Chicken and Apple Cheesebake

Happy New Year to you all! I suppose I'm a bit late but things have been very hectic so I haven't been able to blog for ages. Thank you too for all your good wishes for Christmas and your comments about the flooding in the Lake District. We've had quite a bit of flooding here in Northern Ireland recently as well. The rain seems to continue almost non-stop and, at times, is torrential.

Anyway, before Christmas, I did a post about frying apples.  When mine were cooled, I put them in the freezer so that I could use them for a chicken and apple cheesebake. So this is how I make it.

First of all cook the chicken. Normally I use roast chicken but this time I fried it. I used five chicken breast fillets cut into cubes. I used my new purple silicon slotted spoon stir it about! This was one of the few things I bought when we were on our wee pre-Christmas holiday.

When the chicken was cooked I put it in an oven proof dish. Although you can't see it in the picture, the dish is also purple!

Toast about 250g of breadcrumbs.

For my cheesebake I made a pint of white sauce - using the all in one method ...

... and then added about 270g of grated mature cheddar and stirred until it was completely melted into the sauce.

While I was cooking I remembered my little embroidery that hangs above the Aga. It's very true.

It takes five or six apples for a cheesebake. Here I topped the cooked chicken with roughly half of the fried apple slices. Keep the best looking slices for the top.

Then I poured the cheese sauce over the chicken and apples.

 Use the remainder of the fried apple slices on top of the cheese sauce.

Next I sprinkled about 90g of grated mature cheddar over the apples ...

... and topped the lot with the breadcrumbs.

I cooked my cheesebake for about thirty minutes in the Aga roasting oven. That's a hot oven; about 250°C or 490°F. The chicken is already cooked so it's just heating everything up and browning the top.

Of course I forgot to take a picture when it was cooked! It tasted delicious though. You could make it with turkey instead of chicken and you could do without adding any cheese (or use less cheese) if you prefer.

Not exactly a recipe but close. Let me know if you try it.

All the best for now. I hope to get back to reading and commenting on your blogs too.

Fried Apples

We've had some very wet and windy days here. Look at what our poor eucalyptus tree had to try and stand up to!

Anyway, remember I told you about picking the cooking apples? They weren't the only apples we had this year. I picked lots of eating apples as well. When I couldn't store any more I left apples on the trees. So for the first time we now have some apple trees with apples and no leaves!

 I love how it looks! Kind of festive and getting ready for Christmas.

The birds have eaten the odd apple but, surprisingly, very few.

I picked some of the apples today so I can use them in my chicken and apple cheese bake when I next make it.

First, wash and core the apples; they have to be eating apples rather than cookers. Heat about an ounce of butter in a large frying pan until hot.

Slice the apples in rings about a quarter of an inch thick. Put the apples in the pan in a single layer and fry for about five minutes - until golden/brown.

Now turn the apple slices and fry the other side. You're aiming for colour and softening but not apple mush. The slices should still hold their shape.

I then left the apple slices to cool and packed them in a box to store in the freezer until needed. It takes about six small apples for each bake. When I next make the chicken and apple cheese bake I'll take photos and then show you how to do it.

Thanks for all your comments about the Christmas pudding. I hope some of you will give it a go some time. Bye for now!

Snowy Days

Welcome back; it's lovely to have you visiting again. When I tried to do this post a few days ago, I couldn't load my photos because of a server error. I've no idea what caused it or how to fix it. Thankfully I have a new iMac, just set up today, and I'm able to load my photos without any problem.

On Friday last the husband was off for the day; I'm always off on Fridays. We were going to take the trailer and get loaded up with wood blocks but we woke to a white world. We decided that discretion was the better part of valour and didn't try taking the car out with the trailer attached.

We leave plenty of food for the wild birds and they really needed it. The feeders are next to our beehives.

 I couldn't resist taking some photos as it looked really lovely.

 All of a sudden the snow started falling again. It was beautiful to watch though it made everything look like the world was in black and white instead of colour.

The poor wee birds. They still had to come looking for food even though it was snowing.

These two daffodils are the only two in the garden that are blooming!

Now it just so happens that on Thursday last week (the day before it snowed), I saw a pattern for crocheted socks in the Simply Crochet magazine. And, I saw where Daisy had actually crocheted said socks. In fact, she has since crocheted another pair for her mother. Well, when I saw the snow I knew what I simply had to do; crochet a pair of cosy socks for myself. I couldn't start right away as we braved the elements and went out for coffee. It was actually Friday evening before I could finally get out some yarn, my hooks and the pattern and get started. I thought it would be a good idea to work the two socks together. So make the toe for the first sock, make the toe for the second sock, work the first stripe of the first sock, work the first stripe of the second sock and so on. Things went really well until I had done the number of rows stated in the pattern before I was supposed to turn the heel. I have long, narrow feet which necessitated me having to work an extra five rows before the foot section was long enough! That held me back!! I crocheted like someone possessed as I really wanted to get them finished before going to bed. Anyway, I turned the heel on both socks and crocheted the number of rows that were supposed to be completed before the rib top. Again this was too short for me and I needed an extra three rows. Too late though for Friday night and I had to leave them to finish on Saturday.

The snow was still about on Saturday as there were some more snow showers overnight. It was a beautiful day so, after being out in the morning, I spent the afternoon in the kitchen. I made more blackcurrant cordial and a batch of cranberry sauce. We had some with Sunday lunch and it was delicious.

Then I also baked apple and blackberry tart using fruit from our garden. This is the first tart ...

... and this is the second.

Side by side!

These were also delicious even though I say so myself!

What about my socks? I got them finished on Saturday evening and took some photos on Sunday morning.

The socks are very cosy and I just love looking at them. They make me laugh every time I see them. I'm hoping you'll let me know what you think of them.

I'm just so excited to be able to get back to my blogging with this new iMac. It's taking a bit of getting used to but I'm picking it up pretty quickly.

Something else exciting happened. I won a giveaway! And my prize arrived today. It is a beautiful pink rabbit that Suzy very kindly sent me. You can see the rabbit here but I will also be taking photos of it and letting you see how lovely it is.

That's all for now. Thank you for all your comments and a welcome to new followers. I hope you are managing to keep warm wherever you are and hopefully not too warm.