Perfect Brussel Sprouts

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At Christmas time I have to have Brussel sprouts on my plate. However this year I was reluctant to boil them, they just taste like old socks that way! I'd seen some recipes for them roasted with pancetta, but as a vegetarian that wasn't much good. I adapted the recipe, served them and my 67 year old father declared them the best he'd ever had. And he's had a lot!

Ingredients:

  • Brussel sprouts
  • Unsalted butter
  • Parmesan cheese
  1. Chop the stumps off the Brussel sprouts, peel the outer layers, and cross the bottoms.
  2. Melt a sizeable knob of unsalted butter in a frying pan on a low heat. Toss in the Brussel sprouts and coat them with the butter.
  3. Transfer to a baking tray and sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top.
  4. Cook for 20 minutes on 200°C.

Brussel sprouts

Slow Cooker Rice Pudding

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I've owned a slow cooker now for a year but the one thing that I rarely try to cook in it is a pudding. Stewed fruit always seems the most obvious but I've never been confident enough to try anything more adventurous. One thing that has been niggling away at me to try though is rice pudding, perfect for Winter time, and when I saw a packet of pudding rice on the shelf in the supermarket it seemed I could avoid it no longer.

I got home to discover the recipe on the packet called for three eggs which needed separating. As I don't do eggs, I panicked until I found this incredibly simple recipe online. I decided to give it a go one evening, and even though it was quite late already to put the slow cooker on, I carried on.


Ingredients:

  • unsalted butter
  • 150g pudding rice
  • 40g of sugar (I actually used sweetener)
  • 1.5l of milk (I used whole milk for a creamier taste)
  • 2 teaspoons of spice (I used cinnamon and nutmeg)
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
  • 30g of raisins or sultanas
  • 2 measures of Baileys's (optional and clearly not to be added if giving to children!)
  1. Use the butter to grease the inside of the slow cooker pot to prevent the rice from sticking.
  2. Add the milk, spices, sugar, vanilla bean paste and pudding rice and stir thoroughly.
  3. Put the lid on, turn the slow cooker onto 'high' and leave for two hours, stirring occasionally. (Every time the lid is lifted off the slow cooker, 15 minutes has to be added onto the cooking time, so keep this to a minimum).
  4. The rice will suddenly swell at around 1hr 45, it may need more milk added. This was also the point that I added the Bailey's and the fruit (30 minutes before the end of the cooking time).
  5. Serve immediately with grated chocolate sprinkled on top

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Also linking up to Funky Foodies

The Ultimate Chocolate Brownie

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These brownies are quite simply the best ever known to all of mankind in all of history.

A short while ago I was eavesdropping on a twittervation between a few friends and saw mention of something called 'slutty brownies'. Not a fan of the 's' term, I was slightly intrigued to see a chocolate cake described in such a way and followed the link posted to see this recipe on The Londoner's blog. Simple enough for anyone to make, it results in a brownie which is worthy of such a better title and is guaranteed to make grown men and women weep.

Ingredients are simple:

  • packet of chocolate chip cookie mix
  • Oreo cookies
  • packet of chocolate brownie mix
  • water

And my own additions to the original recipe:

  • Galaxy chocolate
  • white chocolate drops

slutty brownies

  1. Make up the cookie mix first following the directions and spread it on the bottom of the greased or silicon baking tray.
  2. Layer the Oreo cookies.
  3. Make up the brownie mix and place on top.
  4. Bake for 30 minutes on 200°C.
  5. Serve warm.

Aunt Bessie's Saves Dinner!

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Why would anyone go to all the effort of making batter for a yorkshire pudding when someone else has done it for you?

Four eggs? Four?!

Why would you when you can buy a packet of either ready-made, or cook from batter, yorkshire puddings? I certainly don't and that is why I always have a supply in my freezer.

Therefore when I had an e-mail asking me to try some of the Aunt Bessie products, I jumped with glee and agreed immediately. A few days later a very nice chap knocked on my door (having driven from Yorkshire) and delivered this for me…

There are a few things that really stood out to me from the selection above:

  • vegetarian toad in the hole;
  • boat-shaped yorkshire puddings (perfect for The Boy);
  • gravy tablets;
  • apple pie.

These vegetarian toad-in-the-holes are absolutely gorgeous. Yes it's a tray full of batter with two vegetarian sausages in, but they are genuinely some of the nicest sausages I've tasted; herby and succulent, they swelled beautifully while cooking in the batter. I thoroughly enjoyed this and have since bought them to eat again because of the ease and convenience.

The image on the left is of the boat-shaped yorkshire puddings which are a genius idea and perfect for children! I managed to fit two hot-dog style sausages in alongside each other (although one 'normal' thickness sausage would fit just as well) and The Boy thought it was magic! He absolutely loved them floating in the sea of gravy and wolfed the lot down. On the right above is a giant yorkshire pudding which I filled with chopped up sausage, carrots, brocolli and topped with a cheese sauce. It's a really quick meal, incredibly filling and because it's presented in a different way, my sometimes-difficult-eater was far more engaged in eating his meal.

The frozen gravy is something that I know Aunt Bessie's are very proud of, and I'm told by the meat-eaters in the family that it's with good reason. A concentrated gel-like capsule which is kept in the freezer, melt it in hot water over a stove and it is just as good as 'proper' gravy and far superior to granules. And for a vegetarian cooking meat, it's such an easy and fool-proof way of producing a quality gravy.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to apple pie; I don't like crunchy pastry, I like a deep filling and the lightest amount of crunchy sugar sprinkled on top. Unfortunately the bramley apple pie fell apart when I took it out of the oven, and the ability to serve it in a complete slice also seemed elusive. It tasted good, but I would have preferred more chunky apple filling with a bit more cinnamon.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the range of convenience products that Aunt Bessie's produce; I had no idea there were so many different items and some of them are truly imaginative. I personally prefer the yorkshire puddings that cook from frozen batter, but I will be adding the boat-shaped yorkshire puddings, the vegetarian toad in the hole and the gravy to my regular shopping list.

I was sent these products for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

Christmas Bakewell Tarts

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I wanted to try a different version of an old favourite combining different elements of several cakes that are sumptuous and decadent: the frangipance of bakewell tarts, the richness of the currant mix in mince pies and the melted marzipan inside a Simnel cake. With those in mind, I've created my own Christmas Bakewell Tarts.

Ingredients:

  • Shortcrust pastry:
    • 125g/4oz plain flour
    • pinch of salt
    • 55g/2oz butter, cubed
    • 30-45ml/2-3 tbsp cold water
    • 2oz ground almonds
    • 1oz caster sugar
  • currants, raisins and cherries roughly chopped in a food processor for thirty seconds (I'm using this instead of mincemeat as The Boy doesn't like that)
  • marzipan

  1. Make the shortcrust pastry in the traditional way (rub butter, flour, salt, sugar and almonds together, then add a few drops of water at a time until it binds together).
  2. Cut out circles and place them into a small muffin tin. Trim off the excess pastry and put a layer of baking beads over the base and cook for 8 minutes at 180°C.
  3. While this is blind-baking in the oven, make the frangipane mix.
  4. Cream the sugar and butter, add the eggs, mix in the flour and ground almonds, with a teaspoon of almond essence. Mix thoroughly.
  5. Once the tart cases have cooked, remove the baking beads carefully (they're hot!) and place a small circle of marzipan in each one.
  6. Place a teaspoon of currant mix on top, and then put a spoonful of frangipane mix on the top of each tart case.
  7. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180°C until a skewer/knife comes out clean.
  8. Sift icing sugar over the top.

mince pies

For a change I thought I'd video this cooking session. Mainly because cooking with a three year old is fun and I wanted to share that.

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Linking up to Recipe of The Week

Christmas Cornflake Cakes

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Cornflake cakes are a far better no-cook cake than crispie cakes, the crunch is much better and they don't fall apart so easily! We decided to make some the other day but jazzed them up a little bit especially for Christmas.

You'll need:

  • cornflakes
  • chocolate
  • golden syrup
  • raisins

christmas recipes

  1. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie (or bowl over hot water).
  2. Remove from the heat and pour into a large bowl coating the cornflakes and not leaving any residual chocolate in the base. If there's too much chocolate, add some more cornflakes.
  3. Squeeze in some golden syrup, this helps to bind the cake together and give a smoother texture. Stir in the raisins.
  4. Scoop into cupcake cases and leave to set.
  5. Once set, we sprayed ours with edible gold spray paint and sprinkled on multi-coloured candy buttons to resemble bauble.

christmas recipes

 

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'Counting Down To Christmas' is a craft bloggers link-up held each week in the eight weeks preceeding the big day itself. Each week we will be posting a different Christmas craft activity.

This week the co-hosts are Rainy Day Mum ~ Making Boys Men ~ Here Come the Girls ~ TheBoyandMe

If you have any Christmas Recipes for or that you have made with kids please link below


Advent Activity Calendar

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When I finish work every Friday lunchtime I have great intentions about the craft and play activities I can do with The Boy for the forthcoming four days until I return to work, yet by Wednesday I have failed miserably!

However, tomorrow the festive season starts and I am buggered damned if I am missing out on the opportunity to do great activities with The Boy each day, even more so since I saw this post on Domestic Goddesque the other day. So in pure 'borrowing' style, I have compiled a planner of Advent Activities for us to complete each day which hopefully should see us embrace the seasonal cheer.

What Christmas activities do you have planned?



Cooking Italian For GOSH

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My absolute favourite cuisine is Italian food. I've never been happier than sat in a restaurant on the Isle of Capri trying to choose between all the pizzas, pastas and risottos, let alone the sumptuous desserts and liquers.

And it stands to reason that if I can't be on the Amalfi coast, then if you hand me an Italian cookbook and put Dean Martin on, I'm going to be just as happy.

The ASK Italian Cookbook contains a variety of easy-to-prepare recipes straight from the ASK Italian kitchens. Over 100 recipes have been contributed by the chefs who work there, plus TV chef Theo Randall, author Carla Capalbo and plenty of other experts to create this new Bible of mine for starters, mains, sides and desserts. There are even ideas to make with children.

What makes this one different?

For every one of these cookbooks bought in an ASK Italian restaurant, £4 of the £15 will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. If you buy it through a bookshop or another third-party retailer then a minimum of £1 will be donated. Over the past few years ASK Italian have raised money to build a ward kitchen and an adolescent recreation and dining room in the hospital's new Cardiac ward, they hope to continue to raise funds to help with physical and emotional support of patients and their family.

I've had a go at one of their recipes: ravioli di spinaci e ricotta.

Ok, so it's not ravioli because I've tried making that before and the results weren't worth a mention. However the sauce is straight out of the book and it took me a matter of a few minutes to cook. In fact, it took me longer to find the bottle of white wine than it did to make the entire sauce. And it tasted delicious. I can't wait to try the salads and puddings.

ASK Italian is just one of three companies who have chosen to support GOSH, The White Company and Disney are two others. Look out for specially marked products to help support the charity.

My son has spent four nights in a children's hospital, and it was the worst 96 hours of my life. He left there healthy and happy because of the attention given to him. I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel to have a child who needs long-term health treatment.

GOSH needs to raise at least £50 million every year to help rebuild and refurbish Great Ormond Street Hospital, buy vital equipment and fund research to pioneer new treatments and cures for childhood illness. Through donations and special product purchases, they provide hope to very ill children and their families.

For more information log on to www.gosh.org

I received this book free for the purpose of this post. I have since made a donation of £10 to GOSH.

The Perfect Roast Potatoes

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I love roast potatoes; they are the best thing since sliced bread (and in my estimations, that's quite high!). The perfect roast potatoes have a golden, crispy skin with the slightest sheen to them and crunchy bits hanging off the edges, while the inside is melt in your mouth soft and fluffy.

My mouth is watering…

So how do you turn the common potato into the above? By using these:

good natured vegetables

  • 1.5kg white potatoes (I used Good Natured Splendid Spuds)
  • 100g butter (or 50g goose fat and 50g butter if you're not a vegetarian like me)
  • Cornish sea salt
  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Peel the potatoes and cut into big chunks. Par boil them in boiling water for ten minutes.
  2. Drain and leave to cool for ten minutes. Scratch the surface roughly with a fork (this gives crispy potatoes) all over.
  3. Melt the butter (and goose fat if used) in a saucepan, remove from the heat and add a teaspoon of Cornish sea salt. Place the potatoes in the pan and roll them around to ensure they are coated evenly. Pour it all into a baking tray.
  4. Roast for 40-60 minutes, turning half way through.
  5. Serve immediately (serves 4 people).

good natured vegetables

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I was sent the potatoes and the sea salt to try the recipe.

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