I LOVE PIZZA.

FUN PITTA PIZZAS
serves 4
prep time: 15 minutes, plus defrosting time
cook time: 15-17 minutes

* 250g (½ x 500g) pack frozen mixed peppers* 100g smoked bacon lardons
* 6 wholemeal pitta breads
* 175g double concentrate tomato purée
* 2 x 125g packs basics mozzarella cheese ball, torn into pieces
* 100g tinned sweetcorn, drained
* 167g (½ x 335g) pack cherry tomatoes, quartered
* ½ x iceberg lettuce, shredded.

1. defrost the frozen mixed peppers for 1 hour, then pat them dry with kitchen paper.
2. preheat the oven to 200°c, fan 180°c, gas 6. heat a non-stick frying pan, then dry-fry the lardons for 5 minutes, until browned. remove from the pan and set aside.
3. using a knife, cut 6 wholemeal pitta breads in half horizontally and place on a baking tray, insides facing up. spread the tomato purée over the pitta halves. top with the bacon lardons, mozzarella cheese, sweetcorn, cherry tomatoes, peppers, arranged as you wish.
4. place in the oven and bake for 10–12 minutes, until the cheese is melted. serve with the shredded iceberg lettuce.

make it veggie… try swapping the bacon lardons for 200g sliced mushrooms, fried in a little vegetable oil.

from sainsbury's weekly meal planner.

MORE PANCAKES

according to this recipe. but with raspberries instead of blueberries..



i got new headphones (or, reserved them from argos and sent carl there on his way home from oxfam with a £2 coin) they're red, like my insides. i likes them, about fucking time too. i can safely & comfortably fall asleep to my stories again (old in-ear ones finally completely died last night.. i was not happy)

carl's watching 'girls behind bars'. apparently someone has awesome hair in it i'd like.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S PANCAKE DAY.

today i have not so much been celebrating internation women's day (every day is women's day to me!) but i have been making pancakes:



BANANA PANCAKES

* 55g/2oz butter, cubed
* 275g/9¾oz self–raising flour
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 2 free-range eggs
* 2 tbsp soft light brown sugar
* 300ml/½ pint whole milk
* 1 large banana, roughly chopped
* 1-2 tbsp sunflower oil
* 8 rashers rindless streaky bacon
* maple or golden syrup, to serve

1. preheat the oven to 110c/225f/gas ¼.
2. melt 25g/1oz of the butter in a small pan over a low heat and leave to cool for five minutes.
3. put the melted butter, flour, baking powder, eggs, sugar and milk in a food processor and blend until smooth.
4. pour into a large bowl and mash the banana into the batter with a potato masher.
5. melt a little of the oil with a cube of butter in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. wipe around the base of the pan with a thick wad of kitchen paper. (i dont know what that bits all about.. i didn't do it.)
6. drop two or four large serving spoonfuls of the banana pancake mixture into the frying pan, spacing well apart. cook for three minutes (more like a minute and a half!) or until the pancakes rise, bubbles appear and the surface appears dry.
7. flip over with a palette knife and cook on the other side for a further 2-3 minutes (minute and a half) or until pale golden-brown.
8. transfer to a heatproof plate and keep warm in the oven while you cook the remaining eight pancakes in exactly the same way.
9. return the frying pan to the heat and add the streaky bacon. cook for about three minutes on each side until golden and crisp, turning once. add a splash of oil if the rashers begin to stick.
10. pile the pancakes onto four warmed plates and top with the fried bacon. drizzle with a little maple syrup (or golden syrup) and serve the rest separately.

i got the recipe from here, but i skipped the bacon and syrup and found that three minutes cooking time was WAY TOO LONG (i burned half the pancakes) perhaps if you do it on lower heat.. either way, check the pancakes after about a minute and if they're brown enough, flip them!

i'm all pancaked up, i found this recipe for american style blueberry pancakes earlier from good food and i'm going to make them later but with raspberries. (cos english blueberries are rubbish, and overpriced. and i like raspberries. they're my favourite.)

in other news, i feel a bit shit and weepy as fuck and i think i should probably start taking my medication again. i haven't really taken it since i got my no babies implant put in a month + 1 day ago. i hadn't really noticed a difference until.. just now? i have also been watching the first series of roseanne and torchwood. and made some progress on my cardigan, i am now on the sleeves! i also really really like eating. food is awesome!

my secret private pre-derby lunch from sunday:
(sainsbury's reduced shelf) chicken & chorizo pie with chips and peas.

RECIPIES; GNOCCHI with BLUE CHEESE & BACON

i'm sorry this recipe isn't exactly vegan or even vegetarian. but i made this today and it was pretty fucking lush. and so easy!







GNOCCHI WITH BLUE CHEESE, BACON & SPINACH PEAS

SERVES 2

500g fresh gnocchi
4 rashers of bacon
100g bag of spinach leaves
75g blue cheese
3-4 tbsp milk

boil a large pan of water, add the gnocchi and cook for 3 minutes / or as instructed. meanwhile in another pan, fry the bacon until crispy. add spinach, stir for 1 minute until wilted, then add the blue cheese & milk. stir until smooth. drain the gnocchi, toss together with sauce & serve.

except! i forgot to buy spinach so i used some frozen peas for green stuff instead! also, you can use normal pasta instead of gnocchi if you want to. also, for veggie version, i reckon you could use veggie bacon (obvs) or replace the bacon with veg, like courgette, peppers whatever you feel like..







thank you tesco magazine. i'm gonna make this for dinner again tomorrow. nom.

SOPHIE'S DAHL & RAMBLES

carl made us lush dinner. lentils with roasted sweet potatoes & lemon rice, aka sophie's dahl. so fucking good. it was actually really nice and refreshing! quite a bit of effort, but so worth it. it's been a while since i've written about food. this may be cos it's been a while since either of us has done serious cooking. it's mostly been anything quick but nice, pasta, burgers, frozen pizza, again. carl's been working in london for almost two weeks now, still going back again on monday. i miss him, but i guess the money will come in handy. we've both been having sandwiches for lunch, it's really too warm to have anything warm anyway, and due to the whole pizza & burgers thing, there's not been leftovers anyway. work's been ok. too hot of course, but luckily i found some black i don't know what they are called, khakis i guess from primark that are knee lenght and quite cool temperature wise so i don't have to wear tights for my modesty's sake now, which is a relief. i hope it starts raining again soonish. i've been trying to work on #11, it's not really happening. i know what i want to write about and what about it, but it's hard cos i don't really want to think about it again.. but enough being cryptic about that. i also started writing my vampire story, sort of. that's easier. sort of. ha. a lot of sort ofs there. and i've been listening to the southern vampire mysteries audiobooks. fuck yes. i rather wish they had included bubba in the tv series (true blood is based on the books if you didn't know.) oh and i watched new moon the other day so i could legitemately hate on it cos i've actually seen it. i think i sprained my eyes from rolling them so much. blah, urgh. it just pisses me off so much. vampires that sparkle in sunlight? fuck off. and then there's that whole tragic romance with a chastity belt on bullshit. i'm not even going to go there. just no. sure, it was nicely filmed and stuff but the story.. no no no no no no nonon nononononoo. ok, that's it.

oh yeah, speaking of vampires, vampire sushi distro's got a few new zines again!

SUNDAY DINNER / BRUNCH.

today i have been both a success and a massive failure when it comes to cooking. i'll start with the failure. i made baked potatoes with ratatouille & feta cheese for dinner, but unfortunately i sort of didn't cook the potatoes properly. i don't think i ever have! this is why i tried to get carl to check them for me but i guess he's got too much faith in my potato baking abilities. still ate some of it though..

& then on to my success;

sunday brunch, originally uploaded by Tukru Loves You.

yesterday, i was in a spot of bother foodwise, because i had had a whole aubergine chopped up in a tub for a couple of days, and i thought i'd better use it up asap. so carl told me to just google "aubergine recipes", and i found a load of them on bbc good food website. the one we ended up with was fast feta & aubergine pizzas, which i made for lunch. which was fucking lush. though i did end up changing the recipe a bit. instead of using roasted aubergines from a jar, i got carl to roast them in some oil while i was still walking home from the shops. the silly boy didn't roast all of them though, so i roasted some more this morning/afternoon and had the same thing for my breakfast / lunch / brunch. it is definitely going in my cooking zine. and so is our dinner from last night, spiced vegetable biryani, with some added notes.

RECIPE : MAKARONI LAATIKKO

makarooni laatikko, originally uploaded by tukrulovesyou.

it's been ages since i've posted a recipe. actually i don't think i have posted one since i swapped to blogger. shocking. i made makaroni laatikko (finnish pasta casserole) last night. i've only made it once before, and it was well nom. it's a bit of a finnish mama recipe. though funnily enough i prefered the version they served at my school to my own mother's, who after all was a professional cook (she's not dead, she's just retired.) though i have learned the significant difference between them is that my mother used milk while the dinnerladies used stock. also, neither used tin tomatoes & carrots, i just wanted to add a bit extra flavour. actually this is more or less my recipe! though i did check some random finnish cooking websites for the amount of pasta, egg & stock / milk.

MAKARONI LAATIKKO
serves 3-4

250g minced beef (or lamb)
1 (perferably red) onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2-3 carrots, grated
400g tin of tomatoes
dried herbs; parsley, basil & oregano
salt & pepper
150g pasta of your choice
200ml beef stock or milk
2 eggs

1. cook the pasta according to the packet, drain once cooked.
2. meanwhile brown the mince in a frying pan, in some oil if you want. once the mince is half way to fully browned, add onions & garlic and fry til softened
3. add carrots and tin tomatoes and simmer for 10-15 minutes 'til the sauce starts to thicken.
4. add a thin layer of the sauce in a lightly greased casserole dish. mix the rest of the sauce with the pasta and add in the dish.
5. beat the eggs in a cup, mix in the stock until even colour. pour the mixture over the pasta mixture in the dish. make sure it's all pretty even.
6. place in a oven preheated to 190C & cook for 30-45 minutes. check after half an hour to see if the egg mix has set. once it has and the dish is no longer watery, it is done.

serve with rocket or grated carrot salad. whatever you want!

i was going to make karelian pasties today, as i have everything you need for them already in the house, but i've got too much to do. maybe next sunday?