Healthy Salmon Burgers

Another recipe from Good Housekeeping magazine. Was very easy to make and yummy served with a green salad. Perfect for when you need to eat later than usual as it's really light - do make sure you add enough salt otherwise these won't taste as good as they should. I halved the amount to make enough for two.

Healthy Salmon Burgers

Serves 4

4 Salmon fillets
1 tbsp Thai green or red curry paste
4cm (1½) fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
Zest of 1 lime, finely grated
Fresh coriander, small handful
1 tsp vegetable oil

I used my magimix for this, as instructed by the recipe but you could probably do it all by hand if you don't have one.

1. Put half the salmon in a food processor and whizz until completely smooth.

2. Add the remaining fish, curry paste, ginger, lime and coriander, season and whizz until combined but still retaining some texture.

3. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Form the salmon mixture into four equal patties and fry for 8-10 minutes or until cooked through, turning once.

4. Serve with salad, sweet chili dipping sauce and lime wedges.

The Cottage

My family like things to look nice, my sister is the messiest member and she's an artist, so you see even she wants things to look nice. This means we hoover, we clean, we um and ahh about interior decoration, we sleep for weeks with curtain fabric swatches pinned to the old curtains to see how we feel about them, we update paintwork and maintain exterior walls, upgrade boilers and bleed radiators. My husbands family, who I adore, seem to exist more on the idea that they'll be dead long before anything drastic happens so why bother. This is not to say that their houses don't look wonderful, they really do, but I'm not sure that there's much room for property maintenance in their rather academic brains and they are the base-camp for shabby chic.

Rather scary damp patch over the stairs

My father-in-laws bolt-hole in North Norfolk is the worst hit by this lassez faire approach to home owning. When I first met my husband, nearly a decade ago, it looked rather aged and worn and there were a few cracks. Nothing was done and now ceilings are falling in, carpets are removing themselves and one end of the house is threatening to fall off altogether. Being from a family who likes everything clean and working and I suppose, being a girl, I have been making noises about 'doing the place up' for some time. My husband agrees with me in person, then speaks to his father and they both agree that really I'm just looking for another outlet from which to spend money. Up until now I have been all but patted on the head and told to run along.

The bathroom... my nemesis

That is until the ceiling started to fall in an a rather scary looking drip appeared over the stairs... right where the pipes from the bath run. The bathroom is my bete noir. I hate it. It hates me. It's ill flushing loo, the carpet that shows evidence that this is a mans house and runkles up to shut me in whenever it feels like it. I have had designs on this bathroom for sometime. For my 30th I would like a few quiet minutes with it and a sledgehammer. I may get my wish. These rather scary new developments mean then men in my house have had no choice but to call in the builders and I have persuaded them that there is no point doing things by half. This cottage would be fantastic for renting out some day and doing it up to rental standard is the most sensible thing. This means not only structural maintenance including fixing the roof, but new kitchen, new bathroom, new flooring and completely new paintwork.

Where the ceiling's started to go... over my bed obvs

I have put myself forward as project manager and, because of the beauty of the cottage and it's location, the size of the job, and the wonderful outcome of all this work that I am hoping for, I thought I would blog it occasionally. I've been round taking my before photographs and doing measurements of most of the rooms so I can do costings and have references from London (the fact that all floors need redoing and all rooms repainting make it not ideal for staying long with a baby... that and radiators not working). I hope it's interesting - I'll try to only blog the interesting bits - and that the transformation is successful. Right now, waiting for quotes, it all seems quite daunting, especially as it's not my house. But the only thing to do is jump in feet first so here I go...

Pram Video

OK so usually when I film videos for my YouTube channel they are make-up related. After spending nearly an hour trying to work out how to attach the John Lewis universal footmuff to my pram I decided to record a video on it because it is so easy and yet seems impossible at the time. So here it is...

Oeufs en Cocotte or Baked Eggs

Years ago we went to a Le Creuset sale. I dragged Joe along promising him that basically we'd be saving money in the long run and we would only buy sensible things. All this was true except at the end there were these really sweet tiny little Le Creuset round casserole dishes in four colours and well I just snuck them into the trolley and persuaded Joe at the check out that they would be incredibly useful for single portions of things. To be honest it was a massive lie - I like small things and the colours were so pretty that I just wanted them to take up valuable space in my kitchen. Which they do.

They are, however, the perfect thing for Oeufs en Cocotte which is one of my favourite things to make when I either have too many eggs or leftover double cream that needs eating. It isn't slimming but a little goes a long way as it's quite rich (I can't usually finish two of these) there is something incredibley soothing about being able to eat something in the evening that involves toasted soldiers... which this really should.

This makes enough for two fatties or four people though I really like this as a late night quick comfort supper which usually means there's just you... you can add all sorts of things but I never bother as this is great as it is. There are loads of recipes for this all over the place - this is how I do it.


Oeufs en Cocotte

Serves 2-4

200mls double cream
2 tbsp grated Parmesan
4 large eggs
salt and pepper

I make this in my Le Creuset mini casseroles but they would be fine in ramekins too. Whatever you are using you will need four of them and they need to be buttered. You will need a roasting tin or something in which to make a bain marie - the water will need to go about ¾ of the way up the sides of your ramekins. Once buttered put the dishes in the tin ready to pour the water in. Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.

1. Warm the cream in a pan then add the salt, pepper and cheese.

2. Pour the cream into the prepared ramekin.

3. Crack an egg into each ramekin on top of the cream.

4. Place the roasting tin into the oven and then pour in enough hot water to come ¾ of the way up the ramekins.

5. Bake in the oven for about 10 mins or until the eggs are set.

6. Add a pit of salt and pepper and serve with toasted soldiers.

Tartiflette

I never have a problem deciding what sort of food is appropriate. Except for Saturday lunch. For some reason Saturday lunch really throws me off and, unless its suitable weather for a rare roast beef salad with lots of bread and cheeses, I never have any idea what to cook. I asked my family for inspiration and tartiflette came up as an option served with salads and bread and something nice for pud. Then a neighbour came round offering us half a Reblouchon, she'd bought some in a 3 for 2 offer and was going to be away before they'd have a chance to eat it all. So that sealed the deal. Tartiflette it would be, even though, I was slightly scared of it.

I was wrong to be scared of it - it's incredibly easy to do and is happy to be made up and then just sit about a bit waiting to be cooked. And it tastes divine and is perfect for Saturday lunch or indeed week day supper. There are lots of recipes hanging around so this is mine!

Tartiflette
Serves 4-6

1.5kg potatoes (I like Vivaldi for this)
1 Reblouchon
1 clove garlic
400-500g bacon lardons
300ml creme fraiche
salt and pepper

I use a fairly small but deep rectangular roasting dish for this. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.

1. Butter your dish and rub it with garlic. I tend to smash the garlic a bit to get the skin off so I then leave bits of smashed garlic in the bottom of the dish.

2. Boil a pan of water, add a good pinch of salt and then cook the peeled potatoes until they are just done. Drain them and leave them to cool.

3. Fry the lardons for 2-3 minutes and put to one side.

4. Slice the cooled potatoes into slices (about 1 cm thick) and put one layer of them, using about

half the potatoes in the bottom of the dish.

5. On top of the potatoes sprinkle the lardons and then cover with creme fraiche.

6. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, not too much salt as the lardons will be quite salty.

7. Add the rest of the potatoes as a top layer an then slice the Reblouchon in half and lay on the top skin side downwards.

Tartiflette pre-cooking

8. Cook in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the top is sort of gooey and golden... and looks done.

Just remembered to get a photo as it was being served

Give and Makeup

I am one of those people that finds it hard to through useful things away. I'm not a hoarder but I can see how such a problem can get started. I'm signed up to Glossybox - a fantastic service where you get a box of goodies delivered every month - and the boxes are so pretty and useful that I cannot bring myself to chuck them out. As you can imagine, one a month means that quite a few have now been stacked up in my office, occasionally I use one to send someone something fragile or a make-up product I don't want to get squeezed in the post.

Then I came across Give and Makeup on twitter and suddenly I not only have the perfect use for  my old Glossyboxes but it is a great way to get rid of all those make-up and beauty products you don't use. I get sent quite a few things to test out, often all within the same range and there will be things I know I'm just never going to use, lipsticks and nail varnishes in the wrong colour, the majority of perfume samples I get from Glossybox and they just lie around unloved, taking up valuable space. I'm also terrible at going out and splurging on makeup in Boots and Superdrug and then getting home and finding I've already got something or I've bought it in completely the wrong colour - some end up in my kit, some just go to the back of my personal make-up box. My initial trawl through revealed two boxes worth of products. Now I'm just going to keep an old box in my office for anything that I don't want.

Initially you may wonder why make-up and beauty products are needed for charity - I mean, they are a bit of a luxury surely, but all the products donated go directly to Refuge and Women's Aid who help victims of domestic violence. Thousands of women and children have had to run from their homes to protect their lives and they have to leave everything behind. Give and Makeup need everything from everyday essentials - shampoo, condition, toothpaste, deodorant, to skincare - cleaners and moisturisers and the added extras - makeup, makeup brushes, perfume, nail varnish and even clothes and baby products. Rather than listing things on eBay why not make a box up and send it in? These amazing charities need your help and Give and Makeup is a fantastic way to do it.