drinks #2 HOT CHERRY PUNCH

I have been quite busy lately, had my last exam a week ago and now I should be studying for the next few but first I have to finish my personal statement for my university application. It's a good thing that from time to time I just get to write something on here where I don't have to choose every word so very carefully. And where I can share my recipes with all of you.
But really I can't wait to actually get back to University and studying again, I know it's weird but it just makes me happy, just like cooking does.

So today I've had some of my best friends visiting and wanted to make something for them that would warm them up a little. It is not as cold outside as it usually is this time of the year but still cold enough to need something to warm you up.

We had this cherry juice left which I got for christmas dinner but no one ever drank it so I thought why not make this into a lovely fruity hot punch.
Just need to add some spices and there you go, really easy and something your guests and friends will definitely love. (Mine did anyway).

Hot Cherry Punch
for about 6 mugs full

1 L of cherry juice
200 mL water
1 cinnamon stick
3-4 cloves
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cointreau
2 tbsp brown rum
4-5 tbsp breandy

heat the juice and the water in a pan,
add the spices and the suger and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes.
Carefully remove the spices from the juice.
Add rum, cointreau and brandy, but make sure
you do so when the juice isn't boiling anymore.

serve hot. you can also add some cherries if you like.

enjoy!

Magdalena.

#18 FRESH FRUITY PEACH CAKE-Y

As promised, here is the dessert I made for christmas dinner, but the beauty of it is that you can make it any day, any time of the year.
I decided I wanted something fruity and fresh this year, because christmas dinner is always a lot of food and no one needs a dessert that is just going to make them feel full again. 

So what I ended up with is really great and super easy to make for everyone and it looks really great and the guests will love it. Or you'll simply love it by yourself.

Peach Cakey
ingredients for 8 glasses
200 g biscuits
100 g melted butter
1 big can peaches
500 g greek yogurt
sugar
gelatine
cinnamon

crush the biscuits and melt the butter.
add cinnamon to the crushed biscuits (about 1 tsp)
add the butter and mix well.
share the mixture among the glasses equally.
press together so it sticks and forms a smooth
surface. cool the glasses with the biscuit mixture
for about 1 hour.

blend the peaches. put about 5 tbsp of the peaches
aside to mix it with the yogurt after.
warm the rest of the blended peaches.
soak the gelatine (2 leaves) in cold water while the
peaches heat up.
add the gelatine to the peaches until it liquidises.
add a little bit of sugar and cinnomon.
share the peach mixture equally among
the glasses and cool them until it sets.
(probably takes about 2 hours, leave overnight maybe)

soak another 3 leaves of gelatine in some water.
warm up the rest of the peach mixture and
add the gelatine.
leave the mixture to cool for a little bit.
while it cools, pour the yogurt into a bowl and
add some sugar (maybe even vanilla sugar).

when the peach mixture has cooled down, carefully
mix it together with the yogurt.
and again, share the yogurt mixture equally among the
glasses.

leave them to cool for another 1-2ish hours.

enjoy!

Magdalena.

#17 LEFTOVER LOVELIES

One of the best things about christmas is the day after. 
When the children get up to see if their presents are still there and to play with them early in the morning. And once you've done the dishes you're left with a lot of lovely food in the kitchen and there are so many things you can make of it.

But the best thing you can do, and surely a leftover classic are sandwiches. 
Sandwiches are wonderful because when you have a turkey like we did, all you need are some lovely fresh ingredients and great bread to make a wonderful leftover meal for yourself or the whole family. 

The beauty is that everyone can choose whatever they like to put in their sandwiches.
I wanted to give you some inspiration and show you some of the sandwiches I did.
I hope you find it usefull and like the ideas.

have a wonderful leftover lunch everyone.

The Rustic One (with a twist)

dark (rye) bread
turkey breast (or whatever your leftovers are)
fried streaky bacon
rocket salad
cranberry sauce/jam
mint leaves (about 4 for one sandwich)

The Fresh One

white sandwich bread
turkey breast
avocado
tomato
rocket salad
cranberry sauce/jam

Italian Breakfast

toasted white bread
turkey breast
(fried streaky bacon)
mozzarella
tomato
rocket salad
basil leaves (4 again)
lemon chutney

Magdalena.

#16 CHRISTMAS DINNER (KNÖDEL)

Hello everyone,

as promised, here is the wonderful christmas dinner me and my mum made yesterday for the family. So not all the credit is mine, my mum made the best red cabbage ever and we worked together making the turkey. And I want to thank everyone for coming and making it the great evening it was.

So now I will tell you what exactly we made, all together it's not even that difficult, but since we are not that experienced in making turkey me and my mum were a little nervous about it, but turns out it's really not that difficult at all.

We used the wonderful recipe by Jamie Oliver which I shared with you yesterday, it is brilliant so if you want to attempt a turkey yourself, it's great inspiration.

I want to share the recipe of the dumplings with you though, I am not sure if everyone of you even knows what these austrian dumplings are so I thought it would be a good idea to share the recipe, as it is really easy aswell.

It's so good to be back and posting again, and great to actually have time to cook properly. I hope you all are glad aswell, it's great to have people reading my posts.

thank you all.

Christmas Turkey (inspired by Jamie Oliver)

Simple (Christmas) Dumplings
for five people300 g chopped sandwich bread
4 eggs
1/4 L milk
1 onion
parsley
1 apple

chop the apple and the onion in tiny pieces
and fry them until golden. (well the onion will be).
place the chopped sandwich bread in a bowl.
mix together the eggs and the milk and pour
over the bread.
add the onions, apples and chopped parsley.
leave to rest for as long as possible
(I'd say at least 30 minutes, I left it for
about 4 hours though and it was great!)
season the mixture and form dumplings.
ideally leave them to rest for a bit
as they are aswell.
cook them over low temperature for 15 minutes
and they should be perfect!

(you can have them with a meal like this,
but they are also amazing with pretty much
any kind of meat, or just with some gravy.
yum!)

I hope all of you have a wonderful christmas meal yourselves, whether it is today or tomorrow, and maybe mine gave you some inspiration. I hope you all have wonderful holidays, and come back here to see what I'm doing the next few days.

Merry Christmas.

Magdalena.

Christmas PREPARATION II

So today is the day of christmas dinner, because we decided to do it a day earlier this year. And to be honest I am glad we did because this way I can share everything with you before your christmas dinner and maybe inspire you a little.

I myself was inspired by many things, for example by Jamie Oliver with the turkey.
Since I now have a few minutes of time because I am just in the kitchen making sure the turkey doesn't escape and watching the football I thought I'd update you with a few pictures and just let you know how my day has been so far.

So I got up quite early even though I had a late night last night because I didn't want to finish everything last minute. I had my desserts ready by 9 in the morning and the dough for the dumplings too.
Then me and my mum were invited for brunch which unfortunately we had to leave early to get this bird done.

So for now I will show you a few pictures and I will give you all the details tomorrow or maybe tonight, let's see how full I am after this meal.

the bacon rosemary skewers for the turkey

just before going into the oven

the dumplings before being cooked

Magdalena.

Christmas PREPARATION

so today was my first day off and I tried to just be lazy but in the end I ended up in the kitchen anyway. Since we have family coming over tomorrow for a christmas dinner it was good I did so I got to prepare a lot of things, less work tomorrow.

I tried making macaroons but they didn't really work out the way I wanted them to so I will try again and then share a picture with you.

But for now I am sharing my half completed dessert for tomorrow. I will share the whole things tomorrow or the day after with a recipe of course!

But for now you get a little taste of it.

It is difficult to think of a good dessert for a dinner like christmas dinner because people eat a lot and then they don't really want a dessert that is going to fill them up even more. Well maybe they do but it's not gonna make anyone feel great is it.

So I wanted to make something fruity and kinda light and this is what I came up with. 

I will not tell you what exactly it is yet, you'll have to wait for the pictures and recipe but I promise they'll be up as soon as possible.

It's really good to be back in the kitchen and blogging again.

Magdalena.

BACK AND BAKING

hello everyone,

so I thought I'd write to all of you before I properly start posting again and say sorry for not being active for a while.
as you may know I have been very busy with university and everything so I did cook and take pictures but I never hat the time to actually post my recipes.
but as of tomorrow it is my last day and my last exam for a little while so I will have time to post all the things I have been storing on my computer for this time.
and also, with christmas coming up I will tell you all about my christmas dinner and all the little sweet bits I am going to create over the next few days.

I hope that all of you who have been reading my blog when I was actually blogging will forgive me and continue reading it when I get to post again. 

oh and please people follow me on facebook to get updates about my recipes and request posts about recipes that would interest you

https://www.facebook.com/LullabyForPies

looking forward to hearing your feedback.


Magdalena