PINEAPPLE CHUTNEY

Last week, we tried out one of those meal plan boxes. If you're unfamiliar with the concept: you get a a box delivered on the Sunday/Monday with a pre-planned dinner menu for the week complete with the recipes and all the ingredients. You still have to cook your food, but all the planning is taken out of the equation, you end up with way less food waste, and you get to try a couple of new recipes. We ordered it just to try it out and don't plan on turning it into a weekly affair, but I can also see us doing it again sometime.

As a special offer, we also got a free box of fruit with our meal plan box. It seemed like a good idea at the time when I was ordering, but I didn't really realize how big the box would be, and in retrospect I think about half of the amount of fruit would have been more appropriate for two adults. I've been starting my days with fresh smoothies everyday and constantly nagging at Graeme to take more fruit with him to work, but there's still a lot left. It also doesn't help that with a few exceptions, I'm allergic to most tropical fruit, so there's only so much of it I can actually eat. Bananas, melons, avocados, kiwis and even certain nuts will make me itch all down my throat, eyes and ears, and can even cause my tongue and throat to swell up. It's not so bad that I need to carry around an epipen or anything, but the reaction can last all day so I generally find that it's just not really worth it haha.

One thing I've learnt though, is that for some reason I can eat most of these fruits if they've been cooked. Fruit compotes, pineapple on pizza, coconut curry or mango baked into a cake? Yes, please, don't mind if I do! So in an effort to eliminate some tropical fruits from our fruit boxes, I decided to turn that deadly fresh pineapple into a delicious pineapple chutney. Now we're talking!

Ingredients:
1 red onion, chopped
3 chilis, chopped (I used really mild chilis, so I decided to leave the seeds in)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 pineapple, chopped into chunks
175 ml apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Add the onion, chilis and spices to a medium sized pot with a bit of oil, and cook on medium high heat until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the pineapple and vinegar, and let it simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes and get thick and chunky. Transfer to sterilized jars and let cool.

This chutney is delicious with barbecued pork, or on a burger. Or, you know, you could enjoy it in one of my favorite ways to enjoy pretty much any chutney: in a grilled cheese sandwich. Lunch is served!

VEGGIE MOUSSAKA

It's been almost two years since Graeme stopped being a vegetarian and started eating meat, but this vegetarian version of moussaka is still a favorite at ours. It's delicious, super easy to make and pretty much the perfect comfort food to beat the winter blues. So when Graeme suggested we have moussaka for dinner, I was all in.

I did my fair share of experimenting with vegetarian recipes while Graeme was a vegetarian, and quickly found that I wasn't a big fan of most fake meat products. Most of them seem to get their flavor from whatever sauce you add anyway, so I prefer omitting them all together and focusing on the flavor from the vegetables instead. So this recipe doesn't contain any meat replacement products, but I really don't think it needs it—it's got plenty of aubergines to make up for it. And aren't we all supposed to be eating less red meat? Meatfree Mondays and all that?

Veggie moussaka recipe:
2 aubergines, sliced
500 g potatoes, sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
400 g cherry tomatoes, halved
200 g feta cheese
300 ml greek yogurt
3 eggs
1 tin chopped tomatoes
parmesan
olive oil

Directions: Start by preparing the aubergines and preheating the oven to 200 degrees celcius. Slice the aubergines, and place them on a roasting trey with a Jamie Oliver sized glug of olive oil and some salt. Roast for about half an hour, flipping them over halfway and adding more olive oil if necessary. Meanwhile, quickly boil the potatoes for about 5 minutes. Once the aubergines are done, put them aside and roast the potatoes along with the onion and garlic with a bit of seasoning for about 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes and roast for another 10 minutes. In a bowl, mix yogurt, eggs and half of the feta cheese. To assemble the moussaka, start by layering with half of the roast vegetables in an oven proof dish, add a layer of the the remaining feta cheese and the tin of chopped tomatoes. Add the rest of the roast vegetables, and then pour over the yogurt mixture. Top with some grated parmesan. Pop the whole thing back into oven for about 20 to 30 minutes, until the top starts to go golden brown. Serve with some freshly baked focaccia! (This one's my go to focaccia recipe)

ORANGE & DARK CHOCOLATE COOKIES

I don't really feel like I've done enough baking this Christmas. How are you doing with your Christmas baking this year? Somehow, I still haven't made gingerbread, even though all the ingredients have been sitting ready in my cupboard since about December 1st. How has this not happened yet? I don't know. And is it really Christmas without gingerbread? I'm not sure about that either yet. But one thing I have gotten around to making are these orange and dark chocolate cookies. I love the combination of dark chocolate and orange. And while I was in the process of baking them, Graeme came home from work and tried one before I had added the dark chocolate drizzle, and excitedly exclaimed "these taste like Christmas!" So maybe gingerbread won't be necessary this year?

I also got a bunch of cookies out of just one batch, so it kinda feels like I've put in more of an effort than I actually have. And that's never a bad thing in a month as busy as December! I used a pretty small cookie cutter (a super cute Christmas tree one I got in my Haribo advent calendar last year!), so I ended up with about 120 cookies! But they're dangerously tasty, so there's certainly not that many left anymore.

Orange cookies recipe:
300 g flour
200 g butter
100 g icing sugar
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
zest and juice of one orang

Dark chocolate drizzle:
100 g dark chocolate
50 g butter

Directions:
Mix all the cookie recipe ingredients together and let the dough chill for an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Roll out the dough, stamp out the cookies, and bake for about 10 minutes until they just start to go brown. Take them out and let them cool.

For the drizzle, melt the chocolate and the butter, either in a bain marie or the microwave. Drizzle over the cookies, and leave it them out until the chocolate is set. Yummers.

LEMON COURGETTE SALAD

Last month, Graeme and I did the Whole 30 challenge. For a big part of it, we lived off delicious roasted chicken dinners with a healthy side of vegetables or salad, which wasn’t all too different from what we used to have for our dinners during the week. Breakfasts were a bit more difficult. We got a new appreciation for both kale and sweet potatoes, and probably doubled if not tripled our egg intake. The first week we both experienced crankiness and headaches, and it felt odd having a Netflix movie night without chocolate. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as we were expecting. And breakfast and Netflix trials aside, we’ve definitely benefitted from the challenge and feel both healthier and happier. Personally, I noticed a huge improvement in my overall mood, and the quality of my sleep. I’ve been known to lie awake and toss and turn at night, but suddenly found myself actually sleeping at night and waking up feeling alert and refreshed at 6.30 am, a feeling that was pretty new to me.

More importantly though, doing the challenge has changed our habits, and we've been eating way healthier even after we finished (with the exception of a holiday in Scotland were we ate ALL the food and were left gagging for chicken and kale). One of the salads we've been having a lot, and potentially one of my favorites, is this lemony zucchini salad. It's based on a recipe from the Polpo cookbook, but over time I’ve changed the cooking method and the ingredients a bit so that it feels more like a meal. And if you’re doing a whole 30 challenge, you can easily adapt it—it’ll still be delicious. Yummers all around!

Lemon courgette salad recipe:
1 courgette
juice form 1 lemon
100 g rocket
15 g pine nuts
cured meat (prosciutto or similar)
grated parmesan
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
sea salt
pepper

Directions: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Slice the courgette, and place on an oiled oven tray. Squeeze half of the lemon juice over, and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, flip the courgette discs, season and squeeze the rest of the lemon juice over. Roast for another 10 minutes until they are a bit translucent and tender all over. Leave to cool. Lightly toast the nuts in a dry pan. Toss rocket, courgettes and cured meat with a splash of olive oil and balsamic. Top with pine nuts and parmesan and serve.

NEW YEAR'S MOCKTAILS

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! All set and ready for big NYE celebrations tonight?

I'm part of the emergency response team at my work, which means that every fifth week I go on duty. While I'm on duty, I have to have my phone with me and be no further than one hour from the airport at all times. I also can't drink alcohol. For the most part, it just means that I don't make many plans for that week, and most often I just end up chilling at home, spending the weekend making stuff and catching up on Netflix. It's not so bad. I've been pretty lucky with the rota so far as well, and it hasn't really crashed with my plans too much or made me feel like I'm missing out on things. There's been a couple of times where I've not been able to drink at parties, but it hasn't really been that bad (other than everyone automatically assuming I'm pregnant. Sorry guys, just on duty!). However, this time my duty week has landed on New Year's, so I'm looking at a pretty quiet New Year's Eve celebration tonight.

I'm pretty excited about it though still. My house has a fantastic view of the valley, so I'm looking forward to watching the fireworks. I'm also having a friend over for dinner (who is also on duty!), and I'm cooking a reindeer roast with these cheesecakes for dessert. I also plan on serving up some mocktails, so I've been perusing the internet for some mocktail inspiration. At first I was a little disappointed, as I seemed to find a lot of "recipes" that were essentially just fruit juice and didn't feel very mocktail-y at all. But further research led me to the following recipes, which I'm looking forward to trying out. If anyone else is having a non-alcoholic NYE, how good do these mocktails sound?


Cranberry Tangerine Rosemary Cream Soda from Spoon Fork Bacon
Cranberry Sparkler and Apple-Ginger Sparklers from Marath Stewart
Pomegranate Mojito Mocktail from BBC Good Food
A couple of delicious sounding mocktails plus some general advice on turning regular cocktails into mocktails from A Beautiful Mess 

Know any other good mocktail recipes?

HOMEMADE COFFEE SYRUP

Whoooooa, December is a busy month. Why is it that when you were a kid December felt like the longest month in the world, but when you're an adult it just seems to fly by? We've been making the most of it though, and in between Christmas parties, Christmas baking, drinking gløgg and eggnog and making and shopping for presents, Graeme and I also celebrated our 6 year anniversary with a weekend trip to my parents cabin. We had hail storms and it was pretty wet and freezing, but we got the fire going and had a lovely and relaxing weekend. We had our annual Christmas beer tasting and Graeme even managed to squeeze in a fishing trip--our freezer is full! And this weekend we went to my friend's cabin in the mountains and played in the snow. It was a perfect winter wonderland and Graeme got to try skiing for the first time (#graemebecomesnorsk). On top of everything, I've also been taking tons of pictures with plans of making a Christmas 2015 album (somewhat inspired by this), but so far I've had no time to sit down and print my photos. I'm looking forward to a couple of days after Christmas when the rush is over!

While a lot of the things I'm up to these days are still confidential (though I'll probably share after the big day!), I thought I'd share these recipes for making coffee syrups. I made these earlier in the week, and we've been enjoying them with our morning coffees. Starting your day with a coffee with a bit of gingerbread syrup in it is sure to get anyone feeling Christmassy! And taking a cup along on a dog walk in the cold is highly recommended too.

Recipe:
500 ml sugar
500 ml water

2 tablespoons clove

2 tablespoons ginger

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions: Add all ingredients to a pot, and simmer for about 15 minutes until the sugar has completely dissolved. Let it cool, and add to a bottle. Enjoy in your coffee with some Christmas cookies or some of Graeme's amazing short bread (honestly, it's probably the best shortbread I've ever tasted, and I lived in Scotland for 7 years).

CARDAMOM AND ORANGE CRUSTLESS CHEESECAKE

Oh, how I love cheesecake! It's my go-to when I'm ordering dessert at a restaurant. While I was a student in Glasgow, six of us shared a flat right around the corner from a Peckham's that sold the most delicious cheesecake. During this time, a couple of my flatmates and I went through a bit of a phase where we perhaps visited that Peckham's a little too often, and ended up eating a little too much cheesecake. Though, there is no such thing as too much cheesecake, is there?

I've never really made much cheesecake myself though. I've made a couple of gelatin-based ones, but my heart lies with baked cheesecakes for sure. I was convinced they were really difficult to make though, until I stumbled upon this recipe for baked cheesecake in apples. I tried it out on a couple of apples, but ended up with a bit of leftover cheesecake mix which I poured into a ramekin and threw it in the oven with the rest of the apples. And while the cheesecake in the apples didn't seem to set properly (maybe my apples were too juicy?), the cheesecake in the ramekin turned out delicious. I've since tweaked the recipe a bit and added some flavors, and now it seems it's my go-to when I'm making dessert at home as well. No such thing as too much cheesecake though, right?

Ingredients:
200 g cream cheese
60 g powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cardamom
zest of half an orange
1 egg
digestive biscuits (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Add the cream cheese to a small bowl, and mix in the powdered sugar. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Divide the mix into two greased ramekins, I use two 12 cm terracotta dishes. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Once baked, take it out and place in the fridge for 1 to 3 hours to cool. Serve with a crumbled digestive biscuit on top.

BALSAMIC TOMATO TATIN

Pinterest can be both a blessing and a curse. While it's great for finding inspiration, I find that I often end up pinning things and never look at them again. This is especially true for me when it comes to recipes for some reason. So I decided to take a look on my pinterest boards for something to make for breakfast, and came across this recipe for a tomato tatin. I'm a bit of a breakfast enthusiast, and love trying out new things for breakfast on the weekend. The past couple of weekends, I've made tomato tatins for breakfast.

I first tried a variation of this recipe using green tomatoes from the garden. It's getting colder and I've started to lose hope that the tomatoes on my plant will ever end up actually turning red. A handful of them have made it, and they've been the sweetest and most delicious tomatoes I've ever tasted (of course I'm not biased), but we are now at the end of October, we've started lighting up the fireplace and my tomato plant is still full of green tomatoes. But at least this recipe is something that works with green tomatoes, too. But my favorite way of making it is with caramelized balsamic red onions. I love the flavor you end up with, and while some might argue this is a bit of a summer dish, I think it's perfect for a weekend breakfast/brunch in fall, when it's all stormy and wet outside.

Ingredients:
200 g flour
100 g butter
1 egg
pinch of salt
250 g tomatoes (mixed)
olive oil
1 large red onion
2 tblsp balsamic
1 tsp sugar
olive oil

Directions:
First make the dough: Mix flour, salt and butter until combined, and your dough is forming little pebbles. Combine the egg, and let chill for 30 minutes. While your dough is chilling, cut your tomatoes in half, add a bit of olive oil to the bottom of your pan, and add a layer of tomato halves, skin sides down. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle a bit of olive oil on top. Bake in the oven on 175 C for half an hour, until the tomatoes are soft. While your tomatoes are baking, slice your onion and sauté in a pan with some olive oil. Once the onions are soft, add the balsamic and sugar, and continue to cook until caramelized. Take out the tomatoes, add a layer of carmelized red onion. Roll out your dough, and place on top. Prick with a fork, and stick it back in the oven for another 30 minutes. Once the dough starts to brown, take it out and dig in!

CHORIZO AND TOMATO SALAD

Where I work, we eat lunch ridiculously early. Sometimes it feels more like a second breakfast than lunch (or brunch, I guess!). I thought it was very strange when I first started working there, but it’s amazing how quickly my stomach has gotten used to it. However, one downside is that sometimes by the time I’m back home from work I’m absolutely starving. And on days like that, I sometimes like to make myself this quick and delicious chorizo and tomato salad. 

The salad was inspired by a chorizo and tomato salad Jamie Oliver made on one of his shows, though with a few changes. It’s great as a quick meal when you’re craving something fresh, but it also works really well as a side too. 

Chorizo, feta and tomato salad recipe:

350 g tomatoes (mixed bunch if you can, and preferably at room temperature)

1 garlic clove

2 shallots, sliced

However much chorizo

handful of basil

handful of parsley

balsamic

olive oil

flaky sea salt

ground pepper

Directions:
Roughly chop the tomatoes and place in a salad bowl. Chop the basil and parsley leaves, sprinkle over the tomatoes and drizzle a bit of olive oil over. Chop the chorizo and slice the shallots, add to a frying pan with some extra virgin olive oil. Add garlic to the chorizo frying in the pan once the chorizo starts to get a little crispy, and as the garlic starts to go brown add a splash of balsamic vinegar. Use a slotted spoon and transfer the chorizo, shaollots and garlic to the pasta bowl and drizzle some of the olive oil and balsamic from the pan over the salad. Season with freshly ground pepper and a pinch of sea salt, and serve with crusty bread. 

SPICED PLUM AND BLUEBERRY JAM

So all of a sudden, I'm ready for fall. It's started raining and thundering, I'm wearing a big chunky sweater, and the idea of some homemade jam on a bit of bread really appeals to me. This might seem a bit premature, but we've had a full on summer here since the beginning of May, and it feels like we should be in October by now. Incidentally, we also have a tree in the garden half full of ripe plums. A week ago, it was full of green, unripe plums, but during the week the southern half of the tree has become dotted with deep purple plums, fleshy and delicious. Cue the plum harvesting game, where we look like idiots trying to knock the plums off their branches, while Bo runs around our feet and catches all the ones we're too slow to get to before her. She's quick and small, and definitely has the advantage in this game.

Incidentally, we had a bit of a storm here this weekend, so last night was perfect for snuggling up with a blanket, having some toast and jam and watching the weather. And as a result of the storm, the garden is now covered in plums. Guess I'll be making a bit more of this?

Ingredients (for about two jars of jam):
750 g plums
150 g blueberries
500 g sugar
juice of 1 lemon
1 ts cinnamon
1 ts ground cardamom
1 ts nutmeg

Directions: Remove the stones from the plums and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Add all the ingredients to a pot, bring to the boil and let it simmer for about half an hour, until reduced. It'll look quite thin still, but it'll thicken nicely once it cools. Transfer to sterilized jars.

And in case you're wondering, I had these on Nigella Lawson's irish oat rolls from Kitchen, which are also super delicious. Recommended!

BLUEBERRY & ELDERFLOWER DRIZZLE BARS

I bought a blueberry bush full of berries this summer, and immediately had grand plans of cooking with my future blueberry harvest. Unfortunately, I'm not the best gardener, so sadly these blueberry and elderflower drizzle bars were not made with blueberries from my own garden. I'm definitely improving my gardening skills though, and it's now been a very long time since I actually killed a plant (not counting the very sad looking coriander plant that's currently sitting on my kitchen window sill, not sure there's much hope for that one).

My garden actually had a blueberry bush in it before, but one day my mother dug it up and moved it to my parents' cottage. I can't really object—it's their garden after all, but the fruit bearing plants in the garden are my favorite, so I was very excited about buying a new blueberry bush to replace it. I headed to my local garden center, bought a bush full of soon-to-be berries, dug a hole and plunked it in. It looked great. For a couple of days. Then the leaves started shrivelling up and going brown. My soon-to-be berries fell off. My blueberry bush looked about as unhappy as a blueberry bush can be, and the chances of it yielding any berries at all this year seemed to grow smaller by the minute. I asked my green thumbed mother about it, who told me I probably should have let the bush soak in a bucket of water, so that it was properly watered before I planted it. All I could do now was keep watering it and hoping it settled in and didn't die. And while my poor blueberry bush was looking like it might not survive at all for a long time, I am very happy to say that is now almost completely green and looking much happier! It's even still got a couple of berries on it, though not really enough to cook anything with (it had three, then I came along and now it has two).  Now I am very much looking forward to making these blueberry and elderflower drizzle bars with blueberries from my own garden next year. Alternatively, I might need to drag Graeme to the mountains for some blueberry picking once the season starts.

Blueberry & Elderflower Drizzle Bars:
2 large eggs
175 g caster sugar
150 g butter, melted
250 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
75 ml milk
zest of 1 lemon
175 g blueberries (plus extra for serving)
Elderflower syrup

Direction: Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Mix together eggs, sugar and butter in a bowl until combined and fluffy. Fold in the flour and baking powder, and mix in the milk, lemon zest and blueberries. Spread the batter in a greased 20x20 cm tin, and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Once it's done, poke holes in the top with a fork and drizzle the syrup over. Let it soak in and cool completely. Cut into squares, and serve with extra blueberries and a dusting of powdered sugar or some whipped cream if you have it.

HAPPY HOUR: BASIL & LIME KYOTO

I'm in Spain! We left early in the morning yesterday and flew to Alicante, where we're staying in a sailboat for a night before we're meeting some friends at the train station and going up to Benicassim for the Benicssim Festival! After the festival, we plan on hiring a car and spending a week at my parents summer house near Murcia. So I am well and truly in holiday mode today! I still have a few blog posts that I'll be posting while I'm away though, and I figured I'd start with this lovely cocktail I've been enjoying this summer.

I've pretty much decided that this is my summer cocktail of 2014 (with rhubarb and strawberry gin smash being a close second!). I've never been much of a gin drinker before, perhaps because I once as a teenager sneaked a bit of my parents' Beefeater and mixed it with orange juice and was pretty horrified at the result. But recently I was in a bar in Oslo and got served a Kyoto and my perspective on gin changed completely. I'd never had one of these before, but I loved it immediately. It's fruity and fresh, but not overly sweet like some fruity cocktails can be. It's light and summery, and the taste of gin isn't too overpowering. So when a friend of mine came over from London to visit for the weekend, I put in an order of a bottle of Hendricks from the duty free.

Basil & Lime Kyoto (is this the easier recipe to remember or what?):
10 ml simple syrup
20 ml passion fruit syrup
30 ml freshly squeezed lime juice
40 ml gin
Soda water
Basil leaves
Ice

Directions: Fill your cocktail shaker with ice and all ingredients bar the soda water. Shake for a good 10 seconds, then pour into a long glass. Top with soda water, and throw in a lime wedge. Enjoy!

GRAEME'S VEGGIE ROAST

Happy Easter, everyone! For some reason, I’ve been more excited about Easter this year than I normally am. I’ve been looking forward to having a few days off from work and painting Easter eggs, eating lots of chocolate, going for hikes and hopefully jamming in a session in the slopes too. We're having the best weather, and Graeme even got a bit of pinkish tint on his face yesterday, when we took his friend who's visiting from Florida on a hike to Preikestolen (tee hee, Graeme and his pale Scottish skin). 

A big roast dinner is also an Easter must. As Graeme is the only vegetarian, this is often his meat-free option when the rest of us are having a roast. And even though I happily eat meat and love a good roast chicken as much as the next meat eater, I usually try to sneak a bit from Graeme's veggie roast as well. Call me greedy, but really, it's so good.

The recipe might sound like a bit of a cumbersome process, but it is well worth the effort, as the roast you end up with is both moist and full of flavour. You can also easily make it a day in advance and leave it in the fridge overnight. It’ll set and keep its shape much better if you do, and it actually tastes amazing cold, too. However, leaving it overnight also means you have to wait a day, which we definitely struggle with.

Ingredients:
175 g green lentils
450 ml vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
75 g cashews, roughly chopped
75 g walnuts, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large leek, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
100 g mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic
juice of half a lemon
100 g cheddar cheese, grated
1 egg
a handful fresh parsley
100 g bread crumbs (if making your own breadcrumbs: 100 g bread, 2 cloves garlic, splash of olive oil and salt and pepper)

Directions:
If you're making your own breadcrumbs: break up the bread into chunks on a piece of tinfoil, pour over a good glug of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 5 to 10 minutes, until golden. Once the bread is browned, take it out and let a cool for a minute, before putting it in a food processor and blitzing it with two cloves of garlic. 

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Rinse the lentils in cold water, and put them in a saucepan with the stock and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and stir every now and again to make sure it's not sticking to the bottom. Leave it to simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes until thick and pulpy. While the lentils are cooking, toast the walnuts and cashews in a dry pan on medium heat. Once browned, set aside. Add oil to the frying pan and throw in the chopped onion and garlic. Cook til soft, and then add the leek, red pepper and mushrooms. Add the lemon juice and let it cook until tender. In a mixing bowl, combine lentils, vegetables, breadcrumbs and nuts, and mix in the chopped parsley. Add the egg and 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper and mix. Transfer the mixture to a loaf tin, and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Cover the loaf in tin foil, and place it in the oven. After 30 minutes, take off the tin foil, and bake it for a further 30 minutes. Take it out and let it cool for a bit before you cut into it.

Serve with whatever sides you like with your roast. We usually mix it up a little, and today we went for hasselback potatoes, carrots, homemade yorkies (that looked funny but tasted delicious!), gravy and lingonberry sauce. Because I am Scandinavian and need my lingonberry sauce.