Oh we had such a lovely day yesterday. J and C came up with little C (not to be confused with little C next door - same name, funnily enough). I did a roast beef joint of epic proportions, roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding, plus enough vegetables and gravy to feed a small army, followed by the old faithful chocolate brownies, which we had, naturally, with lashings of cream. We then retired to sit in front of the fire, drink wine and talk trash for hours. They’re a great couple as Hubby gets on well with C, who has the same razor wit and makes us all howl. Bliss.

J gave me a beautiful Prada handbag charm that she bought me from Milan, complete with Prada box and Prada ribbon (!!) eliciting an ‘OHMYGOD!’ that had the men chuckling in that benevolent but slightly patronising ‘oh, women are so silly’ way that other halves tend to have. Both, apparently, know when we’re on the phone to the other as the air is peppered with ‘OHMYGOD’ and ‘NO!’ leading them to think that some terrible disaster has ensued. Little do they know these are usually responses to the discovery of a perfect pair of shoes (J had the most fabulous mossy green ones with a little strap across the ankle yesterday), or the reaction to a lovely snippet of gossip. Men. They really have no clue.

Anyhoo, here’s my recipe for the perfect Yorkshire Puddings which I’m not sure I’ve written up before. I’m trying to gather up all the recipes onto one page but still struggling slightly with links and all that other web-bloggery stuff that makes no sense to me. Blonde, see?

The best, fluffiest Yorkshire Puddings ever

4 oz plain flour
2 eggs
10 fl oz milk
Large knob of butter
Vegetable oil

So whack your oven on nice and hot: say 230 degrees which is gas…er…whatever. I appreciate it’ll be slightly less if your roast is already in there, but it doesn’t seem to matter). Grab your muffin tray (or you can get fabulous ones with bigger sized holes especially for Yorkshires) and dollop a glug of oil into each hole (I’m quite generous here because I think it makes for nice, crispy puddings, but you can just put in a teaspoon if you like). Get the tray into the oven now so the oil can get really hot.

Cut a generous slice of butter (say an ounce?) and stick it in a bowl in the microwave to melt. Then, add in the milk (or if you’re a lazy cow like me, just plop the butter into the milk and stuff the whole lot into the microwave). So weigh out your flour, add a nice pinch of salt, and put it in a bowl, add your eggs and whisk it up, adding your (cooled) milk and butter mixture until you have a nice smooth batter. You can do this in advance but I never remember.

Pour the batter into a jug and then pull the muffin tray out on the oven shelf, carefully filling each tray to the top with batter. They should take about 20 minutes and swell up to delicious pillow-like puffiness. This mix also makes wonderful toad in the hole (use a lasagne tin or similar and stick the sausages in with the oil).

Serve with your favourite roast dinner, or leave out the salt and fill with ice cream, drizzling over golden syrup. Heaven in a calorie-laden bowl.

Just 37 sleeps to go! Sorry, I just can’t help it.

The ‘ow, is that even possible?’

Okay, so I won’t mention the C word today. Although this is somewhat connected as I thought I’d provide you with une petite listette of my favourite internet emporiums. Seeing as you’re splodged all around the globe I’ve listed the delivery charges to various places too. Apologies to Robert, Coastal Aussie and Susan for concentrating on the UK and Ireland. Maybe you guys can suggest some good Aussie/US/Hawaiian sites too?! Enjoy!:

UK Websites

Amazon.co.uk
Ah yes, the old faithful. I don’t use this as much now as there are certain things they won’t deliver to Ireland. And you don’t find out until the checkout page which is annoying. Still the best prices for books though. There’s a link here to their European delivery rates but it’s so complicated, it’s better just to order then discover the delivery costs at the end.

Cdwow.ie/cdwow.co.uk
I used to love Cdwow, but I’m a bit of a ‘disgusted of Dublin’ at the moment as I’m still waiting for two CDs two weeks after ordering them. Still, chart CDs are just €11.99 if you can be bothered to wait for them to be delivered. We used them last Christmas for computer games too, but make sure you order WELL in advance. FREE worldwide delivery.

Powderpuff.net
Wonderful site which carries all sorts of fantastic perfume, skincare and hair care products. Lots of good bargains on real high-end stuff here although they don’t carry the full ranges. Lovely quirky make-up stuff if you’re after pressies for young teenage nieces/daughters. UK delivery is FREE! Orders to Ireland to the value of £35.00 carry a £4.50 postage & packing charge, then £5.00 between £35.00 to £70.00, and £5.50 if you spend about £70.00.

Cadburygiftsdirect.co.uk
I love this site. When you have nieces and nephews a few hundred miles away, nothing goes down better than a surprise delivery of chocolate. Delivery is £3.95 for orders under £10.00 or £4.95 over that. They also do a really useful diary service where you can put in all your family birthdays and anniversaries and they remind you when they’re coming up. Sadly this is a UK only service I think.

Jane-packer.co.uk
Can’t be beaten for the classiest flower deliveries. Really high quality stuff and beautiful packaging. They do next day deliveries in the UK by courier and are SO much better than the crappy bouquets stuffed with carnations that you sometimes get from online services. Me Mam was delighted with her beautiful hat box stuffed with roses, and it lasted a good long time too. Prices start from just £22 for a beautifully packed bouquet of white scented freesias. Gorgeous.

Jomalone.co.uk
Next a bit of upmarket smelly stuff. I lurve Jo Malone, especially her beautiful candles and the Lime, Basil and Mandarin Cologne. Gorgeous stuff, beautifully packaged, this is a great site for a really special gift. Delivery costs between £5.50 and £12.00 depending on how fast you want it. Online orders are UK delivery only but international deliveries can be arranged on the phone. They’re lovely and helpful to deal with too.

Kitchengoddess.co.uk
Lovely, lovely Cat at Kitchen Goddess sells some wonderful stuff. I especially love their vintage pink enamel range and their lovely embroidered napkins, but they do lots of cookware and stuff too, along with Nigella’s Living Kitchen range. Delivery to the UK is £4.95 and £10.95 for EU countries, no matter how large your order.

Vintagewinegifts.co.uk
Really impressed with these guys. I chose a lovely 2000 Bordeaux for my wine-buff big brother. You can choose wines by how full bodied or fruity you like them, or send a nice port or whisky. My gift was shipped in a lovely silk lined wooden box and my brother was really pleased with it. Orders under £39.98 cost £5.99 to delivery and you get to choose the delivery date which is dead handy for birthday. UK only this one again I’m afraid.

Ireland

Kitchencomplements.ie
Everything you could possibly want for the kitchen and with worldwide delivery too. Prices depend on what you’ve ordered and where it’s going. You have to get to the checkout page before you find out.

Goodfoodireland.ie
This is just the best website for finding out about Irish Food. There are restaurant and hotel recommendations (you can even book via the website) and they’ll even help you plan your Irish holiday. Wonderful hampers stuffed with Irish fare can be delivered worldwide too.

Nextdirectory.ie
Great site but I think their mainland Irish delivery charge is extortionate at €9.50. Still, I have been know to order, just because I’m so damned far away from everything. They also use rubbish couriers who ring and try to get away with leaving your parcel somewhere in the nearest big town for you to pick up. Not as big a range as next.co.uk, but getting there, and some nice Christmas bits at the moment.

More to follow as I try some new things out. Have a lubly weekend! x

Oh yes, just 41 sleeps to go! Sorry, no more Christmas blogs, I promise. Not.

Oh dear. I think I’m a bit weird. You see, it started off with the butter dish (see guilty-looking dog for details). I was looking on Ebay for a new one and was rather taken by a ceramic model in the shape of a cake, complete with cherries on the top. This led me onto the seller’s shop where you can buy such wonders as scented candles shaped like fairy cup cakes and Christmas decorations in the shape of little teacakes! Needless to say I loved absolutely everything and had to be physically restrained from rummaging in my handbag for my Laser card. It was the same when I found a cake decorating Ebay shop that sold edible glitter. Wow!

I know, I can’t help it. I’m just drawn to naff things. Somewhere in my genes, my parents implanted a teeny Princess Barbie that I just can’t ignore. Take yesterday, when Hubby and I were wandering around SuperValu (got a new big one near me - woohoo!) and I was suddenly fixated on the Ready Brek. Remember that? It was like wondrously soft, smooth porridge, and I can vividly remember sprinkling mine with Hundreds and Thousands (those little pastel sugar sprinkles). I had to buy some (the Ready Brek, not the Hundreds and Thousands) to relive my childhood and I’m glad to report that it’s exactly as I remember: baby food for a whole new generation. Not quite the same without the sprinkles though.

So how did a normal girl from Hertfordshire come to be obsessed with everything pink and sparkly? I have no idea, as I was quite a tomboy as a child, having two older brothers and a father who refereed football at the weekends (disreputable, see? The perfect hobby). Me Mam’s not girly girly so I didn’t get it off her either, but there’s something about baking fairy cakes in a little pinny that really floats my boat.

There you are then, and seeing as I’m…erm…thirty plus postage and packing, and Queen of my Kitchen, I’m going to unleash that inner Barbie and purchase that cake-shaped butter dish where it will have pride of place in the kitchen that I’m currently persuading Hubby to paint pink. So there.

Well done J for your amazing work on the new welfare section of the IGB’s swanky (I said SWANKY) new website. J single-handedly created the whole section and I think it’s bloody awesome. She even warned potential adopters about the greyhound’s propensity towards underwear theft ( v necessary, I can tell you). Check it out here.

Now you all know how much I love Bertie. It’s a mutual thing too, it’s a standing joke in this household that every time I so much as twitch, Bertie will be by my side instantly. I have to point out here that this is only because I’m the one that feeds him and I’m generally the one in the kitchen too, so I’m not kidding myself that it’s anything more than ‘ooh, there’s the food lady! I might get some grub’ that’s passing through his mind.

Anyhoo, I digress. When we first got him he was very good and didn’t beg at the table or anything. Slowly, though, we’ve been realising that we’ve actually ruined him by throwing him the odd titbit, which has encouraged him to have a wander near the table while we’re eating. As responsible dog owners, we need to instil some table manners on our errant pooch and make a concerted effort only to feed him from his bowl and not to encourage him near the table at all. So far it’s worked quite well, and a firm ‘no, Bertie’ will see him slink back to his bed if he decides to check out the table while we’re eating. Yesterday, though, I’d just put a new pack of butter into the dish when I was distracted for some reason and from the kitchen came an ominous crash. On closer inspection, Bertie had decided to have a lick at the butter in the dish and managed to push it off the table onto the floor. I was pretty cross and started to give my ‘You NAUGHTY boy!’ speech in my best fierce voice, when Hubby tutted at my pathetic efforts, said ‘No!’ in a suitably scary voice, gave him a smart smack on the nose and walked back out.

Well, Bert was so shocked at this sudden weird sensation on his hooter that he tried to skitter out of the way, falling over his many legs in the process and ending up in an undignified heap on the floor. In that time-honoured, bonkers way of the married couple, I instantly switched from being livid with Bertie to being furious with Hubby for frightening my baby doggy-woggy and was explaining in words of one syllable what a horrendous, terrible, dog-beating evil beast he was when D popped round from next door. I managed to get in a last, whispered insult before they settled in front of the fire to talk despairingly about how mad women are and how a dog needs to know who’s boss, etc.

I must say here, before you call out the RSPCA or anything, it really was only a little tap on the nose, but Bertie, who by that time had gathered his legs together, was standing blinking in the kitchen in a kind of ‘blimey, what happened there?’ manner, looking like he needed a cuddle. I called him to me and watched in amazement as the furry Judas trotted straight past me and up onto the sofa where he proceeded to plant himself onto Hubby’s lap and settle down, burying his head in his armpit.

‘See?’ said Hubby triumphantly as he ruffled a furry ear, ‘he knows who’s boss’. Grrrrr.

Okay, so abandon hope all ye who enter here if you’re not a lover of everything festive. According to Greenwichmeantime.co.uk there are just 43 days to go until the big day. There’s a bit of a division in our house as the kids and I love Christmas but Hubby’s not really fussed. Having missed out last year by going to Goa we’re going to go all out this year: twinkling lights on the outside of the house, a huge tree in the hall scenting the whole house, a turkey the size of a horse, the works. Being a total Christmas-aholic I’ve already dragged Hubby to the big B&Q near the airport to drool over the Christmas decorations (and came home with a 10 ft twinkling rope light - however did that happen?!). I’m leaning towards black and gold as a theme this year with a touch of very deep purple and I’m already driving Mr Bah Humbug mad with my ramblings over whether tinsel is naff and how many lights you need for a 12 foot tree.

This weekend we went with Hubby’s Mum to choose our first Christmas present. No, we’re not mad, it’s just that she offered to buy us a lovely spruce to plant in the garden (well, it would have been awfully expensive to post). It’s a wonderful present as every year as it grows bigger we can decorate it and we’ll just go on appreciating it forever. It’s now been delivered and is sitting just outside my office window in a huge pot and I can’t wait to get busy with the fairy lights. Ooh, and it was frosty this morning too. Bert and I crunched across the sparkly lawn just as the stars were disappearing and for some reason the fact that I was freezing was perfectly okay (well, I’ve been used to it all summer). We’ve got a huge fire roaring in the unfeasibly expensive fireplace and I’ll spend today happily surfing for the perfect pressie for everyone. Mulled wine anyone?

225g good quality dark chocolate
6 oz butter
3 eggs
8 oz caster sugar
4oz plain flour

For the ganache:

Small tub double cream
Small bar dark or white chocolate

Melt your butter and chocolate in a bain-marie (bowl over saucepan of simmering water) or in the microwave if you’re brave enough, but I always burn it. As always with this type of method, take it off the heat as soon as it’s well on the way as you need it just warm - you should be able to put your finger in it - any hotter and you’ll have lumps of scrambled egg in your mixture. Not attractive. In a different bowl, then, stir the eggs and the sugar until well combined, then add in the cooled butter/chocolate mixture and the flour. If you want to go completely bonkers you can add in some chopped white chocolate now which makes it look very pretty. Combine well then divide between two 8′? diameter cake tins (use spring form tins, or butter and line them as they’re a sod to get out). Bake at 180 degrees for between 25 and 30 minutes until all trace of wobble in the middle is gone and they look all cracked on the top. They’ll still be nice and fudgy in the middle.

Leave them to cool on a wire rack while you make the ganache. Again, melt the chocolate (I used dark again, but you can make white chocolate ganache which looks very pretty in this), making sure it’s not too hot, then slowly whisk in a splosh of cream. If it looks too thick add a bit more and continue until it’s a nice spreading consistency. Don’t panic if you make it too runny as it’ll thicken up in the fridge.

Whisk the rest of the cream, then place your first layer of brownie cake onto your serving dish or cake stand. Spread first with a layer of ganache, then with a layer of the whipped cream and add your second cake layer. Spread more ganache on the top. Add candles, sing happy birthday, serve, then sit back and revel in all that calorie-induced glory.