General Chat

When he was out and about somebody gave my old dad a squash. It looked like a marrow but was round.

Havingput it off long enough,we cut it today. It was a bit firmer than a vegetable marrow but this pie I am about to describe is also good made with a marrow.

Cut the flesh into cubes,simmer in a bit of water and sugar or sweetener with some raisins or sultanas,ground ginger, lemon juice until it is fairly soft but still cubes. You can use clove as well,or,indeed,anything else that floats your boat.

Line a pie dish, tip the pumpkin in,put the top on and bake it like an apple pie.


I made some soup too.
Sweat two or three chopped onions in whatever you cook with.I used a bit of butter and some olive oil.
Cut the squash into cubes and sweat that with the onion.
A couple of green Oxos.
Top up the pan with water and simmer until the squash is soft,
Liquidize and put through a sieve.
There is virtually no waste with this soup.

Sometimes I don't peel squashes for soup and sometimes I bake them for a bit before I cut them up.
I find it quite important to put them through a sieve though because any fibre detracts badly from the texture.

Congratulations Sharron, you are the first person on the milestone of 40 pages...I never dreamt that we would go this far when I started Culinary Delights.
Now I have to think of a recipe to add!
Usually around this time we start to think of Christmas and new Recipies to consider the Christmas and New Year.
We are out for Christmas. I would appreciate something for Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, something slightly unusual or good old favourites with a twist??

:-D

Sharron, I like the sound of the soup so will give that a try, probably using butternut squash.

If you are using a butternut you just need to bake it whole fo about twenty minutes.Cut it in half and scoop out the seeds.Cut it up without trying to skin it and proceed from there.

Never mind stuffing mushrooms,life is too short to peel a butternut squash!

Thanks Sharron, I do hate peeling them. Bake at what temp?

Sort of hot.

Bung it in when the oven is on for something else.

Thanks Sharron

Both Christmad Cakes now cooked so will ice them in a couple of weeks in the meantime I will continue to feed them.
Mince pies next even though they are not my favourite.
Anyone cooking something different this year?

Bridget :-D

We have decided to have anything but turkey, we virtually had to take a mortgage out last year....!!!

I have a new recipie which has been tried and tested by friends who the copied the recipe so thought I would add it on here.

Arroz al Horno or Oven baked Meat & Rice.

This is a Valencian Rice dish, humble in origin when it was made from left over stew and chickpeas, pork ribs and motcilla sausage was added.
In Xativa there is an annual competion ever year to find the best dish.

1\2 kg pork rib
1/4 kg of dried blood sausage
1 head of garlic
2 tomatoes
250gr Rice
2 medium size potatoes
125 grams of chick peas ( cooked )
Olive oil.
Fry the meat and garlic ( best in an earthenware dish) but I used my deep frying pan.
Add one tomato cut into pieces and stir the rice around the casseroles few times and then add the chickpeas. I used two tomatoes.
Slice the potatoes and lightly fry them and place the with the Tomatos on top of the rice.

Bake in the oven until Golden brown on the top and then serve and Enjoy.

:-)

I made cracked egg and cheeserind tarts the other day and they were delicious.

It was pastry left over from a big pie cut into tart size and filled with an egg that was cracked in the box and needed using mixed with the grated cheese ends and baked.

They looked quite expensive too.

Bridget, check your recipe. You have tomatos twice and no mention of potatoes until the method. I assume the potatoes replace one lot of tomatoes :-D

Sharron, I hope you removed the Shell Bits. :-D Ideal recipe for dinner. (1) Find a Michillin 5 Star Restraunt. :-D(2) Pick up Phone :-D (3)Book Table :-D (4) Enjoy Meal :-D (5) Apologise to Bank Manager for exceeding Overdraft :-S but still enjoy. :-D :-D :-D ;-) and eat bread and dripping for the next two months. :-D :-D ;-)

Good morning to you all.

I am beginning to wish that I had not added my last recipe! Mostly because of the errors.

Yesterday I made this dish and the aromas were yummy, however I did remove some of the fat from the meeat after it had been in the slow cooker for about 45 minutes. Then I added favourites of our own......I am sure that we all do this at times.
I added various beans, a few more potatoes as they were several days old and chopped up 4 carrots for the same reason.


When OH arrived back from the English Bar, where he had been watching football we had this for our main meal of the day.....there is none left as we ate it all, which was not the idea as I was hoping to freeze some!

I know it does not sound very inspiring but in our house it is going to be an Autunm / Winter favourite.

Cheap, delicious recipes required PLEASE.

If you do not like Marzipan please tell me how I can decorate my Christmas Cakes.
Thanks.

If you do not like marzipan, then leave the icing to the day before, and the grease of the cake should not get through....or just put marzipan on the top, it can be easily removed and given to those ...like me...who love marzipan

Greenfingers.
Many thank for your suggestion. I have some white marziipan which I bought in Holland, they have a large range of different colours. I will use this for just one part of the cake and then I will put various other items on as well....just the usual things.
After all it is really the cake that matters!
:-D :-D

Glad to be of service !!

Jan

Yesterday we went to the largest superstore near us and they had just put out their Christmas foods...and I found both icing sugar and Marzipan so stocked up by doubling what I needed! Thank you all for sending me advice about the lack of the ingredients.
The sun is shining this morning and I am sitting on the verandah with Jet and Joe who are having their breakfast. The birds are twittering and apart from hearing some cars going by in town all is peaceful ,,,a beautiful day.
As I sit I can see new roses opening especially the dark red ones and all our new plants are looking very healthy.
Today I feel very relaxed and it reminds me of a few years ago when I first started this thread......and I met all of you through this amazing way. Sometimes I go back just to re read some of the entries. I hope that everyone feels somewhat the same.

Any ideas about a new entry / discussion/ story etc very welcome.

Have a good day or night if you are in a different hemisphere to me.

Bridget :-D <3 <3 :-)

If you either don't like marzipan or don't have any, put a layer of regalice ( ready made icing ) let it dry and put either another layer, or royal ice the top.
Hope this helps.

Thanks to everyone who posted re icing my cake.

Here is a new recipe, well a new one for me and it was delicious.
I cannot get the ham suggested as I believe that it is cut this way in America. But I did buy a large ham for cooking and it was fine.

Maple Brown Sugar Ham in a slow cooker.

7 to 8lb spiral cut ham.
1 cup of dark brown sugar
1/2 cup of pure Mable syrup
2 cups of pineapple juice.

Method

1 Unwrap the ham but do not use any little packets if they are one the container. Of course if bought from a butcher this will not be offered.
2. Place the ham into the slow cooker, flattest side down
3. Rub sugar on all sides
4. Pour the Mable Syrup & the pineapple juice over the Ham
5. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 5. Hours.
6. One hour before serving baste the Ham with the juices from the bottom of the cooker.
7.When cooked carefully remove and let it rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes and then serve.
8. This is also delicious cold.

Note. It is possible that you have difficulty finding this particular cut...do not worry just find a cut that suits you, as I did and then continue.

I hope you enjoy it AND that I haven't posted this before!

This is not a recipe that I made up but cannot recall who gave it to me, it may have been my friend June.