The Xmas spirit

The traditional Xmas cake

It's tradition in our house hold to make a xmas cake, mine is generally a rum fruit cake, my wife makes a safe but traditional cake.  Any way as usual I put the marzipan on and roll icing as you do.  

I said to my wife  I would like Grace to decorate my Xmas cake but no sweets; that excludes hundreds and thousands, and no jelly tots.  They said ok with reluctance, personally I didn't see what the problem was.  Hours later I was told my cake has been decorated well..  I was lost for words...... 

My lovely cake transformed by my daughter and wife Merry Christmas, that's all I can say... Bah Humbug I will be too.

Italian SpareRibs my Version

It's been a while since i've posted any culinary delights, mainly because of my teaching job which takes up all my time.  However I do get the chance to cook and bake at the Weekend.  

I've had a few requests from friends how do I do my spareribs, while I don't have any set recipe, I have baseline which I work from.  However my ingredients will change from week to week.  

Firstly a slow cooker is needed.

See ingredients below:

Method:

Prepare the sauce and other ingredients

Here is the final video basically what  it should look like.

And this is what it looks like when you put it together, and don't forget your bottle of Rose wine watcha...!

Spare Ribs Variations 

What I did here was crisps  up my spare ribs after cooking it in the slow cooker.  If you want that authentic soft and crisp taste add a little olive oil, or honey to give it a that nice sticky taste.

The Sauce

There's no hard or fast rules when doing the sauce, naturally you will want it as thick as possible, what I did was remove the spareribs, let the sauce cook in the slow cooker, only stir it bringing the mixture together let simmer.  Once your Ribs are done pour it on think. 

The final finish

As you can see there are many variations you can use when doing Spare Ribs, my thoughts on the matter don't be afraid to experiment.  Food is like sex, the more you practice the better you get at it, so I've been told...!

Hope you have found this useful..?

The Healthy version of Rice, Pea's and Chicken

I love my Caribbean cooking however my wife says it's wanted contributed to her putting on some weight in the early years.  I have many version of doing Rice, Peas and Chicken but true Jamaicans would say there's only one version, de real ting..!

I browned the chicken wings then added vegetables and stock and a little gravy granules towards the end of the cooking.  I won't insult you how to cook Rice and Peas, just don't forget to add your coconut oil that really enhances the flavour, some Thyme too.  You can serve up your Rice and Pea's with coleslaw preferably homemade much nicer and fresh too.  However my healthy options is served with cooked veg.

My Bakewell Tart

When your walking around in the Super Market you see a lot of cakes and deserts you often say I could do that.  Do you ever? I think not...!  But I did, I enjoyed fuss of looking for the ingredients that puts this master piece together.  Once you have created your mouth water pie, there's nothing else to do other than eat it..!  Well take a look please don't judge on artistic impression as I would loose on that :)

Olive & Spinach Quiche

You know it's summertime and sometimes you don't always what a plate of meat.  I wanted to make a quiche for my daughter.  It's been a while since I made a quiche.  I thought I'd get creative and see what was in my kitchen.  I looked around a few Super Markets for inspiration and liked the idea of Spinach and Olive Quiche.  The basic principle is the same for making a quiche, you add spinach and Olive to suit, it's quite a refreshing dish served with fried potatoes and salad.  Here is my final creation.

Granny Stockly's Ginger Biccies

I'm a massive fan of ginger biscuits, I've made a lot of them recently.  The recipe was created by Sarah-Jane found in the  goodwithfood.co.uk so all credit goes to Sarah-Jane (The Co-operative food) Issue 3 JULY/AUGUST 2012.

One of the things I enjoyed about making these biscuits they were quick and easy and last quite some time too.  Here's a few photo's of my creation.

When your tart cheats on you.

I'd set out to do a Custard Tart, simple I know.  However I had pastry melt down moment, things went slightly down hill so I ended up adapting my Custard tart base to a Jam tart see the results for yourself.

Let me know how some of your cooking disasters has turned, mine was a stroke of luck, thanks to the wife.  She actually thought it tasted nice Gulp..!