Meatloaf

Ingredients
900g minced beef
2 onions, peeled
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 celery stalk
4 slices of stale white bread
3 eggs
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons mustard
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon Cajun Seasoning
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (optional)
3 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 teaspoons dried mixed herbs
12 streaky bacon rashers


Method
1. Place the minced beef in a large bowl and set aside. If you don’t have a hand blender or food processor, you will need to chop all the vegetables finely by hand, but the easiest way to make a good meatloaf is to chop them into rough chunks, then put them in a bowl and blend them together with a hand blender.
2. Crumble in the bread and add the eggs, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, chilli flakes, if using, coriander and mixed herbs. The mix should be quite sloppy and wet.
Make sure your hands are clean, because I believe the best way to make meatloaf is to get your hands into the mix. Pour the chopped vegetable and bread mixture into the mince and combine well.
3. Line a 900g loaf tin with bacon rashers, then press the meatloaf mixture into it. Or 2 500gr tins and freeze one.
4. Place in an oven preheated to 180oC/Gas Mark 4 and bake for 40 minutes for the small loaves or 1 hour for the larger ones.

English Crumpets

Ingredients:

• 12 fl oz/350ml semi-skimmed milk, warmed but not boiling
• 1 lb/450g all purpose or plain flour
• 1/8 oz/5g dried yeast
• 2 tsp sugar
• 12 fl oz/350ml finger-warm water (approx)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1tsp baking powder
• Vegetable oil for cooking

Preparation:

• Whisk together the milk, flour, yeast and sugar. Once combined add half the water and beat into the batter, continue to add more water until the batter is thick and smooth. Stop adding water once it reaches the consistency of thick cream. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm draft free place until foaming - about 1, up to 2 hours.
• Whisk the salt and baking powder into the batter then heat a heavy based frying pan on the stove to hot but not smoking.
• Dampen kitchen paper with a little oil and grease the base of the pan and a crumpet (or pastry) rings measuring 3"x 1 ½" (8 X 3.75cm) approx. If you don't have any pastry or crumpet rings the use a small, washed food can to the same measurements.
• Place one ring in the heated pan, add enough batter to fill just below the top of the ring. Cook for five minutes when there should be many tiny holes on the surface and the crumpet is setting. Flip the crumpet over and cook for another two – three minutes.
• Repeat with the remaining batter until used up. Rest the crumpets on a wire rack until cool and reheat in a toaster or under the grill before serving. Serve with lots of butter and/or jam.
• NOTE: If the batter seeps from under the ring it is too thin, whisk in more flour. If the crumpet is heavy and without holes, the batter is too thick, add more water.

Easy Peasy Garlic Bread Pizza

Buy a ready made plain base or make one, but why bother...lol

Garlic Bread Topping
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons sliced fresh flat-leaf parsley
freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
Bake for 10 mins in med to hot oven

Harry Potter

Love this, Mike made the hat and i did the rest and Scarlett loved it...its been eaten now :(