Weekend Recipes- The results

Well the weekend was a culinary expedition and I was Ernest Shackleton !

For breakfast on Saturday  I made Cinnamon French Toast with maple syrup which was delightful and I thoroughly recommend it !

For dinner I made Steak and Guinness pie as I previously posted and it too was perfect ( photo to follow ) .  I must say though you could do with a third hand to put the pastry lid on top and luckily Ronan was near the kitchen so I enlisted his services.  Go team!

Dessert was chocolate fondants which looked fab ( again pics to follow) but unfortunately I left them in about 8-10 mins and they werent as gooey in the centre as they should have been so I 'd say 3-4 mins next time.

Sunday then , well after a verrryy late night in town on Saturday we were lazy on Sunday morning so I got up at 12pm , went next door to the shop and bought croissants to accompany coffee . I then took the lamb shanks out of the freezer to defrost and went back to bed for a few hours. I got up later and put the lamb in for 90mins and did champ and carrotts with it. It was delicious. Recipe was from Nevin Maguire's cookbook with some slight alterations ( thanks again Fidelma) .  For dessert I did a lemon meringue ice cream which basically consists of broken meringue nests mixed into some softened vanilla ice cream and lemon curd. You mix them all together and spoon the mixture into a loaf tin lined with cling wrap and put the tin into the freezer until set. Easy peasy.

All in all a good weekend of wholesome cooking and not an "e" number or MSG  in sight :D

Last night I happened to watch a baking show and saw an easy recipe for French pattiserie style millefuilles so I made an impromptu  Peach and Lemon Cream millefuille ( pics to follow) which went down a treat with Ronan on his return from work.

You can use this and put almost any filling in and for tea parties they look fab! Check it out here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/blueberry_and_lemon_03932

Well tonight , Ronan is off work and it's going to be a team effort to make a traditional Cottage Pie. Cooking together is always fun . Will post back tomorrow.

Before I go, I thought I would share some old pics I came across of my old cheerleading team at their first competition in the UK . We were the first Irish cheerleading team to compete in competition abroad and won 2 trophies. Miss those little sweethearts!

Slan for now .

Leanne