Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Hi Guys
Mitul Patel here. 8P. Blog Publicity Representative.
This week it's my turn to write the blog! I hope you have read the blog from last week. We have had some hits already. No time now to enter the Chip Quiz. A couple of Year 7's entered, but so did I and I got full marks - no cheating I promise! So I claim the chocolate bar - those year 7's who submitted answers can still go to Mrs P for a mini mars bar as a consolation prize.
The quiz this week is totally different - a bit tricky but I bet your parents will know some of the answers - especially if they like cakes, puddings and desserts! You'll find the quiz at the bottom of the page.
Last term, in English Support lessons, some of us researched the potato.
We called the projest 'The Humble Potato' because humble is an adjective - a describing word - and here we are describing the good old spud. Synonyms for 'humble' include - modest, not - boastful, reserved.
The spud doesn't show off - it just gets on with its job Yet, it's really versatile. You can use it in lots of different recipes. Mrs P has even got a recipe from Cadbury's where you use istant mashed potato in a chocolate cake - it is a starch after all and you just use it instead of flour! We'll publish the recipe next week for you to try
Potatoes have a lot of history behind them, they are full of nutrients, are easy to grow, and so much more.
Here are a few things I found out...

The Humble Potato

1. The word for potato in French is pomme de terre and the reason why it’s called that is because pomme means apple ,and de terre means from the ground .The meaning of pomme de terre literally means apple from the ground.

2. In the Indian culture we use potatoes in potato pukaras’s

3. Fun Facts about potatoes

· Brits are the third largest consumers of potatoes in Europe. Only the Portuguese and the Irish eat more than us.

· Fredrick Lord Woolton, once a Minister of Food, may be remembered as the most popular government minister ever. During the Second World War he declared that fish & chips were the only food not to be rationed.

4. 2 Interesting Facts about the chip shop

A quarter of all potatoes grown in Britain are made into chips – that’s around 1.5million tonnes each year, or nearly the same weight as 125,000 full double decker buses .

The World’s largest fish and chip portion was made in July 2011 at the Wensleydale Heifer Fayre.

I asked my Dad a fact about a potato, and he told me that the potato skin has lots of vitamins, so we should always eat the skin too.

5. Remember one thing about Spuds in Space

Did you know that in 1995, potatoes were taken into space aboard the shuttle Columbia.This is the first time that food had ever been grown in space. The experiment was to see if potatoes would grow in micro gravity like on spacecrafts. If we are to send astronauts on longer space journeys in the future they will need to grow some of their own food. The spuds did grow, the roots grew in all directions as there was no gravity, and they grew longer and faster than the 'control' ones growing normally in a lab at the Kennedy Space Lab on earth.

There is a picture of the potato tubers growing on Columbia in 1999 below:
Mrs P googled 'spuds in space' and there were lots of other interesting web links.
A school in Idaho, some years later, were allowed to send potatoes up on the space shuttle to see if they would be able to grow on Mars They use soil that contained the same sort of stuff as would be found on the surface of Mars. The spuds did grow!
Another website showed a potato dressed as Santa that was launched into 'space' by some school children in Devon, who attached the mini Santa Shuttle to a helium weather balloon. It was up for over 2 hours at 90,000 metres, before the balloon exploded, letting the santa shuttle float back to earth attached to a parachute! It landed, appropriately in a field of Xmas trees, being grown ready for the festive season!
You can see a picture of SPUDNIK below. Read more about these things on the web for yourselves.

Sweet potato cuttings grown in an Alabama laboratory were flown aboard Columbia to test root growth in microgravity. Courtesy of NASA.

Sweet potato cuttings grown in an Alabama laboratory were flown aboard Columbia to test root growth in microgravity. Courtesy of NASA.

Now here's this week's quiz.......
The answers are Cakes, Puddings or desserts. eg. A mere thing       .answer..TRIFLE
Have a go - even if you can't answer all of them you still might win! The prize is a Christmas selection box!
1.   Door locker, citrus fruit tart.
2.   Cooked US State
3.   American River with a silt base tart.
4    This festive roll is not for the fire
5     Dark Wooded area celebration cake.
6.    Cocoa confectionary with trainee girl guide.
7.    What you do to start a race.
8.    Sweet Ballerina.
9.    One for the 25th December.
10. Mr Clinton's daughter with a type of hair arrangement.
11. Granny Smith's shoe repairer.
12. Public School shambles
13. Espied Richard
14 Half a pair of long legged bloomers - with praise!
15. French eat white dessert.

space by school children from Devon

Named Spudnik2 – in homage to Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957 – the ‘spacechip’ was then tied to a helium weather balloon with a camera attached and launched from the village car park.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1330888/Spudnik-Potato-dressed-Santa-sent-edge-space-schoolchildren.html#ixzz2DGEdVjQS
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

space by school children from Devon

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Hi everyone!
Hopefully a few more of you are reading this blog, now that my representatives from yr 8 have been spreading the word about the bon-appetweet re-launch.
Each week the blog will include interesting stuff about food and healthy eating, funny anecdotes from Food Tech classes, quizzes and competitions where there will often be a prize for the winner(s). Etc. Etc.
I will always include stuff that you yourselves come to tell me about - it might be that you have heard or read or found out something about food that is worth posting on this blog.
Mr Langton often gives me cuttings from newspapers or magazines; some recommend food programmes on the TV worth watching or some have articles on food or just good recipes. I include these in the blog.
Over the next few weeks one or two year 8's are going to have a go at writing some of the blog. Before the summer break they researched potatoes and have quite a lot of interesting things to say about them! At the bottom of this particular blog there is a 'Chip Quiz'. I devised it for my cub scout pack to do - we had a chip night one evening and, along with tasting a selection of chips from different shops and rating them for taste, appearance, moreish-ness, value for money etc., the cubs had a go at the quiz in teams and found it quite fun.
If you print off the quiz and write in the answers, then bring it back to me, I will give a little prize to the best entry - and it won't be a potato or a bag of chips!
This week in food tech the year 9's were busy making savoury plaits, chocolate brownies and chilli chicken with noodles. If there is time at the end of the day's lesson we play a game called ARTICULATE. It is actually a proper board game that you can buy, but this is a Mrs Phillips version. Articulate is like a spoken version of Pictionary - when it's your turn, you have to articulate (describe verbally) the item that is on your card, and everyone else has to guess it and shout out the answer. Boys have to see if they can successfully articulate several items before the egg timer runs out of sand. You can't use any of the words on your card in your description or mime it, or do hand actions.
Could you articulate''' a CHEESE GRATER?   QUORN?    AN ELECTRIC WOK?
A MEASURING JUG?    It's harder than it seems, as the pupils are finding out!
The best competitors by far are Mrs Phillips (11 items in the time) and Mrs Wheeler, the technician who manages about the same number. The boys usually manage about 6 or 7. I am about to think up a number of words that are verbs connected with cooking eg. beating, whisking, rolling, baking, chopping, stirring etc.
This wll give the contestants a different kind of category to articulate, and as they will all be 'doing' words rather than nouns. The temptation will be even greater to mime the action, which is dis-allowed!
I have a good book at home called CLASSIC CLASSROOM CLANGERS - a hilarious collection of funny anecdotes from the world of education. Here are a few answers to exam questions in Home Economics/Food Tech ....

Q How would you keep milk from going sour?
A Leave it in the cow.

Q    What is rhubarb?
A    A kind of celery gone bloodshot.

Q    If a person is feeling ill, why should they not be serving food?
A    Because it is dangerous for deceased people to carry hot food.

Q    Give an example of unacceptable food hygiene.
A    If you find a bird dropping on a table it's not all right to eat it.

And some quotes in homework........
If you want to be a cookery teacher you must spend a lot of time cooking yourself.
An oyster is a fish built like a nut.
If teeth are not cleaned, plague is the result.
To cook ears of corn ( fresh sweetcorn cobs ) - spread ears lightly with peanut butter. Place on grill, turning until done -about 10 minutes. Or let everyone grill his own ears, using long skewers to do so.
Keeping the food under cover is the first step towards ridding your house of aunts.

And finally, a few tips from a book called TRADE SECRETS, FOOD AND DRINK:-
*       To make onions brown more quickly when frying them, add a pinch of sugar. They also taste scrummy and slightly caramelized.
*       to make rice bright white, squeeze some lemon juice into the water while boiling
*      To stop fruit in a bowl from going mouldy, place a piece of kitchen roll in the bottom of the dish to absorb all the moisture.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW. BLOG IN NEXT WEEK FOR THE FIRST BLOG WRITTEN BY A YEAR 8 THAT WILL INCLUDE POTATO FACTS AND A RELEVANT COMPETITION.

QUIPS AND QUOTES on food

No man is lonely while eating spaghetti – it requires so much attention. Christopher Morley

I never see any home cooking. All I get is fancy stuff. Prince Phillip

The golden rule when reading the menu in a restaurant is, if you can’t pronounce it, you can’t afford it. Frank Muir

CHIP QUIZ

1. The most popular day of the week for eating chips is?

FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY

extra mark if you can justify your answer!

2. What percentage of the population love chips?

57% 70% 87%

3 In one year we eat nearly ………………meals containing chips.

1 billion 3 billion 6 billion

4. How many chip shops are there in the UK?

5,000 10,000 15,000

5. An average portion of chips contains 686 fewer calories than

A slice of chocolate cake a doner kebab a pukka pie

6. Oven chips contain just ………………fat.

5 % 10% 3%

7. A study has shown that …………. Chips contain more than one and a half times as much fat as thick chips, making thick chips healthier.

Crinkle cut chips oven chips thin chips

8. When was the first chip shop opened ? In the ..

1860's 1900's 1930's

9. The French often eat their chips with……Chose 2 things

Mayonnaise BBQ sauce black pepper vinegar

10. ¼ of all the potatoes grown in the UK are made into chips. This is the same weight as …………..full double decker buses.

75.000 125,000 300,000

11. Chris Verschueren from Belgium holds the world recors for the longest French Fries cooking marthon. He served 15,000 portions of chips in how many hours?

62 hours 83 hours 98 hours

12. Chip shop chips should be cooked for an optimum of how many minutes?

5-6 minutes 9-10 minutes 12-13 minutes

Work out the answers and hand them into Mrs P in the Food Tech Room, or ask your form tutor to put them in Mrs P's pigeon hole in the staff room. Don't forget to put your name and form on your answer sheet!

Monday, 28 May 2012

Hi everyone
I hope a few more of you are looking at my blog, now that Paul S has put a link straight into it from the school website home page.
Firstly, Mr Langton's recommended foodie tv programmes this week:
The Great British Menu on all week on BBC2 at 7.30.
Gok Cooks Chinese on Mondays Channel 4 at 8.30.
Jimmy and the giant supermarket - anew series at 9pm on Tuesdays.
This Tuesday at 9.30 on BBC2 - Inside the Smithfield Market.
I listened to the Radio 4 Food Programme this week and it was all about breakfast,Some people never bother to have breakfast, for a number of reasons, but it is really the most important meal of the day, If you think about it, the very word tells you of its purpose in our daily 'menu' - it is to break the fast, because most of us have not eaten anything for at least 7 or 8 hours, since our last meal/snack/supper from the evening before. Our bodies need re-fuelling and a sensible breakfast will kick start our energy levels and get us going both physically and mentally.
Government statistics apparantly show that people who skip breakfast are 4,000% less productive during the day than people who do have something to eat!!
When I was a teenager, my favourite meal of the week was the 'Full English' that my Dad would cook after we all got back with him from our Saturday morning swim at the local pool. He was a Scout Leader so there were always quite a few boys who came along to swim too. My sister and I really looked forward to Saturdays!!
Dad, my sister and I were always hungry after all that exercise, and the breakfast was just great! A couple of cups of tea to follow and we were 'charged up' and ready for whatever the rest of the day would bring.
At our swimming baths, the lifeguards were older ladies, dressed in their ordinary clothes - a skirt and blouse,and shoes - , with an overall on top because they had to multi-task and serve in the upstairs cafe at the same time!
Whichever one of these ladies was on duty would sit at the edge of the pool on a chair, near to the diving boards at the deep end. I don't know if they could even swim!
Then, every so often they would disappear off to the cafe if they heard there was a customer waiting and there were no other staff on hand to serve them!!
It would be our Mr Parker's worst nightmare!!
I used to imagine a scenario where some bather would be in difficulty in the water, and someone else would send for the lifeguardlady, who, if she was up in the cafe might say, 'tell them to hang on a minute, will you, 'cos I'm just frying an egg!'
My Dad, who was a trained life-saving instructor had to help someone once who was struggling in the deep end. There was no lifeguard to be seen. Dad had finished his swim and was drying himself off at the side of the pool; he reached out to them with the long pole that is for scooping out test water, then pulled them into the side as they grabbed hold of it.
I hope you all find time for a good breakfast during the week and at the weekend.
I still go swimming several times a week, and on a Sunday I meet my Dad at the same pool - although it's a new pool these days in a bigger leisure centre - and go back to my parents' house for breakfast.
Unfortunately, in these healthy eating days, it's usually a healthy cereal, followed by brown toast and Mom's home-made marmalade!! Gone are the days of a Full English after swimming, although Mom did offer me a banana as an extra last Sunday!!
I often go away for weekends where we stay in good old fashioned 'Bed and Breakfast' accomodation.
You can always have a breakfast of your choice, and we always go for a 'Full English'. It's healthier these days usually, with grilled bacon and sausage, scrambled or poached egg, grilled tomatoes etc. Still scrummy!
When my kids were younger we took them to Disneyland Paris during a half term break. The older I get, the more queasy I feel on the scary rides. Not wanting to let the side down I decided on the first day that I wouldn't chicken out on any of them. We were staying in a local Novotel and I had had one huge breakfast that morning; these hotels offer a great big help yourself breakfast with so much food it is almost obscene! Cereals, fruit, juice, yoghurts, bread rolls, Full English, toast or Danish pastries to follow and plenty of good quality coffee. Our plan, master minded by my money-conscious husband was that we should all have as much food as we could fill our stomachs with, and then we probably wouldn't need to buy any food in the Theme Park at their grossly elevated prices!
We got to Disneyland for opening time, got hold of some fast track tickets so that we could jump queues when things got busy, and set off for the kids' first choice of ride. It was called 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom -Backwards'. You had to sit in liitle coal trucks and be sent hurtling round the track, in and out of the 'mines' at breakneck speed, with the added excitement and terror of the trucks being propelled backwards rather than straight ahead. My husband, the crafty thing, announced that he wasn't going to go on any rides until his breakfast had 'gone down a bit', so of course muggins me had to go with the kids who were raring to start and pleading with me to accompany them. Well, needless to say, I was green by the time I staggered out of my coal truck some 5 minutes later! I dutifully went on every ride that day and was so relieved when the final one we chose before the Park closed was in the Warner Brothers Film Section, and it was called Aerosmith, after the pop group. It sounded harmless enough, but as we were progressing slowly in the queue to where we would get into our 'vehicle' for the ride there started to appear some warning notices on the walls.
DO NOT GO ON THIS RIDE IF YOU ARE PREGNANT OR HAVE EVER SUFFERED WITH BACK OR NECK PROBLEMS. AAaaaaaargh! Panic set in. Too late to turn back. We were helped into the travelling 'car' for 4 persons, and huge, thick, solid safety frames were locked over us by the staff. Not your run of the mill safety belt for this one, no way! Then we were off. To the blaring cacophany of Aerosmith heavy rock music, we were whizzed round and round and upside down and through dark tunnels decorated with guitars and musical notation.
I have never experienced terror like it - I decided I could hear someone screaming, and then realized it was me! As we finally slowed down and emerged out of the tunnels into the bright evening sunshine, I realized that I was totally exhilarated by the experience and, if the Park hadn't been due to shut in the following 5 minutes I might just have been persuaded to queue up for a second go (but don't tell my kids!) The adrenaline was coursing round my body, the endorphins had kicked in and I was, I suppose, high!
Back again the next day for 9 oclock, but this time, although I had still indulged in a huge breakfast I insisted that my husband's turn to take the children on the first ride of the day; I sat on a bench in the sun and read the newspaper!
Signing off now, as it's 11.30pm. More recipes and interesting facts about spuds and chips in my next blog.
Mrs P

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Hi everyone
Our vigilent 'what's coming up on TV' scrutineer, Mr Langton foretells some good foodie programmes coming this week..
Gok Cooks Chinese over several Mondays Channel 4 8.30pm.
Great British Menu every Wednesday BBC2 7.30pm
Thursday 24th BBC2 9pm. this week The fish market - inside Billingsgate - new 3 part series featuring the 3 main London fishmarkets.
On More4 at the weekends there is quite a lot of food stuff - looks like it's all day long.
There are some more of my recipes at the bottom of the page. Do have a look and maybe try one or two out on your family.
I had an ingenious answer to one of the questions put to my Year 7,s this week.
Q Why are gas hobs better than electric when frying pancakes?
I had told them before that it is because the heat is instantly controllable.
This particular response was, 'if you splill pancake mixture on the hob it burns off faster!' ?????
He got a mark for trying!
I have managed to save some budget money this year, so with luck will be ordering some new aprons, and for my one big item I plan to buy a new Kenwood Mixer - we use my old one a lot and it really has seen better days.

See if you can answer these quiz questions with your knowledge of nutrition..

Read the following statements and circle the correct answer in each case….

1. The nutrients that are needed for growth and tissue repair are called MINERALS/ PROTEINS

2. Carbohydrates include sugars, starch and

FIBRE/ VITAMINS

3. It is recommended that we drink at least

4 – 6 / 6 – 8 ‘cups’ of fluid each day.

4. The recommended daily intake of FIBRE is 15g / 18g

5. The Eatwell Plate is divided into 5 / 7 segments

6. Guidelines for healthy eating state that we should try to cut down on our intake of sugar, fats and CARBOHYDRATES/ SALT

7. A shortage of Vitamin C / Vitamin D in the diet can result in the illness known as Scurvy.

8. The mineral Iron is needed in our diet. It is one of the

MACRONUTRIENTS / MICRONUTRIENTS

9. The function of Calcium in our bodies is to help form

healthy BLOOD / BONES AND TEETH

10. The role of fats in the body includes keeping us warm, protection of vital organs and fats are a concentrated source of ENERGY / VITAMINS

Answers are at the bottom of the page:

QUICK TIRAMISU

150 ml strong black coffee

2 tbsp rum/brandy/cream liqueur (stirred into the coffee)

2 tbsp caster sugar – dissolved in the coffee

8 trifle sponges, cut into thick fingers or 18 sponge fingers

½ pint double cream, whipped

1 small tub mascarpone cheese 1 can/carton custard

2 oz grated chocolate

Arrange half the sponges in a shallow serving dish. Pour over half the liquid.

Mix together the custard, whipped cream and cheese.

Spread half this mixture over the sponges. Top with the remaining sponges and drizzle over the rest of the coffee mixture. Spread over the rest of the custard mixture. Sprinkle with grated chocolate and chill.

FRUITY TIRAMISU

Recipe as above but also

200g raspberries + 2 nectarines, stoned and chopped.

Put half the fruit on top of the first sponge layer, and the other half on to the second layer of sponges.

Can use cocoa powder dredged on top instead of grated chocolate or a mixture of both.

CHICKEN/TURKEY AND VEGETABLE CRUMBLE

Can do a veggie verswion by omitting the meat

Some chicken breast (or turkey breast/thigh meat)

A selection of vegetables eg. onion, carrot, leek, courgette, celery,

peppers)

oil for frying

can of chopped tomatoes 1 spoonful of red/green pesto

seasoning eg. Salt/pepper/soy or Worcester sauce/curry powder

dried herbs/stock/chilli sauce/garlic etc.

topping: breadcrumbs,

grated cheese or slices of mozzarella , dried herbs,

optional – fresh coriander, chopped

Prepare all the veg – cut into slices or small dice

Slice the chicken/ turkey

Fry off all the veg. in hot oil until glossy.

Remove from the pan and fry the chicken/turkey.

Return the veg to the pan, add the chopped tomatoes, some stock and your choice of seasoning.

Cook for about 10-15 mins to thoroughly cook the meat and reduce the sauce until it thickens.

Spoon the mixture into an ovenproof dish.

Sprinkle over the coriander.

Mix the cheese, breadcrumbs and dried herbs and spread over the meat and veg. mixture.

Bake for about 20 mins in a hot oven until the topping is golden and crisp.

Tortellini bake A ‘Jane Phillips’ invention!

1 pack fresh tortellini -there are always a choice of fillings

1 can chopped tomatoes

Optional – garlic, chilli flakes

A variety of vegetables eg. Red/brown onion, spring onion,

Peppers, celery, mushrooms, all chopped

Oil for frying – can use olive oil here

If the tortellini is veg and cheese, can add other leftover meat to the veg mix. Eg ham, chorizo, chicken

Grated cheese of choice - even Parmesan!

Choice of seasonings eg. Soy, Worcester sauce, dried herbs,

METHOD

Boil the tortellini according to instructions.

Rinse off starch and set aside.

Fry off all the chopped veg for 5-10 mins, then add other meat if using. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and add seasonings to taste. Add the pasta to the created sauce, and spoon into one or more ovenproof containers.

Top with grated cheese. Can chill or freeze at this stage.

When required, bake for 15-20 mins at gas 5, 190 C.

Nice with salads, garlic bread.

Answers to quiz:

1. Proteins

2. Fibre

3, 6-8

4. 18g

5. 5

6. salt

7. Vit C

8. micro nutrients

9. bones and teeth

10. energy

Friday, 18 May 2012

Hello Everyone
Again a delay in publishing this blog - too busy!!
Firstly, Mr Langton recommends that we watch the Great British Menu programmes every week, and also to look at the Hungry Italians.
I enjoyed one of the 2 Hungry Fishermen episodes where they went to a shop that was making traditional Cornish Pasties,
An authentic Pasty is made with all raw ingredients, wrapped in lovely shortcrust pastry and cooked for about 40 minutes.
The history of the Pasties is that they were made for the Corish tin miners by their mothers or wives; they took them down the mines for their 'packed lunch'. The idea was that the pastry protected the delicious filling inside from the miners' dirty hands as they ate their meal.
Also, the pasty was often divided in two by a strip of pastry inside and on one side of the strip was the savoury filling and the other side held the 'pudding'!
I wonder what types of filling were used for the pudding course?
Probably not rhubarb and custard which is one of my favourite puds!
A chocolate bar to anyone who can research this and come with an answer.
Also, write down what your ideal savoury filling would be and the pudding you would like to be in the other half! A prize for the best answer.
The hungry fishermen then took over the pasty kitchen and created some delicious pasties using smoked haddock, leeks and potato. They tried them out on some Cornish fishermen who gave them the thumbs up even though they had never considered using fish in a pasty!
The latest quote from one of the Year 7's last week was ...'Miss, my sink is DEAD' !
After going over to look I discovered that his sink was 'blocked', the water wouldn't drain away. Blocked with masses of bits of food that he hadn't scraped into the bin before washing the utensils.
I had to show him that all it took was to put your hand into the plughole, grab hold of all the bits and remove them to the bin. He looked disgusted! 'It's the cleanest food waste you ever have to handle', I reassured him, but he didn't look too impressed! Needless to say, his team did not win the cleaning up competition!
I am launching the House Masterchef competition next week. Your House Tutors will need to find would be chefs from each Year to take part in the Challenge, and there will also be one for Staff!
Below the blog are 4 recipes for you. 3 variations on a traditional trifle, and a quick sticky toffee pudding that is very rich but yummy in small amounts.

BLACK FOREST TRIFLE

1 Chocolate cake or chocolate roll, cut into slices

Can of black cherries Optional – kirsch or sherry

1 pint of custard/chocolate custard ½ pint fresh cream 1 blackcurrant or black cherry jelly grated chocolate

Place the slices of cake in a large bowl and soak in a little alcohol or blackcurrant juice. Drain the fruit and spread the fruit over the cake. Make up the jelly and allow to set. Chop up with a fork

Top the fruit with the custard and leave to set. Pipe rows of cream across the top of the custard, and put spoonfuls of jelly in between. Sprinkle with grated chocolate.

CARIBBEAN TRIFLE

1 Jamaican ginger cake, sliced Opt - few drops of rum/sherry

1 can mango slices or 1 fresh mango

1 can pineapple pieces or some fresh pineapple

1 pint custard ½ pint fresh cream

Fruit for decoration – slices of kiwi/pineapple/mango

Chopped nuts/chocolate

Place the slices of cake in a large bowl and drizzle with alcohol or a little orange juice or juice from the tinned fruit.

Drain the fruit and spread over the sponge.

Top with the custard and allow to set. Spread whipped cream over the top and decorate with mixed fruit and some chopped nuts.

Lemon Trifle - serves 6 portions

1 packet trifle sponges some lemon curd (or jam of your choice)

2 lemons - juice and zest

some tinned fruit eg. mandarins/apricots/peaches

approx. 50g (2oz) icing sugar

5oz. double cream - lightly whipped

Split the trifle sponges and spread each half with lemon curd or jam, then place them in a serving dish. Remove the zest from each lemon and keep. Squeeze the juice from 1 ½ of the lemons and pour over the trifle sponges, mash lightly with a fork. Using the juice from the remaining half lemon and icing sugar, make up a runny icing and pour this over the sponge mixture. Top with the fruit. Cover with cling film and leave for 1-24hrs. To serve, top with whipped cream and scatter with the lemon zest. If you like, you could add a layer of custard between the fruit and the cream.

QUICK STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING serves 4

1-2 cakes eg. Jamaica Ginger cake/Madeira cake

Sauce – 2 oz butter, 2 oz Soft brown sugar

Some sultanas/raisins/ chopped ready to eat dates

Vanilla extract 5 fl oz double cream

Oven 190 C, gas 6.

Cut the cake into slices and lay on the base of an ovenproof serving dish.

For the sauce – put all the ingredients (except the vanilla and cream) into a saucepan.

Heat up until the sugar dissolves. Bubble for 5 minutes.

Now add the vanilla and cream.

When frothing, stir well. Allow to cool a little.

Pour over the cake and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Serve with eg. custard or good quality ice cream, or pouring cream.

Monday, 10 December 2012

INTERESTING SPUD FACTS

CHRISTMAS FOOD FACTS

A fun christmas quiz - Mrs P has the answers locked away in the Food Tech safe. Print off your responses, hand them in this week, and win a Christmas selection box! If no one enters, the 2 bloggers get the chocs!!