Apple crumble with orange flavours

This is a bit of an overhaul on apple crumble (I am a bit obsessed with orange flavour)

• 1 kg apples
• zest and juice of 2 oranges (or 1 depending on the size and your personal preference)
• 250 g oats
• 200 g plain flour
• 4 tsp cinnamon
• 200 g butter
• 200 g light muscovado sugar

Peel, core and chop the apples and place into a buttered baking dish (I like to use purex as that way you can see the food), and add the orange stuff. Mix everything else except the sugar together, then stir in the sugar. Sprinkle over the apple and bake for about 30 mins at 170 degrees Celsius (depending on the the surface area to volume ratio of the dish).

Pork chops with roast potatoes and salad

This was inspired by Jamie Oliver and prompted by the need for a quick dinner.

• 4 pork chops
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 tsp dried sage 
• garlic powder
• a drizzle of honey
• enough potatoes for 3 people, chopped into bite sized pieces
• 2 tsp dried rosemary
• half a head of iceberg lettuce, sliced
• half a red onion, slices
• squeeze of lemon juice

Put the pork chops on a baking tray, sprinkle with the fennel seed, sage, garlic powder, drizzle with oil and season. Rub all this into the chops and then drizzle with honey.

Put all the potatoes on a baking tray, sprinkle with the rosemary season, drizzle with olive oil.

Bake the potatoes and the pork chops in the oven for about half an hour at 180 degrees Celsius, flipping the chops and stirring the potatoes half way. Take the pork chops out and let them sit for a few mins while you crank up the oven temperature to 200 to slightly crisp up the potatoes.

While this is happening make the salad by mixing the lettuce and onion with extra virgin olive oil, a bit of salt and a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Bruschetta: goat's cheese; chorizo and red pepper

I made another two kinds of bruschetta. I have a bit of an ongoing obsession with goat's cheese and I got a lovely round of French goat's cheese in Dunnes that I couldn't wait to use.

I sliced the round horizontally in 2 and put one on each of 2 slices of bread and grilled them until the cheese was a bit melty. The goat's cheese was drizzled with honey and topped with raspberries (coz I was feeling fancy), chopped walnuts and a few leaves of baby spinach.

For a meaty option I fried half of a chorizo sausage in a tiny bit of olive oil then added 2 chopped roasted red peppers (from a jar), some garlic powder and parsley. After cooking for a couple of mins I used it to top 3 slices of bread.

Bruschetta: tomato and onion; mozzarella and pesto

A few of us recently went to Market Bar for dinner and I got the urge to make bruschetta for dinner. I made 4 different kinds using freshly made sundried tomato and herb bread (courtesy of my fantastic breadmaker). Normally I'd toast the bread, rub it with a clove of garlic and drizzle with olive oil but since the bread was fresh and still warm I just use it as it was.




For the first one I diced 3 tomatoes, 1 red onion and 1 spring onion (totally unnecessary but it was in the fridge on its own going off so I just used it). Then mixed them together in a bowl with a generous drizzle of olive oil and some basil (I only had dried unfortunately) and left them to sit for a while for the flavours to develop.




In the meantime I spread green pesto on another slice of bread, and topped it with slices of mozzarella, and 3 chopped sundried tomatoes. 3 mins under the grill melted the mozzarella nicely.

To finish the tomato and onion one I just topped 3 slices of bread with the tomato mix.

This made 1 mozzarella and 3 tomato bruschetta.