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 .

Some of the nibbles

Cheese and parsnip gougeres, spiced nuts, salmon crackers and THREE different types of cheese biscuits

Christmas Eve!

Here is the Yule log in all it's glory,rather huge as I have used double the amount as we are so many.
In the oven is a sticky toffee pudding,and the sauce is ready to be heated .
What will we have beforehand for nibbles? A choice of salmon crackers (marinated salmon strips wrapped in filo pastry),parsnip and cheese gougeres,spiced nuts, figs with goat's cheese wrapped in Parma Ham? Tess will make the choice, and then there is more ( and different ) for tomorrow.

Weekend cooking.

Why haven't I any pictures? Because almost everything cooked has either gone off to the family,been frozen or been eaten.and what have I to show for it all?
Burns on my finger, getting a cake out of the oven, and the biggest bruise you have ever seen on my leg, from walking into the door of the oven,which has a very sharp corner.
I made loads of cheese biscuits. Now frozen
A coffee and walnut cake with American frosting,eaten yesterday with the family.
A savoury cake, with sundried tomatoes, capers and basil as well as cheese in the mix.very good for an aperitif with a drink. Frozen, and waiting for Christmas.
Dan Leopardi's Pistachio and orange Stollen,wrapped and put away for nearer Christmas.
An Amaretti and apple tart,which went to the family and was eaten last night.
Then a chocolate and fruit cake,so heavy with fruit that it will have to be eaten with a spoon.
I think I shall serve it as a new version of Christmas Pudding
That just about covers it, I am exhausted
.

Just to let you now that I have not been slacking.

A very busy weekend with guests who arrived on Thursday
So we had......
Smoked mackerel pâté ,pork with prunes in a cream sauce,celeriac and potato mash and sliced leeks. Some cheese .
Friday saw a salad of spinach, blue cheese ,pears and avocado for lunch,
and in the evening I made a Fish soup with home made Rouille, then Game casserole with Carrot and parsnip mash and green beans, followed by Clementine and orange jelly with mango topping and the Almond Tuilles , cheese ,all English a Stilton,a very tasty Cheddar and some Goat's cheese , plus of course, copious glasses of wine ,both red and white
We had home made croissants for breakfast, then Saturday lunch with some of the family here as well was a simple dish of leeks wrapped in ham in a cheese sauce .
Sunday I cooked blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and then in the evening ( with more guests) we ate a crayfish salad with a spicy red cabbage and carrot slaw and thinly sliced apple ,followed by a mushroom risotto with truffle oil,and. Some rocket scattered over the top, which I have to say, was delicious. I made some ciabatta,which was enormous,must have put too much yeast as it almost hit the top of the oven.
The fridge is filled with little containers of leftovers...now all I have to do is eat them, and NOT throw any away.

My croissants, but not as quite good as Paul Hollywood's .

Needing lots of time,which I ran out of last night,so continued this morning.
Here they are, much smaller than the ones he has made, but they look OK. I had to roll and fold them so many times, but maybe that's because I am doing this one handed Have frozen the rest of the dough for another time,there seems to be an awful lot still to use.
A mess in the kitchen ...

Saturday morning and it is only 10.15

Already made a carrot and orange soup,and now feeling retro,I have made what my Godmother always described as" super delicious Rock Buns".Plus a batch of shortbread ,which is so popular, it never lasts more than a day or two. I must make some for Christmas,to give away .
Now I have some game casserole to do,as a busy week ahead means I must do some serious planning ....friends will be staying,and not much time to be in the kitchen.
Monday morning sees another friend here for some pre Christmas cooking. She will do a chiffon pie, I will do a Yule log and some Tuilles,and we will probably do more .
Watch this space.

Monday and shared cooking.
I have made Tuilles,see picture,and a Yule log,which I cut half so we could share it, and Elizabeth has made a Chiffon pie,which took ages,and in fact the pastry was still,warm when it was time for her to return home. So it went off in two ,the chiffon in a plastic container,the pastry ,naked as it were. To be combined when she gets home.
The Tuilles were a devil, the oven was too hot at the beginning so the first lot were burned, but they still tasted good, far better results the second and third tries. So good, that I have eaten most of the burned ones......
And no, we did not manage anything else.

For our lunch we had smoked mackerel pâté ,then a recipe from Jamie Oliver's 15 minute Cooking, ricotta fritters in a tomato garlic, and porcini mushroom sauce, which was delicious, except I forgot the basil that should have gone onto it at the end. Finally ,my easy lemon cream pot, whipped double cream, the same amount of Greek Yoghurt,plus some home made lemon curd folded in at the end, with some biscuit crumbs I used some Cantucci crumbs, but sometimes I use Amaretti crumbs scattered over. This can be frozen ,which makes a great standby pudding,as long as you take it out in time,and it isn't rock hard when you want to eat it.
Plus a glass or two of Rioja of course.