Good people of bentobeautiful!

an announcement!

As you may have noticed, i haven't posted on here for a loooooooong time. A lot of things have happened since, including getting divorced and moving, so some big ol' changes have happened in my life...Anyway, I am doing good, life is different but wonderful these days. I no longer really get the time to do any bentos though, but i'm still baking away like mad...

For this reason, I am hoping that you, my poor wonderful neglected blog followers, join me at my shiny shiny new baking blog

bakingbeautiful* !

Puh-leaaaase! It would be soooo good to see you there!

http://baking-beautiful.blogspot.com/

Love yous muchly

Hayley xxxx

Christmas Pie

Oooh, I've had a few odd days off work and i have made like a domestic goddess and gotten everything ready in advance for christmas that i can.

I always make christmas pie for christmas eve, then we have the leftovers as part of christmas tea. It's become a bit of a tradition, I also made it for my work buffet last year and it seemed to go down quite well, so I've made two lots today, and they have come out beautifully, even if I do say so myself.

Here's the recipe for this delicious pie.

1. Heat oven to 190 oC
2. Heat the olive oil and add the chopped onion. fry until soft and golden, then add the chicken or turkey and fry until browned.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the sausagemeat, lemon zest, breadcrumbs, apricots, chestnuts, thyme, onions, and chicken. This is great fun if you mix it with your hands, but make sure the onions and chicken have cooled a bit! season with salt and pepper if you wish.
4. Grease the pie dish.
5. Half the pastry, and roll out in a circular shape until it is big enough to cover the bottom of the dish. Press the pastry into the dish.
6. Chuck the sausagemeat mix into the pie and squidge it down (again with your hands if you don't mind getting squishy!)
7. Roll out the rest of the pastry until it covers the top. Use some beaten egg to moisten the top of the pastry in the pie dish, then cover with the rolled out pastry top.
8. Squidge the edges together slightly. Cut away any excess and retain. Press a fork around the outside of the pie for a nice patterned edge.
9. Glaze all over with the beaten egg.
10. Now for the most important and fun bit! Use the scraps of pastry to make lovely christmas shapes and stick onto the top of the pie. This year I've used gingerbread man, star, christmas tree, and snowman cutters. Holly leaves and berries also look really good. I tend to leave the shapes unglazed because it makes a nice contrast and makes them stand out more.

This pie can be frozen for up to two months, or can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days. It's perfect warmed with a nice winter salad and some chutney.

Snow and Ice!

Now, I know there are people who read this blog from outside the UK, and I'm sure there are some people who come from countries that have REAL weather, like Canada or Russia or wherever (why not let me know where you come from by leaving a comment?), but in the UK, the weather always makes the headlines. Honestly, when the sun is out for more than 5 minutes in the summer, its all over the papers: 'heat wave!!!!! hottest summer ever!!!!' and then the sun goes back in and its dreary an gray again. Well, in the past few weeks, we've had Some Snow. And of course, everything came to a standstill as people wondered what on earth this magical white stuff falling from the sky was. Even though we get it every year.

Personally, I love the snow and I'm determined to keep my child like love of it.. We had some really beautiful, impressive icicles where I live. I don't think the pictures have come out brilliantly but they were really mesmerising. Although that  massive one was hanging very ominously above our car!

Chilli Beef Ramen

I invested in the wagamama cookbook and DVD, and have been having a great time making recipes from it. This is chilli beef ramen soup, which is lovely to have in this wintry weather we are having in Newcastle. There is nothing more comforting than noodle soup. The recipe is fairly easy, but i've noticed a couple of the recipes in the book need you to make a couple of different sauces in advance, so you need to be fairly organised. 

Colour Coded Bento

Goodness, I made this so long ago i can barely remember what was in it! I know ideally bento should have a range of colours but for some reason i really wanted to colour code this lunch, So the 'yellow' box has some smoked salmon, shu mai dumplings, tempura king prawn, and mini chicken fajitas, and the 'orange' box has a mini applesauce and carrot muffin and some baked mango.

Catch up

Hiya folks,

It's been absolutely yonks since i've had a chance to get back to blogging. nothing interesting in particular just ive been quite busy at work, and because there has been a lot of snow we haven't been able to get the car out to go shopping.

There's a couple of updates on their way!

Winter curry bento

Now the winter is well and truly here, I want spicy, warming food for lunch. oh, and lots of cheese. So this bento has it all- Magalorean tomato and beef curry with rice, mini cheeses and bruschetta (with a small bottle of chilli oil for drizzling) and some crispy vegetable balls. Yum!