Golden Honey Mustard Dressing

More like Golden Nectar for your salad! This dressing you can make in 3 minutes and it's soooooo yummy. a nice light dressing that when you make this for your friends they will say "Oh my God, I love this dressing! Where did you get it???" and then you can casually reply, "Oh I just made it this morning." Pretending like you do this all the time and they will first, not believe you, then second, seethe with jealousy. But what they don't know is that this is beyond simple. I think my cat could make this. Seriously. You can be the bitch that somehow finds time to do "everything" with her uppity dressings but meanwhile it's laughable the time and skill level that this takes. So you can laugh evilly in your head while your friends stare at you with green faces and think "Bitch!" While they munch on your fab salad. and if you really want to piss them off tell them you just lost 3 pounds.

But seriously, This recipe is listed under the heading 'My 3 Favourite Dressings' for a reason. I highly recommend you make this but when you do, only make a half batch. That will be more than enough..unless you're feeding an army.

Go Get 'Em Smoothie

Two recipes in one day. Unbelievable! I really wasn't very hungry for dinner but I wanted to have something. I felt like I need a tiny bit of nourishment for the evening. So I decided to have this smoothie for dinner. Nigella lists this recipe as a breakfast but really it can be had anytime and this would also make a great afternoon treat. Basically this is a chocolate banana smoothie and yum! it is good. You could make these for your kids anytime and they woudl love it I bet. Though if making this for children you may want to leave out the instant espresso powder...
However, I highly recommend this delightful 'shake' either way.

Just a footnote I made this with soy milk :)

Halloumi Bites

I'd never heard of Halloumi cheese before this. I am a cheese fanatic though so I was excited to try a new flavour. Halloumi cheese is a fresh cheese like boccocini (which I love) but it's a middle eastern cheese. The recipe takes no effort at all and maybe about 7 miuntes to make. While I was frying the cheese I thought things were going horribly wrong - the cheese didn't go too golden for me which was likely because my pan wasn't hot enough. But I just let it fry for a bit and then decided I should take it out before the cheese started to melt (it was looking vulnerable). So I transferred it to the oily marinade and let it sit, then mixed it about in the serving dish. I wasn't feeling particularly chuffed about this dish at this point..so I tried it with a certain amount of nerves. But those nerves were washed away by a tangy heavenly sensation in my mouth. This dish is definitley going to be a hit at your next party. Two thumbs up Nigella!

Spaghettini with Prawns and Chilli

Today was a weird day. Both Husband and I were caught in a commuter train "pedestrian accident" on our way to work. It took me over 2 hours to get to work this morning and Husband didn't get to work until 3.5 hours after he left home this morning. Husband was actually on the train that hit the person and then after sitting on the train for 2 hours he had to walk past the body of the person who was hit and the shoes that had been knocked off him. I'll spare you any more details..Husband was disturbed by this all day and talked about it for a good 20 minutes when he got home, while I made this dinner. It was really an awful morning. So I was thankful that this dinner was so easy to put together. I used whole grain pasta and Nigella's Moonblush Tomatoes in place of sunblush tomatoes..mostly because I've no idea what sunblush tomaotes are and I remembered that Nigella's moonblush tomato recipe is what she uses in place of sunblush tomatoes. Also I couldn't find rocket anywhere so I used organic flat leaf parsely. This dish is straight-forward to make and tasty enough but lightening will not strike your taste buds when you eat this. Mostly this dish is a comfort food which is exactly what Husband and I needed tonight.

Pear and Ginger Muffins

I feel sorry for pears. If pears where people they would be apple's kid bother that never gets any attention. But when you eat a pear you're like 'OMG this pear is so awesome why have I been wasting my time with apples when pears are so freakin' deliscious and cool?!?!?' Really, pears are the one night stand of fruit. Often bought spontaneously and you think to yourself while eating it 'God this pear is good. I really ought to eat more of these.' But then next time you're in the grocery store you forget all about that pear and how good it was and breeze by the pears to get to the apples. Like promising you'll call but then never do. Until you're desperate for something a little different and you suddenly remember how good that pear was and when you go back to the market there they are... waiting for you, with desperation, just begging for someone to buy them instead of the apples.

So if pears are the one night stand of fruit I suggest you have a brief albeit delightful affair with these muffins. They are of course easy to make and completely different than the kind of muffin you're going to get in the bakery section of the supermarket. (Which in my books is great because on average supermarket muffins are shit.) The pieces of cut up pear turn to a lovely sweet apple-saucey (if you will) mush in the baking process. And the ginger in it makes these mufins feel like more of a treat. Husband and I both found these utterly deliscious and I'm looking forward to another date with these little charmers tomorrow morning ;)

Mellow Meatballs

If you felt a tremor tonight it's because there was a small earthquake taking us one step closer hell freezing over. I made this recipe with Meatless Meatballs. Whaaaa? Yeah, that's right meatless meatballs. Here's the part where hell nearly freezes over. Husband not only knowingly ate the meatless meatballs but actually liked them. I repeat. Husband knowingly ate meatless meatballs and then admitted he liked them. I am breathless.

Why am I breathless? Because we're talking about the man who loves eating meat and if I serve him a meal of just vegetables he thinks it's an appetizer and then says so where's lunch?..because according to him it's not a real meal unless there is meat in the dish. This is the man who when I sucked in air through my teeth in disgust as a truck of pigs were being led into a slaughter house, making the sound "ssssssssst", says to me "Sounds like bacon cooking!". This man liked this meal. This meatless meal. This is a massive victory for me. For all mankind really. Because if my husband likes this dish with meatless meatballs - you will too.

Nigella herself says this dish is just another version of the 'Curry in a Hurry' which we also enjoyed. So if you liked the Curry in a Hurry you will like this. The prep and cook time for this meal is about 35 minutes if you chop everything yourself like I did. Nigella suggests that you use the pre-cut stuff from your supermarket. But honestly, why do I want to pay 3 times more for something when I can take 5 minutes of my own time and so the same thing. And if you are cooking with the right mind set and focusing on what you're doing prep work, like chopping, is actually quite relaxing. (no I don't have kids) Rather than powering through this recipe I took my time with it and relaxed while making this meal. Which was nice because I did run into a problem at the grocery store with this, though not for the reason you're thinking...I couldn't read my grocery list. One item in particular, all I could see was 'can of chopped tin'. Obviously this was not correct. Eventually I willed my mind to remember the ingredient - chopped tomato. And after all the agony I went thru to come up with that I ended up deciding not to buy a can of chopped tomatoes because we had 3 tomatoes at home needing to be used. So I just chopped them myself.

Much like curry in a hurry this meal is all in the prep work and once you're done all your chopping you just dump the ingredients in the pan in the right order and at the right time. Then magically dinner is ready after a few stirs. Meatballs are always a fun meal and a huge comfort food so give this a try. And if you're feeling experimental make this with meatless meatballs. Husband said he would eat this again meatless and all. I'm convinced that if he liked this a la veggie version anyone will.

PS - I made this with green curry paste asn I HATE red curry. The actual recipe is for the red curry but I've found you can make any curry recipe with the paste that best suites your taste buds.

Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

♪♪C is for cookies it's good enough for me ♪♪...One of the best song ever written by one of my favourite characters - Cookie Monster. Do you know who Cookie Monster really is??? My Husband. He eats cookies by the truck load. Always has. Actually When we got married I instructed the best man that should Husband try to make a break for it and ditch me at the alter to remind him what a killer chocolate chip cookie I make. I knew that would be enough to make him stick around for the ceremony. So tonight I inched a litter deeper into his heart [via his stomach] with this recipe.

This recipe make 12 monster sized cookies but they are sooo chocolatey and sooo rich that 12 is more than enough even for the most hardcore of chocoholics. To be honest with you I could only eat one bite. And not even a full bite just a tiny piece that I broke off the 'corner' of one of these bad boys. That was enough for me. Maybe you think "Huh? WTF do you mean only one tiny piece of this chocolate heaven staring back at me from the screen"...I am an enigma remember. Not really a fan of the chocolatey desserts. You know those molten lava cakes? I don't like those at all. I would have to have PMS on top of PMS to want to eat one of those. And even then I'm not so sure. My addiction to sugar runs deep within these veins but the crazy sweetness and richness of the uber chocolate dessert is just too much for me. Another thing I don't like is cookies. Did you just shit? I thought you might've. But it's true. I could go the rest of my life without the whiff of a cookie and be perfectly happy. But now here is where things get really mad - I love making cookies. I am one of those people that could bake cookies all day long, being happier that a pig in shit (as the saying goes), and not eat a single one. It's okay to call me a freak, I'm comfortable with it. But don't you see what all this means? Husband and I are the perfect pairing. He is the cookie eating ying to my cookie baking yang. And there friends is the true definition of soul mate.