sweet nothings...

skeleton stampede!

elephant skeleton!

I made this for dinner tonight, it was really good! I whizzed together in the blender two roasted romano sweet red peppers, a clove or two of garlic, 30g of ground almonds, 30g of parmesan, 2 tbsp of olive oil, 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp of lemon juice, and some salt and pepper. It was so easy!

Last night the christmas cake was finally finished! It was made about two months ago, in the middle of October... http://my.opera.com/kirstycat/blog/2009/10/15/christmas-cake we have been feeding it with brandy every week http://my.opera.com/kirstycat/blog/feeding-the-xmas-cake

On Saturday night I put the marzipan layer on it, and on Sunday night my boyfriend added the final layer of royal icing We couldn't afford to add any plastic decorations to the top (the nice ones were about £15 each!), so it was decided that it should be kept nice and simple. It is now sitting in its box, patiently waiting to be eaten

I brushed the cake with warm apricot jam before rolling out the marzipan and sticking it to the cake. The icing was then added, and fluffed up a bit to make it look like snow, and should soon set into a nice crispy crust of icing. I can't wait to cut the cake and see how it turned out!!








fa la la la la, la la la la!

We put our little christmas tree up tonight! The christmas lights were turned on in Edinburgh town centre this evening, we were going to see this happen, but because it started raining and was cold and dark, we decided to just go home and put our own tree up instead, the street lights can wait for another night

Cheesy christmas music was played in the background as we wrestled with assembling the various fiddly parts of the tree, and hung as many decorations as we could each before they all ran out (it was done very quickly!)

This year we have much nicer decorations on the tree than when we were in Salisbury, we even have solid lindt chocolate decorations! Some lights were put up around the kitchen window too

My boyfriend ordered a batch of twelve pies from the 'pie minister' shop down in Bristol/Oxford, and after much excited anticipation they finally arrived today. He staggered down the hill from work this afternoon, clutching his precious box of meat pies to his chest with a big happy grin on his face

They have now been lovingly installed in the freezer, filling up an entire drawer Tonight dinner was pie and mashed potato...I had a vegetarian mushroom one, he had his favourite minty lamb one. I can't understand why he insists on plonking his pie on top of the mash and drowning it in gravy though, I much prefer it just the way it is! Much less messy!

I'm not normally much of a pie person, but I make an exception for this lovely wild mushroom and asparagus one. It reminds me of my occasional day trips to Oxford when I lived down in Salisbury! Nostalgic pie




this is actually how they serve the pies in the pie minister restaurants!

I have been wearing last year's gloves until now, they were all full of holes and with half the fingers hanging off. I finally found a pair I liked today though! A magnificent purple and red striped pair with bright orange fingers I fell in love with them immediately, and pounced upon them with a squeal, despite the strange 'finger flap' fashion that I have ben stubbornly refusing to give in to until now!
I thought this fashion was just a bit silly, and that when they were covering my fingers mitten-style I felt like I was wearing socks on my hands. But these ones were extra woolly, and just so colourful and lovely I couldn't resist

Tonight my mum invited me and my boyfriend over for dinner. She made us lovely baked trout with rosemary sliced potatoes, roasted cherry tomatoes, with horseradish sauce and salsa verde. It was great We even got chocolate cake for pudding

That's my (hungry) boyfriend's hand sneaking into the top of the picture My voice is in the background of most of my foody pictures saying "wait! not yet! just a minute! I just want to take one more picture!"

I made baked fish for our dinner tonight I couldn't find the recipe for a spanish one I have made before, so I made a Jamie Oliver one instead, throwing in a few extra ingredients.

I made a nice tomato, onion, garlic and basil sauce first. I used lots of fresh basil, and added some mushrooms and a courgette I found in the fridge. Then I put my bits of fish on top of the sauce in an oven dish, sprinkled it with some black olives and capers, and baked it for 15 mins at 220'C.
While it was cooking I made some mashed potato, and some peas to make it look pretty





It was really good!

Last night I had a little halloween dinner party for four I chose what to make, went food shopping, prepared all the ingredients, roasted my butternut squash and set the table with all the candles I could find. My very helpful and apparently multi-talented boyfriend bought and carved a little pumpkin for my table's halloween centre piece (pretty magnificent specimen of a pumpkin it was too, especially for a first attempt!) Pumpkins certainly look a lot easier to carve than a turnip, which is what I used to use when I was a kid! I can see now why they are used so much in America!

When my friends arrived though, all I really wanted to do was sit with them and catch up on all their news, so my boyfriend gallantly volunteered to make my butternut squash and feta risotto for me! (it was his own recipe I was using though, so he would make it so much better than me ) It was so sweet of him to do that for me though and I was very grateful I didn't even make my own pudding!
I bought a ready made apple pie and a tub of really nice ice cream from a fancy supermarket instead!

I really enjoyed the meal though, and it was great to see my friends again, and to finally show them round my first flat Next time I have a dinner party though, I am going to choose something which I can make in advance and just shove in the oven before my guests arrive! That way I can join in with the fun and gossip, instead of spending all my time cooking in the kitchen!

I made this lovely spicy garlicky mushroomy creamy pasta tonight for my boyfriend, as he has been all bunged up with a cold today, and I thought a bit of garlic would do him good. Also, it might help to prevent me from catching it too!!

I used two whole roasted bulbs of garlic, so I don't think there will be any vampires coming near our flat anytime soon! I have a lemon and nutmeg rice pudding cooking at the moment too, for a late night comfort pudding






rice pudding!

Tonight was the first brandy-feeding night of last week's xmas cake!
http://my.opera.com/kirstycat/blog/2009/10/15/christmas-cake
It only gets a tbsp once a week, so we took turns to feed it with half a tbsp each

really really nice! I liked this one a lot!

On Thursday night my mum threw an Indian diwali 'festival of lights' party The real diwali doesn't actually start until the weekend, but me and my boyfriend both had a day off, and seeing as we're only wanting an excuse for a big curry, it was decided that it would be moved forward a couple of days (a bit like having a christmas celebration on the 23rd of December!)

I have never seen such a magificent curry, there were so many lovely things! I only had some of the vegetarian curries, but even with just those there was more choice than I could ever dream of in my wildest foody dreams! We filled the room with all the candles and tealights we could find (twenty eight altogether!)

Here is a list of all the lovely things my mum made: (most of my pictures were a bit blurry due to the low light of the candles!) I can't remember the proper names of most of the things, so I will describe what they are made of instead
cobra beer!!
popadums and mango chutney
naan
fluffy basmati rice
grated carrot with black mustard seeds
yogurt with cucumber
chopped raw onions and tomatoes
sweetcorn curry
my favourite coconut lentil daal
wild mushroom curry
potato and aubergine curry
(lamb curry)
(beef curry)
(chicken curry)
pistachio and almond kulfi for pudding




It was great!

My mum bought a new bread recipe book recently, called 'Dough' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dough-Richard-Bertinet/dp/1856267628/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255447542&sr=1-1. We decided to spend today attempting to make some french bread together

I usually use Jamie Oliver's bread recipe, so this was new to me. The kneading of the dough was done by slapping it down on the worktop, stretching it, and folding it over, instead of pressing it down into the worktop with the heels of my hands. I found it to be a very messy way of kneading dough!

This was my dough after it had risen for an hour...

Flattening the dough and chopping it up into pieces to make small loaves.

An uncooked fougasse!

Ready to stretch and roll into baguettes.

Slightly eccentric looking sesame/poppy baguettes, ready to cook (mine are the ones with poppy seeds)

Fougasse! (they looked bigger and neater in the picture in the book though!)

Bet you don't see weird looking baguettes like these down the local supermarket!

These are my epis baguettes ('ears of corn' bread), with sections cut with scissors.

It was fun!
We need a little practice though!!

I went back to the botanical gardens again today, this time exploring the little hidden tracks and paths for the first time, away from the main route. I found some strange plants i've never seen before.
I liked the shape of the pod things on this one, not sure what the plant is though!

I thought this one looked like a cross between a corncob, a pomegranite and a strawberry!
I found several of them lying on the ground attached to a wilted plant, don't have a clue what it is!

My boyfriend gave me these lovely flowers yesterday, to cheer me up after an emotional day at work.

I went to the botanical gardens today, and let myself get lost among all the beautiful autumn coloured trees. I love this time of year, and it's only just beginning The air is starting to get cold (I can wear gloves and scarves again! woo!) and all the leaves are turning such beautiful colours. I feel like I have so much more energy than I did during the summer too, like I am coming out of hibernation

I went through the park near where I live on my way home, I took the last picture there, standing behind my favourite benches. I love the view overlooking the swans and ducks in the pond, and across Edinburgh to the castle

My boyfriend made these lovely mince pies tonight (it's never too early to start making mince pies! )
He made the mincemeat himself, then let it stew away in whisky for a couple of days before making the pies this evening. They are made with a really nice cinnamon pastry i've never tried before. Quite manly pies I think, very substantial compared to the little ones I make http://my.opera.com/kirstycat/blog/mince-pies-fa-la-la-la-la ...I have some christmas baking catching up to do now!!

I tried making this Italian crumbly cake tonight, as it looked so nice in the recipe picture. It turned out crumbly just like it said it should, and tasted nice...very lemony and buttery...but it was very very dry!

It was made with flour, polenta, ground almonds, sugar, butter and lemon zest, stuck together by only two egg yolks, so I guess this is what it is supposed to be like! I think it is maybe meant to be nibbled in small pieces with an espresso, instead of big slices with mugs of tea





It felt very strange to break the finished cake into pieces with my fingers, as the recipe instructed,
it goes against all my cookery neatness rules!!

My bf made this lovely fish pie for me this evening. I wasn't feeling well today and this is one of my favourite comfort meals. He bought the fish and potatoes and things on the way home from work (and a mini bottle of sparkling pink cava!), and proceeded to make two really lovely fish pies without looking at a single recipe book! I don't know how he manages it, to me recipes are essential and I check them all the time as I cook, but he somehow gets things to work perfectly just from making it up as he goes along! Quite impressive! It was such a good pie, certainly made me feel much better!

I made this cake for my mum's birthday today
It was a little flatter and messier than I intended, but still tasted yummy

We bought this funny looking squash so my bf could make his lovely feta and roasted squash risotto tonight. It's called an 'acorn squash' apparently, very different to the lightbulb-shaped ones I have seen and cooked with before. I almost don't want to let anyone cut it up!!

Today me and my bf were celebrating having been together for two years, and chose to spend the day having a wander around Edinburgh, exploring and going in whatever direction took our fancy
We ended up walking to morningside (a posh area of Edinburgh) and had lunch in an eccentric little teahouse called 'loopy lorna's'.

I was treated to a really nice salmon sandwich with coconut, ginger and pumpkin soup, followed by a big panda pot of earl grey tea and a big slice of amazing home made chocolate cake It was great!
It was such a lovely cozy little place, full of crazy little decorations and funny details. Every teapot got its own little handmade tea cozy I loved our panda head one! I couldn't stop stroking it Wish this tea house was closer to where I live! It is just the sort of place I would love to run myself one day!

The pictures below were taken from the meadows on the way back into the centre of town. I always forget how nice it is there and wonder why I never seem to go there very often. You can see arthur's seat in the distance.

Me and my bf finally got a day off at the same time when it wasn't pouring with rain and neither of us were too unwell/tired to climb arthur's seat! After so many foiled attempts to climb up there, I clambered up there today for the first time in three years...apparently slightly less fitter than I was then! It's very worth it for the views over the city though, I love it up there! I don't know why I don't go up there more often!








tired, windswept and bedraggled, but happy

I walked a section on the water of leith on saturday that I have never been on before, the last stretch of path before the river passes through Stockbridge. It turned out to be the most beautiful section yet (and I live right beside it!) I found a beautiful mineral water well there, with a sculpture of a lady surrounded by pillars! I had no idea the river path was so pretty!




This picture reminded me of a spaceship

Today I spent my first day outside in more than 10 days (lots of days working, then several days stuck indoors with the flu) I almost felt human again!

Here is the proof that I am back up on my feet again I managed to go for a walk down at crammond beach, and then back home to stockbridge along the lovely water of leith. It was such a sunny day!

I have been sent home from work today, having caught a nasty flu I am not used to not feeling well!
I had a bit of a headache yesterday, but overnight it got worse and I was shivering and shaking and hurting all over with a horrible headache and a high temperature. Even wearing clothes hurts my skin!
As instructed by a doctor, I am now housebound for a few days until it goes away and I feel better again. Boo. I can't wait to feel well again!

We watched the Edinburgh castle fireworks tonight from a park two miles away. The first film was when we were in the official viewing area of the park, with the music playing to go with the fireworks. The second film was taken just at the final bit of the show, when we had moved to a part of the park with a better view of the castle but no music playing. Next year I want to watch them properly from below the castle This park just happened to be beside where we live, and free There were thousands of people there!