Jan 24th: Chicken Korma (low fat version!)

Recipe Source:  Top 200 Low Fat Recipes (Judith Wills)

Tasting Notes: a family favourite. We actually prefer this version of chicken korma, which is spicier (though not hot, just things like cinnamon and cardamom) and less creamy than your standard, to what you often get. The recipe apparently serves two, so I tend to more or less double the spices in it, and I usually use 4 chicken breasts (rather than thighs) for 5 people. I also usually use 0 per cent fat Greek Yogurt in place of the natural, as it's creamier that way. I stir it in right before serving, after it's been taken off the heat.   We also usually use more cashews than this recipe says.  But as creamy curries go, it works out fairly low fat.

Jan 22nd: Dessert! Key Lime Pie (new)

Recipe Source: BBC Food Website

Tasting notes: Very good, very easy. Crust perhaps a little thicker than it needed to be. Didn't make the crystallized lime zest.

Jan 22nd: Red pork curry with green beans

Recipe source: Good Food Magazine, date unknown.

Tasting notes: we always enjoy this. The first time I made it, we felt the palm hearts got a little mushy, so I now add them right at the end and only leave them in long enough to heat through.  I usually only use about 2 tsp red curry paste as it's a bit spicy for the kids otherwise.

Jan 21st: Peppered mushroom & Stilton pie (new)

Source: Good Food Magazine, April 2009

Tasting notes.  Stunningly good. I made one large pie as I don't have individual dishes. Used two types of mushrooms - regular white mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms. And used a bit more than in the recipe, as I knew the dish would be larger volume than four small pies. Couldn't find green peppercorns in brine, so just used some crushed dried green peppercorns.  Didn't serve this to the kids, who had pizza instead - a dish entirely composed of mushrooms is pushing things a little far, even for my relatively good eaters.

Jan 20th: Fresh Tomato Lasagne with pesto

Recipe Source: Good Food Magazine, unsure of date.

Tasting notes - be sure to use a large lasagne dish, as this takes up lots of space. I usually cut the cherry tomatoes in half rather than leaving them whole. 

Jan 18th: French-style Chicken with Peas & Bacon

Recipe source: Good Food Magazine, not sure of date

Tasting notes: Often use pre-cut lardons of bacon instead of streaky - they are slightly thicker and chewier in the finished product. Usually serve with mash, as the sauce is lovely with mashed potato. 

Jan 15th: Cauliflower and broccoli canneloni

Recipe source: uncertain, but not Good Food, I think - doesn't look like their font.  OK, found the recipe on the Food Network website as well, and it's by Jamie Oliver, which means I probably got it from Sainsbury's Magazine.

Tasting notes: we love this. Found it a little gloopy the first time, but better the second, I think I used a little less passata - maybe 500g instead of 700g.  I've done this with both lasagne sheets and canneloni tubes, and it's good both ways. It really does take the prep time it says - and maybe a little more - the whole process of making the veg puree is a little time consuming, but once it's in the oven, you can just leave it. Once when I made it, I didn't have enough creme fraiche, so I just made a small amount of white sauce and used that with what creme fraiche I had. 

Jan 11th: 5-spice Chicken stir fry (new)

Recipe source: uncertain, but from the font, looks like Good Food magazine. 

Tasting Notes: although the photo looks a little blah, this was actually very tasty. All the kids enjoyed it, despite the courgettes (which often get a little complaint from at least one child - but in this recipe they were quite firm and crunchy still). Very easy.  Olivia thought something like cashews would add a nice crunch to it, so we might try that next time.

Jan 9th: Broccoli and Stilton Soup

Recipe Source: A Soup for Every Day, New Covent Garden Food Co.

Jan 8th: Wholemeal spinach and potato pies, salad

Recipe source: Good Food Magazine, April 2009.

Tasting notes: this photo shows the pies made with white flour, as we were out of wholemeal, but we usually use wholemeal and all agree the texture is slightly better that way. I usually use more spinach (and sometimes more potato) than specified in the recipe. I don't use the cream, but it tastes lovely anyway.

Jan 4th: Chicken with chili & basil

Recipe source: Good Food Magazine, October 2003. I also have this recipe in the book Ken Hom's top 100 Stir-Fry Recipes, published by BBC books. An excellent book - highly recommended.

tasting notes: We usually add beansprouts to this, and often only use 2 chilis, though as the kids get older, I am often increasing the number of chilis I use in cooking. Served with Jasmine Rice.

Jan 2nd: Crusty Broccoli & Pasta Bake (with ham)

Recipe source: Good Food Magazine, May 2004

The first time we had this, we enjoyed it and thought it would also be a good way of using up leftover ham, so as we had ham on NY's day, with lots of leftovers, we tried it - success!

What's for dinner

Given how bad I am at update this blog, and given how often I post food pictures and recipes to Facebook,  I'm going to try something new for 2012, which is to share those food recipes and pics here (as they will make their way to FB anyway, this way). I 'm not going to do it every day (although I will keep a list of what was for dinner every day in the sidebar, for a month (I've been keeping a list this year anyway) - and do a round up at the end of each month) partly because sometimes, it's just not that interesting. Especially on some weekdays when we have lots of conflicts and end up eating leftovers or everyone just getting something for themselves. But we do eat as a family a lot and are interested in food a lot, so there's a lot of what I consider to be interesting home cooking.

Wherever possible I will provide a recipe, including citation as to cookbook or source, though with magazine recipes I don't always have that info. Hopefully this will encourage you to look out for good cookbooks to try for yourselves! And hopefully it will encourage people to try some new things for themselves and their families...  To start with, I'll go back through January and add some recipes and photos, then in future, I'll try to do it on or near the date itself. It should be fun, I hope.

I'll make a note if it's a new recipe we are trying (though I'm not going to blog about the recipes that we didn't really like and aren't keeping) and of course, if there's anything I mention in the sidebar but don't put up a blog post about, just ask and I'll tell you what I can - stuff I cook from memory or make up on the spot, I'm not going to blog unless asked or unless I photograph it for some other reason!

Farnham Maltings

Farnham Maltings is a combination sale and quilt show - this year, bigger than ever, it included some displays from beading and lacemaking guilds. I absolutely couldn't resist photographing this amazing beaded Dr Who display - Alex and I just loved it!  Isn't it great?

He and Olivia both took turns having a go at some lacemaking as well.   And of course, quilts were admired and fabric was purchased, too. 

Day in Oxford

A trip to Oxford today to meet up with Geoff's brother John - he doesn't live in Oxford, but it's about halfway between us and it's a nice place to spend a few hours.   We saw the Radcliffe Camera in cake (and in person, too, but didn't take a photo of that) and my another of my favourite buildings in Oxford...

Other sites included masses of bicycles, 

the alleyway by the Turf Tavern

another great building (something which, admittedly, Oxford is full of)

and an Olde Fashioned Sweet Shoppe. 

The kids (and Geoff) were like, well, kids in a sweet shop...

Christmassy London

Today we took our annual trip up to see the windows and lights in the West End. Frankly, I was less impressed with the windows this year, both in Harrods and Selfridges, than in some previous years, but we have fun poking around anyway. 

We had a stroll through the Food Hall in Harrods - didn't buy anything, but it's always fun to look at the way things are displayed,

such as this ice-sculpture at the lobster counter. 

We then hopped a bus up to Hyde Park, where we had a visit to the Winter Wonderland. Alex had some candy floss, and we poked around, watching the rides and looking at some of the vendors. Again, didn't buy much of anything except some snacks (and some mulled wine for the grownups!). 

It was a really mild day, so nice to walk outside. Lots of people strolling along the Serpentine apparently thought so as well. 

Not to mention a number of seagulls in puddles.

The windows in Selfridges were a little better than Harrods, though both of them were all white, silver and crystal this year. I did like this bird, though. 

Here's one of the large star lights in Oxford Street. 

The windows at Hamley's were a little better - all Lego-themed, including a large Lego Father Christmas and some dwarves, etc.  We then had a stroll through Carnaby Street and down to Picadilly Circus with a stop on the way at 

 Scoop in Brewer Street in Soho, for a small treat...

2011 Christmas Baking

We seemed to accomplish a lot this year, perhaps because both girls were able to help with little or no supervision so three things really could be made at once (allowing for oven temps, etc).  In the centre are Jam Thumbprints, then clockwise from top we have No-Bake Peanut Butter Bites, Stained Glass Cookies, Rice Krispie Treats, Butter Horn Cookies, Butterscotch shortbread (just realised that in this photo, you can't see that those are cut out in ornament shapes because the top of the ornament was obscured by another goodie!), Fudge Meltaways, Christmas Fruit Biscotti, Peppermint Creams and Florentines. Started at about 9.30am and finished by about 3.30, with a lunchbreak - not bad!  Also greatly helped by the fact that Grandma is here and did loads and loads of washing up as we went along so that I didn't have to keep stopping and washing things...

Christmas Tree

After and Before

In the holiday mood

We had a little trip up to town today, to the Pimlico Road/Sloane Square area, as a friend of ours was playing Christmas carols with her brass quintet to help get shoppers in the Christmas mood. It's a fairly posh area, so we didn't do a lot of shopping ourselves (some browsing, especially during the 15 minutes when it decided to rain on us), but we did enjoy wandering around and looking at things, including the

organic food shop, which was doing mulled wine and turkey rolls in a little outside stall (we bought a gorgeous chocolate brioche loaf from the inside part of the shop - yum!).

We also had a look at the camels (yes, camels - three - tended by guys in Wise Men costumes) and

enjoyed the exploits of two Jack Frost characters...

When we were bored (and cold) we hopped on a bus over to South Ken, and hit the Science Museum for an hour or so...

always fun to do.

Sarah had a go at walking across the bridge (no fastenings, just held in place with forces) but wouldn't let me take her picture while doing it. I didn't push it...

I liked this wall of bubbles...

...and we al enjoyed the lights and watching the ice skaters outside the Natural History Museum (forgot my camera, so had to rely on my phone for photos - not so good!)