This week has been a fantastic week for me, The English American! The little ones that I coach won their semi-final game 7-1, United beat Arsenal in what was probably their best performance of the season and my first ever ‘how to’ video has had over 1000 views.
So firstly the drama of the video. I’ve been asked a few times by friends this week “how did you film it?” and although I shouldn’t reveal my blogging secrets, this one is a must! As I didn’t have the luxury of a fancy camera and tripod, I had to settle for an iPhone and a selfie stick. With the help of my brother and lots of tape, a Selfie Stick iPhone stand was created! Ideally I would of like it if my phone could have been a little higher so the video wasn’t so zoomed in but for my first video it did just fine. I decided to let the video film the whole time I was making the brownies to avoid any wobbles of the phone however this idea backfired…a lot! As the video was over an hour long, it meant it was too big to attach to an email, send via text or even transfer it onto a computer, so for the time being it was stuck on the iPhone. However, three days later and a number of hours waiting for uploads and downloads, I finally had my video on my computer. Let the editing begin. I decided to use the free video editing software, Windows Movie Maker, because I am quite familiar with how it works and edited my hour long video down. It only took me an evening to cut out all the unneeded parts, add the captions and chose the funky music to accompany it, so I was now ready to upload. I was shocked at how many views it got so quickly. After sharing it a couple times and with the help of some friends also sharing it, this thing was flying round on FB like there was no tomorrow and had gained 1000 views in just a few days! Thanks to everyone who has watched it and shared it, and let me know if you’ve tried out the recipe and I will feature your photos in my next blog if you would like. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here it is:
Since posting the video, I have made the brownies again for my football team who loved them. As an experiment I used half coconut oil and half olive oil, which gave them a slightly coconut taste but it totally worked. From now on I will use coconut oil and think you could even reduce the amount of oil to 100g-125g if you wanted. I will be trying this again so keep on the lookout for my next update.
This week I also tried making Hasselback Chicken and it turned out fantastic. The filling I used was spinach and ricotta cheese but you could really use whatever filling you wanted to instead. Start by pre-heating the oven to 200C/400F. The recipe I found used 50g of spinach along with 50g of ricotta which is what I used, however next time I make it I will use 75g of each instead as there wasn’t quite enough filling. Add a splash of olive oil to a pan and place on a medium-low heat. Slowly wilt down the spinach for a few minutes before adding the ricotta cheese and allowing this to melt. This will only take a few minutes as you just need the spinach and ricotta to come together evenly. Next cut slits into your chicken breasts leaving about an inch in between each, and add some filling into each marking. This amount of filling will be enough for two chicken breasts, so alter amounts if you are making for just yourself or for more people. Once all the filling is used, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle some grated cheddar cheese over the top, be generous! Finally add some paprika and pop them into the over for approximately 25 minutes. Mine took a few minutes longer but the chicken pieces were quite large.
Enjoy with your choice of sides, I decided on sweet potato fries and steamed broccoli which worked great!
Lastly and what some of you may have been waiting for is the delicious pate that I made using blue cheese and a selection of herbs. So although the title is pate, it’s not really a pate but it can be used as an alternative and is great as a small dish or starter. Here is what you will need:
150g soft cheese
350g fromage frais
125g blue cheese, crumbled
25g dried cranberries, chopped
25g fresh herbs, such as parsley, dill, chives and tarragon, finely chopped
25g walnuts, roughly chopped
Firstly, add the cream cheese to a bowl and beat with a metal spoon until soft. Slowly add in the fromage frais, still beating the mix with the spoon. Do this until all the fromage frais has been added and the mixture is smooth. Add in the cranberries, walnut and blue cheese. Mix well. Finally finish off with carefully folding in the herbs. For my pate I used parsley, dill and tarragon, but feel free to add which ever you think or replace one of these if you aren’t a fan. Add the pate to a small dish or ramekin and leave in the fridge until you are ready to serve. This makes enough for 6 people to have a medium starter-sized portion or 4 people if you want larger portions. We had 3 quite large portions and plenty left over. The mixture will keep for 3 days max, so be sure to use it all up! Add the pate to your choice of toast or bruschetta and you are ready to enjoy!
Thanks for reading everyone and be sure to share with your friends!
Peace out for now!
