Death and Taxes

Never have these two concepts been so prominent in my life. I think I should mention right now that I do not understand money, in the slightest, neither do I understand taxes. And in all fairness, I have no desire to learn any more than how to prevent myself getting ripped off by the tax man, and effectively budgeting for my week's worth of food and general life expenditures. Apart from acknowledging this week's general money happenings over the pond (and the past few days' happenings in London), this post is not about the whole Occupy Wall Street scenario, though I do very much stand with the 99%...obviously. I am quite surprised, however, that it has taken this long for people to get this passionate about the income divide in the US, but I am glad that it has happened, maybe it'll spark some world wide coverage of the horrific divides in many other countries around the world too.

Thanks Vader/V

I won't go too much into it right now because frankly, I don't really want to burden my blog with so much seriousness, it is a place of sanctuary and love. So I send love to all the people who are supporting social and economic equality and the eradication of large corporations' excessive greed; but that's all for here...and back on to food!

Even though I have been incredibly lazy with my planning of late, I happened to have been unintentionally good with my money. After realising that my food extravagance needed to be reigned in while i'm saving up, I decided to think about how far my ingredients were going, more so than usual anyway. Whilst my cravings for baking have had to begin hibernating for the Winter like a small, crazy bear, I thought to myself how this time of year is the perfect time to start budgeting. The obvious reason is that Christmas is beginning to drop into people's minds and the inevitable budgeting problems that arise from it are making people take a significant step back. Those sensible people amongst us can sit and smugly think of how organised they've been and all the money they've saved throughout the year. And those who aren't so sensible, me definitely included, can sit in the corner and worry how they will afford Christmas presents, food and trying to achieve something charitable and spread the love around the holidays.

So today I pitch the idea to you of making a home-made Christmas, or at least consider a partial one. I know this has been done to death but it'll save you a tonne of money on expensive gift boxes for people you barely know, and everybody appreciates something home made. This time of year is a good time to start thinking about and making your stuff, chutney is awesome because you can use all the excess of apples that are still hanging around thanks to the decent weather we've had. Fruit cake is never to early making, stew it in orange juice, brandy, Cointreau, Disaronno, ginger ale, tea, whatever you fancy really. It's just a thought, if you fancy it, and don't mind the little bit of extra effort go for it! I'm lucky enough to have an extremely talented artist for a sister (her eBay and Folksy shop) who is pairing up with me to help make some gift baskets for presents this year. Me making Christmassy food and Corrina making the beautiful garlands and baubles.

I hope she doesn't mind me using this picture, I sneaked a picture on my way to work because they looked so pretty!

But anyway. The thought is there for now for you to mull over. And here is my proposition for doing something charitable for the holidays. I will send cake to any who want some for Christmas, as a charitable gesture. This kind of only applies to those in the UK because of customs in other countries. If you leave a name and email address in a comment at the bottom of this  post, I shall send you a piece of spiced ginger Christmas cake, just to say thank you for reading and a Merry Christmas.


For those who are groaning at the thought of Christmas in October, I apologise. I know there's much to come before then. For instance this week, beginning today, is baking week. Hurrah! I feel like I post a lot of sweet recipes on here, and although I would quite like to live on nought but cake, it's probably not a reasonable way to live, and would probably be quite boring after a while. So, in light of this fact, i'm going to post a savoury bake-related recipe.

Irish Wheaten Bread
1 reasonable sized round loaf, or 10-20 rolls, depending on the size you fancy.
350g wholemeal flour
100g strong white flour
350ml buttermilk (OR 350ml whole milk and the juice of 1 lemon)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
50g - 100g oats, plus more for sprinkling

- Preheat the oven to 220C and grease a baking sheet.
- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and salt. Then add the oats. If you love oaty bread, add 100g, if you just want a little bit add 50g, but remember that you might need to add a little more or a little less buttermilk.
- If you can get buttermilk, add it in now, if you have milk and lemon juice, put about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and stir it into the milk, and leave for a few seconds for it to sour a little.
- Add it in stages until the mixture is bound together, you might not need to use all of it, dependent on how many oats you included.
- Form into a round ball or cut and form into rolls, cut a cross on top and sprinkle with oats.
- If you're baking a big loaf, 30-40 minutes is a good guideline, depending on how crusty you like it (I like mine super crusty!), if you're making rolls, 15-20 minutes should be more than enough.
- Serve with a good bit of Irish stew or some Autumn soup. And it makes your house smell awesome!

Oaty goodness
Easy peasy, it takes very little effort, they taste lovely and very filling. It's quite a dense bread, because there's no kneading, thus no gluten strands are stretched creating the bounciness of normal bread. But this sort of bread is wonderfully comforting on an Autumn eve with a warm bowl of soup and a good spread of butter. 
I wouldn't want to disappoint those who do enjoy a sweet something at the end of the day, so here's a lovely recipe courtesy of the National Baking Week website which pairs nicely with the earthy bread, and a cup o' tea of course. There is a reason there are certain types of sugar, you really can't skip on the muscavado sugar, it's what makes your cookies chewy!


Chewy Macadamia Nut Cookies
About 16 cookies, depending on size.
170g soft butter
340g dark muscavado sugar
1tsp good quality vanilla extract (not essence!)
2 medium free range eggs
375g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
100g chopped macadamia nuts.

- Preheat to 180C/Gas mark 4 and lightly oil a baking sheet. 
- Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together. And when they're light and fluffy, add the eggs one by one until a batter is formed.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together and mix until smooth. Stir in the macademia nuts.
- Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge to firm up.
- Shape the dough into 1" balls and place well spaced apart on a baking sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. 
- Take off the baking sheet and cool on a wire rack. 

Enjoy with a brew.

For this week, I will post five more recipes to celebrate the seven days of Baking Week. So keep an eye out for more loveliness.


Peace.
JR

Cookies and Chutney.

It's been a while since I last wrote on here, and i'm starting to get a little bit fidgety and generally just being a bit of a grumpus. I would say that me writing is not a choice, but a deep seated need to project my inner creative out like a pretentious tit but my body does seem to be proving my theory right. I give to you this example; I've been tired all evening, I get into bed, say hello to Jupiter up to the South-East of my sky and decide to write myself a reminder sentence, something I often do, and here I am, two hours later, bolt awake and writing tirelessly. I've not written anything properly for the past few weeks, and I feel like my brain cells are slowly dying, a reaction I, coincidently, also develop when i've not read (...about cooking) for a while. But back onto the post, this is more of an update to all of my happenings during my absence rather then a history-based post, so i'm sorry if you're disappointed, but there will be a rewarding recipe by the end I promise.

I've just started a new job and i'm balancing as many hours as I can and putting off all my other things, like having a social life and cooking properly. Oh the shame! I say that, i've still cooked a fair amount, for example, a fortnight ago I made a huge batch of cookies (see rudimentary figure below!)

I was quite chuffed with them, me and my sister crowded round the oven 'ee'-ing at the cookies to not spread any further and squeaking at random intervals when we spotted a rogue chocolate chip melting into the dough. They were yum, so to reward your patience, I give to you a pretty damn sexy cookie recipe. Make them right and they are lovely, chewy and soft, love it!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
170g unsalted butter
200g dark brown soft sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
300g chocolate chips

- Set your oven to 170C or Gas Mark 3 to start with, and cover your baking sheet with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.
- Melt the butter and leave to cool a little, whilst you're waiting sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a separate bowl and set aside. Once cooled a little, cream together the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until really well mixed. Add the vanilla, egg and egg yolk and whisk as hard as you can until light and creamy.
- Add in the sifted ingredients until just mixed and then add in your chocolate chips (I used a mix of dark and milk because I couldn't decide on the one I wanted!).
- Spoon your mixture out onto a tray, leaving about 3 inches in between each cookies, you should fit maybe 9 cookies on a good sized tray. If you want to as well, instead of laying out your cookies relatively flat, try to pile them high and thin, that way when they melt they'll stay a decent thickness and will be even more awesome!
- Bake for around 15minutes, but keep a very close eye on, to keep them chewy they're almost a little underdone. It's difficult to tell if they're golden brown because the dough is already that colour, and once you notice they're getting darker it's already too late, so you have to do it by touch. If you open the oven after 12 minutes, touch the top of a cookie with your finger and it feels completely liquid underneath, they're too raw, but they shouldn't be solid. They should spring back ever so slightly but not feel like you're poking an egg with no shell...or a fake boob.
- Leave them to cool for 2 or 3 minutes on the tray, then lift them off onto a cooling rack to cool properly.

What they look like once finished! (Stolen from Allrecipes where this recipe is from!)

This recipe is pretty perfect, I remember many, many years ago when I was still an angst-ey goth and I made a set of cookies that were absolutely amazing. I literally searched for 5 years to try and find it and I just sort of gave up that it was a one off and it wasn't to happen again. Turns out it was this recipe, to cut a long story short, and they're still as lovely as I remembered, sweet and satisfying with milk, as any good cookie should be I suppose!

I've not just stuck with cookies either, I also decided it would be a brilliant idea to make a plum and apple chutney with the huge bowl of yellow plums my grandad bought up from his allotment. My dad loves cheese and by the time Christmas comes around it'd be perfectly matured. It was a good idea, in theory, until I realised my biggest pot was not big enough to fit the monster haul...after i'd put in all the ingredients. After much chutney was slopped about and transferred to my slow cooker, I left it to bubble down into a sticky, lovely mess and pour into jars. And voila, the finished product!

Hooray for cute chutney jars (thanks Dad for indefinitely lending them to me!)

Something you thankfully see just off screen is not only the horrific state of the caked on chutney on my slow cooker, but also the fact that i'd taken merely 3 ladles of chutney out of the beast, leaving me with a three-quarter full pot of chutney, and no jars to store them in! Oopsie.

Also, as well as starting a new job, I also turned 21. Hooray, I can finally drink in the US and Canada, not that it's that big of a deal, i've been able to have a cider or eight in the UK for three years, but it's encouraging that I can now go to North America and drink to my heart's content. But anyway, I had a little get together to celebrate my coming of age, with lots of yum food and good company!

From right to left (clockwise); in the slow cooker on the right, a slow cooked Greek shoulder of lamb with orzo stew, Sailor Jerry's Tiramisu (with a nifty little link to my recipe and everything), cherry tomato and parmesan omelette, tortilla chips and Tzatziki dip, pesto pasta with chorizo and roasted peppers, brownies and bread. It looks a little bit sad when I see it laid out, you wouldn't think this took me almost an entire day to prepare.

I would go on a little more about my exploits but it's coming up to 2am UK time and I'm going to go and work three very long days at the Jersey Music Festival. So I better go get my beauty sleep on so I can be up bright and early for 6am.
So for now, tara. I shall not leave it as long as I last did until my next post, I will doubtlessly be full of excited Jersey energy and bring back some wonderous tales of French-English food from out Channel Island cousins.

Peace
JR