In Progress

I am cooking! I do swear I am. We have been working through recipes of late to get them right for blogging and sharing.
Recent Adventures in the kitchen include:

Millionaires Shortbread
White Bread - braided
Ragu
Shortbread - plain but oh so tasty
Lemon Pound Cake
Cinnamon Rolls
Crusty Cheese Bread
Bitten's version of No-Knead Bread
Chicago Style Pizza (deep dish all the way)

That is a long list but I will work on it for March for sure as we are only travelling so far to visit the Swiss to see what kind of cheese, chocolate and Schnapps they have and through in some snow and we are all good.

Tonight Alan and I are heading to one of our favourite London Restuarants called Chez Bruce. The first time we were able to go was because my old team in Redmond the Admins gave me a gift card for the place. Alan did research for what would be something fun to dress up for but was not overly fancy and didn't break the bank. Chez Bruce is one of those places for sure. If you want to dress up you can, you should it does make the evening all the more fun. The food is served as pre-fixed 3 course for about £40 per person! They also have an amazing wine list that covers all countries and regions so you can't go wrong. So tonight for our 7 year anniversary Alan made a booking to celebrate and we are ready for our evening out. If you go you need to make a booking and thankfully they have changed the booking policy and you are able to book a bit further out then the original month. I am dreaming of my dinner at work already when is the work day over?!

Sloppy Joes – Comfort food

Last night I was in a hurry before we went and met friends at the movies.  We finally saw “Slumdog Millionaire” which by the way is a good movie and totally worth seeing if you have not.  One cool thing is that Orange (a mobile company here) does a 2 for 1 deal with the movie theatres in London on Wednesdays.  It is a great deal and they serve Ben & Jerry’s at the theatre too! 

On to the Sloppy Joes…my brother and I grew up with this recipe made by Mom who had to have something to feed us and Sloppy Joes out of a can just didn’t work in our house only the homemade version.  I don’t know where she go the original but I know both my brother and I still use the original. The great thing is you can easily add a side salad or another green veggie on the side to round out the meal as the meat dish provides good flavours even though it is so simple.  The best part is that it is the ultimate in comfort food with ground beef on top and then bread on the bottom, we recommend either a burger bun or maybe a piece of homemade bread.  It is simple and easy to make and you can do it in under 30 minutes which is why I used it last night when in a hurry.  The ingredients needed to be added in clumps so it does help to measure out ahead and set aside to speed up the process, or at least gather them out on the counter as it will make it so much easier. 

Lloyd Family Sloppy Joes

1 pound ground beef

1/4 cup of each – chopped – onion, celery & green pepper

1 1/4 cup water

1/4 cup of each – Ketchup & Chilli sauce (we use Heinz 57 Chilli Sauce)

1 Tablespoon of each – brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon of each – chilli powder and salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon French mustard

1 teaspoon Parsley Flakes

In a deep fry pan, simmer the onion, green pepper and celery in a touch of olive oil.  Let the onion start to shimmer and add in the ground beef and break up into bits and allow to start to brown.  After about 2 minutes start to add in the rest of the ingredients up to the Parsley Flakes, they will go in last.  Once everything is in let the meat and sauce start to thicken and boil about 7-10 minutes.  At the end stir in the Parsley flakes and serve over a hamburger bun or a piece of toast.  Homemade cheese bread works well too, give it a slight toast to bring out the cheese! 

The dish makes great leftovers too.  Sorry no pictures we ate in a hurry last night!