Christmas cooking

I have started this blog because I have rediscovered a love of cooking, something that was lost for the last 10 or so years. I have always collected cookbooks but have usually never cooked anything from them; just looked at the pictures from time to time. However our house was renovated this year and I got a brand spanking new kitchen which has inspired me to cook! I am not a great cook and so there will be may mishaps along the way but that's half the fun of cooking, right?! So this blog will be a record of my cooking (mis)adventures as I try recipes from my cookbook collection plus recipes I have collected from magazines such as Good Taste, Delicious and Donna Hay.

Tonight I made Chunky Fruit and Nut Cakes. Its a recipe from Woolworth's Fresh magazine that came out in December 2006.

1 cup mixed nuts (I used macadamias, cashews and almonds)
1/2 cup halved glace cherries
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup chopped raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates
2 Tbs brandy (I used a mixture of Grand Marnier and rum and probably used a bit more than 2 Tbs)
125g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (I had muscovado sugar so decided to use that)
2 eggs
1/2 cup dark choc bits
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp mixed spice

1. Preheat oven to 160*c. Line muffin pans with paper cases.
2. Combine nuts, fruit and brandy, stand 10mins (I let it stand for about 24hrs!).
3. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy (first mistake - I beat the butter and then added an egg before realising that I hadn't added the sugar yet. Oooops!)
4. Fold into fruit mixture with choc bits, flour and mixed spice. Spoon into lined muffin pans.
5. Bake 35-40mins until cooked. Cool in pan before turning out. (I used a pastry brush and brushed on some more rum, just in case!).

* Tomorrow we will find out how these little cakes turned out. Hopefully they will taste as good as they sound. *fingers crossed*

Late edit - the cakes taste ok. I was worried they might be a but dry but they're not. There is only a hint of the alcohol that is in this recipe.)

I also made mini Christmas puddings - a Donna hay recipe. I had made them earlier in the week as gifts for friends. The first time I found the mixture was quite wet and I found it difficult to roll into balls and then coat with chocolate. The other problem I encountered was dipping the balls into chocolate and coating them evenly. This was a lot more difficult than I expected. This time I added a little bit more pudding to the mixture so it wasn't as wet and was easier to roll into balls. However I still had problems coating them with chocolate - it is definitely a knack I haven't developed. Anyway they are now sitting in the fridge, hopefully firming up a little as they are quite soft to touch. I decorated each little pudding with cachous.

Other things I did tonight in preparation for tomorrow (Christmas day) was oven bake a selection of vegies for a salad (pumpkin, sweet potato, capsicum, and red onion). I also baked several garlic cloves to add to mayonnaise for the potato salad which I will make in the morning. Some of the garlic cloves were overcooked and so I couldn't get any garlic pulp out of them. Luckily i had baked a few. I also prepared the lemongrass mayonnaise for the salt and pepper prawns that I'm preparing tomorrow - after DH has shelled and deveined them for me.

So tomorrow I have to make the potato salad, coleslaw salad and finish making the oven roasted vegies and rice salad, as well as the salt and pepper prawns. Because Son #2 doesn't like prawns I am also making sweetcorn fritters as an alternative. We will have cold ham, turkey and a barbecued chicken. For dessert I have made icecream Christmas pudding which we will have with chocolate topping as well as a tropical fruit salad.

Luckily I have a 25km run to do on Boxing Day!!!!