More from the kitchen...

       Life has been a little busy since the first of November...and it's about to get busier.  

Many a year have I walked with My Jesus.  Over and again the principle I've experienced is, the more time I spend with Jesus, meditating on His word, the more I seem to accomplish and the less tired I am in body and mind.  

2011 Christmas Ginger Bread House

On 17th November, St. Mary's Langley held thier annual Christmas Fayre.  Last year I contributed a Gingerbread house.  People were surprised by it, and there were lots of compliments.  The children wanted to eat it.  People paid to "Guess the weight."  The winner, a lovely retired grandmother, gave the edible house away to a young Mum with five children.  Her generosity touched my heart.  

With last year's gingerbread being a hit, I was asked if I would be willing to make gingerbread men this year.  I dug out the recipe, which I found on the internet.  http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/gingerbread-recipe.html 

A Gingerbread Man Army

For a gingerbread house, most people use a paper template and use a dinner knife to cut out the gingerbread.  For gingerbread men a cutter is needed.  I had a tiny one, and I didn't think I wanted to do that much work.  By searching on the internet, I found what I wanted at Robert Dyas http://www.robertdyas.co.uk/  The desired item is a six inch long gingerbread man cutter.  My Darling Husband, aka "The Maverick," was kind enough to go into town and buy it for me whilst I was at work.  A big thank you goes to him.  The batch of dough made 48 gingerbread men, plus scraps.   

I am going to have to find an icing recipe I can use with liquid food colouring, as the liquid makes the royal icing runny.  It also takes longer to set.  Even adding more icing/powdered surgar doesn't make the continuity of the icing stiff enough.  But everyone at the Fayre was very happy with the result and they nearly sold out!  

Notice the steam coming off the loaf?  Its just out of the oven

For my birthday, "The Maverick" kindly went down to the local chippy and bought me fish and chips.  We had discussed going out for dinner, but I was tired after my sewing class and didn't feel like going back out again.  Especially since I had an infection in both ears.  Thankfully it wasn't an inner ear infection.    But on Tuesday, I decided I would cook something a bit different for dinner.  Ingredients:  Fish and potatoes.  Result:  A tuna Loaf with Roast potatoes.   It was a nice twist on a familiar meal.  The recipe is in a Good Housekeeping Cookbook.  If anyone wants the recipe, send me an e-mail and I'll send it.  

We nine with the birthday (fruit) cake.

Early in November, "Jon-David" came over with his family to help us celebrate birthdays: "The Maverick's" is 22 October, mine 19th November.  So on 6th November, I cooked a nice chicken dinner, share with "The Aussie Family"  and "The Colnbrook Crew".   From the expressions on our faces here, we had a grand time.  When "Techphil", "Jon-David" and "The Maverick" get together, teasing and laugther are guarenteed to happen.  And so it was on 6th November.

Okay...this blog isn't going in chronological order.  I'd originally intended to post a couple of photos for the night, with little or no text.  But, hey, once I get started, I just can't help myself!  :-)

Cake before cutting

However, 6th November is related to the next photo.  "Jon-David" brought over a big bag of apples from his dad.  They were lovely, large cooking apples.  I immediately made a crumble--even though we still had birthday cake. 

     With so much going on, the bag of apples sat in the corner, waiting patiently until I could pay them attention.  This past Sunday I had to cook the other apples before they went off.  So I peeled them and got out another recipe.  I used two big ones for this cake:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/apple-sour-cream-streusel-cake/detail.aspx   

After cutting.

Instead of putting the apple in the middle, I made it like an upside down cake.  

If it seems like I'm doing more baking, then you would be right.  And why?  Because although we keep the heat turned down, baking is a great reason to fire up the oven and stay warm in the kitchen.  :-)  And my husband likes it when I bake.  Tomorrow Flapjack is on the docket.  http://www.lylesgoldensyrup.com/kitchen.php?recipe=62 

This evening I prepared two cottage pies for tomorrow's Alpha Course.  I have applesauce from Sunday's cooking; that will be used in a cake for tomorrow night's dessert.  

So, now that's I've stimulated your appetites, I'll sign off for now.  

Serving Jesus, Author of our faith,
"Lady Helene"