Left over gammon soup hot and sour

Using some of the turkey stock i made this hot and sour soup, i used up lots of left overs from my fridge including some of the Christmas gammon.

We like to eat

We like to eat 

left over turkey and chorizo pie

Last of my pies as i have run out of turkey and very happy i am feeling too that there is no waste from the turkey

Left over turkey and leek pie

I'm using up my turkey and making loads of pies to feed us through the year as it is nice to have a variety of pies to choose from.

Left over turkey Green thai style

Ali loves pie but that's because he is a man, i like pie as it is a great way to stretch really tasty food a long way.  With the left over turkey i made these green thai pies.

Left over gammon quiches

With our monster gammon i like to turn some of it into food to last a few more month throughout the year so made some quiches.

Christmas day

Well Christmas day was a success judging by little pickles face, she rushed down stairs in the morning and was so excited that the reindeer had been to nibble the carrot she put out and was talking about it for a good five minuets.  She was genuinely had the face of surprise that her stocking she had put out was filled with presents from Santa  and said many thank you Santa's and even one up the chimney, we took the stocking upstairs to open in bed, after daddy popped the Turkey in the oven.

Was the night before Christmas

 

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were  hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.
The children nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.
(Clement Clarke Moore)

Xmas turkey

Here is our big bird for Christmas day, i think we could feed an army with this, and i cant wait to tuck into it for tomorrow.  Ali is in charge of all meat on Christmas day and always preps up the bird on Christmas eve while we both get tiddled in the kitchen on mulled wine while Ali is tackling the bird im usually doing the roast potatoes

Mulled wine

Just love mulled wine and we make it on Christmas eve  we don't use sachets of mulled spices but make it ourselves and then get slowly sloshed while we prep up the turkey for the big day.

Bitter orange and ginger gammon

We have a tradition in our house for starting to prepare and eat the Gammon a few days before Christmas.

With so much meat suddenly available on Christmas day and not wanting to waste food and feel overstuffed  by boxing day we start early and enjoy a bit of tasty Gammon.  Ali is always in charge of meat over Christmas and he choose a monster gammon.

After soaking it for 24 hours to get rid of some of the salt it took 5 hours to roast it was so huge, the house smelt wonderful and we were salivating while it cooked.

This year we decided to do a bitter orange and ginger glaze as we were getting bored of honey and mustard and maple and mustard.

Here are the ingredients
2 tbsp of Chinese five spice
zest of 3 clementines (or oranges)
6 bits of fresh Ginger (you can use stem ginger too)
1 pot of bitter orange marmalade
1 pot of whole grain mustard

Ali above is blitzing all the ingredients together apart from the whole grain which he put in at the end and briefly blitzed so not to break up the grains to much.

  On the last 30 mins of cooking we put the glaze over the meat and a 150ml of boiling water in the base of the pan and added slices of clementines over the outside and secured with cocktail sticks while it was cooking.  Ali made me laugh as he said with the clementine decoration it looked really 70's. Once cooked the cocktail sticks can be removed and the orange should stay behind on the meat.  If the feasting hadn't started before in our house it certainly has now.

Lemoncello

Fresh and lemony i like drinking this on lazy summer afternoons, but it is nice as a little Christmas after dinner tipple too.

It is so easy to do and takes very little effort

4 un waxed lemons

400g sugar

325ml of water

1/2 litre of vodka

Zest the 4 lemons and add to a pan with the water and sugar and heat but dont bring to boil, as you just water the sugars to melt and go clear.  Simmer for 15 mins to let the lemon zest infuse into the syrup.  Add the juice of the 4 lemons and leave to cool.  Once cooled add your Vodka and leave for a week so the waters and sugar is turned into alchole.

Ali thought this was eye poppingly good 

5 days before Christmas

5 days before Christmas, and we are getting excited although the last two nights have been pretty awful.  

Irish Cream

Homemade Irish cream recipe to try and oh my its is delicious and loads better than a certain brand you can buy in the shop.

I am wondering which is cheaper home made or shop bought, here is the costing and ingredients to find out if it is cheaper.

The most expensive part is the whisky at £8.19 and i used the whole bottle  or 2 cups worth

Cream £2 but i used 2 cup fulls which came to £1

Carnation cream £1 for the whole tin used

1 tsp of coffee 5p

1 tsp vanilla paste 5p

total cost £10.29 but i got 2 litres of Irish cream and the branded shop bought Irish cream was £12.99 for only 70cl.  The home made Irish cream won on taste hands down.  Even Ali who kept saying don't bother making it as it wont be as nice as the shop stuff was more impressed with the home made version and was licking his lips and looking for more.

If your wondering how to make it just stick all the ingredients into a liquidiser and blitz for a few mins.

keep in sterile bottles in the fridge if it lasts that long.

Blackberry liqueur

Today i fancied making some Christmas tipples, inspired after watching super scrimpers i choose two of the drinks to make to find out how they tasted and how cheap they could actually be.

Only four ingredients make this great !

Blackberrys 2 packs for £3 

Vodka £5.49 for the bottle but i only used 1/2 a bottle so lets say £2.75

8oz caster sugar 50p

£6.27 for 70 cl of Blackberry liqueur

First i microwaved the blackberry's for 3 mins which broke down the blackberry's and made them start bleeding their juices. I then added the sugar and gave them a good mash up and returned to the microwave for 4 mins till it got to boiling point.

This made a lovely thick blackberry syrup and i gave it another mash up to squash all the juices from the fruit. After this i let it cool down and then passed it through the sieve to remove the pith.

 Now that the liqueur is cool i added 1/2 a pint of water and half a bottle of vodka.  The longer the liqueur is left apparently the stronger it gets as the vodka will turn the sugar and water added into alcohol.

I couldn't wait and had to taste it and the first immediate taste was that it did need to sit for a bit as i could taste the sugar, but the base flavours were deep and rich and wintery im looking forward to it doing its thing and re trying it a bit later on.

If this is nice i might make this in the Autumn and let it sit until Christmas and see what the taste difference will be from a few months of stooping.    But 70cl of Blackberry Liqueur for £6.27 is not to bad and i could shave an extra £3 off that price from picking my own blackberries next year.

After a two weeks I tried this drink and it was very sweet and I have now tried it 5 weeks later and it is still sweet so next time I am thinking of cutting down on the sugar as clearly not all has turned to alcohol.

Xmas cookies

Today we are busy in the kitchen, Ali is making ale and I am making the Christmas cookies, Sophie is running around causing mischief.

I love making the Christmas Cookies each year and always mix up a batch of spiced cookie dough, very festive. I looked out some of my Christmas cutters and cut out the shapes and baked them.  While they were cooling on the racks naughty miss cookie fingers got caught red handed running off with the evidence.

I left the cookies over night just to make sure they were dried out enough and beat up a mix of icing and divided out into cups and added my colours, i use Wiltons icing gels as they have good depth of colour and last ages as you only need a tiny bit.

Madam was pleased as punch as she got the prize of the balloon whisk to lick, and now when any mixing is done she insists on having the whisk to lick and is always pleased as punch, it also keeps her fingers off my cookies while icing.

Here are the finished cookies 

Sophie couldn't wait to get her mits on a cookie but she wasn't sure if she could eat them as they looked so pretty, but after one bite she was convinced they were all for her.

Xmas Wreath

 Another task for Christmas to complete is the wreath for the front door, its the only time of the year i pretend that im a florist, i really don't know how to arrange flowers and have never looked up how to its just good fun bringing together bits and bobs from the garden or from the hedgerows to make the wreath each year.

Xmas Gravy

Well i say Christmas but i make this all year round and have pots of it frozen, I love gravy  and if i could i would have a lake of it on my plate while i eat my dinner.  This is actually a Jamie Oliver recipe and i love it its so tasty and because i freeze it, its great to bring out when needed to go with a bit of pie and mash. Its so simple and make the house smell great to, Mmm heaven!

Organ donation

Ali and i have been talking for years about donating our organs when we die, but have never really got round to do it, with one thing or another distracting us or us just getting on with life.

Icing a Christmas cake

Today I decided that it was time to get on with finishing the Christmas cake and get some icing on it.  I wanted to do the icing so Sophie could join in too as she was involved with the boozy fruit and helped make the Christmas cake 

So a nice simple icing is a peaked style so she could splat to her hearts content.  First we needed to stick the marzipan on top, and of course my little chef got on and rolled out the marzipan.

then after picking several little holes out of the cake all for quality control of course, mummy stuck some hot apricot jam on the cake before the marzipan covered the top and the mini picked holes.  Just for good measure the cake had to be patted to make sure it was well and truly stuck.

Mummy whisked up the the recipe for the icing which was

500g of caster sugar

1 tbsp liquid glucose

125ml of water  

2 egg whites

50 g icing sugar

the sugar, glucose and water was put in a pan and heated till the sugar melted and went clear, mean while i whisked up 2 egg whites in my k mix and when the syrup was ready i added this to the egg whites in a steady stream and left to whisk at a high level for a good 5 mins till the icing was like a thick spreadable paste.  finally the icing sugar was added and whisked some more till the icing was thick and peaky.  

Sophie got to work again spreading the icing all over the cake and did a rather good job at trying to make it go every where, including in her mouth.