Happy Boxing Day

Christmas is done with for another year. I always get a little bummed right afterwards because it's such a long time until it's Christmas again, and I'll have to take down the lights and everything; but it doesn't last long because I'm usually quite excited at the prospect of a new year. A whole new decade, this time, too! I can't believe 10 years has passed since the millenium. There have been loads of programs on about "the noughties"....well, one....I can't believe DVDs were invented this decade. They've surely been around forever!

Anyway. I make this every Christmas for Boxing Day breakfast, and can never find the recipe and have to trawl back through pages of thread on a forum I no longer participate in to get it every year, so I am posting it here once and for all. It's terribly indulgent and I only allow myself to make it at Christmas, but it's so good!

Blueberry Bread & Butter Pudding

1¼ cups milk
1 cup double cream
4 eggs
½ cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
6 croissants
1 cup blueberries

Beat together all the ingredients apart from the croissants and blueberries. Layer the croissants in the crockpot. Six or eight is right for my size of crockpot. Sprinkle over the blueberries, I usually tuck some between the croissants too. Pour over the liquid. Leave for a while until the custard has soaked in a bit. I leave mine overnight with a timer plug. Bake for around 4 hours on low until all puffy and delicious.

I hope you all had a lovely festive season, readers. My next post will be number 200 on this blog! I think I got to number 100 in April or May and said then I hoped it wouldn't take me as long to get to 200. It has not. I think it's safe to say I am well back on the blogging track.

Domestic Goddess Day

I have decided I love Sundays in the holidays. I have spent today doing all dom.god. things and haven't felt bad about not doing any school work at all.

Here's what I've been doing -


Bad phone camera picture, sorry.

The Mango Chutney is from a recipe in Delia Smith's Winter Collection. I love Delia. She has had a huge impact on my cooking over the years. For example, I eschew ready chopped mixed peel in a tub in favour of whole candied peel I cut myself. She rocks, and I blame Nigella entirely for her demise. Anyway, this mango chutney is the bomb. It's way better than what one buys in the shops. I am just gutted I have to wait 8 weeks for it to mature.

The lemon curd is from this recipe. I am typing it out because I have a fear of the link going dead -

4 lemons, zest and juice
1lb caster sugar
4oz butter
6 eggs

Beat the eggs and add all the other ingredients (I add the finely grated zest instead of putting in strips of peel and fishing them out later - it ends up with a slightly mealy texture, but I like it like that). Put in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. The sugar and butter will melt, and eventually the lemon curd will thicken up nicely and then you put it in a big sterilised jar. The one I used is a 2lb jar.

Then I made peanut butter cookies to this recipe -

8oz butter
1 and a half cups dark brown sugar (I subbed this for the light brown in the recipe as it was all I had)
1 and a half cups peanut butter
1 egg
2 tsps vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
Chocolate chips - but I used some PB M&Ms I brought home from the US in the summer

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, vanilla and PB, then add the flour and baking powder to make a dough. Add the chocolate chips and chill for an hour. Roll the dough into small balls and put on a greased baking sheet and bake at 180 degrees C for 16-18 mins.

Finally, I made some experimental Christmas cupcakes. They are a clementine version of lemon drizzle, filled with a cardamom-infused ganache. I am not overjoyed because I think the cake batter needs a bit more citrus kick - I wish I had some orange oil or something - and the chocolate seized a bit when I poured the cream over it for the ganache so it's not perfect. But not bad for a first try.

I found out today that Father Hand has a cancerous tumour on his kidney. He's having surgery on January 18th. I am less concerned than I probably should be, but the prognosis is good.