Summer fruits cheesecakey mousse or moussey cheesecake

This is another nearly followed recipe. It all started as a blackberry mousse recipe from my WI cookery book. The recipe included ricotta and cream cheese and the result tasted like cheesecake. This time I made a biscuit base and used a packet of frozen summer fruits instead of blackberries. The cheeses are blended with seived pureed fruit, sugar and gelatine and then beaten egg whites folded in. I couldn't resist topping it off with chocolate sprinkles. The result was just about cutable without slumping, but the consistency improved considerably after a night in the fridge.

Christmas Dinner

Christmas is a time of good food in our house. I spent most of christmas eve baking and getting as much preparation done as possible.



This is turkey cooked the Tom Kerridge way. It is simply a turkey breast stuffed and rolled and then wrapped up in lots of layers of clingfilm and foil. It was cooked for about two hours at 100 centigrade.



Meanwhile the other oven was full of vegetables and potatoes. With the turkey we had roast potatoes and a mixture of sweede, parsnip, sweet potato, butternut squash and beetroot. The brussells sprouts were not forgotten, they were shredded and stir fried with chestnuts. The whole lot was lubricated with gravy, cranberry sauce and bread sauce 


This is another inspiration from the television. Mary Berry made this chocolate torte last week and it looked like just the thing for after a big roast dinner. It was incredibly simple to make and needs to be kept in the freezer, so really handy to make it a day or so beforehand. The most difficult bit was getting it out of the mould. It was served with a raspberry coulis.



Panettone cooked in a breadmaker

With plenty of time to experiment, and christmas just a bit over a month away I thought I would have a go at some christmas classics. This is a panettone made in the bread machine. Instead of candied peel I used dried apricots and cranberries, partly because that's what I had in the cupboard and partly because I like them better. The end result is delicious. I ate the first slices within minutes of the machine finishing.

Christmas dinner in a tin!

This is attempt one, at a christmas dinner loaf. I'm trying to assemble all the flavours and ingredients of a christmas dinner, but that can be served sliced. In this one I covered the base of a big loaf tin with sliced parboiled parsnips and topped this with a stuffing made out of breadcrumbs, onion, chestnuts, dried cranberries and finely chopped parsnips. The next layer is thinly sliced chicken breast followed by stir fried shredded brussels sprouts, more chicken, more stuffing and another layer of parsnips. The whole creation was baked for 50 minutes and then served in slices with gravy.

The next version is going to include sausage meat and bacon and possibly bread sauce. I guess I've got about a month to get it perfect!

Great British Bake Off at home

I'm sure someone once told me that macaroons are difficult to make. I took that to be a challenge. Here is my first attempt, pistachio macaroons. The individual macaroons are made with ground almonds in a meringue mix and the buttercream inbetween is made with ground pistachios. They taste lovely. There will be more pictures when I have made new flavours.

Mary Berry, the queen of baking.

Mary Berry is undoubtably the queen of baking, and this is one of her recipes. For once, I followed the instructions exactly and the result was delicious. Tarragon is a fantastic accompaniment to chicken, and the leeks and mushrooms make a small amount of chicken go a long way.

Spicy lamb and feta skewers with Greek brown rice salad

In the time it took to cook the brown rice, I had this dish assembled, cooked and ready to throw together. The recipe suggests serving the rice cold with tomatoes, cucumber, olives, onion and fresh herbs stirred through. I decided that hot rice would be nicer, so I added exactly the same bits to it, but served it hot. The skewers are simply a mixture of lamb mince and feta cheese with a little harissaa paste added for a bit of tang. And the best bit is that I have enough left for tomorrows dinner.