Marie Cookpad

  Every New Year's Day from as long as I can remember we have had roasted ham for our New Year celebration dinner.  Boiled until tender, and then the skin stripped, fat scored and roasted in the oven with a glaze until the fat was all sticky and sweet and gilded golden brown.   Its been a tradition, and that would be followed in the coming days with a huge pot of Pea and Ham Soup, made with the bone left from the ham.  Oh my mother did make lovely soup.  The ham was lovely served cold and in thin slices with some mustard . . .   Red meat is not something we eat very often in our house.  We eat mostly fish and chicken, but this year I thought I would treat us to some nice steaks for our New Year dinner.  I am breaking with tradition all over the place for some unknown reason!   I picked up some lovely rib eye steaks at Costco the other day. Of course they come four in a pack but with there only being two of us I froze the other two for another...

  One week from today it will be Thanksgiving.  I know that Thanksgiving will have been already celebrated in Canada, but it is impossible for me to get a turkey in October at a reasonable price, so since moving over here to the UK, I choose to celebrate it in November.  For me it helps to usher in the Christmas Holiday Season!  I love it.   As I have a food blog, and I want things to be current on it, I do cook my Thanksgiving dinner about a week early, which is okay. That means that I am in the mood for turkey again come Christmas time.  I cannot imagine a Christmas without turkey.  That is both the Brit and the Canuck in me!  Christmas when I was growing up was always a turkey dinner, and here in the UK, people love to enjoy a turkey dinner for Christmas as well.   Whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving a week from today, or Christmas in a few weeks after that I am sure you will find this amazing Herb Roasted Turkey Breast to be a really...

  Its my husband's 81st Birthday today.  Its also the anniversary of the day we first met in person.  I always tease him and tell him I am the best Birthday Present he ever received.  Most of the time he would agree with me . . .  unless we are in the car. Then it becomes quite debatable. He says he doesn't drive.  He just steers.   Two of Todd's favourite things are Victoria Sponge Cakes and Raspberry Jam Tarts, well any jam tart really  . . . he just loves anything with jam in it.   You know how you create ideas in your mind of things you want to do . . .  and you picture them all out and in your mind they come out looking fantastic . . .  but in reality, they don't even come close to touching what you had envisioned them as being?    This is one of those things.  Every time I look at it I laugh.  In my mind I saw this beautiful Victoria sponge with two layers of butter cream along with a layer of sweet jam in ...

  This cake I am sharing with you today is very dangerous.  Very, very dangerous, and on several levels.  Its rich and chocolaty, and probably loaded with calories that you don't want to think about.  You best be making it when you have someone to share it with. Trust me on this.  Second . . .  the danger level for me is that my husband doesn't like chocolate cake . . .  so what am I going to do with a whole chocolate cake all on my own.  Oh boy  . . .  why do I do this to myself.  Its a tough job but someone has to do it, right!     Its probably been about 35 years since I have made this cake.  When I was in my late 20's and the mother of four young children, I collected the McCall's Cooking School recipes and binders.   I never got to finish collecting all of them, but I did collect quite a few.  You could trust the McCall's Cooking School.  They were reliable, and this was one of my favouri...