jack frost nipping at your nose

it's the real jack frost!

recipe of the week: christmas left over pie

i love jamie oliver. every recipe i have made of his has been a triumph, i have learned so much from his shows.

here's his recipe for turkey and sweet leek pie, i used the basic principals to make my own christmas left over pie. as jamie says, 'this isn't a pretty boy pie, this is a proper english pie', i've never made one before and i will certainly be trying this one again. it may seem like a lot of work but it's not, not much washing up either.

christmas left over pie

1C left over goose meat
2 rashers of bacon chopped
knob of butter
salt and pepper
sprig fresh thyme, leaves removed
4 small potatoes thinly sliced
handful green beans
1 head of broccoli
4C stock
heaped spoonful of flour
2 heaped spoonfuls creme fresh
puff pastry, thawed
roasted chestnuts
1 egg, beaten
fine strainer

preheat the oven to 190/375 degrees
fry the bacon in the knob of butter until brown, add the thyme leaves and fry for a minute.
add the thinly sliced potatoes, salt and pepper and toss well.
add enough stock to cover the potatoes and allow to bubble away until almost all the liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally.
test the potatoes with a fork, if they are not soft add more stock and continue to cook until potatoes done and most of the liquid is absorbed.
add the beans and broccoli and goose meat and toss.
dust the mixture with the flour and mix up vigorously.
add the rest of the stock, or water if you've used all the stock and stir it up.
mix in the creme fresh and bring back up to the boil.
place the whole mixture into the fine strainer over another pot and allow the gravy to drip down while you roll out the pastry.

lightly flour your counter and roll out the puff pastry into a large rectangle until it's quite thin.
crush the roasted chestnuts over half of the pastry and then fold the pastry over.
gently roll out the pastry again to a size that will fit your baking dish, don't worry if chestnuts poke through.

place the goose and potato mixture into a baking dish.
cover with the puff pastry and tuck the edges under like your tucking a child into bed.
score the pastry with the back of the knife into a criss cross diamond pattern.
paint the egg over the pastry.
bake for 30-45 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden brown and the filling is bubbly.

reheat the gravy. i didn't have enough gravy so i added water, gravy granules and more creme fresh to bulk it up a bit.

serve immediately! yum-oh! it keeps well too. i made a second pie for lunch today and it reheated, covered in tin foil in 40 minutes. it was just as tastey.

12 drummers drumming

it's christmas eve! let the feasts begin.

i suggest roasting a ham with a side order of scalloped potatoes.

i have no pictures as we ate it too fast...but trust me, these are winners.

11 pipers piping

i have to say that i'm more pagan than christian in my spirituality. but around christmas i can't help but come over all religious. alex and i attended the carol service at st. pauls this afternoon. cathedral choirs give me chills.behold my poor quality camera phone photos.

10 lords a leaping

yum yum yum, turn on the christmas carols and make yourself a holiday treat.

mulled wine

2 glasses red wine
1 glass apple juice
pinch of cinnamon or 1 stick
pinch of ground cloves or a few whole ones
small grating of nutmeg
1 clementine cut into rounds

bring everything to a simmer, take off the heat and allow to steep while you prepare the chestnuts.

chestnuts not roasted on an open fire

take as many chestnuts as you think you can eat and cut an X into the skin of each. place in a baking tray and roast in a preheated 200c/390f degree oven for 15 minutes.

reheat the muled wine if it's cooled down too much and eat everything immediately.

9 (pagan) ladies dancing

happy solstice!

8 maids a milking (who stop to eat black forest cookies)

black forest cookies

3/4C flour
3/4C sugar
3/4t baking powder
1/4t salt
4T butter, melted
1/3C cocoa powder
1 egg
2T coffee or water
1/3C chocolate chips
1/3C dried sour cherries, chopped
some sifted powdered sugar

preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking tray with parchment.
mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
whisk melted butter and cocoa in separate bowl.
mix in the egg, coffee (or water) and blend well.
fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture, do not over mix.
fold in the chocolate chips and cherries.
scoop 1T of the mixture and roll into balls.
roll the balls around in the powdered sugar twice.
place balls on baking tray, 2 inches apart.
bake for 10-14 minutes or until the cookies are cracked yet soft, do not overbake!
cool the cookies on the baking tray for 5 minutes before fully cooling on a rack.

yum! these are great and they keep really well in a tin. have some milk for drinking handy...

7 swans a swimming

alex is back.

hurrah!

he's ever so skinny and scabby.

6 geese a laying

it's not christmas until little children act out the nativity story. i love my class.

5 go-old rings

here's an easy cookie/sweet recipe for children to make this holiday season. chocolate reindeer!

melt some chocolate and spoon it onto grease proof paper in a round shape.

then add a cherry nose, chocolate ears and eyes and licorice antlers.

4 calling birds

tis the season for baking.

i ran out of eggs this weekend and looked for an egg-less sugar cookie recipe. if you make sugar cookies without eggs this is what happens....

you'll have to clean your oven and probably hoover around your oven like me. it was a total and complete disaster.

don't believe a sugar cookie recipe that says you don't need an egg. let this be a lesson to you all.

on the bright side i just made some fantastic black forest cookies...watch this space.

3 french hens

i have a little tree. i love it! it cost 5 pounds and it's the best fiver i have ever spent. it came with decorations and lights and cinnamon sticks to give it an authentic smell.

i wandered around my neighbourhood last night and i can count how many christmas trees i saw in windows on one hand. i miss the overdone light show that is a north american christmas.

2 turtle doves

last weekend was the rochester dickensian christmas fair. i go every year and it has yet to get tiresome. i LOVE it! i'm like a child, giggling and hurrying here and there. what's not to love? people dressed up like dickensian characters. mulled wine. roasting chestnuts on every corner. little old ladies playing jingle bells on real bells. fake snow. carousel rides. parades. christmas carols. i could go on and on.

Credit to ali for these wonderful pictures!

a partridge in a pear tree

look what we made!


this is the craft to end all crafts. it took us a full 4 days where we did nothing but this and played with lego...but every one of my 21 kids has their very own snowman sweet jar.

2 balloons, 1 layer of paper mache, 1 layer of plaster cast, 1 super thick layer of pva glue and white paint.

what did you do at work this week? i bet i win!

burn baby, burn

it is the week of fireworks

dancing, fizzing lights

saturday, wednesday, sunday

sparkling, twirling bursts

i don't know if this really worked

lydia is always posting pictures of her yummy, pastry school treats on her flickr. this lemony pinwheel caught my eye.

i don't think mine turned out all that well. the first major difference is lydia made her own puff pastry and i used the ready made puff pastry in my freezer. lydia made her own lemon filling, i used the blueberry and cherry jam in my fridge. lydia sprinkled hers with course sugar, i had none. my attempt wasn't never going to win out.

i enjoyed making these though, the geometry is pleasing, and by using all the ready made bits these took me about 5 minutes from start to finish.

they could have used a few more minutes on the oven as the centres, under the jam was a little doughy still. and my cherry jam was apparently too runny and didn't stay in the middle. my next try will be more successful...i'll keep you updated.

these were pretty tasty even with the runny jam and slightly under cooked centres.

the festival of lights

happy diwali!

i got the joy of fireworks over my house tonight. i love fireworks! it's still odd to me that you can buy them in grocery stores and let them off in your backyard...or the street.

i do believe the credit crunch has hit the firework industry though. usually the cacophony starts about a week before diwali with fits and stops and it reaches a crescendo on diwali. the light displays then slow down before reaching another fevered pitch for halloween. there is another dip in activity before the final climax of bonfire night.

this year, there was no build up to diwali and the night itself has been fairly quiet. i only counted a hand full of small displays. i hope the bonfire night display i'm going to next weekend isn't going to be holding back.

alex is in peru for 3 months...in case you didn't know and he sent me some pictures. he helped turtles hatch out of their eggs and will help to release them into the rivers in a few weeks (amongst other jungle adventures).

i'm so proud of him.

i won't post the photo of the big hairy tarantula that was found in the toilet as it's freaking gross. check out his facebook page for that little gem.

look what i bought

this my friends is a spider catcher. i am irrationally afraid of spiders. i cannot even play with fake plastic spiders during the 'minibeast' topic at school. i cannot bring myself to kill them or catch them, choosing instead to quake in fear if a see one. but those days are past me now!

you simply pull the trigger which opens up the plastic bristles at the other end. you place the bristles over the spider and release the trigger. the spider is caught and easily released outside as the bristles hold but don't squish. and it's all at arms length.

they give you a fake plastic spider to practice on, but i threw it out as i didn't like it. so i practised on my snail door stop. luckily i haven't had to use this on a real spider yet but i know there are 3 big ones lurking somewhere in the depths, i've seen them.

another page

these were pretty good books too. the looking glass wars, frank beddor. these are the 'real' stories of alice in wonderland.

lewis carroll twisted the stories princess alyss of wonderland (user of white imagination) told him. he turned them into the fanciful drivel that sold millions of copies and she never forgave him for it. there is no white rabbit, there is alyss's tutor, bibwit harte. there is no mad hatter, there is the royal bodyguard, hatter madigan. the queen of hearts is actually alyss's black imagination using, insane aunt who tries to usurp the thrown and forces alyss to flee wonderland and take refuge in our world.

these books are not particularily well written but they are an interesting and fun read. they can drag a little bit and don't attempt them if you really love the lewis carroll stories as they'll probably make you mad. apparently this is a trilogy but the third book isn't out or i haven't looked hard enough for it. start with the looking glass wars and then move onto seeing red.

taking a page out of lydia's book

i recently found a book at the library and i loved it. i consumed it in a week. the book of lost things, john connolly.


it's about a young boy during wartime london who looses his mother. he's angry, sad, a little obsessive compulsive and starts to take comfort in the fairytales that he and his mother shared. through an accident, the boy finds himself in an alternate world where the 7 dwarves are communists, little red riding hood helped to breed a new brand of scary wolf and a valient knight is on a quest to find out the fate of his 'good friend'.

the story is a tad predictable but it's a very enjoyable read. i highly recommend it, if you enjoy grimm-esque fairytales.

left overs?

i had some left over chili and a half of a butternut squash to make into a dinner. what a happy accident this turned out to be!

roast the squash until soft, top with the chili and put back in the oven until hot, grate over some cheese and serve with a dollop of sour cream. i wasn't expecting to be as tasty as it was...that's why i only have the 'after' picture.

the proof of the yumminess is on the plate.

an interesting read

UPDATE: the times just won't work as a hyper link so try copying and pasting the full address.

here's a full link for you of a different yet related article, still humourous...

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article4855164.ece

and here's the intended article....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/carol_midgley/article4909825.ece

jamie oliver has started a new program - jamie's ministry of food - where he wants people to give up the fast food lifestyle and learn to cook basic meals. then those people them pass on the recipes to friends who pass on the recipes and so on and so forth until thousands of people are cooking.

he's been criticised after his first episode for portraying a typical english village as thick and slovenly (this is the same village where mothers were pushing macdonald's into their children's outstretched hands through the school gates when chips and burgers were banned from school dinners in favour of healthy eating - thanks to jamie). this article from the times was a very amusing read. i like how they censored 'wanker' in the opening paragraph.

recipe of the week: squash and prawn stir fry

half a butter nut squash, peeled and cubed
handful of prawns, cooked or raw
2T fish sauce plus some to splash
1T sugar
2 garlic cloves, grated or minced
cooked rice to serve

cook some rice.
boil the cubed squash for 6-10 or until just cooked.
mix the fish sauce, sugar and garlic.
splash some fish sauce over the prawns.
heat the fish sauce mixture in a large frying pan until the garlic begins to sizzle and add the cooked squash, stir fry for 5 minutes or so.
add the prawns and cook through.
serve with rice.

yum.

Noah and The Whale - 5 Years Time

this is my song of the summer.

whistling? oh yes there is!

hand clapping? indeed!

ukulele? certainly!

back from the void

erin, i can't understand how you managed to keep us all updated during your european vacation. maybe it helps to be in places that have such a thing as internet. scotland is severely lacking.

my parents came over at the beginning of august and we all went to scotland after some furious tourism of the south west of england.

i have some photos but my camera is still packed.

my parents left yesterday. alex left for his research trip to peru yesterday (he's not back until christmas). i went back to work yesterday. i'm a little sad and lonely.

there will be pictures and more posts to come...

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Letter from God

this has hit the radio waves recently. i enjoy it but it's a song you have to concentrate on.

recipe of the week: lemonade x2

when it's hot outside, make lemonade.

basil lemonade

3 lemons, zested and juiced
handful of fresh basil, chopped roughly
2 spoonfuls of honey
2 spoonfuls of sugar
jug of water

pour some of the water into a pot, add sugar and honey and boil for a few minutes, everything needs to be dissolved.
take off the heat and add the zest and basil, allow to cool completely.
pour lemon juice into a large bowl, strain the zesty, sugary water into the bowl and taste.
add more water or sugar or lemon or anything it needs.


minty melon lemonade

half a melon (i used cantaloupe) puree with a splash of water using a hand blender
1 lemon, zested and juiced
handful of fresh mint, roughly chopped
jug of water
2 spoonfuls of sugar

boil some of the water with the sugar until dissolved, take off the heat and add the zest and mint, cool completely.
strain the blended melon into a bowl and add lemon juice.
strain cooled mint water into the melon and lemon juice.
add more water or lemon or sugar to taste.

i'm obsessed

i love my garden. my turf has taken really well and is growing with gusto. i have some deep blue, hot pink and yellow flowers in bloom. my tomatoes and courgettes have definite buds that are looking suspiciously like flowers...which mean food will be growing soon! my strawberries are flourishing and i have my first pea shoots!

look at my first pea shoot!

i'm so impressed with myself. last year i couldn't even keep a house plant alive and now i have a full on garden as well as 3 house plants thriving. my black fingers have turned to green thumbs.

i cannot wait to eat you.

first recipe using my produce: vegetarian cannelloni

ok, so it's only using some basil from my garden, but it's basil that i grow. i don't have any measurements for this recipe.

soya mince
bottle of tomato juice, sauce or puree
cherry tomatoes
garlic cloves, finely chopped/grated
grated cheese - i used parmesan and mozzarella
basil leaves, half chopped half left whole
dried cannelloni pasta.

preheat oven to 175C or 350F, bring a pot of water up to the boil.
slit and X into the bottom skin of each tomato and pop into boiling water for 30 seconds. the skin slips right off when slightly squeezed.
fry the vege mince until wamred, add skinned cherry tomoatoes and a sploosh of tomato sauce. cook for a few minutes and then allow to cool a little.
pour 1/3 of the tomato sauce into a deep baking dish, making sure the whole surface is covered.
sprinkle the chopped garlic and basil over the top.
spoon the mince filling into the pasta tubes and lay the tubes into the sauced dish. fill the dish with as many cannelloni's as you can.
pour the remaining tomato sauce over the pasta, ensuring good spreading and coverage.
grate the parmesan over the top and rip pieces of mozzarella over the top.
place the whole basil leaves on top of the cheese because it's pretty.
bake for 30 minutes covered and then uncovered for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is gooey and brown.

my garden: the update

you didn't cross your fingers and hope for the best did you? the strawberry plants i saved have all died but one so i went in search of living plants that will give me fruit. i ventured out to my school's local garden centre and found the plant perfection i was seeking! i even found a bat box, ladybird house, bee house and a variety of bird feeders...i'll pick up some of those next month.

not only did i get 2 huge and healthy strawberry plants - with flowers and fruit already, far yellow tub - i procured purple sage and moroccan mint to accompany my basil, coriander and garden mint already in my herb tub - far orange tub. i purchased a plum tomato and cherry tomato plant - close yellow tub - along with 2 courgette plants - close orange tub. i also picked up some pea and broad bean seeds - small black tubs - guaranteed to sprout in 7-10 days.

so my garden is now complete. except maybe some mulch or bark for around the flowers to help smother the weeds. i love every aspect of the garden up-keep but i can't say i enjoy weeding.

i cannot wait to eat some of my own fruit and vegetables! i'm so impressed with myself.

busy little bees

a few weeks ago i decided it was time to attack the over-grown wilderness that was my back garden. i was high on the sunshine at the time.

imagine, if you will as i didn't take any 'before' shots, this mash of tangled weedland covering my entire back garden up to your knees. it was a forest. and old forest. the roots grew deep.

i enlisted some help of alex and his mother as there was no way i could tackle this wilderness on my own but 3 cheers for alex who basically cleared the whole thing by himself! as you can see he and i both gave up towards the back of the patch and laid some paving tiles down to separate the wasteland from the garden. that back patch may be a job for another day.

once everything was cleared we ventured to the local garden centre to pick up some plants. the theme is 'cottage garden'. unfortunately nothing has really bloomed yet so the theme is not obvious. but i have poppies, lupins, lavenders, periwinkle, heathers, clematis, and others i cannot remember. i also picked up some turf so i can have a little patch of grass to lay my head. this weekend i found some dreadful strawberry plants that i saved from the indoor horrors of tesco grocery store and planted in a large tub on my patio along with another tub for herbs *cross your fingers that the strawberries survive*. next weekend i think i'll get another tub or two and plant some vegetables. beans? tomatoes? courgettes? yes i think so. can you grow courgettes in a tub?

i have bumble bees visiting my garden regularly as well as squirrels and a variety of birds. that makes me happy. now i want to get a bat box, a ladybird house and possibly a bird feeder. i could really go crazy. check out flickr for more picture goodness.

i'm not a fan of zoos

but i sure do enjoy a safari park. who knew lions and zebras and giraffes lived in england? alex and i ventured to longleat safari park on the way back from glastonbury a few weeks ago and i just realised that i didn't tell you all about it.


you basically drive around this HUGE estate for a couple hours and see all the animals. you can walk around a small bit but for the majority you have to drive which is slightly unfortunate. you can have your windows down for everything but the monkeys and big cats. the monkeys climb all over your car *and in your car if the windows are open* and the lions could eat you if your windows are open.


it's really alot of good fun. i'm not sure about the ethical issues behind keeping animals in a colder climate than they are used to but they really have vast areas to wander in and that makes me feel better about it. it's something i suggest you see if you're in england. check out flickr for some more animal photos.