What BeeBee Made: Festive Slice

Christmas baking, is there anything better? There has to be something said for a festival that brings about so much rich and gorgeous tasting foods. 

This is my recipe for Festive Slice. I have to admit there is very little to this, and if you're not a pastry maker, just buy that too!

1. The Pastry layer: 

225g plain flour

100g baking fat (or a mix of butter and lard/shortening)

pinch salt

Rub the fat into the flour until you get breadcrumbs (or blitz in a food processor like I do)

Add up to 2 tablespoons of water to bind. 

Roll out to fit your tray. 

2. The Marzipan layer: 

This is my favourite bit!

Take a good sized piece of marzipan, I used about 250g (half a pack of the natural version). 

Roll out until big enough to cover the base of the pastry-lined tray.

3. The Mincemeat Layer:

We're getting even more festive now. I used 2 jars of mincemeat. You can use your own, I tend to buy it and then add extra nice things like extra brandy, vanilla and orange zest. But that's your call. 

We're almost there... 

4. The Crumble Layer. 

This is were it turns from a mince pie to something a bit more special. 

100g self-raising flour
50g butter
50g sugar
50g almonds

Rub the butter and flour together, then stir through the sugar and almonds. 

Scatter this over the top of the tart. 

Bake in a pre-heated oven (190ºC, 375ºF, Gas Mark 5) for 20-25 mins. 

When it's all bubbly and golden remove from the oven and leave to cool. 

Don't try and cut this before it's cooled as it will all try and run away!

What BeeBee Cooked: Slow Cooker Chicken Chow Mein

I have been relying quite heavily on ready meals and sandwiches since going back into the office. 

Instead of financing the local Tescos, I have taken to making my own meals on a weekend. Portioning them up and then storing them in the freezer. 

This is my Slow Cooker Chow Mein. I love it mainly as it is really simple to make. Also because it only really gives me one pot to wash up! God love the slow cooker. This makes 4 portions for me.

Ingredients: 

Skinned chicken portions
500ml Chicken stock
One bag of stir-fried vegetables (if you're being lazy like me) or a mixture of finely chopped veggies. 
Packet of dried egg noodles.
Garlic, grated - to taste I often use a tsp of garlic paste
Fresh ginger, grated - to taste or a sprinkling of ginger powder
1/3 cup Soy sauce (ish)

Method:













In your slow cooker (set to high) poach the chicken portions in the chicken stock, soy sauce, garlic and ginger for roughly 3 hours. 

When cooked through remove the chicken and set aside to cool slightly. Shred the meat and return to the pot. 













In the meantime, add the veggies to the stock for about 30 mins.












Add the dried noodles. 












Make sure the noodles are covered by the liquor. Leave until the noodles are cooked through, this should take between 15-30 minutes. All the stock should have be absorbed into the noodles. 












Return the chicken to the pot. 

Mix through. 













Serve and eat. 

Or cool and freeze.

What I Ate Wednesday

It's another busy week, and I'm finding it really difficult to get up in a morning. When time is precious I have a habit of reaching for a friend egg sandwich. Warm, full of protein and has a smattering of tomato sauce in there too. 

Lunch was homemade veggie chilli with wholegrain rice and a bit of cheese. (mmm cheese)

You can also see my diet coke habit is still in force. 

Throughout the day I have been drinking my current favourite coffee Ginger Bread by Beanies - I add half a tsp of brown sugar and a glug of milk for a perfect autumnal hot drink.

I spied this yesterday in the Co-Operative next to my office, mmm nutella choc dip. Yummy!

Tea is courtesy of my hubby, chicken curry and white long-grain rice. 

It's not been the healthiest day. But it has been a tasty one. 

What I've Been Eating

I've not done a food diary in a while, so here we go.

Mince pie porridge

Banana and almonds

I've been drinking this all day

Covent Garden's Pumpkin Goulash 

Mini Oreo cookies... I love these so much.

Slow cooker chicken chow mein 

Pasta and sausage meatballs

What BeeBee Baked: Mini Crustless Quiches

If you saw my post on Monday you will know that I am starting to tinker with my eating a little. 

A few less sweets and a bit more protein. As part of this I made these roasted pepper crustless quiches. I baked them in my Pampered Chef Brownie Pan. 

I'm all for a bit of ease and gadgetry in the kitchen. 

To make these 12 mini quiches I used: 

8 eggs
2 cups frozen peppers
1 cup frozen diced onion
1 tbsp italian herb seasoning
1 tsp mustard powder
60g grated cheese

Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190-200c.

I beat the eggs in a big jug, then added the mustard powder, salt and some pepper. 

I then sautéed off the pepper and onions in a little olive oil, when they started to brown I added the dried herbs. 

I divided the veggies between the 12 wells and topped with the eggy mixture. Sprinkle cheese over the top. 

Place in the middle of the oven. 

Bake for 10-15 mins or until golden brown. 

What I've Been Eating... Rebels' Smokehouse

I was lucky enough to have been taken out to lunch last week by a very dear friend.

I really did make the most of my week away from the office.

We disappeared off without our husbands for a bite at Rebels' Smokehouse on Butcher Row in Beverley. I had never been there before, last year I had picked up a pulled pork sandwich from outside during the town's Food Festival, but I'd never stepped inside.

Even though it is fronted by large windows it is very dark inside and reminds me a lot of an American-style square bar I used to work in. The tables are a dark wood, and there is a mix of tall bar tables with bar stools and lower tables with metal chairs and holds 60 covers.

The decor is that homely cluttered feel that you find in bars like TGI Fridays, which is probably due to it turning into a bar once the sun goes down.

Anyway, I digress. Down to the food. Wow. What a menu. So much choice. I got lost half way down the first column.

There is so so much choice, and I dread to think just how much pork they wind up smoking and saucing.

We took a deep breath and dove into the menu, and came up for air bringing a selection of nachos, New York Strip Sandwich with blue cheese and slaw and the special of bigfoot burrito with us. You would have thought with the name bigfoot we might have expected a slightly larger than average buritto.

All meals are served either on wooden boards or a large enamel bowl/plate. Similar in size to what Gran would have cooked a family-sized pie in for 10 people. And this is just one portion.

I can honestly say one portion would handsomely serve 2 people from what I saw with the other dishes that were brought out.

Also on the specials board on the day we visited was a chicken waffle burger calzone and a double cheese burger calzone. Yes. They have actually managed to fit a whole burger - with bun - inside a calzone. It looks immense.

*taken from facebook

*taken from facebook

Thankfully, like the country of inspiration for this restaurant, they offer doggy bags/boxes so you can take what you can't eat now home with you.

This is food that definitely sticks your front to your back.

The barbecued pulled pork is up there with some of the best I have ever tasted, and is a blend that belongs to Alabama native and co-founder Sally McIntosh's family and unique to Rebels'. The pork butts are local and more often than not smoked for up to 16 hours in Sally's imported smoker.

During our visit we were ably served by Restaurant Manager Lucas Billingham, who was both jovial and patient as we waded through the vast menu.

The only downside is that we didn't get to try the Brownies which are the other co-founder Jason Rowe's speciality. There is always next time!

May your day Glitter & Sparkle!

BeeBee

What I've Been Eating: Tex-Mex Chicken Sandwich

So I've delved into my goody bag from Taste Inc. again.

This time I chose the Whole Breast Tex-Mex Chicken Sandwich with cheese and spicy salsa.

Wow that's a mouthful of a description. Label looks clean and sharp. A tad misleading, but then who would microwave lettuce.

Taste:

The taste was good. Hot to the point of sizzling, the bread didn't go too soggy, it also didn't have the wooly texture that was there when I ate the baguette. So far these are plus points.




The chicken did only take up about half of the bread roll though, that I found a bit disappointing. The spicy salsa had a bit of kick, yet wasn't the chunky salsa you would have expected if you only looked at the wrapper. Thankfully the taste outweighed the pasta sauce consistancy of it all.

What did I think?

Now anyone that knows me can testify for my love of American Cheese, aka plastic cheese. I grew up sneaking slices of Princess Processed Cheese out of my Nanna's fridge. There is something almost religous about the unwrapping of the yellow wobbly goodness. Granted there is no real cheese inside and this is a dark, dark, guilty pleasure and I so wish I could buy it in blocks like you can in the States.

Anyway I digress, there was a slice of it in this sandwich. So thin, yet turned into an ooey gooey unchus mess. It was divine. So yes, there it is, the way in to my heart is a slice of American Cheese - who knew?

Overall

I liked this one. More than I did the Chicken & Chorizo Baguette. I'm sure a lot of that is down to the texture of the chicken and the slice of American Cheese. There was a pleasant hum from the salsa, which personally I think should be a chunkier version. Texture is a good think after all.