Eddie's favourite Milk Shake-a-latte

An evening treat - a milkshake made with the Plum fromage frais - is always greeted with pleasure.
We have tried most of the branded baby fromage frais on the market, and Plum produces the best one. It is creamy, smooth and appeals to both babies and adults.
For two big glasses you will need a glass and one third of milk, a small tub of Plum fromage frais, a handful of blueberries, one small banana, a scoop of vanilla ice cream (Haagen Dazs is the best, but we also love the Cornish style ice cream). Put all the ingredients in the blender and whizz well. Serve at once.

Just look at our milky foamy moustache!

Abel & Cole (box II)

My second gourmet box arrived yesterday. As you can see from my display there was a butternut squash, Jerusalem artichokes, 2 sweet peppers, a box of tomatoes, a broccoli, shallots and radishes. I am not sure what the greens are, spinach perhaps. The last bit would be the most tricky, as we are not very keen on leafy greens.

I showed all the vegetables to Eddie who immediately grabbed the sweet pepper and had a good bite.

I had a good browsing of recipes suggested by Abel & Cole online, and decided to do a Jerusalem artichoke and turkey bake.

This was not the first time I tried the Jerusalem artichokes, and I cooked soup with them in the past, and also roasted them. It is a bit of an acquired taste. They are rather nice but I would not want to eat them too often.
If you fancy to try the dish I made you will need about 200g diced turkey and four Jerusalem artichokes, 2 shallots, a clove of garlic plus a tub of double cream.
First dust the turkey with the flour and pan fry it in butter and olive oild for about 10 minutes, adding salt. Remove from the pan and place into a deep ceramic dish. Slice the artichokes thinly and put in the frying pan with the chopped garlic and shallots. Add a good splash of brandy if you like. Fry for 10 minutes, stirring. Add the contents of the pan to the ceramic dish with the turkey and mix well. Even the mixture and pour over the double cream. Bake in the oven at 180C for half an hour until all golden and bubbling happily.

Update on 10/11/11

My yesterday's dish was pasta with spinach and pancetta. Not the most challenging one, but I thought at least my husband might try it. And he liked it. Yay, success! Instead of hiding veg and moving around the plate (yes, men in their 40s do that too!) he ate it all.

I fried cubed pancetta in the frying pan, added chopped spinach, a finely chopped clove of garlic, 2 mushrooms and a dash of brandy. Once the spinach wilted, I grated a bit of cheddar on top. Cook pasta (in our case it was the mushroom tortelloni) in salted water for 2 mins, drain the pasta, add to the pan with all the veg and pancetta, stir well.

Serve with the grated parmesan on top.

Update on 11/11/11

Pumpkin and sage medaglioni with a butternut squash

Yes, I know, we eat pasta too often. The butternut squash from the gourmet box was skinned and cubed and pan fried with the olive oil and about 30g of butter. If you fancy cooking something similar, you will need a butternut squash, 1 sweet yellow pepper, 1 clove of garlic, half a tsp of chilli paste, 60g of hard cheese (cheddar) and parmesan to serve.
Slice the pepper into small pieces and add them to the cubed squash, cook for at least half an hour, until all the veg is soft and slightly squashy (I also add a bit of water, and cover with the lid, so that it cooks faster), a finely chopped garlic goes in the same sauce, once the squash is cooked, add grated cheddar and mix well, until the cheese melts.
Cook the pasta in a big pot of salted boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain the pasta and mix with the vegetables.
To serve, grate some parmesan.

Update on 12/11/11

Tilapia with spinach and hollandaise sauce

For this dish you will need two tilapia fillets, spinach, a clove of garlic, hollandaise sauce and spring onions.

Quickly fry two tilapia fillets in a frying pan with the olive oil and a bit of wine (about 2 minutes each side). Transfer to the ceramic baking dish. Chop the spinach and fry with the finely chopped garlic, once wilted, take out of the pan and place on top of the tilapia fillets. Add two generous tablespoons of the hollandaise sauce on top (guilty as charged, I used a jar of sauce rather than made it myself. But I made my own mashed potatoes, does this count? :) ) Snip some spring onions with scissors on top of the sauce. Bake the fish for about 10 minutes.

This is the photo of the fish before it was baked.

And served with the mashed potato

Update on 14/11/11
Trofie with broccoli and potatoes

This trofie pasta is produced by Pizza Express. The pasta tastes very authentic, with a good bite. I added a cooked broccoli, one potato (cubed) and pesto sauce, Serve with the parmesan cheese grated on top.

That was the end of the spinach and broccoli. Box no.2 has been used for so many dishes (we still have some shallots left, but they can keep for a while).

My great grandma's quince jam recipe

My great grandma Alexandra was born in the 19th C. She was a unique woman. I wrote about her on my arty blog (see here). In the days before the revoltuion of 1917 Alexandra (or baba Shura, as I called her when I was little) worked as a cook in a baron's household. I suppose she was an equivalent of Mrs Patmore from Downton Abbey, only much younger.
Here she is with her friends, young and yet unmarried (she is sitting in the photo). A friend with the long cascading plaits became a mistress of a nobleman.

Later, when she was already in her 40s, she used to work as a chef in a roadside restaurant where well known Soviet producers and actresses loved to stop for lunch on the way to the south. Her sweet buns were so famous that people would queue from the early hours to buy them from the restaurant shop.
Sadly, when I was a child, I wasn't much interested in her stories, and preferred to lie in the hammock with a book whenever we visited my gran and great grandma's house. I utterly resented the fact that my mother took us to the Godforsaken village in the middle of nowhere every summer and tried to demonstrate my independence. I regret it now. I so wish I could go back in time and talk to my great grandma, ask her about her life and her recipes.
One of the recipes that my Mum learnt from her is a recipe for a quince jam, which I call a vitamin jam. It is perfect for the cold winter weather. It is more of a chutney than a jam.
You will need:
4-5 medium quinces
1 ginger root (about 10cm long, not too stringy, try to find a young one)
1 orange
1 lemon
100g pine nuts (or walnuts)
dried oregano (optional)
granulated sugar (if your quinces weigh about 900g, take 800 g of sugar)

Start with chopping (or grating) ginger.
Put the sugar in a big pan, add a bit of water and once the sugar dissolves, add the ginger, keep it on low heat for about 10 minutes. Chop the quinces into small cubes and put in the hot syrup. Cook for 45 minutes on slow, stirring occasionally. I also add water, so that all the cubed quince is evenly covered with it. After 45 minutes, add a chopped orange and lemon (remove the pips, but keep the peel as it gives that marmaladey taste to the jam). Cook for another 25-30 minutes, stirring frequently, as at this stage the liquid is reduced.
Add the pine nuts (or the chopped walnuts if you prefer) and the dried oregano (which I don't add personally) and cook for another 5 minutes.
Prepare the jars the usual way and spoon the thick jam in the jars before sealing them.

My Mum offers it to her guests in the typical Russian way. You serve a jam in a little crystal dish with tea. She also often adds a few spoons of jam in a mug and pours boiled water over it, she insists this drink is very nice after a walk in the cold. My brother jokingly calls Mum's teas "chacha". When he comes to visit her, he often asks to make some chacha. This brings lots of memories of Mum adding sliced apples and other fruit to tea.

I hope my story will inspire you to try my great grandma's recipe. Raise a mug of hot tea in her memory!

Grilled sea bass with an avocado salsa

Sea bass is perfect on a grill. It is also a quick and healthy way of cooking fish.
For this dish you will need one sea bass fillet per person. You can marinate your sea bass in the white wine before cooking. Add some chopped fresh herbs (parsley) to the marinade.
Start with cutting a sweet pepper in two halves and placing in the oven for 25 mins in a little creamic dish with a drizzle of the olive oil, until soft.

In the meantime prepare your salsa: skin the avocado, cut into cubes, place the cubed avocado into a bowl, add a good squeeze of the lemon juice, half a teaspoon of the hot chilli paste, finely chopped spring onions, a tbsp of the olive oil, salt, sliced cucumber (about 1/4 of the big cucumber), and chopped roasted pepper.

Add a bit of the olive oil to the griddle pan and cook the fish on the very hot griddle pan for about 3 minutes skin down, turn over and cook for another 3 minutes.

While the fish is cooking, reduce the wine & herbs marinade in a small pan to a thicker sauce.
To serve, place a fillet of fish on a plate, drizzle some wine sauce, add a helping of salsa on a side.

Serve with a good chunk of bread. You can also serve it with the vegetables of your choice, baby new potatoes are lovely with the sea bass. Enjoy!

Avocado and cashew nuts salad

Do you love avocados? I do. I remember the first time I tried it, it was about 16 years ago, when I was a student at KIAD and was renting a room in a house where we had students from several countries. A friend of mine Cloe taught me how to make an avocado salad with cashew nuts and cheese.

It is a very easy and healthy salad. All you need is a good ripe avocado, iceberg lettuce, cashew nuts (unsalted), a hard cheese (like Leerdammer or Jarlsberg) and a dressing made of the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Just cube the cheese and avocado (half an avocado per person), add a sprinkling of cashew nuts, skatter these ingredients on top of the iceberg lettuce, drizzle with a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and it is ready.

Brilliant for a quick lunch, when you don't want to be stuffed.

 I enjoy the combination and variety of tastes and textures of the smooth avocado, firm cheese, crispy lettuce and cruchy nuts in this salad.

My Little Box of Bedtime Rhymes (review)

Lucky boy Eddie was a winner of a boxed set of My Little Box of Bedtime Rhymes by Little Tiger Press. This is a mini-library of traditional bedtime rhymes, with the classic favourites like Hey Diddle Diddle and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, just perfect for a little person who is starting to discover an amazing world of the nursery rhymes.

These books have charming illustrations by Sanja Rescek. Sanja Rescek lives in Zagreb where she studied graphic design and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. She has illustrated picture books for Random House, Scholastic, Campbell and many others and she has also illustrated cards for UNICEF. When she is not illustrating, she enjoys painting and designing children's furniture

The images are kind, loveable and soft. The books are small and chunky and just the right size for small hands.

Which one to choose? Choices, choices...

Bonding

When Eddie was born, Sasha was already 8 years old. I kept looking for a good article to read as to how to prepare a child on the spectrum for the arrival of the sibling. There is plenty of information on what to tell your older child when the new baby arrives in the parenting magazines and on parenting forums, but hardly any information on the challenges of explaining the situation to the child who has special needs or is non verbal. As if our children with their condition and all the issues coming with this do not exist for the media. Even the occupational therapist wasn't clear which books to suggest. The ones she mentioned were aimed at any neuro typical child and are those widely available online. I bought a couple of books on Amazon along the lines "I am the big brother" etc, neither of which did any impression on Sasha. He completely ignored them and wasn't interested in talks or books about babies. So, it was with great trepidation that we awaited the arrival of our second child, not knowing how it would affect Sasha. I joked that it might be such a shock for Sasha that he might start talking (it didn't happen). And as I had an elective caesarean and had to be away in the hospital for a few nights, I was very anxious. How would my son cope without me, I never left him for a night (apart from the very first night in the hospital when he was born, I was high on drugs and too exhausted to argue, and Sasha was whisked away). Thankfully, my Mum was here to help, and I will be eternally grateful to her for her patience. I know how difficult it was to deal with Sasha on her own, when my husband took me to the hospital. But she managed.

15 months later, Sasha is slowly adapting to having a little bother of a brother around. There are times when he is immensely annoyed with Eddie. Eddie adores Sasha, whom he insists on calling Papa. Sasha cannot do anything wrong in his eyes. Even when Sasha is being difficult and non-cooperative and noisy to the extreme, Eddie looks at him with adoration and love. For him Sasha is normal.

Sasha also has his moments of affection for his little brother. He would come and spontaneously kiss him or hug him, and my heart melts.He usually kisses him on the head, like the politicians do.

The other day we were in the bookshop and Sasha kissed Eddie who was sitting in his pushchair. Some old lady was impressed, and I thought: Little do you know.

 There are rare moments when Sasha entertains Eddie by playing with him. As long as Eddie doesn't touch his laptop or DVD player, then Sasha would let me know I should look better after the baby.

I love this photo. It is not of great quality, as I had no time to adjust the lens, but I love this look of gentle affection shining in Sasha's eyes. It is a genuine love, not something staged for the sake of the camera, and that's why it is a precious snap for me.

A Christmas giveaway - Italian Christmas box from Mediterranean Direct (c/d 25 November 2011 NOW CLOSED)

Image credit - Mediterranean Direct

I was searching recently for an Italian hamper to send as a gift to my friend's 80th birthday, and was pleased to discover a company called Mediterranean Direct. My friend was delighted with her gift. She is quite a foodie and enjoys exploring new flavours.

Mediterranean Direct is a company specialising in Italian food and wine, their online store has a selection of over 500 foods from Italy, quite a choice. So many temptations!

As Christmas is rapidly approaching, I decided to do a pre-Christmas giveaway.

A winner will receive an Italian Christmas box.

A simple but tasty collection of sweet and savoury Italian goods presented in a decorative Christmas Box. A nice way to say thank you or Merry Christmas.
Handwrapped Mini-Panettone from Sicily with Christmas Toy (100g) - This is no ordinary Panettone and you will not find this quality in the supermarket. Fiasconaro follow traditional receipes including the use of delicious Sicilian fruit and a leavening process that ensures a light and moist texture. We think this is the best panettone we've ever tasted! On top of this it's beautifully wrapped and comes with a cute Christmas toy.
Cannellini Beans from Puglia (360g) - Canellini Beans are the traditional cooking ingredient for Le Cassoulet in France but they are loved in Italy all the same. Excellent in hearty tomato-based winter sauces but equally at home in chunky pasta or a salad drizzled with olive oil and black pepper. In short a great item for the store cupboard.
Classic Almond Cantuccini with extra Almonds from Tuscany in Gift Box (100g) - Produced at the Belli family biscottificio (biscuit factory) following traditional recipes. Signore Belli's rule is: No skimping on ingredients!. There are plenty of shortcuts producers can take but you won't find any of them here. Absolutely delicious! Serve with coffee or Vin Santo.
Arrabbiata(Spicy) Sauce (370g) - quality Italian tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil from Puglia and Calabrian chillis are used to make this tasty and spicy Arrabbiata sauce. Perfect for serving with Penne pasta on its own or can be used as a base, e.g. add tuna or salami.
Penne Rigate Pasta (500g) - a classic and popular Italian pasta translated as grooved quills because of their diagonally cut ends. It binds and holds the sauces in its ridges. Perfect partner for the aforementioned Arrabbiata.
Organic Conchiglie Pasta (500g) - these organic pasta shells are made from high qulaity durum wheat from the Montebello organic farm in Umbria. They will also work well the Arrabbiata as the sauce fills the shells. The pasta is dried slowly at low temperatures to keep all its nutrients and goodness.

I will have a delivery arranged straight to the winner.
To be entered in the draw please follow two simple steps:
1. Answer the question
2. Leave a comment on any other post.
Only people who will do both steps will be entered in the draw. I love reading comments, so please indulge me, you can choose any old-er post to leave a comment.

You do not have to follow my blog to be entered in the draw. If you decide to follow my blog, I will be thrilled, of course.

And the question is: what are your family Christmas traditions? If you do not have any particular Christmas traditions, tell me what do you love most about Christmas.

P.S. this is not a sponsored post, I will pay for the little hamper myself.

Good luck, everyone! The draw will be closed on 25 November, in good time for it to be delivered to the winner's address before Christmas.

___________________________________________________________________________________

The day has arrived to pick the winner of the giveaway. My baby boy is 16 months old today, not a baby anymore. I celebrate this event by giving away a little Christmas gift that I know I would have enjoyed myself.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who entered and left comments. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all about your family traditions, some made me smile, some made me think that I would like to introduce something similar in my family, so thanks again for all ideas and suggestions!

Now back to business. Going back to my draw, I asked people to leave two comments to be entered in the draw (one about Christmas, and another comment on any other post. I hoped it was clear enough from my post that this would be a requirement for the entry. Sadly, about a quarter of all entrants only left one comment. To be fair to all those who did both steps, I made a long list of everyone who commented and ticked off those who did two steps, and their names were put in the Raffleking). I did not make any judging on the merit of comments, all those who qualified, were entered.

And the winner is.... please a round of applause

ASPIE IN THE FAMILY

I will get in touch with you regarding your details and will pass them onto the Mediterranean Direct company to send your prize. I hope you will enjoy the Italian treats.

Thanks again to all the entrants! And watch this space. I will be doing another giveaway in January.

Pasta with courgettes and shrimps

It was my friend Bloom who suggested using the courgettes from Abel & Cole box to make a dish of pasta. For this recipe I used tagliatelle verdi (fresh, not dry pasta).

You will need
(for 2 people)
tagliatelle verdi
1 courgette, thinly sliced lengthways
250 g of big shrimps
1 clove of garlic
a squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
a small glass of white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
olive oil
salt
half a tsp of chili paste
single cream (a small pot)

1. Chop the garlic clove and add to a large frying pan with the olive oil. Cook for about 1 minute.
2. Slicecourgettes into thin ribbons and add to the pan, stirring frequently until softened.
3. Add the shrimps, salt and chili paste. Add the small glass of wine and single cream. Once the sauce is reduced in half, the sauce is done.
4. Cook your pasta al dente in a big pot of the salted water
5. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and add to the pan with the courgettes and shrimps, stir well and grate some parmesan cheese on top before serving.

The Scream (pumpkin and marshmallow bake)

Please do not snigger at my attempt at being arty. I hope The Scream is recognisable enough.
To cook this sweet concoction you will need
1 tin of Libby's solid pack pumpkin (or indeed your own mashed pumpkin if you have plenty after carving the pumpkin for the Hallowe'en. I cooked a soup with ours, and our pumpkin wasn't big to start with, so the Libby's it was), 425g
1 small tin of evaporated milk, 170g
125 g self-raising flour
30 g melted butter
130 g demerara sugar
1 medium egg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
half a tsp of ground nutmeg or less
large marshmallows
Dr Oetker ready to roll icing and writing icing for decoration, also leave one marshmallow for the head

In a large mixing bowl mix together all the ingredients: the pumpkin, evaporated milk, butter, sugar, egg and spices. Pour into a big greased tray or ceramic dish(size 19x29cm) and bake at 180C for about half an hour, until the pumpkin bake is firm to the touch. Add the marshmallows around the edges and put the dish back in the oven for them to melt into a gooey mess.
Take out of the oven, let it cool down, decorate with the writing icing, doing spider webs. Using the remaining marshmallow and writing icing, make a head for your figure. I inserted half a bamboo skewer inside the figure as it kept falling. The figure itself is made from Ready to roll icing, which comes in 5 colours (I used the black and yellow here).
Cut into slices like brownies before serving. Have fun decorating!