My clever neice singing... well sort of!

Halloween Cupcakes

There's been a bit of an explosion in the popularity of cupcakes at the moment. Walk past any bakery worth its salt and you will see the most immaculately decorated, minuscule, cakey, bakey delights in pride of place on display. There's nothing wrong with a cupcake so much so that hundreds of the little treats have been used by some to replace a traditional wedding cake! The best part about baking cupcakes is the decorating; I could go wild if let loose with a spatula and some icing so having a theme helped hone it in a little! though you might disagree! (Pumpkins! If only I had found that orange food dye)

CUPCAKES
Makes 12
4oz/115g butter, at room temperature
4oz/115g caster sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
half tsp vanilla extract
4oz/115g self-raising flour Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3. Line a 12-hole cupcake tin with paper cases.
In the food processor or a tabletop mixer, beat the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth.
Turn off the motor and add the flour. With the pulse button, or brief bursts of the beater, mix the flour in, stopping as soon as it is blended.
Divide the mixture between the paper cases.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and springy to the touch.
(recipe from the Times)

ITS BAKING MONTH!
Lemon Meringue Pie
Rolo Brownies
Cup cakes

Recipes to follow!

Sticky Chicken Drumsticks with Home made Baby Potato Cajun Wedges!

What you need for the chicken:
Drumsticks
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp tomato purée
1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Mix together the wet ingredients till you get a nice thick sauce. Make 2-3 slashes on each of the drumsticks and then pour the marinade over the chicken. Coat thoroughly and then leave to marinade for 30 minutes or overnight (in the fridge).

When ready to cook preheat the oven to 200c and place the chicken into a roasting tray and cook for 35 minutes turning occasionally.
Thats the chicken, feel free to add some cloves of garlic around the roasting chicken if you like or some ginger syrup into the marinade.

For the Cajun wedges:

Baby potatoes

Pinch salt
Cajun spice mix 2 table spoons

2 Tbs olive oil (or garlic oil)

Bring a pot of water to the boil and add a pinch of salt. Boil the potatos for 10-15 minutes until tender and then drain. On a clean board cut the potatoes in to halves length ways. Put potatoes back into empty pot and pour over the oil, cover the pan and shake lighlty until all the potatos are coated then remove lid and sprinkle over the Cajun spice mix. Topple wedges on to a backing tray and bake in the oven at 200c for 30-40 minutes. Check midway between cooking and give them a light shake about.

Another family visitor; that's five down and two to go! This time I had my youngest sister (Mina) over, shes been to Aberdeen before but this time she was here for a little longer. We ate out in Aberdeen a couple of times Yatai is one of my favourite Japanese restaurants and I highly recommend it: http://www.yatai.co.uk/Yatai_-_Aberdeens_Japanese_Restaurant/Home.html

We also had lunch at Soul (333 Union Street, Aberdeen) a former church with original stain glass windows is a good lunch spot, thought the staff aren't great!
One night we got fish and chips from the 'famous' Hilton chipper. I dont make it a habbit to get my tea from a chipper, but if the mood ever does occour this one is the BEST!
"Hilton Road chipper just down fae the six roads is one of the best chippers around mmmmmm....fine"
"The rosehill chipper in its hey-day was suuuuperb, but the back hilton chipper gets my vote..."

"Hilton Road Chipper [was my favurite] when I used to live in Aberdeen, top stuff there"
Just some views on Chip shops from the unofficial Dons Website!

But my favourite part of the visit was our day trip to Glasgow.

We made a real crappy video diary of the day, so have a watch!

What do you do with a few left over strawberries and a ripe banana?

Strawberry's. Banana chopped. Brown sugar. Double cream. Milk. Whizz. Vanilla ice cream.

Strawberry milkshake done!

Pan fried chicken pasta with feta

I wasn't even going to put this recipe on the blog but have just put my fork down and reconsidered!

Its really good, perfect combination and so simple. Though I reckon you could play about with it a little; I might add juicy sun-blush to this next time.

for 1-2

cooking oil

2 garlic cloves

chicken breast

butter

rosemary

rock salt

salad onion x2

red chili chopped

good hand full mange-tout (or runner beans)

hand full of salad leaves (rocket and water cress)

whole grain Mezze Maniche pasta (big penne)

extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

cubed feta cheese

olives marinated in parsley oil (optional)

Cook pasta according to pack instructions.

Heat some cooking oil in a pan on a medium-low heat and infuse the garlic in the oil for a few minutes. Season the chicken breast lightly and then fry for 5-6 minutes then turn over and cook on the other side for 5-6 minutes. You can make a slit through the breast if it is very thick to check for pinkness. Towards the end of the cooking time add a few nobs of butter to the pan, basting the meat with the oil and butter. Remove from the pan when golden in colour.

Adding a little more butter to the pan if needed fry they salad onions the chopped chili rosemary and mange-tout. Stir fry quickly on a medium high heat for 3-4 minutes, until the beans are tender.

Drain the pasta and drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil over the top and then add to the pan with the beans. Season with a little rock salt and pepper. Cut the chicken into little pieces and add them to the pan as well. Toss and combine together before carefully mixing in the salad leaves. Turning the heat right down cover the pan for about 3-4 minutes letting the salad wilt a little.

Remove the covering and toss-in the feta cheese and olives if using. Serve in warm bowls.