I LOVE Christmas cake. I love making it just as much as I love eating it. each year, I dig out the same old recipes from the same cooks (Delia Smith and Mary Berry) and read through their ingredient lists and methods with a feeling of happiness growing in my heart. Then, the same thing…
Category: christmas
Perfect Parsnips
I love Parsnips! Not just at Christmas time, but all through the Autumn and Winter season. This is my recipe for Perfect Parsnips. You can’t be bashful about using fats when cooking these perfect parsnips. They are not for those on a diet!! For a large side portion of Perfect Parsnips take 1kg of Medium…
A Sprout is not just for Christmas
Christmas Time – Sprouts. Yes it’s the best time of the year to eat sprouts, they are in season, they are small nutty bundles of sweet green vegetable! A lot of people don’t like them, proboably because they are associated with small mushy bundles!! Try them this way and you may just like them, or…
A Delish Fish Pie
4 days after the big day & we are still in the process of leftover usage. Last night (29th) was using up the poached Salmon from Boxing Day (December 26th for all my American friends!). So I decided on a fish pie. Not strictly just leftovers as I added some additional fresh ingredients, but you…
The Smell of Christmas
What sums up the smell of Christmas? For me there are a lot of things. Some typical, some not so typical. Obviously the weeks (months) before December when you start making the Christmas cake. The Brandy and fruit, mixed spices, combining to create a lovely dark rich cake. Same goes for the Christmas Pudding Mix,…
Just the One?
I know I don’t need to say this, especially to the UK readers, but you can tell it’s now the 6th November as all the Christmas Adverts have started in earnest! I have to say, so far my favourite is the Marks & Spencers Advert, and no, sadly this is not a paid for post!…
Dependents in the Kitchen!
I have a new pet in the Muddy Kitchen Floor kitchen. No, not another dog, but a sourdough starter. It was something I had been meaning to start for a while, but never really had the nerve to. It’s a big responsibility a sour dough starter, read any sourdough bread blogs, twiter feeds, websites, cook…
Marzipan & Mincemeat Madness
Well, not exactly madness, in fact far from madness, an afternoon of pure Christmassy joy in the kitchen this afternoon. I’ve been looking at some Christmas recipes over the past few days, and had my own epiphany. I never realised how easy it was to make my own mincemeat AND marzipan. First for the mincemeat….
Stage 1 ~ Done!
My Christmas cake has cooked. I’m a little concerned about the texture, as the bottom feels a little bread puddingy, but all in all it seems to have held the fruit evenly and it feels very light. It’s still too hot to wrap up, so in what has become a tradition for me, I have…
The Cake
No, not the Christmas cake, but the cake that someone has asked me to make for them. Normally I don’t practice a cake, I just wing it, hold my breath and hope for the best. But this cake is different. It’s my first ever cake by request, the flavours were chosen specifically, and it’s for…
