However, lately in Seattle our weather has been complete madness. Normally March is just mild, a few sunny days, a bunch of drizzly days, but noticeably warmer than February. But this year we’ve had snow and hail, crazy wind, driving rain, and then finally the sun decided to show it’s face. Anyway, the weather madness has put me in the mood for soup, so I decided on her recipe for chicken congee, or Chinese rice soup, but I decided to leave it in the slow cooker instead of on the stove.

In March the wind blows down the door
And spills my soup upon the floor
It laps it up and roars for more
Blowing once, blowing twice
Blowing chicken soup with rice

-Chicken Soup with Rice, Carole King and Maurice Sendak

Continue reading: Secret Recipe Club: Crockpot Chicken Congee

This is the most complicated stir-fry I have ever made. That’s not saying a ton, I always think of stir-fry as kind of lazy food, especially because I can never be bothered to clean and cut all the vegetables, so they’re usually freezer veg. But this is fresh veg! It’s just asparagus, which is pretty easy to cut. Or, if asparagus is out of season or you just don’t want asparagus broccoli would work just as well. I promise, it’s not actually complicated, there’s just a little more to it than throw-crap-in-pan-heat-&-eat. And the texture of the chicken is fantastic, the payoff is totally worth it.

Continue reading: Velvet Chicken and Asparagus Stir-fry

Whether you anticipate a day full of drunken “Kiss me, I’m Irish!” antics, or you’re just hoping that when your kids go around pinching each other and everyone else that it doesn’t end poorly, might I suggest some homemade Irish Cream.

It’ll just make the rest of your day go a little smoother.

Also, since now you’ve got the Irish Cream anyway, might as well make some delicious booze cupcakes with it:

Continue reading: St. Patrick’s Day Roundup

As you can probably tell, I really really like Karen’s blog. I have made three of her recipes so far (out of a long list that I want to try) and each of them was delicious and exceeded my expectations. I was going to share the recipe for her Butter Bean and Bacon Cassoulet which is wonderful but my fellow SRC member Emily had already discovered and raved about it. I’ve chosen to share a really simple recipe for mackerel pate which we had as part of a lovely lazy Sunday lunch. This would also be a great starter at a dinner party.

Ingredients

• 250g peppered smoked mackerel
• 125g cream cheese with herbs (Karen suggest boursin)
• 125g creme fraiche
• salt and pepper to season
• 1 small shallot, peeled and finely diced
• juice of half a lemon (Karen used a whole lemon but check as you go along in case less will do)
• cayenne pepper

Flake the mackerel into a bowl and add all the other ingredients. Mix well and then cover with cling film. Chill for an hour in the fridge before serving. We used fresh crusty bread to serve this with. This is so simple yet makes the most delicious pate I’ve ever tasted. Please go make this and check out Karen’s wonderful blog!

So this morning (possibly afternoon…) Doug and I wanted a very very easy brunch. Preferably one that would use up items we already have and that may be about to expire. This is so easy that I feel guilty showing it on this blog. It’s not really a recipe and can be adapted left right and centre, but man alive is it good…

Baked Eggs – adapted from Tasty Kitchen and Delia

Take rammekina and grease them with butter. Crack an egg into each rammekin and then add some seasoning. I used a pinch of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Then add a teaspoon or two of cream cheese, I used a really good quality cream cheese that was almost like a mousse (because we had it in the fridge) but you could also use cream, yoghurt, milk, anything of that ilk! Then I topped it with a handful of grated mozzarella (my new favourite ingredient). Place in a baking tray and pour boiling water to halfway up the sides of the rammekins.  Then bake for 15 minutes at 175 C or 350 F. Tuck in with toast or a warmed pitta bread!

Continue reading: DtS 2011 roundup

Continue reading: Pao de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)

Brownies are always a favourite with the sweet obsessed (by which we mean us). Lucy will be making a few trays of cheesecake topped chocolate brownies this weekend while Shannon, unsurprisingly, leans towards a brownie with booze – bourbon cherry brownies.

Cupcakes are still really popular and we may have made a few of these over the last couple of years. Amongst others we have peanut butter cupcakes, beer cupcakes, St Patrick’s day cupcakes and Victoria sponge cupcakes.

Lucy seems to have a weakness for muffins with fruit – apple and toffee muffins or chocolate and banana muffins

Biscuits/Cookies – amaretti and ginger biscuits

Someone on the list who doesn’t so much have a sweet tooth? How ’bout Soft Pretzels:

And if you truly can’t be bothered to make anything, our recommended gift lists from last year still stand (part 1, part 2). We would gladly still accept anything by Le Creuset.

Now this is a nice and easy edible present. Also one that will last longer than cakes and brownies and will hopefully be used in many meals to come! Nearly two years ago at my mother’s birthday dinner I had a lovely Cajun Chicken Salad. Once I had demolished the plate in an obscenely short amount of time I turned to Doug and said “I need to find a recipe for this”. Then my main course came along and this happy thought went right out of my head as so many of my food related thoughts do! So when I was poking around the the Secret Recipe Club one day and saw this recipe it all came back to me at once

Continue reading: Gift Week: Cajun Spice Mix