Busy weekend....

I have had a great weekend! On saturday I was taken out for the day to Winchester for a surprise day out... what I didn't realise was that one of my very best friends who lives more than 250 miles away had driven down to surprise me, we had a great day out, was so good to see him and catch up,it had been a long 18 months. :)

We'd also been on a shopping trip to Southampton the week before for my mums birthday, that was a great day too! I'm being spoilt :)
While we were out we stopped for a drink and my daughter wanted hot chocolate, the girl at the counter asked if cream and marshmallows were wanted - knowing my daughter I said yes... this is what she got!! (Wow)

Apple pie!

Apple pie is always a favourite in our house, I haven't made one for a long long time, but my partner had got some cooking apples in and I decided to make one!

This recipe is going to be a bit vague so apologies for that! I didn't count how many cooking apples or what weight they were before I started just peeled what we had and that was it! :/

Apple pie filling
Cooking apples
Sugar
Water

Apple Pie Pastry

8oz Flour - I use either self raising or plain - both work.
40z Margarine
Water - to mix
Milk to brush pastry

I peeled, cored and chopped the cooking apples into big chunks, put them in a saucepan with a little water (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) and sprinkled sugar over the top. Started cooking them on a low heat - increased the heat once the apples started to release their own juices and soften. Once they were completely soft and stewed I left them to cool slightly for a short time.

Mixed the flour and margarine into breadcrumbs and slowly added
the water til it was a dough like mixture.
Floured a board cut the pastry mix in half rolled one half out then laid it in an enamel plate.
I spooned the apple into the pastry, then rolled out the other half of the pastry mix and placed this over the top. I pressed the edges of the pastry down with my thumb to pinch it, then cut off the excess pastry with a knife.
I brushed the top with a little milk.

Baked for 40mins (approx) on Gas Mark 6.

I then sprinkled a little sugar over the top and served! :)

Apple turnover (sort of!)

This time I had a little pastry left and some of the stewed apple so I made my own turnover!

Just rolled out the remaining pastry spooned apple onto half and folded it over! pressed down edges and baked in a cake tin alongside the main pie!

When pie and turnover had baked I sprinkled a little sugar over them both!

I plan to make all little turnovers next time I have some cooking apples in! :)

Egg fried rice

After seeing Taste of My Lifes' recipe earlier today I decided to try and make my own version of egg fried rice, I was thrilled with the result!

I used:

1 cup of rice (didn't want to risk wasting too much if it had been awful! lol)
1 Egg
1 cup of sweetcorn (frozen, defrosted)
2 small onions quartered so they were still nice and chunky
1 large mushroom, chopped

In the first pictures you'll probably notice that the onion and mushrooms aren't in the wok - this is because I cooked these seperately and added them after
I had dished my daughters dinner as she doesn't like either of these.

I boiled the rice as normal and left to cool.I heated a small
amount of oil into the wok and heated it thoroughly, before adding the rice I stir fried this for a few minutes before adding the sweetcorn.

Again I stir fried this for a few minutes to ensure the sweetcorn was thoroughly heated.

I beat the egg in a cup and added a little olive oil.

I moved the rice and sweetcorn over to one side of the wok then poured in the egg, I mixed it up as it was cooking so it broke into pieces, then as it was virtually cooked through I mixed it thoroughly with the rice.
After dishing my daughters dinner I added the mushrooms and onions i'd already cooked and stir fried it all together for a minute or two.

Yum!

Wanted to make a cake for a friends visit today, I usually make Victoria Sponge but wanted to do something different this time, so made a Lemon Drizzle Cake!
I found it in an old book of recipes i'd written out years ago now, so can't remember where it came from, but it was lovely!

~Lemon Drizzle Cake~

Cake
4oz Margarine
6oz Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 Eggs
4 Tblspns Milk

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Grease and line 2 loaf tins, put all cake ingrediants in a mixing bowl, you can sieve the flour if you want to but for this cake I don't bother.
Bake at 180c (Gas mark 4) for 30 mins.

Drizzle
4oz Sugar
2 Tblspns Lemon Juice

Mix up the sugar and lemon together and pour/spoon over the cakes whilst still hot!

I removed the cakes from the loaf tins first and placed them on a sheet of greaseproof paper.

~~~~~

Enjoy!