yum... thanks!
It's a BBC one. Look at this link http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3229/yummy-scrummy-carrot-cake
This one is ridiculously easy.
Ohoh fondue and here's me starting the campaign to shed kilos, plus raclette will rear its head as soon as the temperature dips...
Gill - where are you based? We are based near Mayenne - where there is a large Brit population of course, but we find that by interacting with the french locals we are kept busy and happy. There are more than usual evening do's such as communal fetes etc. We find that our French neighbours invite us over at least once a week, and if our attempts to converse are often hilarious. Re the heating situation, we have a large Range style fire that eats wood in the winter but keeps our house really cosy. With a large range you HAVE to bake - that also makes you really popular with the neighbours. I also find that having animals to look after keep you busy. With two babies you should be well set!!!
This mixture is for about eight generous portions:
110g shredded suet (ask a butcher for a piece of beef suet – graisse and grind it down small yourself)
50g plain flour, sifted
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
110g white breadcrumbs, ground fine
1 level teaspoon ground mixed spice
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ level teaspoon ground cinnamon
225g molasses cane sugar
110g sultanas
110g raisins
275g currants
25 - 30g mixed candied peel, chopped fairly small but to preference (buy whole peel if possible, then chop it yourself)
50g ground almonds
1 small cooking apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
grated zest ½ large orange
grated zest ½ large lemon
2 tablespoons brandy
75ml port (cheap, but not rotgut and not white or tawny)
75ml stout
2 large eggs
Begin the day before you steam the pudding. Use a large mixing bowl and start by putting in the suet, sifted flour, breadcrumbs, spices and sugar. Mix thoroughly, slowly mix in all the dried fruit, mixed peel and ground almonds followed by the apple and the grated orange and lemon zests. Keep a check list of ingredients to tick off in order not to leave anything out.
Use a small basin to measure out the brandy, port and stout, then add the eggs and beat these together thoroughly. Pour it into the other ingredients and begin to mix thoroughly. This is the bit when it is traditional to gather the family round, especially children, and invite everyone to have a good stir and make a wish! The mixture should by now have a fairly sloppy consistency and should fall from the mixing spoon when tapped on the side of the bowl. If you think it needs a bit more liquid add a drop of stout and stir until you are satisfied. Cover the bowl and leave overnight.
Next day put the mixture into a lightly greased basin, cover it with either a sheet of cotton or a double sheet of baking parchment with a sheet of foil and tie it firmly with string. Tie a piece of string across the top to make a handle. Place the pudding in a steamer placed over a saucepan of simmering water and steam it for eight hours or use a pressure cooker for two hours. Make sure you keep a regular eye on the water underneath if using the steamer and top it up with boiling water from the kettle from time to time or gently lift and feel whether there is still water in the pressure cooker.
When the pudding is steamed let it cool down then remove the covering and replace with some fresh ones, again making a string handle for easier lifting. Keep it in a cool place away from light but not in a fridge.
To cook, fill a saucepan full with boiling water, place it on the heat and when it comes back on the boil, place a steamer on top and turn it down to a gentle simmer. Put the pudding in the steamer, cover and leave to steam for 2½ hours. Check the water from time to time in case you need to top it up a bit.
Serve as ever…
I'm sure my OH would give you her recipes for XXX less somethng! (Mince pies also!)
Well, we try to live, as far as possible, in one room, with the woodburner on and the radiators (oil fired) turned down. The bureau also has a woodburner - so I will be sitting there in front of the computer, reserching and writing family history (and other things). Love cold BRIGHT frosty days - out into the garden to dig over the potager! - but it is the damp cold that really gets to me, and the interminable grey days. SAD definitely kicks in, but is partly remedied by comfort eating and the more than occasional glass of something. Lots of home-made soups at lunchtime (kick myself for not growing potirons this year, but had no space left!); good solid evening meal - shepherd's pie, boeuf bourguignon, pasta, whatever, and (like the locals) go to bed and get up with the chickens all year round! (Bought electric blankets in Leclerc five years ago - but certainly not commonly available).
Actually not much different from the UK as far as I am concerned. I prefer an extra layer of clothing to turning up the CH - hate breathing 'hot air' (or listening to it, for that matter!). Close the shutters, have just the wood stove for illumination and forget the rest of the world. Spring will arrive (eventually!).
And there is always SFN to vent my frustrations upon sundry topics!
OK Gill, later - BUT my fee for typing it in is XXX LOL ;-)
Well as you can see from a lot of the responses you received, Gill, the days may be shorter but hopefully you won't feel too cut off. The children and the English will keep you very busy (and good for you, by the way) but if you do start to feel a little down, you've a whole group of friends on here who will help you survive the winter months, swap anecdotes and hopefully make you smile.
Well, the ideas are flooding in fast, although it looks like I'll weigh about 20 stone by spring... and be an alcoholic if I follow them all!! Haven't actually drunk anything (alcoholic that is) since having the twins in March, as they're still not sleeping through and I don't think I'd wake up for them if I added wine to exhaustion!
I have been offered a contract for GCSE Exam marking (second time) in January, so that will keep me busy... as well as teaching English lessons to ex-pat kids out here through my site but those winter evenings... The cold's not such a problem as we have central heating (or a money drain) I just suffer from a bit of SAD I suppose. I've got a SAD lamp, but I'd prefer to find a way to make the most of, and celebrate winter! With my little girl's birthday in December, and my boys' end of March, I don't want to bemoan the season too much!! :) It's difficult when you get trapped in (or might) to make any proper arrangements, as most of our friends are a (short but windy) drive away.... whinge whinge.
Anyway, keep the suggestions coming in! And maybe good recipes to cheer up the winter? Does anyone have a good one for carrot cake? I'm quite the baker, but my carrot cakes never come off - never quite the right recipe!
Oh, and has anyone got a Wii? What's the general consensus? And do you need a Wii console to buy a Wii fit?
:)
I love that, Peter. Your household actually sounds like a lot of fun (as long as you can steer clear of the mad axewoman from hell).
Exactly the same in Malta - the humidity makes the inside of the houses cold and damp. With only portable gas fires, you never warm the house enough to dry it and the cold seeps into your bones so you never quite warm up. The only way to solve it is to get outside which ain't funny if there's torrential rain or a hailstorm. I will most certainly keep the camera at the ready when the temperatures get down low enough. Wouldn't miss it for the world. Just hope it lasts longer than 5 minutes before I'm faced with the 'But muuuuuuuuum, it's too cold, grizzle grizzle", lol.
Have you got a good recipe? I always make the xmas cake, but would love to add puddings!
Well I always think that without winter there would be no Spring, or Autumn- which here in the South are my two favourite seasons.
Winter time activity round here involves living in fear of the chainsaw for wood cutting, partner turning into the mad axewoman from hell for log splitting. Planning the next years planting regime over far too much red wine. Piling loads of manure on the garden. Cutting all the borders back, propagation of thyme and rosemary under cover. Cleaning the poly tunnels, chipping and burning the waste from the forest. At least a two week hunt for the hot water bottles that were put away "somewhere safe" for the summer.
Least favourite activities include the late November vendage of the olive sand pruning vines, a particularly dangerous activity when you have lost all feeling in your frozen hands.
Made up for however by those ultra rich French dishes like Coq au Vin, Boulettes au Picolat and of course Tarriflette followed next morning by Tarriflette omelette.
Make sure, Valerie, that you have a camera ready if at all possible, and capture the look on his little face. For me, I'm roughly 50 years older than the Twerp, and have had enough of cold weather! We did have -15 deg C last February but it was sunny and much more tolerable than the damp, cold, winters we were used to in Dublin, where it felt like the damp cold air was seeping right through your clothes into your bones. We had a few tough decisions to make on what to bring when we moved here, and what had to be left behind - given to friends, family, neighbours, into skip, etc. Very glad that we brought our electric blanket - I have never seen them for sale here, by the way.
You are so right, John, and that is exactly what we're waiting for. My little boy has never seen the seasons change, never experienced snow, never seen the ground sparkling in the winter sun. He can't wait and I can't wait to see his expression when the first few flakes of snow start falling and, if it's deep enough, help him build his first ever snowman. Mind you, after that I won't be so enamoured if it turns into a skid pan.
Nice reminder John. As much as I love it here, I love the longer days the further north or south below the Equator. Sitting out in a setting sun at 1130 at night, knowing that dark will just be a couple of hours or indeed the midnight sun itself, all wonderful. At least once in a life also having the opposite, the midwinter's day as a reminder of how lucky we are. As for snowballs with the dogs, only got two but yeah...
All year sunshine may sound idyllic but i'm sure i would miss the changing seasons the view from the top of the field over the vally is superb in summer and winter when white over with snow, snowball fights with the dogs they cant throw snowballs back but 4 35kg dogs soon push you over and roll you about in the snow but perhaps us northern folk are made of harder stuff
Close everything down and head for sunny climes until at least early March!
If you make too much xmas pud...stuff some into scooped out apples and bake them
Lovely on a cold night as a pudding...If you eat them...with custard.
Did type out some winter receipies an hour ago and something happened to the post.
But I am sure that you all have great winter dishes.
You could organise big French bake offs once a month with your local friends and
unite with the children to enjoy an indulgent tea party.
Most of my ideas are food orientated because my background as a chef always
lingers. Besides we are here in France cooking for all sorts or people and I enjoy
that.
Last winter was a cold one as probable those who were here know we got through roughly 12 stere that heats all but two rooms does all the cooking but no hot water @600€, my dear wife feels the cold, to illustrate when we were in Narbonne some time back it was 36 degs we were going out for the day she said i think i will put a jumper on everyone else was in a pool of sweat she was, just nice, but to see my wife sitting in the kitchen clad only in jeans and a Tshirt was unbelievable she had the stove glowing last February