Merry Christmas

Although hubby & I have been together for over 6 years, this was the first Christmas Day as a married couple and that we had spent together. Breakfast was some croissants and Schloer Bucks Fizz. I was warned not to eat much for breakfast as I would be eating lots in the next 48 hours!

We spent Christmas Day at Hubbie's Aunts house who put on possibly the biggest Christmas spread I have ever seen. Essentially the whole day was taken up with eating something delicious!

Champagne
*
Prawn parcels wrapped in smoked salmon
*
Stilton & Broccoli Soup
*
Lamb, pork and cockerel with roasties, mash, red cabbage, sprouts, pigs in blankets, stuffing and carrots.
*
Christmas Pudding with brandy cream. Served with a glass of beautiful dessert wine (but I've forgotten the name of it)

Later on we delved into:
*mini fish & chips
*mini cheeseburgers
*mini steak sandwiches (as seen on the M&S adverts)
* and lots of other mini things!,

On Boxing Day we spent it at my parents where we ate another delicious, but different Christmas Dinner. Also at my parents we eventually got to taste my Guinness Christmas Pudding. It was absolutely delicious and everyone commented on how light and tasty it was. You could certainly taste the Guinness when you bit into the fruit. I'll most likely be making it again next year.

Santa brought me some great things for the kitchen including salt & pepper piglets and a silicone baking set. I can't wait to use them.

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas break.

Chestnuts exploding on an open fire.

The last few days in the run up to Christmas can only be described as chaotic. A last minute change of plans (well my sister managed to get Take That tickets!) meant I was rushing up to Manchester, then back on the Sunday morning leaving 5 hours to sort the house out, cook for the Christmas party later on and construct a Hexenhaus (Gingerbread house).

This years pre-Christmas nibbles we're a bit of an eclectic mix of foods, it was all very much dependant on what I could get my hands on. The evening went down well and everyone commented on the food. Mother-in-Law was convinced I had brought the mini toad in the hole from M&S as she was so impressed! The evening was rounded off with chestnuts and brandy. I'm not a fan of chestnuts, but Hubby likes nothing more than roasting chestnuts over our open fire. We've also recently discovered an old ikea sieve works as the perfect roasting tin, just watch out for the exploding chestnuts! Hubby could have stopped this happening, by piercing the skin of the chestnuts. We also tried a trick we saw on Jamie at Home - Christmas episode by dropping hot, shelled chestnuts into brandy. According to hubby and father-in-law they tasted delicious.

I have a slight confession over the Hexenhaus. The kit was from Lidl - think IKEA self-assembly house. Hubby was Chief Structural Engineer where I was Chief Icing Bag Lady and Decorator. It was a bit fiddly to begin with and it has been years since I've had an icing bag in my hands, but it was good fun. I just haven't a clue how we're going to eat it!

The nibbles menu included:
Cherrapeno's Tomato & Parmesan Whirls
Tinned Tomatoes Red Pepper Hummus
Bacon & Mushroom Quiche (request from Father-in-Law!)
Roast New Potatoes with honey & mustard dressing
DIY Bruschetta
Mini Toad in the Hole with soured cream, garlic & black pepper dip
crudette and dips
plus a few other things.

DIY Bruschetta
Serves 4

Disclaimer: this is by no means authentic bruschetta. It's my express/lazy way of making it as guests put the toppings on themselves.

1 long ciabatta loaf
2 salad tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
ramekin of Parmesan
ramekin of decent olive oil mixed with 1 tbsp mixed herbs or Italian seasoning.

1) Slice the loaf at a slight angle so you get longer lengths of bread. Mix tomatoes, garlic oil, balsamic and a tsp of mixed herbs in a bowl. Serve alongside Parmesan and oil/herb mix.

2) I make my bruschetta by first drizzling some of the herby olive oil on the bread, adding a spoonful of tomato salsa on top, then sprinkling with Parmesan.

Mini Toad in the Hole
Makes 12

12 chipolatas
50g plain flour
1 egg
140ml milk
rapeseed or sunflower oil

1) In a bowl add the egg to the flour, then gradually pour in the milk. Whisk to stop lumps forming. Season with a bit of black pepper and refrigerate batter for about an hour.

2) Preheat oven to 200oc. In a cupcake tray pour in a small amount of oil (enough oil to just over the bottom of each "cupcake"). Put tray in oven for 5 min to heat up oil.

3) Carefully drop a chipolata into each baking tray cup. Pour in batter until each cup is about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 until sausage is cooked and Yorkshire pud is golden.

As I made our toad in the holes with beef sausages I made a garlic & black pepper dip, but they are just as good with ketchup.

Stained Glass Biscuits

Christmas is nearly upon us and my Christmas baking is still continuing at full speed. Yesterday was the last day of term so I'm now on 2 week holiday, yay! Today I made one of my final batches of decoration biscuits, and some stained glass biscuits for our tree. The way they glisten on the tree is beautiful and I will certainly be making them again in the future. I've submitted them to Susan's Christmas Cookie Foodblog Event at Food Blogga

Stained glass biscuits
Makes about 20

175g plain flour
75g unsalted butter
3 tbsp vanilla caster sugar
1 egg white
2 tbsp orange juice
bag of boiled sweets (one per biscuit)

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Rub butter into flour until you have a fine breadcrumb texture. Stir in sugar, egg. Then mix in orange juice in gradually, until you have a smooth dough.

2) Roll out dough until about 2mm-5mm thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out a round, then use a different shape to cut out the middle. Make a small hole at the top using a skewer, to allow you to thread ribbon/thread through later on. Place on baking tray lined with baking parchment.

3) Place a boiled sweet in the middle of each biscuit. bake for 15-20 min. Allow to cool on baking sheet.

Malteser cake

In continuation of my baking frenzy, yesterday I made Malteser cake to take into work. I also discovered it is impossible to take a good photo of Malteser cake! To make the cake more Christmassy I used a mix of milk chocolate and white chocolate maltesers.

Maltser cake

85g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp cocoa
170g digestives, crushed
140g Maltesers, lightly crushed
30g Maltesers, left whole

1) Gently melt butter and golden syrup in large pan. Stir in cocoa, digestives and crushed maltesers. Allow mix to cool slightly before mixing in whole maltesers.

2) Line a 1lb loaf tin with cling film. Press mixture into tin. Refrigerate until set.

Mini Eccles mince pies

I first saw these mini Eccles mince pies in GFM a few months back. I love Eccles cakes and knew this version would be perfect to take into work for the last few days of term. Like most of my Christmas baking the gold lustre made an appearance.

For pudding later on Hubby and I are going to "taste test" a few of the pies with some Brandy Butter ice cream from a local producer, Needwood Ice Creams. We've had ice cream from Needwood before and it is delicious, even better than Ben & Jerrys!

Mini Eccles mince pies
Makes 30

2 packs of ready rolled puff pastry
500g suet-free mincemeat
1 egg white, lightly beaten
golden caster sugar
gold lustre

1) Preheat oven to 200oc. Lay out pastry on a lightly floured surface. Using a 9cm round biscuit cutter cut rounds out of the pastry.

2) Place a tsp of mincemeat in the middle of the circle. Brush around the edges with egg white, then gather the edges until the mincemeat is completely encased (I became a pro at this by the end!).

3) Place on the lined baking tray, so the sealed edges are underneath. Squish slightly.

4) Brush pies with egg white. Mix sugar with some gold lustre then sprinkle over the pies. With a knife cut 2 small slits. Bake for 15 min, until golden.

Suet-free mincemeat

It's official, I now feel Christmassy. First thing this morning we were in Derby for Hubby to do an exam so I took the opportunity to visit the huge new shopping center there and found a fab cook shop, so naturally had to buy a new sieve and silicon pastry brush. I could have spent a great deal more if Christmas wasn't just around the corner. The Salvation Army band were playing Christmas songs which gave a great festive air.

On the way home we picked up our Christmas tree...which strangely smells of Gin & Tonic (not that I'm complaining!) and decorated it while drinking mulled wine.

Then this evening, at our local National Trust park, they had an illuminated Christmas tree trail. During the day families had decorated various trees with decorations made from recycled products (e.g. CD's, plastic bottles) then as night fell candles were lit everywhere. It looked beautiful. I didn't take my camera as usually photography isn't allowed, but I noticed loads of people were taking pics so I might go back with my camera Sunday night.

Today I eventually got around to make my mincemeat ready for the marathon Christmas baking fest on Sunday. I don't know why, but I'm funny about suet in mincemeat so I was really happy when I came across this recipe in Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess a few years back. The only alteration I made was to add cranberries.

Hettie Potter’s suet-free mincemeat
Makes about 2kg

250g soft dark sugar
250ml medium dry cider
1 kg cooking apples, peeled, halved and quartered
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
250g currants
250g raisins
250g cranberries
75g glace cherries, roughly chopped
75g blanched almonds,
finely chopped rind and juice of 1/2 lemon
6 tbsp brandy or rum

In large saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the cider over a gentle heat. Add the roughly chopped apples to the saucepan. Add all the ingredients, apart from brandy/rum and simmer for around 30 min until everything has a pulpy consistency. Take off the heat and when it has cooled slightly stir in brandy/rum.

Hotel Chocolat competition reminder

Just a quick reminder to say that my Hotel Chocolat competition closes tonight.

All you have to do is submit your christmas recipe involving chocolate– the more original the better - and you could win a host of luxury chocolate goodies.The lucky winner of the Domestic Goddess in Training and Hotel Chocolat Christmas competition will also be automatically entered into the Hotel Chocolat Grand Prize recipe competition and could win even more seasonal chocolate goodies! Do you think you’re the finest chocolate chef in the land? Well there really is only one way to find out …

You can enter the competitionat:http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/src/12_traineed/favourite-chocolate-recipe-A12days/The competition will close at 11:59pm 12th December 07

Good Luck!

eta: The link no longer seems to work and you get a message that says the competition is closed?!? I've emailed Hotel Chocolat to find out what's happened. I'm not sure if you''ll still be able to enter, but email me your recipe and I'll try and pass it on. Sorry.

Chicken Goujons

I'm all for finding ways to cook traditionally unhealthy foods in a healthier way. On the way home from work I had an immense craving for chicken goujons and as I haven't made them in ages I decided now was the time. The coating on the chicken worked really well and stopped the chicken drying out. I served it with potato wedges and coleslaw. The coleslaw we had with it was a bit disappointing. I admit it was shop brought, and according to the packaging it had mature cheddar in it, but we certainly couldn't taste any.

Don't forget to enter the Hotel Chocolat competition. Closing date is 11:59pm 12th December 07

Chicken Goujons
Serves 2-3

2 chicken fillets
3 slices of white bread
3 tbsp polenta
2 tbsp parmesan
couple twists of black pepper
2 eggs, beaten

1) Preheat oven to 200oc. Blitz bread in processor to make breadcrumbs. Mix with polenta, parmesan and pepper.

2) Cut chicken into finger sized pieces. Dip chicken in egg then roll in breadcrumb mix until thoroughly coated. Place on baking tray. Bake for 20-25 min, until golden.

Christmas decoration biscuits

One of my Christmas cooking traditions is to bake Christmas biscuits for friends and family that are hung on the Christmas tree and can be eaten afterwards. They remind me of Christmases in Germany.

The original recipe is from Nigella. They are drier and pepperier than normal biscuits (to make sure they don't go soggy on the tree!) and loosely resemble lebkuchen. I've put the biscuits towards Peabody's Housewarming.

Once the icing has totally dried on the dipped biscuits I'll use a skewer to make a hole and thread ribbon through so they can be hung. I went a bit mad with the gold lustre, but if you can't go mad with gold at Christmas when can you!

Christmas Decoration Biscuits
Makes about 30

For the biscuits
100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened
100g/3½oz soft dark sugar
300g/10½oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
1-2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 large free-range eggs, beaten with 4 tbsp clear honey

For the icing
300g/10½oz icing sugar
3 tbsp boiling water
sprinkles, lustre etc.... to decorate

1. Preheat oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl add the flour, salt, baking powder, mixed spice and freshly ground black pepper. Gradually pour the eggs and honey into the bowl until a dough has formed (you may not require all of the liquid if the dough has come together before it is used up).

2. Halve the dough. Wrap one half of the dough in cling film, place it into a freezer bag, and place it into the fridge. Place the other half of the dough onto a floured work surface. Roll the dough, into a disc to about 0.5cm/¼in thick. Cut shapes out of dough and place on baking sheet. User a small funnel to make a hole in the middle of each biscuit. Bake for 20 min. Allow to cool on rack.

3. Prepare the icing. I added some lustre to the icing mix to give it a bit of shine. The icing texture should be liquid enough to be easy to apply but thick enough not to run off the decorations. For the dipped biscuits lightly place the biscuit face side down onto the icing surface then slowly pull out. The biscuit floats in the icing and will coat the biscuit nicely. Decorate which ever way you wish.

Pork chops with cider & mustard sauce

Dinners are very much quick and easy at the moment as I'm up to my ears in sewing nativity costumes. I had a huge baking craving yesterday and had to buy some delicious lebkuchen from Lidl to calm my urge and let me get on with what seems like the 1001th shepherd outfit.

Tonight's tea was pork chops with a cider and mustard sauce. The recipe is adapted from Nigella Express.

Pork chops with cider and mustard sauce
Serves 2

2 pork chops
250ml cider (I used Gayners med/dry)
50 ml single cream
2 tsp wholegrain mustard

1) Fry chops on both sides until cooked (about 5 min per side). Place on a warmed plate.

2) Deglaze pan with cider. Boil rapidly for about a minute. Stir in mustard and cream, continue to cook for a few minutes then pour over the chop.

Ruddy Muddy Marvelous!

We've not long returned from the highlight of all UK foodies calendar - The Good Food Show. We visited the show in Birmingham and have spent most of the day eating/drinking our way around all the stalls. Well as Hubby was driving I was doing most of the alcohol drinking! We got there at 9am and although we had to queue for 20 min on the M42 to get to the NEC we seemed to beat the crowds and this was when we got the best freebies.

There were some fantastic stalls and we did see Gordon Ramsey and Angela Hartnett ...oh and the bloke who looks after the Guinea Pigs at Jimmy's Farm! Some of my favourite stalls included:

The Really Garlicky Company - we brought some oak smoked garlic from here and hope to use it in the next couple of weeks.

Farrington Oils - I've been raving about their rapeseed oil, Mellow Yellow for a while now and today was given the opportunity to taste some of their new products coming out. Their honey and mustard dressing is delicious.

Jimmy's Farm (aka The Essex Pig Company) - We brought some Essex Beer Pork Sausage and Peppered Steak Sausage. The steak ones are currently cooking and I'll be interested to taste them. For lunch Hubby had a pork pattie from their stall and said it was delicious.

Ocean Spray - Gave some of the most generous freebies in the shape of a carton of cranberry juice and snack pack of dried cranberries.

Walkers Crisps - had one of the most entertaining stands with a bloke dressed up as a eccentric farmer shouting "Ruddy Muddy Marvelous"! Also were serving freshly cooked crisps where you could add your own flavourings. Thanks to Claire for recommending this stall.

I'm in Season - An interesting stall with accompanying website.

In amongst all these gems there was some truly awful tasting products. The worst included a fortified wine with chocolate (tasted like really bad musty red wine mixed with cheap chocolate) another was a coffee cream liqueur that tasted of oil. yuk.

Win luxury Hotel Chocolat Christmas Prizes - for you or a loved one

Tis’ the season to be chocolaty (well even more chocolaty than usual for me!). As Christmas time approaches, Hotel Chocolat is reaching out to Domestic Goddess in Training readers in search of the finest Yuletide themed chocolate recipes. One of my readers are guaranteed to win a host of luxury Hotel Chocolat goodies. And I know quite a few people reading this are huge Hotel Chocolat fans.

Do you have the best Christmas chocolate-chip cookies in town? Is your Christmas chocolate log simply to die for? Then why not put your recipe to the test against the rest of the country.

All you have to do is submit your recipe – the more original the better - and you could win a host of luxury chocolate goodies.

The lucky winner of the Domestic Goddess in Training and Hotel Chocolat Christmas competition will also be automatically entered into the Hotel Chocolat Grand Prize recipe competition and could win even more seasonal chocolate goodies! Do you think you’re the finest chocolate chef in the land? Well there really is only one way to find out …

You can enter the competition at:
http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/src/12_traineed/favourite-chocolate-recipe-A12days/
The competition will close at 11:59pm 12th December 07
.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Today, work has been busy we wanted a quick and easy tea. I've never made proper sweet & sour chicken before as 1) the list of ingredients scared me and 2) never had all the ingredients. As I was flicking through old cookbooks at the weekend I came across a recipe for sweet & sour in The Nation's Favourite Food. I did adapt the recipe slightly.

I served it with egg fried rice and it was far nicer than I was expecting. Hubby commented as how it was just as good as the takeaway version. This is even quicker to make than ordering one and probably a great deal healthier.

Sweet & Sour Chicken
Serves 2-3

2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 chicken fillets, cut into cubes
1 medium red pepper, cut into 1in pieces
thumb sized piece of ginger, grated
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
5 spring onions, chopped
1 small tin of pineapple chunks, drained
black pepper

Sauce
1 tbsp soft dark brown sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp dry sherry
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
175 (6 fl oz) chicken stock
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp of cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp of water

1) Heat oil in wok, add chicken, peppers, garlic and ginger then fry for 3 min. Add spring onions plus pineapple and stirfry for a further 30 sec.

2) Add all the sauce ingredients, bring to the boil then simmer for 6 min. Season with pepper.

Spicy Meatloaf

I find the usual sausage dishes can get a bit boring after a while, so tonight decided to some chilli flecked sausages (called Rudolf's Revenge) from the farm shop and turn them into a meatloaf. The only memories I have of meatloaf aren't particularly pleasant ones, but I'm glad to say tonight's meatloaf was far better than I expected. The recipe is a mix of recipes I've come across. Can't be bad as Hubby has asked if I will cook it again soon.

Spicy sausage meatloaf
Serves 4

Meatloaf
500g spicy sausagemeat
1 onion finely sliced
100g (about 4 small/2 large slices) fresh white breadcrumbs
1 tbsp thyme
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 egg, beaten

Topping
2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons
25g (1 small slice) fresh white breadcrumbs
30g grated cheese

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Lightly fry onions until soft. In a bowl mix all meatloaf ingredients (including onion) until well combined. Press into 1lb loaf tin. Bake for 55min.

2) Fry bacon until crispy then fry topping breadcrumbs for 2 min until golden. In bowl mix with cheese and bacon. Sprinkle on the top of the meatloaf and bake for a further 5 min, until cheese has melted. Allow to stand for 10 min before serving and slicing.

Stir-up Sunday - Guinness Christmas Pudding

Today is traditionally Stir-up Sunday and I decided to make my first ever Christmas pudding using the Guinness Pudding recipe that appeared in last month GFM. The fruit had been soaking in the Guinness since Saturday lunchtime and was beautifully plump by the time it came to make the pudding this afternoon. I didn't realise until I came to make the pudding that I didn't have any muscovado sugar and had to replace it with a mix of soft dark brown sugar and demerera sugar.

I also misinterpreted the recipe, it states "spoon in mixture into bowl and level the top". I read this to mean fill the bowl right to the top and level it off. This misinterpretation produced startling results when the pudding began to rise and lifted the saucepan lid that it was steaming in. Serves me right for squeezing a 1.2 litre (2lb) pudding into a 1 litre pudding basin! However, now the pudding has cooled it has sunk back down to normal proportions.

I did come across this crazy looking pudding basin and I'm very tempted to buy it for next year! It looks and smells like a Christmas pudding so I couldn't have gone too wrong! We'll have to wait until Boxing Day to taste it.

Guinness Christmas Pudding
Based on GFM recipe.
makes 1x 2lb pudding

500g luxury mixed fruit
100g dates, chopped
250ml guinness (or another stout)
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
1 medium brambley apple, peeled and grated
100g cold butter, grated, plus extra for the basin
100g dark muscovado sugar, plus 2 tbsp
100g fresh white breadcrumbs
50g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs , beaten

1) In a large bowl soak the mixed fruit, dates, orange & lemon zest and apple in the guinness for 24-48 hours.

2) Butter a 2lb pudding tin then lightly coat the butter in 2tbsp of muscovado sugar by slowly tipping and turning the bowl.

3) Add the remaining ingredients to the fruit that has been soaking. Stir until well combined. Spoon into the basin and level.

4) Take a sheet or foil and greaseproof and make a pleat in the middle (this allows for the expanding pudding). Place over the top of the pudding bowl and fix in place with string.

5) Sit the pudding bowl on top of an upturned heatproof saucer inside a saucepan. Pour boiling water half the way up the pudding. Cover and steam for 6 hours. Top water up as required.

6. Once the pudding is cooked cover with fresh greasproof paper and foil. Store in a cool dry place. To reheat either cook in the microwave (minus the foil), on medium, for 10 or steam for a further hour.

Perfect Roast Pork with Crackling

I can cook the perfect roast pork and beef, but get me to cook the perfect roast lamb and you can forget it. I just can't master it. Tonight, as it's Sunday, was a traditional pork roast dinner. I love my roast dinners and today I cooked probably the best crackling. After my last roast dinner success of Yorkshire puddings I put my crackling success down to Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil, yet again. Today I also discovered that if you sprinkle polenta on potatoes before you put them in the oven you end up with beautifully crispy potatoes. We ate it with roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips that had been roasted in some roasting oil I had picked up at a farmers market last week, garlic & herb stuffing plus Yorkshire puds. I know you shouldn't have Yorkshire puds unless you having beef, but I love them!

Roast loin of pork with crackling

1) Get pork joint out of the fridge, uncover to allow air to get to the skin. Score skin of pork with sharp knife. Sit for an hour. Pour boiling water over the skin and leave for around 15 min.

2) Preheat oven to 240oc. Rub olive or rapeseed oil into the skin then massage in lots of salt. Cook for 25 min at 240oc. Turn down oven to 190oc and continue to cook (TOTAL TIME = 35min per lb/450g) until juices run clear.

3) Rest for 30 min before carving. This allows you to turn the oven back up a bit to cook the potatoes etc....

We have a very good pub within walking distance (or should that be staggering distance!) from our house. The menu is unlike the traditional pub grub menus that all the other pubs seem to serve around here. It certainly isn't cheap by any means, but it really nice for a treat. Tonight hubby decided to treat me. I more often than not choose the veggie dish when I'm eating out, but tonight the one veggie dish was uninspiring and I didn't fancy any of the run-the-mill dishes so decided to be brave and eat something I've never eaten before, venison.

My dishes:

Homemade tomato soup - Thick, creamy and tasty soup that did appear to be genuinely homemade

Venison on a bed of butternut squash and mustard mash with juniper berry jus. - I was expecting the venison to have a gamey taste, but instead it was like eating a really strong tasting beef steak. The butternut squash and mustard was the perfect accompaniment.

Chocolate and biscuit terrine served with cappuccino mousse - Nice, but I would have made it completely differently. I was expecting the terrine to be crunchier, but instead it had been set in a kind of chocolate jelly.

Hubbies dishes:

Scallops with tomato and garlic salsa and rocket - I had a taste as I've never eaten seafood before (apart from chip shop fish!). The taste was ok, but I really wasn't keen on the texture. To me it was like eating the fat on a pork chop (I'm not a big fat fan to start with). Hubby loved them.

Fillet of pork wrapped in pancetta served with black pudding and braised apples. - I didn't taste taste this, but hubby said it was delicious.

Creme Brulee - You can't go wrong with a traditional creme brulee.

As tomorrow is Stir-up Sunday I've been soaking various fruit in Guinness ready to make the Christmas pud that featured in last months GFM.

Cheats Minestrone

The snow was a fleeting visit and it had melted by this morning...much to my disappointment! Last week Amanda at Little Foodies posted a natural cold remedy. As I think I'm beginning to come down with a cold I decided to give the recipe a go after work today. It was really soothing and far nicer than Lemsip. Next time I'm going to try and brave more ginger.

The microwave in work has now been fixed so I'm taking hot lunches again. I often eat this cheats minestrone for lunch as it is filling and made in 10 minutes. In reality this is nothing like true minestrone, but hey it tastes good!

Cheats Minestrone
Serves 4

1 litre of hot veg stock
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
100g of thin spaghetti broken into short pieces or macaroni
350g frozen veg
4 tbsp pesto

1) Bring the tomato and stock to the boil then add the pasta. Simmer for 4 minutes. Add veg and simmer for a further 2 minutes. Stir in pesto.

Chocolate Steamed Pudding & Custard

The weather here has been bitterly cold and sleeting all day, so much so we've had a fire going since 2pm. Usually we don't light it until around 5pm. Saying this I did get a bit of a shock 10 minutes ago when I went outside to put the rubbish out to find a thick covering of snow!

Rosie & Maria have set a cooking challenge called The Great British Pudding Challenge. This months challenge is Chocolate Steamed Pudding (you can find the recipe on Rosie's blog) and I was never going to turn down the chance to cook a chocolate pudding! Apparently the traditional British pud is in decline and the idea of the challenge is promote awareness of the fantastic puds on available in the UK. This is the first proper steamed pud I've made and the steamer I own isn't big enough so cooked it the way Gordon Ramsey advises in his Just Desserts book; in a large pan with boiling water about half way up the pudding bowl. It seemed to work and the pudding was beautifully light and not too sweet. To accompany the pudding, rather than the chocolate sauce that Rosie made I made custard. This is the first time I have made custard from scratch and was pleased with the results. But I admit there is times when totally fake Ambrosia custard is called for! The custard recipe is adapted from River Cottage Family Cookbook.


Proper Custard


Serves 2-3

125ml Whole milk
125ml single cream
vanilla pod
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 tbsp

1)Pour milk and cream into saucepan, add vanilla seeds. Heat gently until cream and milk begins to steam. Take off the heat.

2)Whisk egg and sugar together for about a minute. Pour the hot milk/cream into egg mix and quickly whisk. Pour back into the saucepan and gently heat. Stir with a wooden spoon constantly.

3) Once the custard evenly coats he back of the spoon, you can run your finger down the back of the spoon and the line stays distinct the custard is ready. According to Hugh this happens at 78oc. Strain the custard into a jug.

Gah...blogger formatting is playing up yet again...

Thumbprint cookies

Today is Children in Need and in school we had a Strictly Come Dancing day. All of us staff were dolled up with ball gowns and tiaras and I certainly got some odd looks while I was defrosting my car this morning! To raise money we had a cake stall. I made some cinder toffee, boiled fruit cake and some thumbprint cookies. I've never made thumbprint cookies before, but was inspired by some I saw on tastespotting a couple of weeks ago. The cookies tasted nice, but I made the huge mistake of using cheap cheap jam and it just wouldn't do anything but sit there in a horrible looking blob. Next time I'll use decent jam.

Thumbprint cookies
Makes about 28

140g plain flour
50g ground almonds
110g butter
50g granulated sugar
Jam

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Mix flour and almonds then add to the butter cream. Mix well until combined. Form into dough ball

2) Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Line 2 baking trays.

3) Take about a teaspoon worth of dough and shape into a ball. Place on baking sheet and press firmly in the middle with your thumb. Continue with the rest of the dough. Place 2 inches apart.

4) Bake for 8 minutes. Take out of the oven and put about 1/4 tsp of jam in the cookie thumbprint. Return to the oven for 7 minutes or until beginning to lightly brown on the edges. Cool on baking rack.

Feta Chicken

Tonight's dinners harks back from the days when I had only just discovered cooking from scratch. It's not exactly the most sophisticated dish, but it's cheap, healthy and delicious. The recipe does sometimes vary depending as to what I have in. I've been known to add baby corn, peppers or snap peas to the sauce.

Feta Chicken
Serves 2

2 skinless chicken fillets
1 can of chopped tomatoes
about 10-12 cubes of feta
1 onion, sliced
1 veg oxo cube
1 tbsp mixed herbs
seasoning

1) Prepare chicken fillets by cutting a slit into the thickest part and stuff in as much feta as you can.

2) Fry onions in medium saucepan until softened. Place chicken on top of onions. In separate bowl mix chopped toms, oxo cube, herbs and seasoning. Pour sauce over the chicken. Put lid on saucepan and simmer for 25 min. Turn chicken over half way through cooking.

Mini Beef Wellington

I first tasted Beef Wellington at a friends wedding last year and it was delicious, only now have I gained the confidence to try it my self. Some recipes suggest using fois gras, but I decided to go for the non-fois gras version as 1) it's a great deal cheaper and 2) I won't eat fois gras. It was a great deal easier than I thought, however I did over cook the steak so it was more well done that I would have liked, but I'll know for next time.

Mini beef wellington
Serves 2

1 packet of ready made puff pastry
2 fillet steaks
150g mushrooms
1 tbsp olive oil
25g butter
1/2 tsp thyme
70ml white wine
1 egg, beaten
seasoning

1) Sear steaks on both sides, then sit aside to cool

2) Roughly chop mushrooms (I pulsed them in a blender. Heat oil & butter and fry mushrooms and thyme for around 10 min until soft. Season with salt & pepper. Pour in wine and cook for a further 10 min until wine has been absorbed. Allow to cool.

3) Roll out dough, then cut into 2 lengths. Put 1 tbsp of the mushroom mix (duxelle) into the 2nd quarter of the pastry length. Place steak on top then put another tbsp of duxelle on top. Fold pastry over and use a fork to seal the edges. Repeat with the other steak. Place in the fridge for 30 min.

4) Preheat oven to 200oc. Brush pastry with a beaten egg then bake for 20-25 min until golden.

Welsh Cakes

After the constant nagging off my brother I have made Welsh cakes from the recipe he gave me. Traditionally they are done on a griddle over the fire, but we are yet to find a griddle suitable for our fire so I made them on the hob. Didn't go to well with to start with as I had the pan too hot, burnt the butter then subsequently burnt the 4 first cake. They are not the easiest to flip over but thankfully I have a trusty "Hubby with asbestos fingers - Mk1". They a similar to English scones, but I still prefer scotch pancakes as they are lighter.

Traditionally they are eaten as they are or two of the cakes are sandwiched with jam and cream.

Welsh Cakes
Makes 15

225g/8oz self raising flour
110g/4oz butter
75g/3oz caster sugar
75g/3oz sultanas
1 tsp mixed spice
1 egg

1) Rub butter into flour until it has the consistency of crumbs. Stir in sugar, sultanas and mixed spice. Break in egg and mix until you have a dough.

2) Roll out onto a floured surface and cut into 5cm rounds. Heat griddle pan to medium heat. Cook each cake for 2-3 minutes each side until golden.

A Kind of Bubble & Squeak

I'm more or less back to my foodie self and itching to get back in the kitchen. My appetite is a bit further behind, but I'm getting there. Tonight's tea was a kind of bubble & squeak, it was just the kind of thing I fancied. I did toy with the idea of making it non-veggie for hubby by adding bacon, but decided I have to keep up with the 1 veggie meal a week to prove to him veggie food can be just as good. We had it was salad and crusty white bread. I really enjoyed it and the cauliflower helped give it texture.

Tomorrow I'm making biscuits and decorating them with the kids in school as part of maths. Think weighing, working out quantities etc... It has the potential to go great or horribly wrong, and this will probably happen when the inspector is watching!

A kind of bubble & squeak
Serves 2

400g potatoes
200g sprouts
6 spring onions, slices
leftover cauliflower
2 knobs of butter
seasoning

1) Peal and boil potatoes for 10 min then bash to break the potatoes up slightly. Boil cauliflower and sprouts for 4 minutes.

2) Lightly shred sprouts (I pulsed them for a couple of seconds in the blender) then mix all the ingredients together. Fry all ingredients until it is beginning to brown.

To be honest I haven't been feeling well for a few weeks now and it all came to a head on Sunday evening so cooking has been at it's minimum. Yesterday I couldn't even watch food programmes without feeling ill! I'm slowly getting better, but am sticking to bland food I know.

I love this time of year when the world is beginning to slow down and you get crispy cold mornings. I took this photo on Sunday morning and although it doesn't really show autumn I like the contrast in colours of the leaves.

As I haven't been cooking much I'll do the tag that Rosie tagged me with.

These are the rules:1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).

7 facts about me:
1. Hubby was the second person I met when I started Uni.
2. I'm a Biology geek.
3. I can play the piano & clarinet (but not at the same time!)
4. I used to live in Berlin and saw the wall fall down.
5. I have a bit of a thing for the film Moulin Rouge
6. I could easily be Veggie if it wasn't for spag bol and bacon sarnies
7. I had a picture in the Hartbeat gallery

I tag:
Dinner Diary
Claire's cake bake
Fuss Free Flavours
Kitchen Delights
The Alice
Mrs B's Baking
Strong. dark and rich

Bonfire Night

We're back from our Bonfire party weekend in Warwickshire, that involved copious amounts of mulled wine and fireworks. In the UK 5th November is Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night) where we celebrate the fact that Guy Fawkes failed to blow up the House of Parliament. We didn't have the traditional bonfire, but did set alight a "Guy". Traditionally there is many foods surrounding Guy Fawkes Night including toffee apples, cinder toffee, bonfire toffee, jacket spuds, soup and mulled wine. The apples and cheesecake we made went down very well.

In the West Midlands it is traditional to have Faggots with mushy peas on Bonfire Night. I have to admit I've always been a bit nervous about trying faggots due to the cuts of meat they contain (pork - offal, heart, liver) but it didn't taste like I was expecting. To me they tasted of strong sausagemeat, not sure I would eat them again though!

Chocolate and Toffee Apples

This weekend we're going to a bonfire party and to celebrate I've made a Baileys cheesecake, toffee apples and chocolate dipped apples. To be honest I don't really like toffee apples and chocolate apples. My memories of them when I was a child was that the apple used to be horrible and bruised when you bit into it, so by making my own at least I knew the quality of the apples. The chocolate double dipping process was trickier than I was expecting. As I tried to put the milk chocolate topping on the white chocolate was sliding off! Chopsticks made great sticks. For both of the recipes make sure before you start swirl all the apples in hot water then dry them to rid of the wax.

Chocolate double dipped apples
makes 6

6 small apples
300g white chocolate
300g Milk chocolate
1 pot of sprinkles

1) Heat white chocolate gently in a bain marie. Once chocolate has melted swirl apple in chocolate until it is coated. Once dipped place on baking parchment.

2) Allow to chill and set in the fridge. Repeat the chocolate dipping process with the milk chocolate then roll in sprinkles while chocolate is still molten.

Toffee apples From Garden Cookbook
makes 6

6 small apples
225g demerara sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
30g butter
2tsp lemon juice
4 tbsp water

1) Gently heat all the ingredients in a heavy based saucepan until sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and rapidly boil for 5-10 minutes.

2) Have a jug of cold water on standby. Every minute or so during the boiling, test the toffee by dropping a small amount into the water. When the toffee instantly turns into a crisp thread it's ready. Take off the heat.

3) Dip the apples into the toffee using the same swirling technique as above. Once coated did immediately into a bowl of ice cold water to set the toffee. If the toffee hardens and you struggle to coat the apple, but the toffee back onto the heat.

Bacon & Mushroom Quiche

Continuing our theme of not-so-healthy dinners, I made a bacon & mushroom quiche for tea tonight. I admit I cheated slightly with the pastry. I can make really short pastry which is great for mince pies, but not so good with quiche so I picked up some ready made pastry in the shops. I've never really "baked blind" before and I forgot that pastry does sometimes shrink, but I managed to fit nearly all of the egg mix in. However I forgot that our oven is on a slight slant and the egg mix tipped out of the back of the pie and into the oven. Oh well!

Bacon and mushroom quiche
serves 4

pre-cooked pastry base
3 rashers of bacon, cut into pieces
5 mushrooms
3 eggs
100ml double cream
100ml milk
handful of grated mature cheddar
seasoning

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Fry bacon and mushrooms until cooked. Sprinkle pastry base with cheese then bacon & mushroom

2) Whisk eggs, milk and cream together then season. Pour egg mix in base. Cook on a baking tray in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Plum & Port Brulee

We've had some plums for a few weeks now that have been refusing to ripen, so rather than making a jam with them I stewed them with port and served it as a kind of creme brulee for pudding tonight. Photo isn't great as hubby kept on casting a shadow as he was blow torching his pudding. Plus the dodgy things that look like chicken nuggets at the front of the plate are actually pieces of puff pastry (leftover cuttings from the pies!) that had been dusted in icing sugar and baked in the oven!

Plum & port brulee
Serves 2

4 plums, stoned & quartered
2 tbsp port
2 tbsp vanilla sugar
1 star anise
6 tbsp yogurt/creme fraiche
demerera sugar

1) Simmer vanilla sugar, port and plums for 10 min. Allow to cool for around 10 min then spoon into ramekin dishes.

2) Spoon yogurt over plums then sprinkle liberally with demerera sugar. Either place under grill or use blow torch to caramelise sugar.

Cauliflower Cheese & Bacon Pie

I've been wanting to make a pie for a while, but never really got around to it. I fancied a pie that wasn't your usual beef/chicken pie and came across a cauliflower cheese pie on the GFM website. To make it non-veggie for hubby I altered the recipe slightly and added some bacon. I was really tasty, creamy but light at the same time and we'll be certainly be having it again. I did use my alphabet cutters to put our names on top of the pies, but it hasn't shown up well on the photo. I served it with carrot and roast potatoes.

Cauliflower cheese and bacon pie
Serves 2

1/2 small cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 rashers of smoked back bacon, cut into small strips
3 spring onions, chopped
200ml creme fraiche
100g mature cheddar (I used Quickes cheddar)

seasoning

ready-made puff pastry

egg, lightly beaten

1) Preheat oven to 200oc. Fry bacon and spring onions until bacon is cooked. In a large bowl mix all of the ingredients together (apart from pastry) then spoon into pie dishes.

2) Roll out puff pastry to size of dishes then place on top. Pinch around the edges and use a knife to put 2 slits into each piece of pastry to stop it getting soggy underneath. Brush with a small amount of egg. Cook for 25-30 min.

Boiled Fruit Cake

I have an addiction. Some people have addiction to shopping, others to gambling, me?.... it's cooking. Everyday this week I've had an overwhelming desire to cook. I get really fidgety until I've cooked something! Yesterday I had made my granola by 8am and today a boiled fruit cake was out of the oven by 9.30am. However making granola at 8am probably wasn't the best idea as I forgot to add the vanilla and used greaseproof paper instead of baking parchment and the granola welded itself onto some parts of it. I've also been thinking in detail about Christmas baking. I'm sure I'll be back to normal next week once half term is over!

My good friend Rachel made this boiled fruit cake back in the summer holiday for a camping trip. It was so delicious, I had to have the recipe. It's a wartime recipe (hence the lack of eggs) that her Grandma gave her.

Boiled fruit cake

8oz/225g self raising flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp mixed spice
pinch of salt
4 oz/110g of margarine
4-8oz/110g -225g mixed fruit
4 oz /110g demerara sugar
180ml hot water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Sieve flour, nutmeg, mixed spice and salt into bowl. Mix in fruit.

2) Heat margarine, sugar and water into saucepan and heat gently until marg has melted and sugar has dissolved. Boil for 3 min. Allow to cool.

3) Add bicarbonate of soda to cooled sugar mix. Pour into flour mix and combine quickly.

4) Pour cake mix into lined cake tin (7-8 inch diameter). Bake for 1 hour.

Firstly "hello" to everyone who found my blog after my Cinder Toffee post was linked to on the Guardian website. My sister has been down to stay with us for a couple of days. Yesterday we went to Birmingham with the primary aim of eating our way around Selfridges Food Hall. I haven't been feeling well over the last couple of days so we ended up not eating much, it was more window shopping! But when I go back in the next couple of months I will certainly try out the noodle bar and one of their ice cream sundaes. The only things we brought from there were some Krispy Kreme doughnuts (almost as good as ones I tried at a fiesta in Spain) and Lucky Charm cereal for hubby. I was hoping to get some Welch Grape Juice that I have seen there before, but the shop assistant didn't know what I was going on about.

Lunch was at EAT! I really like this place as the food is fresh not doused in mayo and is forever changing depending on the seasons.

The only other foodie purchase of the day was a metal hand whisk. Only recently I replaced my old metal hand whisk with a silicone one, thinking it would be easier to clean. Yes it is easier to clean, but it doesn't whisk very well at all, so decided splash out on a new posh metal whisk from House of Fraser.

Sausage Casserole

Most weeks Hubby makes a sausage type casserole for his lunch. Every week the ingredients vary depending as to what is in season and what is in our cupboards. This week Hubby isn't feeling too great so I've made the casserole.

Hubby's sausage & bean casserole
Serves 3-4

2 large leeks, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
6 lemon & fennel sausages, each cut into 3
4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
5 flat cap mushrooms, sliced
500ml passata
250ml beef stock
1/2 cup of red lentils
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 can of cannellini beans (or naked beans as Hubby calls them !)
1 bay leaf
2 tsp thyme
salt & pepper

1) Fry leeks and garlic in a large saucepan in a small amount of butter until soft. Add the sausage pieces and fry until beginning to brown.

2) Stir in carrots and mushrooms and cook for 2 min. Pour in passata, stock, Worcestershire's sauce, bay leaf, thyme and seasoning. Stir. Simmer for 25 min.

3) Stir in lentils and cook for another 5 minutes. Then add cannellini beans and cook for another 5 mins. Regularly stir during these 10 mins or the lentils and beans can catch on the bottom of the pan.

Crumpets & Cinder Toffee

I woke up stupidly early this morning with a deep urge to make crumpets from breakfast. I decided to use the crumpet recipe that was used in last weeks Something for the Weekend. It was really interesting seeing the dough develop and it was a really springy dough texture. They tasted delicious (far far better than shop brought variety), but the texture wasn't quite right. I think I may have over beaten it when I added the milk. We started out making the crumpets with a metal pastry ring, but also tried pouring the batter straight into the pan and they turned out more like pikelets. I did take pictures, but they just look awful!

Not to be undeterred I decided to make cinder toffee this afternoon. I've always been a bit scared of boiling sugar, worried about burning myself. I had heard from some people that the Nigella recipe for cinder toffee doesn't always work so I found an alternative recipe in a back copy of GFM. If only I knew cinder toffee was so easy, I would have made it ages ago. It was amazing to watch the reaction between the sugar and bicarb. My sister is coming to stay tomorrow, but I can't guarantee there will be any cinder toffee left by then. The pieces just keep on falling into my mouth!

Cinder toffee (Honeycomb)

5 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1) Heat the sugar and syrup gently in a saucepan until sugar has melted, begins to boil and turns a golden yellow colour.

2) Whisk in bicarb with a hand whisk then pour quickly onto baking parchment. Allow to set.

tip: to clean toffee encrusted pan, pour boiling inside pan and the toffee will melt away.

Garam Masala

As I'm now on half term I have lots of cooking planned for the next week. First on the list was garam masala. I've been meaning to make some for ages, but just never got around to it. Traditionally garam masala contains cinnamon, cumin, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom, but it greatly varies depending on the region it is traditionally from. I came across this recipe on Kitchen Chick and as I had all the spices decided to give it a go.

The smell that filled the kitchen while the spices were roasting in the oven, was amazing. As I don't have a coffee grinder I had to use my blender, pestle & mortar then passed it through a tea strainer to ensure I was left with just the powder. I was a bit scared about putting the whole nutmeg through the blender so grated it first. I'm looking forward to cooking with the spices.

This week is British Sausage Week and tomorrow is Apple Day so to celebrate we're off to Chantry to buy some of their award winning sausages and I'm planning to make apple and plum strudel.

Any chance of healthy eating before Christmas has been blown. I've just seen Lidl's TV advert promoting their Christmas range. I spent 3 years of my childhood growing up in Berlin and have fond memories of the Christmases there. A great deal of my memories relate to the food that is traditionally eaten in Germany over the festive period. The Glühwein, stollen, pfeffernüsse, lebkuchen herzen and chocolate coated marzipan. I can vividly remember staring through a bakery window watching them construct a huge gingerbread house.

I could happily swap traditional British Christmas fayre with the German traditions. I have made my own stollen and pfeffernüsse before, but they still are not quite as good as the originals. Lidl's mini stollen and dark lebkuchen herzen are addictive.

...oooohhh I'm hungry now and craving lebkuchen!

Shepherd's Pie with Spiced Parsnip Mash

Originally I was going to make moussaka for tea then hubby announced he doesn't like aubergines so I had to have another think about how I was going to use the lamb mince and make it stretch over 2 nights. Some body then suggested shepherd's pie. After having a quick search online I came across this recipe for shepherd's pie with spiced parsnip mash.

Hubby enjoyed it, but I'm not too sure. I think I found the parsnips overpowering. I would rather a load of cheesy mash on top than parsnips.

I have a stat counter on this blog that tells me where visitors come from and what they click on while they are here. The Google keyword hits are the most interesting, "immaculate baking" did make me laugh! Over the last few days I've had quite a few hits from around the world after people putting "custard creams" ?!?

Pepper Crusted Beef with Yorkshire Puddings

After an active, knackering, but highly rewarding
week in Wales with the kids eating carb laden food I was ready for some good old home cooking. I was also suffering cooking withdrawal and wanted to cook a roast dinner.

After being inspired by my new favourite cookbook I cooked crushed new potatoes with garlic and rosemary from the book. I served it with beef with black pepper and mustard crust, stuffing, sprouts and possibly the best Yorkshire puds I have ever made! I have to admit it is one of the best roast dinners I've made, plus to make things even better there is some beef left for lunch tomorrow. The size of the puds made it difficult to take a good photo. The secret behind the puds....I think it is the Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil I have started using. It's fantastic and great for cooking at high heat.

Yorkshire puddings
Serves 4

50g plain flour
1 egg
140ml milk

1) Sift flour into bowl and crack egg into well in the middle. Gradually whisk in milk then season. Put in fridge for about an hour.

2) Pour oil into Yorkshire pud tin so it just covers the base. Place in oven for 5 min at 200oc to heat oil. Take tin out of oven and carefully pour batter in so 2/3 full. Bake for 15/20 min.

Pepper crusted beef

1 bulb of garlic
1 tbsp black peppercorns,
1 tbsp thyme
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
hunk of beef (I used 1kg rolled sirloin)

1) Roast bulb of garlic in oven for 30 min at 200oc.

2) Break down peppercorns with pestle and mortar. Squeeze in roasted garlic and mix in thyme and mustard to form a paste

3) Massage paste into top of beef. Cook beef at 240oc for 20 then at 190oc for 40 min (medium) for every kg. Rest for 40 min.

We've just added Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook to our cookbook collection (you can see the rest of our cookbook collection on the left and scroll down) and I have to say it is one of the most beautiful cookbooks we have ever owned. The photography and recipes are so inspiring and it is handily set out in season then produce order. Thanks to this book I now want to grow purple brussel sprouts because they are so pretty!

Tonight I'm planning to make crushed new potatoes with garlic and rosemary from it. I'm also going to make a batch of cookies for us staff going on the residential trip tomorrow.

Until I sorted out my cookbooks last week I never realised how much my cookbooks are geared towards British chefs, British cookery and grow your own.

Our final Hotel Chocolat tasting box arrived today and they look gorgeous. This time there is far more interesting sounding chocolates including Blackcurrant Pannacotta and Pure Pistachio Praline. No chocolate can be as bad as the Tamarind chocolate in last months selection that tasted like a cheap chocolate orange fondant.

I've just booked our tickets for the Good Food Show in Birmingham and I can't wait. We went a few years ago and saw Gordon Ramsey in the Supertheatre, but this year we can't get to see any of our chefs of choice as they have sold out. Well I suppose at least that gives us longer in the wine/beer tasting section!

Hubbie has just brought a very rusty 1951 Austin Healey "frogeye" Sprite. It's the same type of car as we had on our wedding day. For those that are interested he has set up his own blog about the restoration: Frog Blog