Guest Post #5: SOPHIE'S TUNA, CARROT AND CHEESE PATTIES

as I am currently in the process of moving, I have found some lovely guest bloggers to take over for me until I'm all settled. today's lovely guest post is by Sophie who blogs over at Soph-isticated, I am especially happy to have a fellow food blogger as my guest blogger today, let's see what recipe she's going to talk about.

Guest post by Sophie Broomfield

A 22 year old blogger from the West Midlands, UK; Sophie is the author of http://soph-isticatedblog.blogspot.co.uk/ a lifestyle and food blog.

A wonderful quick and healthy mid-week dish that you can make from store cupboard basics; I served mine with cajun spiced chips but would also go nicely with a fresh salad. 

Recipe makes 4 patties

Ingredients:

1 can of tuna in water
1 carrot, grated
½ onion finely chopped
50g wholemeal breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
25g cheddar cheese, grated
Handful of fresh parsley, chopped
Pepper to taste

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c and put a little bit of olive oil on a baking tray

2. Drain tuna, and put into a large mixing bowl and mash with a fork

3. Add in the grated carrots and cheese along with the onion, breadcrumbs, parsley, egg and pepper

4. Mix it all together

5. With your hands, shape the mixture into 4 patties and arrange on the baking tray

6. Bake for 20 minutes, turning the patties halfway through baking

Note: This recipe has been adapted from the Change4Life App

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thank you very much for your post Sophie, I hope you all enjoyed this post, make sure to check out Sophie's blog over at Soph-isticated, you can also find her on twitter here.

Guest Post #4: ERICA'S RASPBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE

as I am currently in the process of moving to the UK I have found some lovely guest bloggers to take over for me while I'm without internet and without time. today's lovely guest post is by Erica of Being Erica, I'm really happy to have her as a guest on my blog as she's definitely one of my favourite bloggers. today she's going to share a cheesecake recipe with you, you can find more of her recipes here.

hey guys! so so sosososososososo happy to be guest posting over here on Mag's blog today simply because - well, I just LOVE her blog and salivate on a daily basis over the goodies she posts! so, here's hoping I do the same to you today! if you like what you see, please do pop on by my blog being erica and check out my other recipes. I hope you'll stay a while!

during the week, my friend carmen wouldn't stop going on about this amazing cheesecake that her mum had made her on the weekend. like, would not stop. so on saturday i decided that in celebration of my renewed bank balance, and through sheer boredom due to the two boys playing fifa in, and taking over my lounge room, that i would try my hand at my first ever, no-bake cheesecake.

it was so good. and i posted pics of it on instagram, and you all wanted a piece. so rather than send pieces all up and down the country (i totally would, you know.), here is the simple-as, 3-step recipe that - if i can follow it, is meant for children, or incredibly clever animals.

here's what you'll need:

//for the base//

16 digestives

125g unsalted butter

//for the filling//

200g light cream cheese

180ml double cream

100g icing sugar

160g white chocolate

1 punnet fresh raspberries

and here's how you'll do it:

*an amazing tip from carmen, because i don't (yet) have a hand blender, is to put the mixing bowl you'll use for the cream in the freezer before you start. something about the cold bowl helps whip the cream without actually having to do anything strenuous with a whisk. it was such a lifesaving trick! so do this first.

1. crush the digestives in a mixing bowl while you melt the butter in the microwave. combine the two, then pat into the bottom of a greased pan. pop this in the fridge for 30-40 minutes to set.

2. in a mixing bowl, combine the philly and the icing sugar. set to the side. in a separate mixing bow, melt your chocolate in the microwave. it will need a few minutes. finally, in your frozen mixing bowl, whisk up the double cream. combine them all into one bowl, and mix in 3/4 of the raspberries.

3. pour the delicious mixture over your biscuit base, and pop in the fridge to set for about an hour. to be fair, depending on how you like your cheesecake, you could chance it in under an hour. i did, and it was slightly sloppy. it was bloody marvellous, but ultimately, not set. the rest of the raspberries are for dressing your dish!

i've just now finished the desert, with the help of the two boys and my ravenous appetite, and after a full 24 hours in the fridge the topping was muuuuch firmer. fresh berries and some white chocolate gratings on top complete the dish, and voila, three steps and you're done! how easy!

so what do you think, easy? will you give this a try? tell me if you do!

thank you very much for your post Erica, I hope you all enjoyed this post, make sure to check out Erica's blog over at Being Erica, you can also find her on twitter here.

Guest Post #3: MERE'S 'Food: The Universal Language'

as I am currently in the process of moving, I have found some lovely guest bloggers to take over for me until I'm all settled. today's guest blogger is Meredith who blogs over at Mere Mai, she's written a really lovely post for my readers and I can't wait for you all to read it.

Hello everyone!

My name is Meredith, or "Mere," as I'm commonly known, and I do have my own blog called Mere Mai, but today I am thrilled to be guest posting here at Lullaby for Pies for the lovely Magdalena!

Recently I returned home from a trip abroad in Europe, and on my way home, we were stuck at the JFK Airport in New York City and our flight was delayed. We were groaning and complaining, just sitting in those lousy airport waiting seats at our gate. Yes, not my finest moment. And out of the blue, these two young men sitting next to us at the gate, who were clearly foreign, asked my mother in choppy English, what was going on with the flight delay. My mother kindly answered their question and in turn they awarded my mother a bag of juicy Turkish pears, explaining that they were moving to the US from Turkey.

At first my mother was hesitant to take the pears. From a young age, we're always taught, "don't take food or candy from strangers." However, the two young men seemed very friendly and also seemed like they really wanted us to try their pears, to sort of share a bit of their culture with us. So we took the small risk and ate the pears which were absolutely delightful and exactly what I needed while waiting for a delayed flight in a stuffy airport.

source

The two Turkish men continued to ask us questions about America, which we gladly answered while trying to decipher their English which they told us was "a work in progress." And I realized then that eating those pears, was sort of like a "peace offering" in a weird way. Although, we could hardly understand each other, and had to repeat ourselves two or three times each time we spoke, we could easily share a food, and exchange cultures.

That's one of the really neat things about food. There's no language barrier when you eat. Food is a way to communicate and share cultures, without ever needing to physically speak. It's a bit of a beautiful thing, really.

Thank you to Magdalena for having me on Lullaby for Pies today! I always love talking about food and Magdalena is absolutely lovely! Again, you can find me at my own blog called Mere Mai, if you're interested.

Have a nice day!

xx

Mere

thank you very much for your post Meredith, I hope you all enjoyed this post, make sure to check out Meredith's blog over at Mere Mai, you can also find her on twitter here.

Guest Post #2: SAMANTHA'S CHEESE AND GARLIC TIN LOAF

I am currently in the process of moving into my new house, this leaves me without internet meaning that I've decided to ask some bloggers to help me out and take over for me while I'm gone. today's lovely guest post is by Samantha of Planet Bake Life who has a very delicious bread recipe for you, I am really happy to have her on my blog today as she's a lovely person and a great baker.

Hi there everyone!

So I’d like to first introduce myself by saying that I am Samantha from PlanetBakeLife. Phew, now that’s out of the way, let’s have a little chat. Make yourself at home people, put up your feet and get cosy because this blog post will make you feel all homely on the inside. Let’s be honest, when people think of home they tend to think of fresh bread, hot and steaming from the oven. There is nothing to beat that smell.

Today I am going to show you how to make that bread in your very own home.

Now before you start grumbling that bread is hard to make and takes forever, I’d like you to take a deep breath and calm down. There is nothing scary about making bread and this recipe can be made in the morning or the night before, left in the fridge and baked when you get home. It’s super simple and super tasty and goes with almost everything but perhaps not with pickled fish and chocolate frosting cos that combo sounds a bit gross.

What You’ll Need:

250ml Water

60g Fresh Yeast (20-30g Instant Yeast)

1 Egg

10g Sugar

20g Crushed Garlic

150g Grated Cheese

Strong White Bread Flour

10g Salt

What You Need to Do:

1// You need to activate your instant yeast according to the instructions on the packet (or just chuck in your fresh yeast).

2// Pop your activated yeast, water, egg, sugar, crushed garlic and grated cheese into a good size bowl.  Pop about a cup and a half of the strong white bread flour into the bowl. If you’re hand kneading then use a spatula to mix the dough together or use an electric stand mixer on low speed to combine the ingredients.

3// Slowly add more flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. When this happens, you’ve got a good water to flour ratio.

4// If you’re using a stand mixer, this is the time you want to kick the speed up one or two notches for 5 minutes. If you’re hand kneading then turn your dough onto a floured surface and begin to knead for 15-20 minutes. If the dough gets sticky again, slowly a bit of flour but don’t go over board otherwise you’ll get a hard loaf.

5// Pop your dough back into the bowl, cover with cling film and put in a draft free, warm area to rise for an hour or until doubled. I like to use the microwave (not turned on obviously) because it’s insulated.

6// When your bread has risen, turn it out onto a floured surface and then weigh out your loaves. You should get two decent size loaves from this size dough mixture. I oil my bread tins with olive oil before popping in my dough so it doesn’t stick.

7// Pop the bread tins somewhere warm to rise again for another 30 minutes or doubled in size.

8// Preheat your oven to around 190°C and pop your bread in for 30 minutes. When you take the bread out of the tins, tap the bottom and if it sounds hollow, you’re good, if not then pop them back in for another 5 minutes.

Now if this cheesy, garlicy bread doesn’t get your mouth watering half way through then you need to check your nostrils because this bread is fantastic in every way. I urge you to make at least two batches of this because the neighbours will pop by unexpectedly and demand a slice of whatever they can smell. Yeah. It’s that good.

You can also add some seeds to the top if you’d like.

Crack an egg into a bowl, add a few drops of water and whisk together. Then use the egg wash to brush over the top of the loaves and sprinkle with your topping of choice. I like to add sesame seeds for the crunch and subtle flavour, but the bread is amazing just on it’s own too.

Enjoy!

Samantha

thank you very much for your post Samantha, I hope you all enjoyed this post, make sure to check out Samantha's blog over at PlanetBakeLife, you can also find her on twitter here.