Crazy Englishwoman Cooks!

This is a wonderful variation on a traditional meat pie. The spices in the sausage and the chipotle chili add a nice smokey kick of flavor.

1 tbs oil
1/2 lb chorizo or Italian sausage
3/4 cup red onion
2 cups diced bell pepper
1 cup corn
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce
2 tsp adobo sauce
1 tbs yellow cornmeal
3 tbs flour
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
1/2 lb shelled, uncooked shrimp
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp cumin

Preheat oven to 400F.

In large frying pan, heat oil and cook chorizo for 4-5 minutes until browned. Move sausage to a plate. Add onion, peppers, and corn to skillet. Cook for 5 minutes.



Stir in the chopped chipotle chili, adobo sauce, cornmeal and flour. Cook for 1 minute then stir in the broth and shrimp. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute.



Put the sausage back in the pan. Put the mix into a large baking dish.

Roll the pastry out and cover the pie dish. Beat the egg and add the cumin to it. Brush over the pastry.



Cut several slits in the pastry then bake for 30 minutes.

Yesterday was Nic's birthday, and his mother's birthday so I decided to adapt a Barefoot Contessa recipe and the result was an incredibly rich mountain of chocolate peanut butter goodness.

Proceed at your own risk!

Cake Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 and ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I use my good homemade stuff)
1 cup buttermilk
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 bags mini Reese’s peanut butter cups (You can use more if you want)

Place a rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter two 9-x-2-inch round cake pans or 1 larger 9 inch cake pan (I then cut the cake in half). Dust the insides with cocoa powder, tap out the excess and line the bottoms with rounds of parchment or wax paper.

Melt the chocolate and leave to cool.


Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, use a hand mixer to beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for about 2 minutes, until thoroughly blended into the butter. Add the eggs one at a time, then the yolks one by one, beating for 1 minute after each. Add the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk; add the dry ingredients in 3 portions and the buttermilk in 2. Mix only until each new batch is blended into the batter. Add the melted chocolate, folding it in with a rubber spatula. Divide the batter between the cake pans or pour into one big cake pan.

If you are using two pans, bake for 26 to 30 minutes. If you are baking one big cake, cook for 55-60 minutes. I always use the skewer trick to see if it is done.



Transfer the cake(s) to racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, remove from the tin(s) and peel off the paper. Cool.

If you made on big cake, as I did, you now need to cut it in half. An easy way to do this is to place toothpicks around the cake at the halfway point as a guide for your knife.

Now for the frosting.

I personally found that the recipe I'm about to give you was nowhere near enough to fill the cake AND frost it on the top and sides so I made two batches of this. If you are a heathen who does not enjoy frosting as much as I do, you may make one batch only. I cannot be responsible for your lesser enjoyment.

Ingredients:
1 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar to Americans)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the icing sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in a bowl. Using your trusty hand mixer, mix until creamy. Add the cream and beat on high speed until light and smooth.

Place one layer of the cake on a cake plate. Frost the top of the layer, and sprinkle smashed up peanut butter cups inside.



Next, cover with the second layer of cake. Frost the sides and top of the cake. Press the remaining peanut butter cups around the sides of the frosted cake, and if you want you can sprinkle them on top too.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour to set the frosting, then bring it to room temperature before serving.



Even I wasn't prepared for just how rich this cake would be. We all gave ourselves huge slices and couldn't finish them. Luckily, there are leftovers so more cake tonight!

Still playing catch up but I promise to bring you a scrumptious cake recipe later this week. In the meantime...

#1. What’s your favorite cereal?

I don't eat breakfast cereal much. I usually stick with oatmeal.

#2. What do you use to flip food on the stove?

What a bizarre question! Usually a bamboo spatula.

#3. What’s your favorite type of donut?

I avoid donuts too.

#4. Share a rice recipe.

Risotto. Love it, and when it's made properly, it's delicious. A true risotto should be moist and creamy, not dry, and it's worth buying the Arborio rice - you will notice a difference. I used to have a recipe for the most wonderful mushroom risotto. I can't find it anymore but here's one for Roasted Chicken and Portobello Risotto:

To serve 6:
2 slices bacon, cut into thin strips
4 tsp butter
3 cups chopped portobello mushrooms
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken
6tbs fresh parsley
1/4 cup minced shallots
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cans fat free chicken broth
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan
1/4 tsp black pepper

Cook bacon in nonstick frying pan until crisp. Remove from pan and crumble. Add 1 tsp butter and mushrooms to the same pan and saute for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt. Stir in the chicken and 4 tbs parsley. Put to one side.

Melt the remaining butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the shallots and cook for 3 minutes. Add the rice and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the wine and cook for 5 minutes. Add the broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until each portion is absorbed (about 35 minutes in total).

Remove from heat. Stir in the mushroom and chicken mixture, the cheese, remaining salt, pepper and parsley.

Nic's favourite comfort food is meatloaf and, since we're both feeling under the weather right now, meatloaf seemed like the way to go yesterday (especially since we have a new stock of beef from Nic's dad in our freezer).

I have no idea why this is called Dutch Meatloaf but it is good and pouring the sauce over it while it cooks keeps it moist and lets the flavour soak through.

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/2 can tomato sauce (I used spaghetti sauce as it was all I had handy)
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper

Mix everything together, put in a loaf tin, and cook at 350F for about 1 1/2 hours.

After about an hour of cooking, pour the following mix over it:

1/2 can tomato sauce
1 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs mustard
1/2 cup water
2 tbs vinegar

We had the meatloaf last night with potatoes and carrots, and Nic took leftovers to work today.

Since I'm deeply enamored with my slow cooker this week, when friends came to dinner last night, I made another stew.

Kielbasa is a traditional polish sausage with a wonderful smokiness that reminds me of English saveloys. In fact, if you're in England and can't find kielbasa, you might want to substitute saveloys. If not, you could play around with different types of sausage for this recipe.

4 cups chopped cabbage
3 cups peeled, cubed potato
1-1/2 cups sliced carrots
1 lb cooked kielbasa, sliced
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 14-oz cans chicken broth

Combine all the ingredients in your slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours. Cooking doesn't get any easier!

We enjoyed ours with a nice crusty bread.

Last night, the in-laws came to dinner and while the conversation quickly went downhill, the food was wonderful.

If you do not already have a slow cooker, I can't recommend them highly enough. In the winter, they are absolutely wonderful for making stews, soups, and more. I got up at 7.30 yesterday, put my ingredients in the slow cooker, went back to bed for a lazy Sunday morning, and at 5pm had a delicious beef stew.

To serve 6, here's what you need:

1 1/4 lb beef for stew, cut into chunks
1 lb carrots, sliced
2 onions, sliced
3 cups chopped cabbage
2 cups water
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 envelope onion-mushroom soup mix
1 tbs paprika
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 cup light sour cream

Put everything EXCEPT the sour cream into the slow cooker and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Stir in the sour cream just before serving over egg noodles.

How simple is that! The caraway gives a very interesting and different tang to the stew.

Dessert was easy: Betty Crocker brownies and candies Nic brought back from Mexico last week.