Amaretto Syllabub

Hmpf. I think I would re-title this Syllabarf. This is so sweet I felt I may as well have been sucking on a sugar cube. I had no intention of eating the whole dessert but I certainly didn't have to practice self restraint to do so. Once again it becomes clear to me that I fall into the salty person category. You sweet people are all crazy I think. How can you want that much sugar??? I would definitely take a bowl of chips and dip over this any day. If you're the kind of person who likes desserts where you make an appointment for a filling after your sugary treat then I'm gonna say you'll like this. It's actually really easy to make - only takes about 5 minutes. And if you can finish this dish without puckering your face in sugar overload then my hat is off to you.

Quickly Scaled Mont Blanc

Oh my god, could this book have anymore recipes in it???? I'm down to the nitty gritty and it is PAINFUL. I'm likening this to when I ran the 10K Mud Run in 30+ degree weather with not a spec of shade or a drop of water for the first 5 K. Painful. And you wonder when the eff you will ever see the finish line but you just keep running because you know you'll get there eventually. Right now, I want to burn Nigella Express. I will finish it, but I'm feeling terribly masochistic at the moment. Why do I do these things to myself?

The Mont Blanc is easy enough to make - IF you can buy pre-made meringues. I made them myself which adds an hour of unwanted cooking time in the kitch. And to be perfectly honest eating a glass full of chocolate and whip cream is not what I wanted to do tonight but someone has to eat it and Husband refused. I tried to convince him to eat this by saying I was making it for Valentines Day (which was just a happy mistake) but he must know me too well because he wasn't buying what I was selling. He said he's rather have something else for dessert. But back to the making of. IF you have store bought meringues this will take you all of 5 minutes to make. Chop some chocolate, whip the cream and do some layering. It's pretty straight forward. The taste...well...it's different. It's not too sweet but there's something about it that I just couldn't figure out. I actually think the average person would really like this dessert but I am not your average person. I'm not into desserts like the average person. I'd drown my cat for a bag of chips, but I can pass up the most decadent of desserts with out so much of the bat of an eyelash. Chocolate just is not my crack. So I can take or leave this one. But if you're into chocolate and cream then yeah give it a shot. I think at this point I'm just jaded and I'm not going to give anything a good review anymore...oh the bitterness.

Steeped Christmas Fruits

So maybe I made this a month too late, but does it really matter? No. This is of course the simplest recipe in the entire book I think. All you do is pour sherry over dried fruits. I mean if you can open a package you can make this. But I gotta tell ya - it's not the greatest. Maybe it's me, I'm not the kind of girl to eat a scoop of ice cream. I don't find ice cream to be that rewarding of a treat. At least not North American ice cream. Really what we call ice cream in this continent is effing pitiful. When I was went to Europe for the first time was when I learned what ice cream can be, and let me tell you, the difference is like eating cardboard compared to eating fresh baked bread. We here are eating the ice cream equivalent of cardboard. So I'm not too fussed about this. However now I have this jar full of booze berries and not wanting to eat a load of ice cream I wondered to myself how can I put these to good use? Then I had a brain wave. Breakfast needs more booze in it. I think the perfect way to finish these berries off is by adding them to my breakfast oatmeal. I love dried berries in my oatmeal so why shouldn't I love booze berries in my oatmeal??? I mean it's just logic isn't it? I haven't tried these berries in oatmeal yet, but I've got a good feeling about it. I'm confident I've just come up with the perfect breakfast. Healthy and alcoholic!

Merguez with Halloumi and Flame-Roasted Peppers

I couldn't find Merguez sausage so I went with Nigella's suggested substitute "a spicy vacuum sealed sausage". Apparently though I may have bought sausage that was a little too spicy.... My friend showed me his pit stains from the sweat that eating the spicy sausage brought on. So yeah, maybe a little too hot.... Anyhow, if you perhaps buy a slightly less spicy sausage than I did I'm sure you will enjoy this. I mean it's sausage cheese and roasted peppers, what's not to love? And all you have to do is take it out of the oven when your timer goes off. It Doesn't get much easier.

Maple Pepper Pecans

Okay, so say you're having a cocktail party and you need nibblies for your guests. That's the only and I do mean only reason I would make these. And I can't even say I'd bother with troubling to do that. It's not that they're had to make and it's not that they aren't tasty. I just kinda feel like what's the point??? I cant' be bothered with this recipe. It's just a bit of a nuisance. I don't feel this is worth the effort - but they do look pretty don't they?

Mini Meatloaves

Meatloaf. When I hear the word meatloaf bile comes up my throat. Meatloaf was one of my most hated meals as a child. Right behind meat-eater gravy and steak. But as far a meatloaves go this ones pretty good. It's not just gross ground beef all mushed up into loaves and baked. It's the addition of sausage that makes this palatable. What also is very different from mom's meatloaf recipe is that Nigella suggests this be served cold and sliced and with a nice mayo. I decided to make a chilpotle mayo to accompany this and I think it worked well. To make that all I did was puree some canned chilpotle peppers with some hellmans that was in the fridge. So if meatloaf is your bag then definitely give this recipe a whirl.

Chopped Ceviche and Mexicola

This recipes seems like it is going to be gross but it's actually kinda good. The idea of chopping up a bunch of fish and then dipping your tortilla chips in it seemed wrong to me. But I have to tell you I'm convinced that it is only too right. This is a dream to prepare because you don't do any cooking - you just let the fish soak in lime juice and the acid does the cooking for you. So you just do some chopping and enjoy your mexicola while the fish "cooks". Mexicola isn't exactly how I'll next be shaking hands with tequila, but it's not all that bad. I can't say I'm a fan of cola though so maybe it's just me. I am a HUGE fan of tequila though. But I am not a convert to the mexicola. I'm a purest I fear where tequila is concerned. Just give me a shot glass, the bottle and I'm good to go.

Marsla Honey Pears with Gorgonzola

I love cheese. Cheese is the reason I could never be vegan for more than a week - the cheese would call me back to the dark side. And I would follow every time. This recipe is a fantastic pairing of fruit, nut and cheese - of course with some wine for good measure. Take your pears and saute them then deglaze them in marsala. Candy the walnuts a bit and you have a fabulous little plate of heaven. I really enjoyed this, I think you will too.

Lamb, Olive and Carmelized Onion Tagine

I forgot to take a picture of this dish so here's a photo that reflects my experience of making this dish. This recipe was a bitch for me. Firstly I had to dismember a lamb leg. That was sickening. Then I really didn't want to put it in the oven because I was also doing some baking while making this recipe. Nigella mentions in her blurb for this recipe that you can get away with cooking at "a licking simmer on the hob" so that was what I thought I'd do. You're supposed to cook this for 2 hours btw and after about one hour I checked this to see how things were going. I was horrified. The meat seemed so tough to me and I couldn't believe that I had utterly ruined this dish. So I went into rescue mode. I thought "okay if I get this in the oven STAT maybe it can be pulled back from the brink of ruination". So I quickly went and got my big oven tin and dumped everything in there and put in at a very low heat in the oven. I thought the only way I can save this is if I cook it at a ridiculously low heat to make sure the meat does not get chewier. so I left it there on low, low heat in the oven and rolled with it.

What I was left with was in my eyes a complete disaster next to un-servable...but I don't eat meat and I've never liked lamb so I just hoped that it wasn't as awful as it looked. And I guess I got my wish because I was told that it was very flavourful and when I asked if it was ruined either I was told a bold face lie or I was somehow able to save this one because somehow the answer was that it was actually quite good. I'm personally baffled.

Overall I'm gonna tell you that if you do decide to make this stew then for the love of god put it in the oven from the start.

Red Leaf, Fig and Serrano Ham Salad

Right. I effed this recipe up. I know, how do you eff up a salad? Well, you forget to add a key ingredient. In this case I forgot the fig. Now I do want to qualify that though because with there being so few ingredients you may wonder how I forgot a key ingredient listed in the the frickin title. Well, I was frantic at the time I was making this salad. I was not my usual self. I was upto my eyeballs in it and throwing this salad together was just a hodge-podge. Also -the fact that I could not for the life of me find fresh figs in the middle of the Canadian friggin winter wasn't helping any. I settled for dried figs in the grocery store (and yes I looked in more stores than just my shitty Metro). Then at home they were in the cupboard and not on the counter in my face and the old adage "out of sight, out of mind" came into play. However, even without the fig, the salad is a nice change from the ordinary and I suggest you try this out next time your looking for a little variety in the salad department.