My plan …

… is just that – plan – the more you accomplish sat with a pad and pen, the easier life will be.

If you've been following the blog recently you'll know that we've just completed a weeks meal planning – Christmas is no different – actually that's not true, what is different is the outside pressure of bigger, better, more expensive and a huge headache. I'm just saying that if you follow the same planning principles it'll be less of a panic.

If you are new to the blog then I can do no worse than to suggest you have a glance at the suggestions I made last year. I'm not being lazy – at least I don't think so!

I also mentioned at the same time that my family Christmas was a little, shall we say, unorthodox. We chose to eat “chips with everything” - the everything being gammon, turkey, fillet steak and a veggie option too – whatever took our fancy. I have asked my family what they'd like for Christmas Day lunch this year and their resounding response was - “the same as last year – it was great”. We have a treat on Christmas Eve, dinner out, which does make a difference. I have made one or two changes – instead of the chip-pan there'll be a tartiflette and/or a roast potato or three but the principle remains the same – a little bit of what you fancy!

If you are catering for your family and friends I might be inclined to ask whether they really want a traditional roast turkey with all the trimmings – if yes – that's fine and relatively straight forward.

If not, bounce some ideas around – ask your guests what they'd like, but not in such a way that it commits you to providing 12 different main courses and 12 different puddings – I know, I know, I'm exaggerating. I'm just suggesting that you might have been cooking a turkey for 10 years on the trot that no-one enjoys – particularly you!

Just a thought.

I do have a few bits and pieces up my sleeve that I hope will help.

An intermission

I'm interrupting my “gadding about” on location – there's more to come shortly. In case it had escaped your notice Christmas is on the doorstep – again!

In the supermarkets it begins earlier each year, or so it seems to me. Aided and abetted by adverts on the tv showing delectable delicacies designed to tempt us – what did we do before “party food”?

How many of us succumb and ram the freezer within an inch of its life with all manner of stuff that, hand on heart, we will either serve and be disappointed since it all tastes the same, or jiggle it around the freezer for two weeks and then throw it out in the New Year?

The party food fashion reminds me of the idiom “Keeping up with the Joneses” - I suppose you have to be a certain age to remember the phrase – here's my useless bit of information – did you know that it came from a comic strip of the same name which ran from 1913 to 1940?

Wearing a wry smile of course, I can't help but picture a gathering where your party food is scrutinised within a inch of its life by guests, with the imaginary, cartoon style bubble above their head saying “mine's better than yours and it cost more!”

Please don't think I'm being a party pooper nor that I'm saying you shouldn't buy festive treats – just that you give a little more thought ahead of the game to what you buy and what you'll use, rather than a trolley dash hurling in, at random, stuff you can't possibly live without, elbowing other shoppers out of the way, because you have to have the last exorbitantly priced product left on the shelf!

Lets see what we can do.

On location in SC - The not so glossy magazine!

$9.95 may sound a smidge expensive but, have a look at my first purchase – Cooks Illustrated

as you can see – 76 recipes!

Just to prove my point – remember the whole wheat flour for the soda bread – here's a review of the very same :

There's another major plus with this magazine – apart from the number of recipes it's full of clear and helpful advice for the novice. I would not describe my friend as a novice cook but needless to say he was impressed and so it stayed. Worth every cent!

By the way – on the “teach as you go” front, from last night's supper we had the technique of “smoking” chicken, an Alfredo sauce and veggies. By the by - another “lost in translation” ingredient – never heard of semolina flour in this neck of the woods (to toss the par boiled potatoes prior to roasting) – life is too short to hunt it down – all purpose (aka plain) flour will do – there's sad and then there's really sad.

I discovered that last evening's supper was photographed and emailed – I think I'll take that as a good sign!

Note to self – check out the pantry for supplies in the am – slow cooked beef could be on the menu and I suspect we may have more ingredient challenges!

On location in SC - My guilty pleasure

My guilty pleasure – don't get too excited!

I know it's not considered “de rigueur” these days but one of my favourite treats is a visit to a book store – aka shop.

A browse is the ultimate treat for me with a coffee and compulsory chocolate chip cookie sitting in a comfy chair. We pinched this idea in the UK but somehow I can't justify the time when at home.

Anyway the other major lesson I've learnt when abroad is that Airlines are quite strict these days about luggage weight – note to self, you can't buy heaps of books that weigh a ton!

Aha – here's my answer – buy good quality magazines instead. There are some really good ones out there and the way I look at it is if you discover 2 or 3 recipes that you like the look of or immediately want to adapt, then it's worth the dosh and it has paid for itself.

In my house magazines are treated the same way as books – I appreciate that this may seem a little over the top but if you are remotely interested in cooking – and buy books or magazines – then you'll browse through both at some time or another. Where magazines are concerned you might not bother to mark anything at all – conversely you might think it's acceptable to turn down a corner to mark a recipe – there's only one problem – I'd put money on you referring back for a particular recipe or article and its vanished into thin air. Treat yourself to a supply of coloured tabs – like post it notes but smaller – and mark as you browse – anything that appeals gets a tab – problem solved!

I know I'm sad – can a cookery magazine qualify as a “glossy mag” - probably not but who cares.

On location in SC – this is your roving reporter!

Did you know apparently there's a problem with bagels – in that when you fill a bagel the filling oozes through the hole – really?!

I give up – surely the (w)hole point – sorry couldn't resist – of a bagel is that the filling is meant to ooze and arming yourself with a heap of table napkins and licking fingers and getting generally messy is the best part!

Anyway I feel it only right that I should impart information that has recently come to my attention. I give you the alternative – a bialy – it's not a bagel, it's not an English muffin, it's the best of both.

The bialy is Jewish in origin – in particular Polish Ashkenazi. It's very similar to a bagel but a bagel is boiled before it's baked - a bialy is baked. The depression – not hole – is filled with various different ingredients to suit.

Personally I'd describe a bialy as a slightly smaller version of a bagel and I have to say that the thought of a cooked onion filling in the “depression” would definitely lift my spirits!

My quest is to see whether we can find them in the UK – I'm on the case.

On location in SC.

It's early morning – which means coffee and my quiet time – perfect for me to “get my head on straight”, which means at least two cups. I do my best thinking at this time of the day. After my first cup its tackle the instructions for the digital scales - for my friend's benefit – not a huge task but there's not much point in me bleating on if I can't demonstrate to him how to use them!

So, after explaining the workings of the scales it's all systems go and my student watches me make a loaf - literally 30 minutes later here's the result :

You might not be surprised to know that there's bread and cheese on the lunch menu today.

The verdict before lunch – “this could be the perfect answer”.

The verdict after lunch – “I never need to buy store bought bread again” and “I have to make a loaf before you leave so you can watch me”.

Great start to the week – my work here is going well.

A small tip – if you are demonstrating equipment like scales or timers it has been my experience that some students have a tendency to be a little heavy handed if you get my drift – slowly and gently wins the day and saves the piece of kit from an early demise!

P.s. Phew! There's always a risk that recipes – even the simplest – don't translate well. There are so many elements that can go wrong – a different oven – the climate – air conditioning etc. in spite of them all I am delighted to report that the bread was good. I might even make another loaf later on – just to make sure it wasn't a fluke – I don't think it will be wasted.

Nothing is ever straight forward!

Whilst my friend loves where he lives he's not enamoured of American bread. If you're fond of brioche and/or bagels then you're well set but ordinary toasting bread ain't so good. So, it makes sense that we begin with Soda Bread – the fastest and most uncomplicated recipe ever and it will suit my friend well – I hope.

However, if you've spent any time in the USA and shopped in “markets” then you'll know that it's a whole different world out there. It's fine once you realise there are different names for different products.

This is what I mean ...

… remember the Soda Bread - here's a list of the ingredients

Soda Bread

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk – 300ml pot works

fine

I've shopped to cook many times in the US and have to confess I've never seen self raising wholemeal flour … watch this space. What we call plain flour in the UK is all purpose flour in the US so that's ok. Bicarbonate of soda is known as Baking soda in the US. The one ingredient that should be easily available in the US is buttermilk – bring on our visit to Trader Joe's – a great “supermarket” and reasonably priced too. A voyage of discovery … here's what we found.

I have to confess it's good fun translating recipes – if you have the time of course and I did – hey you never know when you might want to bake Soda Bread in the US – I've saved you all that time and done the research for you!