GRILLED CHEESE PIZZA SANDWICH WITH PARMESAN CRUST

My mum loves a grilled cheese sandwich and a traditional wood fired San manzano margarita pizza so I thought I could combine the two.  It was a great success, gooey oozey melted cheese with tomato and basil infused sauce sandwiched between butter crispy Parmesan crusty bread which my dad actual pinched the other half of the sandwich!

Ingredients

(Serves 1)

Two slices crusty bread

1/2 stick butter

2 lrg tomato

6 fresh basil leaves torn

Sea salt

Black pepper

3 slices Swiss cheese or mozzarella 

50g grated Parmesan 

First I made the tomato sauce, you could use salsa instead but I wanted a more authentic pizza flavour in my sandwich, skin the tomato and deseed the tomato, roughly chop and place in a sauce pan, simmer until thick and pulpy, you can add a drop of water or olive oil if needed but their shoul be enough juice in the tonato, season withe some salt and pepper and four of the basil leaves, leave to one side to cool.

Butter the two slices of bread from crust to crust as this is a must!  Turn over and spread half the tomato sauce on one slice top with the cheese and then the rest of the tomato sauce, place the slice of bread on top butter side up.  

Now if I was at home I would of got mum to fire up the wood fired pizza oven and cooked this sandwich in there for a even more better combination of pizza flavour but as I am holiday in the states I have cooked this the on a griddle.  

Heat your griddle medium hot and place you sandwich on the griddle, you want to brown the sandwich slow so that the cheese is fully melted in the middle so you get the cheese pull when you take your fist bite.  After approx 2 minutes turn the sandwich and cook for another two minutes, I like to take the griddle off the heat one the sandwich is fully browned off and turn it once more and leave to rest for another minute or so just to ensure that gooey cheese centre.  This sandwich also goes great with a bowl,of homemade creamy tomato soup.

CRAB OSCAR by OSCAR STATE SIDE

I was most impressed to find a dish with my name all over it 😃, so I felt I should I should at least cook it (well give mum her instructions on how to cook it) while I am in the states.  I really enjoyed going and buying the ingredients in Publix especially the fresh Alaskan Brown King Crab because they were ginormous !  

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1 lb Alaskan King Crab

4 8oz fillet steaks centre cut

Olive oil

4 egg yolks

1 lb melted clarified butter

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp paprika

Sea salt

Black pepper

How cool are these Alaskan King Crab legs!  This is only a quarter of the crab, I reckon the whole crab might have been almost as big as me !😝. The legs very spiny and sharp so I let mum pick all the meat out of the legs for me.

 

Pre heat your oven to 390 F / 180 C, bring a deep pan of water to a simmer and place the crab legs in, they are already cooked but this is to re heat them and will make it easier to remove the meat, simmer for five minutes then remove and leave to cool slightly before picking the crab meat out.  Meanwhile heat your griddle medium hot heat, season the steaks with sea salt, black pepper and rub with olive oil and sear each side until sealed and coloured then pop in the oven for five minutes for rare or eight minutes for medium, leave to rest on the side for 7-10 minutes, next turn on the broiler/grill to high.

Meanwhile put two cups of water in a double boiler or a saucepan that a glass bowl will nest in the top, and not touch the water, bring up to a simmer, place the egg yolks in the bowl off the water and whisk until they a pale fluffy yellow consistency.  To clarify the butter melt and leave to settle for a few minutes all the impurities will sink to the bottom, pour off the good stuff.  Place the bowl over the simmering water and whisking all the time slowly drizzle the butter in, this will thicken the sauce and will only take 3-4 minutes to make, take off the heat and add season with the salt, pepper, lemon juice and paprika.

Now to assemble the Crab Oscar.

Place your steak on a baking tray and top with a pile of the crab meat, generously spoon over the hollandaise sauce and place under the grill for 2-3 minutes to set the sauce and add a little colour and depth of flavour, you can use a blow torch instead, but mum says I am not allowed to handle one of these yet!  Enjoy.

OSCAR's AWESOME CHICKEN JALAPEÑO CHEESE AND BACON TRIPLE STACKER BURGER

This is my awesome chicken cheese jalapeno stacker burger loaded with sweet cure bacon, lemon mayo and crispy lettuce that I was inspired by my stay in the US where everything is bigger and better!  This actual feed my mum, dad and nan it was that awesome!  

Ingredients 

(Serves 1-3)

3 x 168g chicken breasts bashed flat

A dash of olive oil

3 slices cheddar cheese

6 rashers sweet cure bacon

1/2 iceberg lettuce finely sliced

1 fresh jalapeno sliced

1-3 buns toasted

1 skewer for structural support!

To Make Your Own Mayo

1 egg yolk

175ml olive oil

1/4 lemon juiced

Salt and pepper

Place the egg yolks in a large jug and very slowly start to drizzle in the olive oil, you need to keep whisking all the time and don't speed up the pouring if the oil until the egg yolks have started the o thicken, then you can add the oil quicker, once you have your mayo add the lemon guide and season to taste.  This will keep in the fridge for a week, if it lasts that long.

To cook the bashed out flat chicken toss in the olive oil and sear on a hot griddle pan turning half way through when almost cooked turn the heat down and place a cheese slice on each breast and leave to melt, meanwhile cook the bacon rashers under the grill until crispy.  Toast your bun and now your ready to assemble my awesome stacker.

Place the bottom bun on your serving plate, add a tbsp of mayo and spread over the bun, place a cheese topped chicken breast on the bun, more mayo, fresh jalapenos, handful of iceberg lettuce and two rashers of bacon, now do it again and then again and finish off with more mayo and the top of the bun, pin the monster burger together with the skewer to keep from toppling over and enjoy, if you want to share then toast two more buns and divide the stacker between the buns.

AWESOME SMORES

How cool are these, after watching Tilly Ramsay on cbbc making these smoors I wanted to Oscar them so I made some chunky chocolate chip cookies, dipped some in a chocolate and heavy cream ganache, then I loaded a cookie with marshmallow fluff, topped that with one of the chocolate coated cookies then topped that cookie with more marshmallow and finished aff with another chocolate chip cookie, you so gotta get messy while eating these ! 

Ingredients 

The Cookie Dough

2 cups of brown sugar 

1 cup of butter

1 tsp vanilla paste

2 eggs beaten

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup of chocolate chip

The Filling

1 tub marshmallow fluff

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

Pre-heat your oven to 350F / 170C in a large bowl beat the sugar and butter together, add the vanilla and eggs and beat until smooth, add the flour, baking soda and chocolate chips and fold in until you have a smooth batter.

Dollop tablespoon size's of the cookie batter on a baking tray lined with baking paper leaving a space for the cookies to expand.  Bake for 10 - 14 minutes until light golden brown, remove from the baking tray and place on a wire tray to cool.

The Chocolate Ganache 

1 cup of chocolate chips

1 cup of heavy cream

Place both ingredients in a saucepan on a low heat, once the chocolate has melted stir until you have a glossy smooth sauce.  Dip some of your cookies in the ganache and place on a baking sheet, pop in the fridge for 30 minutes to set.

Assembling The Smores

This is great messy fun!  Take a cookie top with a heaped teaspoon of marshmallow, then top with a chocolate covered cookie, top this with another teaspoon of marshmallow and finish off with another chocolate chip cookie and enjoy.

MY GORGEOUS PIG PINKY

Meet my gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pig Pinky, she is an amazing pig, who loves big hugs and cuddles, loves to stick her whole head under muddy water and wallow in the sun.  

 

Love this pig 💚

HAPPY CHICKENS NEW GRASS TURFED RUN

Spring is in the air and I wanted to surprise my new cream leg bar chickens by grass turfing their indoor outdoor and outdoor woodland run.  They were really confused to what had happened to their run but it did not take them too long to work out that they can still scratch around and look for all the hidden meal worms I had sprinkled in the run.

Indoor Outdoor Fox Proof Run

Outdoor Woodland Run

Turfing has an extra benefit as I sprinkled organic diatamecous earth on the ground before getting dad to lay the turf, this is a great natural way to keep parasites under control and the chickens safe and healthly and the turf acts as a fresh clean new layer of earth in effect freshing up the runs.

Here I even grass turfed their dust bath hut as they don't use it for dusting themselves in they like to stand on top of the roof!

Happy hens means happy eggs 

1st BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR PINKY MY GLOUCESTERSHIRE OLD SPOT PIG

After a lot and a lot of homework on what other foods pigs like, we finally found a cake recipe that pot belly pigs love.  Pinky and USA loved this Birthday Cake soo much, they got all vocal telling me so.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

(Makes 8" Cake)

1 jar smooth peanut butter

1 cup popping corn

1 tsp coconut oil

We all went down the farm Sunday morning to give Pinky her cake, I was excited to see what she would make of her cake but it was very cold 3.5 degrees C, so I waved the hurry up stick :-)  I wanted Pinky to give me her honest grunt opinion as Pinky is a brilliant talker, so I instructed dad to give Pinky her cake before her breakfast!  Who does not want cake before breakfast !!!

This is Pinky's response after her first nibble to her Birthday Cake !!!  Fabulous she loved loved loved  it, I am soooo pleased and happy Pinky kept on vocally grunting at me all the time she was eating her cake.

Pinky is a really loving giving pig and this is USA, (Captain America), she is Pinkys best friend and Pinky always shares her food with her.  When USA was a baby Pinky would through food out of her own bowl for USA to eat.

USA also thought Pinkys cakes was lovely too and said thank you.

First I had to make the popcorn for the cake, so in to my teenage den and at my soda fountain bar I have a popcorn maker, I added the coconut oil to the hot popcorn pan along with the corn, shut the door and they wait for about five minutes until PoP, PoP, PoP here comes the popcorn! 

I like the feel and texture of popcorn.

In a pan I got mum to melt the peanut butter, then to add the popped corn and mix together, this is something I did.  I then asked mum to put the mix in to a round lined cake tin and to place the cake in to the fridge until set, this took a few hours.

Ta Da !!!

PORRIDGE FOR MY CHICKENS

My new Cream Leg Bars chickens are settling in just fine, they are quite flighty so I thought if I make them a warm creamy porridge breakfast each morning they will soon learn that I want to be their friend and be able to sit and spend time with them.  I find chickens halirious they are great fun to watch and will talk to you and thank you for any treats you give them by saying bob bob bob.

Ingredients

500ml full cream milk

150g organic local oats

Really simple to make, bring the milk to a gently simmer, add the oats and gently cook until all the milk has been absorbed and you have a thick creamy porridge.  As this is for my chickens and not me I did not add any honey or fruit.  I leave this to cool for half an hour before giving it to my girls.  They love this early morning treat.

DOG BISCUITS WITH KELP AND PEPPERMINT

 These were great fun to make and even more fun to give to my dogs, I made these kelp and peppermint flavour and crunchy hard so that they will help with tartar control.

Prep Time 5 minutes / Cooking Time 15 minutes each batch

Equipment:  large bowl, baking paper, rolling pin, cup measure baking tray

Ingredients

(makes 60 biscuits)

1/4 cup honey

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup seaweed/kelp

1 cup oats

1/4 cup bran

1.5 tsp baking powder

1.5 cups water

1/2 tsp peppermint oil

Lottie Dog

The Method

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C, I then placed all the ingredients in a large bowl and threw both my hands in and mixed all the ingredients together to create a dough ball, then I placed a large sheet of baking paper on the work top, placed the dough on the sheet and topped the dough with another sheet of baking paper and then I got mum to roll out the dough.

Peel off the top sheet and cut the sheet to fit your baking trays and line the trays, using a cookie cutter, I had a dog paw print shape which was perfect but any cutter will do, cut out your dog cookies and place on your baking trays.  Pop in the oven for 15 minutes to cook and Ta-Da lovely home made dog treats that they will love you for.