Lauren Gemmell

Food, Fitness, and Technology

Month: October 2009

Grilled Vegetable Pizza Toasts

Not revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination, but this a quick dish that uses mainly store cupboard ingredients but can use up leftover meats and vegetables.

ingredients

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Pumpkin Risotto

Getting a pumpkin in the UK isn’t as easy as you might imagine. The only variety I saw in Tesco was of the carving variety, and I am guessing that not quite the same as baby bear, crown prince or delicata.

More like pumpkin-grown-for-size-and-not-taste. The last thing I wanted to do was waste my one organic pumpkin.

pumpkin risotto

Over the past few weeks I have heard a lot about different pumpkin recipes like pumpkin brownies and pumpkin cupcakes.

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Coffee Macaron : Daring Bakers

A watched macaron never grows feet.

Or you could say a Coffee Muffins macaron never grows feet. I am writing this blog post munching on failed coffee macarons and feeling pretty sorry for myself (and just a little sick). Five attempts and still no feet.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This time I have no one to blame, I can’t blame the challenge for being too easy or not seasonal enough, or any one of the other reasons why my previous challenges haven’t been good enough. This time I really tried, gave it different attempts over different weeks and yet I have little more to show for myself than after my first attempt.

almond_nutella
Looking back on my first attempt, I may have actually got worse…

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Pomegranate and Beetroot Salad

Pomegranates always make me think of nights when it is pitch black outside, the fire is on, and I’m sitting in the living room with my mum and sister watching ER. My mum would sit with a pomegranate and divide it up passing over chunks of the bejewelled fruit to each of us.

Seeing pomegranates in stores always provokes that memory but it has been years since I’ve actually bought one, yesterday I finally took the plunge and bought two.

pomegranate_seeds

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Cauliflower and Broccoli Potato Quiche

I read this recipe on potato crust quiche and something in my head just snapped into place. I love quiche, but I dislike the ones I buy in supermarkets. I’ve made my own quiche once and while it was good, the shortcrust pastry didn’t exactly go to plan.

Seeing the potato crust idea was like aligning the stars, I could have homemade quiche without the extra hassle. It is also generally healthier using potatoes rather than pastry 🙂

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Vietnamese Chicken Pho: Daring Cooks

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

soup

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Slow Cooked Lentil and Vegetable Curry

Getting up early isn’t one of my strong points, so you know I must be excited about a new recipe when I jump out of bed to get it started. (I have only done this once before, for my ill-fated bba bagels.)

Cooking before work is a strange experience, I always end up in the twinned positions of being rather smug that I have been so productive but also cutting it very very fine for my first meeting of the day. With slow cooking however you have little choice, if you want a slow cooked meal ready for coming home to – you have to make sacrifices.

slow_cooked_lentil_curry

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Slow Cooked Pork Chops with Apple

Slow Cooking is back! After a few months in the back of the cupboard it is time for my slow cooker’s place back on the countertop once more. I only bought my slow-cooker towards the end of spring so I am still getting used to this new method of cooking.

slow_cooker

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