weezl and friends Phase 4 - recipe testing christmas treats!

Boodle

Sorry, Aless! I meant 3x £1.28

But I don't think I included that in my total - so it looks like I am £3.16 over. I will check later on as am in middle of a few things at the mo, but a quick look seems like i miscalculated there! Will see how it goes - might not use 3 after all anyway as was erring on side of caution

aless02

Boodle wrote: »

Sorry, Aless! I meant 3x £1.28

But I don't think I included that in my total - so it looks like I am £3.16 over. I will check later on as am in middle of a few things at the mo, but a quick look seems like i miscalculated there! Will see how it goes - might not use 3 after all anyway as was erring on side of caution

Ah, okay! I'm wondering if you could save some money...Cauldron sausages are the cheapest? There's not much you can cut, really, though. Maybe something other than butter beans, but at most that only saves you 20ishp.

Apricot

Toad in the hole was perfect - I don't know why I've never eaten it before but it's definitely going to become a regular meal! There are only two of us so we had 3 sausages each and served it with broccoli and no wedges. I am absolutely stuffed!:o

shanks77

We had the TITH as well again with broccolli as neither of us are sprout fans. We only had 2 sausages each and we found it plenty. Salmon pasta tomorrow which we have trialled already so know what to expect :j:j. Glad we have a new thread its nice to have company when doing recipes

Sami_Bee

Thanks for that Lesley, much simpler

Weezl - Feedback on the Toad in'th 'ole recipe page:
would it be possible to incorporate the wedges and maybe veg timings in the method? - I totally forgot about the potatoes so we ended up having mash because there wasn't enough time for wedges by the time I realised :doh: all it would need is the highlighted adding (or similar)

pour the batter in all around the sausages. Return the roasting tin to the oven, straightaway, this time on the highest shelf, and cook for 30 minutes. After 10minutes you'll need to put your potato wedges in the oven.

also underlined there should be a space between the 2 words
The ingredients list also seems to have double line spacing which others don't.

We enjoyed it lots served with carrots because sprouts are minging I used rosemary instead of mustard in the gravy which worked well (tried it just leaving it out but it lacked 'something' )

My yorky didn't rise which was a bit gutting, I think it was because my batter was still cold from the fridged wet ingredients. I made it while the onions etc were in the oven not before as the method stated


Also on a separate note, what do you think of having the prep/cook time on the actual recipe page? its partly on some, a bit like the kit needed bit too. I love those parts but they don't seem to be on every recipe.

queen_of_string

We aren't joining you on this one, we have tried a lot of the recipes during testing, including the xmas day meal and we do have a really good excuse for not joining in ;-)

weezl74

wow! fab feedback on the toad in the hole recipe. Good edits Sami, I shall try to incorporate that asap, so we can publish.

Pawnbroker and VitaminDee, a special thank you to you two for your recent delurks. I do after this many months of voluntary work get discouraged, that is most definitely true, And knowing that there are those who want me to keep going with this is a huge part of giving me the motivation to continue. And currently there is no plan B for this project, it does stop if I do. Thanks again for helping it to continue.

In other news, did I say on here that I have invited ISOM and her mum for the mockmas meal? Fergie made an amazing Jack o' lantern, and we have tea lights to put inside it, so we can decorate our table in a spookily festive way (Fergie's was made out of a genuine pumpkin, dear reader. No root vegetable substitutions here )

weezl74

queen_of_string wrote: »

and we do have a really good excuse for not joining in ;-)

oooh get you, all mysterious

have a smashing time xxxx

Allegra

Our Christmas week testing has got off to rather a shaky start I'm afraid !!!!!! had a stomach bug few days back, and yesterday first DD then I started feeling the effects, too. That does probably mean that I will not be able to do face either cooking or eating much of the rich Christmassy extras, but I will try to do as much as I can apart from that.

Yesterday I made bread,




french onion soup (apart from a brief taster, that has gone in the fridge for future use, as I've not been able to face eating it),





and the toad -




plus a cheat; an old Shirl batch of plain houmus got excavated from the freezer and turned into onion houmus

Toad was lovely - pretty much the same as I'd normally do it (a well frugalised Delia recipe, if I am not mistaken ?) except I'd normally use plain flour (can't say I noticed any difference here anyway). I also took a leaf out of Arty's book and sliced the sausages lengthwise once cooked, before adding the batter - made them look like loads :T




I was unable to finish mine, though - and sadly most of what I did get down came back up in the night anyway

Onwards and upwards though - salmon pasta tonight, and possibly brownies (as they can be served as part of the snack mountain at DD's Halloween sleepover). Must remember to get the pork shoulder out of the freezer for tomorrow, but I will not be making the Christmas pudding - just too much to face atm and it would not get eaten - and the yule log is questionable, too. I also have to make the pizza dough, grate the cheese, and make the spider cupcakes for the aformentioned sleepover, so if there is any time and get-up-and-go left after all that, then perhaps yule log too.

weezl74

oh allegra! so sorry you have been poorly! I hope you feel better soon.