One thing that I always do when I am frying bacon, is to fry extra. It just makes sense. If I am going to to the trouble and the mess . . . why not fry the whole pack instead of just a few slices.



The extra gets carefully wrapped and sealed in a zip lock bag and then frozen so that I have already cooked bacon to hand anytime I may need it. Why pay premium prices for already cooked bacon in the shops when you don't need to.



Cooked bacon is so handy to have in the freezer. Ready for sprinkling on salads, or casseroles . . . the perfect addition to grilled cheese on toast . . . chopped and sprinkled over pizzas . . . or chopped and stirred into these moreishly scrumptious savoury scones!!!



Crunchy on the outside and so soft and flakey on the insides . . . all buttery and stogged full of strong cheddar cheese and . . . lovely bacon. As we all know . . . everything tastes better with bacon! (Peanut butter, cheese, chocolate . . . even jam. Try it some time. You'll see I am right!)



These tasty scones are the perfect addition to a soup meal . . . or with a hearty stew. Great for breakfast . . . on their own or with an egg, scrambled or otherwise. Try making your own breakfast sandwich using these. Just fry an egg (or two) and sandwich them between one of these lovely scones, after having split and toasted it.

Oh man . . . sooooo good! Your husband will love you even more than he does now. I guarantee! They do say the secret way to a man's heart is through the stomach . . .



*Cheese and Bacon Scones*
Makes 15 to 20, depending on how big you cut them
Printable Recipe

Scrumdiddlyumpitiously savoury. Perfect with some sliced ham or cheese, or both. You can vary the spiciness of them by adjusting the amount of cayenne used.

16 ounces (1 pound) plain flour (about 3 1/2 cups)
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 level tsp of cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1 tsp salt
1 ounce of cold butter, cubed (2 TBS)
4 ouces bacon, grilled and finely chopped with a sharp knife, or
in the food processor
4 ounces strong cheddar cheese, grated (1 cup)
1 medium free range egg
375ml of sour milk or buttermilk (1 2/3 cup)

Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Dust a large baking sheet lightly with flour. Set aside.

Sift the flour, soda, cayenne pepper and salt into a large bowl. Drop in the butter and then rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine dry bread crumbs. Stir in the bacon and cheese.

Whisk together the egg and milk.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Mix to a soft dough with your hand by running it around the bowl. Try not to knead it as this will develop the gluten which will toughen the scones. Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. (The dough will be quite sticky) Pat out with floured hands until you get a square 3/4 inch thick. Using a pizza cutter, cut it into 15 to 20 squares. (Alternately you can cut them out with a sharp knife or a 2 inch round cutter) Place onto the floured baking sheet leaving about 2 inches between each.

Bake for 10 to 14 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

One thing that I love about food blogging is that it's not about me. It's not even about you . . . it's about the recipes and the food!



It's about being able to cook and taste some of the best and most indulgent foods ever . . . and exploring the culinary delights my adopted country has to offer me.




It's about stretching my skills . . . both in the kitchen and . . . behind the camera . . . and about making food that not only tastes delicious, but food that looks good.



It's about waking up every morning and making YOU believe that what I am presenting to you on this page is the absolute best thing ever . . .



and about making you want to go into your own kitchen and cook it for yourselves, because you have just got to taste it for real, and because I have inspired you to do it, and given you the confidence to believe that you can!



Your comments are like me winning the "X Factor of food" every day of my life, and I thank you for that. Here's to 2011. Let's begin as we mean to go on.



Cream Palmiers . . . tasty little bites of fluffy crisp buttery pastry, filled with a soft cloud of sweetened whipped cream and sticky sweet strawberry jam. Kind of like a de-constructed jam tart . . . with puff pastry . . . and CREAM. A delicious teatime treat.



The only down side is they all have to be eaten on the day they are filled . . . so NOT a problem!



*Cream Palmiers*
Makes 8
Printable Recipe

Absolutely delightful on the tea tray!

225g (1/2 pound) of all butter puff pastry
1 1/2 ounces granulated sugar (a scant 1/4 cup)
1 TBS icing sugar, sifted
400ml of double cream (1 3/4 cups)
a few drops of vanilla
2 TBS strawberry jam

Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Slightly dampen a baking tray. Set aside.

Dust the work surface with half of the sugar. Roll the pastry out on the sugared surface to a rectangle 10 by 12 inches in size. Sprinkle evenly with the remaining half of the sugar. Gently press the sugar in with a rolling pin. Starting at the short sides, roll the pastry towards the middle from both edges into the centre until they meet. Press together gently. Cut across the rolls into 16 slices. Place onto the baking tray. Press down to flatten slightly.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes until crisp and golden, turning them over halfway through the baking time so that they caramelize equally on both sides. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Whip the cream along with the icing sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Sandwich together pairs of the palmiers with some of the whipped cream and some of the jam. Serve immediately.

So here you are. It's boxing day and you have a whole fridge filled with leftovers. What to do . . . what to do . . .

I thought I would give you some tasty ideas this morning to help you use up some of those scrummy leftovers. Of course you could just have a reheat of the leftovers, but it's also nice to dress them up in a few different ways too!

Ham Leftovers:



We like to have ham, cut into thick slices and fried in butter along side of our fried eggs for a special boxing day breakfast. Just melt some butter and add the ham once it begins to sizzle. Cook until it begins to get crisp on the edges, flip over and repeat on the other side.

You can chop it up and add it to your favourite macaroni and cheese recipe, or to a pan of scallopped potatoes.

Combine it with some of the leftover turkey, and some of that Stilton in a tasty salad!

*Boxing Day Salad*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

100g bag of baby leaf salad greens (about 4 cups)
1 head of red chicory
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
100g of cooked turkey (1/4 pound)
100g of cooked ham (1/4 pound)
50g chopped toasted walnut pieces (1/4 cup)
2 ounces stilton cheese, crumbled
4 TBS reduced fat caesar salad dressing

Place the salad greens in a large shallow bowl. Break up the red chicory leaves and toss into the bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil Tear the turkey and ham into bits with two forks. combine in a bowl along with the walnut pieces and stilton cheese. Add the salad dressing and mix to combine. Pile this mixture on top of the salad leaves and serve.

It's delicious chopped and mixed with grated cheese and then stuffed into a nice big fluffy baked potato.

Turkey Leftovers:



Of course you can have a plain old turkey sandwich, but why not dress it up a bit and serve it open faced on a rustic piece of bread, topped with some leftover cranberry sauce, some of the leftover stuffing heated and crumbled on top of the cranberry, then the heated sliced turkey and some heated leftover gravy ladled over top. Delicious with a few sliced pickles and some potato crisps on the side!

My mom always made Turkey Pot pies, or Beef Pot pies. We loved them! You can follow the roughly outlined recipe below, which is only a rough guideline of what to do. You can adapt it to whatever it is you have in your fridge. If you are using beef, then use the leftover beef gravy of course!



*Turkey Pot Pie*
Serves 4 to 6
Printable Recipe

2 mugs full of leftover turkey, chopped
2 mugs full of leftover cooked vegetables, chopped
(peas, carrots, corn) If you haven't got any, then you can
use 2 mugs of frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
a handful of roasted potatoes, chopped
1 mug full of leftover turkey gravy
1 mug full of milk
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp summer savoury
salt and black pepper to taste
Pastry to cover
milk and beaten egg yolk

Mix together all the ingredients except for the pastry in a large bowl, seasoning to taste with salt and black pepper. Spread into a large round, or oval shallow casserole dish. Roll out your pastry to cover and place over top, venting to allow steam to escape. Brush with a bit of milk and beaten egg yolk. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes in an oven which has been preheated to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Serve warm.

I think one of the most popular things to do over here in the UK with the leftover turkey is to make a Turkey Curry, but how about Coronation Turkey Salad! Yummo!!

*Coronation Turkey*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

1/2 onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 TBS vegetable oil
1 TBS curry powder
1/2 tsp each ground cumin, ground coriander and ground turmeric
125ml of coconut milk (1/2 cup)
125ml of chicken stock (1/2 cup)
200g of mayonnaise (about 1 cup)
425g of leftover turkey (1 pound)
2 TBS dessicated coconut, toasted in a dry pan until golden brown, then cooled
fresh coriander leaves to garnisn (optional)

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil, until lightly browned. Mix in the spices and let them sizzle for about a minute. Add the coconut milk and chicken stock. Let simmer for about 20 minutes over low heat until the mixture has reduced and you have a thick, creamy, spicy onion mixture in the pan. Allow to cool completely. Whisk in the mayonnaise. Cut the leftover turkey into cubes and place in a large bowl. Pour the curry mayonnaise over top and toss to mix. Sprinkle with the toasted coconut, and garnish with a few torn coriander leaves.

Serve with warmed Chapattis, sliced tomatoes, sliced onion and torn lettuce.



Leftover Vegetables:

We can't be forgetting the leftover Christmas Veg!! I know we all buy in far more than we need, and then end up with it hanging about the fridge. Here's a few different recipes for some dishes using some of that leftover veg so it doesn't get all wilted and go to waste!

*Spicy Parsnip and Sprout Hash*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

800g of parsnips, peeled and chopped into chunks (1 1/2 pounds)
300g of brussels sprouts, peeled and finely shredded (1/2 pound)
a large handful of frozen peas
the juice of 1/2 lemon
50g of butter (1/4 cup)
1 TBS cumin seeds
1 TBS garam masala
1 red chili, deseeded and chopped
1 bunch of coriander, chopped (reserve a few leaves to garnish)
salt

Place the parsnips in a pan of cold water to cover. Add a pinch of turmeric and salt and bring to the boil. cook for 12 minutes. While the parsnips are cooking, blanch the sprouts in another pan of boiling water for about 3 minutes, until tender, adding the peas for the final minute. Drain all the vegetables well. Tip the drained parsnips back into the pan along with the lemon juice and half the butter. Mash roughly. Beat in the cooked sprouts, peas, cumin, garam masala, chili and coriander. Season to taste with some salt.

Heat the remaining butter in a medium sized non-stick skillet. When it begins to sizzle, tip in the parsnip mixture, pressing it down to form a flat cake. Cook, until it is browned underneat. Turn over carefully with a fish slice. (It may break up but that's ok) Continue cooking until crisp on this side as well. Keep flipping and turning until you have a nicely crisped cake. Slice out onto a heated plate. Garnish with the coriander leaves. Cut into wedges to serve.

*Roast Vegetables with Stilton and Chestnuts*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

3 TBS French Walnut oil
4 large parsnips, peeled and quartered lengthwise
4 large red potatoes, peeled and cut lengthwise into 6 wedges
4 large carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise
2 large onions, peeled and cut into wedges
200g pack of peeled and ready to use chestnuts (1 cup)
(roughly chop)
the juice of one lime
sea sald and freshly ground black pepper
200g Creamy Blue Stilton cheese, crumbled (1/4 pound)

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark6. Place 2 TBS of the oil in a large roasting tin and heat in the oven for 5 minutes. Toss iin the prepared vegetables, giving them a stir to coat with the oil. Roast for one hour until tender, turning occasionally.Mix in the chopped chestnuts and cook for a further 10 minutes. Whisk together the lime juice, remaining TBS of oil and a bit of seasoning. Divide the roasted vegetables between 4 heated serving plates. Scatter with the crumbled stilton and drizzle with the lime dressing. Serve immediately.

Living in Chester as we do, we are right on the gateway to Wales. Indeed . . . a short five minute walk from the house, and we are in Wales!

Our Housing estate is actually surrounded by fields of leeks, which fill the air at certain times of the year with their pungent oniony smell. I think it's quite delightful, myself!



In fact, as we travelled to church this morning we passed by a field of frozen leeks . . . kind a pretty actually, all frosty green and icy tipped . . . but I wonder how the farmer feels. Are frozen leeks any good to him? Somehow I think not . . .

The Leek is the Welsh national symbol. ( I can think of worse things to represent you!)



This supper dish is a savoury bread and butter pudding, filled with the lovely flavours of slivered leeks and Caerphilly cheese, which is a Welsh variety of cheese, hailing from the Welsh village of Caerphilly!



Caerphilly sits in the shadows of one of Europe's largest castles. (Caer means Castle in the Welsh language) You can tell their cheese means a big deal to the people of Caerphilly as they hold a big festival there every year, called . . . "The Big Cheese" . . . what else!!



Caerphilly is a cow's milk cheese, light in colour and quite crumbly. It matures a lot quicker than cheddar giving it a dry crumbly centre and creamy edge . . . with a somewhat tangy, sour, but not at all unpleasant flavour.



We love this hearty supper dish as we love leeks and cheese, but you can also make it with cheddar and onion, which is also quite delicious!



I like it with a bit of Branston's Beetroot Pickle on the side. Yummo!



*Welsh Cheese Pudding*
Serves 4 - 6
Printable Recipe

Kind of like a savoury bread and butter pudding made with cheese and leek sandwiches. You can use sliced onions if you don't have any leeks. It's quite delicious!

3 medium slices of white bread, crusts removed
3 medium slices of whole wheat bread, crusts removed
2 ounces (1/4 cup) butter, softened
1 medium leek, washed, trimmed and very thinly sliced
8 ounces caerphilly cheese, crumbled (can use strong cheddar)
2 large free range eggs
1/4 tsp dry mustard powder
1 pint of milk (2 cups)
salt and pepper to taste
a small handful of walnuts, toasted and chopped
finely chopped spring onion to garnish (optional)

Spread each slice of the bread thickly with butter. Using one white slice and one whole wheat slice for each, make 3 sandwiches using the leek and 3/4 of the cheese. Press firmly together and then cut each sandwich into 4 triangles. Arrange them with the points up, in a 2 litre shallow ovenproof dish.

Beat the eggs together with the mustard powder and milk. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour over top of the sandwiches. Allow to stand for half an hour before cooking.

Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Scatter the remaining cheese and walnuts over top of the pudding and then cook it in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Scatter the top with the spring onions, if using and serve to some lucky people.

These have to be my favourite Christmas Cookies of all time! Mind you, if there's jam involved in any way at all, be it cake, cookie, pie or sandwich . . . I'm one very happy camper!!



I have a thing about jam. I just love, Love, LOVE it!!




I got this recipe from a very old friend of mine quite a number of years ago. Mildy spiced, buttery and filled with ground hazelnuts, these are fabulously delicious!



You could dust them with icing sugar of course, which looks really nice also, but I like to use caster sugar . . . because I enjoy the extra texture . . . and the glittery finish it gives.



Buttery nutty and lightly spiced dough . . . sweet/tart raspberry jam. What's not to like? Well, you may have to bake them twice, coz . . . umm . . . if you are like me they kinda disappear before you know it, but what's a gal to do???

I can't help myself . . . Cookie + Jam = my only weakness. (Shhhhh . . . )





*Linzer Cookies*
Makes about 2 dozen
Printable Recipe

The quintessential Christmas Cookie. Tender sweet cookies filled with tart raspberry jam. Delicious!!

3 ounces (2/3 cup) hazelnuts
3.75 ounces (1/2 cup packed) light brown sugar
10 .75 ounces (2 1/2 cups) sifted plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
8 ounces (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 large free range egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 ounces raspberry jam, seived
caster sugar for dusting


Preheat the oven to 180*C/ 350*F/ gas mark 4. Place the hazelnuts into a shallow baking pan and bake for about 6 minutes until the skins are beginning to loosen and the nuts are fragrant. Turn off the oven. Dump the hot nuts into a tea towel and rub with the towel to loosen as much of the skins as possible. Discard any skins. Place half the brown sugar and the nuts into a food processor. Process until the nuts are finely ground.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Cream together the butter and remaining brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the nut mixture and beat until well combined. Beat in the egg and the vanilla. Work iin the flour mixture, just until combined. Divide the dough in half, shaping each half into a round flat disc. Wrap in cling film and chill until firm, about 2 hours.

Heat the oven again to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark4. Roll out 1 disc of the dough to 1/8 inch thickness between two sheets of cling film. Cut out as many cookies as you can with a 2 1/4 inch fluted round cookie cutter. Repeat until all the dough has been cut out/ Using a smaller shaped cutter, cut shapes out of the centre of half of the rounds. Place one inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Dust the top halves with some caster sugar . (these are the ones with the centre cut out.) Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool completely before proceeding. Repeat until all the dough has been used up, only rerolling the scraps once. Discard any scraps after that.

Spread about 1 teaspoon of jam on the solid halves of the baked cookies. Top with the flat side of a windowed cookie. Repeat until all cookies are put together. Store between sheets of parchment paper in a tightly covered tin.

One of my favourite television shows over here has to be Larkrise to Candleford. Based on a trilogy of novels written by the author, Flora Thompson about the countryside of north-east Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire at the end of the 19th Century, neither Todd nor I have ever missed an episode in all of the three series that have come out now. In fact we purchased them on DVD so that we could treat ourselves to turn-of-the-century village life anytime we wanted to!



A reader recently contacted me, and asked me if I had any knowledge of the type of food that would have been cooked in that era. An American, he and his wife are also great fans of the show, and were very curious about a cake that they had seen the old cook beating together in a bowl during one episode in series one.



Well, since the series takes place in the late Victorian era, I would have to say, without a doubt and with fair certainty, that it was probably a Victoria Sponge, or Victoria Sandwich Cake . . . a lovely buttery sponge cake that would have benefited greatly by some strong armed beating in a bowl.



It was the Victorians that invented this lovely cake by adding butter to an ordinary sponge mixture, which baked better in two flat tins rather than one deep tin. (Oh those Victorians, they were very clever at inventing things I have to say!)



The two cakes were then stuck together with a layer of tasty jam. According to Victorian manuals of the day, sponge cakes would have been made more for the nursery tea table than the drawing room, but we won't quibble the facts . . . the fact is that this cake is delicious, and I would serve it to anyone, child or adult!!



This is just the sort of cake one would imagine Dorcas and her employees at the Post Office sitting down to late in the afternoon . . . teatime . . . a china pot of steaming, freshly made tea at the ready to be served along side of lovely thick slabs of this moist and delicious sponge.



This is a real favourite around this house, and more or less tends to get treated like an ordinary every day kind of cake . . . but upon reflection, I know not why . . . coz it is fine enough to please even the most discerning of palates, and is anything but ordinary!!



I think Dorcas Lane would highly approve . . . it surely being my only weakness . . . something of which she knows full well . . . of this we would be in agreement. (Recipe adapted from the WI Cakes Cookery Book by Liz Herbert. If there is one thing the WI know alot about, it's baking cakes!)



*Traditional Victorian Sandwich Cake*
Makes one 7 inch cake
Printable Recipe

Popular during the reign of Qyeen Victoria, this cake remains popular to this day, which is a huge testament to it's taste and ease of baking! Don't be tempted to use all butter. This is one recipe that is better for the use of a mixture of butter and margarine.

3 ounces of butter, softened (6 TBS)
3 ounces soft margarine (6 TBS)
6 ounces caster sugar (1 cup)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs, beaten
6 ounces self raising flour (a scant 1 1/2 cups)

To finish:
3 TBS raspberry jam
buttercream to fill (optional)
icing sugar or caster sugar to dust the top

Butter and base line two 7 inch sandwich tins. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.

Cream the butter, margarine, sugar and vanilla together until light in colour and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mixture begins to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour.

Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, taking care to use a cutting motion so as not to knock out too much of the air that you have beaten into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake tins, leveling off the surface. Make a slight dip in the centre of each.

Bake on a centre rack of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the sponges have risen well, are golden brown, and spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in the pan for five minutes before running a knife carefully around the edges and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled, place one layer on a cake plate. Spread with raspberry jam and buttercream (if using). Place the other cake on top, pressing down lightly. Dust with icing or caster sugar and serve.

By the way Commentor #63, Sheilagh, a Random Numbers Generator has picked you as the winner of the Delightful Hamper Giveaway. Contact me with your details and I will let the HamperGift people know where to send it. Thanks so much to everyone who participated and joined in on the fun. I wish you could all be winners. Don't be too disappointed though as I will soon be hosting another giveway hosted by the lovely people at Kellogg's . . . yes the people who bring us all those delicious breakfast cereals!

My husband and I have been members of the National Trust for about 10 years now. We both just love visiting historical homes and gardens so it has always been worth it to us. A yearly membership works out a lot cheaper than having to pay entrance fees each time we visit one of the National Trust places.



We recently visited Erddig, which is near Wrexham in Wales. "Widely acclaimed as one of Britain's finest historic houses, Erddig is a fascinating yet unpretentious early 18th-century country house reflecting the upstairs downstairs life of a gentry family over 250 years.

We both thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this great historical home. We found it quite astonishing that the orignal owner of the Estate was simply a "Mr" and not a person of noble birth. Judging by everything that was on this property, he was one very wealthy individual, and one could tell by all of the photographs and paintings that, although they had lots of money and servants, their servants were very much cared for and well treated.



We spent a wonderful day there exploring all the nooks and crannies and the beautiful gardens. So much so, that we plan on going back again soon. There was so much still left to explore, and one visit just didn't do it enough justice.



One of the things we both look forward to when we are visiting these places is having a light lunch in the cafes that are, in most cases, right on the grounds. Lovely little places where you can get everything from soup to nuts . . . always very tasty stuff!

We shared a delicious cheese and onion sandwich and some hot cocoa the day we were there, but right next to the cash register in the cafe was a little leaflet for sale,, containing some of the recipes from Erddig House, dating back to the 1700's.



It was only a pound, so how could I resist!! Of course I had to pick it up!

That night I made us the carrot soup for our tea from the leaflet, and let me tell you . . . it was the MOST delicious carrot soup I have ever, ever eaten! It should have served at least 4 people but Todd and I polished it off between the two of us. NOT A PROBLEM! It was rich and creamy and had the most wonderful flavour. Carrots, potatoes, celery, turnips, onions and lettuce . . . a delicious combination of simple garden fresh ingredients!

This is now our 'alltime' favourite soup.



*Erddig Carrot Soup*
Serves 4 to 6
Printable Recipe

Taken from a 'Receipt Book 1765', the second oldest Erddig cookery book.

2 ounces butter
2 large onions
2 large potatoes
2 pounds carrots
1/2 pound turnips
1/2 head celery
1/4 lettuce
3 1/2 pints (about 7 cups) vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and chop all of the vegetables. Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the onion and saute until golden. Add the potatoes and stir well. Add the remainder of the vegetables and the stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer until all the vegetables are tender. Liquidise. Check for seasoning and adjust as necessary.



I also baked up some very delicious Cheese Scones to have with the soup. They went down a real treat!! You can find the recipe HERE.