Oh god I've meant to post a spag blog recipe for aaaaages but I am a bad woman who never gets her backside in gear to do anything. Thank goodness for Carrie, I say.

You'll see that she has her own tips for making the food less slippy, but here are mine. If you buy lean mince then you'll find that you can cook it without breaking it up too much so that you can leave a couple of 'meatballs' in the sauce by the end and they'll be easy to fish out and hand to the baby. I also add some celery, a carrot, a slice of smoked bacon or a couple of anchovies and a bay leaf to mine and I like to leave it on a simmer for hours if possible. But everyone's got their own vibe with spaghetti, so do what you will.




"225g mince beef
Olive Oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 fat clove of garlic
1 tin of tomatoes - plum not chopped
2 table spoons of tomato puree
4 table spoons of red wine
1 tea spoon of dried basil OR 1 table spoon of fresh basil
salt and black pepper (if you would like - we normally don't add salt)

• Heat oil on thick based saucepan
• Gently soften the onion and garlic for 5 mins - do on a low to medium heat to stop garlic from burning
• Turn heat up and add minced beef and brown keeping the ingredients on the move with a wooden spoon
• When meat is browned add tomatoes, tomato puree, wine and basil, (salt) and black pepper to taste
• Put on lid and simmer gently for 20 mins
• Then take off the lid and simmer gently for a further 20-25 mins until you get a thick concentrated sauce

I put small portions of the ragu in ice cube holders (for purees), freeze and defrost them as and when and stir in with penne pasta and some fresh parmesan (makes it less slippy for Xavier's little fingers."

Wasn't someone looking for an oat slice recipe? Ask and ye shall recieve, my BLWing chums. I'm guessing that the oven temperature will be 180 degrees, that's the usual for a biscuit.


"This is a good breakfast as it's made of porridge and I also give it to my daughter as a snack.  It's also really handy if you ever made any Annabel Karmel purees and froze them and now have a freezer full of odd ice cubes that will make your Pimms taste weird this summer!

soaked apricots or prunes or figs
a litttle of the soaking juice (a tablespoon or so)
a teaspoon of melted butter
porridge oats/baby muesli

Puree the dried fruit with a little juice till it's kind of mushy (or defrost icecube dried fruit purees from freezer!) mix in the oats and melted butter and cook it over a low heat for about three minutes to belend the ingredients together. Shape into biccy shapes, bake in oven on tray till just turning brown.

The fig ones are delicious, her dad thinks they're better than chocolate McVities!"