Brick oven cooked lamb stew

 

Today’s recipe is a lamb stew that has been cooked in my brick oven for 24 hours; it requires minimal work and has an amazing taste to it, it’s a great hearty comfort food.

We have a brick oven in our backyard and to say that it is used frequently is a big lie. But every now and again we fire it up, and we fill it up, we make pizza, legume stews, bread, vegetables and much more.

This stew one can make both in cast iron pot/dish on low heat or in a brick oven.

 

2.2 pounds/ 1 kg of lamb meat

1 onion

2 potatoes diced

2 garlic cloves

½ dried chili pepper

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 carrot chopped

½ bottle of a good red wine

2 cups/4.5 dl of vegetable broth

Rosemary

Sage

Thyme

Cumin seeds

Fennel seeds

Olive oil

 

1. Start by chopping the vegetables (not the garlic cloves). Place in the cast iron dish with a bit of olive oil.

(if you are cooking on a regular stove. Let all vegetables cook together with a bit of olive oil for about five minutes.)

2. Add the meat.

(If you are cooking it on a stove let the meat cook for a few minutes until it has gotten a bit of color.

3. Add spices and chili pepper. Cover with wine and broth. Cover with a lid.
4. Place cast iron dish in brick oven.
5. Stir every 4-5 hours, if you notice that the liquid starts to evaporate, add some more.
6. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
7. Enjoy.

Love 

Charlie xx

 

Rosted Brussels Sprouts With Garlic

This my go-to recipe when it comes to Brussel sprouts  – its fast, easy and good. it makes a great side dish and you can easily it as a side dish to a steak or some fish or serve it along with a casserole (I served it along with a Lasagna here).

1 pint brussel sprouts / 0.5 kg

4-6 table spoons olive oil

5 garlic cloves

salt and pepper

1. preheat oven to 400 F. trim bottoms of brussel sprouts, and slice each in half top to bottom. Place sprouts in one layer pan. put in garlic, sprinkle with olive oil, slat and pepper
2. roast in oven, shaking pan every 5 minutes, until sprouts are quite brown and tender, about 20 -25 minutes.
3. taste, add more salt and pepper if necessary. serve hot or warm.

Love

Charlie xx

Charlie’s Advent Calendar: Day 22 – Snowballs

Christmas is literally 2 days away and we all have probably started to prepare all of the delicious Christmas food.

The food we wait all year to eat and then we stuff ourselves to the point we don’t even want to see it. Ever again, then come February we start to crave it again. It’s a vicious circle that goes around during our whole lives.

Today I though I would share a super quick, super cute chocolate truffle, which one can easily gift an acquaintance if one is out last minute. It takes approximately half an hour. Then I love the fact that they are named snowballs!

For approximately 15 snowballs:

200g / 7oz white chocolate

0.6 cups coconut flakes

1.5 tbsp. lemon juice

0.2 – 0.4 cups of coconut flakes for rolling

 

• Start by melting the chocolate in a low heat Bain Marie. When it’s melted add coconut flakes, and stir.
• Add the lemon juice a bit at a time, set a side and start shaping small balls when the batter is at body temperature. Roll in coconut flakes. Let them harden in the fridge.
• Done!

 

hohoho

Charlie xx

Charlie’s Advent Calendar: day 20 – DIY Candy cone

I like to have something sweet in my Christmas tree, that’s a complete, lie – I like to fill my tree with sweet things. I have gingerbread cookies, with our names written on them in sugar icing. I have heart baskets filled with candy, candy cones, filled with chocolates! Why? Because every time I pass the Christmas tree I can nibble on something, isn’t that just the greatest thing ever? I do realize that it might not be very healthy, but can you really be healthy at Christmas? Maybe one can but I sure cant. I want hot chocolate in the evening after a long cold day, I want Nutella filled crepes on Christmas fairs, I want chocolates around the clock so now lets create a Christmas candy cane together?

 

What you need

 

Paper, rather large sheets of a color of your choosing

Ribbon, of your choosing

Glue,

Stapler

A main course plate

 

directions

With the help of a main course plate, draw a circle. Cut it out and fold in the middle so that you have a half circle.

Start rolling the left bottom towards the right. When the paper finishes staple it as high up as possible. Glue a ribbon along the edge of the cone.

On the inside of the cone staple a ribbon as high up as possible and bring it over in a half circle towards the other way towards the opposite side and attach it, now you can hang it in your tree.

Fill it with chocolate truffles and hang it in your tree.

Charlie’s Advent Calendar: DAY 18 – DIY GIFT BOXES

Making a gift box might seem a bit much, when you can step out buy one pretty much anywhere.

But there is something with making things by yourself, and giving away things you have made yourself.

I made these out of thick paper and wallpaper (I committed a felony and stole some from my boyfriends company’s warehouse…)

 

To make these gift boxes you’ll need :

• Paper a bit thicker than your normal A4 sheet
• Colored paper or wall paper
• Glue

 

box

1. Cut a 20x 20 cm (8×8 inches) square
2. on two opposite sides, make two incisions, 5 cm (2 inches) from the edge of the paper and make it 6 (2.3 inches) cm long.
3. Fold up the sides of the box and glue it together, fold down the sides so that the box looks nicely and even

 

Lid

1. Make a similar box but with sides a bit shorter for the lid.
2.  And it’s done. Not hard at all making a gift box yourself.

Hohoho

Charlie xx

Charlie’s Advent Calendar: Day 17 – The History Of Santa

 

                                                             picture from google

St. Nicholas was a Bishop who lived in the fourth century in a place called Myra in Asia Minor (now called Turkey). He was a very rich man because his parents died when he was young and left him a lot of money. He was also a very kind man and had a reputation for helping the poor and giving secret gifts to people who needed it, he eventually became a saint and set sail towards england.

In the 16th Century in northern Europe, after the reformation, the stories and traditions about St. Nicholas became unpopular.

But someone had to deliver presents to children at Christmas, so in the UK, particularly in England, he became ‘Father Christmas’ or ‘Old Man Christmas’, an old character from stories plays during the middle ages in the UK and parts of northern Europe. In France, he was then known as ‘Père Nöel’ in Germany, the ‘Christ Kind’. In the early USA, his name was ‘Kris Kringle’. Later, Dutch settlers in the USA took the old stories of St. Nicholas with them and Kris Kringle became ‘Sinterklaas’ or as we now say ‘Santa Claus’!

Many countries, especially ones in Europe, celebrate St. Nicholas’ Day on 6th December. In Holland and some other European Countries, children leave clogs or shoes out on the 5th December (St. Nicholas Eve) to be filled with Presents They also believe that if they leave some hay and carrots in their shoes for Sinterklaas’s horse, they will be left some sweets.

St. Nicholas became popular again in the Victorian era when writers, poets and artists rediscovered the old stories.

In 1823 the famous poem ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ or ‘T’was the Night before Christmas’, was published. Dr Clement Clarke Moore later claimed that he had written it for his children. (Some scholars now believe that it was actually written by Henry Livingston, Jr., who was a distant relative of Dr Moore’s wife.) The poem describes St. Nicholas with eight reindeer and gives them their names. They became really well known in the song ‘Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer’, written in 1949.

The UK Father Christmas and the American Santa Claus became more and more alike over the years and are now one and the same.

Some people say that Santa lives at the North Pole. In Finland, they say that he lives in the north part of their country called Lapland.

But everyone agrees that he travels through the sky on a sledge that is pulled by reindeer, that he comes into houses down the chimney at night and places presents for the children in socks or bags by their beds, in front of the family Christmas tree, or by the fire place.

Most children receive their presents on Christmas Eve night or early Christmas morning, but in some countries they get their presents on St. Nicholas’ Eve, December 5th.

St. Nicholas putting the bag of gold into a stocking is probably where the custom of having a tangerine or satsuma at the bottom of your Christmas stocking came from. If people couldn’t afford gold, some golden fruit was a good replacement – and until the last 50 years these were quite unusual fruits and so still special!

 

hohoho

Charlie xx

Charlie’s Advent Calendar: Day 16 – DIY Pine cone ornament

This is a super easy, cute and very cheap ornament for our Christmas trees, the pinecones I found in the woods and the silk ribbons I had at home, all I needed to purchase was the hemp string.

 

You need:

Pine cones (I found mine in the woods, the nature is a great source of supplies for a DIY:er)

String of some sort (I used hemp string)

Glue

Silk ribbons

 

Directions

• I purchased some hemp string and cut a piece long enough to attach to my pinecone, yet still fit around a tree branch.  I glued the two ends to the top of the pinecone.

• Tie a bow out of the ribbon and with the help of some hot glue, on the top of the cone attach the bow to the pinecone. And you are done – now you can hang this ornament in your Christmas tree.

 

hohoho

Charlie xx

 

Charlie’s Advent Calendar – Day 14 Almond and Blue Cheese Filled Dates

I would assume that some of you are probably screaming ‘what?’ right now.

Dates like a fruit?

Blue cheese?

And almonds?

they are all great on their own but together that must be so disgusting. they are not its a great combination that will make a welcome surprise on a Holiday party this year. People tend to be happily surprised by these. they are also a delicious to enjoy with some mulled wine.

Ingredients 

12 large dates, sliced lengthways and pitted

one small piece of blue cheese

24 almonds

directions

1. on a plate, place your date halves and start stuffing them with the blue cheese, about half a teaspoon per half but it depends on the size of your date.
2. gently press an almond into each half
3. Done. serve room temperature!

 

hohoho

Charlie xx

Charlie’s Advent Calendar : Day 10 – GINGERBREAD HOUSE

lets just call this the house of horrors

Every year I long for the time I can bake gingerbread men and build a gingerbread house. I love the idea of it but real life situation its all blah.

I invite my friends over to bake with me, we all are energized and happy to start to bake, but five minutes in everyone is throwing a fit, having issues on how the house shall look like and the house turns out a disaster and as its done everyone abandons me to bake out the cookies alone while they all watch sound of music.

Then the next year I do it again.Why? Because I love the idea of it, but next year I do need to remember to make it myself if I want a beautiful looking house and not one that seems to come straight out from a halloween movie.

 

 

hohoho

Charlie xx

Charlie’s Advent Calendar : Day 8 – Hot Chocolate With A Twist

what would winter and Christmas be with out hot chocolate? boring and savory… blah

I love chocolate in its many forms, and i want to enjoy as many hot chocolates I can before spring is here.

During Christmas its the also the prime season for oranges, so i though why not combine the two and make a orange hot chocolate

1. cut the top off the orange and with a spoon, get the orange out of it, we only want the skin. it should look like this
2. in a pot, bring your milk, cocoa and sugar to boil (I use a lot of cocoa and no sugar, I want mine as chocolaty as possible).
3. pour into the orange and add a straw and you are done!
4. enjoy and don’t burn your tongue (I just did that)