Nutty as a Fruitcake

Another morning of sub zero temperatures and luckily the snow was still ‘powder’. Snow and cold means porridge. These new oats take a lot of cooking. I think they would make wonderfully chewy flapjacks, which I think I will try tomorrow. Topped with dates, candied nuts and banana; this was a good breakfast.

After a morning on my work laptop, I stopped and shoveled snow off our road with my Beloved. He was armed with a spade, but I was armed with the best snow clearing tool… a plastic dustpan. It scoops, it clears and is very easy to aim…. try it. After an hour of clearing, we came indoors for some ‘pinged’ soup with cheese and onion toasties made with the last of our Parmesan and Tomato bread. No butter but a smear of the remaining aubergine pesto under the red onion slices.

This evening was a Try a Recipe night… I had tofu, pak choi and bits and pieces of vegetables, so I was inspired to try to make Tempura. I found a recipe on the Internet (posted separately) . It was a great success. The tofu looks like it is going to be too soft to batter, but it all hangs on in there. Crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside.

I’m using this recipe with silken tofu, carrots, peppers and broccoli and serving it with sweet chilli dipping sauce and soy sauce. Not exactly traditional, but I like it. This recipe is from www.ivillage.co.uk and is provided by Craig Glenday

Tempura batter

Tempura – which comes from the word ‘seasoning’ – is a Japanese style of deep-fried cooking, especially good for shellfish and vegetables. The secret to its light, crispy batter is ice-cold water and minimal beating

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium egg

225ml ice-cold water

100g plain flour

PREPARATION:

1. Beat the egg in a bowl and add the iced water. The water must be as cold as possible, as this prevents the batter from absorbing too much oil, keeping it light and crispy.

2. Lightly mix in the flour with a fork and beat gently. Don’t worry too much about lumps.

Prepare this batter immediately before use. Tempura should be cooked in oil at 180C/350F ? if the coated fish or vegetables sink to the bottom of the oil, the temperature is too high.

PREP/COOK INFORMATION:

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 4 minutes

As promised by the vigilant weather forecasters yesterday, we woke up to several inches of snow. As we live of a hill, which never gets gritted or salted, everyone had a snow-day today. Luckily I can work from home with broadband and mobile access, but my beloved was forced to play Assassin 2 all day. Shame.

My Beloved did check to see the feasibility of his commute a couple of times before it was obvious he, and everyone else, were not going anywhere.

Breakfast was pre-soaked oats with banana, dates, cinnamon and chopped candied almonds. Served with a lovely hot cup of tea.

I spent the first half of the morning rearranging all my appointments, having a dialed in meeting and going through some project data with one of my project managers. The oats sustained me beautifully.

Lunchtime was a hurried affair between meetings. Some homemade Parmesan and tomato bread, crisp dry cured smoked bacon grilled, with tomato ketchup. Perfect on a cold snowy day.

After I finished work this afternoon I went and cleared all the snow from my car, before it froze into an unbreakable thick shell. I also cleared the road in front of the car and around the types.

I had a chat with my daughter, Zoe, this afternoon to check if she was OK. She lives in an even more remote village closer to her work. She tried to get to work in her little Peugeot 106 this morning, but lost the back end on the downward part of a hill and ended up in a hedge. She and the car are OK, but she had to leave the car at the side of a side road and walk back to her village, as she couldn’t get the car up the other side of the hill. She was worried about abandoning the car, but it is pulled in to the side of the road, and there is room for a car to get past.

Somehow we have got to reunite her with her car tomorrow, and hopefully get ourselves out on to the roads too. This will sound silly to our US and Canadian bloggers, but snow is so rare here that the civic response is woefully inadequate.

Dinner was a pasta dish. While cooking spaghetti, I sautéed onion, mushrooms and celery in some olive oil until translucent. I added some cooked chicken and olives and cooked for another 5 minutes, adding a splash of vermouth at the end. Draining the pasta, I stirred in some Sacla Aubergine Pesto, and the cooked vegetables and chicken and served with a sprinkling of caerphilly cheese. ( The lovely dessert is a Cherry and White Chocolate cheese cake, from our dessert selection box and is to appease the inner nutta).

Nobody knows (tiddly pom) how cold my toes etc etc. I have been sooooo cold today and the white stuff has returned to the West Country. We live at the the bottom of a hill, and the patch of road in front of our houses doesn’t get sun in the winter. This means ice and trapped cars. OK during the Christmas break but less than ideal when we need to get to work . I thought I would start the day with my new porridge oats, but they exploded over the microwave…must pre-soak them tonight. So plan B was scrambled eggs on homemade bread and an cafe crema.

Today is my “Admin” day of the week, which means I have to catch up with all the meeting preparation, team focused and money jobs associated with my work as a Campaign and Team Leader in an engineering company. I look after a team of 21, working on 5 different contracts, including research, mainly software and systems engineering. As well as making sure everything is running as it should, I’m responsible for developing the business winning strategy for future work, maintaining good working relationships with our customers and making sure we are developing our capability to match the needs of our customers. It is fairly intense, and I didn’t notice it was lunch until 1:30. The kitchen still smelled toasty, and I was still cold, so opted for the British classic of beans on toast. I added some Jarlsberg for extra calcium…. sounds healthy, but the chocolate fairy landed near the plate again.

This definitely warmed me up, and kept me going all afternoon. I am going to make some more bread this evening, but it will probably be a white loaf just to keep my Beloved happy (he is a traditional boy at heart).

It snowed most of the afternoon and we have more and heavier snow forecast for overnight. My Beloved has parked his car at the top of the hill, so he has a chance of getting out onto the main road… but we are not very confident. We consoled ourselves with a slice of the Christmas whiskey cake, and trying out this new blog editor for Ubuntu called Bilbo. If it works, it offers integration with WordPress and coloured fonts.

The final meal of the day was cooked later than I originally intended, because the fruit cake was quite sustaining. In pursuit of seasonal and local diet, we had haddock with a lemon pepper crumb, calvero nero kale sautéed in a bit of butter and sprinkled with nutmeg, salt and balsamic vinegar, and roasted Jerusalem artichokes which had been tossed in some ground nut oil, lemon juice and onion seeds. The kale was that lovely combination of good texture and taste, and the artichokes go sort of sticky and crisp at the same time. Plenty left for my packed lunch tomorrow.

Like millions of other Britons, I returned to work today after the long Christmas Break. The cold snap continues and as I drove down to Christchurch, the roads were white with ice. The thermometer in the car said -5C so I took it slow. Glad I did, as I passed an accident on the way to work. A police car had skidded and rolled but I don’t think anyone was hurt.

My overnight soaking of the oats worked very well. They only needed 3 minutes in the microwave. I realised I had forgotten to buy maple syrup yesterday, so the oats were topped with banana, dates, agave syrup and a teaspoon of cream. Yum. (Plus black cafe crema )

I was a good girl and packed my lunch last night, so I had no excuse for not having a healthy lunch. It was leftover chicken, herby potato wedges and roast brussels, celery and primmula cheese, and spicy red cabbage. Followed by a made for sharing Lunchie snack.

I kept to my 10 for 2010 commitment of not eating in the car, even though I was starving, and I parked the car in the furthest car park to get a little bit of a walk to and from the office. The first in bright sunshine and the second in the dark!

I arrived home starving so I rustled up a stir fry of carrots, onions, pak choi, garlic, ginger and five spice paste. Added cooked chicken from yesterday and lovely silken tofu discovered in the cupboard.  Added some Thai sweet chili sauce and soy sauce and served piping hot with basmati. The glass is sugar-free squash, as I was dehydrated from the heater in the car, which was up to maximum to fight the -6C temperature on the way home. Look at that steam.

And finally to round things up, and to keep the inner nutta peaceful, my penultimate mini choc box.and the most Christmassy yet. A milk chocolate bell and a white chocolate angel, speckled with vanilla.

It will be an early night tonight. I am chilled to the bone, most probably because I am tired. A warm quilt, a good book to read and a good nights sleep is on the cards.

Sunday morning is our day for a traditional English breakfast. Despite the apparent lardiness of this breakfast, it is eaten quite late in the morning, which means we usually skip lunch or have something very light to eat. Yummy bacon, scrambled egg, grilled tomatoes and brioche bread. A lovely cup of Intensa Crema on the side courtesy of my Tassimo. Delish.

This is the last day of our Christmas Tree. We opted for this Black and Silver combination last year.  I don’t like the idea of killing a tree for 10 days of pine needles in the carpet. I know they are grown for cutting, but it seems cruel somehow.

We are off to Waitrose for our first shop of the year, but before we go, I have my next mini box of Hotel Chocolat choccies. Today is a Coffee Praline and a Christmas Pudding coupling.

The supermarket trip delivered all the stuff I’ve been craving. Loaded up on fresh produce, I have tried to keep in season, but couldn’t resist the 75% off fresh cherries. Its a moral maze. I know they have been flown into the UK, but if un-bought, they are destined for the landfill. The excess is likely to discourage the supermarket from importing more anyway.

Highlights of the shop: Jerusalem Artichokes, which I will quarter and roast in their skins; red plums, which I will eat raw if sweet enough, or stew with some port and cinnamon; pak choi, to be stirfried / steamed with soy sauce and thai chili sauce; calvero nero (my favourite kale) which will be cooked quickly with a minimum of water and a knob of butter, to bring out its sweetness; conference pears, rock hard and destined for poaching with sugar and lemon juice, before serving with porridge.

Lunch was a roll filled with chicken, cucumber, basil, tomato and jarlsberg cheese. My guilty pleasure (and junk food compromise for the inner nutta) are little boats of celery filled with primula cheese spread… the squeezy cheese…. My beloved despairs at my Chavtastic extra, but still has some himself. The Alpro yoghurt is to up my calcium levels.

My daughter, Zoe, who has been staying with us over Christmas, returned home today. The decorations were put away and thoughts turn to the start of the working week. Another Christmas over.

We are hoping that our body clocks won’t be too out of phase with work hours after newly two weeks of getting up and going to bed when we liked. I suspect Monday morning will be hard.

Dinner was a roast chicken, herby potato wedges and roasted brussel sprouts. This is the only way to cook the glorious sprout. A sprinkling of olive oil and salt, roasted for 20 mins, and then a quick dribble of balsalmic vinegar before serving.  The rest of the chicken will be used for another meal or lunches.

I have bought a different type of porridge oats to try – White’s Organic Jumbo Porridge Oats. They are more oaty looking, bigger and take longer to cook. I am going to pre-soak them tonight to see if I can get away with less than 7 minutes in the microwave. I will also use the remainder of our dinner to make a packed lunch for tomorrow.

The temperature has crept up to a balmy 1 degree C in sunny Somerset. Every tree, plant and surface is glazed with a sheen of ice. But today is a ‘doing’ day. We are re-insulating part of the attic with the shiny ‘space blanket’ style insulation. We had a not so little furry critter in residence last year. Thanks to the efforts of the pest controller, it was dispatched, but we had to remove a lot of our brand new insulation as result.

We started the day with hot porridge with cinnamon apples, topped with a small amount of brandy cream left over from Christmas. The apples were chopped and microwaved with some brown sugar, a knob of butter, cinnamon and some lemon juice. The porridge was made with soya milk.

We love shopping, wrapping and opening our Christmas presents, but today is the day that we have to ‘find a home’ for them… the hardest day of the year. :o)  Tomorrow the decorations have to come down. However it is very nice to re-discover that the house is bigger that we thought it was.

A lunch of Udon Noodle and White Miso soup. Food for the soul. We visited Japan in 2008 and had a wonderful experience. We want to go again but until we do, we like to remind ourselves of our best holiday ever.

Obviously at this point, the Nutta starts to feel this post is getting too virtuous for everyone, and this needs to be redressed by CHOCOLATE! So here is her little afternoon snack (balanced with some fruit). The little box is one of my ’12-days of Christmas’ Hotel Chocolat selection from my Beloved. Today was Cherry and Caramel, and Mocca and Amaretto. These have been such a treat.

An exciting afternoon transporting our recyclable cardboard to the Recycle Centre. However, after further investigation of the attic by my beloved, it appears that we have another furry critter in residence. The pest control man will need to be called again and the insulation will have to wait. Drat.

The evening meal was our final bitsa meal of the holiday. Puff pastry, chicken breast, sausage meat and mushrooms combined with some garlicky white sauce and baked in a hot oven for 30 minutes. Not healthy, but hot.

The cupboards are now clear of the naughty stuff and tomorrow is our first weeks shop of the new year. I am looking for this weeks new recipe, to make sure I have the ingredients.

After going to bed at 2a.m., this morning was a slow start for the whole household. The last week of 2009 was marked by a cooking frenzy which included three types of bread so this mornings simple breakfast was based around the brioche bread I made. Peanut butter, Bon Maman 5 fruit conserve, a Clementine and a marzipan-stuff medjool date. The coffee is a Creme Caramel Cappuccino by Tassimo.

Today was one of those crystalline blue cold days which looks beautiful but feels perishing when standing outside. We braved the elements for a walk through some local woods and a chance for my man Alan to try his 500mm lens on some atmospheric shots of Glastonbury Tor in the winter mist.

To warm us up from our walk, I made Leek and Potato soup for lunch from the ham stock from yesterday’s joint. I skimmed the stock to remove the fat, added two chopped raw potatoes, three chopped leeks and simmered for about 20 minutes. I blended the soup until smooth, added a tablespoon of cream and served with a sprinkling of Stilton cheese and plenty of black pepper. I had mine with the remainder of the green olive tapenade foccacia I made yesterday.

This evening’s meal was a ‘bitsa’ meal, created from the remnants of our Christmas shop and using up all the vegetables lurking in the draws in the bottom of the fridge (I know, I’m really selling this….. ) My Vegetable Pasta bake was served with a spoonful of mini-chipolatas and hot sauce. The perfect combination! And, of course, enhanced by a glass of Blossom Hill Red.

Vegetable Pasta Bake

Ingredients

½ Tbsp Olive Oil
5 carrots finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
1 pepper, chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
½ pint of milk
1 Tbsp corn flour mixed to a paste with ½ Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp Butter
200g of dry pasta shapes
75g of grated cheese (any type but we had Wensleydale)
20g of Breadcrumbs
2 sliced tomatoes

1. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the carrots and celery and sauté for 5 minutes.
2. Heat a large saucepan of salted water, and cook the pasta as instructed on the packet, but for 1 minute less than the minimum time. ( The pasta will continue to cook in the oven and this avoids it being soggy)
3. Add the onions, garlic and peppers to the carrots and celery and continue to sauté for another 8 minutes
4. Add the butter to the pan and coat the vegetables in it as it melts
5. Add the milk and heat to a simmer. Add the corn flour and stir gently until slightly thickened
6. Drain the pasta and stir it into the vegetable mixture, and coat with the sauce
7. Sprinkle the top with the grated cheese and breadcrumbs, arrange the tomato slices on top and put in a hot oven for twenty minutes to brown and crisp.