SRC - Smoking Bishop

Time for another Secret Recipe Club reveal!  I love getting my blog assignment each month and this month I was assigned the blog Culinary Adventures with Camilla, which belongs to Camilla, our lovely leader of group B.   Camilla is a mom of 3 boys, a freelance writer and photographer and cookbook reviewer.  

As this was the December reveal I went straight to the Christmas recipes.  I was happy to see that a few years ago she had made a Dickensian Christmas Eve feast.  I was immediately drawn to the Figgy Pudding until Randal reminded me that at the time I was considering my recipe choice there was 3 weeks until Christmas and neither one of us would probably want to eat figgy pudding that early in the month.  I still really want to make the pudding though, maybe this year will be the year I actually do it!  

I finally decided on Smoking Bishop.  I had never actually heard of it before, but after doing a little research I found out that it is basically a type of mulled wine, infused with roasted citrus fruits and port.  It was popular in Victorian England at Christmas time and it appears in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  

1 bottle red wine
1/2 bottle water
5 oranges
1 grapefruit
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
handful of cloves (around 20)
5 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise pods
1/2 bottle port

Bake the fruit at 350 for 1 hour.  Add the cloves and set aside.

Simmer the red wine, water, sugar, cinnamon and star anise over low heat for 30 minutes.  Take off the heat, add the roasted fruit, cover and leave over night at room temperature.  

The next day remove and juice the fruit.  Add in the juice and port and heat on low.

An InLinkz Link-up

Cherry Almond Smoothie

It doesn't matter how many Texas summers I live through, I just can't get used to the heat.  I have English skin, it wasn't meant to see sunlight!  This summer I have been really enjoying smoothies in the mornings, because when you wake up to almost 90 degree temps a hot bowl of oatmeal just does not appeal.  I have made many smoothie variations but my favourite and the one I always want is this cherry almond smoothie.

1 cup frozen dark sweet cherries
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract

In a blender add the milk, yogurt, sugar, extracts and cherries.  Blend well and serve immediately. 

Chai Tea

Time for another Secret recipe Club reveal. This month I was assigned the blog Angela's Kitchen.  Angela's recipes are all gluten, wheat and dairy free.  I will admit that I am not very familiar with making recipes that fit into those categories, but I did enjoy looking through all the recipes on Angela's blog.

I finally decided to make the slow cooker Chai Tea.  I love to drink tea, being English it's basically a requirement! Although my usual tea of choice is good old English black tea (Yorkshire Gold, please!) with a splash of milk, I thought that chai tea sounded lovely for autumn, if and when autumn decides to show up here in Texas!

18 cups water

1/2 cup honey

18 cloves

3 cinnamon sticks

18 cardamom pods

12 allspice berries
1 1/2 inch crystallized ginger

12 whole black peppercorns

1 bay leaf 

1 star anise

5 tablespoons loose leaf black tea

Milk to serve

Place everything except the tea into the slow cooker, heat on high for 2 hours.  Add the tea and leave for an addition 30 minutes.  Strain the chai tea and serve with milk of choice.