When I was preparing our Christmas Eve dinner where glazed ham and crispy potatoes roasted in duck fat were two compulsory menu items, I needed something to bring a little colour. And I knew pomegranate seeds could do just that. I’ve always loved the taste of pomegranates but I’m even more impressed with the […]
Frozen White-Chocolate Christmas Bombe
December 27, 2013 By 29 Comments
Thanks for all your comments about how you spent Christmas. I loved reading how you celebrated. As promised, here is my mother’s white chocolate bombe recipe. I’m not sure how long she’s been making this but I’m sure it’s been on our table every Christmas for at least 25 years. Back then my mother was […]
Reindeer Poo, a Christmas Cake and a Fairy-Bread Christmas Tree
December 23, 2013 By 41 Comments
How’s everyone holding up? Here at Hotly Spiced Headquarters we (mostly me) feel we’re drowning. With just one sleep to go before Christmas Eve and about 10 days of preparation to do, I’m clutching my worry beads. One of the things we had to fit into yesterday’s schedule was a trip to Terminal 2 at […]
A Gingerbread House
December 18, 2013 By 45 Comments
For those of you who were following my blog last Christmas you might recall I made a gingerbread house that imploded. I had just come home from being away on an eight-day business trip and it was now but a few days away from Christmas Day and I was trying to fit four weeks of […]
Spiced Cranberry Sauce
December 16, 2013 By 58 Comments
I would love to be bringing you my mother’s cranberry sauce recipe but unfortunately and despite my very best efforts, I’m unable to. You see, it has to be made with either fresh or frozen cranberries and while that might seem simple enough, it actually isn’t – not in this part of the world, anyway. […]
Mum’s Buche de Noel and it’s Gluten-Free
December 8, 2013 By 48 Comments
A few posts ago I told you about my family’s traditions of celebrating Christmas and how one of these involved a Buche de Noel. Buche de Noel is a French Yule Log or Christmas log and is traditionally served late on Christmas Eve as a family gathers together to await the arrival of Santa, bounding […]
Mum’s Christmas Sugar Cookies and…Archie Goes to School
December 6, 2013 By 49 Comments
When Archie was in high school he went to one of those schools where at the end of the year, they broke up two weeks before the public schools and as such, he had a lot of time to fill. One year when Archie was at home having finished school for that calendar year, he […]
Mini Christmas Cakes
November 29, 2013 By 57 Comments
There’s a Christmas cake I’ve been making for years and it’s from the Australian Women’s Weekly Celebration cookbook. I was first attracted to this recipe because there’s a lovely story attached to it. Way back in 1937, the Australian Women’s Weekly ran a competition for the best fruit cake. This recipe won and the prize […]
Mum’s Cherry Chutney – Perfect with Turkey or Ham
November 27, 2013 By 47 Comments
When I was growing up there were a lot of traditions to be observed. Christmas had the bulk of these traditions. On Christmas Eve my mother would be up at around half past five to begin a day spent in the kitchen and in the climbing heat. In the early evening my father would gather […]
Three Turkey Stuffings
November 23, 2013 By 46 Comments
When I was growing up we always had a hot roast turkey on Christmas Day. It didn’t matter if it was a heatwave with temperatures over 40C (104F), (as it often was), there were no cold-cuts on our Christmas table. One year my father thought we should try something a little different and that meant […]
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