A funny thing...

Gosh, it;s been ages since I last wrote anything!! This Christmas thing is certainly filling up the day!!! I haven't really started the creative cookery yet (apart from a very nice Cranberry and Orange relish) but I will be in full swing from tomorrow onwards so I will do my best to publish something soon, but it might have to wait until after Boxing Day!!!

Anyhoo, I braved Tesco today to get a few things that Morrisons and Ocado don't do (amazingly Ocado got up our very snowy and slippery hill this morning!!) and I got the jolly checkout guy!! The lady in front had a bag of small onions at the end of her pile of stuff and as he handed this final item to her he said "That's shallott!!" Well, we all fell about laughing and when it was my turn he kept making very Two Ronnies quips like "Your crackers, milady" and "fork 'andles" It was very funny at the time and a great antidote to the chaos around us!!!!

"Bogland Medicine" or Cranberry and Orange Relish is dead easy to make:

75ml fresh orange juice

75ml water

150g caster sugar

300g fresh cranberries

Zest of one orange

Heat the water, juice and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cranberries and bring to the boil for about 5 minutes until the popping has stopped. Remove from heat and stir in the zest. Pour into a sterilised 500g kilner jar and seal. Leave to cool.

This has a fabulously tart and citrussy taste and a rich red colour. It's great with turkey, goose, duck, ham or cheeses. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!!!

The Big Chutney Question

Anyone who reads this and watched "Kirstie's Homemade Christmas" over the last few nights will have been delighted by the content of the programme and VERY annoyed that Channel 4 (in their infinite wisdom) didn't publish the promised Boxing Day Chutney recipe on their website!! Luckily I have a good memory for trivia (and pen and paper) and was in Morrisons first thing buying cranberries. I'm afraid I had to take a trip to Tesco to get the apricots, but sometimes you just have to do it!!

I apologise to any C4 execs who are making noises about copyright and all that fluff, but they should have got there first!! My fruit has been soaking overnight so I'll post the photos later!!

For anyone who didn't watch the programme but loves making chutney, this is one of those rare recipes you can eat straight away!!!!! So get cooking, there's still plenty of time!!

Kirstie's Homemade Christmas Boxing Day Chutney

Fresh ingredients

2lbs onions, peeled and chopped
2lb Bramley cooking apples, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
12oz fresh cranberries
2 pints cider vinegar
Zest of 2 oranges
1oz fresh ginger chopped finely
1tblsp coarse sea salt
½ tsp allspice (the original recipe calls for mixed spice, but this is SO nice!!)

Dried ingredients

2lb sun dried apricots coarsely chopped
1 box of dates pitted and chopped (8oz)
1lb raisins
Juice of 8 oranges or juice of the oranges you got the zest from and make it up to one pint with fresh OJ.

You will also need:

2lb granulated sugar

Method

First place all the dried fruit into a bowl and pour the orange juice over it. Cover and soak overnight.

Place the the fresh ingredients in a large pan and cook gently for about 30 minutes until the onion is pale and transparent and the cranberries have popped and start turning the mixture pinky.

Add the soaked dried fruit - which should have absorbed nearly all the orange juice - to the pan with the sugar.

Gently bring to the boil - keep stirring to prevent the mixture sticking to the bottom.

As the liquid thickens, lower the heat slightly and reduce. Don't forget!! Chutney doesn't set like jam so the consistency you pour into sterilised jars will be the consistency it stays!!! Seal.

Sterilising jars can be really easy!! In the microwave, put about 1/2" water in each jar and zap on HIGH for 2 minutes - DON'T do the lids this way!!! OR heat a regular oven to about 180C and pop in the jars with the water in and the lids very loosely on and leave in there for about half an hour. Simples!!!

Open on Boxing Day and enjoy with all those succulent hams and cheeses!!!

Holidays are coming...!

Hello at last!! It's becoming a bit of a habit this once-a-week writing!! I suppose part of it might be down to the rather mental race to get Christmas done and dusted in time plus all the usual sturm unt drang of everyday life and a few high points as well!!!

First of all though I can at last release the photo of "the quilt" and very much appreciated it was too! We had a lovely day with Irene (all the way from Seattle) in Oxford last Saturday. Injun territory for me, being more of a Cambridge girl, but some of that architecture is truly beautiful and amazing. (We are offering a return match complete with punts and tea at Grantchester Meadows.) Lunch was really good and lasted three and a half hours at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant followed by a wobble down to the Grand Cafe for afternoon tea with scones and Earl Grey tea. Irene and I had 25 years to catch up on and probably completely overwhelmed poor Rowan. He'll live!!! Pressie were swapped (including "the quilt") and we drove home very happy indeed.

Since then I feel I've been able to focus on Christmas and Tuesday saw the first of the festivities with the AGM of my quilting group followed by a bit of a party. We have a crafty secret Santa (no more than £3) and a posh raffle too with lots of yummy nibbles to keep us going. Less than half of our membership turned up, but we did have a good time. My secret Santa turned out to be an incredibly useful magnetic pin box (no more picking our way around the rug to avoid impaling our tootsies!!) and my offering of 6 metres of festive ribbons disguised as a Christmas bauble was much appreciated too. Wednesday evening brought a tutored wine tasting session at the local golf club. Very nice it was too, though a couple of reds left a little to be desired there was a truly gorgeous tawny port, a lovely fresh Champagne and it all finished on the most delectable dessert wine - we'll probably buy some of that! It's a good excuse to dress up a bit and get my posh winter coat (red wool, double-breasted) out of the wardrobe!

Tuesday was also the best day of the week with a crisp frost and bright sunny day so I hauled my sorry ass up a ladder and put up the outdoor lights. The night before I had sat on the floor surrounded by a tangle of not-that-old icicle lights trying in vain to get them working properly. After a while we realised the irony of what I was doing - we were also watching a programme about global warming. We took one look at each other and one look at the pile of wire and bulbs and shook our heads. SO this year we have Roxy the reindeer (who will be a regular until she shuffles off the electric coil) and a set of five 6 metre strings of fairy lights that suspend from a central star. Once they die we'll not replace them, or at least not like-for-like. I'm still sewing too (another secret) amidst the pile of chores and much needed coffee mate dates. The whole house is an utter tip and I'm not sure how it'll get straight in time for Christmas, but I guess it WILL happen!

There have been cards to write and parcels to wrap for the last international post today, more cards to be written for friends who we'll see this weekend for the last time before the holidays and rather a lot of shopping to be done!!! We had a great time in Cambridge today buying the last presents and eating out. Another lovely day and everything went very well, including a certain small boy who behaved impeccably at lunch and only started messing about after six hours of shop and drop - can't blame him really!! My legs are killing me now and I still have two dozen Caramelised Onion and Goats' Cheese Tarts to make for tomorrow!! Easy recipe:

One red onion, finely sliced

Knob of butter

Teaspoon of balsamic vinegar

teaspoon dark brown sugar

Finely chopped rosemary

Pinch of salt

Sheet of puff pastry cut into 12 or 16 squares

150g soft goats cheese

An egg, separated

Tablespoon double cream

Fry onions gently over a low heat in butter with vinegar, sugar, rosemary and salt until very well cooked and dark, but not burnt!!! Leave to cool.

Roll out and mark out pastry sheet.

Beat cream, egg yolk and goats' cheese together until smooth.

In the centre of each pastry square dollop an equal amount of red onion and cover with a dollop of the cheese mixture.

Brush pastry edges with egg white and bake at 200C for about 15 minutes or until golden. YUMMY!!!!!!

I guarantee there won't be a single one left. ENJOY!!!