Thank you all for your very kind wishes, they have made me smile =)

I'm hoping to start reading posts again this month, and maybe blog a bit again in March sometime.

I'm looking forward to reading what everyones been up to!

Best wishes,

KJxx

Blogging Siesta

Hi to everyone who comes to visit my blog.

Due to some personal circumstances, and a family member in hospital, with a long recovery period coming up, it’s with some sadness that I’ve taken the decision to stop blogging for a while. I’m not sure how long that might be, it will depend how things go, all I know is I can barely log in just now never mind write a post! I hope to be back reading all your posts sometime in the New Year.

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope you have a great December time and Christmas.

With best wishes, Kelly-Janexx

Six More Nigella Express….

Apologies for my lack posting, I’m blaming it on ill health, both mine and family members.... I’ve been keener to read other blogs rather than post on my own recently as well…. but here is one. Hope to be back blogging properly soon.

The end of November and all of December is such a busy busy busy time for so many of us. So much so that the daily meal cycle can become a bit of a grind, and our minds and energy are on other things.
I almost always take some sort of cold / flu bug at this time, and it’s a real pest. Just when I’d be looking for a boost of energy, what little I have disappears to try and fight le bug. This years is a particularly horrible one, something between cold / flu and (in my case) the inescapable larengitis. Anyhow where I’m going with this is Nigella Express is a real boon of a book in this busy and flu-y time. Many comforting good recipes that give the flagging Christmas card writer a boost, with little outlay in the way of energy – and for me now that is a real bonus =)

38 Ginger and Passion Fruit Trifle
This is really barely a recipe, but something that you could whip up to give last minute guests – or even planned friends coming round. Although Nigella did give quantities, I didn’t bother, just layered maderia sponge moistened with ginger wine, then cream and passion fruit on top. It tasted a lot more than it actually is. There weren’t even any leftovers!

39 Rapid Ragu
This is a fast ragu, as the title would suggest. Mince, jarred caramelized onions, tomatoes, lentils…. Simmered for a short while, then sprinkled with grated cheese. I liked this one, although it was oddly quite sweet with the jarred onions, alas no one else eating it liked it. Typical, something I like, eaasily attaiable on a weeknight and the family are not keen, oh well.

40 Prawn Pasta
This is a great little recipe, and I’ll make this one again for sure. I’d use a bit less chilli flakes though, as it was quite hot, and you know me and my chilli shy ways =)

41 Pancake Mix & 42 Blueberry Syrup
How do you get fast pancakes of a morning? Get someone else to cook them! Ha joke…. No really have a jar of pancake mix at the ready, then weight out, mix egg and liquid and spoon away onto a hot pan. The blueberry syrup is optional, but recommended as it’s gorgeous! A simple mix of blueberries and maple syrup; gives a syrup of beautiful colour and great flavour, which is not as sweet as it might sound – and all natural too!

43 Minestrone in Minutes
I made this out of curiosity really, it sounds a bit, well, weird! It’s no joke though, it tastes like something that you could have spent a couple of hours chopping and simmering away. I felt quite a fraud taking it to the table - knowing that I’d spent so little effort on it! I’ll be making / assembling this one again though, it’s a cracking last minute recipe when something nurturing and tasty is required – fast.

Daring Baker November - Tender Potato Bread

This months challenge was chosen by one of the Daring Bakers' Queens of bread making - Tanna of My Kitchen In Halfcups.

This month celebrates the first Birthday of the Daring Bakers group, and my how Lis and Yvonne’s baby has grown wings and started to fly around the world. It has appealed to so many of us, who have wanted to push our own boundries and participate in a shared baking experience, the good and the bad, along the way!

Back to this month though, this months challenge is tender potato bread from Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. I’ve mentioned before that bread making is not my comfort zone, but one of the reasons I wanted to be a Daring Baker was to break past my faltering bread making attempts.

At this time of year (along with just about everybody else…) I have really very little spare time, so it was only yesterday that I managed to fit in this bread, and I was never a student who did her best work under last minute coursework stress! However, it was either give it a go and hope for the best or duck out completely: so here it is.

I’ve baked with potatoes before; I once made potato scones, and they were the most light and tender little scone / biscuits, memorable even though it was so long ago. I remembered the very soft almost light dough. So I was expecting the potato bread dough to be light as well, and it was compared to regular bread. The instructions said it would be a sticky dough – well they weren’t wrong there, I added the uper amount of flour in the recipe and had to use a spatula in one had to ‘knead’ it at it was extremely determined to stick to the work top! I persevered though, and it looked sort of normal, if still very sticky at the end of kneading. I proofed it, knocked it back and tried to shape it. It was more a splodge job than a shape it job! So I splodged (ahem, rustically shaped….) my bread into a round and some rolls, what we would call buns or softies here.

Upon second proofing the ‘formed’ bread was keen to go sideways, and only a little upwards. I am not a confident bread baker (cakes are more my thing!) so I am assuming it was me who did something wrong. I baked them and ended up with definitely European breads, they had the taste and texture of ciabatta, but as this isn’t what they were supposed to be something must have gone amiss somewhere. The buns would make great sandwiches, and the big bread a stuffed bread sandwich, and although they weren’t looking looking, I won’t hold that against them, as the taste was good, crispy outside and nutty with a little wholemeal flour and tender – sweet and savoury with the potatoes inside.

I do like to try things that are not in my normal baking range, as the more I do it the more I learn, it is a real challenge! Thank you to Tanna for choosing this months challenge and if you would like the recipe look here. More Tender Potato Breads on the sites of the Daring Bakers, just click away. Find the recipe here. Thanks you Tanna for a great challenge!

Nigella Express….

Having released myself from a high target of recipes from Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson, my enthusiasm for it has returned again, it’s funny how something enjoyable can become a chore if you feel you are duty bound to do it. Ah well I’m sure there is a life lesson to be learned there, but I want you to be thinking happy thoughts, so I’m not going down that road at the moment!

33. Gammon
This one was barely a recipe, but I’m glad it was there because it was the pan juices from frying the gammon mixed with a little honey, parsley and vinegar, and it lifted them into something really delicious.

34. Ceaser Cornets
Unless you are vegetarian you have to give this a go, it’s simply cooked chicken and lettuce tossed with a kind-of-Ceaser dressing, and of course it’s really quick. It’s not so pretty to look at, but a definite deli delight.

35. Chicken Snitzel
Skinless, boneless chicken breasts sauteed in the pan with bacon juices and wine. This was okay, we wanted a bit more juices or sauce. Cream would have probably helped, but I wanted this as a weeknight meal, when I don’t always want the extra calories ….

36. Caribbean Creams
Anyone who has made Nigella’s Barbados Cream from How To Eat will see where this recipe has evolved from, I like the Barbados cream so felt I had to give this one a go! Bananas, Malibu, coconut yoghurt and cream, with some sugar sprinkled over the top. It’s not a pretty pudding, and I think it could drop the Malibu, but I loved this. I had to search out the coconut yoghurt, but then I had to stop myself from eating it, it was just that good! It was lucky there was enough left for the pudding!

37. Chocolate & Pear Pudding
I made this one last night, and it went down a treat. Having a soft spot for tinned pears (and peaches too for that matter….) I did have this one marked, but after seeing Nigella make it on the TV series – it had to be made and soon. Our weather had been bucketing for a few days now, and we’d been out for a teddy bears picnic locally in the afternoon. This was just the pudding! It needs the chocolate sauce (I used the one from the introduction to the recipe) and also a slick of double cream, in my opinion! Even better, it made a big pudding, so there is some left for tonight!

Also as an extra, being the Nigella fan I am I had to get a set of these for my Christmas time kitchen, Living Kitchen measuring cups in red melamine! They are incredibly red, and the box too.

Irish Cream Tiramisu

32. Irish Cream Tiramisu
I’m giving this one a whole post to itself, so that I can share my adapted version of Nigella’s recipe and also so that I can take it to Peabody’s virtual Housewarming Party, good luck sweetie in your lovely new home =)

I like tiramisu, and testement to this is the number of recipes for it I’ve tried. My other two favourites are Delia Smith’s one in The Winter Collection with rum and a berry one in the in one of the Avoca cookbooks (which was my ‘new’ tiramisu last year) with cassis and summer fruits. Actually I must make that one again…I try a new tiramisu most years and was very much looking forward to this one, especially after hearing rave reviews from fellow Nigella-ites.

Nigella’s rich and gorgeous one has Irish cream in it, and that to me means Bailey’s Irish Cream. I don’t drink much, hardly ever in fact, but the very occasional night cap of this drink is a little treat.

I’ve altered this recipe here by halving it to start with, as I was really trying it just for us, and we probably would eat the whole lot over two or three days! So I halved it and made it in an oval pyrex dish. I’ve made the coffee less strong, because I’ve learned that is how we like it, and although I halved it I left the egg whites the same to lighten the marscapone a little more.

This is a beautiful tiramisu, and the Bailey’s Irish Cream settles into it so well; it’s as if it’s always been there. It is not a very sweet pudding this one, but oddly that seems to be in it’s favour, as it seems to lighten it somehow, and balance it at the same time. I had a little debate with myself as to if or not I’d up the sugar next time – and there will be a next time – perhaps a little, but then again perhaps not. Ah if this were the hardest decision life would be so sweet…

Also for anyone who requested the hokey pokey recipe of a couple of posts ago, I've added on the recipe.

Irish Cream Tiramisu
Adapted from Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson

175ml coffee, made with 175 ml water and 2 teaspoons instant expresso or coffee
130ml Bailey’s Cream liqueur
1 x 200g Savoiardi (Italian lady Finger Biscuits) or trifle sponge fingers
2 eggs
40g caster sugar
250g mascarpone
1 teaspoon cocoa powder, heaped

1)Mix the coffee with 90mls Bailey’s in a shallow bowl.
2)Dip half the biscuits into this liquid, until damp but not soggy. Line the bottom of your dish with them.
3)Separate the eggs, keeping the 2 yolks and then one egg white. Whisk the two egg yolks and the sugar until thick and pale yellow, then fold in the remaining 40ml of Baileys, and the mascarpone to make a moussy mixture.
4) Whisk the single egg white until thick and frothy, fold into the mascarpone mixture, and spread half of this on top of the dipped biscuits in the dish.
5) Repeat the dipping and layering with the other half of the fingers into the dish and then top with the second half of the marscapone mix.
6) Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge over night. When ready to serve use a small sieve or tea strainer to sift over the cocoa powder. Serves 6.

Chocolate Owl Cupcakes

These little fellows came about as a project to make with children. I based them on a magazine article from Good Food magazine which was published last year or the year before (I think). It was about cooking for this time of year by Tana Ramsay, and she had done much bigger owls with different sweets and ears. I’ve played about with the decoration idea a bit and changed it onto mini cupcakes; the originals were a play on butterfly cakes. The only bit I have left from Tana’s original idea is the eyes, but still I feel I must give thanks to the original for its inspiration.

The cakes and icing both come from a new book called Secrets of Aga Cakes by Lucy Young (her third book). I’m planning another post on this book later, so won’t go into details, except to say I bought it for the author not the Aga aspect – as I don’t own one! Anyhow the cakes are the bases from her indulgent chocolate cupcakes and the icing is from a chocolate pecan traybake recipe. The cake has margarine in it, and I’m not big on margarine, but here it really works, and the little cakes taste light and chocolate-y - must be butter in the icing though!

Actually these are really good just as cupcakes with the frosting if you don’t want to go down the owl route, and I plan on making them that way later in the year with some wafer roses on top.

Chocolate Cupcakes
From different recipes in Lucy Young’s Secrets of Aga Cakes.
Makes 24 mini cupcakes
For the cakes:
25g cocoa powder
3 tablespoons boiling water
100g baking margarine
100g caster sugar
75g Self Raising Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs

Mix cocoa and water, then add the rest of the cake ingredients and mix. Spoon into cases and bake for 10-12 minutes at 180 oC.

For the Frosting:
75g soft butter
225g icing sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
1 ½ to 2 tablespoons boiling water

Mix together!

Owls Decoration
3 x Terry’s chocolate oranges (you’ll have odd shaped bits left over)
7 bags Maltesers
Mini chocolate buttons x 1 box
Orange icing tube x 1
Ice cakes with the chocolate frosting, then place two maltesers per cake and a slice of chocolate orange, which you’ve cut into 3 parts – use only the two outside angled bits – to make the ears. Place a splodge of orange icing on each malteser and top with a mini chocolate button. Finally pipe a small line between the eyes for the beak.