Festive food round up
This will be my last Christmassy post, I promise, even though there are so many things I wanted to write about but never quite found the time (the knitivity, the stockings, the tree, festive origami, the beautiful cards we have received …). I just want to post some recipes which have been big hits this Christmas.
Our families received little jars of cranberry jam as gifts this year, and I must admit to having become a little addicted myself! I’ve been having it with everything; roast dinners, sandwiches, on toast for breakfast. I was going to post some other photos of the beautiful jewel red cranberries throughout the cooking process, but there’s no way I can come close to the gorgeous photos on 101 cookbooks so I’m not even going to try. It looks beautiful and is really so easy to make that it’s well worth having a go. The tip about putting the jars upside down to seal them is brilliant too, and so much easier than faffing about with little circles of paper and cellophane and elastic bands!
We had this braised red cabbage with baked ham and potato rosti, but really it will go with anything, and is so beautifully coloured and tastes so yummy that it really is difficult to resist. And really, once you’ve chopped everything up, all you have to do is put it in the oven and let it do its thing, so it couldn’t be easier! I think this one is going to become a festive staple for us.
Nigella’s Christmas morning muffins from How to be a Domestic Goddess (one of my baking bibles) are also irresistible! In the introduction to this recipe she writes that “part of creating a family life is establishing those shared rituals, as important as getting out the same old familiar box of decorations for the tree each year” and I am inclined to agree; Mr M and I have been making these on Christmas Day for a few years now, as have my sisters, and it is a lovely little festive tradition. There’s something so satisfying about throwing something together in the kitchen, the glorious smell filling the house and shortly afterwards the glorious taste of warm muffins fresh from the oven filling everyone’s mouths and tummies that I would highly recommend you try it!
