If you are looking for a first course this holiday season that is not only simple and quick to make but delicious as well you need look no further.  Curried Harvest Bisque is a fabulously tasty soup!  Simple ingredients . . .  butternut squash, chicken stock, butter, flour and single cream with a few bits and bobs combine beautifully to create a wonderful soup with not a lot of fuss involved.

 

Here I am with a last minute idea for a muffin you could make for Christmas morning or even on Boxing Day, using up some of the oodles of mincemeat you no doubt got in for the holidays!

Well, the big day is just five days away. Is everyone all ready? Are all your gifts bought and wrapped? Cards written and sent?? Food ordered, puddings, cakes and pies baked?  We are now down to the crunch!

Well here we are on the last Saturday before Christmas.  Hasn't the time gone by quickly. There was ever so much I had planned on cooking this month to show you, but alas, circumstances and time have just not allowed for that, and I have to say in all honesty, the shingles have also put somewhat of a damper on that for me.  Oh well, there is always next year and I do have a couple of days that I might be able to catch up, but making no promises!  Today I wanted to show you these fabulous Cranberry and Pinenut Biscotti I baked last weekend!  I don't know about you, but I just love LOVE biscotti, and these ones are especially festive!

 I do so hope that you won't laugh too much at what you see here today, and that you won't take one look and decide these aren't for you, coz if you do you will be missing out on something really special.  These cookies are fabulously delicious.  Presentation has never been my strong point . . .  and these just prove my point!

We are having a special broadcast of the First Presidency's Christmas Message at our chapel on Sunday evening with a "Munch and Jingle" afterwards.  I thought these Peanut Butter Balls would be the perfect thing to take.   Everyone always loves these.  They aren't low sugar for sure, but I won't be the person eating them so it's all good.  It just more for those who can eat them.

Yes, that looks like a Thanksgiving Turkey guy up there sitting on top of a cheese ball.   I know  . . .  you are probably asking yourself right now what the heck is a Thanksgiving Turkey guy doing sitting on a cheeseball after Thanksgiving!!  Here's my answer.  I am having serious issues with my left arm right now.  In short, I am in a lot of pain with it.  I've been given some tablets to take, but I made the mistake of reading the paper insert that came with them . . . .

 

The people at Rachel's sent me a couple of festive recipes a week or so ago and asked me if I would like to try them out.   I took one look at these delicious Christmas Cupcakes and I said why not!

 





I was recently sent some Knorr products and asked to create some recipes for the holidays using them.  This is part two of what I did with them.  I hope you like what I have come up with and find something here you can use in your home for the holidays!







French Onion Soup is a favourite in this house.  It's also quite an inexpensive alternative to some of the other first courses out there that you might have a choice of.   It's rich and light enough to serve as a main course, in smaller portions  . . .  or served as a light lunch in larger portions.   

I was sent some lovely recipes this week for Christmas Baking for the holidays from Dr Oetker.   They all look so fabulous I don't know which one I want to try first.  I think the Stollen Loaf Cake is looking pretty good from where I am sitting.  I have everything I need in the house to make it and I adore Stollen anyways.  I love anything which smacks of almonds and dried fruit!  The Spiced Lemon Cookie Wreath  also looks like a strong possibility.  In any case I am sharing all the recipes with you today.  Christmas Jumper Cookies, Stollen Loaf Cake, Spiced Lemon Cookie Wreath, Mini Chocolate Gingerbread Loaves and a Winter Forest Chocolate Cake!  There's a Merry Christmas in the "Baking!"  You know if the recipes are from Dr. Oetker, that the recipes must be great.  They are the creme de la creme of bakedom!

Here is a really fun idea that would make fabulous and unusual gifts for your friends and family this Christmas.  They are cute, tasty and really easy to make . . .  a really fabulous edible novelty gift!  And of course it uses everyone's favourites Malteasers Chocolate Malt Balls and Terry's Chocolate Oranges.  (Which come in all sorts of flavours now instead of just the orange flavour.  AND, I picked up some for only £1 a piece.  If you buy the big box of Maltesers, you will get enough malt balls in it to cover several oranges.)  These are really cute!!

When my children were growing up I did a Gingerbread creation for them every year, without fail.  I always enjoyed doing and they really enjoyed the fruits of my labours.  This is a recipe which I had shared on my old Oak Cottage Blog about 8 years ago now, but I thought it was worthy of sharing here in my English Kitchen.   The pictures are not the best, but I am sure you can get a good idea of what it should look like.

I've been working hard on this post and what you will see here today is the whole Christmas Feast! I meant to have it up a couple of days ago so you would have lots of time to pop down to the shops, but hopefully you will have most everything in the house already for these recipes and if you need to pick up anything you will still have time to do so.

This is another recipe I like to bake each Christmas.  It just wouldn't be Christmas without a plate of these on offer.   Simple to make and yet so very impressive.  Perfect for a holiday breakfast or brunch, or even for coffee breaks or elevensies.

 

With the holidays looming I have decided to discount my very popular Cookbooklet entitled, Christmas in the English Kitchen for a limited time only.   Normally this beautifully illustrated cookbooklet sells for the full price of £5, but from now until the end of November, 2014 . . .  I am offering it to you for the low price of only £2.



Forty Eight pages  filled with lots of hints and tips to help to make your Christmas Celebrations the very best ever.  Interspersed between my hints, tips and recipes are my own charming little illustrations.  There are delectable soups and spreads.  Holiday entrees from the traditional to the not so traditional and even something to please your veggie friends.  Stuffings, sauces, vegetables.   Tasty puds and traditional folklore abound.  There is even a printable card for you to share with your friends.



This is delivered as a downloadable PDF file within 24 hours of your payment clearing.   Do make sure you have adobe reader enabled, and be sure to add my e-mail address (mariealicejoan at aol dot com) to your list of contacts.

Anyone who has purchased my cookbooklets in the past will tell you that this is a real bargain.   Thanks so much for looking.

Unfortunately this offer has now ended.  Sorry.

One thing my mother always made at least once during the holidays was peanut butter fudge. It was never chocolate or any other kind . . . always peanut butter, but we didn't mind because we loved it so very much. It was a real treat!



She always made it in the same pot, an old aluminum one that she had gotten in her original set of Wearever cookware back in 1955. I think it cost almost as much as a house, but here we are 2011 and she is still using it. Money well spent, I'd say!



She never measured anything. She didn't need to . . . it was all done by memory, and she knew exactly how much of each thing she needed to add by sight alone . . . and it always worked like a charm, every time. (Me . . . I made fudge sometimes for my children when they were growing up, and 9 times out of 10 they'd end up having to eat it with a spoon.



We'd watch her as it went together . . . as if by magic . . . and then sometimes she would let us beat it when it was ready, with her big old wooden spoon . . . if we'd been very good . . .we'd be given the pot and spoon to lick clean . . . we did a pretty good job of that, coz it would always be as clean as a whistle by the time we were done.



The beaten fudge would be poured into the same pan each time . . . it was an old aluminium tin, blackened through use . . . it's bottom engraved in a swirly pattern of raised tin. Some how those little traced swirls on the bottom of each piece only added to it's flavour . . . cakes used to come out with that swirly pattern as well. Nom! Nom!



After I grew up, I was determined to learn how to make it for myself and my family, and so I had her dump in the ingredients one at a time one evening . . . and I carefully measured them as she did so. It worked out pretty well, as I have had a great peanut butter fudge recipe for years that I can count on to turn out every single time.



It never quite tastes quite as good as the memory of the taste of hers . . . but then . . . I don't have that special touch of magic mother's love that she put into it . . . nor do I have a swirley bottomed pan.



*Mom's Peanut Butter Fudge*
Makes one 8 inch square pan
Printable Recipe

It just wouldn't be Christmas without a pan of this to munch on! Creamy and peanut buttery. If you don't like peanut butter, look away now!

21 ounces of white sugar (3 cups)
3 TBS smooth peanut butter
250ml of whole milk (1 cup)
2 ounces butter (1/4 cup)
1 tap vanilla

Butter an 8 inch square pan. Set aside.

Place the sugar, peanut butter and milk into a LARGE saucepan. (You will need a really big one as it really increases in volume when it is boiling. Trust me on this.) Heat, whisking, until the peanut butter is completely melted into the mixture. Increase the heat slightly and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat to a medium boil and continue to boil, stirring occasionally to help prevent it from catching. You will want to boil it to the soft ball stage, (115*C/235*F) This should take between 18 to 25 minutes or so. Once this happens, remove from the heat immediately.

Stir in the butter and vanilla. Beat with a wooden spoon until it begins to look creamy and begins to lose it's gloss. Pour into the prepared pan immediately. (Don't wait too long or it will harden in the pot and you won't be able to pour it into the prepared pan. You just want it to begin losing it's gloss.) Allow to set for about an hour at room temperature, before cutting into squares to serve.

Store in an airtight container. This also freezes well.

Roll two of the pastry discs into a round large enough to fit into each of two nine-inch pie tins with an overhang.  Divide the cooled filling between each crust.  Roll out the two remaining discs to cover the tops with an overhang.  Wet the edges of the bottom crust and place the top crusts over each.   Seal and trim.  Cut out a steam vent in the centre of each pie.  Roll out the scraps if desired and use to decorate the tops.  Brush with the beaten egg yolk to glaze.

Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7.  Place the two pies on a large baking try and bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 15 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4 and bake for a further 30 to 35 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden brown and crisp on the bottom.



I did a little one for Todd so you could see how flakey that pastry is and what the filling looks like.  He really enjoys this each year, and of course he doesn't have to watch his waistline!



(My sister's pies this year!  Yes we both like to take photos of what we cook and eat!  It must run in the family!)

Note:  If you only want to make one pie, just cut all the ingredients for the filling in half.  Or make the full batch and freeze half of it for another time.   You can also bake this in individual pies.  My sister does and uses canning jar lids for the pans.  Works perfectly!