Dinner time

I think food is really good and everyone should enjoy it.  I also really like cooking and think I'm pretty good at it- as long as the recipe is simple and doesn't involve precise measurements or the occasional counter-clockwise stir à la Draught of the Living Death in The Half Blood Prince.
Tonight I made, basically, a paleo dinner (don't tell Sam) that is both easy and yummy: mustard chicken with roasted sweet potato and spinach (recipes below).

Mustard chicken, roasted sweet potato, and spinach

Please ignore the chip in my china

I wouldn't say my diet is ideal- I eat bread and french fries in moderation (kind of)- but I know what's good for me and try to stick to that.    I cook most of what I eat, avoid processed foods and ingredients, and eat fresh when I can.  In general I find the simpler, the better and the better for you.  Not needing to measure things also helps.

Recipes

Mustard chicken

• Chicken breast (or whatever part of the chicken you like)
• About 1 tbs Dijon mustard per breast (depending on how much you like mustard)
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

1. Rinse and dry chicken, place in baking apparatus
2. Dollop mustard and a splash of olive oil onto chicken
3. Mix around until chicken is coated on both sides
4. Season with salt and pepper as desired
5. Either set aside for a bit to marinade or preheat your oven to 350
6. Cook for about 20 minutes depending on amount of chicken
7. Eat your chicken

Roasted sweet potato

I don't usually skin my potatoes but if you're into that, do that first.

• Sweet potato
• Olive oil/fat
• Salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Once oven is hot, put olive oil/fat you like to cook with into baking tin and leave in the oven for 2-5 minutes
3. Cut sweet potato into similar sized chunks- about a cubic inch
4. Put potato into the hot oil/fat, sprinkle lightly with salt, making sure all surfaces have sufficient oil and fat
5. Cover tin with tin foil and cook for 20 minutes
6. Remove cover and cook for another 20 minutes or until potatoes are getting crispy and you want to eat them

Christmas

This is my first Christmas away from home and from my family, which is a bummer.  I've brought over a tradition from home - Christmas cookies from the Joy of Cooking (recipe at bottom) that I used to make with my mom- and stared a new one - making sloe gin and sloe gin royale (recipes at bottom).  Since I no longer have Thanksgiving as a barometer to let me know when it is appropriate to start preparing for Christmas, I made my first batch of Christmas cookies mid- November. #yolo.

Christmas cookies

Sloe gin Royales in gold leaf goblets from Essex antique shop

In an attempt to be smart, Sam and I bought solar powered Christmas lights to go over our front door.  Unfortunately, we didn't take into account the fact that our house is terraced in such a way that prevents the front of our house from getting any sun.  The lights go on for about 30 seconds a day but at least they aren't wasting electricity.

Sad, eco-friendly lights

Luckily, the Christmas tree and other indoor decorations are much more sufficient.

Silver plated tray from Royston charity shop,  candles from Ikea, golden acorn candles and baubles from Tesco, holly cut while walking the dog

Tree with lights, star, and decorations from local garden center

Fenway impersonating Santa 

Stocking from The Factory Store hanging on a hand-make oak mirror, advent calendar from a German colleague

Hearing about the glorious snow back home while in England all I'm getting is a dreary mist isn't ideal but I'm still hopeful for a white Christmas.  Worst case, there will be no snow but plenty of cookies and gin.


Recipes

Christmas Cookies - Rich Roll Cookies from the Joy of Cooking

• 1 cup of butter
• 2/3 cups of sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups of sifted flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp lemon (optional, but what I do)

1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Beat in egg and vanilla
3. Add salt, flour, and lemon rind
• Using your hands to get everything mixed properly is a bit easier than just using a spoon
4. Chill dough for 3-4 hours
5. Preheat over to 350 degrees
6. Roll and cut cookies
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes

Sloe Gin

• About 500g of sloes
• Best to pick them when they're soft and ripe. No need to wait until the first frost because freezers exist and you can put the sloes in yours overnight- just defrost before getting started
• 225g sugar
• 1 liter of gin
• Glass jar(s) with lid(s)

1. Use a clean needle to prick some of the sloes (allows the flavor to go into the gin more quickly but freezing the berries should split the skin, which has the same effect)
2. Pour in gin and sugar, seal jar(s) and shake
3. Leave jar(s) somewhere cool and dark but that you won't forget about and shake every 1-2 days for 1-2 months.
• I left my first jar for a month and it came out very nicely but I'm saving the second to have on Christmas
4. Strain the sloe gin through a strainer or muslin into a clip-top bottle

Sloe Gin Royal

• Sloe gin
• Champagne

1. Pour yourself a glass of champagne
2. Add a bit of gin at a time until you like how it tastes

My grandmother, one of the most glamorous women I've ever known, used to tell me I have champagne taste on a peanut butter budget- which has never been more true than right now.

My beautiful grandmothers, Bisi Starkey, and Elizabeth Blanchard, at my parents' wedding... probably discussing their future granddaughter's taste for fine things and her creative ways of procuring them.

I have lovely silk and cashmere tops... that I can't get dry cleaned and have douse in Febreze while running late to work.  I travel internationally... in steerage.   I have a crystal cut decanter...  filled with whiskey I won in a raffle.

Crystal cut decanter from Trumpington car boot sale, glasses crystal and silver plated glasses from Essex antique shop, and silver plated tray from Royston market.

My taste for nice things- designer perfumes, cell phone insurance, country clubs- is not something I can quite provide for myself at the moment so I do what I can with what I have.  Scouring charity shops, street markets, family's homes and, of course, Ikea, I have managed to make my new-build home feel a but more old home- with a bit of help from my boyfriend.

Willow wear plates and mugs from Royston charity shop, display cabinet from Ikea, bottles from last weekend

Through this blog I'd like to share the wonderful things I find in unusual places, post pictures of my dog and things that I have cooked, and maybe opine on current events.

The gorgeous Fenway, adopted from Heathlands Animal Sanctuary