Fat n Full!

Howdy folks!

I hope that you all had a great Christmas Day! We had a lovely chilled day, just Mr P and myself. We lit the fire, snuggled down, ate, drank, and was (shockingly) in bed by 9.30pm! Just too much excitement (and food) to cope with!

We started the day with some of Bill Granger's baked porridge with mixed berry compot.


Baked porridge - not to be eaten every day as it's made with double cream! Luxury!



Roasties in Goose Fat, covered in semolina

Mr P was very proud of his roast potatoes. They were lovely! Nice and crisp, and plenty left over for making bubble and squeak on Boxing Day!

Mr P's first attempt at making mushroom wellington

And here is a photo of the amazing Mushroom Wellington! I'm very impressed by his first attempt! And it tasted delicious! We finished it off for supper today with the bubble and squeak, served with my mother-in-law's pickled spiced oranges and pickled onions!

Today we spent at home chilling out again. We've got some friends up from Cornwall tomorrow for a few days so I whippd up some homemade bread, have brioche dough in the fridge to do Paul Hollywood's Bricohe Brie (watch this space!), and Nigella Lawson's Christmas glazed ham.... yummy!

We're off on a shopping mission tomorrow, in search of my Christmas Pressie..... an Artisan KitchenAid Mixer! Ohhhh and I've ordered three new cookbooks with some of Christmas money so I will let you know when they arrive and I'll do a review for you!
Cheerio!
Nic xoxox

Preparations for a Pengelly Belly Christmas!

Hip hip hooray! It's holiday time! Yay!

Mr P and I both finished work on Thursday and have been having a couple of lazy preparation days getting ready for the big day tomorrow!
This year we are home alone in Oxfordshire. We had a lovely family Christmas dinner a few weeks back when we went home to Cornwall to see friends and family.

Mr P made some some lovely chocolate brownies last week as a little treat for me. He's starting to get more involved in the kitchen these days which is great! And I have to admit, he actually makes better brownies than me! Crikey! I better hand over my apron!

Ho ho ho! Let it snow!

You can't beat festive brownies!

So, we done the shopping, the housework is complete, the presents are wrapped and all the veg is prepared. Mr P wanted to make the main course for tomorrow. We are having mushroom wellington and we use a Cranks Vegetarian Recipe for this. It's quite simple and very tasty. The bonus is that is makes two wellingtons so you can freeze one for a later date!

Mr P has also whipped up a trifle for tomorrow - with pears, elderflower and apple cordial and jelly! Yay! Though I don't think he will let me sprinkle on 100's and 1000's tomorrow on top of the cream!

We are going to start the day with Bill Granger's Baked porridge which is to die for. We only have it on special occasions because of the cream in it! After brekkie we are heading out for a long winter walk, followed by some homemade soup when we get home. If I am lucky, I might be allowed to open some presents in the afternoon!

Then it is the Mushroom Wellington with all the trimmings: roast potatoes, roast parsnips with honey, celeriac with thyme, carrots, turnip, and sprouts with bacon and chestnuts! Delicious!

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas Day!

Cheerio,

Nic xoxox

Noel Noel Noel Noel.....

Greetings folks!

Are you getting into the festive spirit yet? I'm getting there though I seem to be stacked out with doing the Christmas Chores. I really try to be prepared every year and start early, and then life just gets in the way and I am knocked back by 10 steps, so at the moment I feel that I am running around like a headless chicken!

And I've been busy getting into a tangle and getting glued together by the glue gun in finishing off my 5 Christmas Wreathes which are heading to Cornwall with me this Thursday! Hooray! Mr P and I have a long weekend in Cornwall and an early Christmas Dinner with the family next weekend. I'm also hoping that it will also be my last visit to the wrist consultant after my surgery in January of this year! Can you believe it's almost been a whole year since I had my op!? I can't.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my lovely yarn wreathes. I'm thinking about running a class or two in the village for next year, though you can also make wreathes for any other occasion, they aren't just for Christmas you know! I like that fact that you can stick what you like on them! I've made felt flowers and have utilised buttons from my large stash, and the odd Scrabble letter! Don't worry, I haven't been around the village at night stealing from peoples' Scrabble games!

 

Right-oh! Better get on with finishing the wrapping, writing cards, dealing with the goodies simmering away on the hob and tackling the ironing! No rest for the wicked!

And it's almost time to start the Christmas Spiced Beef!

Cheers for now,

Nic xoxox

A little hidden gem in Oxford

Hello folks,

Apparently it's December! Apparently it's Christmas at the end of the month! How did that happen? I don't know where the year has gone!

I just wanted to let you know about a little hidden gem hidden in Oxford called Oxfork. It is a lovely little cafe that has recently opened down the road from where I work.

We are lucky to go there every other week for our work coffee mornings, and it's a great escape at lunch time as well!

I popped down there today for a spot of lunch and I had the most amazing Eggs Royale (poached eggs, smoked salmon, hollandaise sauce and lovely handmade bread), along with a soya latte and finished off with a slice of the most amazing chocolate cake ever! Ok, I was having a bad day and I just had to have the chocolate cake. I almost went for the almond and earl grey tea cake, but at the end of the day, the chocolate cake won hands down! I've been told that their scrambled eggs are the best in the world and has been described as sunshine on a plate, so next time I pop in for lunch, I must remember to take my camera to take some pictures for you to drool over!

The staff and the chefs at Oxfork are amazing. Everyone is really friendly and always happy to stop and have a chat. I am delighted that they are on my doorstep and I am delighted to carry on supporting them and eating their amazing food!

So, if you are in and around Oxford, catch the number 3 bus up to Magdalen Road and go to Oxfork! Help support small local businesses!

Cheers for now,

Nic xoxox

New blog design!

DON'T PANIC! You are in the right place for The Pengelly Belly!

It's just had a design overhaul by the fabulous Danielle Burkleo over at Take Heart. Check out her Blog Design services! Danielle is so gifted and talented! I've been a follower of Danielle's blog for a while and it is such an inspiration. It has been a real pleasure working with her on designing the new blog and I am so over the moon with the new look!

I hope you like it! I love it! I now need to work on updating all my recipe links so be warned, I will be tinkering with things from my end, but the blog is up and running and fully functional!

Watch this space!

Cheerio,

Nic xoxox

Published Pengelly Belly Recipes

Hello folks!
Did I tell you that I also write for a local magazine? Well, local as in Cornwall... not Oxfordshire where I am now!

I got asked to write a food article for Disability Cornwall's "Discover" Magazine about 5 years ago. Discover is the only disability lifestyle magazine in Cornwall.

Disability Cornwall is a charitable organisation initially founded as the Cornwall Disability Forum (CDF) in 1997. They operate from offices based in Hayle, West Cornwall yet serve the whole County. Their user-led charity was founded by a small group of disabled people who felt they needed a representative voice in Cornwall.


The Charity was initially formed to provide this and to run Forum events which provided a platform on which disabled people could air their views and collectively have a stronger voice. Their work has developed over the years and now centres on managing community based initiatives. I am very proud to support the work that they do.

Their magazine is published four times a year. Disability Cornwall have recently updated their website and now have PDF links to their excellent magazines where you can also have a look at their articles which highlights all of their excellent work and of course and my recipes!

Happy reading!

Nic xoxoxo

A little bit of baking....

Howdy folks! Hope you all had a good weekend! Just thought I'd share with you my baking collage from this weekend. We have spinach, halloumi and herb quiche; a tasty white loaf which was lovely toasted this morning - I had the Jam, Mr P had the boiled eggies; and some lovely scones (you can take the girl out of Cornwall, but you can't take Cornwall out of the Girl). Now where's that clotted cream gone!?

I also treated myself to some new cutters this weekend - Tala Plain Cutters - which I love! I can remember my mum having the Tala measuring cone at home (I think it still exists) which seems to have come back into fashion.... I'll have to have a rummage in the cupboard when I go back home next!

They cutters were brought from my local cook shop, Steamer Trading in Witney which is an amazing shop. It's like mecca for cooks!  I'm also lucky to have a great little cookshop in Woodstock as well, The Kitchene'rs Cookshop, which is a little closer for kitchen emergencies (i.e. like when my electronic scales died on me!). God bless the local cookshops!

Have a good week, bake on!

Nic xoxox

Sacher Torte Challenge Complete!

Hurrah!

I've just finished my first sacher torte.... and have learnt a few lessons to take forward for the next one. That's what I like about baking new things. The first one is always the trial and then you learn from your mistakes and improve.

Ingredients aren't that complicated... just couldn't find the right percentage chocolate in the shop so used 46% instead of 39% - chocolate, eggs, sugar, flour, ground almonds, vanilla extract, butter... all stuff that I have in the cupboard!

First things first, if you are going to make a sacher torte and you have a fan oven, reduce the temperature to 160C and reduce the cooking time. I cooked mine for 37 minutes... next time I will do it for 40, but no more... I feel it just needed that extra minute. Apart from that, I am really pleased with my first attempt. I do need to buy myself a new pipping nozzle for fine icing though!

Looking good to me!

Bathed in apricot preserve....and left to set before adding the ganache

And the final item!

I spent time practising my "sacher" text until I was pleased, and then my piping nozzle went to pot as I was writing on the cake - bah! Oh well, lesson learnt. Time to buy a decent piping nozzle....

Just another 3 minutes in the oven next time, and this will be perfect! Apart from that it tastes amazing!

It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. It's one of those cakes where you can make the cake itself, leave to cool, go off and do something, come back, add the ganache, go off again.... and then finish it. No rush. You can't harm it. Just be near the oven towards the end of the cooking time.... that's my only advice.

Give it a go as it is uber yummy!

Cheerio!

Nic xoxoxox

First ever collage!

Well, I'll be damned! Get me, just learnt something new today! I can now create collages with my photos! Watch this space for foodie and crafty collages from now on! 

Happy Birthday Pengelly Belly!

Hello peeps!

 

Can you believe it!? Pengelly Belly is 1 year old! WOW! What a year! I've had over 4000 hits in a year from all corners of the world, and have a small band of followers. Thank you all for your comments on the blog, facebook and twitter. It really means a lot to me.

I know that the last 6 months have been a little quiet on the blog front what with moving from my beloved home in Cornwall to Oxfordshire, recovering from wrist surgery, finding somewhere to live, finding a new job and basically settling in to a new life. I think we are almost there now!

We have a lovely home in Oxfordshire in a sleepy country village, Mr P no longer has to do loads of commuting for his job, and I'm slowly starting to settle in. Don't get me wrong, I miss Cornwall and my friends and family and often feel homesick, but there are just some things in life which you have to do for the best. At the end of the day, I can always go back to Cornwall for visits. As my friends say, you can take the girl out of Cornwall but you can't take Cornwall out of the girl!

I am blessed to have some most amazing cook shops and vintage homeware shops in and around the area we live (of which I have to give myself a budget each month!) and we are still finding new places to eat out so every weekend is still a holiday for us. And even more exciting is that Borough Market in London is just an hours train journey away compared to the previous 6 hour trip in the car and a long weekend just to get there!!

So, since it's the Pengelly Belly birthday, it's only right that we have some birthday pressies! The kitchen has just been adorned with some new goodies: -

• My ebay bargain of my wooden rocking chair for the kitchen (£25.00!!!!)
• 3 beautiful french vintage jam jars from The Old Pill Factory in Witney (I soooo love this place! It really is a treasure trove of delights and vintage stuff. Lots of old cookware as well)
• 1 new handmade wooden spice rack to make more room in the pantry
• 2 new cookbooks - Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomisina Miers and Great British Bake Off Series 2

I'm all ready to sit in my rocking chair by the log burner in the kitchen with a cookbook, contemplating of what to cook next!

I was also very lucky to be given a beautiful Salt / Garlic Pig from Pendeen Pottery as an anniversary present from our dear friends, Mr and Mrs H in Cornwall. It now sits, pride of place, on the window sill with the sun glinting of the blue glaze, reminding me of home.

I am very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

Moving forward, I have no idea what the next 12 months will hold, but I do know one thing, what with winter bearing down on us, the best place to be is in a warm snug kitchen, making and baking and feeding the people that I love the most!

Bake on is what I say!

Cheers for now,

Nic xoxoxox

Pengelly Belly Great British Bake Off!

Howdy folks!

What do you mean I haven't posted since the 9th October!? Sorry folks! I just don't know where the time has gone!

Anyway, I'll be making up for it today! I'm still catching up on the Great British Bake Off Series 2 (I still don't know who one) after coming back from my holiday to Mexico. Did I tell you that we went to Mexico!? Well that will have to be another blog post!.

I was watching one of the technical challenges that Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry had set, and Paul demonstrated how to make homemade mini pork pies with quails eggs. I'm not really a lover of shop brought pork pies. If they are there at a picnic, then I will eat them, but the ones that he made looked amazing! Full of pork and bacon, and a lovely little quails egg.

So, since the clocks went back today and Mr P is at work, I thought I'd give them a go. Mr P wanted me to make them... even though he's a veggie as he wants to eat the pastry. Strange boy.

I followed the recipe that was on the BBC website and there are some changes in comparison to him doing it on the BBC tv show... like - don't put them in the fridge to set until they are really cool as warm pork and the fridge do not mix! YOU'LL GET FOOD POISONING! Thought that one was quite important.

I've never been very good at pastry, and this recipes calls for a warm pastry and I tell you what, even a simple pleb like me even managed it and it turned out amazing! I was supposed to leave the pies set until tomorrow, but I gathered that since I made them soooo early this morning, that a little sneaky peak after 5 hours in the fridge would be ok.... and they were. What a delight to cut through the golden pastry, through my little quails egg, and smile from ear to ear and what I had created! Luckily I had some of Mother P's pickled onions in the larder to go with them from last year!

Ingredients at the go, apart from the pork and quails eggs, the rest was store cupboard ingredients. I actually had the lard in the fridge ready to make some bird feeders for the winter!

The filling: pork loin, streaky bacon, onion, flat leaf parsley, seasoning. I actually used 450g of pork and 150g of bacon as my muffin tin is rather on the large size.

Don't worry when your pastry goes firm when you add the filling. The egg wash makes the edges soft for crimping. The egg is waiting to be buried in filling! 

Ready to go in the oven!

Perfect!

Think I need to pack the meat a bit tighter next time, but I am really pleased with the result and they taste great!



Serve with pickled onions and wash it down with some cider!

  I think that I gave the Great British Bake Off a run for its money on that one! Hurrah!

Next up today was the Christmas Cake. Now, I normally follow an old M&S recipe for my cake, but this year I fancied doing something different after being inspired by Kirstie Allsopp on her new Channel 4 show Kirstie's Handmade Britain. Last week she baked an amazing fruit cake which had loads of tropical fruit and stem ginger in and I thought that I'd give it a go! I just happened to have ordered her book to accompany the series from The Book People for £10.00. Winner! It is a lovely book if you are into home crafting.

Ingredients at the ready!

The tropical fruit after being stewed with cider. My mix contains papaya, pineapple, mango, cherries, sultanas, dates, stem ginger and mixed peel .

Ready for the oven... see you in three hours! I also wrapped the outer cake tin with news paper and after 90minutes I put some paper on top to stop the top of the cake browning too much. Watch this space!

As we speak, the cake is in the oven, slowly cooking and it smells great! I will keep you posted on it as it needs feeding with brandy before I decorate it for Christmas, but I can tell you that the cake mixture tasted great! I love licking out the bowl!

I also whipped up some pear and lemon butter as I was given a stack load of pears this week along with some windfall apples. Mmm, what to do with them!? Chutney anyone!

Cheerio,

Nic xx

Mexico!

Hello there!

So sorry for the long absense! It only came to me whilst sunning myself on the beach that I forgot to mention that we were heading off to Mexico for two weeks! We've only just got back so once I've caught up on sleep and washing I'll tell you all about it!

Adios Amigos!

Nic xoxoxo

A little bit of weekend sewing...

Hello peeps!

For once, I've managed to catch up on some sewing that I have been meaning to do for a while. A few friends have recently had little additions to their families and I've had a list of projects lined up to celebrate their arrivals!

First off has been some personalised alphabet bunting. I didn't use a pattern to make the bunting. It was made out of scraps that I had in my stash and all I had to buy was some bias binding. It wasn't a big job, maybe a day all told.

My second project was something that I have been eyeing up for a while after looking at pictures on flickr and reading other people's sewing blogs. One of my favourite designers, Anna Maria Horner, has wrote a number of books including "Seams to me: 24 reasons to love sewing" and "Handmade Beginnings". I brought Seams to Me when I first got into sewing and it's a great book. I brought Handmade Beginnings this year so that I could make adorable baby clothing for all of my friends who are hatching left, right and centre!

So, hear is my labour of love... (well, it took me just under a day to make my first one)...

Baby in the hood - 12 months

I thought I'd use mis-matched buttons

Mr Bear is a very good model when you can't find a 1 year old!

Delighted with the result!

It was a fairly easy pattern to follow. Definitely take time pinning the sleeves and the curves of the hood - use lots of pins get get a good finish! The pattern includes sizes from 0-3 to 18months so there are plenty of opportunities to make more. All in all, it cost me no more than £12.00 to make. I can't wait to see my friends little girl in it!

Better crack on and make some more... I'm thinking hungry caterpillar fabric on the outside with apple fabric for the lining! The possibilities are endless!

Cheers for now,

Nic

xoxox

A little bit of Pendeen Pottery...

Howdy folks,

I came home from work this evening to find a nice surprise from the post man which I'd like to share with you. Mother and Father had kindly sent Mr P and I a little pressie in the post for our wedding anniversary this month (of which we are heading to Mexico!). Crikey, where have six years of wedded bliss gone!?

Our little package contained goodies from Pendeen Pottery in Cornwall. I love drinking out of handmade pottery mugs and using handmade wares in my kitchen. Me thinks that I have something that I would like to collect and to go alongside my Bordeaux Pottery from the Isles of Scilly!

So, two lovely mugs, two egg cups and a lovely little serving dish for olives or olive / vinegar!



The beginning of my collection...




Egg cups for boiled eggies on Sunday Morning! Cluck Cluck!

 The colour of the pottery also reminds me very much of home! I can't wait to use them! And I can't wait to back to Cornwall to expand my collection!

Much love to my parents for being very thoughtful!

Cheerio,

Nic xoxoxo

Soup and baking weather

Hello my lovelies, how are you doing?

I must admit that I think winter is on it's way and the summer is long gone. As I type this, its howling with wind and lashing it down with rain outside, I'm in my PJs and my fluffy Seasalt bed socks.... and it's only the beginning of September! Bah humbug!

I made my first batch of soup for the wintry season at the weekend which was inspired by my dad's tagine which I have blogged about recently. I thought I could create a Moroccan flavoured soup and it worked very well indeed.

Just follow my tagine recipe, but omit the chicken / quorn. Make sure you make it in a big stock pot. The only thing different that I did was add some stock and water to cover the vegetables. Bring it to the boil and simmer for 40minutes. Then blitz! Before you do blitz, remember to take out the cinnamon sticks and the star anaise!

Mmmm lovely warm soup and fresh bread!

Since the weather was so dreadful and I had become a rugby widow at the weekend, I decided to have a go and making some raspberry and coconut slices from a wonderful little book from Marks and Spencer which only cost me £5.00. It's full of macaroon, tray bakes, slices and biscuits to make!

Raspberry jam layer on top of the doughy base

Sprinkle with coconut and sugar



End result (must reduce cooking time slighty!)




Perfect!

 This slice keeps really well in the cake tin for a week... unless the giant mouse in the house eats it all!

Cheerio, got to go and get my banana cakes out of the oven... there's a birthday at work tomorrow and bringing in cake!

Nic xoxox

The proof is in the pudding!

Hey all! Did everyone have a great bank holiday!?

Shame the weather wasn't ideal. We had lots of rain in Oxfordshire and it was so miserable on one day that we even lit the fire. Though we did have two rays on sunshine... our lovely friends Mr and Mrs H from Cornwall came up to spend a few days with us.

Luckily they are real foodies too... and Mr H brought with him some lovely Polgoon Red and White wine to sample. As you could imagine, the weekend was spent eating, drinking and drooling in our local kitchen shop (spending lots of money!).

Le weekend menu included vegetarian enchiladas, home made pizza and tagine which were all very well received. On their last night Mrs H and I whipped up the most amazing easy peasy pudding courtesy of Mr Bill Granger (Simply Bill).

We made banana butterscotch pudding and it was amazing! Um, I would have liked to have shown you a "before" picture, but we never got that far... so this is all that I have to show you...

The proof is definitely in the pudding (or the lack of!)

Here's the recipe (and most of the ingredients are already in your store cupboard!)
Serves 4
Ingredients (For the pudding):
125g/4½ oz plain flour
3 level tsp baking powder
125g/4½ oz caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 banana, mashed
250ml/8fl oz milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
85g/3¼ oz butter, melted

For the topping:
100g/4oz soft brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
150ml/5fl oz boiling water
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).
Sift the flour, salt, sugar, baking and powder into a bowl.
Add the mashed banana, milk, butter, egg and vanilla extract and whisk together until well combined.
Pour into a greased 1.25 litre baking dish.

To make the topping, place the brown sugar, golden syrup and water in a small pot and bring to a boil.
Pour the boiling mixture carefully over the pudding, then bake for 30-40 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a skewer.
Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Here are some sites for you to visit to see what it would have looked like!
Site 1
Site 2

It's definitely something to look forward to in the winter when it gets cold!

Cheers for now,

Nic xoxoxo

Caught Red Handed!

My oh my, it's been a while since my last blog post! I do apologise! I don't seem to have had much time to spend in the kitchen recently.

However, I did make up for it at the weekend. I had a bit of a Bill Granger day on Saturday. I've got several Bill Granger Books but I've never had much time to indulge in them. Over the past month I've been eyeing up some recipes for a "not so summery day". And the "not so summery day" arrived at the weekend...

So, on Saturday, whilst Mr P was watching the Rugby, I made a beetroot dip and a caramelised onion dip; the most amazing banana loaf (actually, the recipe made two loaves!) and a cheesy pasta gratin.... all from three different Granger books! And everything came out amazing!

Check out the colour...

Looks great, tastes great!

Dips for Mr P whilst watching the rugby!



Mmmm delicious banana loaf! Ideal cycling cake!



Cheesy Gratin... with a nice cold glass of white wine.

Then I carried on to make Chocolate Tiffin, a Walnut, Cardamon and Lemon Cake and a carrot cake! Not all for home though! Cakes for work! Lucky devils!

Ahhh, tiffin.... no bake cake!

Cardamon, walnut and lemon desert cake! Yummy!

Mr P came and gave me a hand to lift the mixing bowls as the ole wrist still isn't up to lifting heavy Mason and Cash bowls! And then I got caught red handed licking out the bowl...



I am the cook at the end of the day! Got to have some perks!

 Well, I'm off to watch the first episode of The Great British Bake Off... don't spoil it for me as it's a recording as I haven't watched it yet!

Food festival in Oxford on the Bank Holiday Weekend as well! Watch this space!

Cheers for now!

Nic xoxox