Swedish Pancakes!

K, so basically these are crepes. Or English pancakes. But I'm calling them Swedish Pancakes because these aren't reeeeeeeal crepes and English pancakes sounds weird. They're easy to make and taste very good!

Swedish Pancakes

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 6 Tbs plain flour
- milk
- oil to fry

How To:
1- Beat the eggs and flour together in a bowl, gradually adding the milk, making sure there are no lumps. The mixture should be quite thin, but not as thin as the milk.
2- Heat the oil. Add approximately 2 tablespoons of the mix into the pan and spread over pan. Let cook for about 1 min.
3- Once one side is slightly brown, flip to the other side.
4- Serve with syrup, jam, honey or fruit. Go use my Blood Orange Marmalade!

Lemon Chicken

I've tried about three of these recipes and this is my favorite by far. The sauce is kinda sweet, so don't over do it on the chicken.

Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:
- 1 tsp oil to fry
- 1 lemon
- 1 green onions (optional)

Sauce
- 1 heaped tsp corn starch
- 3/4 cup cold water
- juice of a lemon
- 2 tsp sugar

How to:
1- Mix the sauce ingredients together until smooth. Slice part of the lemon for decoration.
2- Heat the oil in the frying pan. Add the whole chicken breasts. Cook on a high heat until each side is browned. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for a further 5 minutes. Check to see if it's cooked thru, and set aside.
3- Add the sauce ingredients again and then add to the pan. Stir until the sauce comes to the boil, it should thicken.
4- Add the slices of lemon and heat then over a gentle heat for 1 minute. Take off the heat.
5- Cut the chicken breasts into slices. Arrange decorative lemon slices and spring onions on top and pour the sauce over.

NB:
- Put slices over pasta!
- Pour sauce over fried chicken, like a Chinese restaurant.
- Add pepper and some minced garlic for variety!
- Replace lemons with oranges!

Chicken Soup for the Soul...Sorta

So this isn't a normal Chicken Soup. It's one of my favorite soup recipes and is perfect for any weather. Apparently this is considered an Chinese dish of sorts.

Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup

Ingredients:
-1 tsp butter
-1 tsp corn starch or all-purpose flour
-1 chicken stock cube in 1 cup of water(or 1 cup of chicken stock)
-1 egg
-1 tsp soy sauce
-1/4 can sweetcorn
-3 green onions or 1 large onion
-2 chicken breasts, cubed
-salt and pepper
-1 tsp chives (opt.)

How To:
1- Fry the onions in the butte until soft
2- Add the water, soy sauce and stock cube. Bring to a boil.
3- Add the chicken (you must use chicken breast or the meat won't cook properly) and sweetcorn. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink (2-3 min)
4- Mix the corn starch with a little water in a mug. Add to the soup, stirring well until it comes back to the boil and thickens. Don't let the soup boil for a long time. Add the chives.
5-Beat the egg in a mug and pour into the soup. Leave until the egg begins to set and then stir once only, this way the egg will stay together.
6-Cook until the egg goes white. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Happy V-Day!-Drinking Chocolate

So I don't know why chocolate is representative on Valentine's Day. And frankly, I don't care. I just loooooove chocolate. And last week I costumed a show and got the opening night gift of Trader Joe's Cookie Crumble Truffles. And I realized, I can make legit Drinking Chocolate!!! And I did, on Valentine's Day. Go figure.

Now, for those who don't know, Drinking Chocolate is a very rich, very ancient way to consume chocolate. Drinking Chocolate dates back to Mayans and Aztecs and whatnot. It's not for the faint of heart, but for foodies who don't mind heavy cream or calories.

Drinking Chocolate

Ingredients:
- 2 oz. of chocolate. Or a whole bag, or a whole bar. Whatever, it's how chocolatey you want it. I used probably 3.5 oz for two servings.
- 1 cup of milk.
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- sugar to taste
- if you want spices, like cinnamon, nutmeg, chilli pepper, go for it!

How to:
1- Place milk on low heat (I do this so the chocolate automatically goes into a warm pot.)
2- Add chocolate and extract and whatever else you want for flavor. I save the sugar from last because I don't want an extra sweet drink. In fact, I normally don't use sugar. Make sure to continually stir, lest the chocolate burn.
3- Pour into a mug and drink!

NB:
- I used Trader Joe's Truffles and some chocolate my mom sent me (yes, Mom, I got your package! Thank you!) . I suggest only using good quality chocolate for this drink, like Ghiradelli or try a local chocolate shop. But I wouldn't use a Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar...

Enjoy!

Muffins

So I have a juicer that I looooooove! And I've been saving the pulp and adding it to foods. So I made some muffins recently and wanted to save this basic muffin recipe.

Basic Muffins

Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 beaten egg
- 3/4 cup milk
-1/4 cooking oil
- salt
- pulp of whatever fruit you want (Or stick an orange, apple, etc., in a blender before adding it.

How to:
1- Grease or line muffin tin. Set aside. Set oven to 400 degrees
2- In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Make a well in the center.
3- In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients (including pulp). Add to well in dry ingredients. Mix together (batter should be lumpy).
4- Spoon into muffin tin.
5- Bake for 18-20 min. Cool, then eat!

NB: I added 3 TBS cocoa powder to the orange mix cos I love orange and chocolate together!
-Add apple and cinnamon (if you use apples, cut down on the oil).
-To add bananas, reduce milk to 1/2 and add 3/4 cups mashed bananas.
-Add blueberries or cranberries for fun! Hurrah!
-Add Streusel Topping from my Blueberry Streusel Muffins for added texture.

Cooking Sausage

I have a constant problem cooking sausage. I don't know why, but it's annoying! They're either undercooked or burnt or too tough. So I found that this method works best.

Ingredients:
- Sausage (I almost always freeze mine and this recipe works fine on frozen)
- Olive oil

How to:
1- Lightly coat the pan with olive oil and set to medium heat.
2- Once hot, place the sausages in the pan. Brown each side (about a minute per).
3- Reduce heat to low, add about a half cup of water and cover.
4- Let cook for 10-15 minutes or to desired tenderness, rotating the sausages half way through. The water content should go down as well.
5- I cut mine in half to see if it's done.

Boil 'em, Mash 'em, Stick 'em in a stew!

I got this recipe from HEB in Texas. And they are friggin' awesome!

Spicy Potatoes

Ingredients:
- Potatoes (I use Yukon. Red creamy,and russet are fine too. However many you want)
- 1 can of Cream of Potato Soup
- 1/3 cup of sour cream (this is a guess-timate)
- SPICES!- Cayenne Pepper, Chilli Powder, hot sauce, salt, pepper, etc. Whatever you want.

How to:

1- Turn on oven to 350 degrees.
2- Clean and slice potatoes
3- In a mixing bowl, mix sour cream, spices and soup. Make it as hot or mild as you want!
4- Place in a casserole dish.
5- Place in oven for 45 mins or until tender (I always have to leave it a little longer)