To try soon

Just wanted to store this for after xmas, when it will become Rosies...........




Cadbury's Crunchie Bars are one of my favorite candy bars. They are also my dentist's favorite candy bar, because if I eat enough of these I keep him in business. This is a Nigella Lawson recipe, from her book How to Be a Domestic Goddess. She calls it cinder toffee, but for me it will always be the crunchy part of the Crunchy Bar.
I have made this a couple of times. Quite successful. Everyone loves to eat it. It is so moorish you will find that you can't stop eating it and lunch or dinner will go by the wayside. I also think you can make it with Maple Syrup but I haven't tried that yet .. and maybe it will only be possible with honey? !

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons light corn syrup (Golden Syrup or if you don't have it, try Maple Syrup)
• 1 tablespoon baking soda

Directions

1. Grease an 8 inch square pan with butter.
2. Off the heat (that means on the counter), mix the sugar and the syrup in a heavy-bottomed saucepan (use a pretty big saucepan, you'll thank me later).
3. Now put the pan over a medium to low heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes (Nigella bases this on using an 8-inch diameter saucepan). DO NOT MIX IT BUT JUST ROLL IT AROUND.
4. The mixture is ready to come off the heat when it's a thick, bubbling bunch of gook, the color of light sand and no darker -- don't let it get any darker than that, or you'll end up with burnt and smelly sugar goop!
5. Take the stuff off the heat and quickly whisk in the baking soda. Try and get all the baking soda mixed in. No white bits !
6. Watch the caramel foam up like something out of a sci-fi film (this is the part where you thank me for telling you to use a large pot).
7. Pour the foamy stuff onto non stick baking paper. Don't mess with it !!! Do not touch until it has set hard. Some people just pour over melted chocolate.
8. You can try and cut it into squares, but it will be a fruitless task.
9. Best bet is to just bash it into a bunch of different shaped pieces.
10. You can dip the pieces into melted chocolate to make your own Cadbury's Crunchy bars, or you could fold splinters of this into either homemade or bought vanilla icecream for honeycomb ice cream.

Rosies cheese and salmon pizza roll

Using Pizza pastry, smother it in soft cheese, I've used a garlic one here, layer on the smoked salmon, roll it up as tight as you can, cut into 2cm slices and bake at 200c till golden brown.

Rosies almond tart

100g each of ground almonds, sugar and butter, and a little almond flavouring if you wish, add 2 eggs, beat together

Line a baking tin with pastry, cover in a thin layer of jam

Smooth the almond mix on top and top with sliced almonds

Bake at 190 - 200c till golden brown, about 20 mins.

Rosies winter food, Pot au Feu

Pot au feu described by Chef Raymond Blanc as "the quintessence of French family cuisine, it is the most celebrated dish in France. It honours the tables of the rich and poor alike".

So cheap and easy to make, In the oven, on the stove on the fire or in the slow cooker. 

The meat is belly of Beef, I buy it when ever I see it on promotion throughout the year, and freeze it until the winter.

€2.30 a kilo bought back in October

.This isn't diet food, the beef is fatty, I cut the strings off and cut out the bigger chunks of fat, but don't trim it to much.

Use any vegetables you have, potatoes, carrots, leeks, cabbage, turnips, any veg to help bulk it out, cut the beef into large chunk, put the lot in the saucepan, cover with beef stock, add any herbs, sage, bay leaf etc, and simmer for up to 12 hours in the slow cooker, its cooked when the meat is tender.

This one is in my slow cooker, possibly the favourite of my kitchen gadgets.

But I have cooked it on the wood burner before, I started it simmering on the stove top then moved.

As soon as its cooked I will post another photograph, but this stew on here will last two of us at least 3 days. I may blend it down on day 3 to make a soup.

Talking of soup, as I was cutting the vegetables up for the stew I did a few extra carrots and leeks, I put them in a saucepan, with a couple of cloves of garlic and simmered the veg in chicken stock.

When the veg is cooked, blend it all together.

I'm going to add coriander but this is up to you.