Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2008!

The end of 2007 was interesting (forever known as the year the Arts Council announced a massive cull of arts organisations - guess who's company was one of them?) and the year when hopefully, I became a bit more centred and made some resolutions like....

• Save some dosh (got to get that artisan deli/bakery open somehow)
• Eat some fish
• Eat more veg
• BLOG MORE!!!

...............and there is a very, very small resolution to try and strim some of my books - yikes!

As you can imagine there was a lot of eating and scoffing as well as time spent pottering in the kitchen and entertaining. I made sausage rolls for the first time but noway as good as my Mum's.

So I suspect I best get on with blogging properly eh? Rememeber that Marguerite Patten recipe I promised in my last entry? Lovely and retro, perfect for loads of fun in 2008 - here it is; enjoy!

Nut and Pineapple Upside Down Cake

5oz Butter/Margarine
5oz Sugar
2 Eggs
6oz SR Flour (or plain flour and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder)
3 tablespoons of Milk (I used cocomut milk - it works great)
2oz Butter
2oz Brown Sugar
Vanilla essence
Fresh Pinapple slices
Glace Cherries
Pecans

Cream together the butter and sugar until soft and light.

Whisk the eggs well and beat gradually into the butter mixture. Sieve the flour (with baking powder if using) into the mix and add a few drops of vanilla essence and the milk. Fold in gently (so you don't knock out all that lovely air).

Melt the butter with the sugar in a 8 inch cake pan (I have to say when I made this the mix came right up the pan so a tray underneath is a good idea).

Pop in the pineapple slices, nuts and cherries in a pattern. Top with the sponge mixture and bake in a moderate oven, gas 3-4, I think I used 150c (fan oven you see, always a good idea to pop in a small bowl of water to create a steamy atmosphere). Put it in for an hour or until a skewer comes out clean.

This tastes great and is fantastic as a dessert or with aftrenoon tea. Yum!

Retro Tastes

Well, been while hasn't it? Entirely my fault!

Things have been busy, busy and not had a lot of time really (and I am tired, so veeerrry tired!), but there has been a distinct flurry of activity in the kitchen; a brief outline is below:

Christmas Cakes - after the sugar flies decided they wanted a nibble in the summer, two large expensive fruitcakes were packed of to mother with the instructions 'Eat the frozen one or it will go off, I don't want it wasted!' and 'I'll ice the other one nearer Christmas, I promise'

Then the other week I made some more Christmas cakes in my lovely new multisize pan from Alan Silverwood (purchased on ebay) - they had goji berries in them as well as some great rum from Havana, which is used to cook specifically (tastes delicious though!!). That was a culinary gift from a tutor and I promised I would give him a cake so maybe there was an ulterior motive. I now have 6 cakes to ice and decorate (eek!!)

Then I made my first ever mincemeat - a great Delia recipe except I forgot the nuts and made up my own fruit quantities (again goji berries) - stuck in some nice orange brandy that I bought in France and hey presto! A dark jar of alcoholic fruit ready to tantalise the tastebuds of my friends. I'm thinking about adding more booze as I'm worried the fruit may be a little dry (I added it during the cooking process - I can be so dim!)

Then, I have been batch cooking bolgnese and chilli - I am super busy at the moment (who would have thought?) and it's easy to pull food out of the freezer!

Phew, and.....

D and I (yes we are trying to get on, but we keep having our moments) made a Pineapple Upside Down cake from a Marguerite Patten cookbook. Now she is one of the original doyens of revamping Bristish food in post war Britain and was an essential voice for British housewives trying to make it all go that little bit further! After some big whisking, the cutting up a a fresh pineapple and the addition of three tablespoons of coconut milk to replace the normal milk indicated (I reckoned it needed the higher fat content and would add a tropical taste!), I was rewarded with a lovely, tight crumbed cake. oozing stickiness and tasting great!! Recipe will be posted!

I have also made some chicken liver pate but added way to much cream so now it looks like spread! Oh well, we can't be domestic goddesses all the time.

Foodie Heaven - In words, pictures and food!

Like the picture? It's about the only sun we had and light was perfect for showcasing this fudge.

Summers here and its rain, rain, rain - a real joy! There is a vegetable shortage as nothing is being nurtured by a happy sun come to that, neither am I.

So here I am watching too much TV in the evenings, surfing the web on my lovely new laptop (hurrah! Vista - Bah!) So what should I do? Oh I know, how about a blog update and finally put in the pictures I keep rattling on about?

They are uploading as I type and soon, you will be treated to a myriad of colours, textures and faces as you explore my world of very amateur snaps (but lovingly shot mind you). In the meantime, did I tell you about nibbles on Saturday just past? Don’t read nibbles, read feast for thousands, well, ten. Had all the girlies with boyfriends and babies in tow for an impromptu drinkies party. I laid on casseroles, roasted meets, veg and fruits from the Farmers Market in Wymondham and we all consumed far too much wine - I love it when we all get together as we are all bats. Poor Em had me panicking around her as she was so animated when she spoke, the giant mirror in my front room started to tip and her life was in peril... I was very tired afterwards.

Saturday was pretty great actually(see the pictures above). I was at the farmers market picking up supplies and I saw a woman standing behind the meat stall and thought 'I know her'. Lo’ and behold! It was celebrity chef and food writer Sophie Grigson making a promotional film for the Guardian promoting British Beef. The best thing was that she spoke to me, converted me to pan fried skirt steak (I usually casserole it along with thousands of other Brits [I don't casserole Brits], the French are way ahead) and then the filming person asked me to be in the film checking the provenance of my meat - fantastic foodie heaven!!!