Buttons and Bows

I may have mentioned this before... but I'm not a very effective preparer of "simple" dishes... the Great Alison Holst describes the following dish as a "well balanced family dinner which can be cooked in half an hour in one pan"... she neglects to add the bit "unless, of course, you are Kat. In which case this'll probably take an hour and a half several pans a couple of pots and maybe even a little floor-space for good measure. But don't worry! Your flat mates will love it!"

And, inexplicably, they do! This is not my favourite dish ever... but it comes to you highly requested by one of my most favourite people ever... and I aim to please! :)

Even I recognise that this is a very cute dish!

The flavour and sauciness for this dish comes almost entirely from a can of condensed soup - so make sure you pick a flavour you like from a brand you trust! I usually pick mushroom soup and then bulk up the flavour with some combination of; shit-loads of garlic, onion, Worcester sauce, soy sauce, chilli sauce, oregano, mushrooms etc... It's a stone soup type recipe!

The bows are provided by the pasta shape... and the buttons come, ideally from carrots and courgettes... but if, like me you don't have any courgettes to hand make buttons, bows and pearls! Substitute in any veggies you have lying around! Make this dish your own...

You can bulk out the greens with salad, as I did here - but with all the veggies in the dish proper salad isn't a necessary addition to make balanced-ness.

And so Joshee, I have for you (at long last!) the recipe for buttons and bow - enjoy!

Super Sorbet (1 Ingredient!)

Hey all a y'all Southern Hemisphere kids... Rumour has it that as I head into what is effectively my fourth winter in a row up in Sven-Land (!) ... (Yo! New Zealand! Dafaq was up with my last "summer"?! - I felt ripped off!) ... Youse guys are finally getting around to your time in the sun... :)

As such, I shall present to you this fantabulous little recipe that's been sitting on my laptop for quite some time now... 1 Ingredient Sorbet...

Ain't it preeetty?!

This one I found in Jo Seagar's Lip Smackin', Fast Cookin', Hunger Bustin', Gr8 Tastin' Cookbook which was given to me years and years ago by a friend to whom I had lent my bicycle... This has been a really useful cookbook to me over the years! As was exemplified by my first ever recipe post: Lemony Fish Pita Pockets, this dish, by the way has been quite popular over my two years of feeding other people!

All this recipe requires is a can of fruit in natural juice. That's it. What you do - is freeze this can of fruit until solid... once it reaches this stage - open 'er up, stick the contents in a blender and whizz. Voila! Almost instant dessert and it's not too bad for you!

This one was apricot... and I jazzed it up with a few blueberries (love those things!)

Okay, so now it's a 2-ingredient pudding, but that's not so bad!

But you could use pear, peach... even tinned fruit salad if that's your thing...? (SO much tinned fruit salad!)

So, a rather simple "recipe" to break the fast... but maybe this'll be the taster and need to get my groove back... and maybe you'll be seeing more of me soon?