Red Wine Herby Infused Gammon

Gammon is one of those foods I never really give much thought ,but when I spied a half price offer whilst shopping with Ocado I thought why not, at worse I could slip into a Shirley Valentine movie and talking to the wall while serving egg and chips ( albeit  with the edition of gammon)

Ingredients 

Chateau Neuf 1978

Any red wine will do ~ the whole bottle 

2 bay leaves

12 pepper corns ( I used mixed peppercorns )

Tea spoon ginger

Method 

Pour the wine into the slow cooker , add the herbs and obviously the gammon 

I left mine on high for about 7 hours 

The result was a crimson gammon that I was able to pull apart 

Fussy Cat Who Me ow ?

"Oh me I'm choice , I'm select , I really like those the discount supermarket brand of biscuits ( brought 10 boxes you say ?) You are a good human bean , you really are !

Guess what , don't like them any more , yes yes I know you've 8 boxes left ! 

Ooooh you are telling me tails of cats less fortunate than myself , well perhaps they'll like the biscuits!

I know I'm one step away from going to the vets ...

I thank you for buying the new biscuits ( hypoallergenic, free from this ,that and the other , hand baked by the Dali Llama.

 

Oooh there is a man at the door with 8kg of those hypoallergenic biscuits ~ ooh yay ! 

There's a free gift you say ? baked dried chicken lovingly cut into cute hearts ~ guess what I don't like. 

Oooh I've not heard that word before , I think you are being a bit of a drama llama , no never seen a llama . And quite why three would be a llama treading the thespian boards I don't know "

Oooh you know the discount biscuits I like them again now "

Brussels Sprout Bubble and Squeak

It has been a long time since I did a food post , and now it is time that I rectified this and I bet you are glad aren't you after the excesses of Christmas ?! When it comes to Christmas dinner we only ever use 3 sprouts ( for Mr T) as I detest them if I am honest but January is a long month and I have to tighten the shopping budget then using up what we have is a must.


Ingredients


Enough mash potato for 4 people


Left over sprouts chopped

Half to a full onion chopped

Garlic jam ( or you could add a tablespoon of brown sugar instead)

Vegetable stock cube


Method

Chop the Brussel sprouts quite roughly.

Chop an onion.

Place in a bowl together and mix.

Add a tablespoon of garlic jam .

Crumble in a vegetable stock cube.

Heat some oil in a frying pan.

Fry the chopped Brussel sprout and onion for about 5 minutes

Mix with the mashed potato.

Add some more oil to the pan if needed.

Next put the mixture in to pan , divide into four. Fry on each side for about 5 minutes on each side.

I served mine with some pasta but the bubble and squeak would go with anything just don't tell the children it has sprouts in , I didn't ( insert evil laugh)

Preparing For Sweden On A Photography Front

One of the places I would love to go to is Sweden, odd I know as I crave the warmth really but my sense of adventure prevails all other worries like cold tootsies and do they serve tea . I admit I get jittery if I can't have tea abroad  very often to have to take my own tea bags with me as time away from tea I believe is a crime punishable by being hit by a tea spoon.

I have wanderlust and my feet just won't stay still , later this year I am off to Washington DC August in fact but for now it is 800 miles north of Sweden that beckons. I love my photography and I have been wondering about how my cameras would stand up to the cold and when I say cold the temperature out there is blooming cold  . I shall be stopping in the legendary Ice Hotel and I couldn't be more excited how often does an opportunity to stop in such an amazing location happen.


No stranger to the cold am I , having done the Lapland Santa with an emphasis on seeing Finland as well such as playing ice football, sledging with huskies and going on a snow mobile. James Bond has nothing on me except I don't ski or jump of aeroplanes or not yet I don't anyway ( imagines me jumping out of an aeroplane)


One of the cameras I have been looking at that can withstand the frozen wasteland is from Fuji and it is less that £140 , can you recommend anything else that fits within the budget range?

Berry Breakfast Quinoa Porridge

I have / had quinoa hiding in my cupboard not sure exactly how quinoa can hide but it was , this was British grown quinoa from Hodmedod's. I'd never have thought to make porridge with it though , shame I don't have any fancy kilner jars for ultimate breakfast styling.

Ingredients

2 cups of milk

1 cup of quinoa

Blackberries or any other berries (fresh or frozen)

Sugar to taste 

Vanilla essence

Method

Simmer the 2 cups of milk

Then add the cup of quinoa

Do watch !!

Bring to the boil

Then let shimmer for 15 minutes 

Then add the berries 

and warm through adding a few drops of vanilla essence .