christmas planning

Today I shall be planning with milletary precision my christmas feast menu. 9 courses of sheer indulgence (and a tiny bit of showing off my cooking ability).

I am going supermarket shopping this morning to pick up some of the items for my menu that I can use in the build up to the event. Dieting is something that I am not thinking about until after christmas, it is my favorite day of the year and one day that i categorically refuse to diet on.

I have started the day quite healthy with a fruit smoothie, not anything to get excited about as the cupboards are resembling a raid until I hit the shops, but a botte of quite alright tasting fruit and milk mush, takes me back to weaning my kids actually the thick gloopyness that barely clutches onto the spoon for long enough t reach the waiting beak of a 8 month old wriggling not so sure baby.

I suppose that is one of the reasons why I look upon it as somewhat comfort food as it is a reminder of children and the sole reliance that they have on you to do everything, now however with a 3 and 4 year old showing me their growing independence hourly (although can make a rahter nice scrambled eggs with the adequate supervision! it is something that on a busy morning hits the spot.

I know I know that I should be making them from scratch myself as I do have ample kitchen gadgets to cater for such a need. I shall be positing later the delights of todays menu once I return from the shops and have my christmas feast planned and ready for starting!

pre christmas christmas week and a birthday

An amazing food week this week, I have eaten out so many times that my cooker (apart from the ham) is feeling a little left out. This is something that is going to need fixing as I am wanting to go through the list of meals and plans that I have been creating for the last couple of months.

I have even enjoyed tonights dinner with the kids as we were in sheffield at a christmas festival and decided to call for pizza as they were starving so we hit the hut and for once, the deep pan with spicy pork beef and crispy pancetta. So novel for me who is not a pizza fan normally as much would be seen with a hamburger instead given the choice of fast food call ins.

I am debating opening a bottle of wine though as the amount of salt that they must have pumped into the 3 slices a few hours ago is making my mouth feel like the bottom of a bird cage!

Ham in the oven

I have had a ham soaking for 2 days (due to the fact that it is an asda brand) to get rid of all the salt. It is a 5kg joint which looks delicious and so have a few hours to wait before I can go to bed as only remembered that it needed cooking a short while ago.

I have been reading Nigellas christmas book and her express book to get a little more inspiration for my christmas feast menu and have come accross her wine cooked ham. Not that I am trying this today as I am roasting it in a bag (Lakeland catalogue seemed to attract far more things to my "add item to basket" and so am hoping that it will speed up the cooking time as I have a very busy day tomorrow and could do with getting to bed as soon as possible as it is my sons birthday tomorrow and he will be 3 and so i am trying to be as patient as i can waiting for the oven timer to go off.

I just hope that the bag allows for the crackling to develop, i shall be doing the nigella version next week though in preperation for christmas and hope that it will be a success.

I do hope that this one is going to be good.

I found this photo on my mobile phone of my husbands breakfast remenents at Morrisons cafe and felt the need to share my findings. The beans were so sticky that they clung like a baby to its mother at bedtime to the egg.

Quite funny in a "you had to be there kind of way" but wanted to share it.

I am a fan of the egg, and in the book that I am currently putting together have dedicated an entire chapter to all things eggy, I even have chickens in my back garden who are now dear pets but unlike a cat or dog, these girls give back, a delicious egg each off them at 6am. Perfect!

whats for breakfast

This morning the sounds of children laughing stirred me from my deep happy sleep, it was 05:45 and "mummy whats for breakfast" came like a hurricane into the room.

I just knew at that point that cereal was not going to make it with my kids. Both were due to be in nursery at 07:45 and so had about an hour and a half to get us ready, fed and out of the door. Pancakes with banana, maple syrup and bacon was the call of the day.

Each portion of 2 fluffy buttermilk pancakes with 2 slices of streaky bacon and half a banana in warmed maply syrup with some crushed walnuts was delightful, gone far to quickly and although this is not the norm on a weekday morning, it is december after all and sure beats oats or cereal and toast as a way to start the day.

Whats for lunch springs to mind already!

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.