Pesto

Homemade, with home grown basil. You cannot conceive the beauty until you have tried it.

And there was supposed to be a photo of it on the pasta sprinkled with pine nuts and parmesan, but I ate it before I remembered to take it.

The good chocolate

I've recently decided that I don't want to use chocolate chips anymore. This is partly because of the cost, and partly because I don't know what is added to make them not melt properly. So I made my chocolate chip cookies using real chocolate - in this case Whittakers Dark Ghana 72%. There's a bit more work involved, cutting up the chocolate, and you don't get even pieces. They're a bit darker than usual, because some of the chocolate has crumbled too fine, and they're not as sweet because the chocolate is so dark. They're somewhat addictive though, and I look forward to making them again this way.

Arancini - Take 2

I was concerned about the consistency of the risotto, so I added bread crumbs to the mix. 

 

I gave them a centre of mozzarella, and double crumbed them. 

 This time, they held their shape and were nice and crispy.

 Unfortunately, since the risotto was pretty bland, so were the arancini.

Still, I'm counting this as a success, and know that next time will only be better.

I scream for ice cream

 Orange Jaffa Ice Cream...

Risotto Alla Milanese

  Basically a saffron risotto

Soaking the saffron

Frying the onions in butter

Onions and rice

Adding the saffron

About halfway through. Not as yellow as I'd expected.

So I added some more saffron!

Andrew really likes this cheese, but then he really likes cheese in general

 

Mixing in the cheese.

Ready to eat.

Despite the pretty colour, this was pretty bland. I'm also concerned the consistency is going to be too sloppy for arancini later in the week.

And yes, I know that most of the pictures are sideways, but somehow, I'd uploaded them before I noticed.

Best Way to Use Up Christmas Ham