Spring has sprung!

Spring is one of my favourite seasons. After months of dark, gloomy colours (think blacks and greys and browns) suddenly the world becomes awash with beautiful colours and the air seems to be extra bright and fresh with hope. There are two flowers that I particularly associated with the end of winter and the start of spring, and with the hope that this season seems to bring – snowdrops and daffodils. A few weeks ago, I went for a little walk with my family, and found evidence that spring was on the way in multiple ways – the warm(ish) day, lambs and daffodils. I thought I share some pictures in the hope that they’ll bring a little spring sunshine into your day today.

   

Pork Meatballs and Pasta with Easy Tomato Sauce

This recipe is really easy and needs only to be accompanied with some freshly steamed veg or a salad. I used 450 grams of mince when I last made this. However, different supermarkets seem to sell pork mince in different size packs – some are 450 grams and others are 500 grams. You can use either without it making much (or any that I’ve noticed) difference to the final outcome. Weighing out 450 grams of mince from a 500 gram pack is far too much effort!

For the meatballs, you’ll need:

A 450/500 gram pack of pork mince

2 slices of bread

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

Seasoning (salt, pepper and herbs of your choice – I can’t remember exactly, but I used either sage or oregano)

1 egg (if needed – see below)

For the sauce, you’ll need:

2 400 gram tins of tomatoes

2-4 fresh tomatoes

Gravy powder or powdered vegetable stock

Herbs (use the same herbs as you used for the meatballs)

You’ll also need:

Pasta – I used vermicelli, but you choose whichever you like and cook however much you need for the number of people eating (if I ever write a cook book I might need to tighten up on the precision of my ingredient instructions!)

What to do:

1. Peel the onion and divide into quarters. Then remove the skin of the garlic. Place the onion and peeled garlic into a food processor and whizz into a pulp. If you don’t have a food processor, chop the onion and garlic into the tiniest possible pieces you can. When you’re done, put the onion and garlic in a large mixing bowl.

2. Turn the two slices of bread into two slices of crumbs (I realise that doesn’t make complete sense, but you get the idea). This is easiest in a food processor (no need to rinse it after chopping the onions and garlic – too much extra work). If you don’t have one, tear the slices of bread into small pieces and then crumb them by rubbing each piece between your fingers over a bowl. Add the breadcrumbs to the onion/garlic mixture.

3. Add the pork mince and seasoning to the bowl. Seasoning is a bit of a gamble – I suggest you go with a small pinch of salt and shake of pepper and a reasonably generous sprinkle of herbs (with more if you like things herby). Then roll up your sleeves and dig your hands in and mix it all together thoroughly. If you didn’t pulverise the onions and garlic (which makes them slightly liquidy and helps to bind it all), or the mixture is dry and not sticking together very well, add one egg, beaten, to the mixture. Please ignore the slightly alien looking hand in the picture below…

4. Once all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, spoon a teaspoon sized amount of meatball mixture into your hand and roll it into a little ball. Place the meatball on a baking tray (I didn’t use a non-stick pan and I didn’t grease it so my meatballs stuck a little – you might want to consider greasing your baking tray, especially if it is not non-stick). Repeat until all the mixture has been turned into little meatballs and then put in an oven on about gas mark 5 until cooked.

5. Whilst the meatballs cook, make the sauce. First, remove the skin from the fresh tomatoes. I find this easiest to do by blanching – score a line around the tomato from top to bottom and then back up to the top again. Then score another line around the tomato (just piercing the skin) at right angles to the first. Whilst you do that, put some boiling water in a pan over a low heat (just enough to keep it simmering) and then drop the tomatoes into the water for a minute or so. When you take them out the water, the skins should peel off really easily.

6. Roughly chop the peeled tomatoes and put in a pan with the tinned tomatoes and start heating. Add herbs and a small amount of gravy powder or powdered vegetable stock, to taste. I like my sauce to be really tomatoey, so added about one and a half teaspoons of gravy powder, just to give a slightly meaty undertone and help it thicken a little. Cook the sauce, stirring occasionally, until warm and reduced to a satisfactory consistency.

7. As the meatballs are coming to the end of cooking, cook your pasta. Then remove the meatballs from the oven and add to the sauce. If you put the sauce to one side whilst the meatballs and pasta finished cooking, you might need to reheat it slightly (I have a bit of an obsession with hot food). Then dish up the pasta with the meatballs and sauce. Or, if you want to do it the Italian way, toss the pasta in the sauce and then dish it up. Either way, it’ll end up on your plate and ultimately, in your tummy!

Not for the righteous only

Happy belated Easter to my vast readership of two! Although I spent a lot of the Easter weekend thinking about Christ’s death and resurrection, I also kept thinking about a certain passage in Luke (5:27-32), which I wanted to share here. In the passage Jesus is asked by the Pharisees why He eats and drinks with “tax collectors and sinners” (verse 30). Jesus’ response is recorded in verse 31-32 which says, “And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”’ (RSV version). So often I feel unworthy to come before the Lord, particularly when I feel like I’ve failed Him. I wonder how many others share that experience. Or how many people feel like they’ll never be good enough to be in a relationship with God. This passage is a good reminder in these moments of doubt that Jesus came not to call the righteous – those who’ve ‘made it’ in spiritual terms - but sinners – people who can’t make it on their own, who need a Saviour. At the church service that I went to on Easter Sunday, the person giving the talk reminded us that Jesus came to give help in our helplessness and to give hope in our hopelessness. He doesn’t meet us only when we are perfect and righteous. Rather, He meets us in our present situation and invites us to go on from there with Him.

A Bizarre Phenomenon

On Sunday my husband and I went walking. It was great to get out in the fresh air and actually use my muscles for a change. Although most of the snow from earlier this year had melted, there were still patches of it lying around. However, partially melted snow is not the bizarre phenomenon I wish to share with you today. This is much more exciting and unusual. Apparently (so my clever husband’s hypothesis goes), once upon a time in the very recent past (like the last month – he didn’t give that detail, but I’m taking advantage of poetic license here!) a large cavity of usually boggy ground filled with water. The top layer of the newly-created pond froze over whilst somehow the water below drained away (probably into the ground – the observant husband pointed out a possible sink hole in the area) and the frozen ice sheet on top cracked gently and then settled into its new position. Which resulted in bizarre sight in the photos below. The first two were taken from a path quite high above the ice. The rest were taken from a little wander down to the ice itself – usually not a good idea because the ground is unstable, but on Sunday it was frozen in place and so very conveniently stable for us (although a little embarrassing when three walkers appeared on the path far above looking curiously down on us – it felt like we were unprepared actors in centre-stage!)

Photo Fun

A few weeks ago I posted some pretty photos of the snow (see the post here: http://somesomeandsome.blogspot.com/2010/01/happy-new-year.html). Now, sadly for me, I don’t own Photoshop so can’t do photoshopy-fancy-dancy things with my photographs before posting them. But I have discovered a great way to make minor amendment to pictures that is part of Windows. One of the tabs in Windows Photo Gallery is labelled ‘Fix’. I’ve circled it with a big red circle in the screenshot to show you were it is.

This ‘fix’ tab provides a list with five options – I’ve circled them in pink in the screenshot. Let’s take a closer look at those options:

I’ve not really got to grips with the Auto Adjust option yet, and have little need for fixing red eyes in the photos I post on this blog. But the other three options are really useful. The Crop Picture option does just what it says on the tin – crops the picture. This can be very handy when you’ve got a counter covered with cake crumbs that can distract attention from the cake you’re trying to showcase in a photo – just crop out the counter (or as much of it as you can without upsetting the aesthetic balance of the picture!). I use the Adjust Exposure option the most – it’s great for brightening up a picture when the lighting conditions when you took the picture were not great (as happens often in my north-facing kitchen). I’ve recently started playing with the Adjust Color option a little more. Go too far and your picture may take on more than just an odd hue, but play it right and you can get some really fun effects. If you decide to play with this great toy though, just remember to save a separate copy of the original photo or click undo all before navigating away from the picture – otherwise it' will save the image in the state it’s in when you close Windows Photo Gallery or move to a different picture within the program.

I thought I’d share the results of some of my playing with you – just little adjustments of the colour and light can result in a huge array of fun. First here’s the original…

And here are some of the pictures that resulted from my playing…

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

Image 4 (love the sunset effect of this one):

Image 5 (early evening to follow the ‘sunset’):

Image 6 (a little weird perhaps):

Image 7 (sepia tones):

Image 8:

I’m considering printing some, framing them and hanging them together as a set, though I’m not sure which – all suggestions welcome. I think my favourites are images 3, 4 and possibly 8. Which is your favourite?

Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing

I have many exciting recipes planned or executed and waiting to be typed up and posted. Sadly, actually getting round to writing the posts takes much more work (or feels like it) than the creations themselves. Quite often, I have ideas for non-food blog posts, but they’ve gone by the time I actually sit down to write them. This recipe is a fine example of my create-to-write-up problem – I made the cake and took the photos way back in December last year and I’m only posting it now (what a slacker!).

I first made this cake in the summer of 2009 for my brother’s birthday. He had requested a cake with blueberries and on my second try (the first involved a lemon and blueberry disaster) I came up with the recipe below. And it was good. Then my husband suggested using raspberries instead of blueberries so I tried making it again with the substitution. And it was even better. But the best thing about this cake is the icing. The recipe below makes a bit more than is needed, so you can spoon a bit extra on top of each slice or just eat it straight out the bowl (I certainly won’t tell and neither will the numerous members of my family who are guilty of the same…). As always, a cup in the recipe below is a 250 ml one, and measurements involving less than a full cup involve rough guesswork through the glass of the 250 ml cup.

Ingredients for the cake:

5 eggs

2/3 cup margarine

1 2/3 cups white sugar

3 1/2 (three and a half) dessertspoons vanilla essence

3 cups self-raising flour

Pinch salt

3 cups of frozen raspberries (or blueberries or any other berries you have handy)

Ingredients for the icing:

1 400g tub of cream cheese (I think I used full cream)

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence

To Make the Cake:

1. Put the oven on gas mark 5 to pre-heat and grease your cake tin (I think the one I used was an 8-inch one).

2. Separate the egg yolks from the whites and then beat the whites until stiff and then put aside the egg whites for later.(Mmmm…doesn’t that make you think of meringues?)

3. In a new bowl, cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. (Please pretend there’s a lovely picture of the creamed margarine and sugar here. Thank you.)

4. Add the vanilla essence and egg yolks to the creamed margarine and sugar mixture, adding a little at a time (about one yolk) and mixing thoroughly before adding the next bit.

5. Sift the flour and salt into the mixture and fold in gently.

6. When the flour is mixed in, fold in the beaten egg whites.

7. Place half the mixture in the greased cake tin, and then sprinkle half the frozen raspberries over the top of the mixture. Use raspberries straight from the freezer – this doesn’t seem to work very well if you let them thaw before using them. Press some of the raspberries down into the mixture very gently – this will help spread the raspberries through the different levels of the cake.

8. Add the other half of the cake mixture to the cake tin and top with the remaining raspberries. Again, push some of the raspberries down into the mixture slightly to spread them through different levels of the cake.

9. Finally, bake the cake in the pre-heated oven until golden-brown and cooked through. This takes about an hour and a quarter. When the cake has cooked, place it in the tin on a cooling rack in the tin for a couple of minutes and then carefully remove from the pan and leave to cool completely. If some of the raspberries are stuck to the bottom of the pan when you try to remove the cake, gently run a spatula, or even a knife, under the cake to loosen it.

To make the icing:

1. Start making the icing right after putting the cake into the oven. To make the icing, put the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla essence into a bowl and beat together with an electric beater.

2. When the icing ingredients are fully combined, cover the bowl with clingfilm and put it in the fridge whilst the cake cooks.

3. As the cake cools, remove the icing mixture from the fridge and beat it with an electric mixer until it is stiff and easy to spread. When the cake is cool, ice it with the cream cheese icing and decorate however you wish.