While many of the Christmas treats in England are very similar to those available in the USA, mince pies are very British. Additionally, they are one of the few holiday foods that I know we will miss after we have settled back in America. So, today, when I opened the BBC homepage, I was excited to see this homemade mincemeat recipe by Delia Smith and her family recipe for mince pies. Now, when next year rolls around, we can make our own mince pies … instead of relying on Marks & Spencer to supply them!
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Saw this on Something for the Weekend this morning and it looked very good … especially over the Christmas vacation!
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp muscovado syrup
- 60ml/2¼fl oz extra viejo rum
- 15ml/½fl oz chestnut liqueur
- 2 dashes chocolate bitters
- ice cubes
- 1 x 7.5cm/3in sliver clementine peel
- twist lemon peel, to serve
Methods:
- Pour the muscovado syrup, rum, chestnut liqueur and chocolate bitters into a whisky tumbler, one after the other.
- Add the ice cubes and clementine peel and stir.
- To serve, hook the twist of lemon peel over the edge of the glass. Serve with roasted chestnuts.
To use more of the raspberries that we picked at Medley Manor, I made Raspberry Muffins for breakfast yesterday morning. I found this recipe online and more or less followed it. They turned out pretty good, but they are not sweet muffins. If you like your muffins sweet, then add extra sugar … at least double the amount in the recipe. Also, you will likely need to add more milk (up to another half cup) because otherwise the batter will be too dry. Read more »
I based my recipe on this English Trifle Recipe but, as is normal, I changed it … added some vanilla to the Custard and added Rum Cream to the whipped cream. This was the second time that I have made custard … the first time was for ice cream and so I did not eat it directly … but it turned out very good this time. So, if you are looking for a simple custard recipe, this one will serve you well. Read more »
As part of our Sunday dinner with Cliff and Steph, Jill made a Baked Camembert. It is a very simple dish that tastes great! You can find dozens of recipes for it online, but here is roughly what Jill did on Sunday.
- 1 Camembert, in box
- Salt
- Pepper
- Small handful of herbs (we used thyme and sage from the patio)
- 1 clove of garlic
- Olive Oil
- Bread, to serve
Preheat the oven to 220° C/gas 7. Wet the box slightly. Score top of cheese. Chop herbs and garlic. Push them into cheese. Season. Oil lightly. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until slightly brown on top and melted inside. Serve straight out of the oven with the bread.
Enjoy!
This cobbler won the grand prize in the “Betty Crocker Recipes from the Soul” recipe contest! From BettyCrocker.com and Homestead Farm Blackberry Recipes.
Jill made this cobbler yesterday for the barbecue that we had with Steph and Cliff … but, as is normal with either of us, she did not just stick to the recipe below! She doubled the recipe, increased the amount of blackberries (since they were free because we picked them on Saturday evening), and added a can of peaches. I would highly recommend this recipe because it makes a really good cobbler! Read more »
Okay, I admit, it has been a long time since I posted a recipe … and so, I figure that I should get at least one new one up. Here is a low-fat but very good oven fries recipe.
Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
- 2 large potatoes – peeled & wedged
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp vinegar – white, red, or malt
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- any other spices that you enjoy on your fries, such as Old Bay or just some paprika
Put potatoes in a large bowl. Add vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and spices. Toss to coat and arrange on a baking tray.
Bake for 20 minutes or until crisp.
Jill wanted to make meringues for Easter and so we made some Easter-y swirly pink ones that tasted like almonds (the flavor was Jill’s choice). We based it on the Ultimate Meringue recipe from BBC Good Food.
- 4 large organic egg whites , at room temperature
- 115g caster sugar
- 115g icing sugar
- 1/4 tsp red food coloring
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
Preheat oven to 110C/gas 1⁄4 … or 100C for a fan oven.
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As part of our Easter cooking, I made me some Whisky, Honey, & Hob Nob Ice Cream. It was based on a couple of recipes that I found online, but mainly off of the one at Ice Cream Ireland. I changed it slightly because one reason I made the ice cream was because Jill made meringues and the recipe left me with 4 egg yolks.
Ingredients:
- 104g Sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 200ml cream
- 160ml milk
- 36ml whisky (40% abv) – use something with a strong flavor (but stay away from peaty or smoky ones)
- 2 tbsp honey
- 4-5 Hob Nob biscuits
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Although today you can find plenty of sweet, fruity-flavored mixtures and infusions, we wanted to set out to do something different, something savory…something bacon. And we set out to do it right, to create a premium-quality vodka you’d enjoy drinking.
It is great to see more s
avory vodkas on the market, because many of the sweet & fruity vodkas on the market are sickly sweet … but, bacon? Well, according to their website, it will be the only vodka that you will ever want to make a Bloody Mary with (or their version, the Bakon Mary – recipe below the fold).
Then again, bacon is one of those things that can even rouse the carnivore out of many vegetarians! Today, foods regularly develop cults followings (aka those “super foods”) but the love of bacon has to be one of the original food cults. For example, look at the number of bacon-themed and bacon-centric websites that exist around the internet. Here is a short list:
Evidently, there has been a bacon craze sweeping the USA over the last few years (guess that I missed it here in the UK, where we have had similar crazes for local food and even a pig campaign called Save our Bacon!). But, back to bacon products … Read more »
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