Saturday 26 January 2013

Saturday cooking.

Four for lunch today, have made a big lasagne,which I hope will be enough for teenage boys ,a dad and me,followed by an apple and Amaretto tart.
Must remember to ask one of them to take out the lasagne,as I have dropped too many on the floor ,thinking I can do it with only one hand,and it turns into a disaster,broken dish,or burned hand,or both.
I have at last boiled up the final Seviiles,which I had put into the freezer,rather than waste them by not finding time to make more marmalade.
Ths time, I have cooked with the Sevilles ,some Sicilian blood oranges,with a lemon ,and the resulting brew is a fabulous pink colour. Has made six pots.i have had such trouble this year as I wanted to make the marmalade less sweet,and of course, it wouldn't set ,twice I have had to reboil,which always results in far less jars than hoped for.
Tomorrow, two friends who share a birthday, for a celebratory lunch.
We will have salmon wrapped in filo pastry ,with a dip,and then I am trying the famous Three Bird Roast from Lidl! All the usual accompaniments ,roast potatoes and roast parsnips and carrots and then some curly kale. Cranberry and orange sauce,as I had some cranberries on the freezer
Finally ,a meringue , cream and Kirsch concoction,with fruit purée .
We will drink Champagne in their honour ,and then a Merlot from Australia.no we didn't drink that, we had a bottle of red Baumes de Venise 2007,and very good it was too!






Saturday 19 January 2013

I am such an idiot.

Today ,as I can't get out due to the snow, I thought I would make some flapjacks.
Plenty of Muesli and porridge oats, and some dried fruits as well.
Everything was going according to plan,and I was just putting the mix into a tray,when Mike,my Physiotherapist arrived.
Since I wanted to UT the flapjacks not the oven,I decided to scatter one pumpkin seeds over the top, but I took out Kalonji seeds,BLACK ONION SEEDS INSTEAD.
Too late,as I couldn't scrape them off,so it will be interesting to see if anyone notices a strange flavour. You can clearly see the seeds.

Saturday 12 January 2013

Saturday evening.

Four friends for a meal this evening, and we had....to begin with ,two bottles of Prosecco,with various nibbles, and then
Asparagus Risotto,with a wolf Blass Chardonnay,then Venison Casserole, found the recipe online Della's "venison with pickled walnuts." The meat was marinated in Guinness and Oloroso Sherry (the recipe said Port,but I didn't have any ) for almost two days,
and then cooked with garlic, onions and herbs,using the marinade as the liquid. Cooked in a low oven for almost three and a half hours. With that ,we had red Cabbage, broccoli and Anya potatoes,which I love, their knobbly shape and interesting shapes me a contrast to the pieces of meat.
As Delia said , it was unctuous and utterly delicious.

As one of the group is a Vegetarian, I made her some stuffed Courgettes,with aubergine, peppers ,tomatoes and capers,with some. Bread crumbs to bind it together,and some Dukkah scattered over .they were baked in the oven with a little tomato sauce.
To drink ,two bottles of 2005 Minervois from the Langedoc .
The cheeses were made by some gorgeous Guava jelly( similar to Membrillo) but given to me by a friend recently returned from Cuba.
Finally there was a Creme Brûlée ,with Clementines and Raspberries underneath the custard..
With that we drank a half bottle of Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, absolutely delicious. I also made some dates in coffee and cardamom,with some little walnut biscuits and Greek Yoghurt.
Now I see what we ate, I realise there were a awful lot of walnuts......
By midnight I was knackered.
A lot of clearing up still to be done.
And I made nine pots of marmalade in the morning,or rather I had to reboil some that I had made the night before which hadn't set,as I was trying to cut down on the amount of sugar
Finally,and I almost forgot, but my football crazy family were here for lunch as well.





Saturday 5 January 2013

Cherry and Polenta cake.my first posting for this new year.

Made for friends who I will be visiting this afternoon.
With apologies for the lateness of this Debbie,but I didn't forget .
Cake made from a recipe in Sainsburys Magazine.
Made with polenta, ground almonds,cherry compote and all the usual stuff .