Peppermint Star Biscuits.... or Shrek Biscuits!!

This week I agreed to look after my friend's children for the day as they were both at work. This meant that I found myself at home with four little girls under five, desperately wondering how I was going to keep them all entertained all day. I am not an Arts & Crafts kind of person, but I do like to think of myself as handy in the kitchen, and so I decided that it would be a good idea to make Peppermint Creams with them - a relatively easy fail safe recipe I thought.....

Unfortunately, the best laid plans do not always go as desired and rather than making Peppermint Creams, the excited girls were a little overzealous with their food colouring and peppermint flavouring, So rather than four bowls of green peppermint sugar dough, turning my head for a split second meant that we found ourselves with four bowls of green gloop, all of the icing sugar gone, and the essence and food colouring all over the floor, table and apron of the two year old who had knocked them over! However, the girls were desperate for something positive to come of their hard work and so in an attempt to salvage their efforts, I decided to bake some biscuits so that they could decorate them with their green gloopy icing.

This I did, and although they had to wait a while, the girls had great fun decorating their biscuits with Peppermint Icing and some Christmas decorations left over from our Cupcake Session. So all's well that ends well. The biscuits actually tasted really lovely and the peppermint complimented their texture. My friend's girls proudly went home with their biscuits and I therefore proclaimed my day of babysitting a success!!

 Below is the recipe for our Peppermint Star Biscuits. I have themed ours for Christmas, but I also think they are perfect for the upcoming New Year Celebrations. The girls also called these "Shrek Biscuits" as the colour of the icing matched Shrek and Princess Fiona. They said that the Stars reminded them of Princess Fiona because they were green and sparkly (kids!) so you could also make "Shrek Biscuits" using the same biscuit and icing recipes below. I found these Shrek Cookie Cutters Online which you could use to cut out Shrek Shapes in the biscuit dough.

For the Biscuits:

Ingredients

225g Self Raising Flour

150g Butter

100g Caster Sugar

1 Beaten Egg to mix

Pinch of Salt

Method

1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add the sugar and mix, then add the beaten egg and mix to a very stiff dough.
3. Bring the dough together with your fingers to form a ball, turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth.
4. Place the dough mixture into a ziploc bag and chill for 30 minutes.
5. Once ready, remove from the fridge and roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about the thickness of a one pound coin.
6. Take a cookie cutter and cut the dough into the desired shape (I used a star cutter and made about 24 biscuits).
7. Transfer to a pre-greased baking tray, prick the biscuits well with a fork and bake at 180 degrees celsius for around 12 to 15 minutes until the biscuits are a pale golden colour.
8. Once cooked, remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.
9. Once cooled, decorate with peppermint icing and decorations.

For the Peppermint Icing:

Ingredients

450g Icing Sugar

1 Egg White

A few drops of Peppermint Essence

A few drops of Green Food Colouring

Warm Water to mix to the desired consistency

Method

1. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl.
2. Whisk the egg white in a separate bowl until frothy
3. Add the egg to the icing sugar and combine. Gradually add the peppermint essence and mix together to form a thick paste.
4. Add a couple of drops of the food colouring until you have the desired colour
5. Mix to the desired consistency for icing by adding a teaspoon of warm water at a time
6. Ice the biscuits immediately and add decorations if desired, or cover and refrigerate for later use.

Christmas Rocky Road Cake

A few years ago I received the Nigella Christmas recipe book for Christmas. This has since become my "Christmas Bible". I love the pictures and the recipes inside and although I suspect that Nigella may not be dressed in candy striped pyjamas smiling serenely whilst clutching her "Keep Calm and Carry On" mug come Christmas morning, I must admit that some of the recipes are pretty tasty - even if they are re-hashed workings of other recipes. In my opinion, it's nice to have all the recipes in one place and it's lovely to sit down at the start of December and have a read of this book - it really gets you in the mood for Christmas!

Over the festive period I always make this Christmas Rocky Road Cake which is featured in the book. We tend to substitute the brazil nuts for chopped nuts because the children are not big nut fans and so I sneak the nuts in to the dish and hope that they don't notice them! This does give the rocky road a different texture, but for me doesn't alter the taste too much.




This version of Rocky Road really does have Christmas all wrapped up - the amaretti biscuits, combined with the chocolate, cherries, marshmallows and nuts are just so delicious and will leave you wanting more. This is a great recipe to make at Christmas time and throughout the year!





Ingredients
250g Dark Chocolate
150g Milk Chocolate
175g Soft Butter
4 x 15ml Tbsp Golden Syrup
200g Amaretti Biscuits
150g Chopped Nuts
150g Glace Cherries
125g Mini Marshmallows (vegetarian versions are available)
1 x 15ml Icing Sugar

Method

1. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt over a gentle heat in a heavy-based pan, along with the butter and syrup.
2. Place the biscuits in a freezer bag (or keep in original packaging) and hit with a rolling pin to create different sized pieces.
3. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the crushed biscuits, nuts, cherries and mini marshmallows. Stir carefully to ensure that everything combines well with the chocolate.
4. Turn the mixture out into a pre-lined baking tin, or tin foil case. Smooth the top over as well as possible.
5. Place in the refrigerator and leave until the mixture is set and firm to touch (generally, this takes around two hours).
6. Remove from the foil tray or baking tin and cut into even pieces (Tip - I would cut the into smaller, bite sized pieces as they are extremely rich!).
7. Decorate with icing sugar or edible glitter if desired.

Stuffed Pumpkin - A Vegan/Vegetarian Christmas Dinner Alternative

Just in case you still 100% haven't decided on a Vegetarian or Vegan dish to cook over the holidays, I am featuring a delicious Stuffed Pumpkin recipe on the blog today. This dish as it stands is completely meat, fish and dairy free and so would suit a vegan as well as a vegetarian guest. I have also omitted nuts from the dish to make it nut-free. However, you could add some pine nuts and some vegetarian cheese if you fancy to add to the flavour and texture of the dish.

This recipe is really easy to make and you could make the filling in advance and refrigerate or freeze until required. Stuffed Pumpkins would taste great with the Roasties, Veg and Christmas trimmings and I will definitely be cooking this for my guests over the holidays!

Ingredients

2 Medium Golden Nugget Pumpkins
200g Long Grain Rice, precooked
1 Carrot, peeled and chopped
1 Onion, chopped
1 Red Pepper, chopped
75g Mushrooms, chopped
1 Garlic Clove, crushed
2bsp Olive Oil
1tsp Mild Chilli
2tbsp Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper to season

Method

1. Cut the top off of the pumpkins, scoop out all of the seeds and discard.
2. Place the pumpkins in a medium tray, replace the tops, add some water and cover completely with Foil. Bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees. Remove the pumpkins from the oven once the time has elapsed, drain the water and brush the baking dish with oil or butter.
3. Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in some oil on a low heat for about 5 minutes or until the onion is softened.
4. Add the pepper, carrot and mushrooms, mix together and cook for a further 5 minutes.
5. Add the chilli, soy sauce, salt and pepper to the pan and mix well to combine with the other ingredients. Cook for a further 5 minutes until the vegetables have softened (the carrot may not be very soft at this point).
6. Add the cooked rice at this point and cook for another couple of minutes.
7. Once the pumpkins are cooked, spoon the vegetables and rice into the pumpkin cavities and top with the lids.
8. Return to the prepared dish and cover with foil.
9. Bake for a further 20 minutes until cooked and serve immediately.

Christmas Cupcakes

As today is the first day of the school Christmas holidays, I thought that I would share some a recipe for Christmas Cupcakes which are great to make with the kids in preparation for Christmas. Eldest and I  recently had great fun making these cakes and she really enjoyed decorating them - so not quite up to professional standards but fun to make and delicious all the same! 

The recipe comes from the Primrose Bakery who have a lovely recipe book which I received for Christmas a couple of years ago.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:
110g unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
225g Golden Caster Sugar
2 large Eggs
150g Self-Raising Flour - Sifted
125g Plain Flour - sifted
120ml Semi-Skimmed Milk (at room temperature)
1tsp Vanilla Extract

Method:

1. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake cases and pre-heat the oven to 160 (fan) or 180 degrees.
2. Using an electric hand mixer or alternative, cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl for around 3 to 5 minutes until the mixture is smooth.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and mix for a few minutes after each one.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the two flours.
5. Place the milk and vanilla extract into a jug and stir together.
6. Add one third of the flour to the butter and sugar creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one third of the milk and beat again. Continue to repeat this until all of the flour and milk has been added.
7. Carefully spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and fill them to around two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until the cakes are slightly raised and golden brown. 
8. Insert a skewer to check whether the cakes are cooked - this should come out clean.
9. Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool.
10. Once cooled, they are ready for icing.

For Decorating: Vanilla Buttercream Icing:

Ingredients:

110g unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

60ml semi-skimmed Milk (at room temperature)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

500g Icing Sugar, sifted

Christmas Decorations (ours were from Morrisons)                                                 

Method:

1. With an electric hand mixer or equivalent, beat together the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
2. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and beat together again until the buttercream is smooth and creamy.
3. Decorate with the Christmas decorations, leave to set and then serve.

How to make a Christingle

Eldest attends a Church of England school and so yesterday, to mark Christmas and the end of term, they held their Christingle service in the beautiful church dating from the 12th Century which is attached to the school. All of the children made Christingles and proudly took them into Church. They had great fun lighting them and stood throughout the church proudly holding their candles. It was really lovely to see all of the children singing "Away in a Manger" holding their Christingles and they couldn't wait to eat their sweets as soon as they were finished!

Eldest has gone over in great detail with me about the meaning of Christingles and how she made her Christingle, so I thought I would share it with you.

Christingle means "Christ's Light" and is a symbol of the Christian Faith. Many churches will hold Christingle services around Christmas, a tradition from the Moravian Church in Germany dating back to 1747. The Anglican Church of England introduced giving out lit candles or Christingles in 1968. 

Different components make up a Christingle and each part had a different meaning. The orange represents the world, and the candle represents Jesus as the light of the world. The red ribbon or tape which goes around the orange represents the blood of Jesus and reminds Christians of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. There are four cocktail sticks which either represent the four corners or the four seasons of the world. The sweets or dried fruit symbolise God's goodness and gifts to us and also suggest that he "feeds" us physically and spiritually.

To make a Christingle you will need:

• 1 medium to large Orange
• 1 small Candle 
• Red Tape or Ribbon - enough to go around the Orange
• Tin Foil - a small piece to catch any dripping wax
• 4 Cocktail Sticks
• Sweets & Raisins to decorate
• Pencil - For making a whole in the Orange
• 
  

Method

1. Take the red tape or ribbon and tie or stick it around the orange.
2. Cover the top of the orange with the foil. Take the pencil and push it through the foil and into the top of the orange to make a small hole for the candle. Carefully push the pencil into the top of the orange to make a small hole.
3. Stick the candle into the top of the orange and make sure it is secure and will not fall out.
4. Thread a few raisins and sweets onto each of the four cocktail sticks.
5. Take the cocktails sticks and push one into each corner of the orange so that they face upwards in opposite directions. 
6. Take care when lighting your candle and ask a grown up for help if needs be. 

Do not leave children unattended with the candle

Eldest used Dolly Mixtures to make her Christingle but she ate them all before I could take a pic, so we have used marshmallows instead!

 

   

Vegetarian Christmas Dinner Menu Ideas

Cooking for vegetarians can be a minefield at Christmas unless you know the person you are cooking for very well. Vegetarians and Vegans have differing degrees of how vegetarian or vegan they are and what they will or won't eat. Some don't eat meat but eat fish, some don't eat meat or fish but will eat animal fats and rennet, some will eat animal bi-products and others are completely vegan and don't eat anything animal related. The best thing to do is to check with the person you are cooking for and ask them exactly what they will or will not eat and what their likes or dislikes are. If you are really stuck then perhaps you could ask if the person would be willing to bring their own main course so that they can guarantee they get something they like. I never mind taking my own main along as long as I have advance notice.

In this post I am listing a few ideas for Vegetarian starters and mains. Some of these are shop bought and can be cooked from fresh or frozen and others can be made from scratch. These are only a few ideas to scratch the surface. Googling "Vegetarian Christmas" will bring up a lot more ideas if you are still stuck.

Starters

Soup: Tomato, Butternut Squash, Pumpkin, Vegetable, Broccoli & Stilton, Carrot & Coriander etc

Melon: On it's own or served with berries or slices of orange twisted over the top

Breaded Mushrooms - These can be bought & served with Sour Cream & Chive,Onion & Garlic, BBQ or Tomato dip

Stuffed Mushrooms: Stuffed with cheese, vegetables, nuts or whatever takes your fancy!

Warm fresh Camembert or Brie: Served with lashings of Chutney and fresh Bread

Breaded Camembert or Brie: Served with Cranberry Sauce and fresh Bread

Mini Goats Cheese and Red Onion Tarts: Drizzled with a Balsamic Reduction

Goats Cheese, Pepper & Spinach Roulade: Served with fresh bread or crackers
Cheese Souffle 
Cheese Fondue

Mains

For me as a vegetarian, the main thing to remember when serving Vegetarian alternatives to Christmas dinner is to choose something that complements the rest of the food. I still want to eat the roast potatoes, vegetables, stuffing and the rest of paraphernalia which comes with a Christmas dinner. So I want something which will taste delicious with the rest of the food, and not something like pasta or risotto which really does not go. I am also not a big fan of Nut Roast as I find it dry and unexciting, so I would not like to find that on my Christmas dinner plate. Some dishes which contain lashings of cheese or lots of cheddar cheese sauce don't really go with the gravy or other flavours in a Christmas dinner either. If you are serving a dish with cheese in, try and pick a cheese which will complement the rest of the food and make sure the cheese is vegetarian. 

Here are some of my ideas for Vegetarian Christmas dinner: 

Festive Strudel - My own original recipe

Festive Layered Loaf

Mushroom and Cranberry Wellington
Mushroom, Cranberry and Chestnut Loaf

Mini Pumpkins or Butternut Squash stuffed with vegetables

Quorn Roast
Quorn Chicken Fillets served in a white wine/red wine, or Stilton sauce
Quorn Cheese and Broccoli Escalopes

Quorn Chicken and Vegetable Pie - My own original recipe

Christmas spinach Filo Torte

Vegetable Gratin
Cheese & Vegetable Puff: This recipe could be adapted if you just used the ratatouille, spinach and nutmeg as the ingredients.  

Things to remember when cooking for Vegetarians:

• Many Vegetarians will not eat roast potatoes cooked in goose fat, so maybe consider doing a separate vegetarian batch.
• Vegetarians will not eat poultry gravy so make separate vegetarian gravy also.
• Vegetarians do not eat gelatine so trifles or mousses containing jelly or gelatine are not considered vegetarian.
• Some Vegetarians will not eat food cooked in the same oven as the turkey.
• Similarly, try not to use utensils which have touched the meat to serve the vegetables or vegetarian dishes.
• Some Cheeses are not suitable for Vegetarians so do check before using. The Veg Society website has a good comprehensive list.
• Do check the packaging of other products you use to check whether they are suitable for vegetarians.

There are some great meat free Christmas dinner ideas on the Veg Society website. The Guardian website also features some veggie ideas from celebrity chefs.  I hope this has been helpful and am happy to answer any queries or questions or make recommendations about things you could cook for vegetarians for any meals of the year. Feel free to email or tweet me and I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season!

RetarDEX Review (Vegetarian Society Approved Product)

Sometimes as a Vegetarian it is hard to know which products are truly Vegetarian and which are not. I often refer to the Vegetarian Society website to see whether goods are Veg Society Approved or not. Veg Society Approved products mean that consumers can buy goods with the confidence that the product is truly vegetarian.

There are over 5000 Veg Society Approved products in the UK and today I am featuring one of them, the Retar DEX Oral Health Care Range.

The RetarDEX Oral Health Care range includes a Toothpaste, Spray and Mouthwash. All of the range contains an active ingredient which has been clinically proven to eliminate odour and bad breath, just one 30 second rinse with the mouthwash causes at least 8 hours protection. RetarDEX is free of sweeteners, sugars and sodium lauryl sulphate. The oral rinse is clear and the flavour is not unpleasant.  

As well as offering protection and eliminating odours, RetarDEX products have been clinically proven to whiten teeth in just 14 days. They also strengthen enamel, freshen breath, and act as a preventative measure. RetarDEX mouthwash actively removes stains and kills bacteria which can cause tooth decay, gum problems and plaque. 

Although I am not a big fan of the name, I have been using the products for around two weeks and I am very happy with what I have seen so far. My teeth do feel cleaner, and the products do feel like they are making a difference. I would need to keep using the products for longer to see whether they do make a marked difference but it's nice to find a product which does what it says on the tin and is also Vegetarian.

RetarDEX Oral Rinse is priced £5.10 (250ml) and £8.15 (500ml) and is available from Boots, Superdrug, selected Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, Booths, Superdrug, Ocado.com and all good pharmacies and dental surgeries.

RetarDEX Toothpaste is priced £6.15 (75ml) and is available from Boots and selected Waitrose, Tesco, Booths, Ocado.com and all good pharmacies and dental surgeries.

Disclaimer: Products offered in consideration for review.

Meat Free Monday Cookbook Review

Recently I was fortunate to be sent a copy of the Meat Free Monday Cookbook. Being Vegetarian, I have followed the Meat Free Monday campaign for quite a while.

The Meat Free Monday campaign, fronted by the McCartney family and launched in 2009, aims to encourage people to go meat-free once a week in order to help slow climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing red meat and dairy with vegetables just one day a week could cut an individual's annual emissions by the equivalent of a 1160 mile car journey. In the current economic climate, eating meat free one day a week is great for your bank balance and also simple and easy to do.

If you are a meat eater, trying to think of meat free food ideas can often be slightly daunting and so the Meat Free Monday Cookbook is a fantastic resource. Sir Paul and a host of other celebrities have contributed recipes to the book, which features Meat Free ideas for each of the 52 weeks of the year. The book is split into seasons. Two main meal recipes, and four other meal recipes are offered for every Monday of the year, including breakfast, lunch, main and dessert ideas. An array of mouth watering photo's accompany the recipes and the food pictured does literally spring out of the page at you.

The recipes included feature mainly simple, everyday store cupboard and easy to acquire ingredients and although there are a few recipes which do require a little knowledge of cookery, most are pretty easy to make and the step by step instructions are easy to follow.

There is a good mix of family friendly recipes such as Macaroni Cheese, Spring Vegetable Stew, Pizza's and Risotto's and also more interesting grown up dishes such as Pina Colada and Huevos Rancheros, Linguine with Almonds and Caciocavallo and Potato and Gruyere Focaccia - delicious.

Cereal and Toast is generally the extent of our breakfast creativity and so my kids loved the breakfast ideas in the book. Recipes included Fried Bananas with Pecans & Maple Syrup, Breakfast Muffins, Baked Apples with Yoghurt, and Cinnamon Crepes. Due to the school run, I don't always have time to cook breakfast on Mondays, but I would definitely give these ideas a go for breakfast at the weekend or in school holidays.

Personally, I especially loved the lunch ideas as although I tend to be quite creative with our family meals, lunch for me generally consists of egg or cheese with various types of bread on rotation. So it was lovely to see an array of different soups and salads and more interesting sandwich ingredients such as the Asparagus, Egg and Cress Sandwich.

Wonderful dessert ideas are also featured each week, including Fearne Cotton's Courgette Cakes & Stella McCartney's delicious Carrot Cake. I also spied a Brownie recipe which look rather yummy too!

So as today is Meat Free Monday, I am featuring today's recipe ideas. According to the seasonal calendar, today is Week 12 of Autumn and so today's Menu is as follows

Breakfast: Onion and Walnut Muffins

Lunch: Parsnip Soup or Mushroom, Mascarpone and Polenta Bake

Snack: Honey Roasted Nuts & Seeds

Dinner: Baked Penne with Dolcelatte & Radicchio

Dessert: Rhubarb Apple & Oat Crumble

The Meat Free Monday Cookbook would make a fantastic Christmas present for anyone who is vegetarian, or even anyone who is interested in cooking in general. I honestly absolutely love this book. The best thing about it is that I can eat any and all of the recipes featured - something which is seldom possible with most cook books. I can therefore thoroughly recommend it to anyone from the beginner to the more seasoned cook.

I would definitely be very happy to find this in my stocking on Christmas day. Giving this recipe book as a gift would enable someone to enjoy lots of delicious food, meanwhile helping to preserve the planet for future generations - a win win situation!!!

Cookbook offered in consideration for review

Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen Radio Show: Vegetarian Christmas

Yesterday I was lucky enough to feature as a guest on Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen show on BBC Three Counties Radio. I had been invited in to talk about Vegetarian Christmas and Veggie menu ideas for Christmas. 

Having never been on the radio before I was slightly nervous, but was really looking forward to chatting to Nick and meeting my fellow guests. My fellow guests were Christine Fellini who runs an Italian Cookery Casa Fellini in Bedfordshire and Simon Taylor who runs Cheese Wine, a cheese and wine wholesaler in Biggleswade. 

Nick's lovely producer Emma completely put all of us at ease when we arrived and we soon found ourselves in the studio, adorned with headphones and microphones and on air. Although I was very conscious of the fact that we were in a radio studio at first, I soon felt comfortable and it seemed like I was just at a dinner party, sharing food and chatting with friends. The two hours seemed to pass really quickly and there was so much food to get through!

First we sampled Christine's Carrot Veloute with a Goat's Cheese Cream which looked so pretty and was really light and creamy. This would definitely make a great starter on Christmas day. 

After this we tried some of Simon's English Camembert.  I am a big cheese lover and so was really excited to try some new varieties of cheese. I thought that the English Camembert would make a great introductory cheese to those who might be slightly hesitant to sample alternatives to cheddar as it was so creamy, and mild. According to Simon, Cheese should be eaten before a dessert during a meal, just as they do in France. We brits are accustomed to having our cheese at the end of the meal, but I always find that I am too full up from eating all of the other courses so I will definitely be giving the cheese before dessert idea a go. 

Next it was time to try my Festive Strudel - my own vegetarian creation featuring lots of christmassy ingredients including cranberries, walnuts, mushrooms, nutmeg and soft blue cheese. Having never really cooked for anyone other than friend or family, I was slightly nervous as to how my vegetarian dish would go down with the meat eaters around me but I didn't have to worry as they all seemed to really enjoy the dish. Nick described it as "Christmas in a roll" and so as a big Christmas lover I was happy to take that as a compliment.

We then moved on to Christine's Salmon and Asparagus Pancakes. I did not try the Pancakes but did sample the Asparagus sauce which was full of flavour and colour.

It was then time for my Pineapple, Ginger and Cream Trifle. This is a very simple, cheap and easy dish to make as it is consists of just a tub of double cream, a tin of pineapple and a packet of ginger biscuits. It is also a great alternative to the more traditional berry trifles generally served on Christmas day. Everyone seemed to really enjoy my pudding also which I was obviously pleased about!

After this we had more Cheese and cheeky Sherry from Simon. I am definitely going to be going for a cheese board this Christmas!. Next up was Christine's Panforte - an Italian spiced fruit and nut cake which was so delicious and would be perfect with a big frothy Coffee drink or a lovely cup of tea!. I am definitely going to be making this to eat over Christmas!

I have to say that I had such an amazing time time and am really grateful to Nick for inviting me onto his show. Going into a radio studio, seeing how everything worked and watching Nick work in and out of all of the links and jingles was really exciting and also really interesting.  I was so busy having a lovely time that I completely forgot to take any pictures of my experience. Anyhow, it was lovely to meet other people who were passionate about food and so thanks to Christine and Simon for also making the experience so enjoyable.

If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be writing a food blog and being invited onto a local radio show I would never have believed them. I started my blog as just a place to document my family recipes and as a positive creative outlet when I was made redundant. I never imagined that people would actually read it or that I would get such a positive reaction and so I feel really blessed to have had such lovely things happened to me and to have been lucky enough to be invited on my first radio show. I would definitely love to go back!

Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen show is available on BBC IPlayer, so you can listen again if you missed the show. The episode I featured on can be listened to here  for the next week. You can also download the factsheet with all of the recipes from the show and I would definitely recommend that you do!

I will be featuring more Vegetarian Christmas menu ideas on my blog between now and Christmas so do check back. Also feel free to contact me if you are stuck for vegetarian Christmas ideas or want to know what to feed a Vegetarian or Vegan guest!

Pineapple, Ginger and Cream Trifle

I know lots of people who aren't a big fan of berries and so this Pineapple, Ginger and Cream Trifle makes a great alternative to the more traditional Christmas Trifle. The flavours of this dish all merge really well together and compliment each other. The cream and juice from the pineapples softens the ginger snaps and gives them a really lovely, distinct texture. This dish is really cheap and easy to make as it is consists of just a tub of double cream, a tin of pineapple and a packet of ginger biscuits. 

My Pineapple, Ginger and Cream Trifle was featured on Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen on Three Counties Radio on the 10th December 2011.

Notes: This dish can be made as a whole pudding or made in individual portions.

Timings
15 minutes preparation time
2 hours refrigeration time.

Ingredients
600g Pineapple pieces or rings in juice
1 Packet of Ginger Snap Biscuits
400ml Double Cream
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Caster Sugar
Cinnamon or grated Chocolate to decorate

Method

1. Whip the cream together with the vanilla extract and caster sugar until the cream forms soft peaks.
2. Put a layer of whipped cream into the bottom of a bowl or glass.
3. Add a layer of ginger snaps on top of the cream, and then add the sliced pineapple on top of the ginger snaps. You may want to add a couple of teaspoonfuls of juice over the top of the pineapple at this point.
4. Repeat the process by building up layers of cream, ginger biscuits and pineapple until the container is full or the ingredients are all used up.
5. Place the dessert in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.
6. Sprinkle with Cinnamon or grated Chocolate before serving.

Festive Christmas Strudel with Cranberry & Port Sauce

If you are Vegetarian or have a vegetarian visiting for Christmas and are stuck for ideas of what to make, this Festive Strudel is a great meat-free Christmas dinner alternative. I will be featuring more meat-free Christmas dinner ideas during the run up to Christmas, but here is a really Christmassy Festive dish to get you started. 

My Festive Strudel features lots of Christmassy ingredients including cranberries, walnuts, mushrooms, nutmeg and soft blue cheese. This dish was featured on Nick Coffer's Weekend Kitchen on Three Counties radio on the 10th December 2011 and was described as "Christmas in a roll" and it really is!

  

 

Festive Strudel served with Cranberry & Port Sauce  (Makes Two Strudels)

Ingredients

8 Sheets Fresh or Frozen Filo Pastry, defrosted at room temp for 2 hours

3 tbsp Olive Oil

2 Onions, chopped

250g Chestnut Mushrooms, chopped

2 Garlic Cloves, peeled & crushed

200g Fresh Cranberries

150g finely chopped Walnuts

200g cooked Long Grain Rice

100g St Agur or Stilton Cheese

100ml Red Wine

1tsp Caster Sugar

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

2 tbsp Butter

Salt and Pepper to season

Method

1. Finely chop the onions and mushrooms. Rinse the rice, place in a saucepan, cover with water and cook on a medium heat for around ten minutes until soft ready.
2. In a separate pan, fry the garlic and onion in the olive oil on a medium heat for around 5 minutes or until golden. Add the mushrooms to the pan and fry for a further 8 minutes until soft.
3. In another pan, simmer the cranberries on a low heat in some water with 1 tsp of caster sugar until the cranberries start to pop (usually around 5 minutes) and then remove from the heat and drain.
4. Pour the wine into the pan with the mushrooms and onions. Stir well and simmer over a low heat until it has evaporated, stirring occasionally.
5.  Add the cooked rice, walnuts, cranberries and nutmeg to the pan, season and stir well to combine.
6. Cook for a further two to three minutes on a medium heat, then remove from the heat and allow to cool.
7. Take a flat baking tray and cover with one sheet of the filo pastry. Melt the butter in a pan and then liberally brush the pastry with the butter.  Cover with another 3 Sheets of pastry and brush each sheet with butter.
8. Take half of the mixture and spread it over the pastry right to the edges. Cut the St Agur or Stilton Cheese in small pieces (you may be able to crumble it) and place it over the top of the filling.
9. Roll the pastry up like a swiss roll and fold the ends under the seam side. Transfer the Strudel, seam side down onto a lightly greased baking tray. Brush the top of the strudel with more melted butter. You could add a couple of vent holes or a pattern on the pastry if you like.
10. Repeat the process with the other half of the pastry and filling.
11. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden.

This strudel can be made and kept pre-baked in the fridge or freezer and cooked  on the day of eating.

Variations:

• You could use ready to roll Puff Pastry if you don’t like using Filo Pastry.
• You can cook this dish with or without the Cheese if you are not a big Blue Cheese fan.
• To make a Vegan alternative, cook the filling and omit the Cheese from the recipe. Use the filling to stuff a scooped out butternut squash or cooking pumpkin and bake.

Cranberry and Port Sauce

Ingredients

200g Fresh Cranberries

200ml Port

100g light Muscovado Sugar

Method

1. Place the sugar and port in a pan over a medium heat and cook until boiled.
2. Add the Cranberries and cook for around 5 minutes until they are soft but not mushy.       
3. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

This can be kept for a week in the fridge or 6 weeks in the freezer.

Mozzarella, Tomato & Basil Gnocchi

Today I am featuring a wonderfully warming dish, perfect for a cold wintry day. The red, green and white colours also make it feel like a very Christmassy dish, perfect for the festive season.

This is a really quick and easy meal to prepare and is so hearty and delicious. The Gnocchi served two of us comfortably, but I would probably double the quantities for a family of 4. You could substitute the onion and pepper for whatever veg you have in available and also use a different cheese if you didn't have mozzarella in the fridge.

We thoroughly enjoyed eating our Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil Gnocchi which we ate with some Garlic Bread to bulk it out a little.

Ingredients
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Tomato Puree
1 Onion, chopped
1 red Pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
1 Garlic Clove, crushed
400g can chopped Tomatoes
500g pack Gnocchi
Handful Basil leaves, torn
125g Mozzarella, torn or cut into chunks

Method

1. In a large frying pan, heat the oil and softly fry an onion and pepper for about 5 mins. Add the garlic and fry for 1 minute.
2. Stir in the tomatoes and puree, then add the gnocchi and stir to combine once again. Let the mixture simmer and then allow to bubble for 10-15 mins, stirring occasionally, until the gnocchi has softened and the sauce has thickened. 
3. Season the dish, then add the basil and stir through the dish. Turn the Grill on high.
4. Transfer to a large ovenproof dish.
5. Scatter the Gnocchi with the mozzarella, then grill on a high heat for 5-6 mins until the cheese has melted and is starting to turn golden.

Bite N Write 2011

On Saturday 19th November I attended Bite N Write, a food blogging conference in Birmingham. As well as a great opportunity to meet up with fellow bloggers and put twitter and blog names to faces, it was also a day of great speakers and delicious food. 

Being up so early on a Saturday morning meant that a Hot Chocolate en route to the train station was obligatory, before taking the train up to Birmingham. I never realised that Birmingham is actually a relatively easy train journey for me. After seeing the amount of markets, shops and restaurants there, I may have to consider another trip there soon.

Anyway, after arriving and finding the venue, I met up with Jackie from Tinned Tomatoes and Beth from Jam and Clotted Cream. It was great to meet them finally after tweeting for so long.

It was also lovely to meet Carol from Dormouse and The Teapot and Kerry from Kerry Cooks and Kate at Foxy Foods.

The first speaker was Craig Fraser from Fraser Shot who specialises in Food photography.

His tips included:

• Use a nice piece of wallpaper to act as a backdrop to photographs.
• When photographing bottles, cut out a white bottle shape and put it behind the bottle to stop light going through.
• Create movement in the photo by sprinkling icing sugar, flour, oil, water etc.
• Brushing oil on something gives it a good shine.
• Use photoshop to improve photo's.
• Natural light works best for improving light when photographing food.

This is only half of what Craig actually talked about as he talked about lots more in depth stuff like shutter speeds and exposure too which was really interesting but as I do not have a super flashy camera it went a little over my head. I really enjoyed listening to Craig speak and found his stories and experience really interesting.

Next up was Judith Lewis, an SEO Expert and Blogger who blogs over at Mostly about Chocolate.

Her comments included:

• 200 Factors contribute to rankings and Categories within search engines.
• Optimise your blog by using key words, put them in the title and description coding of the blog.
• Link internally to your own blog posts for more traffic.
• Have separate Twitter identities for you and your blog.
• Differentiate between how you received something, i.e. buying something, being given it to review or being paid for review.

After this we had some lunch and then straight after this there was a Chocolate Tasting by Artisan Du Chocolate. Artisan Du Chocolat opened in the UK in 2000 and aims to create luxury, memorable and exceptional chocolates crafted for pleasure. 

We found out that Chocolate is grown 20 degrees north and south of the equator and is harvested twice a year.

We were then left to try lots of delicious Chocolate. My personal favourite was the passion fruit 'O' http://www.artisanduchocolat.com/disc-chocolate-collection.html

Also the mint chocolate, which tastes like eating http://www.artisanduchocolat.com/disc-chocolate-collection.html pure mint.

Next up was Jeanne from Cook Sister who is a freelance writer and food blogger. 

Jeanne gave us a really interesting talk and I have tried to condense her talk into ten points.  

1. Define your blog and know what your blogging goals are.
2. Find a Niche and add value. Work out whether you are a writer who likes to cook, or a cook, who likes to write.
3. Consider the reader's experience of your blog. Make a list of three things you find annoying about other blogs and 3 things that make you return to blogs that you read, and then think about how your readers view your blog.
4. Have a short blog name and a catchy strapline.
5. Use good, reader friendly colours and fonts. Avoid clutter and too many badges.
6. Content is king. Use text and photo's. Write clearly and succinctly. Write a lot and have a schedule. Find a posting schedule which works for you. A picture is worth a thousand words. 
7. Stay on the right side of the law. A list of ingredients is not creative and so can be copied, but the description of how to cook a dish is creative and so is copyrighted. Have a copyright notice on your website. Watermark photos on your site. Disclose any freebies or paid content. 
8. Your blog is your online living room so don't put up with comments on your blog that you wouldn't put up with in real life. Don't allow comments which are inflammatory to you or someone else.
9. Be Nice and play nice. If we are a blogging community then we should act like a community. Applaud the success of other bloggers. Comment and re tweet others posts, link to other people.
10. Blogging is like sex, people think about it at least every 7 minutes, some think of it all the time. You can do it for hours, or not at all. Blogging is like marriage, people get into it for the wrong reasons, but there is one reason for both blogging and marriage Because you love it.

After this, the lovely Charlotte from Go Free Foods steppedp to the plate.  
She told us that:

• 45 percent of the UK's poplulation of children have food intolerance's.
• It is useful to use different ingredients in recipes so that people can eat them
• people with food intolerance's are more creative cooks who enjoy home cooking

Our last speaker was Ben Fraser, Great British Bake Off Contestant and Cupcake Artisan who told us about Video Blogs.

His tips included:

• Decide what you love or hate about other video blogs.
• Work out where you will video and what you need for the space you have.
• Increase the lighting in your video space.
• Use Lighting Gels or Daylight to get the lighting right.
• Have a front view of everything and use one wide long shot.
• Prep all of your ingredients.
• Have ambient noise levels.
• Have a script of key points, don't waffle.
• If you mess up don't stop, have a 5 second break and carry on so you have continuity.
• Use I movie.
• Keep your video between 5 and 10 minutes long.

All in all, it was an interesting day and most of the speakers were fantastic, however, in the spirit of constructive feedback, there were a few housekeeping things that I would like to be different if I were to book to attend this conference again as I did not feel like the conference represented value for money in terms of time and travel.

1. Consider the temperature of the place. Sitting in a huge, cold draughty hall does not promote a comfortable environment.
2. Write bloggers Blog names and Twitter ID's on delegate badges. It was hard to know who anyone was.
3. Listen to your audience, if they ask to do something, i.e. Request to go around and find out who everyone if and where they are from quickly as you have not put it on their name tags, at least consider doing so. I did request to do this but due to timings this was not done and so nobody knew who anyone was and it was hard to chat to people.
4. We were sat down for literally the whole day. I know that it was an packed schedule but the whole schedule was very auditory. You only retain 10 percent of what you hear vs 90 percent of what you do and so a bit more interaction and moving around would have been appreciated.
5. A 45 minute presentation on Wordpress, when you use blogger and not wordpress is a waste of our time and money.
6. Consider a venue with some breakout areas or more than one room so that you could have different speakers speaking at the same time, as not all sessions will be relevant to all bloggers.
7. Have more breaks as breaks were missed to catch up and so there was not much of an opportunity to mingle.
8. Always ask for feedback.
9. Don't put promises on your website which don't materialise. Where were the stalls? and where was the cooking demo? This conference was advertised to a very different level to what it turned out to be.

I don't mean to end on a negative note because I did enjoy the conference, i would just like to see it improved if run again. 

The conference was followed by nibbles at an Indian restaurant close by and a lovely meal at Jamie's Italian in Birmingham where there was then a chance to mingle and chat with my fellow food bloggers.