Brownies by post

What lovely friends we have made via the internet. We were delighted to receive a parcel of some award winning chocolate brownies from Charlotte at Go Free Foods Ltd.

The brownies arrived wrapped in pairs in cellophane bags, tied with a pink ribbon.  Sous Chef J was keen to try them out and soon declared them to be "delicious".  The deep, chocolatey flavour was amazing and the brownies had a dense, but soft, texture. 

With a cuppa and a sit down in the sunshine they made for a lovely, restorative treat.  The remaining packs were perfect for taking out for days out for those, all too common, just-in-case moments, when eateries have no gluten free cakes on offer.  However, they didn't last long... they're just too tasty.

Thank you Charlotte (aka @GoFreeCakes on Twitter) - we thoroughly enjoyed our delicious treat eats!

Slow cooker stew

Having been out for a quick food shop one morning, Sous Chef J asked what we would be having for tea.  So, looking at the contents of the fridge, we decided on a stew... "of some sort".  As we were going to be out for the afternoon, it was agreed that a slow cooker meal would be a good idea.










We gathered the ingredients together and decided on using stewing steak, one onion, tomato puree and vegetable stock.  The onion was chopped roughly and sweated for a few minutes in a pan with a dash of sunflower oil.  At this point a generous squeeze of the tomato puree was added and cooked on a low heat for about 5 minutes.  During this time, we peeled and chopped the carrots and cut the beef into smaller chunks.   We also turned the slow cooker on to heat through at this point.

Next, the beef was added to the onion and tomato in the pan and browned lightly.

Once it was all browned, we added it to the slow cooker together with the stock and carrots.  The lid was placed on the pot and we left the cooker on HIGH for the first hour.  Before we headed out for the afternoon we turned the slow cooker down to LOW.

On our return home at the end of the day, we were greeted with the lovely aroma of our simple stew.  It didn't take long to steam some Brussels sprouts and add some potato wedges... serving up the stew in a pasta bowl and our meal was ready.

Hamster heaven

Wow. What a lot of lovely lot of following/followers we have on twitter. I happened to see a tweet from cupcake maker extraordinaire @MrsAitchB the other day where she was sharing pics of her magnificent animal decorations (she is also know as the Cupcake Artisan).  I asked whether she did a hamster, which of course she did, and she kindly offered to send a pic to Sous Chef J.

Well, you can imagine the delight when, instead of a picture of hammy, this amazing parcel was delivered to us today...  

Not only did it have a card with the hamster pic on, but also some freshly made Gluten Free cupcakes and a specially made hamster cupcake decoration too!

@MrsAitchB had written a note to tell us we need to eat the cupcakes today - so that's what we'll be doing...  Sous Chef J says he will try to remember to take a few pics of his decorations before he eats the cakes but can't promise anything.  An update will be posted if he manages it.

Thanks again, @MrsAitchB.  You are extremely talented and we appreciate your kindness greatly.

Evening Update - the decorated cakes...