Sprouty Side Dish

People associate sprouts with Christmas but my Dad wants them with every single meal in the winter months. He buys bag upon bag of them, silently depositing them in the fridge as wordless suggestions for me each week. Luckily, I’m a huge fan too and can eat them by the bowlful, even if he shouldn’t; sprouts are high in potassium, which actually interfere with his anti-rejection drugs! Apart from this risk factor, the primary problem with Daddy’s sprout consumption is that he’s a massive traditionalist and turns his nose up at anything other than a pure boiled “farty sprout”. My favourite take on sprouts is definitely the single cream and chopped chestnuts route but I decided to give this recipe a go because I was feeling guilty about a packet of marvellously rooty multi-coloured baby carrots I’d ignored but refused to throw out. It worked nicely as part of a hot buffet but would go really well as a side dish for dinner; try it with something gamey like pheasant or venison.

Blue Cheese Dip

This right here is the holy grail of dips. A bastardised version of a Delia Smith recipe for blue cheese dressing, I think from How to Cook 2, it's served us well all through the festive season and is the main culprit for all that weight gain... During my last, tired months living in York it was constant munching of blue cheese, not chocolate that gave me a body-shape akin to a Moomin. Luckily, I like Moomins! This dip is definitely Daddy’s favourite - mine too- as it knocks the socks off any drab old sour cream and chive number. My mum’s allergic to penicillin so blue cheese is off her menu but we still had to keep shouting at her whenever she sneakily took a spoonful. Honestly, you’d think if you were allergic you’d just respect that but no, not in this house! We eat this dip with crudités but it’s also great with barbequed chicken wings, which we had tonight! You can use any blue cheese you have around; for us, that meant an enormous chunk of Blacksticks Blue but Gorgonzola, Dolcelatte and even Stilton work very well.

Happy Halloween Everybody!!

Sausage Mummies: roasted in ketchup and honey then wrapped in sourdough bandages

Sourdough Bones with Roasted Pumpkin and Chestnut Soup

Blueberry Cheesecake with White Chocolate Strawberry Ghosties

Our Pumpkins!