January Favourites

I keep meaning to do this post and then so much keeps cropping up. I have had such a busy month – I had an essay to get in and everything got a bit mad at work. Our bedroom ceiling also collapsed in earlier this month so I have been trying to get that sorted, as well as contributing to Miss Mint which I am having to work into my timetable.

So sitting down and writing a favourites post kept being put off! But it is the last day of January so when is a better time to do this :)

FOOD AND DRINK

I have been loving a lot of food and drink this month, which isn’t good because I am meant to have joined the masses in the ‘January Diet’ and instead I can’t get out of Christmas eating mode.

I have become addicted to this drink, it is coming up a close third to Coke and Cream Soda. If you haven’t tried it you really should. I love bubbles but they also do a non bubbly version if they dont make you happy.

I have also developed a slight love affair with Sweet and Salty popcorn. These little nuggets of goodness make me wiggle my toes with glee. Popcorn goes far too quickly in my opinion.

MAKE-UP

FINALLY after months of waiting I have managed to get my sticky little fingers on a Naked 2 Palette, but now I am faced with a dilemma. It’s so pretty I don’t actually want to use it.

MUSIC

I have discovered a new favourite band and they go by the name of Clean Bandit. I love their mix of classic, electro with a dash of pop thrown in. There new song just hit number one in the charts but I am loving Mozart's House and have been listening on repeat.

Mozart's House - Clean Bandit

Rather be - Clean Bandit

WEBSITES

No Surprises here - I have to champion Miss Mint. If you haven't gone and have a look please do, because it's pretty and full of fun things to read and well I write 2 columns, The London Monologues and Wanderlust,  so you have to go and look! 

FASHION

I have been fully embracing anything with long sleeves and to the knee when it comes to dresses because it is just too cold. I love this dress from Dorothy Perkins as it ticks both those boxes and is full  of gorgeous colours. There are loads of winter floral dresses available at the moment.

And those are my January Favourites! Hopefully next month won't be as crazy and I will be able to spend a little bit more time posting on here. I hope you have all had a good start to your 2014! 

xxx

Salted Caramel Mini Cheesecakes - Recipe

Today boys and girls is a recipe for something very special indeed which is only right as this is my 50th post on this blog. It is possibly the nicest dessert I have ever made. If, like me, you have already forgotten that you are meant to be on a diet this is perfect…

Ingredients (makes 12) 

Double Chocolate Crust

180g Double Chocolate digestives

60g unsalted butter, melted 

Cheesecake Filling

300g cream cheese, softened to room temperature

130g caster sugar

60g crème fraiche

2 large eggs

100g chocolate chips 

Salted Caramel sauce

200g caster sugar

90g salted butter, cut up into 6 pieces

120ml single cream

1 teaspoon salt

Method to the madness 

First we need to make the mini cheesecakes: 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases.

For the crust: In a food processor, pulse the digestives into a fine crumb. Add the butter and pulse until it’s all mixed together. 

Press 1 heaped tablespoon of mixture into the bottom of each liner. You should have enough for 12. Bake for 5 minutes and allow to slightly cool as you prepare the filling.

For the filling: In a food processor mix the cream cheese on medium speed until completely smooth. Add the sugar and crème fraiche and whiz on medium speed until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, whizzing on a low speed after each addition. Pour in the mini chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter on top of the crusts until nearly full. 

Bake for 20-23 minutes. The centers may also have risen up quite a bit, but they will deflate as the cheesecakes cool. 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely at room temperature, for at least 1 hour. Transfer to the refrigerator and allow to chill for at least two hours or overnight for best results.

Once those are in the fridge it’s on to the sauce. Salted caramel is like pourable sunshine. It just makes me so darn happy with its sticky sweet and salty goodness. I made enough to cover the cheesecakes and also have loads left over so I can just pour it on top of EVERYTHING. 

Heat the caster sugar in a medium NON STICK saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. The sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a thick brown, amber-colored liquid as you continue to stir. Be careful not to burn or you will have to start all over.

Once the sugar is completely melted (like the above), immediately add the butter. Be careful in this step because the caramel will bubble rapidly when the butter is added and stopping to try and take photos is not advisable…..

Stir the butter into the caramel until it is completely melted, about 2-3 minutes and then very slowly, drizzle in the cream. 

Allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute before removing from the heat and stiring in 1 teaspoon of salt. Allow to cool down before using.*

 Pour into a jam jar to keep

Right before serving, top each cheesecake with salted caramel and additional chocolate chips, if desired, I used cookie crumb sprinkles. 

 Cover the cheesecakes tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Store cheesecakes (without caramel) in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

Admire your masterpieces.

 xxx

*(You can cover the caramel tightly and store for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Warm the caramel up for a few seconds before using in a recipe).

Fancy helping out?

We are looking for guest bloggers on the Blogazine that I write for ~ Miss Mint. All the details are below on this beautifully put together poster...

xxx

Coconut Chicken Soup - Recipe

I don’t really like soups. There I said it. I don’t know what it is but I just can’t get on board with liquid for a meal, it doesn’t feel like I have eaten. What I do like however is broth. Basically, flavoured water with food in it. There is a lovely Thai restaurant in the Leicester Sq area that does a beautiful coconut chicken and mushroom broth and I crave it so much I thought I would try and make my own and do you know what – I think it’s almost as good. 

Ingredients

100g brown rice

1.2l chicken stock or vegetable stock

1 tbsp finely root ginger (or cheat like I did and get it out of a jar)

1 stalk of lemongrass, thinly sliced (same as above)

2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

250g skinless boneless chicken breast, thinly sliced

175g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

200g cherry tomatoes, halved

The juice of 2 limes

2 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)

200ml carton coconut cream

a handful of chopped spinach

NOTE: I have included rice in the ingredients for this recipe but when I made it originally I didn’t make it with rice. Instead I just kept it as a brothy soup for a light lunch. Later in the week I cooked rice and added to the soup so we could have this for dinner and it was a bit more filling. It is gorgeous whatever your soup preference.

Method to the madness

(If using cook the rice in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes, until tender, then drain and set aside).

Meanwhile, heat the stock in a large pan, add the lemongrass, galangal or ginger, lime and chillies and simmer for 5 minutes. Next add the chicken and mushrooms and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, lime juice, fish sauce and coconut cream and simmer for 5 minutes more. Scatter over the spinach and serve (with a little cooked rice spooned in if desired).

Honestly the best soup in the whole world. Try it and you will see!

xxx

Goodbye little one!

Today is a very sad day for me but a very happy one for my little brother.

He is boarding an airplane and flying all the way over to the other side of the world where the seasons are all messed up and they are a day ahead. (aka Australia). He is very excited but I am very sad because we don’t know how long he is going for – it will definitely be a year but it could be more, although I have a bet that he will be home after 3 weeks when he realises there is nobody to wash his clothes......

I just want to say little brother – you are the best and please be good.

Lots of love and come back soon.

Xxx

Ps. Words can’t describe how jealous I am you bastard.

Holidays to come...

It is that exciting time of year when our annual leave gets topped up and we can start thinking about where we can take our holidays.

I was very lucky last year with trips to New York and Menorca, with a week break at Glastonbury thrown in. This year I want to try and do lots of smaller trips so odd weekends here and there. The original plan was to go to Australia in September however we are now planning to do that around March 2015.

Of course if you are a Miss Mint reader you will know that I have a travel column so really it's all just an excuse to go on holiday.

This year we are considering the following:

Amsterdam ~

I’ve already been to Amsterdam, I went a few years ago but Leigh has never been and I also have a friend who lives out there which I think makes all the difference when you are looking for nice places to eat and go out for a few drinks. I feel like when I was there before I didn’t really appreciate it so I am excited to go back. We are looking to do this around April/May perhaps on one of the bank holidays.

Croatia ~

Because we haven’t been able to get tickets to Glastonbury for the first time in 4 years (it’s a bit of a sore point) we are looking at gathering a group of friends and going to inmusic festival in Croatia. The tickets/flights/accomadation are all about the same price as a Glastonbury ticket, plus it is sure to be sunny. It will be nice to go somewhere new and try and new festival as well. This would be at the end of June so a nice early summer break for a week.

Edinburgh ~

It’s hard to believe that I have been to Thailand but have never been to Scotland. This trip is something that I have been trying to plan for a few years now but it just seems so expensive to go that I keep putting it off. But enough is enough! I have friends and family in Edinburgh so I decided if I was ever going to get to the other end of the country I should probably go here. I think we will go in the summer maybe just for a long weekend. We just need to look at the best cheapest way to get there...

Iceland ~

I admit this might seem a bit random but I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights and unlike most people I prefer winter to summer to Iceland seems perfect! We are also looking at perhaps Finland instead of Iceland, depending on the price of things but I think this will be a lovely, exciting, different kind of trip. We would perhaps look at going in October, but this all depends on whether we can get a good deal as I know from looking that it can be quite pricey for not a very long trip (around 4-5 days).

Of course this might all change or I might think of other places I want to see but for the minute this is how it’s looking for the year. I might like to try out lastminute.com and just book a holiday with a week to spare and go, that would be exciting. I am very excited to start booking and planning! The world is a big old place. 

xxx

White Chocolate Cheesecake - Recipe

I know that I should be blogging about salads and soups but I made this delicious cheesecake for my family at Christmas and I just have to share it with you. So if like me you are starting your diet 'next week' you might want to try this simple but delicious dessert.

Ingredients

300g philadelphia cream cheese

250g mascarpone cheese

300ml double cream

2 x 300g white chocolate bar. You can use any type of chocolate and even use less

500g biscuits e.g. digestives

200g butter

Mixed fruits for the topping

Method to the madness

Crush the biscuits until completely ground. Add butter (either in food processor or gently heat on hob) until desired crumbly consistency. The trick is to use the right amount of butter to bind the biscuit together; too little, and it will be really crumbly; too much and it will become soft, so make sure you add it a little at a time. Add the biscuit mixture to a cake tin and pat till flat. Leave to set in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes.

Begin melting the chocolate in a glass bowl over a a small pan of hot water on a low heat. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

Mix the philadelphia and mascarpone cheese together with a whisk; hand or electric. Add double cream and whisk. Finally, add melted chocolate to the mixture and whisk. 

Spoon the mixture over the cooled and set biscuit base. Return to the fridge to cool and set overnight.

Finally decorate with fruit or other topping.

xxx