the ingredients in. Start with the
liquid ingredients on the bottom, including the bananas, and put the dry
ingredients on top, finishing with the flour. This way, the flour is the last to
be mixed in. You can also leave the flour not quite combined, or with some flour
still remaining around the edges, and fold the last bits in while scraping down
with a spatula.
There is no need to mash the bananas, as they will just be pureed with the other
liquid ingredients at the bottom of the bowl. Pulse the blades of the blender or
food processor so that you don’t mix more than you have to. Then scrape down and
combine the last bits with a spatula.
Scrape and pour into a lined loaf tin (I use these Lakeland tin liners for extra
speed) and bake for anything from 45 minutes to an hour – it should be risen
with no wet mixture remaining.
ALMOST INSTANT BANANA BREAD
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s jacked-up banana bread.
Ingredients:
* 3 to 4 ripe bananas (230g peeled weight)
* 75g sunflower oil
* 150g light brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
* 200g plain flour
Add the peeled bananas, broken into pieces to the bottom of the processor bowl.
On top, add the sugar, oil, egg, vanilla essense and bourbon/rum. Mix the flour,
the bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt in a small bowl and add on top of the
other ingredients. This helps to make sure the bicarbonate (baking) soda is
evenly distributed, and to make sure there are no lumps in it. There may not be
time for these to be thoroughly mixed in otherwise, and lumps of bicarbonate of
soda taste revolting.
Pulse or mix on a medium speed until just mixed together. Scrape down the sides
and mix any remaining flour in by hand. Pour into a lined 2lb loaf tin and bake
for 50 minutes to 1 hour at 180C/160C fan. I often use two 1lb loaf tins (as
above) and bake for 40-45 minutes.
This will keep, wrapped up, for several days, and freezes really well.
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment Posted in baking, how to, recipes Tagged banana bread, banana
cake, food processor, quick breads, thermomix
SUNDAY FOOD LINKS – 1 MAY 2016
May1
A busy week. But a successful one, I think, from a meal planning perspective. I
cooked a pot of slow-cooker black beans on Monday which gave me a resource to
fall back on throughout the week. I also roasted vegetables on Sunday – sweet
potatoes, tomatoes, and mushrooms – to make sure I had quick options in the
fridge in the week. I liberated sea bass fillets from the freezer for Tuesday,
and grilled it over sliced, boiled new potatoes, those tomatoes, and artichoke
pieces from a jar. I combined the rest of those beans with the mushrooms, sweet
potatoes and tomatoes, plus some jarred roasted peppers and some extra spices to
make vegetable chilli in the slow cooker on Friday afternoon. Overall, a good
week, and a welcome contrast to some of the meat-heavy meals we’ve had recently.
RECIPES:
* Coconut rice pudding – Scandilicious Baking. My daughter loves eating rice
pudding at nursery, but we never really have it at home. This recipe, made
with coconut milk, and baked, really did the trick (though I might use light
coconut milk next time).
* Cuban-style black beans – Slow Cooked
WITHOUT A RECIPE:
* Fried rice with vegetables, topped with a fried egg
* Black bean tacos, with cheese, sliced radishes, spring onions, and leftover
pulled pork
* Sea bass fillets over potatoes, tomatoes and artichokes
* Green soup (from the freezer) and cheese pitas (dinner on Wednesday, lunch on
Friday)
* Vegetable chilli with black beans, with sausages
* Fish curry with sweet potatoes and peas, Spice Tailor sauce
READING:
* Despite their name, the Kitchen Sisters, who create the Fugitive Waves
podcast don’t often do episodes about food or cooking, but this week’s
podcast, called Hidden Kitchen Mama is, as always, a lovely piece of oral
history about mothers, cooking and kitchens.
* A collection of easy vegetable recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi in the Guardian.
Especially like the look of sweet potatoes glazed with miso, and fried
broccoli with garlic, cumin and lime.
* A tirade against inappropriate flavouring from Lottie + Doof: F**k Lemon Zest
* Molly Wizenberg from Orangette and Ashley Rodriguez from Not Without Salt
have a Facebook Live conversation on the Not Without Salt Facebook page about
motherhood, Harry Potter and cooking with kids.
* Molly also has an excellent round-up post here
* I’m interested in finding out more about this photography course/service that
I came across this week: Makelight
* Recipes bookmarked: Ottolenghi roast aubergines with chilli yoghurt and
paprika almonds; Poppy and pumpkin seed spelt cookies with jam centres; the
rhubarb cake on the cover of this month’s Delicious magazine.
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment Posted in Friday food links, Links Tagged black beans, home
cooking, rhubarb cake, vegetable recipes
SUNDAY FOOD LINKS – 24 APRIL 2016
Apr24
A busy week. For the first time since I returned to work, I have done a four day
week (instead of three days); I have filled in for colleagues, adding a few
extra layers to the workload; and then there was the birthday party – the
busy-but-fun bit.
All of this explains the lateness of this post. Although I also thought that as
my meal planning cycle is Sunday to Saturday, it might be good to switch future
posts to Sunday as well.
The busyness of this meant I once again handed over catering responsibilities to
my mum for most of the weeknight dinners. So most of the recipes here are for
the dishes for the birthday party weekend. There were sausage rolls from
Yorkshire, my mum made a quiche and some little galettes with the cream cheese
pastry I had in the freezer.
The weekend was mostly catered via Nigella recipes – my go-to whenever I’m
catering for a crowd. Feast is a good starting point, but there are good menus
in most of her books, and a guides to children’s party food in How to Eat, Feast
and Domestic Goddess that I expect I will be turning to for many birthdays to
come.
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY MENU
Lunch:
* Cheese scones, sausage rolls
* Butternut squash and caramelised onion quiche
* Spring vegetable salad (see below)
* Parma ham, bresaola, salami
Dinner:
* Oven-roasted chicken with lemon and garlic – Nigella’s Forever Summer
* (more) sausage rolls and leftover quiche)
* Jersey boiled potatoes
* Green veg
Other recipes:
* Malteser cake cupcakes from Nigella’s Feast (for the cake ‘mane’)
* Buttermilk birthday cake (from Domestic Goddess) and Meringue Buttercream
(from Dan Lepard’s Short and Sweet) to make the lion cake.
* Soft white rolls – from Feast (to have with pulled pork)
* Smitten Kitchen green slaw (ditto)
WITHOUT A RECIPE:
* A spring vegetable salad: baby carrots, sugar snap peas, asparagus, purple
sprouting broccoli, and radishes – all blanched and dressed with olive oil
and lemon juice.
* Oven fish and chips
* Slow cooker pulled pork
READING:
* 5 small tips to change the way you bake– Food52
* Clotilde from Chocolate and Zucchini writes about cooking with small children
* So much Barry and Freda this week- RIP Victoria Wood.
* 8 kitchen essentials (as in tools, pots and pans)
* One of my favourite This American Life podcast episodes was repeated
recently: Middle School
SHARE THIS:
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest10K+
* Email
* More
*
* Reddit
* LinkedIn
*
* Print
* Tumblr
*
*
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment Posted in Friday food links, Links, parenting Tagged birthday
cake, birthday menu, lion cake
POST NAVIGATION
← Older posts
Search
FOLLOW BLOG VIA EMAIL
Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new
posts by email.
Email Address:
Follow
Join 793 other subscribers
PAGES
* About Using Mainly Spoons
* Baking without recipes – using ratios
* Complete Archive
* Cooking Resources
* Recipe index for usingmainlyspoons
* Writing and blogging advice
RECENTLY ADDED
* Sunday food links – 12 June 2016
* Sunday food links – 5 June 2016
* What parents don’t do – making it work by letting things go
* Sunday food links – 29 May 2016
* Sunday food links – 22 May 2016
RECENTLY ON TWITTER:
CATEGORIES
Categories Select Category baking Baking basics books eating out Friday food
links home cooking how to ideas Links parenting recipes writing
ARCHIVES
Archives Select Month June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016
January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015
July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015
December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014
June 2014 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013
October 2012 June 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 November
2011 October 2011 September 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March
2011 February 2011 January 2011 November 2010 October 2010 July 2010 June 2010
March 2010 January 2010 October 2009 May 2009 February 2009 January 2009 May
2008 March 2008 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 April 2007 March 2007 January
2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 July 2006 June 2006
May 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 November 2005 August 2005 July
2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004
November 2004 October 2004
FLICKR PHOTOS
More Photos
FOOD BLOGS
* 101 Cookbooks
* Bakers Royale
* David Leibovitz
* Dinner: A Love Story
* Gluten Free Girl and the Chef
* Green Kitchen Stories
* In Jennie's Kitchen
* Joy the Baker
* Orangette
* Pinch of Yum
* Ruth Reichl
* Sassy Radish
* Serious Eats
* Smitten Kitchen
OTHER LINKS
* Jennifer Bizley – Neuroscientist
* Town Yeat Barn – self-catering in Cumbria
* WordPress.com
UK FOOD BLOGS
* Butcher, Baker, Baby
* Eat Like a Girl
* Rocket and Squash
* The Cake Hunter
* The English Can Cook
* The Little Loaf
Blog at WordPress.com.
Using Mainly Spoons
Blog at WordPress.com.
* Follow Following
* Using Mainly Spoons
Sign me up
* Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
* * Using Mainly Spoons
* Customize
* Follow Following
* Sign up
* Log in
* Report this content
* View site in Reader
* Manage subscriptions
* Collapse this bar
Loading Comments...
Write a Comment...
Email (Required) Name (Required) Website
%d bloggers like this: