Say it with flowers.

There are many ways to say I love you. But the best I've come up with so far this year is with flowers. Flowers made out of candied bacon. Bacon roses if you want to be technical.

Mmmmm bacon.

So, for this you will require:

• Bacon (duh) streaky thin strips x 12
• 50g soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp paprika
• toothpicks
• wooden skewers
• lettuce and sage to garnish
• Some fancy tissue paper to wrap your bouquet in.

Mix the sugar and paprika together on a plate. Take a strip of bacon and rub in the sugar mix, so both sides are lightly coated. Roll the bacon strip up into a rose bud shape and secure with two toothpicks pushed through the bacon in a cross shape.

These toothpicks are used to balance the rose over the well of a cupcake baking tray. When you've rolled up all 12 bake in the oven at 160c for 35-45 minutes.

 

When the roses are out of the oven, leave them to cool.  Take the cold rose heads and spear them on the wooden skewers to make 'stems'.

Bunch all 12 of your roses together, semi artistically wrap in lettuce and tissue paper to create your bouquet.

   

Then, give the roses to the boy you're enamoured with. Works much better than any other sort of flower.

Apart, potentially, from a lily, a gerbera and a carnation.  Which according to Cryptofloricon means an evil laugh. 

(Chinese) New Year Resolutions

I've got to be honest, last year's resolutions didn't go so well. I kind of thought about not making any this year, then I realised I just needed to make better ones. Revolutionary concept no?

So let's review what I thought I was going to do this year.

• Teach myself SQL properly.  Yup, pretty much done.
• Learn to make Roman blinds. Hahahahahahah No
• Finally get the tires changed on my bike so I can cycle to work when the weather gets better. Half done.  The bike has been fixed, I cycled for a bit then lent it to a friend whose need was greater. 
• Find a hedgehog water bottle that doesn’t leak. Technically no, but I did give the hedgehog back to the idiot who gave it to me, some I'm calling that one as a win.  Seriously - WHO gives exotic animals for Christmas.
• Finish the bathroom. Nearly.
• Joing the WI.  Yes really.  The tolerant housemate has already been enlisted for this venture.No, not at all, this just didn't happen.
• Finish the kitchen. I need to finish a tiny little bit of tiling, make blinds (yes again) and also bribe my baby sister to make me a door curtain, fix the door between the kitchen and living room, put up some shelves for recipe books and think about some art.  I probably need to replace the fridge as well, but I am trying to ignore that at the minute. Still not done.  I am hopeful I will do this this year.
• Go on holiday.  I didn’t get a proper holiday last year.  Yup, done.
•  Buy some diamond earrings.  I’ve always wanted some. Nope.  I just always had better things to spend my money on.

So, out of last years resolutions I didn't even get half of them done.  Four out of nine, even with my slightly skewed counting.  Not really that great at all.


2013 Resolutions - only a month late. 

• Go on holiday, more than once.
• Spend more time outside
• Try and do some work to the house.
• Try not to let work get on top of me.
• Try and save on a more regular basis. 
• Try and cook one new recipe each month. 
• Try and spend more time with my friends and family.

And that's it.  Not too specific, not too stressful.  Ideas about how I would like to live this year, rather than a list of very specific things which I know I'm not going to manage to do.  Which probably means that I'm going to me less embarrassed about what I haven't achieved this time next year.

Oh and I'm one ahead already - that Bourbon Meatballs thing?  My new recipe for this month.  And I bought a new light for the bathroom.  So technically that is some work on the house.  If I get round to getting it fitted, then I'll be up to two.

101 things to do with bourbon

Well three things actually.  And two of them are "drink it".

Last night was a celebration of a new job, so I wanted to cook something nice.  The lovely Charlie sent me over a recipe for bourbon glazed meatballs that she'd found on pinterest, so I started thinking about a bourbon themed night.  Which was never going to end well.

The meatballs were amazing  Genuinely brilliant.  They do have quite a lot of sugar in them however, so they're more of a very occasional treat than a regular addition to a cooking repertoire.

Bourbon Glazed Meatballs
24 meatballs (shop bought or home made)
1/2 cup tomato ketchup
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1/4 cup bourbon
1 teaspoon lemon juice (I used half a lemon)
1 teaspoon Worcester sauce

I also threw in some paprika and would consider some sautéed garlic next time.

Mix up the sauce well, coat all the meatballs well in the mixture and put in a heavy casserole pot, cover and cook for two hours at 150 degrees.  I checked and stirred at one hour.

After two hours I took them out and skimmed all the excess fat off the surface, then left them to sit for fifteen minutes or so.  Then I served them with courgette chips and steamed vegetables.

Sticky, amazing goodness.

  Then of course, we drank some bourbon to go with them.  We made Old Fashioneds.

Teaspoon of sugar, drop of bitters, splash of water, slice of orange - muddled together.  Two shots of bourbon, top with ice.  Garnish with a cherry.

Kind of failed with the ice making last night

 The main reason we were struggling with enough ice to have with our Old Fashioneds was because we were making mint icecubes for out third thing to do with bourbon.  Freeze some fresh mint into some ice cubes and drink the bourbon neat.

Rosemary Pucino

As my family have discovered this blog and read it regularly, I opted not to write about what I was making them for Christmas.  I thought it might ruin the surprise.

This year we had cocktails.  I was massively manic at work and far too short on time to make as much as I did last year, so everyone got the ingredients for Rosemary Pucino.  It's a recipe I discovered when I over enthusiastically pruned my rosemary bush last year and had a metric ton of rosemary to deal with.

FOR THE BLACKBERRY VODKA
450g blackberries
1tbsp sugar
600ml vodka

Combine these in a sealed bottle and leave in the dark for seven weeks (at least).  Shake regularly.

FOR THE ROSEMARY SYRUP
450g  white sugar
2 x rosemary branches
600ml water.

dissolve the sugar over a gentle heat, add the rosemary and bring to a rolling boil.  Lower the heat simmer for 2 minutes.  Leave to cool, cover and keep over night to infuse.  The next bring the syrup back to the boil, strain and bottle in sterilized bottles.

TO MAKE THE COCKTAIL

One part blackberry vodka

One part rosemary syrup

Four parts chilled prosecco

Long fresh Rosemary sprigs

Ice cubes/ crushed ice (optional)

Blend one part each of the rosemary syrup and blackberry vodka, and then top up with Prosecco.  To each glass add a long sprig of rosemary and top with crushed ice.

 

This was my Christmas

I've had a hard time this year.  Lots of really good things have happened, I've met some great people, some of my favourite people have got married and/or moved in together or engaged, I've had lots and lots of fun and learnt loads of new things.

But it's also been incredibly stressful and I'm having mild anxiety panic when there's too many loud people around me as a result.  It's cased by stress and it will go away when things calm down at work.  It's irritating because it means clubs, some restaurants, bars and shops are all out for me at the minute, if I still want my friends to talk to me.

So I took Christmas off this year.

It's well documented that I'm not the biggest fant of Christmas at the best of times, so this year I  decided I was going to do exactly what I wanted.

I started the day with a run.  I barely managed 5k but it was quiet and beautiful and there was no one around to bother me.  I came home and had a long bubble bath and read a book, there may have been some champagne consumed in the bath.

I opened my presents and spoke to my boyfriend and family. They all seemed suitably pleased with their gifts and I got given some amazing things.  Then I tore into a box set of 24, painted my nails, cooked some ribs with baked potatoes and salad and drank a fuckton of wine and fell asleep on the sofa.  I might have dribbled on myself slightly.

I wouldn't want to do this every year, but this year - right now - this is exactly what I needed.

Cinnamon Dreams

I woke up the other morning with the desire to bake and no idea what to do.  While the boyfriend snoozed, I mooched around pinterest looking at lemon cookies and blue velvet cakes and goats cheese and spinach pastries.  Eventually I decided on cinnamon rolls, but all the recipes I could find were american.  After a bit of googling I came up with a UK recipe, but the measures were all wrong.

After a bit of fiddling I've come up with the following - it's a combination of several recipes and ideas and it's brilliant.

For the dough

• 800g plain flour
• 300 ml warm water
• 7 tablespoon caster sugar
• 7g yeast
• pinch of salt
• two eggs
• 5 tblspn oil

Separate out half the flour.  Take the yeast and sugar and mix into the warm water.  Mix the yeast water into the flour until completely combined.  Add the eggs and the oil and then mix in the rest of the flour little by little until totally mixed.

Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes and then cover and leave to rise until it's doubled in size, which will take around an hour and a half.

For the filling

• 125g butter
• 100g soft brown sugar
• 1.5 tspn cinnamon

Mix the softened butter with the sugar and the cinnamon.  Then take the dough and knock it back, before rolling out the dough so it's a flat square.  Take the butter/sugar/cinnamon combination and spread across the dough using a knife.  Take an extra pinch of sugar and scatter across the butter.  At this stage you can fling on a handful of raisins if you like.

Roll the dough up into a long sausage, like a Swiss roll then slice into twelve pieces.  Lay out onto a baking sheet and cover and leave to rise again.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes.

Make up lemon icing (water, lemon juice and icing sugar) and drizzle liberally over the top.

A tale of two pies

I like Autumn lots.  Mainly because it's a season which facilitates the making (and eating) of stews and pies.  I've been a bit pie obsessed recently and here are two of my favourites

Lamb Shank Pie.

This is genuinely an amazing pie.  You will need the following.

• 6 lamb shanks
• plain flour
• 4 red onions
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 1 bottle of red wine - I do love a recipe that calls for a WHOLE bottle of wine.
• 1/2 pint beef stock
• rosemary finely chopped
• 3 tbsp redcurrant jelly (I used cranberry jelly because it was what I had in the fridge)
• Salt and pepper
• Puff Pastry -  let's face it, no one really makes their own.

Roll the lamb shanks in seasoned flour and brown in hot oil in a heavy bottomed pan.  Quarter the onions and add to the pan with the garlic. Saute lightly, then add the rest of the ingredients.

Leave to simmer for two hours, or until the meat turns tender and falls off the bone.  Remove the bones and cover  with the pastry.  Take three of the lamb shank bones and use them to as pie funnels.

Brush the pastry with egg yolk and slice in a diamond pattern.  Bake for 35 minutes in a preheated oven at 180.

Unfortunately I only have a picture of this before it went in the oven, as I had some friends over for dinner and it was wolfed down the second it came out.  It was delicious though and I can highly recommend it.

Which is slightly better than the second pie, where I didn't take a picture at all.  But it is one of my favourite pies and therefore worth talking about.

It's a vegetarian dish, which is highly unusual for me.

Heidi Pie

To make this, you will require the following

• Butternut squash
• rosemary
• olive oil
• 400g tinned tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 finger chillies
• 150g soft goats cheese
• bag of washed spinach
• puff pastry - see earlier comments about making your own

Peel and core the squash and cut into chunks, coat with oil and scatter with rosemary.  Roast until soft.

Chop the garlic and fry in heated oil, add the chopped seeded chillies and fry until golden; add the tomatoes and bring to the boil then reduce the heat.

Blanche the spinach in boiling water and then shake off the excess water.  Slice the spinach.

Combine the tomatoes, spinach, butternut squash and goats cheese in a pie dish.  Cover with pastry, brush with egg yolk and cut a diamond pattern on.  Then bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 35 minutes.

The result is a beautifully vibrant, colourful, tasty pie.