I sacked the pigs in blankets and found a better date

So I've not posted again for quite some time (again) but big news....I've quit my job and am making the move from big city firm to big city bank and going in-house.

I.

Can't.

Wait.

I'm being promised a better work-life-balance so hopefully there'll be more mummy-Pose (mummy and Rosetta that is, not that I intend to spend my spare time from now on standing in awkward poses around my house looking like I'm trying to emulate a '70s catalogue) and baking time. Don't get me wrong, I have been baking and I have more than enough things to blog about, I just haven't had the time to blog.

Anyway, so we'll see.

Right now I'm in the first of my 3 weeks off between jobs and am sat by the pool in Malta soaking up a steady 25C and aiming for a nice dark tan. That, and spending time with the fam' are my only goals this week. I have so far napped, swum (albeit briefly, the outside pool is like a glacier melted and I am not really into spending time in the indoor pool), eaten and drunk my way to a slightly rounder tummy (I have a feeling the following 2 weeks will involve trying to lose this spare tyre) and finished 1 book. I figured before I get into the next book I'd write something! Now, I'm writing this on my iPhone so bear with.....

A couple of years back I bought hubby this great tapas cookbook, it's awesome. There are so many great recipes in it. This is the simplest and greatest!

The recipe - chorizo stuffed dates wrapped in bacon

Ingredients:
- 12 dates (pitted or not, it doesn't matter)
- 1 small chorizo sausage
- 6 rashers of streaky bacon

1) If you have dates with the stones in, take the stones out by cutting a long slit down 1 side (lengthways). If your dates are already pitted they should have a good cut already but if not, make the same cut.

2) Cut the chorizo into 12 fairly equal bits. Place a piece of chorizo in each of the slits in the dates and try to mould the date around the chorizo.

3) Cut the bacon in half and wrap a half around each date (you can always use 1 whole piece of bacon if you so fancy - I won't judge).

4) Put each date in a hot frying pan just to brown the bacon and finish in the oven.

EAT! These are so so good! Better than pigs in blankets or any other variation. I could (and did) happily eat a plate of them all on my lonesome.

Now I'm hungry. Guess I'll have to go survey the hotel's afternoon tea....or maybe just have another piña colada....

Bubble and Squeak (no mice were harmed in the making of this breakfast)

Anyone would think my family subsists on mashed potato* - well not quite - although we are rather partial to it.  Invariably we always have leftover mash so I am always working out ways to use the leftovers the following day as part of my OCD-can't-throw-food-away personality.  We're also partial to good breakfast/brunch grub.  In fact one of the big things we miss about living in the US is a good diner breakfast.  Home fries, nice runny egg (sunny-side up of course!) and crispy bacon...or eggs benedict.  Yum.  I'm hungry just thinking about it.  All in all it means that if we have time breakfast can become a big deal in our house.

Saturday I was in cleaning mode and had my eyes on the fridge that really needed a deep-clean (q-tips at the ready people!).  In order to get the job done I was trying to empty the fridge as much as possible.  I was looking at leftover mash, white cabbage, bacon and eggs.  No thinking required, Bubble and Squeak seemed obvious.

I'm not quite sure of the origins of Bubble and Squeak but as far as I can tell its a pretty traditional British dish that involves mashing/mixing all your leftovers together and frying them up.  Most people go for the mash/cabbage mix (certainly my folks do) so it seemed like a logical choice.

The recipe - Bubble and Squeak

1 cup mashed potato

1 cup cooked cabbage, finely shredded (I used white but equally you could use spring greens etc)

2 rashers of bacon, cooked and finely chopped

1 tsp onion powder (alternatively use 1 small onion, I had none though - extremely unlike me!)

4 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped (I grew a ton so I've been trying to use it a lot - I feel so smug)

salt and pepper, a good grind of each (tee hee, grind)

1 egg

butter for cooking

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.

2. If you do not already have cooked cabbage start by cooking the cabbage.  In a saucepan heat a tablespoon of butter with a tablespoon of water until the butter is melted (I recently learnt this trick - it apparently emulsifies and coats the cabbage to give it tons of flavour - it does and I could happily eat just a bowl of cabbage cooked this way).  Put the shredded cabbage in the pan and cook until wilted.

3. In a large bowl, put the mashed potato, cabbage, bacon, onion powder, basil, salt and pepper and mash it all together with a fork until the ingredients are well combined.

4. Butter a small oven-proof frying pan and warm over a medium heat.  Mash the mix into the frying pan and press firmly down.  Then cook over the medium heat until the edges start to brown (about 5mins).  Dot butter all over the top and put the pan in the oven for 10mins.

5. In the interim, in a separate frying pan fry the egg sunny-side up until the white is cooked.  Unless you really don't like a runny egg please please please put a runny egg on top!

6. You may want to put the Bubble and Squeak under the grill to get the top nice and brown if it hasn't browned enough.  Ease the Bubble and Squeak out of the pan and serve with the egg on top!

Tuck in!

The recipe above serves 1/2 people depending on whom you're cooking for or if you do anything else with it.  Hubster wanted it all for himself so this served 1...equally we could have served half each with some sausages or beans (Heinz of course!).  Whatever you fancy.

*For example, the uber yummy sausage cakes.