A day with my Daughter.
27 Oct 2005 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatToday I have had a day off work, and the temperature has been remarkably warm, about 16 – 18C (63F ish). But I know autumn is here as Daughter-dear has decided to knit a woolly hat!
She and I had lunch in town at one of her favourite places, an Italian Restaurant called Paparazzi. I had lemon and rosemary chicken with salad - Italian food is lovely, but very tempting to someone with wheat intolerance like me – I can’t eat the pasta or pizza without feeling really ill for the next two days, so not worth the bother, but even so, it all looks and smells so nice.
Then we went into M&S, which still looks like a building site. The food hall is now as far away from the car-park entrance as it is possible to get. Presumably this is a corporate wheeze to ensure that you are tempted to buy other things as you go by them. Phah! to your corporate store design!!
Yesterday I reduced an enormous pumpkin to about 7lb (3kg) of pulp, made a pumpkin pie with a small amount of it, and froze the rest. This is because D-d in particular likes both pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup, but LJ friends in the UK will know that we can only buy pumpkins in October – and tinned pumpkin is unheard of, so if I want to make any pumpkin based foodstuffs any time but October I need to freeze pumpkin.
This evening though we made the Christmas cake – which felt weird as it had been such a warm day. I haven’t always bothered to make a proper Christmas cake over the last few years, but D-d asked particularly that she and I make one together this year as it is the last year that she will be home to do it.
It was lovely making it together I must say, and there is now a soft aroma of spice and fruit permeating the house, where the cake has been in the oven for an hour and a half already, and will need another hour at least. We are talking proper fruit cake here – and, say it as shouldn’t, I make a good rich fruit cake using my Mum’s recipe which has 2 ½ lb of fruit to 12oz of flour! I have actually got a certificate to prove it – as I got second place in The Royal Manx Agricultural Show with my fruit cake!
D-d knows the right way to make a good fruit cake – the recipe says ‘4 tablespoons of milk or brandy/rum etc. – and she didn’t even glance at the fridge – she had the rum measured, with an extra spoonful for luck, in seconds! Over the next couple of weeks we will slowly add more rum to it as it sits maturing in a tin – the more rum the better the cake!
Of course the high percentage of fruit to flour means that I can actually eat rich fruit cake without getting terrible tummy ache as well!
She and I had lunch in town at one of her favourite places, an Italian Restaurant called Paparazzi. I had lemon and rosemary chicken with salad - Italian food is lovely, but very tempting to someone with wheat intolerance like me – I can’t eat the pasta or pizza without feeling really ill for the next two days, so not worth the bother, but even so, it all looks and smells so nice.
Then we went into M&S, which still looks like a building site. The food hall is now as far away from the car-park entrance as it is possible to get. Presumably this is a corporate wheeze to ensure that you are tempted to buy other things as you go by them. Phah! to your corporate store design!!
Yesterday I reduced an enormous pumpkin to about 7lb (3kg) of pulp, made a pumpkin pie with a small amount of it, and froze the rest. This is because D-d in particular likes both pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup, but LJ friends in the UK will know that we can only buy pumpkins in October – and tinned pumpkin is unheard of, so if I want to make any pumpkin based foodstuffs any time but October I need to freeze pumpkin.
This evening though we made the Christmas cake – which felt weird as it had been such a warm day. I haven’t always bothered to make a proper Christmas cake over the last few years, but D-d asked particularly that she and I make one together this year as it is the last year that she will be home to do it.
It was lovely making it together I must say, and there is now a soft aroma of spice and fruit permeating the house, where the cake has been in the oven for an hour and a half already, and will need another hour at least. We are talking proper fruit cake here – and, say it as shouldn’t, I make a good rich fruit cake using my Mum’s recipe which has 2 ½ lb of fruit to 12oz of flour! I have actually got a certificate to prove it – as I got second place in The Royal Manx Agricultural Show with my fruit cake!
D-d knows the right way to make a good fruit cake – the recipe says ‘4 tablespoons of milk or brandy/rum etc. – and she didn’t even glance at the fridge – she had the rum measured, with an extra spoonful for luck, in seconds! Over the next couple of weeks we will slowly add more rum to it as it sits maturing in a tin – the more rum the better the cake!
Of course the high percentage of fruit to flour means that I can actually eat rich fruit cake without getting terrible tummy ache as well!
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no subject
Date: 27/10/2005 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/10/2005 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/10/2005 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/10/2005 07:40 am (UTC)The recipe looks very rich - and I love the idea that that would only make ten slices - I would be serving it in pieces about 1/2 inch thick by about 3 - 4 inches square, and I guess I'd get about 20, if not more!
British fruit cake doesn't usually have apple or cranberries or pineapple in, although I did add some chopped crystalised pineapple this year, it's mainly vine fruits, and citrus peel. I always put in at least 8 oz of glace cherries, but many recipes don't even have those, so British fruit cake can actually be bitter if it is made by someone who uses mostly currants. Mind if you put the traditional inch deep layer of marzipan, and thick royal icing, then the extremem sweetness on top at least contrasts with the currants!
no subject
Date: 28/10/2005 09:34 am (UTC)It also reminded me of the All Creatures Great and Small episode where Siegfried was called in to judge a farmer's wifes fruitcake.
It was a very good fruitcake.
no subject
Date: 28/10/2005 07:30 pm (UTC)I'm not a real sugar-paste expert, so decoration is usually quite simple - white with silver stars, or a red fondant 'candle', we did a Father Christmas face one year, and a reindeer when D-d was quite little. Another year I actually did it with marzipan and chocolate - which was actually gorgeous tasting - might do that again this year.
no subject
Date: 29/10/2005 12:01 pm (UTC)Pumpkin Pot de Crème
Learn how to make Pumpkin Pot de Crème — from chef Bill Peet, of Pair of 8's in New York City — for your next gathering with family and friends
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS
1 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup sugar
1 whole egg
1 yolk
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
DIRECTIONS
Steal This Recipe® step-by-step instructions:
1. Pre heat oven to 325º.
2. Bring the half and half, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla, rum and pumpkin puree to a simmer over a medium heat.
3. Cover and set aside 15 minutes.
4. Whisk the egg, yolk and salt together in a large bowl.
5. Bring the mixture from Step 2 back to a simmer and combine with the eggs. Pass it through a fine strainer.
6. Ladle the mixture into 2 (8-ounce) ramekins.
7. Place in a shallow pan larger than the ramekins, fill the pan with hot water halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
8. Cover and bake 40-45 minutes, lightly covered with a sheet of aluminum foil.
9. Bake until they are just set, with a uniform “jiggle area” about the size of a dime.
10. Allow the ramekins to cool in the pan.
11. Remove and chill overnight to set.
12. Serve with a spoonful of lightly sugared whipped cream.
no subject
Date: 29/10/2005 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/10/2005 09:15 pm (UTC)I've been knitting and crocheting like crazy for the last week or so, and we've already had our first snow. (Eeek.) It's been on the ground for two days now, which is pretty unusual as first snows tend to melt away pretty much instantly.
no subject
Date: 27/10/2005 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/10/2005 06:26 am (UTC)Pumpkin soup is wonderful! I often use butternut squash to add flavour because some of the big pumpkins can be a bit tasteless. Would love the recipe you use if you've time to post it up at some point.
no subject
Date: 28/10/2005 07:42 pm (UTC)There is a variation where you add tomatoes (tinned) and use chilli spices instead of curry ones, but we like the curry version best.
no subject
Date: 28/10/2005 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 05/11/2005 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 05/11/2005 12:21 pm (UTC)