Death by homemade double chocolate cheesecake & custard

I don't know why but I have been craving custard lately, day dreaming about it.

For the longest time I loathed the stuff. 

Powdered/ tinned is not an option for me but I even hated the homemade from scratch good stuff!

Then one glorious day in my in my 14th year. I reluctantly tried some and YES, It was amazing.

I have been dreaming of creamy vanilla and cinnamon infused custard oozing down the side of a no bake chocolate caramel cheesecake for the last two weeks and finally got around to making it.
It that usual? 
Cheesecake and custard-I don't know but it tastes mighty good.

Ingredients for custard:

250ml double cream

3 free range eggs

2 teaspoons mixed spice or cinnamon powder

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1 vanilla pod (split and scraped)

Method:

1. Whisk your eggs, corn flour, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon together in a bowl and pour into a new sauce pan.
2. Heat the double cream in a sauce pan on a low heat then bring up to boiling point.
3. When the double cream is hot pour into egg mixture slowly whilst continuously stirring (if you added the vanilla pod to cream remove it).
4. Place the saucepan back on a low heat still stirring the custard mixture until it has thickened.
5. keep at a low heat to avoid lumps. If it is too thick for you, add a little bit of milk/ cream and continue stiring away from the cooker.

On to the Cheesecake. 
If your house is anything like mine.
It is likely that you will have a fair few snacks leftover from christmas and new years.
Those ones just left to languish in the back of the cupboard because we just can't be bovved/ can't face to eat them any more.

A great way to get rid of your chocolately bits is to put them in desserts.

Ingredients for base and filling:

150g Oreo biscuits (remove stuffing)

70g of butter

150g dark chocolate (chopped/grated)

50g milk chocolate

400g cream cheese

100g caster sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

130ml cream cheese
*I also made a ganache topping, as you can see in the picture.
My design didn't go well. Lets not dwell on it lol!!*

Method:

Put your biscuit base into a food processor and pulse in to crumbs or into a food storage bag and bash until fine. Then add melted butter and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.

1. Form base by pressing the mixture into tin of your choice. Leave in the freezer to set for at least an hour.
2. If you haven't' eaten the oreo stuffing, you can smear this across the base. I also added some salted caramel spread as I wanted to use it up.
3. Melt chocolate over a bain marie on a low heat. Allow to cool a bit.
4. Leave cream cheese out of the fridge to soften and mix leftover cocoa powder, sugar and cooled down melted chocolate together.
5.   Pour mixture into the base tin and chill in the fridge for a minimum 1 hour.
6. Serve your sexy delicious cheesecake, bask in all the praise thrown at you.

And that's it guys chuck a few frozen berries on for texture , flavour and as part of your 5 a day .

I want to say this could serve 8-9  but in reality I  am going to say a serving of 6.

Enjoy

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays

Easy festive holiday spiced mulled cider

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

This is my only festive post and the final post of 2015.

So what better way to end 2015, than to toast the year passing and a new one beginning?

Here is my super easy, quick and delicious homemade mulled cider recipe. 

You can find most of the ingredients knocking around the kitchen, which is great at this time of year. 
This is greqt to make in advance and store in air tight containers. The flavours intensify and it is one thing off your to do list.

Ingredients

3 litres of cider- you can have 1 litre of dry

2 large cinnamon stick

3 cloves

1/2 a bottle of medium sweet white wine

1 vanilla pod

3 star anise
1 teaspoon of grated nutmeg

50g of sugar- soft sugar (if you don't like sugar don't add or use less)

2 heaped teaspoons of Marsala tea

200 ml dark rum (if you have it, that is fine)

6 cardamom pods

1 level teaspoon of mixed spice

1  bay leaf

3 oranges and one 1 lemon

1 orange and lemon peel

1 chopped apple

Method

Ok so you have all your ingridients. 

Squeeze the juice from 3 oranges and 1 lemon. Then thinly slice zest.

If you have a muslin cloth going spare then place all your dry ingredients in there and tie it off.

If not then chuck your ingredients into a big pot, along with the cider, wine, sugar and scrapped vanilla pod. 

You can sieve all ingridients once finished.

The mixture should be on a LOW heat and allowed to simmer for approximately 30-40 minutes.

If it is a little strong add a a cup of water and add until you are satisfied.

**Tip** You may find the citrus oils very strong if you put them in straight away. 

Either place fruits in hot water for a few seconds then add to the mix.

Or add peel into the mix in the last 10 minutes of simmering.

This is also great with champagne or wine so get creative and mull what ever tipple takes your fancy!

This is an alcoholic drink mixture but is just as delicious with non-alcoholic drinks.
Remember guys, drink safely and my underagers -Apple juice will sustain you!

So that's my incredibly easy, show stopping mulled cider. 

Your family will sing your praises and it shall be great.
 Sit back and lap up the adulation.

Drink it hot, warm or even cold and its amazing!

Thank you so much for your continued support this year.

Have an amazing Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Enjoy your holidays and see you on the other side (very Adele)!

Merry Christmas, Afenhyiapa, Feliz Navidad, Meri Kirihimete, Sung Tan Chuk Ha, Gledileg Jol, 
Bada Din Mubarak Ho... so on and so forth

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays

7 quick and easy lunch ideas: leftovers

Hi Lovers,

Sometimes we get stuck in a rut or lazy and just eat the same meals again and again.

I wanted to share a few quick leftover lunch dishes that are tasty, pretty healthy, well priced and varied. They are great for work as many can be made and stocked in the fridge.

Making a nice alternative to spending lots at lunch time each day. ( we spend thousands each year apparently)!

I have tried to make it varied so there is something for my vegetarians too. All can be adapted for your specific tastes/needs.

1. Homemade vegetable spring rolls with tenderstem broccoli salad.

Rolls include: bean sprouts, ginger, red pepper,  garlic and spring onion. You can make them any size I used my finger length as a guide and made them a little longer. 

Salad includes: tender stem broccoli,  samphire (I love this stuff), garlic, onion, seasoning, mustard, red peppers and squeeze of orange juice.

2. Fried plantain, black eyed peas, avocado and a fried egg.

Shallow fry 2 ripe plantains (1 1/2 shown in picture)

Soak peas over night and boil - these are nice with Nori seaweed

Half a medium Avocado

Fry a free range medium egg and season

Sprinkle some dried chives (l put them on everything) ummhmm

3. Rye bread crisps, cucumber salad scrambled eggs and coleslaw.

There were actually 3 rye crisps but yeah lol. 

I am a little obsessed with the Ikea KNÄCKEBRÖD RÅG rye crisp.

Add coleslaw on top of rye bread

Scramble and season 2 x medium free range eggs

Salad:

Chop 5 x large sun dried tomatoes 

Chop 1/3 of a organic cucumber

Drizzle some olive oil, mustard and lemon juice

4. Beetroot salad with gammon and leftovers.

Grate 1 x medium beetroot

Grate 1 x medium carrot

Add handful of spinach

chop half x large gammon fillet

Chop x half an organic cucumber

Toast x 15 cashews

Add and halve 3 baby roasted potatoes

Add left over 1/2 x plantain from dish above

5. Mixed vegetables barley (get colourful, get creative)

Fry x 1 large onion and 2 large garlic

Add one packet of barley

Add 1 x litre chicken stock - fresh if possible

Top up with water until the barley is covered about 1-2 cms above barley

simmer on low to medium heat

Boil sweetcorn and peas

Sauté portobello, oyster and button mushroom

Dice 2 red bell peppers

Add 1 medium avocado

Drizzle Caesar dressing 

Mix it all together and season to taste

6.  Chipotle sweet potatoes, Harissa chicken with chickpea salad and stew/ sauce

I am not the biggest fan of sweet potato. So I like to mellow the sweetness by making them spicy.

Boil your sweet potatoes and slice (1 used above but I ate half lol)

Once cooled lightly fry the slices for colour and texture

Fry one small chicken breast seasoned with Harissa seasoning

Salad:

1 x handful of chickpeas

1 x handful of samphire lightly fried

3 x large sundried tomatoes chopped

Add lime, remaining chicken sauce, mustard and olive oil to dress

7. Quinoa and Bulgar wheat salad

1/2 x packet of Quinoa

1/2 x Bulgar wheat

2 x large chopped garlic

1/2 x large diced onion

1/2 x red pepper

Tender stem broccoli

cherry tomatoes

Boil Quinoa and Bulgar wheat with half a cube of veggie stock cube.

Fry onion and garlic, then add to Quinoa and Bulgar wheat.

Lightly sauté tender stem and add to the finished dish.

So those are my ideas for a delicious and pretty healthy lunch, that will beat the hunger pangs and keep your bank balance in check!

Let me know if you try out a recipe and what your fav leftover lunch is.

Until next time......

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays  

7 things I want you to know

Hey Lovers,

I am back with another post and this time I am doing something a little different. I have picked 7 things that I am in to or loving right now. Instead of doing several different posts I am combining them and giving you a snapshot of each.

I am considering making this a series, so let me know what you think.

Rooster Teeth

1. Rwby anime series. RWBY  is an American anime inspired web series which was created by the incrediably talented Monty Oum (who tragically passed away earlier this year) for Rooster Teeth Productions.

The show is essentially about team RWBY. Which consists of Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long . The story is set the fictional world of Remnant, where all four young women have have supernatural talents are training to make them better. The series follows he adventures all four women have, their trials and tribulations.

 I was absolutely obsessed with this series last year and I await the third volume eagerly. I won't put any spoilers in but I will say that, I like that there is room for improvement and it was just a group of people getting together to share and create something they enjoyed. Check it out.

London Apollo Victoria Theatre

2.wicked.  I went to see this last month with  friends and had the BEST seats. We were 9 rows from the front and the view and acoustics were spot on. This was my third time seeing Wicked as I never tire of it. it is also great seeing it from different seating positions.

I got a deal on lastminute.com and DAMN they hooked me up.

3. Tyrell crisps are giving me Life! These are some of my fav crisps and I was sent three packs after tweeting them about a bag full of air I had bought. literally there was a half a third of a bag! Happily they were right on it. Worked quickly and efficiently and hooked me up as an apology - very nice!

Victoria Aveyard

4. Red Queen, I really enjoyed reading this and felt the female character wasn't the usual slightly wet young female antagonist. There is still room for improvement but as this is the first in the series I look forward to seeing what will be done with these characters. I am pretty new to the Young adult books, so I am dipping my toe in. I didn't read them much as a teenager, as they just did not interest me at all but there is some really excellent stuff out there if you look. The next book isn't scheduled to come out until 2016 I believe so I have a long wait ahead of me! WAAAH.

Matalan initial mug

5. New initials mug. A staple of every blogger. My friend dropped my fav  initial cup and all that remains is the handle (mystery solved ). I found this simple and cute one in Matalan, which you will have seen in my homeware haul for a steal of £2.

Freshly peeled Pomelo

6. Pomelo, hailed a citrus super fruit. The grandfather of the grapefruit is frankly too sexy for words! I have been devouring these like there is no tomorrow for the last few months. There in abundance between January and April and can be found in your local middle eastern or oriental shop. I usually cut them up and freeze them in little bags so I have a supply for a while. Do try smaller green grocers  too if your in London. I would also suggest staying away from super markets as some of their prices are extortionate!!

 Peeling them can be time consuming as you have to remove the outer membrane of each segment before eating it but so WORTH it!

  They are amazing by themselves and are equally tasty in salads, with seafood and meats (think north Africa or Asian style) as well as goats cheese. So get experimental, I have.

A small selection taken from our group chat

7. Foodgawker. My friends and I spend a ridiculous amount of time sending each other pictures of food and recipes. As you can see from one session above. This doesn't just include food we are making,or made but future meals, things we will be ordering in restaurants, food porn and general Internet dream eats. Foodgawker is a "network of curated, blogger submitted photo gallery website". They showcase a range of food and drink recipes as well as photography. I love it it is not only a great site for drooling over food but for expanding your repetoire. I enjoy creating dishes as much as I enjoy eating them so this is right up my street.

These are my 7 things I wanted you to know.

until next time.......

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays  

Pancake Day 2015: the Savoury experience

It's pancake day woop woop

Pancakes have definitely taken a savoury turn in my house this year and the excitement is too real!

I have a sweet tooth and chocolate is a close and personal friend but sugar doesn't compare to my love for the hot and savoury.

My batter is a simple plain mix that enhances the flavour of the filling but doesn't over power it.

Ingredients:

100g plain flour

2 eggs

300ml semi-skimmed milk

pinch salt

1 tbsp olive oil into the mix or a knob of butter

• Splash of oil in the pan for cooking

Serves:7-8 pancakes

• 
  

This pancake day is all about hot and spicy flavours packed full of goodness.

• My two main  fillings are Duck & Chicken surf and turf stir fry and home made Venison meatballs.

R: Stir fry L: venison meatballs

The stir fry has oyster mushrooms, edamame beans, broccoli, shredded duck and chicken, onions and prawns. (sautéed spinach was added at the end).

The venison meatballs which have a really rich spicy sent naturally wear seasoned overnight with Worcestershire sauce, fresh and dried chives, season all, Himalayan sea salt and chopped onions. I then added an egg and a tablespoon of flour before rolling into balls.

     Final product:

I like my savoury pancakes a little more crispier than usual as they hold the contents better and there they are super tasty and pretty darn health eh.

What is your pancake plan this year?

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays  

Homemade Chocolate Cinnamon Chilli truffles

Hi Lovers,

So I was in charge of Christmas again (twas a success again even if I do say so myself) and although my main efforts went into the starter and mains I did have some time to whip up these babies on Christmas eve.

I was very popular after plating these up and have had several orders placed by friends and family for the foreseeable future!

INTRODUCING..........

Chocolate Cinnamon Chilli Truffles!

They are rich decadent and incredibly easy to make!

Instructions: 

Prep time 15 mins

Cooking time 25 mins

Creates approx 65 pieces

Ingredients needed:

350g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)

250g milk chocolate

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 teaspoons of chilli *if you can handle it*

650ml double cream

Dash of Himalayan sea salt

25g of the best cocoa powder you can find

The how to:

Step one: Grease up a shallow baking tray with butter.

Step two: Break up chocolate into small manageable pieces for melting.

Step three: Warm the double cream on a low heat in a heavy bottomed pan and add spices.

Step four: Add the chocolate to the WARM mixture which has been taken off the heat or in a separate bowl. If there are still chunks place the bowl over a pot of heated water.

Step five: Place the mixture into your tray and tap on your work surface to release trapped air. Sprinkle your salt sparingly over the top and chill for at least an hour.

Step six: Sieve your cocoa powder and cut the chocolate into cubes

Step seven: Roll truffles (between your fingers) or leave as squares and toss in cocoa powder.

Step eight: Store in the fridge or freezer and place in a pretty jar for a rustic feel.

P.s store in a really cool place if they survive they day and they should last you up to 1.5 months.

Enjoy

Guys these are so good I honestly can't explain how nice they are! They are easy to customise and as they are so rich 3 is more than enough per person.

I would love to see what you come up with let me know.

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and  Follow @GirlWednesdays  

The classic: Avocado toast & a perfectly poached egg

Happy New Year Lovelies!!!!!

I have decided to totally bypass the January resolution post etc and jump right into a post more up my street.

I am starting 2015 on the blog with a little bit more foodie porn, oh yes -in the shape of poached eggs.

I rarely make poached eggs as the tension is too high.

Will it work?

wont they?

These are big questions. I can not be bovved with the water and vinegar ratios and swirling the water in a certain direction mate LEAVE IT OUT, seriously tho just leave it! Lol

Those food rage days are over however as I came across 2 silicone egg poachers in the mighty Poundland and immediately popped them into my basket. 

What do I have to lose with them being 50p each and then legged home to try them out.

Here is the gloriousness that ensued------>

Avocado toast and poached egg 

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the yummers-ness of this plate?

Ok

Here is how to make it:

Serves 2 if you are in a sharing mood. However one egg was lost in the above picture as it got in my face :-)

2 x large organic eggs poured into the oiled silicone poachers (3.5 to 4 mins recommended cooking time)

I seasoned raw with garlic herb salt and chilli flakes.

+

2 x slices of wholewheat ( I used Burgens Buckwheat & Poppy Seed bread)

+ 

Smear 1 x Medium avocado on to bread
(Is it me or do Avocados taste more amazing the older you get?)

Chop cherry tomatoes in half for garnish

+

+

Sliced pickled garlic to taste

Mustard buttered on to bread

Philadelphia layered on top of mustard thinly

Bacon bits approx 1/2 a rasher

Dollop Caesar dressing to taste

+

  

This dish is very easy, pretty healthy and tastes damn good. I highly recommend it!

Unfortunately they didn't have the poachers online but here is what the packaging looks like.

£1 for 2

Smooches

Stephanie aka Wednesdays Girl

xoxo

Don't forget to come find me and Follow @GirlWednesdays