Pasta Cheat

During the hellish ordeal that is weekend shopping, I came up with my next dish. As I sat in Frankie and Benny's watching the rush of people enter, eat and leave the restaurant, I wondered how many of us actually wanted to be there. Who was there by choice, or because it's the weekend thing to do or actually felt they just had to be there. I don't mean just eating out, but shopping. I really hate it, pushing through crowds of people all racing around trying to complete their missions. Sitting in queues of traffic getting angrier and angrier waiting to get to our destination as quickly as we can so we can get home again. I still can't get my head around the fact that people do this for pleasure. Give me the woods or the beach and I'm in heaven. That's not to say I didn't enjoy myself, we had a lovely family day out and it's all about compromise and doing things that everybody enjoys. Watching my youngest two children's faces light up because they are getting treated to a dessert and a balloon, they really are that easily pleased, is a lovely thing even if it isn't my cup of tea. Considering I got my inspiration for this next dish while I was there it wasn't all bad. So here's my recipe for bacon and mushroom tagliatelle. Combat the 'carb coma' by serving with a large fresh salad instead of garlic bread like I did!

Bacon (I used Asda smartprice smoked back bacon for £1.20 312gm)

250g mushrooms (mine were 25p from the Spar bargain!)

Tin of cream of chicken/= or mushroom soup

2 tsp dried thyme 

2 tsp garlic powder

400g tagliatelle

Finely grated cheddar to sprinkle on top

Slice the mushrooms and bacon

On a high heat fry them for 15 minutes or until golden

Add the thyme

Cover the tagliatelle with boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes

Heat the soup

Drain the cooked pasta, add the soup, bacon and mushrooms and serve with a sprinkle of cheese on top. 

Cheap winter warmer or fancy starter? You decide!

Today's recipe is cream of onion soup, so simple and tasty. Considering it costs pence to make you can make it look like a starter in any top restaurant with a couple of finishing touches. It's a nice, filling winter warmer served as either a lunch with crusty bread or toast, or as indeed a starter with some croutons and a cheese crisp, if you fancy cooking a meal for your other half on the cheap. My husband and kids love it, even the dog polished off some I spilled on the floor and he seemed to like it too!

Serves 4
3 med-large white onions
1 pint chicken stock (ideal if you have some leftover from the chowder like me)
40g butter/marg or 2tbsp oil
2 tbsp flour
1/2 pint milk or 300ml single cream (richer with cream but still as tasty with milk)
Salt and pepper to taste.

For the croutons

1 slice bread sliced into squares
Oil

Fry in a pan until golden. Done! (You could always toast the bread for a healthier alternative)

 For the cheese crisps grate some cheese, I just used mature cheddar, and place on some greaseproof paper in little mounds and cook on high for a few minutes (just keep checking them until they bubble and melt) leave them to cool.

For the soup, chop the onions into slices roughly and on a medium heat melt the butter. Sweat the onions in the butter for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so they don't stick to the pan.

 When they are clear and soft add the flour and stir in. Turning the heat up a bit higher add the chicken stock gradually to the floury onions stirring constantly until the flour dissolves and you have added all the liquid. Boil for a few minutes and turn down to a lower heat stir in the milk/cream. I prefer to leave salt and pepper for people to season as they like it individually. Dish up and add your croutons and cheese crisp and a drizzle of oil for presentation!

Cheap and easy autumn tea

Leek and potato soup with warm cheese scones.

Soup ingredients.
Onion
4 leeks
3 potatoes
Half pint veg/chicken stock

Chop the onions, leeks and potatoes into chunks and sweat in butter or oil in a pan until soft. Add the stock and boil for about ten minutes. Blend to desired thickness as salt and proper to taste. If too thick thin with a bit of milk or water.

Cheese scones.

225g plain flour
2 and a half tsp baking powder
50g butter
125g cheese
Tsp mustard/powder
140ml milk

Mix flour and baking powder together, rub in the butter and mustard and then add the grated cheese. Moving with a knife add the milk until dough is formed. Roll out as thick as you want scones and cut. Put in preheated oven at 180 for 20 mins.

Hope you enjoyed my autumn cheap tea!