www.mykitchenstore.co.uk

Pin It

The best lasagne ever? Simply delicious

Here at My Kitchen Store our second favourite topic (other than kitchens ), is food! Soyesterday I decided to make a lasagna – and today I just HAVE to share the recipe with you because it was so good!

I love Italian food, but one of the things that makes authentic Italian so special is the depth of flavour – and you just don’t get that in most pre-packaged meals (even M&S lasagna struggles to really do it justice), but the one I cooked yesterday is totally delicious. Rather than re write it here, I’ve given the link below, but first of all I thought I’d say why it seems to work so well.

First of all, it’s not just mince, but an equal amount of Italian sausage that  is used to add a really rich and slightly spicy flavour.  Secondly, the herbs are a little more complex than usual – there’s the typical parsley and Italian herbs, but this one also has fresh basil and some fennel seeds too. And some sugar that adds a complimentary sweetness to the spicy sausage. There are also three types of cheese – ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan, which combine together to make yummy gooey, tangy layers between the pasta and meat. And finally the sauce is slow cooked for an hour and a half to make sure all the flavours come out fully.

It is absolutely gorgeous – and I have to say for me so far, it IS the best lasagna ever.  Visit the site at www.mylasagnerecipe.com for all the ingredients and full instructions.  Buon appetito!

Pin It

A Forbes Woman Top Site

I’m delighted to say that Birds on the Blog has been voted amongst the Top 100 sites Worldwide by the prestigious Forbes Woman.

Birds on the Blog offers current, entertaining and informative articles written by a group of successful business women. It was started by Sarah Arrow of Arrow Light Haulage and has quickly developed a large and loyal audience with its eclectic and often inspiring content.

The site also has a meaningful purpose – proceeds of much of the activity are used to help fund the education of twin girls in Uganda, named Perfect and Pretty. You can read their story here. The girls Mother is unable to fund their schooling without support and so if you can make a donation to help, it would be much appreciated. 

I am proud to contribute to the site and pass on my congratulations to Sarah and all the other Birds for their fabulous efforts.

Pin It

I had a rummage in my freezer yesterday. It was prompted by my need to cook a dinner for guests and being inspired by @sourcecookeat on

salmon salad

twitter to opt for sea bass baked in ginger, lime and chilli. You can see his blog about the majestic sea bass and some cooking ideas here.

Anyway, I found quite a few containers with various fish in and have decided I’m going to use them up on a fish eating week. So I thought it might be fun to see if you can help me with some fish recipes. The fish I have available are:

Plaice fillets, Pollock, Haddock, Mackerel Fillets, Salmon fillets, Tuna

.. so if you have any recommendations or ideas, particularly for quick recipes, please let me know. In the meantime, I’ll share one of my favourite easy fish recipes with you. It’s quite tangy and salty, very quick to prepare and you can use any meaty white fish:

For the fish:

4 pieces of any meaty white fish like cod, haddock, pollock etc.

3 tablespoons plain flow, seasoned with salt and pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

3 tablespoons fruity olive oil

1  desertspoon grain mustard

1  tablespoon drained capers

Juice of 3 limes

Up to 1 tin of anchovies, finely chopped

Freshly milled black pepper.

To cook

Wash and pat dry the fish and then coat it in the seasoned flour. Fry the fish on a medium heat in the olive oil for 5 minutes each side. Meanwhile, mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl. As a note, you can play around with the mix of ingredients, varying the lime, anchovies and olive oil to taste in particular. I love it really tangy and salty, so the mix above works well, but you might want to tone down some of the flavours. When the fish is nicely browned and almost cooked, put the sauce in the pan and warm through for a couple of minutes. That’s it! ready to serve with some lovely new potatoes and green veg.

Pin It

It seems appropriate since today is Children in Need to help a little friend of mine who wants to spread a message about how to stay safe in cyberspace.

Percy the Pigeon is the magical friend of Matty – and he helps Matty deal with his problems being bullied. Together they go on a great adventure, which you can read in the book ‘Matty and the Secret Pigeon Racket’.

But Percy is aware also of the dangers that exist on line – including online bullying – and wants to encourage everyone to take steps to make sure they themselves are safe online – and to look after others interests too.

And if you are reading this, Percy wants you to know that to stay safe, please tell someone you are being bullied. Don’t be frightened, find somone you trust and let them know it’s happening. There are lots of ways that you can find support – and there are plenty of people who understand what you are going through and will be able to help.

To find out more about Percy, visit www.areyoubeingbullied.com.  And stay safe.

Pin It

It’s a little over a year since I joined Tradespace and this wonderfully inspired blogging challenge has reminded me of one of the reasons I so enjoyed the early days on here, because of the sense of community that existed between some of the regulars. It’s been sadly lacking in the last few months (and I’m guilty of having largely abandoned the lounge for the new dining room on Twitter!), but it has been really enjoyable to be involved with the crowd again and I have to say a huge thanks to Sarah Arrow of Arrow Light Haulage for creating the opportunity for us all to network again.

And on the subject of Community, what a powerful and effective tool the likes of Twitter and Facebook et al have become for highlighting the efforts of so many charitable causes who do so much to help people in need. This is my plug for the one that at this time of year should always be at the top of our minds, The Poppy Appeal. E very single person in the UK should wear a poppy – we all owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who have served for us in the past and present – and as another great new friend that I’ve met on Twitter recently put it, it’s not just about the older veterans, it’s about those serving around the World in recent conflicts and who will carry on doing so at such great personal cost.

So make sure you wear your heart on your sleeve in support of them all – and pay generously for your Poppy.

Have a great day!

Pin It

I will be at my “M-In-L’s” this Christmas and since it is a tradition with us to offer a contributary dish as well as the obligatory totally useless Xmas pressie, I have been racking my brains to think of a culinary offering of distinction. And in the process, I had a truly Heston Blumenthal moment. So this is it, much experimentation and several test tubes of liquer later (Heston would be proud), I offer you – drum roll – The Brussels Truffle!

Much maligned – the marmite of the vegetable world – the Brussel Sprout divides the dinner table. So for those of you who struggle with the prospect, here is a sweet alternative to offer your guests.

You will need

250gms Brussel Sprouts
50gms dark plain chocolate
50gms white chocolate
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Glass and 2 tablespoons Brandy
Cocoa power for dusting – optional
Chocolate Sprinkles – optional

This is what you do

Boil the Brussel Sprouts in a pan in water laced with 1 tablespoon of the Brandy and the tablespoon of sugar. When they are slightly al dente, remove them from the water and allow to cool. Meanwhile, place the dark chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water to melt – when it is fully melted, add half a tablespoon of Brandy and whisk in. Leave to cool a little, until the chocolate is a little stiff. Repeat this process with the white chocolate. Then take a cocktail stick and skewer the Brussel sprouts individually and roll them in either the white chocolate of the dark chocolate. Don’t worry if it doesn’t come out completely smooth, they look more attractive and ‘home-made’ that way. To give some variation, roll some of them in the chocolate sprinkles and dust a few with the cocoa powder.

And voila! Brussel Sprouts totally transformed for the perfect ‘M-In-L’ gift, The Brussels Truffle. If you can, gift present them in some of those charming mini cake holders, or even better, a recycled chocolate tray. Now don’t forget to take your camera with you. They are truly disgusting.

Cheers and Merry Xmas – Drink the glass of Brandy;)

PLEASE NOTE: the content and characters herein are entirely fictitious and no M-In-L’s were harmed during this experiment. Well not yet anyway…

Pin It

I’m sponsoring Dee Kirkham to run her doughnuts off instead!

The power of the tweet and twitter.com was pressed home this morning when a message popped through from Dee about how www.justgiving.com had generated a great response for her sponsored run this coming week in support of the Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign. Inspirational Dee is running 10 miles (she’s completed a marathon before, it will be a doddle, right? Not! It’s a tough distance)

Admiration for Dee plus a combination of timing and the content made me click through and add a little support myself. I have been meaning to participate in a charity run myself for about a year, but despite my training efforts (I really have got shin splints, honestly!), I’,m ashamed to say that I still haven’t managed to get to the start line.  I was also so really impressed with the JustGiving website and how it offers such a powerful support mechanism to help those wanting to generate sponsorship or gift giving – it makes it so easy to give your support.

So inspirational person +tweet + great website + guilt = donation

A winning formula all round. And if it adds up for me – it should add up for you too, so why not click through directly to Dee’s sponsorship page by clicking here and offer her a little doughnation of your own?

There, I feel much better, liberated… now pass me that sticky toffee pudding.

Pin It

Having just voted for Arabella Millar in the Mumpreneur of the Year doo dah, it got me thinking about the whole preneur thing… because I have to admit I do really want to be a preneur!

Sadly, I can’t be a mumpreneur – and I presume that “entre” is really more of a male preserve, so I’ve been thinking about what sort of a preneur I could be …  Or want to be? I suppose AuntyPreneur is a possibility; apparently I’m quite good at the aunty bit, so I could do quite well there. But if I’m honest and I had the choice, I think I’d prefer to be something a bit more dangerous, a bit more edgy and exciting (probably a time of life thing, you know, like suddenly deciding I want to be a triathlete even though the only qualification I have is athletes feet).

So I’m thinking of getting into training for AsboPreneur of the Year.

I don’t actually have an Asbo, but I think I could meet the qualifying criteria with a minimal amount of effort. I have some business ideas set up (designer tags, Curfew clocks or TwitterTracking, what do you think?) and I’m already looking forward to the Golden Handcuffs prize…

 So that’s my route to preneurship – what do you think yours will be?