Bread Sauce = Heaven

I am a big fat lump of humanity stuffed full of Christmas yummies. I made Christmas lunch today, which consisted of the obligatory turkey, roast potatoes and parsnips, peas, swede, brussels sprouts, carrots, corn, stuffing, gravy, mini sausages wrapped in bacon etc. However I decided I was going to make my favorite turkey accessory - bread sauce. I tweeted and updated my Facebook status accordingly. My buddy Marissa was perplexed as to what this was, and since I am in the mood, and it's a simple recipe, I will provide this recipe forthwith. It's very simple. All you need is:

• Onions
• Cloves
• Milk
• White bread

I took three medium-smallish onions, cut off the tops and bottoms and peeled them. Then, I take some cloves and stud the onions in a ring around each one, about a third of the way up the side. Sit the studded onions in a saucepan and fill it with milk to about two-thirds of the way up the side of the onions, and then simmer on a low heat until the onions are soft. This is the bit that throws people off now - discard the onions. What you have now is hot milk infused with clove and onion flavour. Take some slices of white bread and remove the crust, then break the slices into little pieces and add to the hot milk. Stir every so often till you get a  sort of thick lumpy custard consistency, then what I did was take a potato masher and mash the mixture a few times to break up any larger bread pieces. Et voila! Bread sauce! The best thing for turkey and taters, believe you me. Try it, you'll wonder how you ate turkey without it.

Bit(e)s and Pieces

"It's been a long time
I shouldna left you
Without a strong rhyme to step to..."   -- Eric B. & Rakim


Yes, I apologise folks. I really do. I simply have not had that much to write about recently, foodwise. Not that I haven't been eating, mind. Oh, don't fret about that. I've been eating alright. Perhaps a little too much.

That's the trouble with this time of year, isn't it? As soon as the weather turns cold and the clocks change and it starts getting dark around 4 pm, we just want to go home and stay warm and consume mass quantities of comforting noms. And they're not always the healthy kind, are they? Oh no! It's like bring on the sugar and carbs!! load me up!  and before you know it your favourite trousers are, well, a little snug, shall we say.

Anyhoo, I just wanted to write a little bit about some of the new and delish morsels I've recently consumed with so much gusto. First up is a new flavour of yogurt, kindly provided by the yogurt boffins over at Ski Yogurt. It's a limited edition pack containing two flavours - vanilla (which I actually found to be a bit insipid) and Toffee Apple, which kicks butt!!

Very nice balance of the caramel toffee flavour and sweet apple. Delicious. Good one, Ski. Need to work on that Vanilla though.

Next is something I discovered a few weeks ago, in the pub of all places. Brannigan's Crisps are made by KP snacks, which became part of United Biscuits back in '68. United also manufacture McCoy's Crisps, which are ridged, and very nice, as well as usually cheaper than most other brands. But I digress. I like Brannigan's because they are a nice thick cut, and the flavours are fab. The two I've tried so far are...

Lovely Roast Beef and Mustard...

Smoked Ham & Pickle - yum.

However, there is one variety I have not yet tasted and I cannot wait to get my hands on a bag.

Oh my.

It's the little things in life, I know.

Lastly I had this little titbit brought home for me from Waitrose the other day...

Yes, it's a brioche. But when I bit into it, a sweet pocket of raspberry jam was inside, oozing with fruity yumminess. Oh heck yeah. If you're in Waitrose, ya gotta get some of these 'brioches a tête' as they are known. But wait until the end of the day when they start marking stuff down, because Waitrose is great, but expensive.

Kooshti Sante!