Garlic & Rosemary Baked Camembert with Cranberry Relish - Bakemas Day 18

20 Minute Garlic Butter Spaghetti with Pesto Roasted Cherry Tomatoes – Bakemas Day 3

Sometimes you just need a big ol’ bowl of pasta and today is definitely one of those days.

Watercress & Rocket Soup With Garlic, Ham & Feta Welsh Rarebit

I’ve had an odd craving for green leaves recently. There’s something about green food that’s ridiculously appetising to me, I love a good salad but even though it’s spring, most days it feels way too cold for salad. Soup is kind of like a hug in a bowl and you have no idea how happy it makes me to have a bowl of green food in front of me and I get the added bonus of sort of stomping on those leafy cravings.

I like soup but honestly I tend not to eat it that frequently, I always find a bowl is too much because it makes me feel all sloshy; you know like when you’re really thirsty and you down a glass of water and then it feels like there’s a river in your belly, it’s kind of like that but a little more ...swampy. I probably shouldn’t say stuff like that, I think I’ve really perfected the art of saying things that potentially put people off eating, never mind, this is obviously called waffle and whisk for a reason! This soup is delicious though and you know it's good when I still eat two bowls regardless of the potential stomach sloshing.
Also, I can’t sing the praises of this Welsh rarebit enough; I’m all but drooling thinking about it. Do you know what Welsh rarebit is? No? Well we’re on the same page then! I Googled it about a week ago when I decided to make this and apparently it’s sort of like cheese sauce on toast.

I’m sure you’re wondering what I’m going on about seeing as I made it but this is another one of those “how my mother makes it” kind of things where that’s all I ever knew Welsh rarebit to be. Turns out, not that much like Welsh rarebit at all, although I only briefly looked it up and it seems relatively open to interpretation.

I’m not sure why I’ve never thought it switch it up before and add garlic and different types of cheeses but I just opened myself up to a world of possibilities, next stop anything I can find in the fridge! For now though this is the best Welsh rarebit I’ve had and I’ll still stand by that fact you can’t really go wrong with cheese and garlic, add in a little ham and I’m about ready to get back in the kitchen and make more of this.

Sausage & Vegetable Stuffed Mushrooms with a Cheesy Garlic Breadcrumb Topping

Mushrooms are probably one of the only vegetables I always turn down, I won’t talk about the ins and outs of my distaste for them because I’m sure it will make this recipe seem oh so inviting but what I will say is if I had to eat mushrooms I would eat them like this. I think cheese, garlic and sausage can make anything enjoyable (maybe I should put that theory to the test GMM style) but these stuffed mushrooms are delicious, so delicious a mushroom-disliker may potentially like them! I can’t guarantee it but I’m definitely an advocate for trying things anyway and if in doubt...just add more cheese!

Garlic Breaded Chicken with Tomato Dip - Bakemas Day 17

So I kind of overestimated how many breadcrumbs I would need for the brussel sprout sausage balls, which I seem to be very good at when it comes to breadcrumbs. Obviously there must be no food wasted because it makes me extremely sad wasting food, so here we are making breaded chicken. Garlic breaded chicken with homemade tomato dip, yum!
This is such a simple thing to do but I’ve never breaded chicken before. I will say one of the biggest pros of this is you know the quality of the meat you’re breading because you never really know what you're getting in a supermarket and it definitely tastes better than shop bought breaded chicken. Although we ate this for dinner it would be a great party food with dip you can serve hot or cold.

Brussel Sprout Sausage Balls with Garlic Breadcrumbs - Bakemas Day 11

I realise yesterdays recipe had sausages in but I’m just too excited about these to wait.
I’m not sure how or why but I got a little bit fixated on the idea of having brussel sprouts with garlic bread crumbs and what started out as that, went on to me having a sausage epiphany and turned into these. I’ve been so excited about making these for the past week, I was delayed a day by sausage problems but they’re finally here. They actually ended up looking a lot more like scotch eggs than I thought they would, scotch brussels? It’s not got quite the same ring to it huh!
I will warn you now, these are a get your hands stuck in kind of food. They don’t take that long to make but there is quite a few steps, but they’re fun steps! I don’t know about you but I think breading food is highly enjoyable and that’s not sarcasm, plus my mum gave me a helping hand so we had a breading production line. You don’t need a production line, or 4 hands, 2 is enough, it just halves the work load so if it’s Christmas morning put the kids to work. I can't really explain how good these taste, you'll just have to take my word for it and make them yourself. The secret ingredient is broad oak farm sausages, although they're local(ish), so not the easiest for you to find but I'd urge you to use your favourite sausages not sausage meat.

These would be perfect with Christmas dinner, especially if the little ones don’t like brussel sprouts they might just be open to trying them because really this is 50% sausage. Alternatively you could just eat a plate of them, that would be my preference.

Tomato & Basil Soup with Garlic & Cheese Croutons and Bacon & Sautéed Onions - Bakemas Day 4

My day has been filled with sewing, harry potter, a lot of hot chocolate and a trip to the local garden centre to look at the Christmas decorations. I also popped down to Dickensian evening which basically means the town turns into a Charles dickens novel. Okay, so not quite, but they shut off the road there’s stools with tombola’s, crafts, cakes, candyfloss, sausage butties, mulled wine, lots of mulled wine and everyone’s dressed like they’re from the 1800’s. I will say I found it a lot more exciting when I was younger whether that’s because it was better back then or I was just more amused as a child I’ll never know. But on to the food, what we're really here for. I could talk about these croutons all day, so I’d probably be repeating myself a lot but I think I’m officially in love. Cheesy bite sized garlic bread croutons, why have I never thought of this before and I never thought I’d be a “soggy croutons in my soup” kind of person but I was so wrong. I did just give myself more work though, because every time I eat soup I will need these croutons. on the bright side, they're pretty quick to whip up. Did I just stomp all over the soup by bigging up the croutons too much? because this soup is delicious I just can’t stop thinking about those darn croutons. If you ever thought tomato and basil soup was bland make this, then add sautéed onions and bacon, as much bacon as you want...and did I mention croutons? But seriously, homemade soup is so yummy, tomato and basil is hands down my favourite and definitely worth the little effort it takes to make.
This soup is also the perfect thing to eat after being out in the cold and even though it’s not freezing cold tonight it’s still ridiculously yummy, especially with a bowl full of croutons. Okay, I'll shut up about the croutons!

Soy, Tomato & Garlic Marinated Chicken with Rice and Crunchy Veg

I’ve been having some....digestive problems? Let’s go with that. Is this too much too talk about on a food blog? Basically a lot of stomach aches, a lot of feeling sick and not a lot of want to eat food. I’ve basically been living off hot chocolate biscuits and chicken and rice, don’t judge me! I imagine these are all completely the wrong things to eat with an upset whatever but that’s just how it went down. I’m still not really all the interested in food but may I grace you with the presence of the recipe that has kept me alive for the past 1-2 weeks. Don’t get me wrong this may or may not be the best thing to eat with a stomach upset, I guess you have to figure out for yourselves what to eat, but basically what I’m saying is don’t judge the recipe on my stomach upset. Trust me, it's even yummier with a tip top digestive system. I could quite possibly live off of this meal! This is one of those dishes that are tasty hot, but the leftovers are just as good, if not slightly better because you don't even have to cook to eat! And better still the flavours intensify over night, so double the recipe, triple the recipe, put the chicken in your sandwich the next day, this chicken is your oyster!

Sun-Dried Tomato and Roasted Garlic Houmous with Roasted Garlic Flat Bread

My first houmous experience was far from pleasant. I must have been about 12, we were on a family holiday there were over 15 of us all sitting round in a circle under the starry night sky in middle of our patch of tents and caravans, bundled up in big jumpers and blankets, surrounded by candles on tables and stuck in the ground. I was sitting next to one of my aunts and she was sitting eating a pot of houmous with probably pitta bread, I don't really remember but for the story's sake let's just say it was, and somehow I ended up trying it. She scooped as much as she possibly could on to this lone tiny piece of pitta bread and long story short there was choking, coughing and a lot of laughing involved. It's safe to say I did not enjoy the houmous.

A few years ago my sister bought some caramelised onion houmous in a supermarket which I tried, I'd say I was a convert but it's pretty much the only houmous I've tried, so of course I figured I'd make my own. I wanted to make sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic houmous because I couldn't really go far wrong. Unfortunately my houmous is not as smooth as it could be because the food processor is on it's last leg, but it still tasted just as good and some people actually said they liked it not being really smooth . So I wouldn't worry about your poor old food processor, they might not work afterwards but you'll get some tasty houmous out of it.

Roasted Garlic

I am a through and through garlic fanatic How many cloves should I use? Why not all of them! Is there enough garlic? Is there ever enough! Do we need more? Yes, always yes! And if in doubt...just use more!

My friend and I made a giant pesto, garlic bread loaf it must have been last year? Obviously when she asked if we needed more garlic my response was yes and due to impatience and hunger we got the loaf out while the garlic was still raw unbeknown to us so we ended up eating raw garlic bread and ill be honest I didn't hate it. I actually kind of liked the itchy mouth it gave me, like itchy mouth cheese, do you know what I'm talking about? cheese that's so strong it makes your mouth itch, it makes me want to ferociously chew food but it's surprisingly not an annoyance. Although I enjoyed it, she's kind of sworn off eating anything with garlic in it with me because she can taste it in her mouth days after.

Anyway about a year ago someone sent me a link to roasted garlic, obviously it is more than perfect for me roasted, check, garlic CHECK what else do you need other than a napkin for the aftermath. I finally, finally got round to making it and ohh boy! I would say if you have a cold this is 100% the best thing to eat. People say garlic is good to fight off a cold but what they don't tell you is how to chock it down; this you could eat by the bulb.

I will stand by the notion that Garlic is good for you, then everything else is just a blur to me because that's more than enough for me to harbour pre-baked garlic bread around the house in case of a global catastrophe or a power cut - the power actually tripped while I was writing this post but from me walking downstairs to flick it back on there wasn't quite enough time for me to go into a panic frenzy about the existential existence of garlic bread.

This recipe is so simple, you'll be kicking yourself that you haven't made this before now and it makes the garlic taste buttery and sweet. If you're someone who doesn't like being able to taste the garlic hours after you've eaten it this is perfect for you and you can use it in recipes like my sun dried tomato and roasted garlic houmous and roasted garlic flat bread.