Cheese Puff Biscuits and Champagne

The festive spirit being fully upon us now,  we decided to have a drinks party on Sunday night. In truly adventurous spirit, 20 friends managed to get here through the snow and ice. Some walked and some drove. They all deserved a cracking good welcome and so we popped lots of champagne corks and The Pink Lovely dressed as a plum pudding fairy with full wings and petticoats, floated around the sitting room handing round warm cheese puff biscuits, mini mince-pies and cocktail sausages.
My Cheating Cheese biscuits
You will need to buy either 2 packets of mail-order gluten-free puff pastry (email me for information) or  ready to roll fresh or frozen puff pastry
A dusting of gluten free plain flour or wheat flour
1 block of extra strong local cheddar cheese or Arla lactofree semi-hard cheese
Caraway seeds
1 or 2 beaten eggs

I taught The Pink Lovely to roll our pastry by cutting the blocks into quarters and rolling out each part with a dusting of flour. She happily cut out loads and loads of rounds and stars.  We placed them on the non-stick baking sheets and brushed them lightly with beaten egg. Plonked a fingernail sized piece of cheese in the centre of each pastry shape. Sprinkled with the seeds and then baked them until puffy and golden. Leave them to cool a little before transferring to a  wire rack.  Reheat the Cheese Puff biscuits and serve warm with lots of mulled wine or fizz!

Shortbread and Ice cream

Comfort food for me is not the eating of it but the baking of it!  So this past week, I have baked rather more than I would normally! 4inches of snow outside, many daring and exciting walks with the dogs, the toboggan and the Pink Lovely lead to the need for kitchen warmth and comfort!  Personally, I am not a great fan of tobogganing as it inevitably leads me directly towards a mole hill, followed swiftly by the interior of a hedge! I do however enjoy pushing the Pink Lovely down the hill and watching her hair-razing decent and her funny navigation techniques!  We stomp back through the snow in the knowledge that the oven is on and ready for more action, but the marginally less dangerous kind!

The Pink Lovely hates shortbread so I am told. Bother, shortbread for tea today. Brainwave, I hide the title of the recipe and we think that we are making Christmas Biscuits that she can eat warm. The Pink Lovely then proceeds to make them, that his how easy the recipe is!

Shortbread recipe can be gluten, wheat or dairy free 

115g butter or dairy-free sunflower spread

55g caster sugar

good pinch fine sea salt

130g plain gluten-free flour mix or organic wheat flour

40g ground rice

Demerara sugar to finish

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/gas 2

In a good sized bowl, beat the butter and salt with the caster sugar until soft, light and smooth.  Sift the flour and ground rice over it and mix with a blunt knife to a smooth dough.  Bring the dough into a ball with your clean hands (not guaranteed with the Pink Lovely!) and gently push and press it into a flatter shape.

Place the dough onto a non-stick baking tray and press into about 8inch or 20cm circle or square. Score with

a sharp knife into about 12 portions. Sprinkle lightly with Demerara sugar and chill the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes and then bake in the centre of the oven for about 45 minutes or until golden and cooked through.  Leave to cool on the tray and then cut through the scored lines into neat slices or squares.  Eat warm or cold.

Triumphant, The Pink Lovely eats 6 pieces of shortbread and loved them!  We then bashed the rest up with a rolling pin, which is fun at the best of times and particularly fun with a 7yr old! and we swiftly folded the little shortbread bits into a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Lined a baby loaf tin with cling film and spooned the iced mixture in, smoothed it over and bingo - pudding for lunch!  Freeze until needed and then cut into slices and serve with warm chocolate sauce drizzled over the top. Glorious!

Dazzlingly White

I feel like I have just walked through the wardrobe and found myself in Narnia! Everywhere is shimmering white, the temperature is an astonishing -11 degrees. The brilliant blue sky is an epic contrast to the ice crystals hanging off the trees and the feathery iced spider webs look like frozen lace on the gates and gate posts. Coco has sore paws after the walk due to salt getting in her paws on the icy lanes.  A warm bathe is perscribed but unfortunately we still have no water so a little bowl of luke warm Highland Spring Water is the only option!

Frozen Eggs

Oh Yum, I cannot wait for my delivery of organic, free range eggs from my dear friend over Clee Hill for my rather late breakfast this morning. My hands are freezing from typing and a hot, steaming cuppa of Yorkshire Gold, (just enough water in the kettle) is an essential hand warmer and hot fried eggs on hot toast to warm the rest of me up!  The eggs have just arrived via my lovely au pair who picks them up from the class room on the school run and I do not believe it - they are actually frozen! They do not ooze out the remain firmly in the shell, absolutely amazing!  Oh well - Porridge for breakfast!
The Mice have been at the Christmas Cake, that is The Pink Lovely Mouse, Mummy Mouse and Au Pair Mouse!  There are a few crumbs left but we feel this may be a bit embarrassing when we actually do get to Christmas and have none left! So, we are making another cake and with the oven on for 21/2 hrs or more, we shall be snug in the kitchen.  I think we shall be finding other jobs to be done in the kitchen this morning!
The fog has finally lifted after 4 days and I am going to drive over to Stourbridge and collect my new car which does have 4x4 and should consequently allow me to spend my entire time driving on the freezing lanes rather than my entire time in the ditch, hedge or at the bottom of the hill. This will undoubtedly improve the quality of my winter life on the Herefordshire and Shropshire borders and with any luck as it is bright blue instead of murky bamboo, the farmers will see me coming at some distance rather than when they are about 2 feet away!
The Pink Lovely is playing in a Rugby Tag match at school today against the boys, rather her than me, sounds exhausting!  Off to the kitchen to warm up.....

Global Warming, House Cooling & Lanes Freezing

Not being a scientist, not even a vulcanoligist like one of my dear neighbours, I have little understanding of global warming. So at a dinner party a few days ago I mentioned that it seemed a little unlikely, as we are currently struggling in-12degrees that England is going to turn into Club Med! This comment was pounced on as ridiculous because quite obviously Global warming means freezing winters and boiling hot summers! Well, first I have heard of it! Freezing winters I can believe but boiling hot summers that indeed would be remarkable.  During all the excitement of trying to get my car out of the driveway and keep it on the freezing lanes, rather than in the hedge and watching with fascination at the car temperature indicator dropping to -10 on the way to school I have completely forgotten to check the oil tank. Slightly alarmed at the 2 inches of oil now left in the bottom of the tank I ring the oil company, it must be global warming, everyone is so cold they have all ordered more oil! Sorry Mrs Lawrence it may be 2 weeks.  TWO WEEKS! Immediate action is called for; I dash around the house and turn down the heating by 4 degrees in every room and then go and make some hot soup.
The Pink Lovely is now delighted to go to school so that she can get warm! We try and find our log shed through pea soup fog which is so thick I cannot even see my hanging baskets! The logs are damp and need to be lugged into the house and  into rows of baskets in the sitting room to dry out for the next few days.  At least we do have a wood burning stove giving out heat and we are as snug as a bug in a rug up there.
Disaster this morning, NO WATER! the pump that brings our water up from the underground well has finally frozen.  We have been heating the pump shed with an little electric heater and so far so good but this morning in -11degrees it has given up! Luckily our dear friend and neighbour who is a retired civil engineer has it under control and is at this very moment on a quest to revive the pump.
I am off to feed the birds in the garden,  hang out more fat balls for them and check the water in the stream has not frozen so that they can stay alive. The Pink Lovely has built a wooden nesting box and we are going to nail that to a tree this morning for the little bird that is trying to nest in the hole in the gate post!

The dogs, Lucy and Coco don't seem madly keen on walks just at the moment and seem happy with 25 minutes of dashing around the woods to keep warm and let off a bit of steam.  The deer have come down to try and find some grass and so the dogs get rather excited and huff and  puff around on a quest to find one!

GOOSEY GOOSEY GANDER......

Goose or Turkey for Christmas Day? December the first today and an early start as The Pink Lovely woke up at 3am to open day 1 on her advent calender!  Quite rightly, judging this not to be the exact moment to wake me up and confide in the unbelievable excitement of the ceremonial openings (3 gorgeous advent calenders!), I shall have to go and have a quick peak before she gets back from school! If I can get her back from school! Not only is it snowing but the lanes are skating rinks of compacted ice and crushed snow. Ideal for 10 minutes of top notch stress!
Back to the big question: There is a free-range goose farm down the lane and they look like a pure white snow storm on the hill side as they potter and flutter around the field. Very engaging but does one actually feed enough people or would a big fat juicy turkey be safer? Do we want days of turkey leftovers or might we survive on a slice of goose?
Either way the fruity stuffing that I made for my roast pheasant the other day was sublime.  The tartness of the apples complimented the delicate meat and the prunes gave it the sweet contrast. This is perfect stuffing for goose or turkey which is lucky as I am still undecided! It will cut through rich meat but enhance bland meat and is delicious cold.
RECIPE FOR EASY GLUTEN FREE CHRISTMAS STUFFING
Serves 6-8 ( 2/3 roast pheasants or a huge family roast chicken)
Bake the stuffing in a 1.5litre china soufflé dish or something round and deep for 2hrs, covered with a piece of buttered paper and a lid of double thickness foil. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas4. Or stuff the chicken/goose/small turkey with it.  If the turkey is huge, I suggest stuffing it with a traditional sausage-meat based stuffing and having this apple and prune stuffing as a side dish.
225g gluten free Antoinette Savill Signature Series white bread (Waitrose and Morrisons), whizzed into breadcrumbs
100g ready-to-eat, stoned prunes, finely diced
2 large Bramley apples, peeled cored and finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
15g bunch sage, leaves only diced
fine sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, freshly grated nutmeg
Zest and juice of 1 large lemon
30g melted butter or sunflower dairy free spread
Mix all the ingredients together with a blunt knife in a large bowl. Bind the ingredients together with the melted butter.  Stuff the cavity of the chicken or goose and roast until the bird is thoroughly cooked.

Easy Gluten Free Christmas Mincemeat

It is snowing again and so the moment has come to do a Christmas Mincemeat tasting and choose between mine and a few other local goodies. Totally unbiased of course, The Pink Lovely will be the judge! A very discerning and honest 7yr old, I am quaking in my snow boots!
The verdict is out: All the other jars of mincemeat were too sweet and mine was voted the tastiest and richest but mine was not as colourful and oozy as the others. So now I am adding 4 more tablespoons of brandy to my recipe. If you want to put in some quartered glacé cherries for colour, then do!
I shall now go and stir the extra brandy into my mincemeat!                                          RECIPE FOR MY EASY GLUTEN FREE CHRISTMAS MINCEMEAT
makes about 4x400ml jars
2x large Bramley apples or 3 big eating apples, cored and finely chopped
500g mixed dried fruit
100g ready-chopped candied peel
60g blanched almonds, chopped
175g light muscovado sugar
1 large orange and lemon, zest and juice
2 heaped teaspoons mixed spice
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Plenty of freshly grated nutmeg
10 tablespoons brandy or rum
150g butter or sunflower dairy-free spread

Put all the ingredients except the butter in a large bowl, cover and leave all night for the flavours to develop.
Make sure you have your jam jars sterilized and hot.
Put the fruit mixture into a roasting tin or large dish and bake in a low oven until it is warmed through which should be about 20 minutes. Dot the butter over the warm fruit and carefully fold it in until it has all melted.  Divide the mixture between the hot jars and put the lids on.  Leave to cool and store in a cool, dark place.

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