Sausage Rolls

I had a bit of a brain wave this week, so I decided to make something for a weekend snack.

I don't know if our friends in the northern hemisphere are familiar with these little delicacies or not, but I really love home made sausage rolls because they're yummy!

In fact, they're really easy too ... but I guess it's just what you're used to.

Here's my version:

Preheat oven to 180-200 degrees. (hot)

Mix together in a large bowl:

500 grams good mince beef

500 grams sausage mince (from the supermarket)

1 carrot, grated

1 stick of celery, chopped finely

1 egg

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs or cornflake crumbs (that's what I had in the cupboard)

and pepper and salt.

Cut 4 sheets prepared puff pastry in half

Place a couple of spoon fulls of the meat mix along each piece of the pastry, brush a little milk along the edge of the pastry and roll it up. Then cut it into four and follow suit with the other pieces of pastry until all the meat mix is finished.

Brush a little milk on the top of each roll....and place in the oven and cook for approx 18 minutes or until golden

These are a great snack for a weekend lunch, or are even terrific to put into the lunch box for the kids.

Me? I love them as a mid morning savoury snack with a coffee.

Slow Cooking

So, it's Winter and it's cold, which means the Slow Cooker's been dusted off and put to work.

I've made a few things so far this Winter, but forgot to take any photos or post about it...anyway, this one is a Country Chicken Casserole.

Now, the general rule is to brown the chicken and the onions to kick things off, then put them into the cooker and let it rip.

Not me. Even though the dish turns out a little pale, I figure that the slow cooker's there to do a job, so why should I have to brown things in oil. I just throw everything in and hope for the best. Things must turn out OK though because MONT always comes back for seconds.

OK

For this casserole:

10 chicken drumsticks,

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot chopped

1 stick of celery sliced.

... and whatever other veggies you have in the fridge... mushrooms, beans, peas etc...

Now, some recipes call for a can of celery or cream of mushroom soup, or even a can of chopped tomatoes to give you a nice sauce. Frankly I think you should just do whatever suits you. If you like tomato based dishes, then add a can of tomatoes. If you like a creamy based casserole, then add a can of cream of mushroom soup, or whatever you like.

Me?

Well into half a cup of water I added a Massel veggie stock cube, a slurp of white wine, a teaspoon of gravox, pepper and salt and a teaspoon of mixed herbs, then I poured it over the chicken and veggies, put the lid on, turned it to "high" and left it alone for four hours.

I then removed the chicken and stirred in a large dollop of cream, returned the chicken, and let it simmer for another half an hour.

Done

Eat.

Yes, it is a little pale, but it sure tasted good!