Our Christmas Dinner (just the two of us)

Since we moved into our flat (3 years ago now) we have eaten Christmas dinner at my parents but then cooked our own dinner for two a few days later. Unfortunately I was working Thursday & Friday so didn't get a chance to do it until tonight. It was really nice, even if I have spent the majority of the day in the kitchen...

To start, we enjoyed some Champagne & Sloe Gin Cocktails We then enjoyed some simple tomato & basil bruschetta care of a Jamie Olive recipe - it was really delicious...
Followed by a traditional Christmas dinner: Turkey, The Best Ever Stuffing ™, pigs in blankets, roasted potatoes and parsnips (in goose fat, again) and some glazed carrots with caraway seeds. Of course we also had some gravy (the best I've made yet!) and my homemade cranberry sauce which was fantastic... the photo doesn't really do it justice as the battery went...For dessert I made Simon Rimmers Bounty Profiteroles. Need I say any more...
Hubby quite simply said that if we weren't already married, he'd ask me there & then after sampling this pudding (if only I'd have known that years ago ;o))

We finished off with an espresso made in our new espresso pot, the rest of the Moet and maybe a dash of Viognier.

Mmmmm. I love Christmas dinner.

The post-Christmas review

What a mad few days! I really don't know where to begin.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and Santa brought you some nice gifts. He certainly stopped here as I am now overwhelmed by lots of glorious & mostly foodie presents. To mention, but a few, I am now the proud owner of Simon Rimmers the accidental vegetarian which I cant wait to use. I also have (having arrived today!) the Best-kept Secrets of the Women's Institute Jams, Pickles & Chutneys. I have a spoon rest, a new super-dooper set of scales, a years subscription to Delicous magazine, the very large & new Gordon Ramsey book and a beautiful Nigella cake stand in cream.

I also got my very own website which I will be moving to soon (I very much hope you'll join me there). All I can say for now is Hubby is a lovely and very talented man - I have a new logo already - we just need to work on the website layout & content. So keep your eyes peeled for that!

Food-wise, we enjoyed a fantastic (as usual) Christmas day dinner at my mum & dads. We had smoked salmon blini with avocado, mango & chilli salsa. It was really really nice. Hubby had a sausage (its a long term joke in our family) as he doesn't really like smoked salmon.

The main meal was Turkey with sausages, the-bestest-ever-stuffing (this is my favouritest part), roasted potatoes & roasted parsnips (in goose fat) so they were really crispy, carrots, sprouts (or for me, just one for tradition, I'm really not keen), bread sauce & cranberry sauce (i forgot to take mine, duh!).

Pudding was either Christmas pudding & brandy sauce or my mums triffle - loaded with sherry.

I will be making a smaller version of our feast, hopefully, at the weekend just for Hubby & I.

Oh, and our main present between ourselves was our lovely new digital SLR camera. My Gran was amused as I just took photos of anything that didn't move all day long! So here are some of our snaps...

My First Christmas Cake - Part II (The Decorating)

Following this post a few weeks ago I have today finished decorating my first ever Christmas cake.

Decorating officially started yesterday when I marzipaned it:
And today I iced and decorated. I stupidly started before having any dinner as I under-estimated how long it would take.

I am quite proud of my first Christmas cake & my first ever iced cake with proper icing decorations but please do let me know what you think!!
I am just keeping my fingers crossed that it survives until Christmas day in the same condition and that it tastes ok! I'll report back next week!

Cranberry & Sloe Gin Sauce

The second part of my pre-Christmas cooking started yesterday with Cranberry & Sloe Gin Sauce - a recipe I found on The Cottage Smallholder.

You'll need:

300g cranberries
4 clementines - squeezed with some pulp
120g granulated white sugar
25ml Sloe Gin


Wash the cranberries thoroughly - taking out any soft fruit
Wash the clementines and then squeeze the juice out of them (i did this by hand quite easily)
Put the cranberries in a large pan together with the sugar and clementine juice and pulp - mix around
Turn the heat on under the pan to allow the mixture to come up to a simmer then taste for sweetness, adding extra sugar if you desire
Pop the lid on the pan and let it simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until all berries have burst and it resembles a jam type consistency
Take off the heat and stir in the sloe gin
Decant into warm sterilised jars

Ps: Just wanted to say a quick hello to anyone popping by here after following the C4 food website link :)

Highlights from the Good Food Show Birmingham

As the title says, these are our highlights from our first Good Food Show:

Jamie Oliver in the Supertheatre
We were quite lucky with our seats - very central & not too far back considering the number of seats they cram in! Anyway, the show was great. Jamie was very funny & there was lots of crowd interaction. He made three dishes. The first was hot smoked salmon in the biscuit tin - the smell of the salmon cooking was really fabulous. He then went on to make a warm chicken Cesar salad which looked divine. To top this off he made a beef stroganoff with mushrooms with a little help from his mushroom hero Gennaro Contaldo.


We also came across Gordon Ramsay, Rachel Allen, the Hairy Bikers, Angela Hartnett, Matt Skinner and Brian Turner.
We went on a wine masterclass - by mistake we booked one held by the Ian Harvey of the Birmingham Post Wine Club when we had wanted to go to the Matt Skinner one - but it turned out well & we tasted six South American wines. Hubby enjoyed this bit the most. I think he see's himself becoming a wine connoisseur.


Tasting highlights
These included a pork pattie care of Jimmy's Farm. Coming from a not-really-a-meat-eater I have to hold my hands up and say it was delicious. And thanks to Jules we may just have to order some from the online shop.

I also tasted a veggie pie & mash from Blenheim House - this was nice but the gravy was delicious. And we both had a 'Duo of rich Belgian truffle' which didn't last more than 60 seconds - hence the half eaten one in the photograph!
We sampled some of Walkers warm, freshly cooked crisps. You added you own toppings - salt, pepper, chilli & rosemary etc.

I've also found a soft spot for Sloe Gin. We will hopefully be purchasing some of this soon to make cranberry sauce.

It was also very nice to see Gordon & Macphail of Elgin at the show. The shop in Elgin is really lovely with a room dedicated to whisky and then a room full of wines and spirits and a third room with delicatessen type goods.

Overall it was a really lovely day out & we may have to go back another year.

Excuses, excuses, excuses

I can't believe it's nearly been two whole weeks since I last posted. Where is the time going?

We(*) have been quite busy recently though so if you'll allow me, I'm using that as my excuse. You see we moved into our two bedroom flat just over two and a half years ago. But until now it's really been a one bedroom flat with a spare room so full of junk you couldn't move in it. So we've emptied it, bought some carpet, have had a trip to Ikea, built some furniture, put pictures & blinds up and generally had a big clear out and have then (in a tidy manner, of course) have put back in what we need.

Its a really nice room now, even if I do say so myself. There is just one thing that's missing and that's a small 2 seater sofa. So another trip to Ikea is needed but we just need a vehicle bigger than out ickle C2.

(*) I say we but I'm sure Hubby will disagree. But seriously, nothing ever gets done with out a project manager/supervisor/general all round bossy boots ;)

Since making the christmas cake I have cooked, I just haven't had enough time to blog about it. So here is a little summary with pictures:

My first ever Toad In The Hole (Jamie recipe) - severed with the suggested red onion gravy it was delicious and I was very proud of my yorkshire pudding.
We followed this up with some Toffee Apple Crumble - in fact we've had this twice. Once made with normal eating apples and once with bramleys (rather than the 50/50 mix suggested by Simon Rimmer). We both much preferred the bramley only one as the sweet sauce is more than enough sugar to match the tangy bramleys.
I also turned this pile of chopped vegetables...
into one of our favourite soups - Lentil and Chestnut Soup
Ingredients
1 small onion
half leek
1 carrot
1 stick celery
2 tablespoons olive oil
225g red lentils
1.5 litres vegetable stock
225g cooked chestnuts

double cream to serve (optional & not really needed)

Finely chop the onion, leek, carrot and celery.
Heat the oil in the pan, add the chopped vegetables and let sweat until soft.
Add the lentils and stir, then add the stock.
Bring to the boil and simmer until the lentils are very soft (about 40 minutes).
Add the chestnuts and simmer for a further 20 minutes or so.
Liquidise (I used my hand blender) until smooth.
Sprinkle each full bowl of soup with parsley and lace with cream as required.

Consume with lots of crusty bread and butter.

Its truly delicious.

Whilst I've been AWOL we also had Children In Need day at work and that means one thing - cakes, cakes and more cakes. I made my cupcakes with pink & white icing with flowers and I also tried some vanilla shortbreads - they were ok but a little soft & not quite as nice as I'd expected. Here they are among some of the other cakes brought in by my colleagues...
And last, but not least. Here is a lovely sunrise we had the week before last.

My first Christmas cake

I will 'fess up now. I'm not a fan of Christmas cake but I really wanted to make one! So this weekend I jumped in the deep end...

The recipe - wow, there are so many to choose from! I ended up going with one from my mum's Good Housekeeping magazine - November 2007 - Christmas Cake with a Hint of Dark Chocolate

Ingredients
250g sultanas
250g raisins
125g Agen prunes, chopped
125g ready to eat Apricots, chopped
150ml Dark Rum + 1 tablespoon for feeding the cake (we used original Antiguan rum from our honeymoon)
Zest and juice of 1 orange
175g dark muscavado sugar
175g softened butter
4 medium eggs
125g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 level teaspoon cinnamon
75g Green & Black's Dark 85% chocolate, finely grated
100g lightly toasted flaked almonds

Greaseproof paper
Clingfilm
Tinfoil
Brown paper
Cotton
8" tin


Start the night before you will make the cake
Put the rum and orange juice & zest in a large pan
Add the dried fruit and bring to the boil, then turn off the heat, cover and leave to soak overnight
The next day
Preheat the oven to 150 °c (130 °c fan)
Grease and double line the baking tin with greaseproof paper, allow it to stand proud at the top
In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light & fluffy - I used an electric hand mixer for about 5 minutesAdd the eggs one at a time, making sure the mixture doesn't curdle (if it does add a little of the flour)
Gently fold in the flour, mixed spice & cinnamon
Next, fold in the chocolate and almond flakes
Lastly add the fruit and carefully mix through

Pour the mixture into the tin, taking care not to catch & pull the greaseproof paper off the sides of the tin
Level the surface of the cake
Wrap 2 layers of brown paper around the outside of the tin leaving a good inch above the top of the tin. Use the cotton to secure this.

Pop in the oven for 3 to 31/2 hours. Use a skewer to make sure the centre is cooked through.

Once cooked leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then take the cake out (leaving it in the greaseproof) and let it cool on a cake rack.
Once cold, wrap in clingfilm and then tinfoil and pop it in an airtight container.

After 2 weeks add the tablespoon of rum & re-wrap the cake. It will last for up to 3 months.