Still Alive And Cooking

Red velvet cupcakes

Hmm, it's been ages since I last posted and for that I apologise. I've spent most of the last week huddled up on the sofa, tissues and lemsip to hand, watching food network and Gilmore Girls reruns. I have, however, still been cooking, though somewhat half heartedly. Also, on Friday, I had an early 21st birthday party (less than a month until I actually turn 21!) at Cloud 23 in Manchester, where we had a cocktail masterclass that was So. Much. Fun!!! As well as the excitement/illness I've also had a few essay deadlines but they are no more! Unfortunately it's now procrastination, I mean, exam revision time.

My 21st

I have a list of recipes that I need to share with you over the next week or so: if I get my act together I'll write them tomorrow and set them to post a day at a time, so keep checking back - I'll set them for 11am each day so you have something to look forward to. The recipes include: macarons; red velvet cupcakes; fougasse (a type of French ciabatta that I made for a uni food evening); pizza; more bread; the ever promised and half written about chicken and cashew nuts; and pork potsticker dumplings.

Special Egg Fried Rice

The 'special' bit is that the dish is really easy to make but versatile. (shhh, don't tell anyone!)

So, I'm currently taking a break from writing a french essay and translation in order to write another type of essay! Hopefully this one will be shorter and more interesting than the one I have to submit (2,000 words on why I chose this way of translating it and not that one). This is my easy and lazy recipe for speedy asian comfort food, because, lets face it, you won't always have chicken and the necessary veg for more complicated recipes but you will always have rice, eggs and frozen peas, with a bit of soy sauce or kept manis to add flavour.

Raspberry And Nectarine Upside-down Cake

Well, it's been a while, I tried to write a recipe for vanilla ice cream the other day but realised I hadn't made it quite right and I want to make sure it's a good recipe before I share it with you. I've been home for reading week and, in honour of my dad's flying visit back, we cooked a roast - for which I made pudding. It's a great dessert as it involves both cake and raspberries; these are a few of my favourite things (when the dogs bite, when the bee stings ... sorry, got carried away there!) and because you have to spoon it into a bowl it counts as pud, unlike a proper cake. Unfortunately for me I decided to make the cake part by hand and remembered how much easier it is when you have machines to do it for you. If you make your own cakes with the bowl and spoon method then I commend you - you obviously have better arm muscles than I do (maybe I should work mine more at the gym)!

Creaming thee butter and sugar

You can use either peaches or nectarines for the other part of the fruit, depending on what you can get in the supermarket. I prefer to use fresh fruit but so long as you drained them well I see no reason why you could use tinned fruit instead. Even if the cake looks cooked before the 40 minutes in the oven is up, don't take it out, like my one yesterday, it will still be liquid in the middle! Just put tin foil over the dish to stop the top from browning any more. I make mine in advance and reheat it in a low oven whilst we eat our main course, it saves on stress!

Updates

So, the commenting issue has been partially resolved - I don't know if Gmail accounts work but if you select 'name and URL' (you don't have to have a URL) then you can post a comment. The other unforeseen thing is, as I changed my blog's name, you need you resubscribe to keep getting emails - sorry about that!

My next post will go live in a few hours and involves a delicious fruit and cake pudding, perfect for the cold of winter with a summer kick of raspberries and nectarines. Coming up, I'm making Chinese potstickers, a sausage pasta bake that's perfect for a no fuss meal, and something as yet undecided with chicken.

Do you have any ideas as to what I could cook with my two chicken breasts? Please leave your suggestions in the comments.

Until later!