Shreddies with butter

A filthy little snack this, taught to me by my big sister, Anna.

I have fond memories of rushing into the kitchen when I got home from school, grabbing a handful of Shreddies and using them as mini spades to scoop up big soft dollops of creamy butter.

The French apparently do something similar with Weetabix.

Variations

• Add a scoop of jam, chocolate spread or Marmite. (Try not to get into the butter dish though as your mum will be well annoyed.)

  

Raisin omelette

 

Hang-over cures. For some it's a greasy fry-up. Others prefer just the caffeine sugar hit from a Coke. But mine has always been the raisin omelette.
 
Okay, I'll admit: I will add dried fruit to anything given half a chance. It's hereditary; the desire for those shrivelled sweet morsels runs through my veins like prune juice. My father could oft be found in the kitchen in the middle of the night spooning juice soaked prunes from the fridge - a necessity stemming from  generations of constipated ancestors.
 
But if you think about it, the pairing of egg with miniature fruits isn't really that odd. The stars of bread and butter pudding are not the bread or the butter but the egg and the raisin. Aren't blueberry pancakes a more substantial version of my omelette? Even the French have their own egg and petit fruit dish, flaugnarde: a baked dessert with fruit (anything from plums to prunes) arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter – a bit like cherry clafoutis.

How I made it

1. Add a good handful of raisins or sultanas to two beaten eggs.  
2. Heat some butter in a frying pan till it's sizzling.
3. Add the egg and raisin mix, cutting it quickly with a spatula a few times. 
4. Turn off the heat just before it sets.
5. Fold and serve.

Variations

1. Serve with sugar.   
2. Swap raisins for other dried fruits like chopped apricots or prunes.
3. Add some cinnamon to the egg mix.