Toothpick art

 After you make your next frothy cappuccino or any milky drink, dip your toothpick into the coffee bit and then use the dark liquid on the toothpick as a pen to draw a smiley face or design on the froth. My Fairy Godmother made us these lovely cappuccinos. While doing our Christmas visit little JJ decided he didn't want to wear a shirt so wandered around her house topless (how classy) and PM was playing various tunes on the piano (with no training he did quite well!). The fabulous Nicholas was a great host and we had a lovely afternoon with the best friends and sisters. Thanks Fairy Godmother and Nicholas for the friendship, love and for feeding us more biscuits!

 

Easy Mulled Wine Recipe

 

Get two bottles of red wine and dump them in a pot on the stove -add the following:

slices of clementines, lemon rind, sliced almonds, cinnamon or a cinnamon stick, a dash of nutmeg, some vanilla and a handful of sugar. You can add cloves and anise but I am not too keen on those, basically add whatever lovely Christmas-y spices you'd like to the wine.

Let simmer on the stove **do not boil** as that will boil the alcohol off. Serve steamy warm while wearing an embarrassing Christmas sweater that your gran gave you and crank up Step Into Christmas by Elton John! Only 11 days to go xx

*pics from the amazingly decorated Carnaby Street

12/12 & The Queen's Christmas Cake

Today is the 12th day of the 12th month - only 12 more days til Christmas Eve!

Have had some mulled wine and Christmas music and getting very excited about a snowy white winter wonderland and family in the Great White North. I also made (well steamed) a Christmas pudding for the first time. It was a gift from the Queen, yes Liz and I are mates. I did attend a lunch with her once but that was a few years ago and I was one of another 100 people but let's just pretend it was her and I chatting about life over a cuppa tea and some biscuits.

Anyhow, before I digress any further, Queen Lizzie gave these puds out to each of her staff as a Christmas gift in 2007.  And one of her lovely employees gave it to me!

I steamed it for 1.5 hrs yesterday and served it up on a plate with lots of spoons, which to everyone's dismay is not how you serve it.  It is supposed to be served with custard or ice cream but there was none of that at our place, just mulled wine and minced pies. I had a spoonful of the Queen's pudding and one was not amused as there are so many raisins and fruity bits!!   Dried fruit and brandy is not a good combo for me, our Christmas dessert is usually Tiramisu.

Well the pudding has been saved for the Brits to eat 'properly' with their custard and ice cream. Let the countdown begin to Momma Dolce's tiramisu xx

Light bar with the Aries gal! 

While I waited at our table and admired the lovely enlarged funny face portraits hanging from the high, white ceiling, the Aries girl made two friends at the bar (a lovely couple from Scotland) and before we left they hailed us over and gave us a kiss and a hug and wishes for a merry Christmas. How nice was that!? Only an Aries girl could get on like a house on fire with someone in the span of time it takes to order a drink! What star sign am I?

We had a quick bevvy at the Light Bar at St. Martin's Hotel before heading off for a burger in Soho. I absolutely love the decor in the Light Bar and the wait staff and door staff were also very pleasant; once again I was shocked but oh so pleased! Explore their website for more amazing pics of their bar, restaurant and hotel, it's oh so cool and modern.  When you go, try the Strawberry Cheesecake Collins (drink) or snack on nibbles from Asia de Cuba, the restaurant next door. Oh so delightful. A nice place to take a break after a long day of Christmas shopping.

Happy Holidaysphoto copyright ©2003-2008 Sam Javanrouh of Daily Dose of Imagery

Am in Canada for the holidays, posting will resume shortly, am just eating as much as possible before I return to Blighty. My mum made great cookies the other night -main ingredient - 1 cup of butter! The muffin top tales continue...

Christmas tear downIt seems that after the great festivities of Christmas there is the massive come down; no more luxurious dinners scheduled on almost every day in your calendar, no more masses of chocolates and sweets in bowls everywhere and no more excesses of friends and family.

For those that survived the holiday without any dramas there is a large percentage that are,
at present, either sick with a cold (moi) or reading or watching DVDs quietly at home. This peace and quiet is the little reprieve before the last large celebration of the year - New Years Eve (which I can't believe is tomorrow). Remember when we thought the world was coming to an end in Y2K? That was 8 years ago...

Each year we were unable to eat our ginger bread house - and we never really made one - it wasn't something my Grandmother ever made with my mom and aunts in Sicily. They made panettone and loads of Christmas cookies - so the ginger bread house had not much significance.

One year, we got a gingerbread house as a gift from Momma Dolce's friend at work, it was nicely wrapped in cellophane and perfectly made. That year we admired it and at the end of the holidays it went into the closet, each year after that it emerged, we displayed it and then back in the closet. This is what we thought everyone did! I was shocked the first time I saw friends eating their ginger bread houses bit by bit over the holidays.

As the new generation which mixes old and new we make the houses from scratch or errmmm....from the pre-made packages. Immediately or after Christmas we tear it down and eat it. Sometimes, seconds after it is made the candies start disappearing. What a change from the days of the gingerbread house protected by its lovely cellophane bubble and my mother's stern eye.

Enjoy tearing your gingerbread houses down and eating all your leftover goodies!

Cocktail anyone?After an afternoon skating at Somerset House - or I would say watching the Brits; perform some acrobatic falls, do the hanging onto the ledge skate and wobble along precariously, we had mulled wine at Somerset House and then went for happy hour drinks at a bar in Covent Garden. It was the night of our work Christmas party and the bartender was probably overwhelmed when 25 of us piled into the bar and the boss ordered 100 drinks at once -half were mojitos and the other half were some kind of grapefruit cocktail. Happy Hour only lasts til 7pm you know?

Loungers really know how to have a party! After drinks we went onto Guanabara for some Brazilian food, music and dance lessons. A great night out! Hope everyone's work Christmas party was as fab as ours.

99pI caved and had a 99p chicken sandwich from KFC before our Christmas panto. I was starving, Hackney didn't have a wide array of healthy places to eat from and I needed something before the 2hr show. I have to admit it tasted good too....all salty and deep fried. I think I have gained 5lbs in the past few weeks, there are lots of Christmas cookies everywhere, lots of big dinners and lots of eating out and add to that lots of wine (had another bottle of nouveau Beaujolais last night) ....so feeling a little bigger than usual. I even complained that one of my tops shrunk but I think it is just me getting a little bigger....

Yoga and running schedule needs to be adhered to after the holidays.

Apologies for the old pic (above) I lost my cord for downloading photos but will borrow one today to post some holiday food pics! Am off to a Christmas themed wedding today so there may be some Christmas themed food.

Stay tuned.Dick Whittington and his Cat at the Hackney Empire

Dragon for blood The day after the Ikea boxes-tripsy-acrobatics I came home from work (with my bandaged knee) to find this exotic dragon fruit in my room. Also known as pitahaya, huǒ lóng guǒ, 火龍果/火龙果 lIt it was a nice surprise - and I love pink and new foods especially exotic ones that look like they will be sweet to eat! Interesting fact...not only is the fruit lovely to look at, the pitahaya blooms only at night; with large white fragrant flowers, typical of cactus, that are often called Moonflower or Queen of the Night.

I haven't cut it open or peeled it yes as I don't know if it is ripe or what to do with it so will consult Mrs. Lau and ask her what to do with it. The note was lovely and surprises are always fun! Thanks BH.

Today I am home from work putting finishing touches on the cookbook proposal and am going to be printing and sending it out 1st week of December! Hmm...or should I wait until the new year as publishers may spill their holiday champagne and soil it with Christmas cake and mince pie crumbs?! It is that time of year.... only 24 days, 12 hours, 56 minutes, 53 seconds to go!

LutefiskA Norwegian specialty, dating back to the time of the Vikings, lutefisk is made from air-dried whitefish, usually cod, prepared with lye (a caustic/alkaline ingredient/industrial chemical which is used in cleaning too!)

Preparation involves a series of soaking the fish in water then in the lye and then back in the water; each process is several days so depending on which recipe is used it can take from 5-14 days to prepare this fish. After the long, ardent process you get a fish that is depleted of all vitamins and flavour but then is cooked in salt water to revive the fish. Strange, non?

During the soaking in lye and water the fish will swells to a larger size than in its original (undried) state and it morphs into a jelly-like consistency. When this treatment is finished, the fish is still saturated with lye and has a pH value of 11–12, and is therefore caustic (corrosive).

To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six days of soaking in cold water (also changed daily) is needed. Eventually it is ready to be cooked and served.

Popular around Christmas, it is washed down with a strong potato based spirit called Aquavit.

Lars the Norwegian Paul McCartney has this to say about Lutefisk,

'It is something people either love or hate. Traditionally people who love it, have it at Christmas, and it really fills up the restaurants in November and December. Very few make their own - it is just to much work, but at Christmas it can be bought ready for cooking.

I hate the stuff, and can not understand why one destroys the best fish like this. To be able to eat it, people need some of this: http://www.aquavit.com/ which is also a part of Norwegian tradition. That part I like.'In the pic above- lutefisk is the white stuff on the top left hand side of the plate.