Rioja-braised lamb shanks with chorizo & garlic

Lamb shanks are not something we have very often and every time we do cook them we always wonder why we don't have them more often. They are completely delicious, and adding chorizo and garlic just makes them all the more scrumptious. There are a lot of ingredients in this recipe which can be a downside to many of the recipes in the book. But despite all those ingredients it is a case of getting everything in the pot and cooking. We had it with mashed potato, in fact I think we'll be making this again soon, especially as it's getting so cold!

Big Tipsy Trifle.

When a dish is the one you find on the front cover, then I think you automatically have great expectations of it, this is the one to make. This is the showstopper, as Paul and Mary would say. Well this is a massive trifle. I didn't have a bowl big enough, or the stomach to make the entire thing. I reduced the ingredients by half and made it in one of my mixing bowls (note to self, ask for some nice presentation things for christmas!) But even in a simple Pyrex bowl I was really pleased with the way this turned out. It is mainly mixing ingredients and then just placing them in the correct order, very simple.

But when you taste it, you do end up wishing you'd made the bigger one because the leftovers would have been fantastic. I great dessert, very simple, very tasty.

Deep fried Camembert

Well I have a confession, I can't even remember when we had these, I think we had them as part of our Easter Sunday meal but it could even have been Christmas! I've been scolding myself for not updating this blog over the summer holidays but just haven't found the time. We've been away in the tent quite a few times. Anyway, deep fried camambert! This lovely little dish is probably a huge contributor to why the whole of our household is now on a serious diet. This is so moreish. Mark doesn't usually like soft cheeses like this but he seemed to be enjoying this one! But then anything deep friend is going to be good.

Shameless, flourless, moist and sticky chocolate cake

Now in the home cooking book, different courses and types of food are split into sections, such as savoury, cakes or desserts. Now this one you'd expect to be in cakes, but it's classed as a dessert and once you taste it you realise why. This is a really moist, rich and scrummy cake. I could easily eat all of this by myself. I treated us by using decent chocolate to make it and it does make such a difference. While I was working through the baking made easy book I tended to keep to cheaper ingredients because it made a big difference to the weekly shop. But with this one, because I'm not getting through it quite so quickly, now I'm back at work I do try and treat myself as much as possible. The great thing about this cake is that it's gluten free, so it's practically heathly!

Lemony basil spaghetti with mascarpone, chilli and chives.

This was never going to be a popular dish our house because Mark would spend most of dinner time looking for the meat. He feels it's never quite a proper meal without a decent slab of protein hiding somewhere in there. I don't mind going without as long as the dish can stand up for itself in terms of flavour and filling ability. This was a really tasty dish, it's got chilli in it so really it can't go far wrong. The great thing about it though is just how easy it is to make. That's the wonderful thing about using a cream cheese like mascarpone to make sauces, they cut the preparation time and difficulty in half. So all in all a tasty dish in the time it takes to cook the spaghetti. Lovely.

Asian ribs with spicy cornbread

Ok, so maybe a strange combination for a Saturday lunchtime but I didn't really know what else to have each of them with. The ribs do taste good and are really simple but there is no sauce, well on these there wasn't any. I was hoping to mop up sticky juices with the cornbread but it turned into quite a dry meal. The cornbread probably wasn't as spicy as it was meant to be because I made it for the children to eat but it was tasty. These aren't on the top of my list of things to make again. I think I need some education on American food because whenever I see it made it looks so fantastic and I want to dive in, but I just can't seem to get it right.

Chicken Noodle Soup

We don't have a lot of soup in our house, mainly because the children seem to be really suspicious of liquid food, to the point where they won't even have tomato sauce (which to be honest I'm quite relieved about). So a comforting noodle soup was needed on a cold february lunchtime. It was delicious, but there is a lot involved in making it. All the vegetables need to be chopped quite carefully. We're used to a couple of pieces of potato or leek and then blitzing it all together. I think we'll add more ginger next time and chilli and keep it as an adult only meal, it definitely needed a bit more kick to it. So a make again, but with added spice.