Happy New Year 2008

1. Wild Garlic and Chicken Soup, 2. Coarse Pork Terrine, 3. Spinach and Wild Garlic Pesto Soup, 4. Rosehip Syrup Cakes, 5. Lime Tart, 6. Salmon with Garlic and Dill Aoili, 7. Fennel ,Pancetta, Walnut and Goats Cheese Salad, 8. Rhubarb Tart with Elderflower Cream, 9. Cauliflower and Toasted Walnut Soup, 10. Wild Garlic Pesto, 11. Watercress , Roasted Butternut Squash , Stilton and Walnut Salad, 12. Rabbit with Spring Vegetables, 13. Smoked Salmon and Beetroot Salad, 14. Smoked Mackerel Pate, 15. Chargrilled Vegetable Kebab, 16. Tomato Tart, 17. Stawberry Frangipane, 18. Pear Tart, 19. Pomegranate Jewel Cake, 20. Cabbage Rolls, 21. Not quite Nicoise Salad, 22. Lamb and Cauliflower Salad, 23. Borscht, 24. Kohlrabi and Mackerel Salad, 25. Seared Salmon & Pea Puree, 26. Its spring chicken, 27. Green Tea and Cardamom Madeleines, 28. Lentil and Parsley Soup with crispy Pancetta, 29. Butternut Squash and Leek Quiche, 30. Banana and Rum Cake

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
Its a very busy year cooking wise if you want to see all the food from 2007 is available in my set on Flickr

I am immensely proud of my growth this year in photographing the food that I cook , Flickr has been a wonderful source of inspiration and this blog has given me the chance to talk about the food I love .

Thank you to everyone who has viewed my blog in 2007 and I promise it will get even better in 2008 where my New Years Resolutions include trying even more new foods, being more personal , better spelling and grammar ( I am dyslexic , but I do try, ) , more pictures assisted by the brilliant Christmas gift of a Joby Gorillapod a tiny lightweight tripod, which should make it even easier for me to take pictures and may even mean the lovely boyfriend gets hot food.

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Picnics and BBQ

It was my birthday this weekend & I was due to go camping . In fact the bags were packed, and in the car but predicted lightening storms and huge motorway delays caused a brisk change of plans. Carbon conducts electricity you know.

I was a bit sad hadn’t gone camping when I woke up the next day to see blue sky but a bacon bagel and cup of tea always cheers me up and headed out the the Derbyshire Dales for a day of walking.

My birthday lunch Stilton and Chutney sandwiches (the chutney bought at on our holiday in Settle – food is definitely the best souvenir ) eaten half way round a walk between Youlgrave and Lathkill Dale

For dinner a BBQ using up the marinated lamb we had planned to take camping , I am a girl of very simple tastes… lamb marinated in wine garlic and rosemary . Skewered with red green , yellow peppers and white onions . BBQd and served with a coriander tomatoe and cous cous salad. Eaten with a large glass of red wine and the best company . I am older and wiser these days and just another year closer to the big one 30

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Are you asking… chilli?

Out this Friday night for the first time in ages , brought some people back for desperately needed chilli .

It reminded me of a good friend and ex wing-man of mine a brilliant seducer of women .Pre the explosion of Jamie Oliver style cooking, he would woo women back to his flat with the promise of a “here’s one I made earlier” bowl of home made chilli and faced with a huge kebab van cue many a cocktail soaked girly would succumb.

He taught me a great deal about the world and the kind of person I was and I will always be grateful , but damn it my chilli recipe is better.

Beef Chilli

Gently fry off onions and garlic add fresh red chilli , paprika and ground coriander seeds
Add beef mince and brown
Add tinned tomatoes and tinned kidney beans
Simmer gently for 30 minutes
Either eat or head out for some drinks with freinds leaving the lid on the pot
Return from drinks warms through
Stir in fresh coriander and serve with toasted pitta, wraps and limes

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Oxtail Stew and Flapjack

Have had one of those blessed days . I got up early to mop the floor of my flat whilst downing a pot of tea and marmite and banana sandwiches ( do not knock it unless you have tried it ) plus I suspect bursting with nutrition….

I had had a lovely Friday night making flapjack , chicken stew and oxtail stew so feeling domestic godess-like I like to get as many dishes in the oven as possible and dancing round the flat listening to music way to loud partly to drown out the noise of the pimp arguing with the crack-whore on the street …. I say arguing it was mostly just yelling Fuck at eachother.

Managed to get out to the woods good and early , the light was just being stunning after a good few hours of walking barely seeing a soul but harassing a good few dogs remembering to take of my earflaps hat that for some reason scare the pants of the ( I might put a picture up here of it someday). The fungi are definitely on their way out but its been a fun autumn so I won’t complain

got back home and snuggled down with the Saturday papers a pot of tea and aforementioned flapjack ..I have distributed half to the neighbours way too moreish to keep in the flat.

Flapjack

Made with oats cranberries hemp seeds , pumpkin seeds , sunflower seed goji berries.
* 250g oats
* 250g soft light brown sugar
* 225g butter
6 tbsp of golden syrup
* 100g of the cranberries hemp seeds , pumpkin seeds , sunflower seed goji berries.
Baked at 175degC for 30 mins , I found it best to then leave overnight and cut the next day

After being fairly sociable last weekend figured I had earned a weekend of hibernating so settled down with new pile of books and oxtail stew , I thought mentioning I was planning such a horrible sounding supper would put people off but I wound up with company anyhow and the usual discussion as to why I wouldn’t eat til I had taken a picture.

Oxtail Stew

Oxtails, onions, carrots, red chilli, red wine , garlic, dried thyme thrown together in a pot.Place on a low oven for pretty much a long as you can …… but reckon this probably had 2 hours over two days , plus its a heavy pot that retains a lot of heat . To serve stir in a can of butter beans and sprinkle with fresh thyme if you have it.

Its probably a further sign of my deep seeded disorders but these days make me indescribably happy just the right level of exertion and inactivity . As I write I am contemplating going and dipping some more bread in the gravy…oh the joys of living alone….. no-one to witness my depravity….sssssshhhhh