Strawberry Kisses ~Mini eggless strawberry muffins for World baking day.

English summer captured in  every bite in these wonderful strawberry kisses mini muffins for world baking day.

Ingredients:

12 strawberries
12 oz / 360 g plain flour
8 oz sugar / 240 g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
75 ml sunflower oil
250 ml water
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F
2. In a large bowl sieve together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
3. Stir in the sugar into the flour.

4. In a jug mix together the water, oil, vanilla and vinegar and mix well.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry by folding the cake mixture lightly with a metal spoon.
6. Line a mini muffin tray with muffin liners and  keep aside.

7. Hull the strawberries and dice them into small pieces.
8. Fold  the strawberries into the cake batter and fill the muffin liners with the batter.
9. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes until golden brown and tooth pick outs out clean from the center of muffin.

10.Remove from oven and transfer to cooling rack.
Serve with cup of tea or coffee

Submitting to:
Kids Delight Sweet treats event by spice your life guest hosted by Nivedhanam

Provencal Tomatoes

Savoury baked tomatoes with  a herby breadcrumb filling.

Ingredients

4 medium tomatoes
4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 clove garlic finely chopped
2 tablespoons Pelia olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
pinch of chilli flakes(optional)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon freshly chopped coriander

Method:

1. Slice the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the pulp and seeds.
2. Place the tomatoes in an oven proof dish.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees / 180 degrees C

4.In a bowl add the breadcrumbs, chopped coriander, salt, pepper, chilli flakes,olive oil and garlic and mix well.

5. Fill the tomatoes with the herby bread crumb mixture and bake them in the oven for 15-20 minutes until tomatoes start to soften slightly and breadcrumbs start to turn golden brown and crisp.
Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Submitting to:
Flavours of France event by simply.food guest hosted by Shruti Rasoi
Made with Love Mondays event by Javelin Warriors Cooking  w/ Luv

The Olive oil used in this recipe was sent to me by Pelia. Thankyou Pelia , the oil is very flavour some and perfect for cooking with and in all types of dressings.

OXO POP containers giveway

There can never be enough containers in the kitchen to store the vast selection of ingredients and food that we eat. OXO have created a range of storage containers, known as POP due the ability of their lids to pop up. POP, has been designed to help transform a messy, chaotic kitchen cupboard full of soggy biscuits and disused packets of ingredients into a systematic, neat and tidy pantry that any enthusiast cook or professionalchef can be proud of.

The 11 airtight containers are ideal for storing essential store cupboard ingredients such as cereal, pasta, flour, rice, herbs and spices, and feature a unique push button mechanism that creates an airtight seal with just one touch. The button can be easily operated with one hand, perfect for when you’re juggling several ingredients at once, and also serves as a handle when lifting off the lid. The body of the container is crystal clear making it easy to see what’s inside at a glance.

Each container can be stacked side by side and on top of each other so that they can fit in any space small or large The POP containers are also convenient for storing wet foods such as soups, sauces and condiments in the fridge and feature smooth, rounded corners to allow for easy pouring. Like most of OXO’s products, the lid comes apart for easy cleaning and is completely dishwasher safe so you can keep your cupboards neat, tidy and clean all at the same time.

The POP range is available in 11 different sizes so you can pick and choose the best containers for your store cupboard ingredients. The OXO range is widely available through a selection of national retailers including Lakeland, John Lewis, House of Fraser, Amazon, Dunelm, Selfridges and other leading cook shops.

Thankyou to OXO  who have been very generous and have agreed to supply a  a selection of POP containers in various sizes, worth £50 for one simply.food reader as a giveaway prize.

The prize:

T1 x POP large square container 3.8L
1 x POP cookie jar container 2.8L
1 x POP short large square container 2.3L
1 x POP short rectangle container 1.4L

 How To Enter:

• Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
• Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
• This competition is open to UK residents only .Please read the rules below .
• Leaving a blog comment is mandatory and failure to do so will void any other entries.
• Closing date - 16th June 2013 6.00 pm
• Read terms and conditions on Rafflecopter widget.

How Rafflecopter works:

·        You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box.Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.

·        Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.

·        Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 

·        Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf.

·        For information on how to find the URL of your tweet click here. 

·        For bonus entries you can return to this page and enter the daily bonus entries. 

·        If you are still unsure as to how Rafflecopter works please do check out this short video.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You may like to read 10 tips on how to De-clutter and organise your kitchen.

My top ten list to do to de-clutter and organise your kitchen

Cooking is is something I really enjoy doing.The best way to learn the art of cooking is to watch and observe, participate, taste and smell the ingredients.Once you start to enjoy food preparation and tasting the different ingredients, and cooking you need to arrange your kitchen so that its neat and tidy so that all your ingredients and utensils are clean and well organised and easy to source. You can be adventurous and add more and more ingredients, utensils and gadgets to your workspace once you have got your basic workspace organised and in order

In this day and age there are some many gadgets, utensils and ingredients that one can purchase, it is critical to have a clutter free and organised kitchen workspace and larder.This is a must to help your food creativity flow and you to enjoy stress free cooking.

Do you kitchen cupboards look like this??

My top ten list to do to de-clutter and organise your kitchen:

1. De clutter your work tops, if you don't use the gadget regularly store it away in a cupboard until you need to use it.

2. Only have essential gadgets on your work top and store those away from space near hob as this area should be free for cooking on.

3. Invest in good quality cast iron pots and pans that will last you along time. Don't fill up your kitchen with cheap pots and pans that are missing handles or are damaged with teflon coating peeling off. Take a deep breath and throw these away.Its far better to have fewer good quality pots and pan than lots of bad cheap quality ones.

4. Invest in good quality bake ware, throw away bakeware that is, burnt, caked with grease, buckled or rusted.

The perfect choice for everyday baking and cooking is the Pyrex’s superior quality metal bakeware collection. It is made of carbon steel to ensure everything is baked uniformly – enabling home owners to achieve the best results every time. Each product is oven safe up to 230°C and dishwasher friendly, while a non-stick coating covers the inside and the outside of the products, allowing for quick and easy food release and easy cleaning.

I tried the pizza pan which had holes in the base to allow even cooking and large easy grip handles to make taking the hot pan out of the oven easier.The tray gave me delicious crisp pizza base whilst baking the pizza . The collection includes cake, loaf, quiche and flan pans in a choice of sizes, six and 12 cup muffin tray options, and a four bun tray – perfect for Yorkshire puddings. There are also two essential springform loose bottom cake pans and a set of four tartlet pans.

5. Have a tool tidy and limit it to 5 or 6 important tools you use regularly. De-clutter your kitchen drawer and throw away spatulas, wooden spoons that are broken or discoloured that you no longer use.Do not hoard.

6. Have a wooden block to store your kitchen knives safely.

7. Have a separate chopping board for fruit and veg, bread and meat.Throw away any very old worn wooden or plastic  boards as bacteria can breed in them.

8. Allocate a cupboard  for your spice storage, opened bags of spices loose their aroma and freshness very quickly, once opened store in air tight containers and use them by the use by date.

To keep my ingredients fresh I have used these wonderful silicon lidded Tricon space saving canisters that are easy to stack and as they are see through you can see the ingredients in them at a glance.The lids double up as a cup-size measuring tool for contents. They keep all the ingredients dry and fresh

9. Invest in a good, some measuring cups,measuring spoons and some good air tight storage containers.

I recently added the 4-in-1 measuring spoon, which  efficiently combines all "spoon keys" into one simple body and is a space-saving, quick-cleaning solution to your cooking and baking adventures.

 In addition the set of four mug shaped measuring cups are useful as they stack together to give the appearance of a drinking mug when not in use and is perfect for measuring all sorts of ingredients. The sizes of the cups are one cup, half cup, third cup and quarter cup and can be popped into the dishwasher for a super-easy clean up. 

Both measuring spoon and measuring cups  are durable, space saving and the cups are stackable taking very little room in my kitchen drawer.

All these three items are available from Umbra

10. Store pasta, rice and flours in air tight containers and make sure you use all your ingredients by the use by date.

These larger quantities of ingredients require a bigger container and these lovely Pop containers by OXO are perfect for the job. The OXO Good Grips POP Containers are airtight, stackable and space-efficient, making it easy to keep your dry foods fresh and your kitchen organised. The Containers have a unique push-button mechanism that creates an airtight seal with just one touch. The button also serves as a handle to lift off the lid. The Containers are designed for modular stacking so that you can efficiently organise your countertop and pantry. In addition, with their square and rectangular shapes, the POP Containers make the most of any storage space, while their corners allow for easy pouring. The POP Containers are available in 12 different sizes to meet your dry food storage needs

Thankyou to Umbra for sending me the measuring spoon and cups and the Tricon storage canisters. Also many thanks to Pyrex for sending the lovely pizza tray and OXO for the wonderful storage POP containers. My kitchen is now well equipped and organised so that all the ingredients are easily accessable

All the views in this post are my own.All these products can be purchased on line through the relevant web sites.

 And finally  an organised set of kitchen cupboards.