My Homemade Christmas

I have been useless on here lately. Sorry for slacking, but the wonders of the world have been throwing spanners in the works, as usual!

I've had two dogs on heat, one crashed car (not my fault I hasten to add!), one dead guinea pig (RIP Rockstar), one dog with a paw-ly paw, one house move to deal with, one stranded best friend with a broken arm, one Mother-in-Law (plus her twin sister)'s 50^th birthday bonanza, about four bouts of the all-too-Common Cold, and much more to sort out... As well as the full time job, social life and baking I have committed myself to, while trying to decide what direction to take in my life next! I'm sure everyone in work thinks I've fallen out with them due to the lack of cakes being shared about the office!

However, it’s now coming up to Christmas! And Christmas has given me some inspiration to write to you about.

I love Christmas, and last year didn’t exactly go to plan, so I’m super excited this year, and to start 2013 off with a fresh slate. I have been pretty organised so far, having bought most pressies for people and wrapped them already. Just the big pressies left now – my Dad, my Mum, my big-little-brother, and a few bits for the boyf. Yes, the difficult ones!! 

This year for Christmas I am being a bit of a D-I-Y Darling. I am making my own cards, gift tags, supplementing everyone's gifts with homemade cakes, chocolate truffles, biscuits, festive treats, making my own sweet trees and cake pop trees, and sentimental bits and bobs!
As it’s Christmas I’m not too fussed about the nutrition side of things with my gifts, but for those with an interest in healthy eating, I may well package them up some Christmas inspired fat free flapjacks, and some wholemeal festive muffins!

Tonight’s mission is Banoffee Cupcakes. I say mission, they’re tried and tested, but the filling and icing can be time consuming (anything on a Friday night is too time consuming!). But I highly doubt these will make it to the freezer, and if they do, definitely not to Christmas. I have a birthday in the way and as is tradition will have to bring some goodies into the office to celebrate my turning 24. I’m not complaining though, it’s a good way to test out new flavours and recipes on my unsuspecting colleagues

I hope you keep your fingers and toes crossed for me too, as there is potentially a really exciting opportunity on the cards for me... But I'll have to wait and see if I'm deemed to be good enough! Hopefully someone's looking out for me up there as it would be ideal for me! Ahhhhhhh...

Fun 'n' Frolics at the Foodies Festival

This year I fancied a look at the Foodies Festival at Tatton Park. Having visited the BBC Good Food Show at

the NEC in Birmingham, where I managed to cook with the likes of Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver (who I still call ‘my mate Jamie’ when I see him on TV… I wish!), I had high expectations. So what did I think?

First impressions: £9 for 2 tickets on Groupon? Win!

Second, we hit the jackpot with the weather, which I deemed a small miracle after the torrential downpours we’d had during the week – it is rainy Manchester after all! It was a good job, as I hadn’t realised it would be outdoors, and giggled with a colleague about how she’d be the only one wearing wellies. Well, I should have taken her advice. I looked like a willy, not wearing wellies! The boots I wore are still caked in mud, due to weeks’ worth of rain the ground had taken, screaming at me to clean them, and my boyfriend’s new trainers were unrecognisable. But, it just isn’t a festival without a bit of mud!

 

We arrived around 11:30, had to walk what seemed like miles, and as soon as we’d arrived, hit the Mojito stand. There was a choice of original, passion fruit and strawberry, and they were delicious, and loaded with booze (which went straight to our heads as we’d skipped brekkie thinking we’d get something there).

 

We tipsily continued on our quest for food, and stumbled across a delicious hog roast and exotic meat van “Wild Gathering”. Dave (the boyfriend) played it safe and stuck with the pork, while I tried kangaroo steak, with cheese and chilli jam. I was completely fine with my decision until an old couple walked past, and the woman said to her man “Ooh love, do you fancy a Skippy burger?” To be honest the TV show just annoyed me as a kid, so I didn’t feel too guilty. And as I took my first bite, sitting at the manmade beach, all guilt disappeared. It was tasty. REALLY TASTY. I would go as far as to say it might possibly have been the tastiest meat I’ve ever eaten! AND, you can order kangaroo, ostrich, wild boar and springbok to be delivered to your home – for the dinner party that everyone would remember! Remind me of this if I ever appear on Come Dine With Me!

We sampled different products, mainly cheese, jams, salamis and hams, chocolate and booze – some of my favourite things! There were cocktails made out of coconuts, and other fruits, a champagne tent or two, and foods from all around the world –traditional Spanish churros, “Backyard” Jerk chicken, paella, the biggest piece of parmesan I’ve ever seen, homemade honey (they’d actually brought the bees with them), curry, Chinese, beautiful cupcakes, BIG cakes too.

And I finally found the raw cacao chocolate I’ve been searching for, and met a lovely chocolatier who let me sample lots of chocolate to help me choose the right bar, and taste the differences between bars with different percentages of cocoa solids. His chocolate (even the 85% cocoa content) didn’t taste as bitter as dark chocolate can taste. It was moreish, still sweet, rich, and melted in your mouth the way chocolate is supposed to! Result! 

You were free to wander about Tatton Park and it’s buildings (although you had to pay extra for the farm… Boo!) and we saw lots of bambis running around – I’ve never seen so many all in one place, it was so tempting to try and run among them, but luckily Dave held me back or I might have caused a stampede!

 

It was a great day, enjoyed by us both. You don’t have to be a self-confessed foodie to go, there were people of all ages, races and gender, and Dave, who doesn’t quite have the same obsession as I do about food, had a fab time too.

 

I was definitely inspired as a foodie, by what I’d seen at the event, and would love to have a stall there next year. I need to get my ass in gear and do some work though first!



Happy 2nd Birthday Mia!

Happy Birthday Mia, lots of love Aunty Lauren xx

 

Vanilla white and pink layered cake, with buttercream and jam filling and sugarpaste icing.

"Death by Chocolate Raspberry & Orange Brownies"

Makes 24 brownies

Diet Tip!!! Freeze some of the brownies individually, to ration them out and limit the amount you eat at once.

Serving Suggestions: Eat on their own, with fruit, sorbet, frozen yoghurt, or for the ultimate Ben & Jerry’s style treat, use chunks of brownie as part of a sundae, to homemade ice cream recipes.

INGREDIENTS
200g dark chocolate (85% minimum cocoa solids), broken into chunks

100g milk chocolate, broken into chunks

250g unsalted butter

400g soft brown sugar

140g wholemeal plain flour

50g cocoa powder (raw cacao powder for healthier results)

400g fresh raspberries

The rind of 1 large orange

YOU WILL NEED

An oven

A stove

Baking tray (20cm by 30cm, at least 3cm deep)

Greaseproof paper

Wooden spoon

Large saucepan

Hand whisk

Knife

Sieve

METHOD

1.      Heat oven to 180°c (or 160°c for a fan assisted oven) or Gas Mark 4.

2.      Line the baking tray with greaseproof paper.

3.      Put the chocolate, orange rind, butter and sugar in the pan and melt on a gentle heat setting.
Stir occasionally with wooden spoon.
Remove from heat when chocolate has melted.

4.      Stir the eggs into the melted chocolate mixture, one by one, with a whisk.

5.      Sieve the flour and cocoa into the mix and whisk in.
6.      Whisk in half the raspberries

7.      Scrape the mix into the lined baking tray.

8.      Scatter the rest of raspberries over the mix.

9.      Bake on the middle shelf for 30 minutes. The mix will still be gooey, but should be cooked on the top and firm to the touch. If it isn’t yet done, keep checking on it every 5 minutes. (Mine took 45 minutes total)

10.      Cool for a few hours or overnight if possible, before slicing into squares (around 5cm by 5cm). Wipe the knife between each cut to get clean edges on your brownies.
The brownies are very rich so smaller squares are better, it’ll also help you control how much you eat, as these are strictly treats!

STORAGE

The brownies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

FREEZING

To limit the number of brownies you can eat, or save them for a special occasion, they can also be frozen for up to 3 months.

1.      Either freeze the brownies individually, if you just want to take one or two out on days when you feel like you need a pick me up treat, or freeze the entire baked slab, with the greaseproof paper still attached for additional support.

2.      Wrap the brownies in double layers of clingfilm, and make sure they don’t get squashed before they are fully frozen.

3.      When you are ready to use the brownies, unwrap them and let them stand at room temperature for 3-4 hours before cutting up.

Death by Chocolate?

“All you need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” – Charles Monroe Schulz (1922-2000)

Since starting this blog, with great intentions, life has taken over and I’ve not since had a chance to carry it on. I have passed my driving test, drank way too much alcohol, joined a gym and baked birthday cakes and yummy treats for my friends and colleagues. Finding the first real topic for my blog was a difficult task, so I have decided to write about one of our favourite things - chocolate.

Chocolate is bad for you. Isn’t it?

We think it gives us spots, turns taut tummies into muffin tops, clogs up our arteries, and rots our teeth. But, it is still the nation’s favourite guilty pleasure - we eat 8kg chocolate each year.

But, should we really feel so guilty about it?

“Death by Chocolate” is the innocent name and commonly used marketing term for deliciously decadent chocolate desserts worldwide. But has anyone ever actually died as a direct result of eating chocolate?

Sure, there are those with severe allergies, and there’s always the possibility of food poisoning. Your stomach might stretch and eventually rupture if you eat too much of anything (please don’t try this at home!), you might choke on a Rolo, or concentrate too much on opening that Mars bar and get hit by a bus, but is chocolate really such a problem?

Not necessarily... There are plenty of excuses to pig out on the brown stuff.

Chocolate is made from Theobroma cacao beans. Theobroma literally means “food of the gods” and it contains lots of lovely natural chemicals that actually benefit our bodies: cacao is a superfood.

It can:

·         Help Manage DiabetesSubjects that consumed more cacao, had lower blood glucose levels, through improved insulin sensitivity, and lower blood sugar spikes after eating.

·         Protect Our Bodies
Raw cacao has the highest antioxidant content of all natural foods – nearly twice that of red wine, and three times that of green tea. Antioxidants stop naughty free radicals damaging cells in your body, causing cancer, nerve damage, and aging skin, so limiting this can only be a good thing! This is especially good news for smokers as they are at higher risk of free radical damage from tobacco smoke.

·         Prevent Blood Clots and Reduce Need for Medication
Flavanols in cacao make blood platelets less likely to stick together and cause blood clots, strokes and heart attacks, without the negative effects of aspirin and other blood thinning medications.

·         Lower Blood Pressure & Sexes You Up!
Arginine causes blood vessels to relax, reducing your blood pressure, and improving sexual function.

·         Makes You Smile :)
Magnesium in cacao calms us. Phenylethylamine promotes mental alertness and aids concentration, while quickening your pulse, causing a similar feeling to that of being excited or in love! Anandamide, known as “chocolate amphetamine”, is not addictive like caffeine or illegal like amphetamines, but creates feelings of elation, without nasty side effects.

·         Aid Weight Loss
Appetite-suppressant properties means it is often added to weight loss products to control hunger.

·         Make You Pretty

As well as slowing down the aging of skin through antioxidants, cocoa is a good source of sulphur which helps build strong nails and hair, and promotes healthy skin.

·         Helps You Sleep
Tryptophan helps you relax, and get to sleep. Zzzzz...

A Snickers bar won’t cure cancer or turn you into a supermodel. It isn’t a miracle, or a substitute for a balanced diet, and with every good deal, there are terms and conditions - you need to be careful about what type of chocolate you choose!

It is the cacao in chocolate that contains all of the good stuff. So, you need to make sure the chocolate you choose contains as much of it as possible, and less of the sugary, fatty, unpronounceable ingredients that don’t do us any favours.

Ultimately, the darker the chocolate, the better it is.

50g a day of organic, dark, sugar-free chocolate is beneficial for your health and enjoyable!

Eat it, melt it, cook with it, drink it!

Follow my bite size steps to make chocolate work for you – rather than working out after eating it!

1.       Once you go black you never go back.
Swap milk and white chocolate for dark chocolate.

2.       More, is more.
Choose the highest percentages of cocoa solids (70-100%) for the biggest benefits.

3.       No added extras.
Choose bars without added caramel, nougat, nutty fillings that bumf up sugar and transfat content.

4.       Take your time. Slow down and savour it! This stops you eating more than you need to.

5.       Drink it.
Replace one of your cups of coffee with a raw cacao drink, loaded with antioxidants and bliss chemicals.

6.       Aid antioxidants.
Avoid milk-based drinks when consuming chocolate, as it stops the antioxidants being absorbed into your body.

7.       Do it yourself!
Bake your own chocolate desserts where possible so that you know what is actually in your pud, and make sure the chocolate used will benefit you.

8.       As always...
Enjoy as part of a balanced diet (too much of anything is bad for you!).

 

References: World Atlas of Chocolate, 2012 / http://www.naturalnews.com/021961.html / Tomaru M, Takano H, Osakabe N, Yasuda A, Inoue K, Yanagisawa R, Ohwatari T, Uematsu H. Nutrition. 2007 Apr;23(4):351-5. Epub 2007 Mar 13. / Katz DL, Doughty K, Ali A (2011) “Cocoa and Chocolate in Human Health and Disease” Antioxid Redox Signal, Epub 2011 Jun 13 / Cousens, G & Mayell M (2001) “Depression-free for Life” Harper Collins / Corti R, Perdrix J, Flammer AJ, Noll G (2010) “Dark or white chocolate? Cocoa and cardiovascular health” Rev Med Suisse / www.livestrong.com / Grassi (2005) “Short-term Administration of Dark Chocolate is followed by a significant increase in Insulin Sensitivity and a decrease in Blood Pressure in Healthy Persons” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition / Langer et al (2011) “Flavanols and methylxanthines in commercially available dark chocolate: a study of the correlation with nonfat cocoa solids” J Agric Food Chem

We are what we eat. But, who am I?

"We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are." - Adelle Davis, 1904-1974

So, I may not be what I eat, but food is very much a part of who I am.

I've always been fascinated with food, watching my mum slaving over the oven, cooking meals for the family every day, baking and scoffing scrumptious cakes with her, and both grandmothers, from a very early age, memorising the basic cake recipe (which means I still bake in ounces most of the time... Oops!).

Every event or occasion throughout my childhood was centred around food: Christmas dinners, Easter eggs, mum's homemade treacle toffee and jacket potatoes cooked in the fire on Bonfire Night, birthday cakes, pavlova at dinner parties, finding sausages in my wardrobe after our Y2K Millenium bash...

It's no surprise really that I was enthralled by Miss Makowski's Food Tech classes at school, and then sixthform, and went on to study Human Nutrition at uni. I was amazed by the science behind food - the physical characteristics of different ingredients and how their molecules interact and change cleverly during cooking to make the food we love, and loathe, to eat every day and take for granted. And, food's affect on our bodies - how a small change in our diets can have a huge impact on our lives.

I've not been in the food industry since leaving uni, it's so hard to find that 'dream job' in today's economic climate. So, I have decided to take things into my own hands.

I intend for this blog to be a place to talk about food, what you love, and what you hate, tackle diet dilemmas and meddlesome myths, try out recipes, and make unhealthy foods, healthy! Please feel free to give me feedback, recipes to try, problems to fix, etc.

Join me on my voyage of self discovery, while I try to find my place in the world, and try to prove to YOU that you CAN have your cake and eat it.