What's Cooking Today??

I use half butter and whatever white vegetable fat I can get for my shortcrust, and half-and-half plain and SR flour. The first time I did that was when I didn't have enough plain, and it worked very well so I always do it now. I would prefer to use half lard half butter but we have a few vegetarians in the family (I use vegetarian "suet" in the mincemeat). I don't like the taste of margarine in baking although I will use it for convenience in strongly-flavoured things like chocolate or ginger cakes.

I will make pastry this afternoon and stick it in the fridge until I'm ready to make mince pies, currant tarts (currants, brown sugar, butter and egg) and lemon curd tarts for OH who doesn't like dried fruit. I will also make a batch of gluten-free shortcrust and freeze it because the friends who I'm visiting the first weekend in January have requested (well strongly hinted really!) that they'd like me to bring some of my GF mince pies.

 

Just cooked the turkey

 

Bought an excessive number of prawns so am consuming them today

 

A Gammon joint simmering in a pan, then roasting it.

 

The staff of life

Jenny namaste

 

If anybody likes to make their own marmalade and, like me, often misses the narrow gap between “too early in the season” and “sold out”, I can report that Ocado are currently selling Natoora organic, unwaxed Seville oranges. I just made six jars of marmalade today and, although the fruit arrived looking quite exhausted from the dodgy weather they’ve been having in Spain lately, the results are delicious, though I say so myself.

 

@Tidemark I am jealous of you. I have never found Seville oranges here. Not once. And I make sure to look for them every time I hear they're going to be in season. I check all the high end stores too. So I am stuck making "second class" marmalade.

I made a ground beef casserole this morning which is good for lazy lunches during the week. I usually bake bread on Sundays but I had just baked on Thursday (which was a low time of use rate for electricity) and we haven't finished those buns yet.

This coming Wednesday is another low rate day (New Year) so I plan to bake that day

 

@Tidemark thanks for the info but i use ordinary oranges and lemons for my marmalade these days, they're not so bitter like the Seville.

 

Ah, the bittererer the bettererer for me.

 

Marmalade = Seville Oranges anything else is citrus jam.

 

Citrus is fine for me too. I also make lemon/lime marmalade. My cheeks, the ones up front, meet in the middle when enjoying that! Yum

 

I'm on the lookout for Sevilles too. A stressful time! I may need to go to the local farm shop. They were excellent quality last time I got them. Years ago ASDA used to sell them, but getting anything in ASDA nowadays is rare. My marmalade lasts 6 years.