2012 Bucket List Blog Hop - Review

Back at the start of this year, I started a 2012 Bucket List Blog Hop, with things I would like to achieve during 2012. Personally, I am very pleased with all of my blogging achievements, and personal achievements in 2012. So here they are!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2013!

My Blog Bucket List

Attend a Vegetarian Cookery Course & Utensil Skills Course                                              I was fortunate to attend quite a few cookery events this year, including events with Pizza Express and Total Yoghurt with chef Paul Merrett. Review the Vegetarian menu in Restaurants.                                                         Over the last year I have also reviewed various vegetarian menu's for brands such as Frankie and Benny's, La Tasca and Brasserie Blanc. Go on a blogging travel trip related to Vegetarian food. Interview a Vegetarian Chef/Celebrity. Challenge myself to cook a new dish I have never cooked before every week & cook from my new recipe books. (See below)                                                           Although I didn't manage this every week, I did discover lots of new wonderful vegetarian dishes this year. Attend blogging conventions and meet more lovely bloggers. Check!. Make it into the Tots or Foodies 100 just once. (more wishful thinking!!)                          Well, changing my URL didn't help this one, but perhaps next year! Improve my food photography skills (or buy a better camera) Hopefully my photography skills have improved this year, and I also did some fab food styling sessions too. Learn more HTML. Over the last year I have learnt to speak even more geek!. Perhaps through my blog earn an income, or get more copywriting/freelance writing/Fundraising or PR work so that I can feel less guilty about not having a full time high flying Career. Over the last year I have been developing these skills and have done some small scale work, and I will be furthering this in 2013.

Vegetarian Christmas Dinner 2012 - The Main Event!

This year Hubby and I hosted Christmas Dinner at our house for six adults and two kids. This was a great chance for me to use the linen tableware which so rarely gets an airing in a house where plastic tablecloths are the norm. Although reds, golds and greens are traditionally what bedeck the table at Christmas time, I am quite a fan of white, silver and red, and so I chose this as the 'theme' for my Christmas dinner table.

I think my family may not have forgiven me for not having Turkey on Christmas day, so my Mother-In-Law kindly cooked the turkey and the sausages, leaving me to focus on the veg, potatoes, stuffing, trimmings and of course, my Vegetarian main course.  It took me a while to decide what to cook as a vegetarian main course, but in the end I decided on a Cranberry, Chestnut and Mushroom Pie.

Here's what I cooked for the main event:

Christmas Dinner
Starter
Butternut Squash Soup with Bread Rolls

Main Course
Cranberry, Chestnut and Mushroom Pie  - See Recipe Below
Gingerbread Stuffing (Nigella Lawson's Recipe)
Sage and Onion Stuffing
Roast Potatoes (cooked in vegetable oil and coated in semolina)
Parsnips roasted in Maple Syrup (Nigella Lawson's Recipe)
Carrots
Sprouts
Red Cabbage
Cauliflower Cheese
Vegetarian Gravy
Cranberry Sauce - Nigella Lawson Recipe

I enjoyed cooking the Gingerbread Stuffing and Cranberry Sauce. The Gingerbread Stuffing was really delicious and very easy to make. It contained apple, onion, and orange rind, along with two ginger cakes and egg and milk.

The Parsnips roasted in Maple Syrup made a great change to traditional roasted parsnips which can be quite dry. 

For the Cranberry Sauce I used fresh cranberries, sugar and orange juice, along with a little water. 

Dessert
Christmas Pudding from a local Supplier - Nanna's Christmas Pudding, served with Brandy Sauce.
This Christmas Pudding which I bought at a local food fayre tasted absolutely delicious and was so moist and full of flavour. I would recommend ordering from Nanna's Christmas Pudding's next Christmas!

Cranberry, Chestnut and Mushroom Pie

Here is the recipe for the Cranberry, Chestnut and Mushroom Pie. The mushrooms and chestnuts were mixed together, and the cranberries were cooked in port and sandwiched between the mushroom and chestnut filling, which gave a much richer flavour.

Cranberry, Chestnut and Mushroom Pie. Print this Recipe Ingredients 500g Shortcrust Pastry (made fresh, or shop bought) 45ml Olive Oil 2 medium Onions, chopped 2 Cloves Garlic, crushed 150g Chopped Mushrooms 100ml Red Wine 200g Whole Chestnuts - Vacuum packed, cooked and peeled. 75g Breadcrumbs 100g Fresh Cranberries 50ml Port (optional - you can use water instead) Salt and Pepper Beaten Egg for glazing  Method Make the fresh pastry, refrigerating for 20 minutes before use. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Fry the onion and garlic in some oil for around 5 minutes until the onions start to soften.  Add the mushrooms and fry for a further 3 minutes.  Add the wine to the pan, stir well, and simmer until the wine has evaporated.  Once cooked, remove the mixture from the heat, and add the chestnuts and breadcrumbs to the pan. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. In a separate pan, add the cranberries and simmer in a little port until the cranberries begin to pop. Drain and leave to cool. Brush a pastry dish with oil. On a lightly floured surface, roll out two thirds of the pastry and then line the base and the sides of the tin with pastry.  Place half of the chestnut and mushroom mixture into the dish and smooth over the surface.  Add a layer of cranberries over the top, and then add the rest of the mushroom and chestnut mixture over the top of the cranberries.  Roll out the remaining third of the flour, until there is enough to create a lid for the pie. Place the lid over the top of the pie, remove any excess pastry, and press the sides of the pastry together to seal the lid to the base.  If you like, you can create pastry shapes to top of the pie also. Brush the pie with beaten egg, and cook in the oven  for around thirty minutes. Serve immediately.

Christmas 2012 - Vegetarian Christmas Buffet Food

Over Christmas we enjoyed having friends and family to visit and I enjoyed cooking and preparing lots of delicious vegetarian treats to serve when they arrived. Aside from cooking the main Christmas meal, spending lots of time in the kitchen, Christmas carols on the radio, and cooking up a storm, was a welcome break from pounding the shops and rushing around doing last minute preparations.

Over Christmas we enjoyed various buffets with lots of Vegetarian food. We had a buffet with the parents-in-law on the 23rd of December, after attending a wonderful Carol Service and enjoying some mulled wine. This was followed by another buffet - our traditional candle-lit family buffet on Christmas Eve, with hubby, the kids and I. We light the candle just before 'Carols from Kings' starts. Listening to 'Once In Royal David's City' officially signifies the start of the festivities for me and signifies the start of the buffet for all of us. Christmas day featured the main meal as everyone came to us this year, and this was followed by more buffet food on Boxing Day.

As well as the food I had prepared for our veggie buffets, we also enjoyed lots of different cheeses, some freshly baked bread, cold mini quorn sausages, crisps, cooked onion rings, breaded mushrooms, breaded cheese bites, tex mex bean bites, vegetable spring rolls and scooped out potato skins with various veggie fillings.

Below, are three savoury and three sweet dishes which I cooked and prepared over the Christmas period. All of the pictures were taken mid-preparation or serving, so please excuse the haste. We will be cooking more of these delicious treats for our New Year celebrations too!

Cream Cheese and Cucumber Blinis

Shop Bought (or cut circles out of toasted whole pitta bread with a cutter). You can add Cream Cheese and Cucumber, Hummus and Red Peppers, Goats Cheese and Sun-dried Tomatoes, or any vegetarian filling you fancy!

Delia Smith's Vegetarian Sausage Rolls

After a friend made Delia Smith's Vegetarian Sausage Rolls at our local Vegetarian parents group Christmas Party, I just had to make them for our guests over Christmas as they were absolutely delicious. This recipe, which features cheese, onion, cream and herbs makes a great substitute for sausage  rolls and these Vegetarian Sausage Rolls were loved by vegetarian and carnivores alike!

Nigel Slater's Stilton Puffs

When I saw these Stilton Puffs featured on Nigel Slater's twelve tastes of Christmas, I couldn't resist making them, as they are so simple to make but taste as though a lot of time and effort has gone into them. I was not left disappointed as they were well loved by family and friends. I left out the Parmesan topping.

Nigella Lawson's Christmas Rocky Road

This Christmas Rocky Road  recipe by Nigella Lawson is a firm favourite in our house and is cooked at Christmas time and throughout the year. I just love the ingredients - the ameretti biscuits, the cherries and the marshmallows. I cooked this with youngest and we had a great time melting the chocolate and mixing everything together!

Nigella's Sticky Gingerbread 

This Sticky Gingerbread recipe which features in Nigella's Christmas book is another favourite in our house - especially with Hubby who loves it with a hot drink. Featuring lots of black treacle and golden syrup, this recipe looks like molten lava when it goes into the oven, but forms a sticky gingerbread sponge as it cooks. Cooking the gingerbread also leaves the whole house smelling absolutely amazing!

Mince Pies

Inspired by Paul Hollywood in the Great British Bake Off Christmas Special, This is how I made my mincemeat: Mix a jar of mincemeat together with 100g cranberries, two satsuma's - segments cut in half, and one apple, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces. Mix all together and add a little brandy (or orange juice) to the mix. For the pastry, instead of adding salt, add a 1/2 tsp sugar to the mix to make the pastry a little sweeter, and make shortcrust pastry as usual with flour, butter and water. I cut stars out of the pastry to top the Mince Pies and brushed them with beaten egg before they went into the oven. I much prefer these to topping the whole of the pie with pastry as I love being able to see the filling.

So there you are, that's what I cooked over Christmas. How about you? What are your favourite Vegetarian Christmas recipes?

Hotel Chocolat "Rather Large Cracker" - Review

In the run up to Christmas, it's always lovely to receive Christmas-related products to review. Hotel Chocolat kindly sent us their "Extra Large Cracker"  to review recently. When this product was delivered, I felt a small skip of joy at receiving something so exciting.

Upon opening up the packaging, I was greeted with what has to be the largest cracker I have ever seen! The Hotel Chocolat Extra Large Cracker is beautifully presented, with silver gilded decorations on a white background, and ribbons wrapped around each end - it looks really inviting and really decadent.

The Hotel Chocolat Rather Large Cracker would make a great centre piece on the Christmas dinner table, and it is a brilliant alternative to traditional crackers as it contains 12 party hats and jokes, and 40 Chocolates - so as well as working your way through some delicious well-crafted chocolates, you are also saving on extra Christmas Rubbish by only having one cracker made of card which is recyclable - so the environment wins too with this product!

All of the 40 chocolates contained within the cracker are Vegetarian. The chocolates include Champagne Truffles, pralines, and caramels, Christmas Mess, Mulled Wine, and alcoholic and non alcoholic chocolates. My personal favourite was the champagne truffle - absolutely delicious, but I also loved all of the other chocolates as they were so well made and the quality of the chocolate was outstanding.

This Cracker is a fantastic product that I would thoroughly recommend for Christmas, especially if you are entertaining over the Christmas period. The Hotel Chocolat Extra Large Cracker retails at £38 and is available in-store and online.

Disclosure: Product offered in consideration for review.

Brasserie Blanc St Albans - Review

Recently, the St Albans based bloggers were kindly invited to visit Brasserie Blanc, which opened recently in St Albans. Best known for his restaurant The Manoir, Raymond Blanc has created Brasserie Blanc - an eatery which offers relaxed, informal, local dining, and which features delicious, reasonably priced seasonal high quality food.

Apart from their brand suppliers, Brasserie Blanc use locally sourced food, from local producers - which is great for local business, and as a consumer, it is great to know that your custom is supporting businesses locally.

We were kindly welcomed by the manager and introduced to the set menu - which changes each month and features seasonal food. The set menu runs until 7pm and in St Albans, features two courses for £11.50 and three courses for £13.95 (prices vary between venues).

The Vegetarian's had a choice of two starters - Beetroot and Watercress Salad, and Gnocchi with Jervaux Blue Cheese and Celery. Vegetarian main course was Shirred Eggs with sauteed Muscat Pumpkin and Gruyere Cheese, served with a Green Salad. For dessert, I chose Weiss Chocolate Mousse served with Coarse Chocolate Crumble.

Starter
To me, salad is never an acceptable winter starter and so I chose the Gnocchi with Jervaux Blue Cheese and Celery. When it arrived, I noticed it contained raw apple slices, and as they make up quite a bit of the dish, I would have liked to have known about this as this type of raw apple is really not my thing. That said, I really enjoyed the gnocchi and the jervaux cheese, and I loved the celery - I have only ever had raw celery and the taste really changes when you cook it and makes it much more palatable. I really enjoyed this dish and was impressed with the quality of the ingredients used and the presentation. This dish was also really different to anything I have seen on a menu as a vegetarian starter previously, and so it was great to eat something fresh, different and creative.

Main Course

For main course I ordered the only vegetarian choice available - Shirred Eggs with sauteed Muscat Pumpkin and Gruyere Cheese, served with Green Salad. Now, one of my bug bears when I go out is that the vegetarian choice is always served with salad. My fellow bloggers were tucking into their main courses served with lashings of mash potato or potato salad, and all of their main course portions were considerably larger than the vegetarian choice. The main course itself - the Shirred Eggs were really delicious - although a peculiar choice for a main course after the gnocchi, and had I chosen salad for starters, I would have been presented with another salad for main course - so I would have liked the vegetarian starters and main course to complement each other. I can't fault the Shirred Eggs, and I loved the pumpkin which was really well cooked. However, I ended up asking for some bread as the eggs were just to rich to eat on their own, and the green salad was really bland and tasteless, so I would have liked something with the Shirred Eggs that made them a bit more palatable, and didn't make me feel like I had drawn the short straw for being vegetarian - as my dish looked nowhere near as spectacular or substantial as all of the other main course choices. 

Dessert

My dessert choice was Weiss Chocolate Mousse served with Coarse Chocolate Crumble. As the "Weiss" would suggest - I was expecting a white chocolate mousse, however, what's not to love about chocolate - however it comes! The Chocolate mousse tasted really... well.. chocolatey and was very smooth, rich and full of flavour. This was a great dessert and a great finish to the meal. I would definitely recommend!

I really enjoyed my visit to Brasserie Blanc St Albans. The restaurant is really well fitted out and was extremely clean - something I am a stickler for. I also liked the ambience which felt really relaxed, informal and unpretentious. I loved the open kitchen style where you can see the chef's cooking - this added to the welcoming environment. The staff were all extremely polite and the service was impeccable - something which is hard to come by these days in many restaurants. Our food was served very promptly and came as it should - with the hot dishes being hot out of the kitchen and looking fresh as though they had been served straight away.

However, I really do think that the vegetarian choice needs to be addressed at Brasserie Blanc St Albans. I was not overly impressed with my main course being served with a bland, tasteless green salad and this month's set menu vegetarian choice is also served with green salad.  I also note that the vegetarian main course choice for the Christmas season is Pumpkin Risotto. I would be extremely unhappy if I turned up to eat at the restaurant and paid £26.50 for three courses, only to find that the vegetarian option was Pumpkin Risotto with no other accompaniments..... whilst the meat and fish eaters dined on much more substantial main courses served with an array of accompaniments. To me, risotto is an absolute no no as a vegetarian main course - it's more of an acceptable dish for a pasta/rice course than for a main course. The vegetarians are being severely short changed by being served risotto when the main courses must be costing twice that for the meat and fish eaters but the vegetarians are paying the same price and getting much less of a meal. It's a real shame that the vegetarian main course choices are perhaps overlooked whilst the rest of the menu is so exciting and appetising.

I would choose to eat here again, but only if I had checked the menu online first to see whether the vegetarian choice was something I wanted to eat as so far from what I have seen, the vegetarian menu is more miss than hit - which is a shame as I loved every other aspect of the restaurant and I think that it is a great addition to the St Albans restaurant scene.

Thanks to Heidi for organising our visit, and to Brasserie Blanc for hosting us.

Disclosure: Our meal was offered in consideration of review

Sponsored Post: Carrot and Ginger Soup featuring the Gourmet Garden Range

This week I have been feeling a tad sorry for myself as I am suffering with a classic case of winter flu. Whenever I am ill, I always crave comfort food - which is typically a good winter soup for me. Today I cooked a batch of Carrot and Ginger Soup to hopefully ease the symptoms a little and warm me up in this cold weather! Ginger is a really great cold remedy as it is a natural decongestant and also helps with pain relief and cold prevention. Carrots keep your immune system healthy and help you to fight off unwelcome germs and infections, so hopefully the combination of the two will help to sort my cold right out!

I don't know if you have noticed, but I really love cooking. However, I often find when I'm cooking that there will be some ingredients - like ginger, and other herbs and spices that I don't typically tend to include in my weekly shop. I do buy herbs and spices in the supermarket, but I always get frustrated that I often only use a little of them and then they go off in so quickly. I wish I was green-fingered enough to have a whole herb garden flourishing on my kitchen windowsill, but unfortunately, it seems that me and plants, just don't mix.

That's why I was happy to discover Gourmet Garden  - a company who are fairly new to the UK who are committed to making herbs and spices easy for every day cooking.

How have they done this? By creating an alternative - fresh herbs and spices, in a tube, which keep their taste for months and are great for every day cooking. The Gourmet Garden range features 10 different herbs and spices, plus four blends of world spices. I think these are a really great idea as having more herbs and spices to hand adds so much more flavour to cooking and opens up so many more options - for beginner and seasoned cooks alike.

I used the Gourmet Garden fresh Ginger tube in my soup. The ginger worked really well and made a great alternative to traditional fresh ginger. I also thought that the flavour was a little stronger and I liked that it was a smooth paste, rather than 'bits' as my kids call them. I would definitely recommend trying the Gourmet Garden range for yourself and seeing what you think.

Currently, Gourmet Garden are currently searching for the UK and Ireland's best "Blogger-come Chef" to experiment with their range and create some wonderful recipes.

The overall winner will win a trip to Australia’s Sunshine Coast, for the Gourmet Garden International Bloggers Conference, as well as £3000 prize and a 12 month ambassadorship position with Gourmet Garden.

The competition will culminate in a live cook-off in London, in front of one of Britain’s best loved chefs.

Upon entry you will be sent a pack of Gourmet Garden products to use in your everyday cooking. Then your task is to get creative, experiment with the herbs and spices and create as many new recipes as you can to share on your blog.

You can enter the competiton on the Gourmet Garden website.

Here is the recipe for Carrot and Ginger Soup below. I hope you enjoy it, and please try it if you have a cold as it works wonders!

Carrot and Ginger Soup Print this Recipe Ingredients 1 tbsp Olive Oil 1 Onion, chopped 1 tbsp Gourmet Garden Ginger Paste 800g Carrots  800ml Vegetable Stock 1 tbsp Coriander, (garden gourmet paste, or fresh) Method In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil, and cook the onion and ginger for around 5 minutes, or until the onion has softened. Add the carrots and vegetable stock to the pan and stir well. Bring the mixture to the boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes, until the carrot has softened. Allow to cool a little and then process in the blender until smooth.  To reheat, return to the saucepan and add a little extra water if the soup is too thick for your taste. Season to taste, stir in the coriander and then serve.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post which I received payment for

Morphy Richards Breeze Steam Iron - Review

A bit of a different, non-veggie post from me today. 

As I am lucky enough to be a Morphy Richards Innovator, this year I have been testing some great Morphy Richards products. The latest product I was sent to review was a Breeze Steam Iron. Now I have to admit something, in our twenty-first century household, I don't really do the ironing! The ironing is purely hubby's department, so I left it to him to test this steam iron and give me his expert opinion, so I could feed back to you.

To give you some background, Morphy Richards have been designing irons for over seventy five years. They were the product that Morphy Richards started with - so they know a thing or two about how to create a great iron. Innovation has changed considerably over the years, however, as a market leader for irons, Morphy Richards are dedicated to designing irons suitable for a variety of different functions, and in a range of different price brackets.

Morphy Richards kindly sent us the Breeze Steam Iron with Ceramic Soleplate. This iron is part of their value range and retails at £19.99 - a steal for an iron of this quality. This iron is also great for those who don't do much ironing, as it is easy to use, and almost does the job for you without too much effort from yourself.

The Morphy Richards Breeze Steam Iron has a ceramic sole-plate and is also self cleaning. It is anti-drip, so it does not leak water everywhere, and it also comes with a three year guarantee - great reassurance on the part of Morphy Richards there!

I set hubby hard to work on our weekly loads of family ironing, and this is what he thought:

"So, the wife has asked me to test the Steam Iron Breeze. First impressions are that this is a great light-weight iron. I like the dial in the middle, which sets the temperature for different fabrics - great to make sure I don't burn the clothes whilst I'm ironing! I also like the steam action, and the constant stream of steam - this is great, especially when you are ironing stiff collar shirts. This iron pressed my collars and cuffs really well on my shirts, and it was also great for the collars of eldest's school shirts. My wife tried to trick me by giving me one of her silk tops to iron. Never fear, this iron worked really well on the silk and left a really good result, without burning the fabric (thank goodness). I really like this iron, it will make ironing a lot quicker and easier in the future as it has so many great functions."

So there we go - the chief ironer of the house loves this iron, and has been using it a lot. With such a great retail price and great functionality, we would not hesitate to recommend this iron. I love the colour, and hubby loves the usability of the product.

Thanks Morphy Richards for sending us this iron to review!

 Disclosure: Morphy Richards Iron offered in consideration of review. All views are mine (and hubby's) own.

Christmas 2012 Vegetarian Food Round-up - The Supermarket Edition

So this is Christmas..... as John Lennon sings - ok, I know it's not quite yet, but the shops are starting to get their Christmas food ranges in store and many of you are already planning your Christmas menu's. Whether you are vegetarian yourself, or you are catering for vegetarians this year, considering what to buy for vegetarians for Christmas dinner, and during the party season can be stressful. So today, I am taking the stress out of a vegetarian shop-bought Christmas by featuring some of the best vegetarian fare available in the supermarkets this Christmas

In a perfect world, I'm sure many of us would love to make all of our Christmas vegetarian food from scratch. However, in a real world, that's not always practical and Christmas should also mean time off for the household cook.

Just a quick scan of the supermarkets online food sections has surprised me as many of the supermarkets haven't even listed any vegetarian main courses in their Christmas dinner sections this year, and they haven't developed any main courses especially for the big day. However - I have found some dishes which would complement the traditional turkey on Christmas day and lots of vegetarian food to keep the party going throughout December. I have not been able to feature in-store Marks and Spencer and Morrisons food as they don't have online sections, however, most of the other supermarkets are represented. These are all my own picks and this post has not been sponsored in any way.

If you are shopping in the supermarket for vegetarians this year, remember that as well as meat and fish, many vegetarians also do not eat any products with animal rennet in. This includes pesto, parmesan cheese and other cheeses and products. Make sure that you always check the packaging - especially on cheeses to make sure food is vegetarian. The veg society produces a good fact sheet on vegetarian cheese. Vegetarians also don't eat gelatine - so be sure to check desserts to see whether they are vegetarian - you will be surprised how many desserts do contain them including Christmas trifles and mousses - I even found pork gelatine in strawberry mousse recently! - Just make sure you check the labels and ingredients when you are shopping and you can't go wrong.

So here is a selection of the best vegetarian christmas dinner and party food available in the UK supermarkets this Christmas. If you think I have missed any great dishes out, or you spot something at the supermarket that I've not featured, then I would love to hear from you so that I can add it to the list.

Enjoy your 2012 Vegetarian Christmas!

Christmas Dinner
Starters
Broccoli and Stilton Soup - Asda, £1.55 for 600g
Feta, Spinach and Tomato Tarts - Asda, £2.50 for two
Breaded Camembert  - Asda, £3.00 for two.
Baxters Mushroom Potage Soup - Tesco £ 1.69 per tin
Baxters Spicy Parsnip Soup - Tesco, £1.28 per tin
Camembert (for baking) - Tesco (finest), £2.00
Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with butternut squash soft cheese filling - Tesco (finest), £2.50 for two
Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto Balls - Sainsburys, £1.50 for 12
Mozzarella Fingers & Cream Cheese Bites - Sainsburys, £1.50 for 12
Baby Plum Tomato and Camembert Tarts - Marks and Spencer, £6.00 for 4 (food to order)
Caremelised Onion and Goats Cheese Tarts  - Marks and Spencer, £7.00 for 4 (food to order)

Main Courses
Linda McCartney Asparagus and Leek Tartlets - Sainsburys, £1.99 for two
Linda McCartney Mushroom and Ale Pie - Sainsburys, £1.99 for two
Sweetflamed Pepper and Goats Cheese Bake - Sainsbury's (taste the difference), £2.29 for two
Quorn Garlic and Mushroom Escalopes - Tesco, £2.65 for two
Waitrose Nut Roast Wellington  - Waitrose, £2.99 for two
Higgidy Sweet Potato and Feta Pie with Pumpkin Seeds - Waitrose, £3.49 per pie

Sides
Apple and Herb Stuffing - Sainsbury's, £1.19
Chestnut and Hazlenut Stuffing - Sainsbury's (taste the difference), £1.39
Cranberry, Orange and Chestnut Stuffing - Sainsbury's (taste the difference), £1.39
Porcini Mushroom and Garlic Stuffing - Tesco (finest), £1.40
Cinnamon, Apple and Orange Sultana Stuffing - Tesco (finest), £1.40
Linda McCartney Red Onion and Rosemary Sausages - Tesco, £1,98 for 6
Quorn Pork Style and Apple Sausages - Tesco, £2.65 for 300g

Party Food

Fresh
Tomato and Mozarella Quiche - Asda, £2.38
Cheese and Onion mini rolls - Asda, £1.00
Vol-au-vents (selection) - Tesco, £3.00 for 12
Brie and Cranberry Parcels - Tesco (finest), £4.00 for 10
Quorn Turkey style slices with Cranberry - Tesco, £1.60 for 100g
Brie and Craberry Filo Tarts - Waitrose, £4.99 for 12
Breaded Cheese Bites - Waitrose, £4.99 for 12
Cheese and pickled Onion Soufflettes - Waitrose, £5.99 for 12
Filo Pastry Tartlets (asst) - Waitrose, £4.99 for 12
Unearthed Spanish Potato Omelette - Waitrose, £1.49
Squeaky Bean Morroccan Style Veg Bites - Waitrose, £2.85 for 200g

Frozen
Tex Mex Bean and Cheese Wedges - Asda, £2.00 per pack
Cheese and Jalepeno Crispbakes - Asda, £2.00 per pack
Brie and Cranberry Bites - Sainsburys, £2.50 per pack
Linda McCartney Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese Tartlets - Sainsburys, £1,99 for two
Cheese and Onion Potato Skins - Tesco, £2.00 for 400g
Cream Cheese Jalapeno's - Tesco, £2.00 for 8
Mozzarella Sticks and Cream Cheese Bites - Tesco, £2.00 for 12
Mini Pastry Crowns (asst)- Waitrose, £3.99 for 18

 Frozen Food from Iceland (not online)
Vegetable Spring Rolls - £1.00 for 16
Mini Loaded Potato Skins (Cheese and Jalapeno, Cheese and Onion, Spicy Tomato) - £2.00 for 12
Italian Duo Iceland (Cheese and tomato, cones, vegetable calzone cones) - £2.00 for 16
Indian Takeaway Platter (bhaji's, pakora's samosas) - 75 pieces for £5.00
Italian Platter (mozzarella sticks, pizzas and dough balls) - 50 pieces for £5.00 (35 pieces when you take out the non-veggie lasagne bites)

Food to Order
Marks and Spencer have a great Food to Order range for vegetarian party food (although their only Christmas main course on offer is vegetarian lasagne). You can view the Vegetarian Food to order here.

I hope this has been useful - do leave me a comment if it has!

Lakeland Hamper Review - St Kew Teacup Gift Basket

I don't know about you, but I am a bit of a sucker for a hamper. As a child I remember my mother receiving a hamper each Christmas (typically from work) and it was always another sign that the Christmas season was upon us. Of course, it doesn't need to be Christmas for someone to enjoy a hamper - they can be enjoyed all year round, and they are the gift that keeps on giving as typically after the food is gone, you are left with a multi-functional basket or box of some description to use. 

Recently, Lakeland kindly sent me one of their St Kew Teacup Basket Hamper's to review. The Hamper arrived gift wrapped in cellophane and tied with a red bow. I must admit I felt a dash of excitement as I took the hamper out of the box and was greeted with a wonderful wicker tea-cup shaped bowl full of delicious treats.

Products Nestled in the wicker tea-cup bowl are: 

Strawberries & Cream Shortbread (200g).
Fabulous Oatie Flips (200g).
Strawberry & Champagne Conserve (227g).
English Breakfast Tea (10 bags).

Hubby and I decided to indulge ourselves with this wonderful hamper over an afternoon tea, and of course eldest was eager to get in on the act too. We had our first course of the biscuits served with breakfast tea. The strawberries and cream shortbread was absolutely divine, and the oaty flips just melted in the mouth. Hubby preferred the oatie flips, whilst eldest and I loved the straweberry cream shortbread which actually tasted really creamy.

Next we turned to our second course. We paired the Strawberry and Champagne Conserve with some fruity scones and cream. We loved the jam! The champagne in the jam gave an extra decadent flavour and tasted so delicious.

Now that the food is all gone, the teacup shaped basket makes a fabulous table decoration, fruit basket, talking piece, or perhaps even a pot planter!! For now it is sat on the table with some apples in.

This hamper retails at £16.99 and is suitable for vegetarians. For a limited time, Lakeland are offering 2 hampers for £29.99 - perfect for christmas gift giving!

I really liked the look of this hamper, however, I wondered about the addition of something else as the biscuits and tea go really well together, but you would need to add something to the jam to use it - perhaps some scones could also be featured? Having said that, it is still a great gift as it is and would be much enjoyed by someone who enjoys the ritual of afternoon tea.

Personally, rather than having a sweet tooth, I am more of a Cheese and Chutney kind of gal, and so having looked at the other hampers on their site, if you or your recipent prefer savoury food, this Cottage Delight Great British Cheeseboard Hamper looks so delicious and is also suitable for vegetarians - I am salivating at the thought of it!

I don't know about you, but I typically find that when it comes to gift giving, there is always at least one person who I haven't a clue what to buy for them. I often find that for any special occasion, there are friends and family, who have a house full of things and don't possibly need anything else. I think a Lakeland hamper would be the perfect gift choice for those awkward people in your life who are difficult to buy for. 

Lakeland have food gifts and hampers starting from just £4.99. Take a look at their Hampers for yourself as there really are some delicious gifts which are perfect for Christmas, or any other special occasion.

Thanks to Lakeland for sending me this hamper to review

Disclosure: Hamper offered in consideration for review

St Albans Cookbook Club - The Inaugural Meeting.

Last Wednesday saw the inaugural meeting of the St Albans Cookbook Club - a club set up in St Albans by the wonderful Ren from Fabulicious Food and Sheba from Absolute Indian cookery school to discuss cookbooks, recipes and all things cooking related!

Our venue was The Bakehouse - a wonderful artisan bakery cafe in the middle of the city which won Best Cafe award at the St Albans Food and Drink Festival recently. With views overlooking the cathedral, this was the perfect spot for us St Albans foodies to meet. With Christmas cooking soon to be undertaken, the theme for this month was festive recipes. Each of us bought cookbooks either dedicated to Christmas, or with great sections for festive menu's, preserves, bakes and gifts.

Predominantly, the celebrity chef's came out on top. With Nigella, Gordon and Delia all writing books dedicated to the Christmas season, many of us use their books to find inspiration or create wonderful food through December, and so we shared our favourite recipes from these books. However, we also discovered some other wonderful gems including this Scandinavian Christmas recipe book

Each of us shared about the kinds of food we typically eat at Christmas or during the festive season. Sheba told us about a typical Kerelan Christmas. Rather than a roast dinner, a traditional Indian Christmas includes lots of different smaller dishes which the whole family come together and enjoy. Ren and Monika told us about a typical Polish Christmas. Heidi from Heidi's Kitchen Talk and Jess, another St Albans local shared their experiences of thanksgiving with us. Typical recipes include sweet potatoes with the marshmallow on the top, pecan pie, pumpkin pie and bean and mushroom casserole - a recipe I am definitely going to have a go at! I told the group about vegetarian recipes I like to make at Christmas. This year I will be giving Nigella's Pumpkin and Goats Cheese Lasagne a go over the Christmas season!

It was lovely to see my fellow local foodies and to chat about food and cooking over a delicious hot drink and baked goods. Thanks to Ren and Sheba for organising, and Bakehouse St Albans for hosting. I look forward to many more meetings!

If you live in St Albans and the surrounding areas and would be interested in attending the cookbook club, please feel free to contact myself - or Ren and Sheba - We would love you to attend!

If you are a little further away and wishing you could attend, why not consider starting your own cookbook club? All you need is a venue (it could be your home), a few friends and some cookbooks to start!

Poached Egg, Garlic Mushrooms and Red Peppers on Toast

The art of suggestion is very powerful - especially when it comes to food. So powerful in fact, that when I Delicious Magazine tweeted this Cider and Thyme Mushroom with Poached Egg recipe yesterday, I had an overwhelming urge to cook Poached Eggs for tea.

Typically more a breakfast dish, this modern twist on the classic poached eggs on toast reminded me that eggs with bread doesn't have to be boring, and inspired me to experiment with some different flavours which could accompany poached eggs on toast.

Having to resort to what I had handy in the kitchen, I decided to make Poached Egg, served with Garlic Mushrooms and Red Peppers on White Toast.

I really enjoyed eating this dish. It look very appetising, and the flavours went really well together - I loved the flavour of the butter, oil and garlic which the mushrooms and peppers were coated in. If I made it again, I would also consider adding some spinach underneath for extra colour and texture, but I found the dish really filling as it was.

This is a great recipe for breakfast - or any other time of the day, and it only takes around 10 minutes to prepare. You can print it using the "print recipe" function below.

Enjoy!

Poached Egg, Garlic Mushrooms and Red Peppers on Toast Print this Recipe Ingredients 1 slice of Bread - Any kind you like! 1 tbsp Olive Oiil 1 tbsp Butter 2 cloves Garlic, crushed 75g Mushrooms, sliced 1/2 Red Pepper, sliced 1 medium free-range Egg 2tsp water Method Chop the peppers and mushrooms. In a frying pan, heat the butter, oil and crushed garlic until hot Add the mushrooms and peppers to the frying pan and coat them in the butter, oil and garlic. Cook for around 5 minutes, stirring regularly, then remove from heat. Toast the bread in a toaster or under the grill. Crack the egg and place it in a (microwavable) teaccup, small dish or poached egg maker. Prick the egg yolk with a fork and add 2 tsp of water over the egg. Place in the microwave and cook for between 1- 2 mins (I did mine for 1 min 20) depending on how you like your eggs. Drain the mushrooms and peppers of their oil.  Once toasted, lay the bread on a plate, layer the mushrooms and peppers over the top. Lay the egg on the bed of the mushrooms and peppers. Garnish and serve immediately.

Tomato, Vegetable, Couscous and Cheese Tart

This week I featured a Marrow stuffed with Couscous, Vegetables and Feta cheese recipe. After combining the couscous, vegetables and feta together and stuffing the marrow with the couscous mixture, I still had lots left over. To use up the mixture, the next day I served up this quick and easy tart made with tomato puree, cheddar cheese and the couscous and vegetables mixture to make a Couscous, Vegetable and Cheese Tart. This recipe is more of an assembly job, assuming that you have already cooked the couscous and vegetables. The couscous is best used cold for this recipe, so perhaps if you haven't made the marrow recipe beforehand, cook the couscous using half the ingredients stated in the previous recipe, and allow to cool before using. 

This dish was a quick inspired idea after ballet as I only had about thirty minutes to cook dinner and so this tart was a great dinner in a hurry dish. I wasn't sure how well the couscous would go with the pastry, but I thought that it worked extremely well and was really tasty and provided all of the nutrients a vegetarian meal requires. We served our tart with a crunchy green salad. 

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Feel free to print it, using the print function below!

Tomato, Couscous, Vegetable and Cheese Tart Print this Recipe Ingredients Ready to Roll Puff Pastry square 150g Tomato Puree 150g Cheddar Cheese, grated Leftover Couscous mixed with the vegetables and feta cheese Method Brush an oven tray with some oil and roll out the puff pastry onto the tray. Spread the tomato puree over the puff pastry. Liberally cover the tomato puree with the couscous mix. Fold over the edges of the puff pastry to create a defined crust. Evenly sprinkle the grated cheese over the top of the couscous. Place in the oven at 200 degrees, gas mark 6 for 15 - 20 minutes until the pastry is cooked through. Serve immediately, or allow to cool and serve cold.