Cyder with Eloise

This is my second almanac reviewing the best of the recipes and foodie blogs I have read over the past 3 months, with a selection of Flickr favourites to set the mood.

Did you attend the hugely successful Food Blogger Connect event? I did not but I have enjoyed reading many posts about it and subsequently I have discovered some new blogs to follow. Including Mowielicious and I have been dreaming of Lamingtons on a regular basis since.

Looking to shead a few pounds but want to keep the treats then how about trying some Skinny Banana Muffins from Cupcakes and Cornwall. Muffins were obviously in season this winter, here’s another entry from Mowielicious, and has anyone spotted these beauties on billboards across the city – Muffcakes from Cook Sister? There has been one from this series on the billboard outside our train station, just in case people on their way home from work are not hungry enough.

Sadly the Haiti earthquake will forever mark January 2010. Many bloggers paid a tribute in some way and on Monday 8th February an event was held and raised over £70,000 – congratulations to Sabrina who seems to have lived and breathed this over the past month. If your interested in donating then you can do so here.

The English Can Cook raised a further £300 in an extreme catering experience.

Winter 09/10 in the UK brought more snow then we knew what to do with. The Cottage Smallholder started their gate side stand, and doesn’t it look cute all covered in snow.

I came across these Salt Plates, I have never heard of them and wondered it anyone knew anything about them – are they worth a ago? I can see how a cold dish like sushi would work, but I am interested in how to use them with a hot dish.

I experimented with cooking beans from dried in under 90 minutes. It’s been a revelation as I use a lot of dried pulses and beans, and often forget to soak them early enough. If you haven’t tried this yet then I have some instructions here.

Top Hits for Cyder with Eloise – Winter 2009/2010
1: La Sella Kimbolton – you guys need to get a website.
2: Slow Roasted Tomatoes
3: Jerusalem Artichokes
4: Cooking the Cowboy Way
5: Chicken Biryani

Best Meal Out: Jamie’s Italian Cardiff
Best Meal In: To be honest it would have to be the Slow-cooked lightly smoked duck stuffed with garlic, chilli, lemongrass and galangal, which I didn’t get around to writing up, but you can find the recipe in Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey. It really was delicious and the kitchen had a lovely wood chip smell for days afterwards.

Off-piste
I have really been enjoying the daily posts from Today I Saw by Jill Wignall? She has now set up a Flickr group where other people are contributing their pictures.

Flickr favourites
1. La Fourchette (encore..), 2. Lantern Wood, Narnia, 3. Poppyseed muffin, 4. A look back at Christmas Past, 5. Ice skating in the Jordaan, 6. 16th October 2008 – Day 290, 7. Tomato & Basil Soup with Tortellini, 8. Carnet noir, 9. Winter veg in the flower beds, 10. fall, 11. vanilla vodka christmas cake, 12. Turn off the light, 13. a taste of winter, 14. Mini vegbox (Nene River Farms), 15. Icy Spicy Blue Ice, 16. Braised Oxtail Stew, 17. macarrons, 18. .freedom.

If you liked this post come back in June for our Spring Almanac.

Previous Almanac’s
Autumn 2009