Rock Cakes and Restaurants

After eating far too many cakes last night I did my best road runner impression this morning with a good 45 minute jog around the river. Feeling magnanimous on my return and with a day trip to Southwold ahead of us, I thought it only right to rustle up a batch of rock cakes, my father's favourite as I thought he could probably do with fattening and cheering up. Infused with cinnamon and mixed spices and flooded with currants, cranberries and raisins, they went down a storm and did just the trick.

We took the kids out for lunch which was nice, however the joy of not having to cook was almost cancelled out by the hell of having to contain 3 children for an hour. It's funny how easy you forget what a nightmare it is eating out with children under 5. Thankfully we are now back at the ranch and dinner is looking like beans on toast and a box of after eights, there is a lot to be said for staying at home, something i'm looking forward to doing tomorrow!

For Sale

Well the party was called off so I have been left with 12 vanilla buttercream cupcakes and 12 white chocolate and cranberry biscuits at my disposal. For someone of my binge-eating tendancies this is not a healthy predicament to find myself in and it is taking all my inner strength to resist too much temptation.

This situation has compelled me to find a way of disposing of 95% of the cakes and biscuits I am making without actually throwing them away. To do this I have decided to be proactive and go out into the world and try and sell them. There are lots of lovely cafes and shops in the area that I hope will take them off my hands. This is not a money making scheme but a fat reducing exercise and if I can cover the cost of my ingredients in the process then all the better.

Until then I am at the mercy of my willpower, wish me luck!

Good Intentions

I have been invited to one of those shopping parties this evening, I don't really have any interest in buying anything but am going to support my good friend Ang and enjoy a glass of wine or two. It occurred to me that this would be the perfect opportunity to take an offering of my own and so I have been busy rustling up a dozen cranberry and white chocolate cookies as devised by my mentor Ms Lawson.

Made with rolled oats, these biscuits are deliciously old-fashioned and are the perfect treat after a hard day's Christmas shopping. Being an online shopper, I have to find another excuse but i'm sure it won't take me long. Whether any of them actually survive until 7.30pm tonight is doubtful but at least my intentions are good.

There's No Place Like Home

Anyone looking for a meal suggestion that requires minimum washing up, look no further. Roasted salmon and new potatoes with asparagus, mushrooms, peppers and cherry tomatoes has got to be one of the easiest I have ever prepared. Simply douse everything in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and throw in the oven making sure you give the potatoes an extra 20 minutes. Season and serve straight from the roasting tray topped with a basil leaf and this rainbow dinner will leave you clicking your ruby red slippers with glee!

Cut and Cook

Yesterday, I travelled down to the deepest depths of Berkshire to take part in a very exciting 'Cut and Cook' butchery and cooking course that was hosted by the wonderfully talented, Nigel Lewis. I was attending the event in a work capacity as I had offered him the benefit of my years of PR experience and went along with some trepidation about what would be involved especially when I heard the course was 3 hours long!

After overcoming my school girl nerves I settled into class with ease, chatting to the other participants and looking forward to getting to grips with a chicken and a sharp knife. The 3 hours which followed went by in a flash as we were directed how to skin, bone and stuff 3 chickens all under the expert guidance of Nigel and his team. The practical exercises were interspersed with cooking observations and questions and answers all of which were helped along by a steady flow of white wine and canapes.

After we had completed our final challenge, a stuffed and tied chicken crown, we were invited to sit together and relish a bird cooked to perfection accompanied by fine green beans and potato

dauphinoise which was truly a palatable treat. Our bellies full of food, enthusiasm and confidence we digested what we had eaten and learnt and left with great intentions for what we could now achieve at home.

I cannot honestly say that I will be boning a chicken at home anytime soon, but I certainly enjoyed the experience of undertaking a challenge, learning new skills and meeting like-minded folk. As well as taking away 3 chickens, a knife and a chef's apron, I definitely feel like I have a greater understanding of the life and death of a chicken and pledge from this day forward to cut and cook only the finest free range variety.

For more information on future 'Cut and Cook' courses:

http://www.lewismeat.com/index.php?cPath=73&osCsid=bt76ebcl1o3vo5jimh3dh5t7d1

Hanging

Serious hangovers require serious sugar intake, I therefore thought it only right to make some double chocolate chip cookies this morning even though the hangover was technically yesterday.

I am completely exhausted and have vowed never to stay up past midnight again. I intend to loaf around all day, eat cookies and other delicious and damaging junk food.

Healthy eating will be resumed tomorrow, until then. . . anyone for cake?

Girdlebuster Pie

Ok, i'm on a roll. Not only have I prepared a Spiced Lamb Tagine that is bubbling away in the slow cooker but I am attempting what surely must be the best named cake in the entire world, 'The Girdlebuster Pie' from Nigella's Christmas.

Madge has been put into full on work mode, blending up digestive biscuits, chocolate and butter to create the luscious biscuit base for the cake. Add a litre of vanilla ice-cream and cover with a sweet, sticky layer of golden syrup, cream, sugar, butter and a drizzle of whiskey and then freeze to perfection.

I had hoped to keep this little gem until Christmas but I have a feeling this won't be the only Girdlebuster I make this year!

Out Damn Spot!

Today is a very special day. This morning I collected my new Magimix or 'Madge' as I am going to call her and brought her home. After assembling her many parts I was overwhelmed to see just how much you can actually do with her; chopping, slicing, blending, grinding, crushing, whisking, kneading, grating, juicing, you name it, you can do it!

Accompanying Madge is a book with all the instructions and a selection of recipes to try. I have decided in the spirit of 'Julia and Julia' to attempt every recipe in the book which should take me quite a while, but for my first recipe I wanted to find something a little bit special.

Enter Nigella ... or her Christmas cookbook at least. This book is the holy grail of Christmas and I defy anyone to look through it without salivating. There are so many gorgeous recipes in here that it was hard to choose but eventually I plumbed for 'Scarlet-Speckled Loaf Cake' involving among other things lots of cranberries and a beetroot!

After carefully constructing her and working out which one of the many accessories to use, in went the beetroot and her maiden voyage began! Within literally seconds the crimson vegetable was massacred and it was all over. As I stood there examining what remained with beetroot all over my hands I had a surreal Lady Macbeth moment although I don't think she was quite as excited as I was.

Spice Girl

My collection of herbs and spices is growing by the day, today I added ground cumin, ground coriander and cinnamon sticks to my selection. Due to their ascending rank of importance I have today allocated them their very own cupboard so that I can display them in all their glory.

Today's recipe du jour was again very well received. After slight trepidation over the word 'spice' in the title I decided to go for 'Lemon-spiced Chicken with Chickpeas' which doesn't sound like the most exciting meals, but throw in the above mentioned spices, the zest and juice of a lemon, an onion and a bag of spinach and you are presented with a tangy infusion of flavours and aromas.

Surprisingly the children enjoyed it as much as we did, most likely due to the fruity taste. All in all it was a great family meal, one that will definitely be added to the food fixtures list!

Exciting news to end .... my Magimix has arrived and I am collecting it tomorrow, is it normal to be this excited about an electrical appliance?

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5160/lemonspiced-chicken-with-chickpeas

Speedy Meatballs

Tonight's dinner was a triumph! I absolutely get why people love cooking so much, the thrill of preparing a meal from beginning to end and then seeing the people you love devour it is such a buzz!

I'd been looking for an alternative meatball recipe, one that didn't involve pasta and I came across 'speedy meatball stew' on the BBC Good Food website (see link below). A simple one pot dish involving potatoes, peas, onions, garlic, passata, fresh rosemary and of course lots of delicious meatballs. Served on top of a heap of lemon and garlic cous cous it was so luscious I had to share it with you before i've even cleared the table!

Thanks also to my unwitting neighbour who's front garden provided the rosemary.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9039/speedy-meatball-stew

Sugar Sugar

It seems I wasn't the only one to overdose on sugar this weekend, after eating his first ever mince pie yesterday, Louis turned into what can only be described as Damian on speed. Rolling around in hysterics on the floor and waking up screaming in the night, we have come to the conclusion that perhaps sugar and Louis don't mix. A tragedy for him indeed, but hopefully this will only be temporary and in the meantime I am going to have to research some cunning sugar free cake recipes!

On the subject of sugar, I received literally a box of it this morning, all the icing for my Christmas cake arrived, along with other exciting sugarcraft paraphernalia including holly leaf cutters and edible glue - who knew! I can't believe i've got to wait a whole month to decorate it, I am going to have to find and excuse to get some practice in before then.

Low and Slow

There is one very good reason why I will never be a top chef and this is because I am so sensitive to onions that when I cut them I have to wear swimming goggles or i'll literally be in so much pain I won't be able to open my eyes. So sensitive am I, I am the only person I know who cries when they cut leeks! This has always been one of the main reasons why I have avoided cooking anything remotely fancy as every recipe i've ever read requires at least 1 chopped onion.

As I await the return of my jaded husband from his night out on the tiles I have decided to prepare a beef casserole in my favourite kitchen appliance, the Crock Pot or as Matthew calls it ... the Crack Pot! For those of you who don't know this gem of a device the slow cooker is an exceptional piece of equipment and the perfect instrument for busy mums or people with a tendency to over cook things. Simply chuck all the ingredients in the pot in the morning, switch it on and hey presto 8 hours later you have the most amazing meal, with meat that just falls apart in your mouth. As my local butcher quite appropriately put it when I asked him how to cook my chuck steak, 'low and slow'.

This particular recipe is one that I have used before and is taken from one of my best-loved magazines, Hello! It requires very little effort except for maybe rolling the steak around in plain flour before browning.

It really is a joy knowing that when it comes to 5pm I won't have to balance a recipe book in one hand and Holly in the other, all I need to do is mash some potatoes and serve ... long live the Crack Pot!

New Baby

The only way I can describe the feeling I had this morning is by combining the excitement of coming downstairs on Christmas morning and the joy and realization of coming face to face with your newborn baby.

Put together with the fact that owing to a massive sugar overdose I only managed about 3 hours sleep I feel like the proud new mother of my 4th baby, weighing in at 7lb 3oz and measuring 23cm, she is absolutely perfect!

As I swaddled her in tin foil and lay her down to rest a rush of maternal instinct came over me. Over the next 5 weeks I will nurture and care for her as any new mother would except I will be feeding her brandy instead of milk!

Blue Peter

I never realised how much physical exercise was required to bake a cake. My right bicep is positively bulging after the work out of combining literally kilos of fruit with mountains of sugar, butter and flour. Combined with the challenge and complexity of lining the cake tin with a million different types of paper and string, I really do feel as though I have earned a Blue Peter badge and the cake isn't even cooked yet!

I took the advice of my favourite kitchen shop salesperson and used newspaper instead of brown paper to wrap my cake tin in. I am perhaps naive in these matters, but paper and extreme heat has always equaled fire in book. I am hoping that this will not happen but will be keeping a close eye on yesterdays' sports pages just in case.

Guilty Pleasures

There is one thing I should make clear from the very beginning, I am completely, utterly and unashamedly addicted to cake! It is my favourite food by a mile and if I had one last request before my end it would be to eat a light fluffy vanilla sponge covered with lashings of buttercream icing. I am constantly looking for opportunities to make and consequently, eat cake. Birthdays, Christmas fair, summer fetes you name it, i'll bake it!

Having said this, after a Summer of mass cake over indulgence (all 5 of our birthday's run in sequence from May to September) I have had to take control of my addiction for the sake of my waistline and consequently my bank balance ... until now! For today my friends is a very exciting day in my baking calendar. It is the day that I attempt to cook my first Christmas cake. On this blustery November day I am armed with every ingredient and apparatus necessary to create what I hope will be the first of many festive offerings. From cinnamon to string and nutmeg to newspaper I am armed and ready with Nigella by my side. Here's hoping it all goes to plan...

The Magic Begins ...

Yesterday, I made a very exciting purchase. Today I am finding it very hard to contain my excitement and anticipation, for there can be very few things in a woman's life that equal the joy of purchasing their first Magimix food processor! I understand that many women will disagree with this statement, but for me, it fills me with unrivaled enthusiasm and delight!

I should introduce myself before we begin, my name is Dominique and I live in Suffolk with my husband and 3 children. Life is busy as you would expect with and 8 year old and 2 children aged 2 and under. The last few years seemed to have passed in a hazy blur amidst a mountain of nappies and a stream of sleepless nights.

Understandably cooking has taken a back seat in my priorities and until recently my repertoire of family meals consisted of spaghetti bolognaise, salmon and veg and the occasional shepherd's pie. Very rarely did any of my meals consist of more than 4 ingredients and there hasn't been a fresh herb or exotic spice in sight.

I have no idea why this attitude has suddenly changed but it has, and I intend to nurture and develop it to the best of my abilities and hopefully the benefit of me and my family. I hope that you will enjoy sharing my journey and maybe learn something along the way, if not about cooking then about me!