Christmas Eve …

I have walnut and raisin bread rising.  I have stuffed the goose with a mix of sausagemeat, cranberries, apricots soaked in Cointreau, crumbled black pudding, a mixture of white and soda bread crumbs.  I have made stuffing balls with herbs from the garden, and more breadcrumbs. I have rubbed fivespice powder into the goose’s skin,…

chicken (and duck) soup

I stuck the chicken carcass in the slow cooker (how I love that thing!) with just some water, and cooked it overnight to make stock. And then I cooked it again the next night, as I hadn’t got round to removing the chicken from it and stripping the last of the meat from the bones…

chicken pie

(Or, at least, the filling thereof).  We had a roast chicken last week, a 5lb one.  It fed four for one meal, we had a stir fry the next night, then Pete stripped the carcass and I made stock, and then soup from the bones. But the remaining meat languished in the fridge – somehow…

did you get the things we needed (an occasional series)

We set off bright and early (for us, anyway – about 9.45) for the South Cave farmer’s market. It wasn’t a patch on the Humber Bridge one, so we won’t bother again, but we will visit the Humber Xmas Special market – they had some beautiful venison loins last week, and I fancy one for…

christmas cake

Rather belatedly, I made our christmas cake last night; I’d normally have done it in November, but what with the move and all … I use a variation on a tried and tested Nigel Slater recipe, and here it is: Prepare a 20cm deep cake pan – grease well, line with a double thickness of…

"bland food"

We have some friends coming over for supper tonight – we only met them quite recently, and we’ve never eaten together before.  I asked Linda if there was anything she didn’t like, and she said “I don’t like spicy food – I just like things plain and bland”. Aargh – I don’t do plain and…

all quiet on the Eastern front

Apologies for the lack of posts – we moved from North Somerset to Kingston-upon-Hull on 21st November, and life has been chaotic ever since!  I’ve had time to cook, but not time to write it up. We brought some stuff with us from the freezer, and our coolbag was so effective I could actually put…