February Update - March!

Hey readers!

My thing for february was to spend more quality time with the fiancé. We did manage to have a nice meal out at a cafe once a week, I especially loved Tofts which is a place just down our little avenue that sells great food, I always go for the fish goujon ciabatta, which is basically a posh fish finger sandwich. Calvin usually goes for the steak and cheese ciabatta, equally delicious!

We didn't really get around to having th nice walks, etc, but that will come once the weather gets a lot nicer!

I've now officially started work! I'll get paid monthly, which I was a little annoyed about at first because it'd be nice to have the money weekly. But then again, I'll get a nice chunk at the end of the month! I've already got 24 hours down for this week (twice the amount of my contracted hours!), which is really brilliant as the majority of my shifts are a nice short 4 hours.

For march, the goal is to blog almost every day! Here's hoping I can make it!

In other news, I have a Japanese Speaking Test to get sorted, and I'm feeling pretty grown up and responsible now that I'm taking control of my bills and bringing my own money in.

Here's to march!

Peace and Love
xx

Nigella's Own: Cheese and Onion Potato Pie

Hey lovelies!

I'm back today to share one of my favourite Nigella recipes with you. As a vegetarian, I often have to adjust many beloved "celeb chef" recipes to make them suitable, a great example of this is the variation on the Jamie Oliver Chicken Pie I blogged about here. But with this one, I can stick to it, word for word (apart from buying shop pastry!) and have something utterly delicious! I know, I know, it's summer, and hot cheesy pie isn't really very apt to the kind of weather we should be having. But thats exactly it, the weather in ol' Blighty has been utterly dire, constant rain, cold and windy. What happened to June! It used to be sunny, right?

So, I can go back to my autumn clothes, and my autumn food and indulge, knowing that I'm not being much of a weirdo by eating pie when it's 20C+ outside! Come to think of it, I may even have a log fire tonight!

Cheese and Onion Potato Pie by Nigella Lawson

This recipe can be found in her fantastic book, "How to be a Domestic Goddess"

500g Potatoes (waxy not floury) peeled and diced

100g Spring onions (about 6) chopped finely

125g Mature cheddar: 75g grated, 50g diced

2tbsp grated parmesan (I omitted this)

50g Red leicester; grated (I left this out too!)

2tbsp chopped parsely

4tbsp creme fraiche to bind (around 1 small pot of Asda's own)

First get all your ingredients together, all you need is potatoes, creme fraiche, parsley, 

spring onions and cheese (don't worry, not a whole block!). Oh and pastry, I used a shop bought puff pastry, but you could also use shortcrust, and homemade of course.

Peel and dice your tatties!

Put them in a pan of water and bring to the boil for 5 - 10 minutes 

until tender but keeping their shape. 

Once cooked, drain and leave to cool.

Prep your spring onions, topping and tailing and dice, 

leave 'em chunky if you like a bit of bite, 

they'll mellow out during the cooking anyway.

Mix in with your creme fraiche.

Add the cheese, grate some and cube some. 

Add in your slightly cooled potatoes, mixing all ingredients together.

Add in some salt, pepper, even some mustard powder if you wish.

Put into your oven dish, you could make separate pies 

if you wish (like the recipe suggests).

Top with your pastry, give it a milk (or egg) wash and chuck in a preheated oven (at gm6/200c) for 20 minutes or until golden.

And there you go!

Peace and Love!

xx