In the Bag: Cooking the Month of November!

We’re going for a change this month with a sweet bag, and I just know you’re going to love it. Take a peek at the goodies inside:

Chestnuts
Chocolate
Sugar

For those new to this event, here's how it works. Each month we pick 3 ingredients, at least 1 of which is seasonal, for you to make a dish with. All you need to do to enter is to create your dish, then post about it on your blog or website and drop me an email.

Mmmmm....I can’t wait to see what you come up with! My next post should give you some inspiration, as I’ll be posting about Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chestnut and Chocolate Truffle cake.

Entry Details
Send an email with ‘In the Bag in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk by Friday 30th November with the following information:

• your name
• the name of your blog or website
• a link to your post
• the name of your dish
• 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 one can be left out if necessary. The dish should be based around the seasonal ingredient, rather then just including it as an afterthought.

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.

That's all! Any deviations from the above are at the discretion of the host. Have fun!

'In The Bag' is a food event run monthly by 'A Slice of Cherry Pie', 'Real Epicurean', and 'Cherry's English Kitchen'.

Technorati Tags: food blogging event, In the Bagchocolate, chestnuts

Beef and Red Wine Stew with Dumplings

We’ve had some beautiful days this week, with clear, bright blue skies and sunshine, the kind you often get on cold, cold days, as these have been. The last few mornings have seen frost; pretty on grass while a nuisance on cars that need driving.



With the frost and the cold comes the winter cooking, and when I saw this fabulous stewing steak in the window of my local butcher today I knew a rich stew was in order, and it absolutely had to have dumplings in it. I love dumplings but Rob doesn’t like them so I don’t make them very often. The last time I made a stew I decided to be self-indulgent and make myself some, but my suet was out of date (see, it had been that long), so I missed out. Thankfully my butcher, bless him, stocks packets of suet so today I was able to buy some with the beef. Tonight I would have my dumplings.

Beef and Red Wine Stew with Dumplings

Ingredients
500g good stewing steak, cut into chunks
250g baby carrots
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
Half a bottle of good red wine
1 bay leaf
A few sprigs of thyme
Salt and black pepper

For the dumplings
50g self-raising flour
25g suet
Pinch of salt
A little water for binding

1. Brown the beef well in a casserole dish over a high heat with a little olive oil.

2. Remove the beef from the dish then fry the onion for a few minutes, adding a little more olive oil if required, until it just starts to take on a little colour.

3. Add the garlic, then the carrots, wine and herbs. Season well.

4. Bring the stew up to the boil then turn it down to the lowest setting so it is barely simmering. Put on a lid and cook for 2 hours.

5. To make the dumplings mix the flour, salt and suet with a little water to form a dough, then form 4 round balls for the dumplings. 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time place them on top of the stew and put the lid back on.

6. Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs before serving.

This recipe serves 2 but can easily be doubled.

Announcing the new Forums

I’m delighted to be able to bring you brand new forums for ‘A Slice of Cherry Pie’ readers!

It seems that forums are springing up on blogs all over the place, but I really do think they’re a great way to really interact in a way that you just can’t on a blog alone. Forums are a great place for help and support, to share recipes and ideas or just to chat on a rainy afternoon. I've been toying with the idea for months and after with a little know-how from my friend Cherry I've finally been able to make it happen.

I really hope you enjoy using the forums and I’m really looking forward to getting to know you all a little better through them. You can visit them by clicking on the side bar link under 'Interact', or by clicking here.

P.S. I’ve also opened forums over at the UK Food Bloggers Association, so if you’re a UK based food blogger and would like to join in visit the UK Food Bloggers Association Site where you can click through to the forums.

Cinnamon Hearts for Friends

What better way to spend an afternoon than with a friend? Be it an old friend or new, whether meeting for lunch, or for coffee, or for a walk in the park, it’s the nicest way to spend some time. Fortunately for me I got to do this both yesterday and today. And two of the friends I spent this time with I met for the very first time, the first being the lovely Cherry Menlove and the second my friend Viv’s gorgeous little baby girl.

I had been so looking forward to these meetings and as I had some time this week, being off work, I thought it would be nice to bake some gifts. There’s something very special about baking for other people; happily mixing, and kneading, and rolling out dough whilst thinking of your friends makes you put extra care in and I like to think a little of the warmth and love finds its way into the baking somehow. Little packages of home-made treats are not only lovely to receive but they’re lovely to give, so it’s a very rewarding type of baking.

I had great fun making these cinnamon hearts yesterday, although I found the fondant icing a little tricky to work with at first – this was the first time I’d ever used it. I soon got the hang of it though and before long I was happily colouring it and cutting out little hearts and flowers. And not only was the baking fun, but so was carefully choosing the ribbon and making up the little packages. It was a lovely way to spend a few hours, and before I knew it, it was time to catch the train into London to meet Cherry.

Cherry and I have been talking via email for quite some time now. As many of you will know, we run the ‘In the Bag’ event, along with Scott from Real Epicurean. I’m an avid reader of Cherry’s blogs, Cherry's English Kitchen and Tales from Pixie Wood and I’ve really been looking forward to meeting her. We’d been talking about meeting up for ages so it was really nice to finally get to do so yesterday.

You really get to know people through their blogs and as such I just knew Cherry and I would hit it off. Cherry is the first blogger I’ve ever met so, whilst I was excited, I was a little nervous too. But I needn’t have been, Cherry was lovely and we chatted away non-stop. We went to a bar just off of The Strand and as soon as Cherry asked ‘shall we have something white and bubbly?’ I knew she was a girl after my own heart!

Cherry’s lovely Fiancé met up with us when he finished work, by which time we were well on our way through our second bottle of Prosecco. It was a fabulous evening and worth the inevitable hangover in the morning. I laughed when I saw Cherry’s email to me this morning entitled ‘headache’ and I opened it with a sympathetic smile and a pounding head!

This afternoon was just as wonderful as Rob and I visited my very good friend Viv and her adorable new baby. Viv and I live some distance from each other so don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like, which makes our get-togethers even more special. Of course this visit was very special indeed, being our first meeting since she gave birth to her little bundle of joy. It was a lovely, lovely afternoon and we hope to repeat it again very soon.

Cinnamon Hearts

Ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
250g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Fondant icing

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. Beat the egg and gradually add it to the butter and sugar.

3. Mix in the flour and cinnamon, then bring together with your hands to form a dough.

4. The dough can be used straight away but is best after at least half an hour chilling in the fridge. It will be fairly sticky so you'll need to roll it out on a floured surface and sprinkle over more flour as needed. Roll the dough out until it’s about 1/2 cm thick.

5. Cut out heart shapes using a biscuit cutter

6. Bake the biscuits at 180C for about 10 minutes, but do keep an eye on them, they may need a few minutes less or longer. They should be very lightly golden when cooked.

7. Put the biscuits onto a wire rack to cool.

8. Roll out coloured fondant icing and cut out heart shapes using the same cutter as you used for the bisuits. Brush the underside of the hearts with water and place over the biscuits, gently rubbing over the icing so it sticks.

9. Decorate the biscuits with fondant flowers stuck on using a little water.