welcome to my foodie world

I decided that today would be a great day to start this blog.

I am starting to feel rather christmassyand so have spent a lot of time in the kitchen today in a nigella...esk kind of way. All the christmas lights are up in the house and I have even put some in the kitchen so I can have the festive feeling whilst doing evey meal.

I have a husband and two children and a family who live very close by that are always willing to try something new that i am testing in the kitchen. I take pride in everything that I cook, from the humble roast chicken through to the amazing syllabub that I made for pudding today as a treat for my husband to start off his weekend as the hours that he works are strange and we have a weekend mid week which means midweek sunday dinner is something that is always on the cards in our home.

I started baking this week as my husband gave me a food processor and I have become some what obsessed with making pastry. Bakewell tart is one of my regulars right now and they are coming out fantastic. The storage jar is not having much contents for very long!

I have also made a variation of the bakewell tart with a christmas edge and omited the raspberry jam and replaced it with mincemeat. It was delicious and I will make this on a regular basis each christmas.

I also made some gingerbread men with the kids this afternoon and we had so much fun decorating them, I had no golden syrup and had to make a last minute change of having honey instead, they have turned out delicious and I think that I shall make this variation each time as they are perfect.

I decided to use up some double cream from the fridge and so deided to make a syllabub with it and some tia maria, clementine juice and brown sugar. I crumbled some of the earlier made gingerbread men into the bottom of a wine glass and topped with the sullabub and then sprinkled even more gingerbread as a topping. After an hour in the fridge they were so velvety, with a hint of the alcohol and background taste of the clementine. I would have liked a few fresh raspberries sprinkled on top the next time that I make it though to add a little tartness to the dessert. It was a lovelly end to a dinner of fresh white rolls with ham omlette and tomato sauce, it sounds really tacky but was a delcious dinner which both of us were in the mood for.

Photos will follow of the tarts and the cookies, unfortunatly the syllabubs were not around long enough to make an apperance for the camera, I shall be making them again though as part of my christmas dinner menu and so shall post some photos the next time.