Busy, Busy,Busy!

I've been rushed off my feet this week as we're having a clear out and DIY fortnight before I go back to work properly.
It's amazing how much stuff one family can accumulate in a year, especially arts and crafts stuff! My cookery folders have also out grown their usual shelf in my kitchen so I'll be sorting through those and relocating some stuff.
All this busy-ness hasn't stopped me from cooking though and along with decluttering our personal things I've been clearing out cupboards and freezers.
My first recipe this week is designed to use up any cheese you might have left over at the end of the week:
Cheese and Marmite Fingers
Ingredients:

• 250g of glutenfree pastry - you can use any of your favourite pastry blends here. If you have a couple of different flour bags coming to an end you can mix them together and make pastry the same way you always do.
• 1 tbsp Marmite - if you don't like marmite you can leave it out and add vegetables to your fingers instead such as onion or tomato or you could swap marmite for ketchup.
• 150g hard cheese or a good melting soya cheese.

1.  Set the oven to Gas mark 4. Roll out your pastry between two sheets of cling film until roughly half a centimetre thick. Try to make it a rectangular shape as much as possible. Remove the top layer of cling film.
2. Grate the cheese (and onion if using. Thinly slice tomatoes if using them also) 
3. Spread the marmite ( or ketchup) thinly across half of the pastry - this works particularly well if you chill the pastry first - then sprinkle all of the cheese on top - don't forget to add anything else you'd like too.
4. Fold the pastry in half bringing the naked pastry down in top of the cheese and marmite to create a sandwich effect. Place on a baking tray using the bottom layer of cling film to manoeuvre it.
5. Score finger sized lines into the top of the pastry before placing into the pre-heated oven. Bake until the pastry is brown and crispy.
6. Slice into fingers along the score lines and cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Another recipe I used this week that I hadn't used in ages was my own take on home made burgers. A while ago there was a scandal in the UK involving pre-packaged meat products and horse meat. There was such disgust and panic amongst shoppers that all beef burgers in the supermarket I usually use disappeared. This meant that for months I was unable to buy any which, to be honest,was quite lazy of me. Especially being as sitting in my cupboard was a barely used burger press, tut, tut.

So, using all sorts of different minced meats, lamb, pork, turkey and beef, I took to making my own. And when I found a rather large package of minced beef hiding at the back of my freezer over the weekend I dug out my burger press and there were burgers for everyone!

Cutting's Home made Burgers:

Ingredients:

• 500g lean minced beef
• 2 medium onions
• 1 and 1/2 glutenfree vegetable stock cubes
• 1 tbsp of olive oil/vegetable oil

Makes approx 6-8 large burgers or 10 small ones
This mixture is best blended in a food processor to combine it properly and give good solid burgers.

1. Grate the onions using the grater attachment on your food processor. Switch to the flat blade and add the minced beef- do not mix yet.
2. Using a mortar and pestle if you have one or the back of a large spoon mix the stock cubes and the oil together to create a paste and add to the food processor.
3. Blend the ingredients on medium speed until it resembles sausage meat. Taking large dessert spoonfuls either shape the meat into patties using your hands or a burger press.
4. You can freeze any burgers you will not be cooking just remember to leave on the waxed discs if using the press or freeze separately on a baking tray if shaping by hand.
5. Cook as normal burgers and serve with all your favourite dressings.

Well I hope that'll keep you going for another week, I'm off to clear out my porch now. The local charity shops will be getting quite a few goodies from our house this month!