Inspect-a-Gadget!

A friend of mine was listing the fabulous kitchen gadgets she had acquired recently but bemoaned the fact she didn't own a spiraliser. "That's so last year" I comforted her. However, it seems the spiraliser is here to stay and, if you don't own one, you can buy pre-spiraliser food from the supermarket.

Every year has its share of gadgets. The 1960s saw refrigerators becoming popular and revolutionising the way we shopped and ate. My own favourite 1960s gadget was a wall mounted tin opener in our pantry. I would slide the door shut and then wind the tin opener before announcing "third floor - ladies hats!" Yes, I did have a vivid imagination.

During the 1970s home freezers brought women freedom. They could buy ready frozen foods and cooked in batches to freeze food for future meals. This eased the time constraints caused by more women working. The other 70s gadgets I remember were the fondue and the soda siphon - ideal for any dinner (or anyone aspiring to host their own Abigail's Party!)

With the 1980s came sandwich toasters, electric carving knives and, of course, the microwave. This used an electromagnetic wave to cook in a fraction of the time of a conventional oven. It could also be used to defrost frozen foods. A scare about waves escaping and harming humans meant people invested in another gadget which would then monitor whether or not the microwave was leaking!

The 1990s continued what the 80s had started - to show off with cafetières and pasta machines. Where previously there was a cupboard cemetery of unused and unloved gadgets, now your items were on show and no trendy kitchen would be seen without a Philip Starke juicer standing like an alien upon your worktop.

In the noughties I remember watching Ready Steady Cook with my young children who would hand me plates of plastic egg and chips or pizza at the "stop cooking" command. I would then have to hold up a green pepper or red tomato to whichever dish looked the most (erm) appetising! After watching this programme sales of kitchen blowtorches took off, enabling us to make perfect creme brulees.

Christmas 2015 saw us with a new waffle maker and some onion glasses. Whilst chopping onions I can now look like Dame Edna without shedding a tear - erm, and that's a good thing?!

A Box of Delights!

On a very wet Tuesday lunchtime in mid December my octogenarian parents treated my sister and I to lunch at the Box Tree restaurant in Ilkley, Yorkshire. The Box Tree was originally established in 1962 (as was I!) and is the Michelin star restaurant where Marco Pierre White started out. The Michelin star rating has had its ups and downs but appears stable now in the hands of Simon Gueller. From the outside it still looks like a chocolate box cottage and the inside is a warren of rooms with an old fashioned feel. The ambience is formal, 'though not grand.

Having downed my umbrella at the door I stepped into the old fashioned warmth of the lounge area and was relieved of my coat by the attentive maitre d before joining my family. We enjoyed pre-drinks and nibbles whilst choosing from the menu and ordering. The French menu is fairly extensive although my decision was hastened by the arrival of the vegetarian menu:-

Starter

Oranges, fennel, asparagus and coriander

Main Course (as pictured below)

Printaniere vegetables

Carrot and anise

Salt baked roots

Dessert

Cherry cheesecake basically - I forget the description!

This was all very delicious, though fairly minimal portion-wise! Therefore it was a treat to return to the antique filled lounge and enjoy coffees and teas with chocolates served with tweezers (and great aplomb) from a wooden box on legs - bizarre but delicious. The service throughout had been formal yet friendly with lengthy descriptions of food and attentive advice on wine.

Whilst the vegetarian menu was delicious, I think meat and fish eaters would probably appreciate it more. This is a restaurant to visit for a special occasion, for a foodie or for a person with a large wallet!

Leaping in to the New Year!

Only three days in to January and enjoyed a lovely brunch with friends at a healthy eating cafe. Topics of conversation included Dry January, detoxing and the NutriBullet! What a sign of the times; our age, our lifestyle and the world around us!

Over the festive period I received a text message from WaterAid asking me to only drink water for the month of January, presumably to be sponsored and raise money for this worthwhile cause. Whilst I can give up alcohol for a month, cups of tea might be a stretch too far! 

I picked up a leaflet in said healthy eating cafe this morning entitled Juice and Soup Cleanse information pack. Basically there are three cleanse programmes to choose from, all of which include a lot of liquid and very little solids. I take my hat off to anyone who likes that much soup, juice, hot water and herbal tea and who gets excited by a handful of nuts! Personally I'm a believer in everything in moderation so will not be partaking in this extreme diet.

However I am planning to do Dry January again. I'm not a massive drinker anyway but quite like the idea of restoring the December/January equilibrium! I'll drink more water with occasional lime or elderflower sodas and maybe even have a mocktail for a treat.

As for food, I have eaten enough individually wrapped chocolates and toffees from tubs and will not crave another for a little while.

On New Years Eve at a Murder Mystery Dinner I took the part of Mae Vest and enjoyed researching quotes by Mae West to throw into conversation. One of my favourites was:

I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.

Haha - well said Mae! 

Feeling a bit ginger?

After all the excessive celebratory food and drink consumed over the last few days I think we are all feeling a little bit ginger! However, there are times when only a cup of (Yorkshire, or at least English) tea will do! We don't have to forfeit the seasonal sweet offerings as they all go perfectly well with this beverage whether it be warmed mince pies, Yuletide log or a slice of Christmas cake (served with cheese in Yorkshire!)

My personal favourite is a ginger biscuit, delicious at any time of year but made seasonal with the use of a snowman, snowflake or star cookie cutter. The recipe below was passed on from my mum who used to let us make gingerbread men as children. You can vary the amount of ginger according to taste but I like mine to do what it says on the tin, ie taste of ginger!

4 oz Stork margerine

4 oz Demerara sugar

8 oz Self Raising flour

1 tbsp Golden Syrup

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

3 tsp Ground Ginger

Cream together the margerine and sugar then add the syrup.

Add all the dry ingredients and form into a ball

Roll out and cut into shapes

Bake on a tray at gas mark 4 for 10-15 mins

Leave to cool for as long as you can manage without trying one!

Can be decorated with piped icing or a dusting of icing sugar

Bake and enjoy ...

Oh Sinner Man!X Oh Cinnamon!

ISorry, no, not the spiritual song recorded by several artists since 1956 and played on recorders in primary schools up and down the country!

Cinnamon is a spice available in stick or powder form and used in cooking, baking and beverages as well as having medicinal uses. Watch any Christmas cookery or baking show and you can be sure the presenters will inhale the aroma of whatever they are preparing and agree, that is the smell of Christmas!

My mum told me that when she was younger they used to light the ends of cinnamon sticks and try smoking them!!

Popular dishes include Christmas Cinnamon rolls baked together in the shape of a Christmas Tree but it is also used in biscuits and cakes. Although available all year round, it's warming properties are possibly what make it a seasonal spice.

Eggnog is a popular Christmas Drink (referred to in the 1932 novel Cold Comfort Farm as "Hell's Angel" and taken for breakfast). It usually consists of milk, cream, sugar and eggs whisked together with brandy (or sherry or rum) added and a good sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

Each Christmas as we wrestle with the Christmas Tree, lights and decorations I feel we should be singing carols and clinking our glasses of eggnog in a resonating "Cheers!"

So here it is, a great big Cinnamon Eggnog Cheers to Christmas!

Now bring us some figgy pudding!

Figgy pudding originates in the 16th century when it was a kind of porridge. In the 19th century it resembled the pudding we recognise today and was at the height of popularity, also known as Plum pudding and Christmas pudding. Yes it really is like steamed Christmas pudding but made with the addition of dried figs. In days gone by we vegetarians probably could not have eaten it as it would have been made with suet but nowadays the pudding recipes are mostly vegetarian versions.

The seasonal song "We wish you a Merry Christmas" is sung by Christmas carolers who ask to be paid in figgy pudding. And, of course, they won't go until they get some!

In Victorian England, Charles Dickens penned "A Christmas Carol" and wrote about the pudding made by Mrs. Cratchit which would, no doubt, have resembled the figgy/plum/Christmas pudding we know today:

"... the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.

Oh, a wonderful pudding!"

So, let's indulge ourselves in the past, present and future of Christmas. In the words of the carolers, "We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year".

Chestnuts roasting by an open fire!

Having tasted my first chestnut some 30 years ago I broke out in a rash and thought I must be allergic. It turned out to be an allergy to elastoplast thankfully! It would be such a shame to miss out on this seasonal produce. It's very rare to see the street vendors with their glowing braziers offering a brown paper bag stuffed with the sweet hot nuts nowadays but, if you do want to see them, now is the time.

Chestnuts are extremely versatile as they can be used in savoury dishes such as soups and stuffings to add flavour and texture. They are a popular addition to Christmas Day Brussels Sprouts.

Much as we would all like to sit beside an open fire roasting our own chestnuts, they do have to be peeled (shell and inner skin) once cooled. However, an easier alternative is to use Merchant Gourmet packets which are already cooked and peeled for convenience. The added bonus is that they can be used all year round.

Alternatively, chestnuts can be boiled in sugar and water then dried in the oven and used as a topping on cakes (marrons glace) or made into a puree (creme de marrons). However, for your convenience, this can also be purchased in a can or jar. 

Having had recent success with Nigella's coffee ice cream I am aiming to make the No-churn chestnut ice cream from her Nigellissima book - seasonal, easy peasy and scrummy - that's my kind of Christmas!

And so, I'm offering this

Simple phrase to kids from

One to ninety-two

Altho' it's been said many times

Many ways

"Merry Christmas to you"