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The Great Aga Christmas Dinner

  • By allscone
  • 08 Dec, 2015
Well, don’t I feel super smug after last weekend? Not only did I learn how to make the perfect Christmas dinner in my (still make believe) Aga but I also ran around a park dressed as Santa. Yup, it was yet another jam packed couple of days full of festivities and completely random activities. And I loved it! First of all, it started at my home away from home, the Aga store in Thame…
11.30am in the shop and the Aga had already been on for a couple of hours, with pans simmering away and turkeys ready for roasting. Penny Zako, the wonderful chef and demonstrator for the day, handed out the biggest menu list – there was no way she was planning on cooking all of that, in front of us all?! Yes she was, and she did! Within 3 hours we were all sitting around the communal table, gobbling down the best Christmas dinner EVER (sorry  – Mum, your roasties will always be my fave!). It was a rather serious affair at times with everyone taking notes but still extremely jovial and merry, and I learnt so much! Penny gave us general cooking tips as well as advice on how to get the most use out of your Aga (I just nodded along, hopefully no one caught on that my Aga is a fantasy). Here are my 5 favourite tips from Penny:
1. Infused salt – throw a few sprigs of rosemary (or whatever herb you fancy) into a small bowl of decent salt. Warm it softly for about an hour and a half (on top of your Aga at the back is perfect – ahem) et voila! You have herb infused salt, which can be used for anything you like.
2. To get the perfect roast potatoes, boil them for about 5 mins, drain and then spread out onto a tray in a single layer and leave to cool completely. Once cool, sprinkle a tbsp of plain flour over the top – this helps give them their risky coating. Pop them in a tray of piping hot oil and roast away!
3. Warm up limes and lemons before squeezing the juice out of them – you’ll get a lot more out.
4. Champagne and thyme risotto is the WAY FORWARD for a Christmas Day starter.
5. The majority of dishes you spend most of the morning prepping on Christmas Day can easily be cooked a couple of days beforehand and then frozen – have think about what you could do to make the day easier!
This last pic is christmas pudding made as a traybake…mmm!!!
I was given a free pass for the day so I baked some Festive Heart scones for the team to say thank you… Find the recipe in my book! Here’s a link for those of you who haven’t already got a copy:
It makes the perfect Christmas present for the baker in your life! I made these bobby dazzlers into festive stars this time:
Then, on Sunday, this happened:
Yup, that’s me, and my friend Ruth, dressed as Santa. No this isn’t what we usually do! Though that would be fun. We took part in the 10k Santa Run which is held annually at Victoria Park, East London, helping to raise money for Run4Cancer. It was a great day even though it was tough in some points! Everyone was in a super jolly mood and we shared plenty of laughs when putting our beards on (I really do think Ruth suits one ;-)). Plus we made friends with a bunch of rescued greyhounds – totally adopting one of you soon… Well done to everyone who took part, we’ll see you next year!
That had nothing to do with food but I had to share it, haha.
Night Sconnoisseurs!
G x
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By allscone 09 Mar, 2018
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Helloooo,
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It’s been a while since I last posted anything, mostly because I’ve been so busy! Then whaddya know, all of a sudden it’s the end of November and Christmas is here – yippee! I have (not so) secretly been excited about the festive season since August at least, so now it’s in full swing I can shamelessly sing along to cringey Christmas songs and watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation whilst sipping on mulled wine laced with tequila (I just went with it) to my heart’s content.
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Every morning must start with a cuppa…
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