Christmas
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Ham Soup With Dumplings
This ham soup with dumplings is a great one-pot meal. You could even freeze the cooking water from the ham on Christmas Day and reheat it to make the soup at a later date. NB: Soup mix is a dried mixture of pulses that you can buy in your supermarket. There are 2 types. One requires presoaking, I only buy the ready to use version! You’ll typically find a mixture of barley, wheat, lentils and small beans in the mixture. Very handy for bulking up a soup or stew and adding fibre to your diet.
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Make Ahead Cookies
These malted milk treats have a beautiful fudgy flavour thanks to the malted milk powder that I use in the baking process. There are a couple of brand names if you’re looking to pick it up for yourself. The ones that are easiest to find in the supermarket are Ovaltine & Horlicks. Allegedly, the malted milk that I like is used in a large Irish diner-style chain of restaurants for their malted milkshake. Ever wanted to make one yourself at home? Simply add a couple of tablespoons to some quality partially melted vanilla ice cream. The first thing you could do with the malted milk is to include them in…
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Braised Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Chilli
It’s the season to love your brassicas. No it’s not a dirty word, it’s a family of vegetables. Included in these are the brussels sprout and this is what I did with some this week.
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The Big Christmas Food Shop
If, like me, you’ve got that slightly rising panicked feeling about Christmas Dinner and what the last shop before Christmas Day will cost, stop now and have a little read of Day 17 of my Christmas With Caitríona series.
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Flavoured Salt
This is a great recipe to use up your leftover meat from the Christmas dinner. This is a tray bake that can be lifted from plain and simple eating (not a bad thing after Christmas excess) to a meal with a zing from some flavoured salt.
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Chocolate Biscuit Christmas Pudding
Not everybody is a fan of desserts with dried fruits in them. However, I really love the appearance of a Christmas pudding. So we get around this by making a chocolate biscuit Christmas pudding cake. I like to lace mine with crunchy malteasers but you can add in any chocolates, sweets or nuts that you like! As this recipe has no baking to be done I think it’s a brilliant one to make with children with little supervision. Once again I have a video to go along with the recipe on YouTube!
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Mulled Cider Recipe
Day 10: This is a twist on the traditional mulled wine, it’s a mulled cider! To make an alcohol free version for kids/non drinkers, substitute the cider for pressed apple juice instead. There are some beautiful Irish apple juices to be bought at this time of the year. Personally I love both Stameen Farm and Llewellyns Orchard juices for local juices (and ciders) but whatever you can get your hands on is fine. Do yourself a favour though, don’t use juices made from concentrate, you just won’t get the same flavour.
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Make ahead homemade stuffing recipe
The beauty of this stuffing recipe is that it can be made well in advance. No more faffing around the day before Christmas, if you make this stuffing this week and lash it into the freezer then it’s all good to go on the big day.
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Christmas Fruit Parcels
These Christmas Fruit Parcels are a lighter alternative to cakes and puddings and have no suet and very little fat, no eggs and can be prepared quickly. They can easily be adapted for vegans too.
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Dishwasher Vodka
Normally when infusing alcohol with spices or fruit you have to wait a number of months for the best flavour. This is a cheat’s version, called dishwasher vodka, which if made today will be ready for drinking or gifting tomorrow!
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Why I’m Planning Christmas In January 2015
Did I make you feel a bit stressed? If so I apologise, that’s the last thing on my mind. In fact I’m hoping that you might even take a little bit of inspiration from my premature Christmas madness in January 2015. I realise that many people only put their decorations away in the past week. My tree finally went back to the attic on Tuesday and the outdoors lights have been switched off. They will get put away as soon as my hubby gets a chance to get out on the ladder and remove them. It’s probably not such a good idea if I go climbing about the place after…
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At Your Service
This is one of those blogposts that isn’t really about me. If you’re a regular reader you’ll know that as a family we follow the “whole sum” method when it comes to parenting/living our lives. It’s not just about eating well and our friends and family know this too!
