Showing posts from November, 2016

Brie and Cranberry Tear & Share Christmas Tree Bread

Gather friends and family for a festive and delicious treat - Brie and Cranberry Tear & Share Christmas Tree Bread ! This pull-apart bread makes the perfect sharing appetiser.   This Brie and Cranberry bread is super easy to make but really tasty too. The dough comes together quickly in the bread maker using basic ingredients like flour, yeast, salt and water. No bread maker? No problem, you can easily mix it by hand using this recipe and omitting the olives, garlic and fennel seeds! I wanted to create a festive filling that really captures the flavours of the season. Brie and cranberries was the perfect combo - creamy and tart. Arranging the pinwheels in a Christmas tree shape makes it a really eye-catching centerpiece for your festive table too. Serve it warm from the oven for the best experience. I recommend having a pot of chestnut soup on the side - the ultimate cosy winter meal. You really couldn't polish this whole loaf off yourself, but you'll definitely want to!


Sweet Potato and Blue Cheese Dauphinoise

This  Sweet Potato and Blue Cheese Dauphinoise is my most recent sweet potato creation, but definitely one of my best. Decadent and creamy, this vegetarian friendly dish would make a lovely addition to your Christmas lunch, either as a side or as a main dish for the veggie's in your house. I also have it on good authority it's a very 'hygge' dish. Hygge (pronounced 'Hue Gah') is a Danish word (although the Norwegians argue it's originally from them), that's very 'in' at the moment. It basically means creating an elevated state of cosiness....think people close to you, woolly socks, warm fire, candlelight...and most importantly comfort food. This dish most certainly ticks the comfort food box! The blue cheese and Parmesan contrast so well with the sweetness of the potatoes and the creaminess of the sauce and I would be more than happy to eat a bowlful of this for dinner with nothing else. In fact, I did just that with the leftovers. I used


Honey Ale Mac n Cheese

Mac 'n' Cheese is by far and away my favourite comfort food. You only need to look at my weekly meal plan posts to realise how often it features. Recently I've been trying some variations to my usual recipe , including a very tasty Sweet Potato Mac n Cheese  and a cauliflower and broccoli one too. I've also spied a yummy looking Chorizo and Butternut Squash version over on Farmersgirl Cooks which has gone on my list to make soon! I usually use the roux method for making my cheese sauce, cooking the macaroni separately before stirring it in at the end. This recipe however uses a completely different method, with the macaroni pasta cooking in the milk and ale sauce before stirring in the grated cheese and placing under the grill to give it a bit of colour. It's a truly one pan meal, which makes cleaning up afterwards nice and easy! The ale I used in this was a  Hiver  Honey Ale and it gave the dish a welsh rarebit kind of flavour. It's really rich (just


Smoky Sweet Potato and Butter Bean Stew

A rich vegetarian stew recipe with sweet potatoes, butter beans and spinach in a tomato and smoked paprika sauce


Chocolate Bark with Popcorn

A no bake chocolate bark with popcorn and candy. The kids will love it! I made a batch of this Chocolate Bark with Popcorn  to take to a friends party recently. It's super quick to make, and after an hour or so in the fridge, you have a chocolatey sweet treat, just perfect for the kids!


Mini Smoked Salmon Cheesecakes

Mini savoury  Smoked Salmon Cheesecakes with an oatcake base and cream cheese, smoked salmon and horseradish topping. Perfect for a make-ahead Christmas starter .


Mild and Fruity Sausage Curry

Two curry recipes in a week! Sorry about that but I couldn't resist posting this little number to celebrate British Sausage Week which runs from 31st October to the 6th November 2016. Now, you might think sausage and curry are two words that shouldn't be heard in the same sentence together...and I was most certainly in that camp, until recently that is. A friend of mine mentioned she makes a version of sausage curry for her children that according to her, goes down very well (as in everyone eats it without a fuss - can't go wrong then!). I was very sceptical but took a leap of faith, listened to my friend and made it and I'm very glad I did. Who on earth knew sausages would work so well in a curry!! Well, my friend did,  I just wished I had cottoned onto this fab combination sooner. I can't say the first time I served it went without it's problems though. When presenting the sausage curry to the kids, my 7 year old son who like other 7 year old boys lik