A Pengelly Belly Christmas!

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas! Sorry I haven't posted for a while, but the festive season got in the way! Plus we haven't been home and I haven't been near a computer for a day or two!

Anyway, Mr P and I had a lovely start to the Christmas Holidays. On the Thursday before Christmas I went down to Penzance to have brunch with some girlfriends at the Mackerel Sky Cafe which is a lovely little place tucked away down a side street. Great food and great coffee to defrost with! I trotted over to see Kim and John at the Polgoon Vineyard as it was en route to my parents house. Luckily for me I was walking so I could try some samples! I picked up a bottle of their Aval for Mr P and I to enjoy on Christmas day. Kim kindly gave me a bottle of their new Cornish Pink Cider which has an extra squeeze of raspberries added to it. I've had to hide it so that Mr P and I can enjoy it on New Year's Eve!

I was lucky to enjoy lunch on Christmas Eve at the Porthgwidden Cafe in St.Ives with Mr P and some friends. St.Ives was quiet, no doubt getting ready for New Year's Eve, so we had a pre-lunch bimble around the town. Lunch was very good as always. I did enjoy a nice aperitif of Polgoon Raspberry Aval to get me in the festive mood! It went down a treat with the paella. Finished the dinner with Moomaid Ice cream which is made in Zennor and a double espresso!

Christmas Day was a quite affair for us this year. We had a lie in and cat came and joined us in bed. Bless. We always have local eggs for breakfast on Christmas morning - boiled with toast on the side. As it was such a beautiful clear day, we popped on the walking boots... the only present that Mr P would let me open on the morning was a new pair of walking boots... and stanked up to the top of Carn Brea! Breathtaking!

On top of Carn Brea, looking down over Camborne, Portreath and over to St.Ives

There was no wind, no rain, no snow... just clear blue skies and an amazing view!

The monument on top of Carn Brea, looking towards Redruth, Truro and St. Austell

We were out walking for 2.5 hours so we had built up and appetite by the time we got home. After a spot of lunch (homemade Christmas Gammon and Pengelly Piccalilli) Mr P finally let me open my presents!

Christmas Ham from Nigella's Christmas Cookbook

Hoorah! As you can imagine, lots of food orientated goodies, several new cookbooks including The Great British Bake Off, Sophie Dahl and Antonio Carluccio, a lovely green leather bag with cupcakes on it (I'll take a picture for you one day!), but one of our favourite presents was a lovely food hamper from our good friends Mr and Mrs H... Mrs H made the lovely rosewater shortbreads and the little felt gingerbread man that is now hanging on our tree! Look how beautiful it was.... shame to take it apart and eat / drink all the goodies!

Lovely hamper full of goodies... edible of course!

We didn't sit down for dinner until 6pm where I served up a mushroom wellington (from the Cranks Vegetarian cookbook) which I made the day before. We had all the trimmings, including sprouts and chestnuts! Dinner was finished off with a light Christmas Pudding made by the lovely people at Trevaskis Farm which we brought at their Christmas Market, and a lovely cheeseboard an hour later. Stuffed!

All in all, a lovely Christmas Day!

Watch this space for my next blog about the food hampers that I made and what went in them! They went down a real treat!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! See you in 2011! A big thank you for supporting and following my blog!

Love and best wishes,

Nic xoxox

Nothing like some squiddly diddlies!

When Mr P is away during the week for work I tend to eat food that I like and can indulge in. You see, Mr P is a vegetarian. Not that there is nothing wrong with that. I love vegetarian food. So, I eat vegetarian food 98% of the time... apart from when he is away and I fancy something from the realms of the ocean!

I can take or leave red meat; chicken I'm not to fussed about (unless its mum's roast dinner!); but I love fish and seafood... especially squid! One of my favourite restaurants in St.Ives serves local squid with the most amazing white citrus miso dressing with black spices. Unfortunately they only serve it in starter size servings. I could eat a bucket of the stuff and the sauce is amazing!

Anyway, when I want a quick and speedy supper, I like to make my polenta dusted squid rings, served with a nice salad and a lime mayonnaise. And it's cheap!

Start with some nice clean baby squid, tentacles and all (ok, you don't have to eat the tentacles if you don't like them!), and either score the squid on the inside in a criss-cross pattern so that they curl up when they hit the heat, or cut them into chunky rings - up to you.

Then place the little beauties into a plastic food bag and add 1 heaped tbsp of plain flour, and 2 tbsp of polenta. Add some ground black pepper, seal the bag and give it a good shake. Place in the fridge for 30minutes.

In a deep pan or large frying pan, heat up some ground nut oil. It only needs to be 1cm deep. Once the oil is hot, gently drop the squid into the hot oil. This is best done is small batches. After 2minutes, the squid should be done. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on a plate with some kitchen roll. Once all of the squid has been cooked, place some salad on a plate and scatter like golden jewels. Serve with some lime mayonnaise.

Delicious!

Nic xoxo