Get creative with ingredients

After feeding the masses and partying with work colleagues, friends and family over the festive period, it’s often quite a relief when it’s over. However, throwing away all of those gloriously delicious foods that weren’t used up is not only wasteful, it’s criminal!  Try to freeze any leftover savoury vegetable and meat dishes, as well as that extra Christmas pudding which never got eaten. 

One great way to add real pizzazz to a range of Christmas leftovers is to inject them with a touch of gourmet. Just because Christmas is over, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still enjoy luxury foods. Foreman & Field’s Christmas hampers feature decadent condiments, handmade desserts and all of the refinement and indulgence of Christmas fare, including many healthy options, year round. 

Leftover food recipes

• Leftover turkey

Make a béchamel sauce and add turkey, lemon zest and mashed potatoes to create croquettes. Bake them in the oven and voilà – something entirely unique and delightful.

• Leftover ham

Make a calzone filled with cheese, left over roasted vegetables, ham and tomato salsa. 

• Leftover bread

Create a delicious chocolate infused bread and butter pudding, rich with cinnamon and all spice. 

• Leftover pork

Fill crispy rice paper rolls with shredded pork (crackling excluded), along with shredded iceberg lettuce, then have your spicy Vietnamese dipping sauce at the ready. 

• A little bit of this, a little bit of that

If you have a lot of random salads and vegetable medleys left over from the big day, you should try incorporating them into a paella or another rice dish.

Indulge with home delivered gourmet

Enjoy life’s gourmet pleasures long into the new year.  Champagne, porchetta, petit fours, panettone and macaroons are just some of the treats available in Forman & Field’s decadent gift baskets. They also include healthier, but equally indulgent, options such as smoked Scottish salmon. When one of these arrives at your door, you’ll be very popular indeed.   

We all like a bit of comfort food, a roast on a cold and wet Sunday, some chocolate after a long day at the office, or a take away on a Friday night. Sometimes, all we want is something quick to eat with no work required on our side. But some other times, it is the taste of the take away food that we are craving, although we could do with something even better. When that is the case, it is time to make your own take away, and there is nothing better than a fish and chips.

Easy, less greasy and tastier

If you think that your local take away shop does the best fish and chips, wait until to have tasted your own. You will not only be guaranteed to have the freshest ingredients, but the food will be less greasy. The main reason for that is that you will only use the frying oil for your dinner and not that of dozens of people.

You don’t even need a fryer to cook your own fish and chips, a deep frying pan is enough. Fill it in with enough vegetable oil to cover the fish and heat it up. While the oil gets to temperature, make a thick batter with plain flour and water. For a lighter batter, use soda water, for an even tastier one, use beer. Season the fish of your choice, pass it in plain flour then in the batter, before frying it for a few minutes.

Drain the fish with kitchen roll, then keep it in a hot oven while you do the chips. Cut some potatoes to your desired size, with or without the skin on, wash them in salted cold water (they will be crispier) before frying them in small batches so that you only have one layer in the pan. The secret to great and healthy chips is to fry them twice. The first time, take them out after they start to change texture. This will seal them and when you will finish them, the oil will not penetrate them, the heat cooking the inside while they take a golden colour. Drain and serve with your fish. Simple but so tasty you will be amazed.

You don’t need to be a wine connoisseur to enjoy a nice glass of wine but if you want to get the most bang for your buck, you do need to know the basics. In particular, you need to know what not to do.

There are many mistakes that a wine drinker can make, that when made, can easily turn a great bottle of wine into an average one at best. Here are seven things not to do when it comes to wine.

Too Much Time in the Fridge

A mistake that even experienced wine drinkers often make is serving wine too cold. Chilled wine might be more refreshing but when you chill a bottle too much, you can easily end up dampening both the wines flavour and its aroma.

Storage Above Seventy Degrees

While you don’t need a wine cellar to keep your wine collection in good shape, you do need somewhere cool. Temperatures above seventy five degrees Fahrenheit can damage a wine surprisingly fast.

The symptoms of a wine that’s been left in the sun too long include a caramel flavour, premature aging and a slight change in colour. If you live somewhere with warm temperatures, it’s important to take this fact into account when deciding where to store your wine.

No Time to Settle

Another common wine drinking mistake is to fail to take account of the fact that wine doesn’t travel particularly well. If a particular bottle has just completed a long journey i.e. you’ve ordered it online, always take the time to allow it to settle. Otherwise you might find that the perfect bottle that you ordered doesn’t quite live up to its reputation.

No Time to Breath

If you’ve ever noticed that the last glass of wine from a bottle tastes the best, the reason for this is not that you’ve become a little tipsy. It’s because many wines need a little bit of air before they can convey their true flavour and aroma. Before drinking a bottle of wine, always establish whether or not it could benefit from a little bit of air.

Poor Choice of Glass

If you’ve invested quite a bit of money into your wine collection, it’s worth investing a little bit of cash in your wine glasses too. The larger the wine glass you use, the more oxygen is going to come into contact with your wine. Large glasses, particularly those around the ten ounce mark, can therefore help to really bring out the flavour of a complex vintage.

Too Much at Once

Regardless of what kind of glass you pour your wine into, it’s important not to pour in too much. There are two reasons for this.

· Fill your glass to the top and the wines aroma won’t go directly to your nose.

· Fill your glass to the top and you won’t be able to swirl it. And for many wines, a lack of swirling leads to a distinct lack of flavour.

Right Wine, Wrong Meal

Though wine retailers might like you to believe otherwise, it’s very rare to find a wine that goes well with all foods. And when you try to compliment a meal with a wine that clashes with it, it can become very difficult to enjoy either.

Before sitting down for a nice meal, take the time to choose the perfect bottle of wine. As a general rule of thumb, you should always aim to match the weight of your meal with the weight of the wine i.e. a light meal deserves a light wine.

Author bio: Heather Dayton is a very passionate chef. She blogs about cooking and recipes. She really loves helping her cook something delicious and tasty for their loved ones. She thinks that food cooked with love and a glass of sparkling wine is all you need to make your partner feel loved.

Summary

Are there butterflies in your stomach? Feel a cold sweat coming on? First date nerves are a fact of life but a few pre date rituals can work wonders. In fact, getting ready to meet someone new is quite exciting – and an excellent excuse to indulge in a few guilty pleasures. From ensuring you look fabulous to finding out more about your blind date, there are loads of ways to make the day before the romantic meal much more enjoyable. 

First date nerves can strike even the most confident singletons. Whether you briefly met them beforeat a bar or on eHarmony (www.eharmony.co.uk), a bit of anxiety is to be expected. However, there’s enjoyment to be found in getting ready to meet someone new. Maybe it’s excitement sparked off by a release adrenaline, but preparing for a date can be fun. Do you enjoy getting ready for dates? Read on to see if you recognise any of the following guilty pleasures.

Buying a new outfit

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First impressions are everything – what better excuse to go shopping for some fab new clothes than a first date? The last thing you want to do is turn up at the restaurant in a tatty old t-shirt. Well, that’s what you tell yourself anyway. Ten shopping bags might be excessive but you’ll have at least one outfit in there that’ll dazzle the socks off your new love interest.

Playing detective

Blind dates are fraught with fear of the unknown. It could be your soul mate waiting with some roses but more than likely it’s your best mate’s cousin’s geeky flat mate. Part of the fun of dating is doing some sneaky research beforehand. Facebook has its limits though so try dating in the UK with eHarmony. Online profiles have all the info you need plus chemistry is pretty muchguaranteed with a compatible match. 

Trip to the spa

First dates are stressful so now is the perfect time to pay your local spa a visit. Amidst the aromatic oils and ambient music, any nerves are eased away by the skilled masseuse. Why not make the most of the experience by booking a facial? After all, you need to look your best when the big night rolls around. 

A new hairdo 

You’ve got the clothes – now it’s time to transform into a head-to-toe glamourpuss. Regular trims are needed to keep hair looking healthy but now is not the time for the usual cut and dry. Date prep is totally different from your daily routine so a new do is on the cards. Prove blondes have more fun with a radical colour change or switch from polka-straight locks to bouncy curls.

Need more help getting into the perfect mood for your big date? Find inspiration and top dating tips on eHarmony UK’s Twitter page.

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Vogue

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Cosmopolitan

How to calm first date nerves

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Omelettes are one of the quickest and easiest things to cook. There are just so many different ingredients you could use - the main one being an egg - so it’s hard to determine what the ‘perfect’ omelette is.

Another common ingredient would be cheese; it depends how healthy you want your omelette to be, but even if it was a very minimal amount it can transform the dish. The possibilities are endless as to what cheese you choose, but the most common would probably be cheddar.

Other ingredients that taste amazing in an omelette would be bacon, ham, peppers, mushrooms, spinach and sliced tomatoes. These could all go in the omelette whilst it’s simmering in the pan.

Here’s how Jamie Oliver makes a nice, simple omelette- providing the perfect cooking technique:

It’s all about making sure you don’t cook it so much it just becomes a big egg- like Jamie describes, you need to try and get it “soft and silky”. I’d also agree that 3 eggs seems to be the perfect amount for a main dish.

You can have many accompaniments on the side; it could be as simple as baked beans, ketchup, a salad, some avacado etc.

Basically, the possibilities are endless. Give it a go! Experiment with your omelettes, push the boundaries and find your perfect omelette!