New Years!!!!!

As I said before, these holidays are all about entertaining myself, which for me involves playing in the kitchen.  I have been wanting to experiment with flavoured oils for a while now, and decided to research it. Turns out it is surprisingly easy, I found this site: http://www.allotment.org.uk/recipe/category/chutney-jam-val/oils-vinegars/ and followed the chilli oil recipe.  It is subtle, yet still has intense flavour, everyday it gets stronger and stronger, I did however make more than I need so we will use this up before I look into another flavour.

 New Year's Eve had arrived again, so quickly this year has flown by.  We had a quiet one at home with B, KT, and RBT.  It was awesome, had delish BBq for dinner with mind altering Wagyu and Angus Beef meat cuts, I think I might now be ruined for all other meats!  As well as far too many brightly coloured jelly shots, dacquiri's and what not. We watched the fireworks on TV after the clock counted down.  Welcome to another year, hopefully as action packed as the last, but I must say, I can't believe its my Birthday again in a few weeks........ 29! How did that happen, didn't I start high school a few days ago?

 On New Years Day, to combat my hangover, I cooked up a storm.  Home made mustard (http://honest-food.net/2010/10/18/how-to-make-mustard/), this one packs quite a punch, but was sooooo easy to make, and will be wonderful for mustard chicken and leek pie.

There are even easy to whip up variations on the site that I might try shortly.

 Caramelised Balsamic Vinegar is one on B's favourites, and as we had just run out I thought I might try my hand at it. (http://www.blackbookcooking.com/caramelised-balsamic-vinegar) The recipe was extremely simple, and it is impressive how easy it is.   It is great to use on salads, with strawberries, cheese or in any situation you want Balsamic.  It did however make it difficult to breathe inside the house, all doors and windows had to be opened as the vinegar was overpowering.

Home made Tomato sauce is a favourite of mine, it goes on everything!!  I first discovered the recipe in Jamie Oliver's At Home cookbook, and I have never looked back, I vary the recipe depending on what I happen to have in the pantry or the vegie garden, each batch is unique and irresistible.  I made four bottles of this beautiful liquid, which goes well on the sausage rolls I made from Brisket meat, after a few experiments I decided Brisket works best for mince as it has a high fat content.

I have also tried my hand at Worcestershire sauce this week, http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/532/Homemade_Worcestershire_Sauce45877.shtml, purely because we had run out, and I challenged myself to cook a replacement.  It worked surprisingly well for such an odd sounding recipe.

There have been other things I have been up to in the last week, such as gardening, spring cleaning, catching up on my Tv shows, general couch lazing, reading, web surfing and photography, but these aren't fun to write about.  Today I am procrastinating further about emptying boxes that we haven't unpacked since we bought the house nearly 3 years ago, hence writing this post, and possibly baking some cookies.

I hope every one had a great new year, I am looking forward to this year.

*MWAH*