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Cooking at Christmas time

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Has Christmas Day really come and gone already? It seems like we prepare for an absolute age and then it’s gone in a flash! I hope all your wishes came true and your dinners were delicious.

I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with family so I didn’t get a chance to cook which I missed! Yesterday I just relaxed and spent time playing with Izzy or watching tv with my OH but today I really wanted to get back in the kitchen. I was spoilt this year, spoilt by the wonderful time I got to spend with my family and the fabulous food I had to eat and once again spoilt with perfect presents from my OH and Izzy.

I won’t list all my presents but I will tell you that I will be experimenting with new recipes, cooking methods and playing with kitchen gadgets for quite some time!

Some of my books:

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Already bookmarked around 30 MUST TRY recipes.

I was also lucky enough …after numerous hints to get a new waffle maker so it would have been rude to not try that out. It’s very different to my old waffle maker (my mums) so my first attempt looked like this:

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I blame the waffle maker instructions. It said use 1 tablespoon of mixture .. Clearly not enough so I doubled it for attempt 2 which was a major improvement :

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Both tasted delicious. For those interested the recipe I use for waffles is here and I often add extra ingredients such as vanilla or cinnamon… Or even chocolate chips.

Waffle making was not enough I needed to make something delicious for dinner so I tried a recipe which I have heard fave reviews about. Ham in coca cola. Sounds weird, tastes dreamy.
I used Nigellas recipe which you can find here I made a few small adjustments. Instead of using molasses followed by mustard powder and sugar I simply rubbed in a tablespoon of English mustard after I had placed my cloves in the scored fat and then followed by rubbing in 2 tablespoons of molasses. Worked well for me and the end result was so good I was amazed.

Here are some pics :

Bubbling hot hot hot

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Just ready to go in the oven

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Begging to be eaten but best leave it cool…

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Worth waiting for

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And one more just because it looked so pretty

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If you have a ham lurking in your fridge you must try this, if not then well there are lots of hams in the shops at the moment. Buy one, try this. You will not be disappointed.

My kitchen addiction only seems to be growing so expect more and more recipes very soon.

I am aiming for healthier recipes in January. Until then enjoy.

P.S thanks for the feedback from you lovely people who tried my sprout recipe on Christmas Day. So glad you loved it too!

Takeaway Tuesday

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I love cooking but sometimes you cannot beat a takeaway. You may be surprised to learn that although when cooking I love to try new things when I have a takeaway I tend to pretty much always order the same dish.. Chinese chicken curry. I love it. Maybe we will order different accompaniments or extra dishes but I always order this too.

Last month we visited the BBC good food show in London Olympia and we came across a stall for Wing Yip sauces – their slogan is ” All the Chinese you need to know” and they had a fabulous show offer on with 5 sauces for £5 so I thought it would be fun to give them a try. One of the sauces I found was a concentrated chinese curry paste and tonight we gave it a whirl and wow so good.

It’s so simple and cheap that I can imagine a lot of evenings where my takeaway craving will be satisfied without the need to pick up my telephone.

The recipe is simple:

Fry onions and chicken ( or vegetables) in a pan. Whilst this is browning mix 1 part paste to 3/4 parts water and then add to your chicken and onions. Et voila.

I added chopped butternut squash and frozen peas to mine for extra nutritional value and also to me a Chinese takeaway curry is not complete without peas!

I served with half rice and half chips. Really tasty and a fraction of what I would spend on a takeaway.

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I am unsure what the standard prices are for Wing Yip products but they are worth checking out as we only used around 1/4 of a jar tonight so it’s definitely purse friendly even if you are paying a little more than the awesome deal we had.

We also had their sweet chilli sauce which is pretty good too and some other treats which we are yet to sample.

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* this is not a sponsored post I just thoroughly enjoyed the product*

The simplest slow cooked supper

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Sometimes food needs to be simple and cheap.. And well easy! However you still want it to taste good, there’s no point in ever cooking something from scratch if its not going to be tasty.

This is a very brief post just to share with you a delicious recipe for a slow cooked sausage, sweet potato and bean stew.

The prep will take you 5-10 mins then its throw it all in, leave for 8-10 hours et voila.


Sausage, sweet potato and bean stew

You will need:

6-8 sausages ( I only use sausages from my butcher or Debbie&Andrews in the supermarket as they are 99% meat which is after all what should be in our sausages)
1 red onion diced
1/2 large sweet potato cut into smallish chunks
1 large carrot diced
2 tins of baked beans
1 it of chopped tomatoes
About 100ml passata
Some fresh or dried herbs ( I used oregano on this occasion)
Seasalt and freshly ground pepper

First lightly brown your sausages all over in a frying pan with a tiny bit of olive oil and your onions then scoop it all into our slow cooker with the remaining ingredients and give it a good stir. Cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours and then serve.

Crusty bread to mop up the incredible sauce is optional but delicious.

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