I was recently send some really nice Tala Baking things to help with my Christmas Baking. Normally I like to put these things to use before I show them to you so that you can see how well they work, but I am running out of time and I do want you all to have the opportunity to go out and get some of these products to help you with your own Christmas baking if you can and so I am going to tell you about them now. I can say with authority however that I have never had a Tala Utensil yet that I did not like, or that did not perform impeccably or live up to it's promise!
This is the Tala Letterpress Cookie Set. With this set you can make personalised cookies with your own message.
Set contains three spring loaded cutters. There are one each of a heart, star and scalloped rectangle, along with a letterpress stamp, 7 pre-set words / phrases and 2 sets of alphabet letters in a bag. Perfect idea for a special gift, placesetting of for fun with children. The set is also dishwasher proof.
They are brightly coloured and look to be very durable.
You can slide an assortment of already put together phrases into the handy letterpress stamp, or use the individual letters included to create your own personal message.
You can cut the cookies out and stamp them separately, or you can slide the prepared stamp into a handy slot on the bottom of the cookie cutter which conveniently places it in the proper position on your cut out cookie. You can purchase these in a variety of places.
My search found them at:
The Craft Company for £8.14
Captain Cooks for £9.99
Amazon UK for £11.99
As you can see the price can vary a lot so do shop around.
Next is this handy set 3 Holly Leaf Plunger Cutters. Perfect for cutting out fondant icings etc. to help to decorate your Christmas Cakes or pies. There are three different sizes ranging from a very about 3/4 inch in length to about 1 12 inches in length.
These handy cutters feature a three holly leaf design with a veined effect.
Simply press into icing and use plunger to place the shape onto your cake without handling. They would be ideal for use with sugarpaste and flowerpaste. Easy to clean. Hand wash only.
These cutters are what I used to help decorate my Christmas Tortiere this year. (Tune in tomorrow for that recipe!) They worked really well as you can see.
You can also buy these in a variety of places in prices ranging from as little as £2.98 and as much as £5.99, so do shop around.
Finally there was this Spoon Shape Silicone Chocolate Mould. It has been my experience that silicone is always quite easy to use. This mould creates six chocolate spoons and has detailed instructions for making them printed on the back of the box.
They are also dishwasher safe, which is a bonus when it comes to using something as fiddly to clean as this might be. You can find them priced from between £2 to £3.95, so once again do shop around! Wouldn't a set of chocolate spoons be a great addition to a pot of homemade hot chocolate as a holiday gift? I think so too!
In any case I think they are all super! For baking ideas and tips, do visit the Tala page at Happy Baking Days.
I just love using mincemeat during the Christmas season. It's one of my favourite ingredients and I am sure I go through several jars. Each year I try to do something different with it if I can. There has been a photo circulating on the net and Pinterest over the past couple of months of a nutella bread which is layered and twisted and I got to thinking that the same thing done with mincemeat would be really nice.
I decided early on though that I would use puff pastry instead of bread dough however, because I wanted these to be like mince pies. I also decided that if they were going to work properly I would have to puree the mincemeat a bit so that it wasn't too lumpy.
As you can see they turned out really pretty. Golden on the edges . . . lovely to look at . . . flakey and sweet and spiced just nicely. I created a thin icing, lightly flavoured with cinnamon (if you want) to drizzle over top once baked and I sprinkled them with some white sparkle sprinkles.
I was really pleased with how they turned out! They tasted really nice as well. I think they were just that little bit different than the usual mince pies! In short, I fell in love with them. Very Festive. And no . . . they were not as fiddly as they look to make. Trust me.
*Mincemeat Snowflakes*
Makes 8
Created on a whim. Pretty. Delicious. Festive. Easy.Makes 8
milk
Cut 16 (4 inch) circles from your sheets of puff pastry. Place 8 on the baking sheet. Spread each with a heaped TBS of the mincemeat. Place the remaining 8 circles on top and press down lightly. Make four equal cuts almost, but not quite to the middle of the circle, using a very sharp knife and cutting all the way through. You will want to leave at least 1/2 inch in the centres, uncut. Cut again evenly in between the four first cuts so you now have 8 equal cuts. Twist each section in the same direction without pulling them off and keeping the pastry intact. It's not hard to do. Just persevere. You will only get about two twists maxium from each section.
Bake in the heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and puffed.
Remove
from the oven and allow to sit for just a minute or two before scooping
off onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Whisk together the icing
sugar and enough milk to give you a thick drizzle icing. 
You can flavour it with a bit of cinnamon if you like. Drizzle this over top of the snowflakes and sprinkle with the sparkle sprinkles. Store in an airtight container. Will keep several days.
As you all know I am a great lover of Boursin Cheese. I often use it to cook with, both the Garlic Herb and the Black pepper variety. So tasty in sauces, casseroles, mashed spuds and those baked jacket potatoes we all love so much. I have a real thing for Boursin Cheese.
That's why I gladly accepted the recent offer to try out their Fig & Nut flavour . . . festively perfect for the holidays.
From their page: A captivating combination of bitter and sweet, soft and hard. The creamy texture of the cheese gives way to the contrasting soft chewy texture of the fig and the harder crunch of the nut pieces.
We could not resist digging in to it and just indulging ourselves with it spread onto some Italian Crackers which I had in the cupboard. It was fabulous . . . just what you would expect from Boursin. Each bite had a depth of sweetness from the figs, a bit of crunch from the nuts . . . and that creamy Boursin tang which we both love! It was half gone before we knew it! *smack!*
Love, LOVE, LOVE!
Be sure to check out all the information about this cheese and more on their page.
Many thanks to Lizzie and Boursin for sending us this tasty cheese to try. I think you will love it too. It would make a fabulous addition to your holiday cheese board!
I am such a lucky girl. Recently I was sent a Joseph Joseph Elevate Carousel from the people at Find Me a Gift! I don't know about you, but as a die hard foodie, I love the Joseph Joseph line of kitchen gadgets!
The Joseph Joseph Elevate Carousel set comes with six separate kitchen utensils, all made from quality ASB plastic (the carousel) as well as silicone and in the beautiful bright colours which we have all come to expect from the Joseph Joseph line of products.
All of the utensils have a handy hanging loop at the top, are non scratch and heat resistant up to 240*C, which makes them dishwasher proof. Not only that but they have weighted handles which makes them feel really nice in the hand, and as well, each has an integrated tool rest, which means what touches your food will never touch your countertop . . . making them very hygenic to use.
Included in the set are a slotted turner, a flexible turner, a ladle . . .
A slotted spoon, a spaghetti server and a slotted spoon . . .
All hang on the included carousel which is compact and takes up only a little space on the countertop. Very innovative and stylish, which is what I love.
My old kitchen tools were all mis-matched and took up a lot of space.
I don't know about you, but space is at a premium in my tiny kitchen. Most of my utensils must share space on my windowsill. I love how this set looks and the fact that it takes so little space and all the tools that I use the most are easy to find and at my fingertips at a moments notice! No more digging through a multitude of mismatched utensils to find what I want! In short I ADORE THIS!
The good news is it's on sale right now at Find Me a Gift Dot Com, for only £44.99, which is a saving of £5.01 on the regular price of £50.00 . . . plus they have another offer on at the moment which gives you an additional 20% off at the checkout on orders over £50. Check out the page for more details. I know as a foodie this is a gift I would love to recieve. Do go and check out the Find Me A Gift home page. They have lots of gifts there to fit every budget and every whim, it's not just for foodies. They also offer a gift wrapping service!
Many thanks to Emma and the people at Find Me a Gift for sending me this lovely set to use! Joseph Joseph . . . I love their stuff. Colour me happy. ☺
I was recently contacted by Flora Pro.activ and asked if I would like to participate in a special Healthy Christmas recipe challenge. It's no secret that Christmas is the time of year that we have a tendancy to over indulge . . . what with holiday celebrations and those special foods we like to treat ourselves to at this time. Winter is a time of canoodling and wanting to stay warm indoors and wanting to indulge ourselves in comfort foods. The challenge was to show that we can still enjoy delicious comfort foods whilst also taking pro-active steps to help lower your cholesterol and maintain a health heart, and . . . with that view in mind, they sent me a lovely hamper filled with goodies that would help me to do just that.
It really was a wonderful hamper containing every thing that I would need to create the recipe included . . . a fab Jamie Oliver mortar and pestle, some delicious honey, preserved ginger, a Christmas Apron, a really nice wooden cutting board . . .
Some lovely baking apples, macadamia nuts, ginger, orange, a beautiful Le Creuset stoneware casserole dish . . . heart shaped of course. (As was the cutting board)
A tub of Flora pro-active. Flora pro.activ spread contains plant sterols. Plant sterols have been shown to lower blood cholesterol. High cholesterol is a risk factor in the development of coronary heart disease. Consuming 1.5-2.4g of plant sterols per day can lower cholesterol by 7-10% in 2-3 weeks when consumed as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle with sufficient fruit and vegetables.
The Recipe . . . Baked Apples with Ginger and Orange.
Cooking apples are very tart. I had my doubts as to whether this recipe would be sweet enough. Stuffed with chopped dates and stem ginger . . . which were the only sweet ingredients involved with the exeption of 2 TBS of liquid honey in the topping which you create to spread over top of the baked apples when they are done.
They turned out to be absolutely gorgeous! The apple was delightfully fluffy and the dates and stem ginger stuffing gave them a lovely flavour . . .
The topping of honey, beaten together with some Flora Pro-activ and some finely grated orange zest and powdered gave it just a touch of richness, and a bit of spice that was like the gilding on a quite, quite delicious lily . . .
They were absoutely flippin moreisly tasty, and . . . . if I had not known that they were healthy and low in fat and sugar for myself, I would not have believed it. They made for some definitely luxuriously feeling eating . . . truly festive in appearance and in taste. Worthy of being called a comforting holiday indulgence, but truth be known . . .in eating these you were actually doing your heart a favour rather than a harm. Who knew healthy eating could be so delicious? I'm converted!
*Baked Apples with Ginger and Orange*
Serves 2
Printable Recipe
A heart healthy recipe from Flora Pro Active. It's nice to know that delicious can also be healthy!
A heart healthy recipe from Flora Pro Active. It's nice to know that delicious can also be healthy!
the zest of 1 orange, finely grated
Normally with something like this we would have been tempted to have some cream or some custard, but my custard loving hubster did not miss it at all, nor did he ask! I loved that we were eating something healthy, and that I was doing the Toddster a favor to his cholesterol by feeding it to him.
If you would like to take on the Flora Pro-activ challenge hop on over to their recipe page where you can find this recipe plus many more for you to enjoy! (They have some truly lovely recipes, so DO check it out!)
Here are some easy to follow top tips from Tanya Footman, the resident nutritionist at Flora pro.activ to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle.
- Opt for healthy snacks: Why not make up your own mix of seeds, nuts and dried fruit for healthy snacking at your fingertips. Or to get in the festive spirit, try roasting nuts for that delicious Christmas aroma.
- Choose the right meats: Opt for fish and poultry over fatty meat products. Or try replacing fatty meats with beans, lentils, fish, and poultry without skin or lean meat. Turkey is a great lean meat packed with flavour.
- Get active: Even every day activities can be turned into moderate exercise. All that extra housework during the festive period is a great way to keep fit. Small changes such as taking the stairs instead of the escalator and even hand washing your can can make a difference.
- Plant Sterols: Plant sterols are found at low levels in every day foods like vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, grain products, fruit and vegetables. But to get a significan cholesterol lowering effect include foods with added plant sterols like Flora pro.activ in your diet.
- Salt: Eat no more than six grams of salt a day. Experiment with herbs and spices instead and avoid salty snacks like crisps.
Risotto doesn't always have to be a savory dish. It can just as easily be a sweet and delious type of pudding. Something like this Vanilla Risotto here today. People can be a little put off and afraid of making risotto . . .fearing that it is a bit too complicate or time consuming, but it really isn't.
It does require constant attention however, but so long as you stay with it and do what the recipe says, you will always be rewarded at the end with something quite silky and delicious, with just a tiny bit of bite.
This risotto is not overly sweet . . . the only sweetening being a bit of honey . . . it's nicely flavoured with vanilla . . . and just a hint of ground cinnamon and ground cardamom. Warm sweet spices that go so well with both vanilla and pears . . .
Oh yes . . . the pears. Oven roasted until just tender and then peeled . . . the oven roasting bringing out their natural sweetness. Tender and sweet, sitting in an ocean of that delicious vanilla risotto. Impressive. Simple. Delicious. What more could a person ask for?
*Vanilla Risotto with Oven Roasted Pears*
Serves 4
1 1/2 TBS unsalted butter
175g of arborio rice (scant 3/4 cup)
(You may need a bit of additonal milk)
a drizzle of warm honey and a dusting of cinnamon to finish
While the pears are roasting put the vanilla into a saucepan along with the milk and the cream. Heat just to the boil. Take off the heat immediately. Set aside.
Peel your pears and place one into each of four dessert dishes. Spoon the risotto around the pears. Drizzle with some warm honey and dust with a bit of cinnamon. Serve immediately.
Several months ago the people at SACO approached me and asked me if I would like to contribute to the Christmas Edition of their SACO Kitchen Recipe Book. I was more than happy to do so! One of the nice things about staying in a SACO apartment is that they are self catering and provide a basic but well equiped kitchen so that their tennants can cook a tasty meal for themselves, saving them the cost of eating out, or having to eat in a place which has a limited menu. I was asked to provide a tasty Christmas Recipe that they would find easy and quick to prepare and so I decided to give them my Christmas Morning Breakfast Bake.
It's a simple and tasty recipe that you can easily throw together the night before and then just pop into the oven to bake when you get up in the morning. It's delicious! It's a real favourite around here and a real time saver for the holidays, plus it doesn't require specialized equipment to bake. Easy peasy lemon squeasy. I was happy to share it with them!
If you would like to see this Christmas Recipe book and catch up on some of their previous Kitchen Recipe Books, you can access them by clicking here. Enjoy!
One thing I like to make each year for the Holidays is my Christmas Chutney. It's sooooo good and makes a wonderful change from the regular Cranberry Sauce.
It has a tiny bit of a bite, which you can adjust by the amount of chili's you add. I usually err on the side of caution because we don't really like things that are tooooo hot, but by all means you can adjust it to your own tastes.
I always make enough for us to have here at home (it goes so well with all sorts of meats and cheeses) and I make some to give as gifts to our friends. I think they would be quite disappointed if I didn't have some for them each year!
There is nothing really out of the ordinary in it. It's basically just fresh cranberries, chopped onion, sultanas, citrus peel, vinegar, two sugars, and a mix of tasty spices. It goes together lickety split, and tastes better with each day that passes.
It's great with your Christmas Dinner, and then after Christmas with the leftovers, but where it really shines is on a cheese board. This is some of that Castello Tickler Cheddar I got last week. Oh boy did it ever go good with that! Delicious! Those crackers are fabulous as well. I got them at Aldi, from it's line of Gourmet Crackers. They're really nice! I'm going to go back and get some more. (They come in three flavours . . . salted, black pepper and rosemary and are a real steal at only 99p a pack!)
I hope you will give this chutney a go this year. I guarantee you won't be disappointed!
*Christmas Chutney*
Makes 4 cups
Printable Recipe
This lovely
chutney makes a wonderful gift and is such a lovely change from the
usual cranberry sauce. It goes beautifully with turkey, ham or
chicken. We just love it.
3 cups fresh cranberries (300g)
1 cup sultanas (150g)
1/2 cup chopped candied peel
1/2 cup chopped peeled onion (1 medium onion, peeled and chopped)
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 cup white vinegar (225ml)
1 cup water (225ml)
1 cup white sugar (190g)
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed (200g)
1/4 cup lemon juice (60ml)
2 tsp salt
2 whole cloves
2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp dried chilies
Place
the vinegar, water, both sugars, lemon juice and salt into a heavy
non-reactive saucepan. Bring to the boil, stirring to help dissolve the
sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved add the cranberries, sultanas,
candied peel, onions, garlic, cloves, celery seed, ginger and chilies.
Simmer gently, stirring often, uncovered for 45 minutes. Pour into hot
sterilized jars and seal. Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.
This will keep for up to a year. You can, of course, just put it into
jars for giving away and immediate use, but if you do want to keep it
longer, you really must process it in the water bath. Enjoy!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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