How to: roast a chicken

For someone who is quite a good baker (ha, this sounds so big-headed!), I am THE WORST at cooking. I can't do it. I don't even try. I know how to make pasta and er, grill things on my George Foreman, but that's about it. If I want anything more complicated I'll probably buy the separate bits ready-made and just assemble them (that's awful, I know).

But this must change! We're moving out of the city centre in just a few months, and won't be surrounded by shops. So I reckoned learning how to cook would be a pretty good new year's resolution.

I thought I'd jump in the deep end and try to roast a chicken. Here's how I did it.

First, find yourself an amazing recipe blog! I stumbled across a Wee Bit of Cooking, and I'd definitely recommend having a read of this if you are looking for food inspiration (she also likes dogs, bonus). I used the roast chicken and root vegetables recipe and tweaked it a little bit.

Gather your ingredients!

• one small chicken (mine was 1.2 kg)
• 6 - 8 smallish potatoes, cut in half
• couple of carrots, peeled and chopped into large bits
• couple of parsnips, peeled and chopped
• one onion, chopped into sixths
• one lemon, cut in half
• olive oil

I think you are meant to use salt, pepper, thyme and garlic, but I didn't have any of those, so just winged it.

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees and look out a big oven dish! Prepare your chicken by squeezing the lemon juice all over it. Once it's totally covered, pop both halves of the lemon into the cavity, and put the chicken in the middle of the dish.

Now lightly cover your vegetables with oil (I found the easiest way to do this was popping them into a separate bowl, so I could just use a little oil and stir it around). Arrange the vegetables around the chicken and try to space them out as much as possible (I may have got a little carried away with potatoes).

Pop into the oven for 1 hour 20 minutes. I opened the oven twice to turn the vegetables (as there were so many!), and cover them with the juice that was nicely bubbling in the bottom of the dish.

& that's it! To check if the meat is ready you can either use a meat thermometer (I didn't) or give it a wee prod to check if the juices run clear. If it's cooked, move the chicken to another plate, cover with tinfoil and leave for about 15-20 minutes (this apparently lets the meat settle and makes for a nicer dish). I put my vegetables back in the oven while this was going on to get them nice and crispy.

Carve up your chicken, serve with veg & voila! I didn't attempt to make gravy on this occasion (I will next time), but I didn't even notice it was missing. I'm so pleased that my first roast was a success! The chicken is really soft and has lovely lemony undertones, and the vegetables were crunchy on the outside but nice and soft on the inside.

Here's hoping that the rest of my cooking attempts in 2012 go as smoothly!

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I had planned to do this post to tie in with a Harry Potter themed recipe (butterbeer cupcakes maybe?), but after watching a Deathly Hallows marathon on boxing day I couldn't resist doing it now. The Harry Potter films have turned into one of my Christmas holiday staples over the last few years... I think I might buy the box set and have a HUGE movie marathon soon!

Anyway, earlier this year Craig & I went on holiday to Florida... pretty much fueled by my selfish desire to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. When we were finally in America and on route to the park I was really nervous... I'd read that it was quite small (it's part of the Islands of Adventure, not a park by itself), and that queues were horrendous.

But ahh, it was beautiful.

Hiya Hogwarts!

You walk into Hogsmeade across a bridge and are greeted by a lovely snowy village - very surreal when the weather is scorching!

This is the Three Broomsticks  - we had lunch here! They serve English pub food (or at least, MASSIVE American versions of it), and it makes a nice change from normal theme park food.

The streets were absolutely heaving - we deliberately went on (what was meant to be) the quietest day of the week. I can't imagine how busy it must be on a Saturday afternoon!

The attention to detail in the park was amazing - look at the windows in Ollivanders! You could take part in an experience to choose a wand in the shop, but we weren't brave enough to join the queue. It's meant to be amazing though. Next time!

Ridiculously summery freckles

We had Butterbeer! I was expecting not to like it, but it was gorgeous! Really creamy and butterscotchy. There's a few recipes kicking about online, I might give it a go one day.

Mmm. I bought chocolate frogs and they were lovely.

Hogsmeade Station was actually the bag check for one of the rollercoasters! There's a few rides dotted around (including a Hippogriff one, where you have to learn how to bow to them). We had bought an express ticket for the park and it was so worth it. I think it was around $30, but it means you get to jump to the front of the queue to almost every ride in the park! Perfect on a hot sunny day.

The main attraction is Hogwarts (of course it is, look at it!).

You get to go INTO the castle for "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey". We weren't allowed to use our express ticket on this (and the wait was an hour!) but it honestly didn't matter. You go through different parts and it's so so so well done - you start in the greenhouse, then the portrait gallery (this bit was my favourite!), through the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Dumbledore's office & more. Amaaaazing. Even Craig enjoyed it!

Ahh, it was lovely. Poor Craig had to practically drag me away after a couple of hours.

But they are apparently planning to expand it, which means I'll have an excuse to go back!

December instagram

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas & are having a great boxing day so far! I'm on a mission to watch as many movies as possible, and I am doing very well! Here's an update of instagram photos from the last week...

1. Happy birthday to me! I turned 26 on December 22nd, and on the day before my birthday I came across loads of old photo albums... which included this photo of me as a toddler! I wish my hair was still as curly.

2. Birthday present from the wonderful Craig (it's a tiffany's necklace with a bow on it). I feel so spoiled! Had an absolutely lovely day - signed the papers for our house, went out for tea and cake at Mimi's Bakehouse, watched Puss in Boots, met up with wonderful friends & went dancing! Managed to stretch the celebrations over two days, and saw even more of my friends, went for dinner & drinks in Ghillie Dhu. Lovely.

3. Another birthday gift (lucky me!) - a sheriff's badge! I insisted on wearing this on my birthday & felt like an excellent grown up in our meeting with the solicitor (ha ha ha).

4. Santa hat! Slightly grumpy expression. Promise I was excited about Christmas.

5. Christmas eve preparations! Wrapped up my candy cane cookies in cute wee bags from paperchase.

6. Christmas pudding nail art. I received lovely no 7 nail varnish in my work secret santa & the colour was perfect for a pudding base.

7. This was Christmas morning.. I was impatiently waiting for Craig to come through so we could open our presents! This is his bundle... I absolutely love his stocking.

8. Mmm, chocolates from Coco Chocolate. Cannot wait to eat these, but they are too pretty to open!

9. Beautiful Christmas present from Craig! I've wanted something by Michelle Chang for ages and absolutely wasn't expecting it. So lovely.

10. My bloggers secret santa present (which was organised by Rani from Cupcake Couture). My parcel arrived a couple weeks ago and I have been so looking forward to opening it!

It is really lovely & such a thoughtful gift. I got edible cake toppers (with roller skates on them!!), heart cookie cutters, Cath Kidston hand cream, nail transfers (with birds on them - can't wait to use these), cute cupcake wraps, a mini horse, horse transfer tattoos (haha) AND a vintage copy of Northanger Abbey. It's also just been revealed that my secret santa was Ingrid from says Ingrid - thank you so much!

I think all of my family liked their presents too (here's hoping!) - it's always my favourite part of Christmas day. I also made Craig a ridiculous panda card (which you can see here.. my photoshop skills are coming on a treat - ha ha) as part of his present... we're going to see the Edinburgh pandas one day soon. There's loads to look forward to in the new year!

It's Christmas!

Hope you are all having a lovely day with family, friends & lots of food! We'll be zooming across central Scotland to see both our families... I can't wait!

Things present in this photo, but sadly out of shot: santa hat, christmas jumper, christmas onesie, full extent of Riley's "sad cat who hates getting family photos taken" face. 

How to: bake candy cane cookies

It's Christmas eve! I hope you are all having a lovely and relaxed day (I'm currently watching Pretty Woman... does that count as a Christmas film?). I thought I'd post this recipe up as it is suitably festive, and quick and easy to do - perfect if you are in need of a last minute gift!

Candy cane cookies! (aww). I used the basic biscuit recipe from BBC good food and tweaked it a little bit... 

Turn your oven on to 180 degrees & gather the following ingredients:

• 250g butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 300g plain flour
• red food colouring

You'll also need a couple of flat baking trays lined with baking paper. 

Start by mixing the butter and sugar, then add the vanilla extract and egg yolk. Stir together until it is nice and smooth!

Add in the flour and mix your dough. It'll get a little tough to stir (and look like the photo above), so use your hands to knead it all together.

When it's nice and smooth split it into two and add red food colouring to one bowl. It only needed a couple of drops to turn this colour, so be careful not to add too much! If the mix is too soft you can stick it in the fridge for a little while (20 mins or so) until it firms up.

Now cover your worktop with flour (to prevent the mixture sticking to the surface), and roll out the dough into long ropes (I just did this by hand).

And start to twist them together.

When it's a suitable length, cut at both ends to neaten up, and curl the top round to form the candy cane shape. Use a spatula to move them onto the baking tray. Practice helps a lot, as you'll see between my first and second attempts (see above!).

Space them out evenly on a baking tray (as they'll expand as they bake), and pop in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes.

Once they are ready, carefully move them onto a wire rack to cool (they'll still be quite soft at this point so use a spatula to move them over). Once they've cooled completely you can pop them into a christmassy box or bag and give as gifts! (or eat them all by yourself). This recipe made 18 (quite large) cookies.