This is a “Nigella recipe” I came across some years ago, which tastes and smells so wonderfully Christmassy. It’s those spices! As we have the Mincemeat Loaf on Christmas morning (see previous posting), I make these Christmas Morning Muffins on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. They make a special start to the day for so little effort. This recipe works well with cranberries or mixed dried fruit. If this mixture is too heavily fruited for your taste, halve the quantity of fruit.

Nigella suggests you measure out the fruit, flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar the night before, so all you have to do in the morning is melt the butter, and mix together with the orange juice, milk and eggs in the morning. This works well. On the other hand, you can measure everything out in the morning in the time it takes for the oven to heat up.

Makes 12

Preparation time: 15 minutes, if measuring and making all in one go.

Cooking time: 20-25 minutes at 200°C - Gas Mark 6.

You will need a bun/muffin tray and 12 muffin cases.

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The last Sunday before Advent is Stir-up Sunday, and has come to be accepted as the day when people “stir up” the Christmas Puddings. It takes its name from the traditional prayer for the day, “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people”. I’ll add the photograph after I have made the Pudding on Sunday.

Christmas Pudding recipes often rely on steaming for hours, usually 4-8. Sufficient reason alone to go and buy one! Here’s a delicious recipe that can be cooked on the day in about 10 minutes, or made a month before and reheated. This recipe is from a “BBC Good Food reader”, Anne Payne. Yes, it does take a while to measure out the ingredients, but as you will see, this is done in two stages. If time is really short, use 270g (10oz) mixed dried fruit, instead of measuring the currants, raisins and sultanas separately.

It is traditional to flambé the pudding with brandy. I read recently that Fanny Craddock advised using vodka instead, because it burns for longer. Put the vodka (about 125ml (4 fl oz) in a small pan and warm on the hob. Light it, pour it over the pudding and carry ceremoniously to the table. I think we’ll try it this year!

The cooking instructions are for a 750w microwave.

Serves 8-10

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All the recipes for Irish Soda Bread I came across used buttermilk. This is an ingredient I don’t think I have ever bought, although it is available in the supermarkets.

Like everybody else, I occasionally run out of bread. I was very pleased to find a recipe that didn’t use buttermilk and still gave a very good result. With the following recipe, you can use buttermilk if you have it in stock, or you can use plain milk. If you do this, double the quantity of cream of tartar. The less Soda bread is handled, the better it will be. It is traditionally baked with a cross on the top, which people believed would scare away the devil.

This quantity makes 1 large loaf, or two small (enough for 4 people with soup).

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 40-50 minutes at 210C - Gas Mark 7 or halve the cooking time for 2 smaller loaves. (more…)

I first came across this recipe in a Family Circle cook book. It suggested the freshly made Lemon Cream was mixed with halved grapes and used in between two layers of shortbread as a very decadent pudding. It looked very sophisticated! I decided to try it out on some guests. Unfortunately, I managed to break both of the shortbread layers. Pudding was looking like a complete disaster, so I served the grape cream on its’ own. I was astonished when it was a huge success, with people asking for the recipe.

Serves 4-6

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Freezing time: at least one hour, but it can be served immediately. (more…)

Trust me, this is a lovely dish. It comes from “The Dairy Book of Family Cookery”, (published in 1983!). I tried it for the first fairly recently and was quite intrigued by the unusual combination of ingredients. Just before I started this blog, I gave the recipe to a couple of friends. I think both thought I was teasing when I said it was delicious. They soon realised I wasn’t and this has now become a firm family favourite. You can’t really taste the mustard, even though it sounds like a lot. Children eat it happily, (particularly if they don’t know it’s there!)

Serves 4

I’d used all the mushrooms in the Soup so didn’t have any to fry to go with this! To begin to make room for Christmas foods, I wanted to use up some frozen Broad Beans which had been in the freezer for ages. They were very pleasant with the sauce, but as you can see a more colourful vegetable would have looked better in the photograph.

Piquant Pork Chops.

Preparation time: 5 minutes at the start and then 5 minutes at the end to make the sauce, fry the mushrooms etc

Cooking time: 45 minutes

You will need a flameproof dish. (more…)