Holiday Memories

Looking back over the Christmas season, it was definitely one of the best this ye.

It's the first year that G and have I spent together in our house on our own and the first time I've cooked a Christmas dinner.

Last year was a bit of a right off as G was so ill (he was signed off work for 2 months with whooping cough) and it meant that we couldn't really enjoy the season. This year, although G had to be on call so couldn't drink, we have really embraced the holidays.

We spent Christmas day on our own and then headed over to our friends for drinks, nibbles and games in the evening.  On Boxing day I headed over to my parents and G joined us on Friday night after work.

It was so fantastic to spend an extended time with my family and spend quality (shopping!) time with my mum!

I hope you all had the most fantastic holidays.

Recipe: Brunch Pie

I made mince pies today and had some left over pastry.  I didn't want to throw away the rest of the pastry so I made up these tasty brunch pies.

I wanted them to look rustic so I didn't use a cutter for the pastry. I wanted the pastry quite thick as I wasn't adding a lid.

I fried together some bacon, chopped red onions and grated potato. I added freshly ground pepper and a tsp English mustard, grated cheese and stirred together.

I put the mixture in the pastry and made a hole in the mixture with a spoon so that when I cracked the egg in it didn't spill over the edges.

I cooked for about 25 minutes on 160C until the egg was completely white and not too wobbly.

These were amazing!!! The yolk was still runny and the flavours were amazing.  

I will definitely be making these again!

Recipe: Butternut Squash, Rosemary and Chilli Pasta

Last night was a recipe that I had wanted to try for ages but I wasn't sure what G would think.  However it turned out to be a massive winner and a definite on the 'do it again' list.

I amalgamated lots of recipes together and did a search in general for butternut squash pasta, and then used the different flavour combinations to create this recipe.

Am loving the rigatoni with this.  Never used it before as normally a fusilli or penne lover, but I'm going to be sticking to rigatoni now - love it!

Ingredients

1 clove garlic

1 red chilli (you want to have a good bite to the meal but just use as much chilli as you like)

1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 tub passata (500g)

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 butternut squash

Proccutio 

Salt and pepper

200g dried rigatoni

Method

• Chop butternut squash and roast with salt, pepper, olive oil, rosemary sprigs.
• In a pan heat some oil and cook the chopped onion, garlic and chilli.
• Pour in the passata and rosemary and mix
• Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
• Add the butternut squash once roasted to the sauce.
• Cook the pasta and once cooked toss into the sauce.
• Pour into bowls and add the shredded proccutio on top.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work - Aristotle

{8th July}

I started my new job at Eventa Group Ltd as Corporate Account Manager today.  I am so pleased.  I finally feel that I have found a job that is a career move, rather than a job for a jobs sake.  I have spent the last 5 years moving from job to job while working on my BA degree and then my Masters degree, but none of them actually used my skills.  I am so pleased that I have found somewhere that I can really see my self staying for the next few years.  Suddenly feel settled.

To celebrate my new job G took me out for dinner.  We went to one of our favourite restaurant - The Ginger Dog.  It's not one of the cheapest places to go, but it is always worth the money.  For a 2 course meal you could easily spend £70.00 but the menu changes monthly, meaning the chefs are constantly using in season produce, and the menu never gets boring. (Plus they do a brilliant loyalty scheme so we cashed in our 2 course meal free voucher and only spent £35.00!)

After a tasty Ribeye Steak with Dripping chips and Baked Peaches with Honeycomb and Brioche we had a really leisurely, and full, wander home in the glorious setting sun.

What a wonderful day.