weezl and friends Phase 4 - recipe testing christmas treats!

Apricot

Made the creamy parsnip soup for tea - was absolutely gorgeous as prolaimed by OH. I actually split the batch into two portions and made the first as per the recipe which we ate earlier and made another one but added curry powder to the second batch - have just had a taste and that's lovely as well - going to pop that in the freezer for another day!

VenusFlytrap_2

Hey everyone

Well have finally made CFR carrot cake - and it is beautiful, especially love the raisins soaked in orange juice, mmm! Made a half batch in a loaf tin and there's loads, will be taking some to work tomorrow for the girls to try, imagine it'll go down a storm. :T Definitely my 2nd favourite CFR cake - brownies being No 1, don't think you'll be disappointed Shanks!

The cream cheese frosting wasn't as much of a success - you're right, Potty, soft cheese is far too runny! It made a lovely gooey sauce though, so have kept it in the fridge and spooned it over slices of the cake warmed in the microwave - delicious and makes a great hot pudding at this time of year. Will try the frosting again properly with mascarpone, good excuse to make the yummy carrot cake again too!

Had another disaster in the kitchen this afternoon with a Nigella recipe - "mozzarella in carozza" which is a fancy Italian way of saying "eggy-bread cheese toastie" - got the recipe from this pretty ace food blog. Not sure what went wrong, think a combo of allowing the bread to soak up too much milk and cooking too quickly at too higher temperature, but the outsides were lovely and crunchy and golden while the insides were soggy and just not nice! Cooked properly think they'd be gorgeous, and my loss this time was Winston the bulldog's gain, he gobbled them down regardless! :rotfl:

Hope everyone's had a good weekend, can't wait to hear how your Mockmas went Hayley and the crafting thing sounds like a very good hobby to take up Arty, especially with Christmas coming up - you could do HM cards, pressies and even decorations.

Apricot

:rotfl: Just checked the recipe and I should have used mixed spice in the first batch - oops! Oh well it was still nice without.:o

queen_of_string

It seems really appropriate that Pink Hayley should be serving the xmas meal to friends and family on the day the xmas planner is fully launched. It's now safe to link the planner for others to see as all the links are now working and the recipes have been tweaked where needed in the light of testing feedback. Ace job everyone and especially, of course, Weezl!

nopot2pin

princessleah_ wrote: »

Made the creamy parsnip soup for tea - was absolutely gorgeous as prolaimed by OH. I actually split the batch into two portions and made the first as per the recipe which we ate earlier and made another one but added curry powder to the second batch - have just had a taste and that's lovely as well - going to pop that in the freezer for another day!

I have just looked at this recipe on the CFR site.
It looks soooooooooo easy to make. Its good to know that it is lovely

And what a fab idea to add curry powder to half.... :T
How much did you add Leah ?

nopot2pin

VenusFlytrap wrote: »

s!

The cream cheese frosting wasn't as much of a success - you're right, Potty, soft cheese is far too runny! It made a lovely gooey sauce though, so have kept it in the fridge and spooned it over slices of the cake warmed in the microwave - delicious and makes a great hot pudding at this time of year. Will try the frosting again properly with mascarpone, good excuse to make the yummy carrot cake again too!

I dont know why cream cheese doesnt work... the minute the icing sugar goes in it, it goes runny....
The mascarpone does work a wee treat though

domesticgoddess789

Well, we are stuffed and absolutely exhausted!

The CFR Christmas meal was delicious and received rave reviews :T. My family could not quite believe it was actually frugal, so much so that I had to prove it and show them the website and ingredients list!

I lit a Christmas candle, dug out some fairy lights (very Nigella!) and popped on a Christmas cd. It was a lovely evening and the food was fab. So for anyone who is thinking about trying it, either for Christmas or another time, do give it a try. I have never ever cooked a roast dinner before and it was very straightforward and the finished results were more than worth the effort. Thank you Weezl and Cheap Family Recipes for all your help

Sami_Bee

I made toad not in a hole tonight, my yorkie was an epic fail again flat as a blimmin pancake!

we still ate it and there was enough left over for me to do a Nigella and eat it for pudding too (with golden syrup on :drool:)

domesticgoddess789

Sami_Bee wrote: »

I made toad not in a hole tonight, my yorkie was an epic fail again flat as a blimmin pancake!

we still ate it and there was enough left over for me to do a Nigella and eat it for pudding too (with golden syrup on :drool:)

My grandparents love yorkshire pudding as a pudding with blackberry vinegar on it!

shanks77

Sami the meal still looks good though not as puffed as you may like. Keep forgetting to do the Nigella thing it sounds lovely. We had the tomato pasta last night with some leftover salami instead of bacon very nice it was. Not sure what we are having tonight hopefully inspiration will strike soon.