Puttanesca Pasta

Many people i speak to rave about this pasta dish, saying how delicious it is. I'd never tried it as i thought it would be too salty due to the ingredients but i thought I'd make it to see what the fuss was about. It was nice - i adapted the recipe a little and made it spicier as we like chilli and as the breadcrumbs at Jamie's Italian were meant to be awesome (so I've been told) i thought I'd add those too!

For the puttanesca sauce for 2 people you need:
1 garlic clove
pinch of chilli flakes (of a couple of large pinches if you are like us)
6 anchovy fillets
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
Black olives - as many as you like (I'm not a massive fan so we only had a few)
Tablespoon of capers
zest of a lemon

In a pan with olive oil add the anchovy fillets, garlic and chilli flakes until the anchovy fillets break apart, add in the tomatoes, capers and olives, season and simmer for 15 min. For the breadcrumbs i toasted a slice of bread, left it to go cold then blitzed it with some mixed herbs and Parmesan. I then popped the breadcrumbs onto a baking tray and put them in the oven for 5 min to dry them out further and crisp them up but i guess that is not necessary. Before serving add the lemon zest and voila! Toss your favourite shaped pasta in the sauce then top with the crispy breadcrumbs!

Simple and yummy - give it a go!

Tonight as it is the end of the holiday - boooo - I'm making a Chinese feast! Prawn spring rolls, soy and five spiced beef and egg fried rice, all from scratch! The holiday has flown by and yet still no moving date. Shouldn't be long now though and then we can move and think about our summer holiday! Over the last couple of weeks as well as making scones I have also made a second cushion the same as the first to practice on the sewing machine. I'm not brilliant at it yet but I'll try another project before attacking the curtains!

Raining at Anderby Creek

We were offered the caravan for the Easter bank holiday so thought we'd make the most of it! So off we went! The weather was not brilliant - especially since we'd had fabulous weather the weeks preceding the school holiday - typical. Having said that we did have a good time - investigated Mablethorpe, it was OK, nowhere near as bad as Chapel St Leonard's and at least i got my fish and chips at the seaside, though we made a wise decision to eat in as otherwise we would have got soaked!

We also braved Popa's bar this time as we chickened out the last time we visited. It was OK, an interesting lady singer (I'm being polite here) and karaoke - which we decided to give a miss since it was only kids taking part so went back to the van and watched to golf.

We did go for a walk along the beach - only to find loads of sea kill - a seal looking thing, birds, crabs, razor clams, starfish - the dead sea creatures were endless! We were hoping that when the tide comes in they will go back out to sea and become part of their circle of life. But as i say - don't mess with nature! It was good to get away though, now need to start thinking about the summer hols!

Scone attack!!

As it is the holidays i thought I'd do some holiday baking again - this time scones! First round were savory cheese and onion chutney scones followed by normal sweet scones to have with jam and cream. They were yummy! Anyone for afternoon tea?