The snow has finally melted meaning that Christmas now, surely, is over.  After all that seasonal indulgence, now is the right time to make yourself feed better with a little detox.  This month Julia at A Slice of Cherry Pie is hosting our seasonal food blogging event “In The Bag”, and we’ve got a great one lined up:

Bag Contents:

• Lemons
• Garlic
• Sesame seeds

Entry Details

All you need to do to enter this event is make a dish using the ingredients and blog about it then send an email with ‘In the Bag in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk by Sunday 31st January with the following information:

• your name
• a link to your post
• a picture of your dish

Rules

Here are the loose rules – but ultimately remember the objective is to have fun whilst highlighting seasonal food:

1. Participants should attempt to use all the ingredients ‘in the bag’ for that particular month, but may leave one out if they prefer.

2. Participants can include any extra ingredients that they see fit.

3. Entries should include a link back to the host for that month, and the post should be tagged “In the Bag”.

4. Entries can be written any time during the month, as long as the URL is emailed to that month’s host before the closing date.

5. Participants from outside of the UK are most welcome to join in and substitute an item from their own local seasonal produce if necessary.

Britain Under Ice

In amongst all of the snow slush, I’ve somehow managed to salvage the entries for Christmas 2009’s Seasonal Food Blogging Event “In The Bag“.  For this even I challenged food bloggers to come up with a dish using the ingredients of cranberries, clementines or mandarines, and nuts.  We’re not exactly bursting at the seams with entries, but what we have are corkers; check them out below.

This month (January) sees In The Bag return to Julia at A Slice of Cherry Pie. What will she have in store? Only one way to find out, details soon…

What better time is there in the year for me to become re-involved with this great recipe creation event, other than at Christmas?  I hope you can all join in with me, too.  It’ll be fun, I promise!

All you need to do to be included in my round-up article is to create a dish using the ingredients below and email the link across to me before the cut off date (04 January 2010).  Simple!

Bag Contents:

• Cranberries
• Clementines or Mandarins
• Nuts

Entry Details

Make a dish using the ingredients and blog about it, then send an email with “In the Bag” in the subject line to scott [at] realepicurean [dot] com by Monday 4th January 2010 with the following information:

• Your name
• A link to your post
• Your picture of the dish, if applicable

Rules

Here are the loose rules – but ultimately remember the objective is to have fun whilst highlighting seasonal food:

1. Participants should attempt to use all the ingredients “in the bag” for that particular month, but may leave one out if they prefer.

2. Participants can include any extra ingredients that they see fit.

3. Entries should include a link back to the host for that month, and the post should be tagged “In the Bag”.

4. Entries can be written any time during the month, as long as the URL is emailed to that month’s host before the closing date.

5. Particpants from outside of the UK are most welcome to join in and substitute an item from their own local seasonal produce if necessary.

Our Zebra Cake

Unlike ours, which was served “bare” (that is, without any icing), Jane has shown she has some real talent in the kitchen by fashioning hers into a handbag (below).  Style is honestly lost on me (I’m a man, it stands to reason), but that just looks great, doesn’t it?

Jane's Zebra Cake, in the making.

Jane's Zebra Cake (2)

The challenge is on.  Can you do an even better job of baking a Zebra Cake than Jane did?

I'm watching you!

I’m no La tartine Gourmande, that’s for sure – Bea was already blogging within a couple of weeks of giving birth to Lulu (and well done to her for doing so!).  I honestly didn’t realise how much time out of your life a little baby can take.

It’s important not to lose sight.  I still love to eat good food , but hardly find the time to take photographs and blog about it.   Just the other day I had a delicious salad of mixed tomatoes (black, green, yellow and red varieties) with rocket and balsamic vinegar that I’m sure would have looked so good in a photograph, if I’d have bothered taking one.  Some of those tomatoes (bright orange and super sweet Sungold type) were grown in my conservatory; despite not knowing what I’m doing, they’re coming out just fine and I’ll be doing the same next year.

I’ve been in the kitchen a fair bit recently, too, so I can feel a few recipe posts for the blog brewing.  My blackcurrant jam turned out much better than last year (adding the sugar later was the key), and I have a pork bolognese recipe I just need to share with you all.  Perhaps more exciting (to geeks like me); I can see hawthorns, rosehips and elderberries growing in a local hedgerow which are just crying out to be picked, when the time is right.

Finally, I haven’t forgotten the cookbook giveaway I promised a couple of weeks ago.  I pick (drumroll please)….Jennifer H!  30 years of canned food is way too much.  The book is yours!

50 Great Appetizers

I’ve been away now for just over 1 month since my wife gave birth to our beautiful baby daughter, Mia (more photos of her soon, I promise), and I’ve been missing you all.

To make up for it and as a thank you to all those readers who’ve sent good wishes to us (and also to anyone else who happens across this post; greetings!), I’m giving away another great FREE COOKBOOK.

This time around the book is “50 great appetizers” by the great Pamela Sheldon Johns.  I’ve read it and can say that it’s a great little reference book that you’re going to be keeping in the kitchen for a long time to come.

All you have to do to win this free cookbook is leave a comment on this post (or send me an email) telling me why you should receive it.  I’ll pick a winner by around the second week in July…

Mia's First Bath

In these photographs (and, indeed, as I type) she is just 5 days old but already beautiful. And just look at all that dark hair!

Baby Mia

If the website is a little quiet over the coming weeks then I apologise in advance; I’m sure you’ll agree that my excuse is well worth it.

In short, the kit allows you to make your own chocolate from home and contains all the essentials: cacao powder and  butter, natural sweetener, you get the idea.

I’ve not tried it and couldn’t possibly tell you if it’s any good, but hey, it’s CHOCOLATE and it’s FREE, so what could possibly go wrong?

To win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (or send me an email) before the 22nd of April 2009 with your idea for flavours / fillings for the chocolate…

R. Carradine, come on down and collect your prizes (Traditional Puddings and Desserts and Supper for Friends by Mary Berry)!

In case anyone wonders how I decided the winner, read on.  I took the total number of entrants (83) and used the wonders of technology (i.e. the internet) to pick a random number (66) within this limit.  This random number was then matched to the comment number of the winner in reverse chronological order.

That’s probably far more technical than it needed to be, but you know me…

Now on to my ramble.  Despite hosting this month’s edition of “In The Bag” (next month’s host is Julia, one of the World’s Top 50 Food Blogs.  I’m sure she’ll be announcing March’s event soon so make sure not to miss it), I didn’t even manage to submit an entry.  It’s not for lack of ideas (Pomegranate Turkish Delight has been rattling around in my head for weeks, as has the delicious Passion Fruit Curd), but through my usual “last minute” style falling flat on its face as I realised no shops in my town had either passion fruit or pomegranates, including the local Tesco.  Isn’t it strange that you don’t notice something is missing until you try and find it?

Click on any image for more information and a link to the recipe.