Things what I have cooked recently...

I love cooking, but hate following recipes to a tee as I feel it destroys my creativity a bit! I often find a recipe online (or in one of the few recipe books I have) and tweak it a little, kind of give it a Laura-twist if you like. On Friday, I needed stodge after a long day at work, so decided to make a sausage and baked bean casserole. I browned some Cumberland sausages and onions in a wok, before adding a tin of chopped plum tomatoes, some passata, a tin of Branston baked beans (my favourite), some tomato puree, some herbs (mixed herbs, and some oregano), some spices (paprika and cumin), some hot chilli powder, some salt and some pepper. No exact quantities as I didn't measure anything, I tend to cook "to taste". I let it simmer for a while, before putting it all in my lovely orange Le Creuset casserole dish and cooking it for two hours at 150 degrees Celsius. I served it with red wine and crusty bread, and it was absolutely delicious. I took this photo using my iPhone Hipstamatic app;

On Sunday, I decided to make beef stew. I browned some stewing steak and softened some onions and leeks in butter. I put them in my Le Creuset with about two tablespoons of cornflour. I then added three Oxo cubes (cheating, I know!) and about a pint of boiling water. Finally, I added some red wine, herbs (a bay leaf and some parsley) and seasoned with sea salt and lots of freshly-ground black pepper. This went in the oven for two hours at 150 degrees Celsius. With half an hour to go, I decided to make dumplings. I mixed 2oz of butter with 4oz of self-raising flour, and added milk to combine, before finishing them off with some mixed herbs and some seasoning. I put them in the stew and returned it to the oven for the final half an hour. It was very tasty. Again, photo taken with the Hipstamatic app;

I promise this will be the last post of the day, I seem to have gone mad!