HAPPY NEW YEAR + 5 FAVOURITE 2012 RECIPES

I thought I'd wish you all a very happy new year and thank you all for reading my blog and giving me feedback.

2012 has been a good year, this summer I started my blog and I didn't really think too many people would care, but I started it because food is my passion and I wanted to use the internet and its ways it provides to share things with each other.

My goal here is to give some people who sometimes don't see the beauty about cooking something to like about it. And give those who already love it some new ideas.

I can not ask all of you if any of those things have happend, but I know from some people that they liked my recipes and enjoyed making things themselves, even people who don't usually enjoy cooking too much found it inspiring. And in the end it doesn't matter to me how many people like my recipes, if there's only a few people who enjoyed them then that's great and I know I did something not completely useless.

I really enjoyed those months I have been doing the blog for, I have always been in love with making lovely food but this gave me the chance to try even more things I wouldn't have tried otherwise.

I love taking pictures of the food and making it look as great as it deserves.

Another thing I really enjoyed was telling you all about great places to eat and travel to wonderful places. I've been to the UK several times this last year and to France and I had wonderful food everywhere I went.

I too want to thank Geraint Photography for doing some lovely shots for me, I look forward to seeing a lot more of his work on here in the next year.

As for 2013, I am looking forward to trying new recipes and visiting new and exciting places and share all the food with you.

I hope I can get some more people to enjoy cooking a little bit more and just give all of you some inspiration, and myself.

Maybe some of you would like to have a look on my Facebook or Twitter and see all recent updates on there.

Thank you all for your support, and I hope you have a happy 2013 with loads of great food!

Here are my five favourite recipes of 2012 

(including links to where you can find them)

Peach Summer Cake

My Chicken Korma

Pizza Pizza + My Pizza Sauce

Lemon And Sage Chicken + Meditarranean Coconut Rice

Christmas Leftover Lovelies Sandwiches

Magdalena.

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.