Alice's Supper Spaghetti Soup

This is one of Paddy and my favourite quick and easy teas! It is another 'store-cupboard' supper because you can pretty much lob anything in and is a great way to get rid of left overs! This dish is extremely tasty and we always end up licking the bowl. I will be very loose with quantities in this as it changes each time, I literally cook it each time to what I have left in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Chicken Stock (see Alice's Basics section)

Spaghetti

Tomatoes (halved)

Parmesan (or other Italian hard cheese)

Black Pepper

Possible optional extras: finely chopped garlic, Onions (red or white), Spring Onions, Shredded Chicken, Asparagus, Leeks, Broccoli, Cabbage, Courgette, Peas etc. Basically any vegetable or meat that is not too heavy.

Method:

1. Bring the stock to the boil.
2. Add the spaghetti, tomatoes and add the optional extras as the spaghetti cooks as you see fit, for example if I'm using left over shredded chicken or spring onions I don't add them until the end as I don't want them to cook and with asparagus I'll add that at the start as I want it to soften.
3. When the spaghetti is al dente serve immediately with Parmesan and cracked black pepper liberally sprinkled over the top, easy!

This can also be easily changed to an Asian-style dish by using noodles instead of spaghetti, adding some Asian flavourings (such as Soy Sauce and Star Anise), omitting the Parmesan and using extras like beansprouts, edamame beans, bamboo shoots etc.

Honey and Sicilian Lemon Cupcakes

I don't normally bake sweet things as I prefer savoury, but due to new purchases of piping bags and cake tins I thought I'd give the ever-popular twee favourite of cupcakes a go. If you can't beat them, join them! But of course, I couldn't just leave them as boring sponge so I found some Sicilian Lemon flavouring at the shop and decided to use that along with fresh lemons, unfortunately not Sicilian ones but these were very tasty none the less!

Ingredients (makes 12):

250g Butter (150g for cakes, 100g for icing)

100g caster sugar

2 medium eggs, beaten

150g Self-raising flour

225g golden icing sugar

50g soft cheese

Yellow food colouring

Sicilian Lemon flavouring

2 tbsps Honey

1 Lemon, zested and squeezed for juice

Candied mini slices of lemon and lemon sugar crystals (to decorate)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees, put paper cases into baking tin.
2. Beat the butter, sugar and honey together until pale and creamy and add half the lemon zest. Gradually add the eggs, beating between additions, making sure well incorporated.
3. Sift in the flour and mix in gently. Spoon mixture into baking cases.
4. Bake for around 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean.
5. Meanwhile, make the icing. I made two different shades of yellow and a double piping bag to try and create a swirl effect, to do this I just divided the quantities between 2 bowls. Beat the butter until light and fluffy then beat in the icing sugar gradually. Add extra lemon zest, more flavouring and clouring accordingly. Put into piping bag and leave in the fridge to set a little.
6. Let the cakes cool in the tin for a few minutes once taken out of the oven then cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, decorate however you like, enjoy!

I'm trying to branch out into sweet cooking/baking but it's difficult as both Paddy and I have a savoury, spicy tooth, not a sweet one! Let me know if you'd like to be my sampler!