weezl and friends Phase 4 - recipe testing christmas treats!

weezl74

NOTE TO ANYONE DOING THE BIG MEAL TOMORROW:

the timings guide assumes you have prepared the christmas pudding today it is possible to do it tomorrow, but for lunch-time serve up, you will have your work cut out!

weezl74

Sami_Bee wrote: »

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

sami, what shall I put on the recipe about this? shall I put in brackets (at room temp) or sommat?

Boodle

Great pics Allegra - hope you feel better soon x

I nearly took a photo of our casserole last night but it looked so nice that I couldn't wait to hunt around for the camera and scoffed it right away :P

Been readjusting the shopping list, so replacing the Cauldron sausages with the Asda meat-free sausage mix (no ingredients online so when I am next at Asda will check its definitely suitable), the brazils with 99p pack of pumpkin seeds and the dates with 70p pack of smart price fruit and nut mix. Also reducing the oat milk to 2 cartons and seeing how that goes That reduces the total to £24.69 I think.

The sausage mix will mean I can shape smaller sausages therefore getting enough for the sausage casserole, the sausage and potato salad, save a little for the Xmas dinner + maybe wee uns to have with French Toast breakfast (which is looking like will be with fried mushrooms and ketchup here ) This should be do-able by adding oats or breadcrumbs to the mix to bulk it out if necessary too.

So last night, I used the CFR Toad recipe to create a casserole: cooked 3 sausages + the onion wedges as the recipe instructed. Made up 1/2 of the gravy. Sausage was sliced up and added to the gravy with the onion. Served with the wedges and sprouts it was plenty and delicious. However I realised too late that I could have used the Toad's flour element and made scones to my usual recipe which would have been lovely with the casserole: Scone recipe being 200g self raising flour with pinch of salt and ground pepper (herbs added sometimes), rub in 50g spread (or stir in about 4 tbsp oil) then stir in 100ml oat milk... shape into scones, place on lined baking tray and bake for 15 mins at 200C.

domesticgoddess789

The chocolate brownies are amazing!!! :T Made a half batch last night (but used 2 eggs) and they came out lovely. Will definitely make them again. We cut the half batch into 9 pieces cus we are greedy here They went down really well with my sister and her OH too.

Just having some leftover roast onion houmous on toast for lunch, it's lovely. Can't decide now which houmous is my favourite cus they are all so nice!

Hope everyone is enjoying the new recipes.

Lesley_Gaye

oof allegra, if you are having the same virus I had recently, and many people are saying that they know someone knocked off their feet for 10 days or so, I can only stand back in admiration at your ability to cook anything at all

I was unable even to muster enough energy to keep myself clean for 4 days. At the end of it, even my eye lids were greasy and it was such a relief to be able to stand upright for long enough to have a shower

good luck with mockmass, think you might need it, and well done for even trying it, I know I wouldn't have

Boodle

I made plain hummus today for lunch, and we all had it in sandwiches instead of on toast. Very nice. Baby didn't really touch it but she wasn't really hungry bless her. Me and OH enjoyed tho

Have steamed the Xmas Pud and seems to have worked nicely replacing the egg with 50ml veg oil. The only problem was that I cooked the sugar too hard while I was tidying the kitchen and almost ended up with boiled sweets Luckily I salvaged it by stirring some of the soaking juice into the pan rather than hot into cold, then poured he sugar mix into the batter. Just means my pud is a bit paler than it should be as the sugar had boiled before it dissolved and caramelised. Smells nice but think I was too frugal with the mixed spice.

Sami_Bee

weezl74 wrote: »

sami, what shall I put on the recipe about this? shall I put in brackets (at room temp) or sommat?[/FONT]

yeah, I just thought really hard and could think of any other way

I'm still annoyed with myself, I used to pride myself on my yorkies!:cool:

Get well soon allegra!

artybear

Hello,

I went shopping this afternoon (spent a bit more than I thought but hey ho...I got pretty boots lol)

However I was flicking through a vegetarian magazine and they had a similar planner to ours for Christmas and it was £4 per person per meal!!! And this was advertised as cheap!!! The recipes did look lovely but nothing amazing, I think their problem was mainly using unique ingredients for each meal and things such as ready rolled puff pastry (which is easy to use but does push the cost up).

Just thought I'd say as it shows just how cheaper CFR is!!!!

xxx

Allegra

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

oof allegra, if you are having the same virus I had recently, and many people are saying that they know someone knocked off their feet for 10 days or so, I can only stand back in admiration at your ability to cook anything at all

I was unable even to muster enough energy to keep myself clean for 4 days. At the end of it, even my eye lids were greasy and it was such a relief to be able to stand upright for long enough to have a shower

good luck with mockmass, think you might need it, and well done for even trying it, I know I wouldn't have

I am made of sterner stuff Actually, tbf, it probably isn't the same virus - !!!!!! had it worst and he was only off his feet a couple of days; DD next, and she was in bed all day yesterday but is pretty much okay today; I am feeling a bit weak and slow, but am coping ok, taking one thing at a time and resting in between

So far today, DD and I went to the shops and bought some more tacky Halloween junk in preparation of her sleepover; made the cupcakes and decorated the house in full Halloween regalia; then I whipped up the brownies while she went off to finalise her Christmas list (been prodding her gently to get that done throughout the last week, but it takes a while for her mind to switch from one track to another !), and then we spent some time messing about with the buttercream icing, sticking chocolate buttons and silver balls on to make eyes, and cutting Mikado chocolate sticks in half and glueing them together with melted chocolate to make spider legs (not very CFR I'm afraid !). We both have our doubts about the effectiveness of it, but hey, we could be pleasantly surprised, you never know

And big thanks for all the get well wishes

Oh, and we had the french onion soup for lunch today - very nice, but we were both surprised by how sweet it was - is it meant to be so or did I miscalculate the sugar when reducing the size of the batch or something equally silly ?

VenusFlytrap_2

Hello everyone

Just had the Toad in the Hole for my tea and it was delicious! :T Never made it myself before but it worked great, even though I beat the mixture by hand rather than using an electric whisk... didn't remember the whisk attachment on my new blender until after I'd put the Toad in the oven, d'oh!

Nevertheless, it rose beautifully, was a lovely golden colour on top and tasted gorgeous! Plus it was v easy to make and as sausages are quite popular in this household, think it will become a regular feature and not just a Xmas special!

Am looking forward to my Mockmas chicken dinner tomorrow, am I the only meat eater not doing pork? Also will just be making a mini version of the Xmas pud as am the only one here who likes it, so gonna make it tomorrow, don't think I'll be pushed for time so not too worried.

Can't wait to see how everyone else gets on tomorrow - and must sort out my camera so can post pics!

Venus xxx