Advent Day 24: Last minute Cranberry sauce

Merry Christmas Eve! It's nearly that day! We've had a busy few days travelling round visit people. Today though we had a lazy day, we popped to the shops (not as crazy as I thought but still hard to negotiate) and prepped all our food for tomorrow.

One of the things I prepped today was our Cranberry sauce, we love cranberry sauce and if we buy a jar we go through it at lightning speed! So I decided to try making some for our dinner!

So I thought I'd share the recipe with you as a little last minute addition to our table and maybe yours..

It's really simple and you'll need;

500g cranberries fresh or frozen,
200g sugar,
200ml orange juice.

Pop your orange sugar and sugar together in a pan and bring to the boil on a medium heat.

Once that is boiling slightly and all your sugar has dissolved add your cranberries.

If they are frozen they will take about 5 minutes to cook through, fresh ones around 10 minutes.

Once some of the cranberries have burst and your sauce is starting to thicken up turn off the heat and leave to cool on the hob.

This will last in your fridge for about 1 week but I know in our house it'll be more like a few days!

All our things are prepped and in their pans ready to go right in the oven tomorrow and we've got our chicken prepped and beef ready to go in the slow cooker. I'm very excited about our Christmas dinner!

Merry Christmas, I hope you have a lovely day with the people you love!

Katy x

Vanilla and Lemon Cream Cheese Cake

I decided I would whip up a cake the on Friday as G's friend was coming over and had just turned 22! He, like G, is mostly a fa of Vanilla cake and so we started with just a simple Victoria sandwich but I wanted to make it a little more interesting and G suggested cream cheese frosting. Perfect!

So I thought I'd share the recipe, it's possibly one of my favourite flavours I've created in cake.

For the sponge:
225g/8oz Sugar,
225g/8oz Self Raising Flour,
225g/8oz Butter,
4 eggs,
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract.

For the frosting:
125g/4oz Cream Cheese,
50g/2oz Butter,
300g/10oz Icing Sugar,
1 Lemon.

First up butter and line your tins and then preheat your oven to 200".

Weigh out your butter and sugar.

Cream together the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy.

Next crack 4 eggs into a jug and whisk.

Slowly add your egg into the creamed butter and sugar. Add a small amount and mix completely, continue this and you should get a smooth batter.

If you find your batter looks like it's separating add a teaspoon of flour and this should help bind it.

Next add your 1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract.

Last but not least fold in your flour bit by bit. You should end up with a nice smooth batter.

Split the mixture between your two tins and pop in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

In the mean time get started on your frosting. Firstly zest 1 lemon ready to add to your icing.

Next mix together your butter and cream cheese until combined.

Next carefully add your icing sugar and stir until smooth. Do this carefully because you might end up with an icing sugar shower everywhere like we did.

Pop into the fridge and leave until your cake is out and completely cool.

Once your cake is cool pour icing on to one layer and then pop the other one on top, add a small amount of icing and smooth out until a thin layer covers the top of your cake.

Display and then enjoy! Our cake didn't last long at all, it's almost gone now and I'm betting yours won't last long either. Send me a tweet or tag me if you make this I'd love to see how it turns out!

Katy xx

Easy Saturday Quiche

So here is a super quick and easy quiche recipe for your Saturday evening or for a quick sunday lunch you can whip out and enjoy.

The flavour I've chosen is tomato, cheese and pesto. These are some of my favourite simple flavours and we had all these things in the house. If you want to make this with different ingredients just replace them in equal measures.

Ingredients:

Pre packed shortcrust pastry,
4 large eggs,
400ml milk,
100g tomatoes,
100g grated cheese,
1 Tablespoon green pesto.

Firstly roll your pastry out to slightly bigger than your tin. Leave a little around the top of your tin but trim the excess off.
Take a fork and stab gently into the pastry to stop it from puffing up too much in the oven.

Take your 4 eggs and add salt, pepper and some basil. Then whisk and add to your milk in a jug.

Slice your tomatoes into small chunks.

Next take a spoon of pesto and spread it across the bottom of your pastry.

Add your tomatoes and cheese on top of that.

Put your tin on a tray and pop into the oven, before you push it all the way in grab your liquids and add to the pastry until almost completely at the top.

Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the middle stops wobbling. Leave it to cool and then enjoy for lunch or dinner. This will keep in the fridge for 1 or 2 days so eat it quick.

Katy xx

Shortcrust Pastry

I've had a pack of shortcrust pastry stuffed in the freezer for months. But we're moving soon and I knew I needed to do something with it soon or I'd have to throw it out and I definitely didn't want to do that. So one Sunday afternoon I decided to bake up a storm.

First make:
Quiche, specially mushroom and cheese. I used this simple recipe and just switched out the ham and onion for my own choice of ingredients.

Next up....
Jam tarts! I always remember making these with my Mama when we had left over pastry so I thought I'd throw some together. Pop some pastry circles in a muffin tray with some jam on top, bake for 10 minutes and ta-da! Easy-peasy jam tarts!

My favourite use of the day was definitely apple pie. So simple and super yummy! Chopped and pealed apples with some sugar and cinnamon popped into your pastry case, put your lid on the top and crimp the edges. Cut two little holes in the top to let the steam out and stop a soggy bottom. Bake for 35-40 minutes. 

Enjoy with ice cream or cream or just nice and warm on one of the many rainy days we have here in England. 

Enjoy!

Katy

Vegetable Stew

I love to make a veggie stew, come rain or shine. I think you can always find seasonal vegetables that taste delicious in a stew, I've previously made this in the winter but thought I'd make a more spring like version. 

So into my stew went:

Cherry tomatoes, 

Cauliflower, 

Celery, 

Sweet potatoes, 

Parsnip, 

Courgette, 

Kidney beans, 

Chopped tomatoes, 

Carrots, 

1 Pint water, 

1 stock cube, 

First I peeled and chopped up sweet potato into small chunks. 

Into a large pan pop the chopped tomatoes and sweet potatoes on a mid heat and let simmer. 

Next up chop up one parsnip and add to the sweet potatoes, follow this with a courgette. All chopped into bite size chunks.

Add one stick of chopped celery and two chopped up carrots then leave to simmer on a mid-high heat for 10 minutes.
You'll also need to top up the liquid with a pint of hot water with a stock cube at this point in the recipe.

Add a handful of halved cherry tomatoes, and some cauliflower.

I also chopped up some mushrooms ready to add afterward as G doesn't like mushrooms. And seeing as how I grabbed this whole bag from my local market for 50p I was excited to use them up!

Add all of these veggies to the pot, and follow with your beans and mushrooms now if you want them. Leave this to simmer for a final 5 minutes and serve.

Best enjoyed on that day you just need a little warming pick me up. Something hearty and good for you but delicious. 

Katy