Rocky Road is the American variation of the good old ‘fridge cake’ (that means that there is no baking required as it sets in the fridge). The beauty of these recipes is that you can tinker until your heart (or stomach) is content with this little recipe. You can change the types of nuts you use, (brazil nuts, pecans, chopped almonds, etc), add or remove the glace cherries, or leave out the marshmallows (not sure why you would want to!) – whatever you like! You just need to keep the basic template of butter, chocolate, biscuit and syrup, and you can play around with the other pieces in your own way.

Ingredients:

• 4tbsp golden syrup
• 200g plain chocolate
• 150g milk chocolate
• 150g unsalted butter
• 175g malted milk) biscuits, crushed
• 150g marshmallows
• 150g unsalted peanuts (you can use chocolate covered ones for that extra chocolate kick!)

Method:

1. Line your 30×20cm tin with cling-film and put it to the side.
2. Weigh out the biscuits and put them into a large plastic sandwich bag. Seal it and use a rolling pin to crush the biscuits. (This step can also be done in a food processor.)
3. Weigh out the marshmallows and peanuts, and put them aside ready.
4. Melt the chocolate, syrup and butter in a pan over a low heat. When this is smooth and molten, tip in the biscuits and stir quickly.
5. Continuing to work quickly, tip in the marshmallows and peanuts, and stir thoroughly.
6. As soon as everything is evenly mixed in, tip into the prepared tin and smooth it out with a spatula.
7. Leave the tray in the fridge to cool; once set, cut it into squares and enjoy!

As a child, I always ate what was put in front of me, without argument – then I got to go out to play, and have desert, etc – I knew how to play the game. But my sister did not, especially when it came to meal times. She never wanted to eat the meal the way we were supposed to eat it – main first, then desert, or sometimes she would want to combine foods – so, raw vegetables with baked beans or pizza dipped in soup but then not eat the soup.

I never understood it, and still don’t. My parents never really let her get away with it, but I wonder what she would be like now if she had been allowed to eat as and when she wished? She ate a range of foods without complaint, she just didn’t want to eat them in the order she was told. Is this perhaps the way to get kids eating things that are good for them? Or is the social custom of eating certain foods in certain ways and orders so ingrained into our society, that we simply cannot get away from it?

On a busy morning, when I am rushing to get out of the house and beat traffic, I have a tendency to forget breakfast, and grab a cereal bar instead. But it never feels like actual food, and it certainly doesn’t set me up for the day. But i do enjoy the “healthy” meals to microwave for lunch – like the supermarkets steamed veg and fish, or the chili chicken noodles – they taste great, and don’t cost too much, and are incredibly light on the washing up.

So why do I not grab a porridge pot and take it to work to heat up? One and a half minutes, with a little water, and porridge is my breakfast. Perhaps the stigma of eating breakfast at work is too great?

Either way, I am very pleased to have convenience food around – but I still prefer the taste of the real thing, made at home.

The sound of contented eating is “nom nom nom”, and whenever I pull out my pinny and baking supplies, I can practically hear my boyfriend make the sounds!

In our early days, we went out to eat more often than not, ensuring that we never looked silly in the kitchen or accidentally gave the other food poisoning. But these days, economy and being of a certain age, we prefer to stay in and cook (well, I cook, and he eats!). And now our friends are coming over and we are making an evening of it. And I’ve noticed, over the last 6 to 12 months, that our friends girlfriends or wives, are starting to bring desert with them. Which is great! And when we go to visit them, I’ll take desert.

It has suddenly occurred to me that I have turned into my mother! And, technically, it’s all my boyfriends fault – because until he started talking about my cooking, it was my little secret and noone wanted asked for cakes except him. Now he is stuck sharing the nom nom nom’s with our friends!

Although Christmas is 9 months off (and 3 months gone), the winter months are slowly turning into Spring and this is starting to reflect on the food I am buying, cooking and eating for my family and I. The thick soups and stews are slowly being replaced with the occasional salad and lighter meals of fish and steamed vegetables.

The main reasons behind the changing menu will be down to the seasonal changes in foods being available or not (lettuce won’t grow in winter, and doesn’t keep long enough to store, but potatoes are available, etc), and the temperatures making us want warmer, more filling meals.

I love stews, and would happily eat them all year, but when it gets to the nice sunny weather, we simply don’t need that amount of intake.

on the website for BBC Food there is a section which shows you different ways to get your child cooking and i have been looking through it and thought it was a really good site to use.

You can make cakes, meals, Easter egg nests and lots of other things.

there is a programme on their called big cook little cook which gives you recipes and instructions which are easy to follow for the children so they wont need that much help but personally i would be giving them lots of supervision as i can imagine it being very messy.

Let me know what you think of this and if you would recommend it.

Pancake day is finally here and i have listed below the ingredients to make a perfect pancake..

Recipe
110g plain flour
Pinch salt
2 medium eggs
200ml milk
75ml water
50g butter

Method

Sieve the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and add the 2 eggs into the centre  and whisk.

Gradually add the milk and water while whisking until this is the consistency of thin cream.

Melt the butter into a pan and spoon a small amount of the batter into the pan and flip once cooked on one side.

Serve with whatever topping you like, find ideas below:
Sugar
Lemon
Bananas
Ice cream

I love to go out for a meal at least once a week but my other half started telling me it was a waste of money so we stopped going as much until i started to receive the emails from www.myvouchercodes.co.uk and www.vouchercodes.co.uk with loads different discount vouchers each week.

All you have to do is fill in some details, print a copy of the voucher and take it with you when you go out.

At first my other half was embarrassed when i brought the voucher out but than he realised how much money we were saving so he got over that.

So far i have used the vouchers in the following:

• La Tasca
• Zizzi
• Pizza Hut
• Yo Sushi

Go and have a look and see what bargains you can get.

I had my friends around the other night and they taught me to make Home Made burgers and potatoe wedges, see below on how we made them:

Burger Ingredients:

• Lean mince meat
• 1 medium onion
• salt and pepper

Potato Wedges ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Chilli flakes
• salt & Pepper

Cooking Instructions

Burgers:
finely chop the onion and add to a bowl with the mince and season with salt and pepper.  Mix it all together than spray a griddle with low fat spray and cook turning every 2 minutes until the inside is cooked.

Potato Wedges:
Boil the potatoes until they start going soft (dont leave until they break when you touch them), remove from the pan and cut into wedge like shapes.  Spray low fat oil onto a baking tray and add the potato. Season with the chilli flakes, salt and pepper and cook in the over at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serve with a salad and this is a healthy meal.

Ingredients
4 large tomatoes
1 large red onion
1 garlic clove
600ml tomatoe juice
300ml fresh stock
Dried mixed herbs
Basil torn into pieces
Small splash Tabasco sauce
4 small pots of low fat yogurt

Instructions
Place garlic tomatoes and onion into a roasting tin and spray with low fat cooking spray and roast for 20-25 minutes at 200°C.  After 25 minutes remove the tomato skins and chop.  Pour tomato juice and stock into a saucepan and add the vegatables, tomato, basil and Tabasco.  Bring to the boil than simmer for 10-20 minutes than serve.

Let me know how yours turns out as mine was gorgeous and i am making it again tonight.

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