D and I are off France to spend the next week snowboarding the Alps. Well, he will be. This being my first snowsports holiday, I’ll probably be spending the week on my backside. Or in the bar. 😉
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas.
See you next year.
Wendy
xxx
My brother was outraged the other day when one of Rosie’s random admirers asked him:
“Do you dye her hair?”
I’m not sure who was more insulted: my brother (“Of course, I don’t colour my dog’s hair!”) or Rosie (“Of course, I’m a real blonde! Pah!”).
One can hardly blame the admirer for asking – check out that mop!
Whilst we’re on a doggy note, check out this post on Use Real Butter.
And you thought I was dog mad?
D and I are heading off to France next Sunday to spend a week ski-ing the Alps and eating pain au chocolat. As we won’t be spending the holidays with our families I decided to hold a pre-Christmas Christmas dinner to satisfy all of our festive food cravings.
This is the third Christmas dinner that I have cooked and I had the meal planned with miltary precision (see below word-processed schedule for proof!). It was still a hectic afternoon though. Not much time for taking photos, as you can imagine, but I would like to share a few of those that were snapped.
I followed Nigella’s Super Spiced Turkey recipe which involves soaking the bird overnight in a brine flavoured with orange, star anise, maple syrup, ginger and much more. Last year it worked beautifully, this year I over-cooked the meat and it was disappointingly dry.
The turkey disappointment was softened by how well everything else worked out. The veg I blogged about last week went down a treat. Just as well – the amount of chopping and peeling involved was phenomenal!
D took care of dessert. Everyone loves his banoffee pie. 🙂
Hours to prepare, minutes to devour.
Not everyone was happy. Rosie was seriously miffed when she realised there was no space set for her at the table.
The surprise hit of the day was the vegetarian chestnut stuffing as it was unanimously preferred to the meaty sage and onion type. I should add, I don’t actually stuff anything with the stuffing. Prefer to cook it seperately in little bitesized balls. 🙂
Vegetarian Chestnut Stuffing (Adapted from Tasmin Day Lewis’s Simply The Best)
Olive oil
1 large onion
4 sticks of celery
125g walnuts
2 cooking apples
400g tin of chestnut puree
500g wholewheat breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten (you may need one more if mixture is not sticking together)
Handful of thyme leaves
Seasoning
450g chestnuts (fresh or vacum packed)
Remind me sometime to tell you about the hogmany (New Year’s Eve) that I spent in Paris. It was an amazing night spent partly on a roof top balcony in Montemarte and partly on the steps of the Paris Opera House. I’d tell you about it tonight but I’m busy preparing food for a family get-together this weekend. What I can tell you is that we started the night drinking kir royal (a mix of Crème de Cassis and sparkling white wine) in a tiny family run restaurant and ever since I’ve had a real soft spot for the cocktail.
Tragedy struck the other evening when I finished my bottle of Crème de Cassis whilst marking Higher papers (thanks for the tip, Christina – it really did make the marking less painful!). With Christmas presents and a ski trip to pay for, I was in no financial position to go buy more. It was time for some experimentation. The following cranberry syrup was the result.
Mix a dribble of this syrup with some normal or sparkling wine to create a rather Christmassy cocktail! 🙂
Cranberry Syrup
500g cranberries
300g caster sugar
150ml water
Zest of one lemon
There’s an advert on tele at the moment which toys with idea that everyone has a favourite part of Christmas dinner. Some people love the turkey the most; other lust after the roast potatoes; lots – I know – go wild over the bacon-wrapped sausages. Personally, I swoon over the indulgent nature of the vegetables.
At Christmas honey is paired with long roots; cream with tubby roots; brown sugar with brassicas and butter with everything. Vegetables have never been so impure! But because it’s only one day in the year and because I’m fairly sure I don’t consume anywhere near the 7,000 calories which is supposedly the nation’s average, I’m not going to bother looking for lower fat/calorie alternatives this year or any other. Bring on the sticky parsnips! 🙂
The following three dishes are the vegetables which will be adorning our table this year. Yum yum.
Honey Roasted Carrots and Parsnips
(serves 6 as a side)
3 big parsnips, peeled, halved length ways and quartered
3 big carrots, peeled, halved length ways and quartered
1 heaped tablespoon butter
1 heaped tablespoon honey
Seasoning
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Chestnuts
Recipe at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/brusselssproutswithc_84756.shtml. I use organic streaky bacon rather than panchetta and, being a masochist, fresh chestnuts rather than vacum-packed.
Spiced Red Cabbage
4 tblspn brown sugar
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Zest of one lemon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tspn nutmeg
3 cloves
1kg red cabbage, heart removed, sliced thinly
2 red onions, sliced thinly
2 large cooking apples, cored and chopped finely
50g butter
200ml red wine
150ml water
Several weeks ago I received the following (abridged) email:
___________________________________________________________
I’m sure you have all heard of the wonderful Menu for Hope event that is the brainchild of Pim and takes place once a year around Christmas. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the campaign involves food bloggers (and others) from around the world each donating something to be raffled off on-line for charity. This can be as simple as a cookbook or as elaborate as a foodie tour of a world-class city. It can be something you will lovingly make yourself (e.g. jams or framed photographs) or it can be something you have persuaded somebody else to donate (e.g. dinner at a smart restaurant) – see last year’s campaign to get an idea of what I’m talking about. Once the raffle starts, members of the public can visit your site to read about your raffle items and then place a bid by going to Pim’s site. And at the end of the campaign, winners are chosen using a software application, after which the regional hosts will tell people the good news of what they have won.
Surely this raises a lot of money, I hear you say? Oh yes – just over $60,000 last year! And what happens to the money? Well, like last year, the money will be going to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and this year’s campaign is going to be particularly exciting. This is because the WFP has allowed us to earmark the funds to a specific program. We am thrilled to announce that we have chosen a school feeding program in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho – which is situated bang in the middle of South Africa!
Currently, the WFP’s school feeding programme provides a daily nutritious meal to nearly 150,000 school kids in Lesotho , many of them orphans. After five years of drought, it is estimated that disease and malnutrition in Lesotho claim the lives of one in 12 children before they reach the age of five. Chronic and persistent vulnerability prevails in Lesotho . The kingdom is confronting the triple threat of increasing chronic poverty, rising HIV/AIDS rates and weakened government capacity. This threat takes a heavy toll on the households of the rural poor in Lesotho , who are faced with a limited number of coping strategies to respond to the intensifying hazard. 56% of the population live on less then $2 per day. Think about that. That’s less than a pound.
During the campaign, we are going to have the kids photo-blogging from the school grounds to bring their stories closer to us and our donors. Also, the WFP have been pushing what they call the Local Procurement program: instead of buying surplus food in the US and shipping it to Africa to feed the kids they are now buying maize and other produce from the local farmers, thereby putting funds back into the local economy.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, because I (together with Johanna) have been asked to host the UK region’s Menu for Hope campaign 2007. I am hoping that as many of you as possible will be able to take part and provide something to raffle off.
__________________________________________________________________
The event starts tomorrow and my donation to this very worthwhile cause is the following bottle of 15 year old, single malt, Scottish whisky.
Located in the windswept central Highlands, the Dalwhinnie distillery has been producing spirits since the late 1800s. This traditional Scottish whisky has been matured for 15 years and is renowned for its mellow smokiness and heather honeyed sweetness.
Lot Number – UK07
And here’s how to donate:
1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2007/12/menu-for-hope-4.html
2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope4 and make a donation.
3. Please specify which prize you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.
Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.
Check back on Chez Pim on Wednesday Jaunary 9 for the results of the raffle.
A while back I completed a meme and in one of my answers I mentioned an aversion to beetroot. John from Sandaig Primary School responded:
Beetroot: boil in skin, split into 8ths, roast with red onion, dress with oil, lemon and walnuts. What’s not to like?
Suddenly, I was interested. My problem with beetroot is its cloying sweetness. Just thinking about it makes my nose crinkle up disapprovingly. Yuck!
John’s suggestion got me thinking though. Would I find the veg more appealing if it were paired with something sour or salty? Or maybe both? Perhaps that would cut into the syrupy taste that I dislike so much? I certainly wanted to try it out, not only because during the winter months there is always a big box of homegrown beetroot on offer in our staffroom but also because (Germaine Greer be damned!) pink is my favourite colour. 🙂
Now, let me be straight: I am never going to whole-heartedly love beetroot. Thanks to a Glasgow primary school teacher, however, I have now discovered a way to enjoy the pink vegetable. Cheers, John!
Roasted Beetroot and Halloumi Salad
(for 1)
3 small beetroot
Olive oil
Balsalmic vinegar
50g halloumi, sliced 1cm thick
Lemon juice
Handful of green leaves (I used rocket and romaine), roughly shredded
2 Spring onions, chopped
Palmful of walnuts, chopped
Patience is not a virtue that I possess in great quantities. Especially not when it comes to Christmas. At the first sniff of December I’m writing cards, listening to Slade and draping fairy lights over every plant in the house. Saturday, being December 1st, was no exception. After finishing my gift shopping (impressed?) and having a festive lunch with a friend, I headed home to have my own private pikku joulu party.
Meaning ‘little Christmas’ in Finnish, pikku joulu is a term used for any pre-Christmas Christmas party. A standard pikku joulu party usually involves copious amounts of alcohol, silly games and dancing till the wee hours. Though I’m by absolutely no means averse to the standard pikku joulu, Saturday night was a far more mellow affair. For starters the guest list consisted of me and me alone. Candles were lit, presents were wrapped, joulutorttu were baked and glögi was consumed. It was great!
Glögi (or glög, in Swedish) is a kind of mulled wine. Moreoften that not it is spiked with koskenkorva (a clear Finnish spirit) but I’m a wimp when it comes to hard liquor and prefer to leave it out. This is how I make it:
Glögi
2 bottles of red wine
Peelings of one orange
6 whole cardamons, bruised
5 cloves
1 inch piece of ginger, halved
1 stick of cinnamon
1 cup of sugar
Raisins and sliced almonds to serve
PS The 2007 Food Blog Awards are taking place at Well Fed Network. Nominations accepted until the 5th December. I got my votes in just in time! 🙂
I can sing two songs in Finnish: the theme tune to Bob the Builder (AKA Puuha Pete) and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Both were learnt during a stint as a pre-school teacher in a Turku kindergarten called, believe it or not, Wendy House. During my time there we sang lots and lots of songs, especially in winter when temperatures were too low to take the kids out to play, but I can only remember the lyrics to these two. Why? They were my favourites, of course. Bob the Builder was a great stress reliever and everyone loves Twinkle Twinkle, don’t they?
Likewise, everyone loves these Finnish Christmas tarts. They are super easy to make, very pretty and delightfully Christmassy, especially when served straight from the oven accompanied by a steaming glass of glögi. 🙂
This post is for Susan from the fabulous Food Blogga’s festive cookie collection.
Joulutorttu (Finnish Christmas Tarts)
Ready Made All-Butter Puff Pastry
Jam (Plum is traditional, I’m partial to cherry)
Icing Sugar, to dust
A Wee Bit of Cooking 