Happy New Year!

2009.

A few Christmas pictures

Kinna asked me before christmas what I have to have on Christmas, food-wise. I really, really want:


Christmas Ham, sliced

-Christmas ham, especially the first slice, warm from the oven. (It's then eaten cold, generally with lots of grainy mustard.)
-My aunt's meatballs. She makes a big box for me every year.
-My mom's Jansson's Temptation.
-my dad's cured salmon


Estonian Blood Sausage

And that's really all I *have* to have. A beetroot salad is nice with the meatballs, but I can live without it. I don't eat much sill, but actually made two myself this year - I'll tell you about it in a few days time. We always have Estonian blood sausage too, but I don't eat more than a few spoonfuls, always with plenty of Lingonberry jam.



And something which isn't necessarily traditionally served at Christmas (but it seems most people include it nowadays) is some version of halved, hard-boiled eggs with a topping. I like shrimp tossed with a little mayo and dill.

Candy Canes

I don't like candy canes much, but that didn't stop me from buying a packet when I found them right before christmas. They do look very festive, don't they? Here, in a lovely, *lovely* Starbucks mug that Dagmar bought for me, along with a green one. Yeay!

Christmas Candy: Peppermint Knäck

Ok, let's do one more variation on knäck, that lovely Swedish christmas confection. Last one this year, I promise! This one uses crushed peppermint candies to give a decidedly different touch to the sweet toffee. Per thought they were extremely weird, but most other guests loved them.

Peppermint Knäck

100 ml sugar
100 ml golden syrup
100 ml cream (heavy, double or whatever it's called in your country - the fattest kind you can find)
3 tbsp crushed peppermint candies

Mix cream, sugar and syrup in a suitable container. This means something that can take a lot of heat, go into the microwave, and still have high sides so the whole thing doesn't boil over. I have a quart-sized Pyrex glass pitcher that's absolutely perfect. Put it the microwave on the highest setting, for exactly 7 minutes. (You might need to try this a couple of times - if it doesn't boil for long enough, it'll be very soft and chewy. If it's boiled too long, it'll be rock hard.)

Remove very carefully - it's super hot - and gently fold in the crushed candies. Pour into tiny paper cups very fast, if it cools down it'll be a lot harder to pour. Place in the fridge until they're set. Keeps well in an air-tight container.

Recipe in Swedish:
Polkaknäck

Burnt Almonds

This is one of my favorite types of candy. It's called Brända Mandlar - burnt almonds - and it basically consists of a pink candy fudge-like coating, with an almond inside. Confusingly the same name also refers to candied almonds, the sort with just sugar and spices. This has made it really difficult to find a recipe for it, and well.. nowadays these can be found in most grocery stores all year round (thanks to Karamellkungen Premiyum, a luxury Pick-n-mix stand), but before, it was basically just available at Christmas markets.

So. I searched for a recipe. Everyone warned me, saying that these are not easily made at home. I even found a christmas cookbook that had it in the index, but when I looked it up I came upon a very, very disappointing "don't make these at home".

I finally found one that looked somewhat promising. Basically sugar, glucose and coloring. And almonds, obviously. It was no problems at all. At first. But after I added the almonds, I waited for the candy to cool down slightly so that I could shape it around each almond. Well, when it started to firm up just slightly, it was still scorchingly hot. And wouldn't stick to the almonds, at all. Approximately two seconds after that, this is what happened:



A huge, huge, huge mess. A very hard ball of sugar, with almonds. (Purple, as you can see - for some reason, I decided that purple would be more fun than pink.) I'm never making this again, and I recommend that you don't either. Sorry folks!

Poor Claudius Cookies

I saw this today on poor_claudius: Gingerbread Emperors!

Gingerbread Emperors!

I guess this is what happens when my friends and I bake Christmas cookies while watching "I, Claudius".



Top row: Augustus, Livia (with poisoned fig), grumpy Tiberius
Bottom row: Caligula (exposing himself), Claudius (with slightly damaged foot), and Nero.

Nero's awesome fiddle was made by [info]elanya out of a tiny snowman-shaped cookie.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Via poor_claudius: Gingerbread Emperors!

Tortiglioni Bolognese

Maybe you're getting sick of christmas food? Maybe you need something easy to make that will feed a lot of houseguests? I don't know, but you really should try this super-simple to make pasta. Simple in that it requires very little from you, but it *does* take some planning since it will take about three hours or so to cook. All you have to do is give it a stir once in a while, maybe add some water, but you do have to do that.

I found this at Amateur Gourmet, and I've made some minor changes, mostly with the amounts. And since I'm a huge celery hater, I used celeriac instead. If you feel the other way around, feel free to re-substitute celery! Adam says to cook this for at least three hours, but I was hungry - and two hours were excellent. Cook for longer if you want to.

Use a really big pot here - you want something that will hold the sauce and the pasta, all together, in the end. And a tip - the finished dish freezes really well. I got several lunch boxes from this, and it was delicious.

I don't have to point this out, but feel free to use any pasta you like. Tortiglioni is really similar to rigatoni, but penne would also be very close here. Or something smaller, like farfalle or spirals of some kind - just use your favorite.

Tortiglioni Bolognese
Serves 6 (at least)

1 tbsp cooking oil
2 + 1 tbsp butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
200 g celeriac, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
400 g ground beef
salt, pepper
250 ml milk
freshly ground nutmeg (small pinch)
250 ml white wine
1 tin (400 g) of whole or crushed tomatoes
pinch of sugar (optional)
water

500 g pasta
parmesan

Heat the oil and two tablespoons of butter, and fry the onion on medium heat for a few minutes. Add the celeriac and the carrots, and fry for a few more minutes. Add the beef, salt and pepper and let it cook until lightly browned and doesn't look raw anymore. Add the milk, and let it cook in completely. Add a tiny pinch of fresh nutmeg - it won't take much at all!

Next, add the wine, and let it cook until evaporated. Add the tomatoes, and stir well. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and cover with a lid. Let the sauce simmer for at least two hours. Stir once in a while and add water if it looks dry.

When the sauce is finished, season to taste with more salt, pepper and a tiny pinch of sugar if you'd like. (I always like sugar in my tomato-based sauces, it brings out the flavors.) Boil your favorite pasta in plenty of salted water, drain and add that to the sauce with the remaining tablespoon of butter. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.



Recipe in Swedish:
Tortiglioni Bolognese

Merry Christmas!

Kelly, reluctantly modelling the christmas-tree-hat.

I wish all my readers a wonderful, magical christmas. May you have the very best of holidays!

Christmas Candy: Crisp Bread Knäck

The night before christmas! (Christmas is always celebrated on the 24th here.) I have to share one more christmas candy recipe with you. I've posted about Swedish knäck before, our special sort of toffee that almost everyone makes for the holidays. You can play around with it in many different ways and a few months ago it occurred to me that you might be able to switch the almonds for something else that's crunchy.. like crisp bread!

I know that it sounds awfully weird, but it actually turned out really well. I've had a lot of guests try it by now and everyone really liked it - even though they all looked extremely sceptical before trying. You have to have crisp bread for this, obviously, and it can be quite hard to find in some countries. IKEA is generally a safe bet, though.

Now, I'm off to have a slice of just-cooked Christmas ham... on crisp bread. Of course.

Crisp Bread Knäck
makes about 40

100 ml sugar
100 ml golden syrup
100 ml cream (heavy, double or whatever it's called in your country - the fattest kind you can find)
2 crushed slices of rye crisp bread (I use a kind called Rågi)(shake the crumbs in a colander to get rid of any "dust".)

Mix cream, sugar and syrup in a suitable container. This means something that can take a lot of heat, go into the microwave, and still have high sides so the whole thing doesn't boil over. I have a quart-sized Pyrex glass pitcher that's absolutely perfect. Put it the microwave on the highest setting, for exactly 7 minutes. (You might need to try this a couple of times - if it doesn't boil for long enough, it'll be very soft and chewy. If it's boiled too long, it'll be rock hard.)

Remove very carefully - it's super hot - and gently fold in the crushed crisp bread. Pour into tiny paper cups very fast, if it cools down it'll be a lot harder to pour. Place in the fridge until they're set. Keeps well in an air-tight container.

Recipe in Swedish:
Knäcke-Knäck

Gingerbread cookies 2008

Of course I made pepparkakor this year too. With icing! (Which turned out way too spiky, by the way - icing and I are not great friends.) I did try a new recipe for the dough, but I'll direct you to one of my old ones, because I find those tastier.

Pepparkakor

Pepparkakor with dinkel flour (an ancient wheat - you can use spelt flour or just regular all-purpose.)

Weekend Cat Blogging - kitties ready for christmas!

Silver Lexus

The kittens are six weeks already, and I can't believe how time flies! They're getting bigger and bigger, and are now eating real cat food and not just from their mommy. (Who's decidedly a bit worn out by now!) You can find the full Flickr set here.


Smokey Lamborghini


Brown Lancia


Brown Land Rover


Black Lincoln


Black Lotus

Gingerbread Dream Cookies

Another cookie recipe using baking ammonia! I know this is scary for some of you, but don't worry - it's easy to use, but it will give off a very strong smell just when you open the oven. You can't substitute it in this type of cookie! The result will be a very light and aerated crunchy cookie, the kind that immediately shatters into a thousand pieces when you break into it. Irresistible!

This makes a really delicious spicy christmas cookie. (And if you should have any left over, you can definitely freeze them.) I have not tried this with vanilla extract, so I don't know if that will work. If you can't get powdered vanilla, just skip it. If you want to try with vanilla extract, I'd add it at the same time as the oil.

Gingerbread Dream Cookies
40 small cookies

75 g butter
150 g sugar
50 ml neutral oil
150 g all purpose flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla, powdered
1/2 tsp baking ammonia

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Carefully add the oil. Mix the flour and the spices and baking ammonia separately, and stir into the cookie dough.

Roll small balls (somewhere between the size of a walnut and a hazelnut) and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 150°C for 18-20 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Pepparkaksdrömmar

Cookbook watch - two more Swedish books

Possibly my last cookbook reviews for this year!

Mat, Vin och vanilj från Sydafrika
Another book about travels, but this time to South Africa. Elisabeth Johansson has written yet another cookbook (she's quite active!) and it has much more food than her previous ones (which were mostly focused on desserts). It also has travel stories and information about the country in general, but I am mostly drawn to the beautiful photos and the exciting recipes. I have to say, there's not a whole lot of recipes, but almost all of them sound lovely. I'm especially interested in the "Norimaki Crazy Boy Rolls" (who wouldn't be, with that name?!) which seems to be a sushi roll filled with crabfish, mango, avocado and scallions - and then the whole thing is deep fried. Intriguing!



Klaras bästa mat för gravida by Klara Desser.
Klara Desser has written several cookbooks over the past few years, most of them concerned with the GI - Glycemic Index - diet in focus. This one is certainly concerned with GI as most of the recipes are low in sugar, but the focus is on eating well during pregnancy. It's really very interesting, and has lots of ideas to combat common pregnancy problems like acid reflux, nausea and iron deficiency. And the recipes sound great even if you're not pregnant, by the way. How about a mild tomato soup with crème fraîche and fresh basil, chicken salad with mango and bean sprouts, or strawberry ginger smoothie? Yum!

Has anyone seen this?

I'm slightly desperate. I recieved this awesome salt a few years ago, in a blog exchange from France. It's called Sel Gris de Guerande avec Cèpes, and made by Eric Bur. It's absolutely brilliant on scrambled eggs. And my package just ran out. So, I'm turning to you, dear readers. Can anyone find this? If so, do let me know - I'd be eternally grateful!

Christmas Candy: Chocolate-dipped almond toffee

Here's a recipe I heartily recommend for your christmas candy making! It's really easy and fast, and more importantly, delicious! It's a very soft toffee (so it won't pull out all your fillings) and you can coat it with any chocolate you'd like. I chose milk chocolate here, but a nice, dark chocolate would certainly make it less sweet.

Chocolate-dipped almond toffee

4 tsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
100 g butter
100 ml (about 0,4 cups) flaked almonds
200 g sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup

200 g chocolate, to coat

Mix everything, except for the chocolate, in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, and let it boil for 3-4 minutes. Pour into a lined tin, and leave to cool completely. Later, dip it in chocolate. (Which you can temper if you master that particular technique, or not if you're like me.) Keep cool.

Recipe in Swedish:
Chokladdoppad mandelkola

Nigella Christmas

I somehow missed that both of my favorite cookbook authors just came out with new books: Jamie Oliver with Jamie's Ministry of food which promptly made the top of my christmas wishlist, and Nigella Lawson with Nigella Christmas which.. I had to order straight away. I love this - it's just as nice as all the other Nigella books (yes, I have the lot, I really like her writing) and I bet it'll be really useful for those with a busy christmas season. And for those of you who don't have that, really - I plan on making many of these things throughout the winter, it's definitely not "just" for christmas. Many of the recipes are suitable all year long. If you're a Nigella fan, this is a must. If you're not, well, then... get something else.

Weekend Cat Blogging - kittens are five weeks old

Black Lincoln

I find it slightly ironic that we named our kittens after car brands right NOW, in the middle of the largest crisis the industry has ever faced. I promise it wasn't at all on our mind when we chose, though. But now I'm pretty sure we'll never forget just when they were born... For all the pics, please go to Flickr. And if anyone happens to be interested, Lincoln and Lamborghini are still for sale.


Smokey Lamborghini


Silver Lexus


Brown Land Rover


Brown Lancia


Black Lotus

Peppermint Bark

A repeat. Yes. But truly, one that's worth it. If you haven't discovered this amazingly easy candy by now, it's about time. If you don't like mint witch chocolate, get creative and mix in anything! In fact, if you've got any particular good combinations, leave a comment and tell me about them - I'd love to try some new ones!

Peppermint Bark

200 g dark chocolate
200 g white chocolate
Mint essence - a few drops
100 g crushed peppermint candies (I used Polkagrisar, "Polka-Pigs". Use candy canes if you've got them.)

Melt the dark chocolate in a waterbath or in the microwave. Stir in a few drops of peppermint essence. Pour into a form or tray, and let it set. When it's solid, melt the white chocolate in a waterbath or in the microwave. Stir in a few drops of peppermint essence, and all of the candy. Spread this over the dark chocolate. Let it set. Break into suitable pieces, keep in the fridge.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mintchokladbräck

Saffron Cake

Absolutely nothing says Christmas in Sweden like saffron. Despite that, I'd never tried making a soft saffron cake before - just saffron buns of different kinds. I came across this recipe at one of the best Swedish food blogs, Kryddburken, and I totally had to make it. You might think it has a lot of fat, and you're totally right. But saffron tends to dry out whatever you put it in, so you really need all that fat to make it nice and moist. I used, per the recipe's instructions, margarine but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hurt to use real butter. (It so rarely does!)

Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent - make this and have your friends over for some genuine Swedish Adventsfika!

Saffron Cake

1 g saffron, ground (or mash it with a sugar cube in a pestle if you have saffron threads)
200 g margarine (if using unsalted butter, add a small pinch of salt)
2 eggs
300 ml sugar (about 300 g)
150 ml milk (0,6 cups or 150 g)
400 ml all-purpose flour (240 g)
2 tsp baking powder
Confectioner's sugar to garnish

Melt the butter, and stir in the saffron. Add the milk and let the mixture cool a little.

Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and baking powder. Carefully stir in the butter mixture - if you're not careful, you'll get saffron-y butter all over.

Pour into a buttered and floured pan, preferrably a springform with loose sides. Bake at 175°C for 40-45 minutes, until the cake is no longer sticky in the middle and has started to shrink away from the sides of the pan. When cool, decorate with sifted confectioner's sugar.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mjuk Saffranskaka

Struvor

A very blurry pic of the swedish christmas cookie struvor. We are
celebrating lucia at work this morning. (one day early)

The Nobel Prize Banquet 2008

Here's the menu for tonight's Nobel Prize Banquet:

Sole with Swedish shellfish, fennel and dill (with, very excitingly, oysterplant. Has anyone tried that?)

Fillet of veal, accompanied by seasonal vegetables and potato-thyme terrine (including a celery créme)

Poire Belle Hélène 2008 (But actually a much updated version, it sounded completely divine when the creator presented it. It has a chocolate-glazed almond crisp, a ginger and vanilla flavored pear, a dark chocolate ganache, ginger and pear preserves and vanilla ice cream.)


Did you know that if you're in Stockholm, you can always eat the latest Nobel menu at Stadshuskallaren? I never have, but it would be really nice. Additionally, if you're more than eight diners, you can choose a menu from *any* year. Pretty impressive! (You can see all the menus here.)

Avocado Shopping

We also ought to be banned from buying avocados, as I can never catch that minute between green, alligator-skinned rocks and smooshy mess, and I feel ridiculously wasteful every time I throw them away. We were better off in China, when we would carry our avocados and gouda back from Jenny Lou’s, and then wait, checking the avocados for that perfect sandwich ripeness each time before we went out for dumplings.

Via Simpson’s Paradox » Blog Archive » Victory Milk

Mid-week Cat Blogging

I know, I know. It isn't the weekend. But I still wanted to let you know that there are some new kitten pics up at Flickr. Adorable - aren't they?


Quite a job, feeding so many!

Brussel Sprouts in Cream

So, I didn't have a big Thanksgiving dinner this year, like I've already said. However, I did try a few new recipes, and the star was definitely the brussel sprouts. I know, I know, many of you hate sprouts. As did two of my guests. One of them loved this though! And no wonder, since the sprouts really aren't main players any more - use good quality bacon, and that will make this into a really amazing dish. And a really un-healthy one so don't have this every day, ok?

Brussel Sprouts in Cream

500 g brussel sprouts
300 ml heavy/double cream
200 g bacon
salt, black pepper, squeeze of lemon

Start by dicing the bacon and frying in a deep pan or skillet until very crispy. Set aside, but don't wipe the pan.

Meanwhile, clean the sprouts and quarter them into neat little wedges. Fry in the bacon fat (and add some oil if you feel you need to) until they're a bit brown at the edges. (Say, 7-8 minutes)

Add the cream. Cook on low heat for 25-30 minutes. Add the bacon, and season with salt, black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Recipe in Swedish:
Gräddkokt brysselkål

And the winner is...

Dolores! Thank you everyone who entered, I love reading your comments and you sure gave me a lot of ideas about holiday food! I will be e-mailing many of you to get recipes, for sure!

If you still want an apron, Phasethree has discounted worldwide shipping until Wednesday (free in the US!) so get them now!

Another leg of lamb

I still have some lamb left in the freezer. But not much. This is what we did with the other leg - roasted it in a fairly warm oven with a rub from garlic, rosemary, sage and thyme, plenty of olive oil and salt. Very yummy. And it yielded a lot of food - it would have served at least eight of us, but we were only four. The leftovers are in the freezer, waiting to be pulled into action.



With this, we had a delicious side dish of roasted potatoes, carrots and beetroot, with some pre-cooked soy beans thrown in the oven towards the end of the roasting time. The whole thing was topped with crumbled feta cheese. Very highly recommended!

Twitter Soup

Saw this on Beth Dunn's blog, small dots, and it's an awesome blend of budget cooking and tech geekery. Best line:

But in hard times, I can’t. I need to rely more on noodles and ramen, less on nori and rabe.

The whole thing's worth a read.

Via stone soup « small dots

Almond-filled Saffron Buns

Saffron buns is absolutely essential to Swedish christmas - or really, to the entire month of December. Swedes really enjoy the four weeks of Advent, taking care to decorate their homes and even workplaces, and definitely having a lot of opportunities to eat gingerbread, saffron buns and drink lots of "glögg" which is our version of warm, spiced wine.

Saffron buns can easily dry out, but these ones won't since they have such a nice and moist filling. Freeze them right after baking, and defrost as you need them. They go very well with a glass of milk, or a mug of warm chocolate. For more traditional saffron buns, I have this recipe.

Almond-filled Saffron Buns
24 large buns

100 g butter
500 ml milk (full-fat)
100 ml sugar (about 95 g)
1 tsp salt
1/2 g saffron
50 g fresh yeast
7-800 g all-purpose flour

Almond filling:
100 g butter, softened
250 g almond paste (with at least 50% almonds), grated
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 g saffron
1 tbsp white syrup (golden syrup or even corn syrup is ok, as is liquid glucose)

To decorate:
chopped almonds
pearl sugar



Melt the butter for the dough, and mix with the milk and the saffron. Heat until it's about 37°C (feels just warm to the touch). Crumble the yeast in a bowl and pour the liquid over it. Stir until the yeast has dissolved. Add salt, sugar and flour, and work into a smooth and supple dough. It should release easily from the sides of the bowl, but it might still feel a little tacky to the touch.

Cover the bowl and leave to rise for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, make the filling. Mix all the ingredients for the filling with hand-held electric beaters (or by hand, if you're vigorous) until it's smooth and even.

Roll the dough into a large rectangle, and spread the filling on top. Roll from the long side, making sure you get it nice and tight. Cut into slices, about 1,5 cm thick.

Place the buns on a lined baking sheet and leave to rise for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped almonds and pearl sugar, and bake at 250°C for 7-8 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Saffransbullar med mandelmassa

More on tortellini

Tortellini remains one of my favorite pastas. Here, it's simply tossed with a blue cheese sauce, crumbled crispy bacon and green peas, and then baked.

Now you'll have to excuse, I'm busy playing with the best thing to hit the 'net in a very long time: Spotify.

Smoky Bolognese

I love to eat some kind of variation on pasta with meat sauce, and this is a version we made up the other day. We often include mushrooms, but not so often barbecue sauce. However, this was *very* tasty, and definitely one to save for the archives. You can use any barbecue sauce you'd like, or even swap it for a chili sauce. It's all good - and the cream will round out the flavor. Feel free to use double (heavy) cream instead, if you're feeling indulgent!

Smoky Bolognese
Serves 3-4

400 g ground beef
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
200 g mushrooms (button mushrooms are fine), in smaller pieces
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
3-4 tbsp smokey barbecue sauce
250 ml single cream
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
butter, salt, black pepper

Fry the onion and garlic in some butter. Add the meat and let it brown. Stir in the mushrooms, and let it reduce for a little while. Add soy sauce and barbecue sauce, and cook for five minutes or so. Season with plenty of salt and pepper. Add the cream and let it cook for at least five more minutes. Stir in the tomatoes right before serving. Serve with the pasta of your choice.

Recipe in Swedish:
Rökig köttfärssås

Testing Jelly Without A Candy Thermometer

Elise.com has a simple way to see if the jelly's ready to jell using cold plates. Yay! Because I don't have a candy thermometer lying around.

Too runny to be ready	It's wrinkly, so it's ready

....Put several small plates into the freezer. As the jelly temperature exceeds 218°F, start testing it by placing a small amount of the hot jelly on a chilled plate. If the jelly spreads out and thins immediately, it isn't ready. If it holds its shape a bit, that's a good sign. Push up against it with your finger tip. If the jelly sample wrinkles at all, it is time to take the jelly off the heat and pour it out into jars.

Between this and my last post, you can probably guess what I'm making!

Via Seville Orange Marmalade Recipe | Simply Recipes

Canning Adventures

Just in case it's not clear what I'm cooking:

I was making cranberry relish yesterday when Stick came into the kitchen and looked hungrily at the jars I was filling.

“You can eat the one on the left, ’cause I screwed up the seal.” I told him, hoping to deter him from sticking a spoon in the boiling cranberry-orange goo.

“Great,” he said. “You make jam and save the botulism for me.”

Via Simpson’s Paradox » Blog Archive » Secret Ingredient

Blanch Three Times

 Jenyu.net has a recipe for candied orange peels which is awesome in itself AND solves my problem with marmalade and so forth, where the white part of citrus fruits makes everything bitter.

Some recipes tell you to remove the pith, but without the pith you are
left with not a lot of orange peel even though it may not technically
be part of the peel. I think the concern is that the pith makes the
peel bitter. You can remedy the bitterness by blanching the peels.



blanch the strips of peel three times

(I know what blanch means but this picture is pretty)

Via use real butter » Blog Archive » candied orange peels

How very depressing!

I just got an e-mail from one of my readers, informing me that BBC Food is going to be replaced with BBC Lifestyle. This truly, truly sucks. BBC Food is pretty much the only channel I really care about! Why, dear BBC? Why? I don't want any more boring shows about home improvement or "fantasy homes" (for goodness sake, there's already about a million of those!) - I want more Heston, more Jamie, more Nigella, more COOKING!

And if I can't have BBC Food back, could someone please start broadcasting Food Network here..?

Giveaway: apron from Phasethree

I have something special for you today. Remember my apron that I posted about? Well, I love it. And the wonderful ladies at Phasethree offered to send a beautiful pink and brown apron -totally free! - to one of my readers! Yes, that's the one in the photo!

To enter, leave a comment to this post, stating your favorite must-have holiday food (I'd love to get some inspiration!). I'll pick a winner when the week is over. You can enter until Sunday December 8, midnight Pacific time zone. And the giveaway is open to everyone, no matter where you live.

But wait! You can also get free shipping when you order your very own apron from Phasethree, during this same week. Free shipping if you're in the US, and a discounted $5 for shipping anywhere else in the world. (Mention in the comments that you're from Anne's Food.) They have lots of really cute holiday aprons in right now - they'd be perfect as christmas gifts, for a friend or (dare I suggest it?) for yourself.

Need suggestions? This one with birds? Colorful snowmen? Or a more classical holiday motive?