Happy New Year & Some New Goodies In My Kitchen & Some Resolutions

This is my first proper post of 2013. I know I should have written it yesterday really but I was busy organising the Classic French round up and the new challenge plus enjoying one last day of laziness munching leftover takeaway pizza from New Year's Eve. We stayed in because I think we're getting to the point of being old and boring, also everywhere always seems too busy and too expensive on NYE. This is the 3rd year in a row we've not gone out. In 2010 I was on crutches after foot surgery, in 2011 my boyfriend had to work and got home at 11:58pm, I spent that evening watching episodes of Cake Boss back to back! And for 2012 we spent £30 on two massive pizzas with sides and a few cans of cider and kicked back and watched telly. The best thing about buying huge pizzas is the leftovers the next day, no it's not healthy but I cook nearly everything from scratch and never buy ready meals (no point as we don't own a microwave) so the occaisonal calorie busting pizza is fine. All in all a nice cheap night in. By the way there won't be much on this blog in the way of healthy eating or diet recipes this month. I don't do diets as I'm one of those annoying skinny people who can eat their cake and then have a second slice and still not get fat (I won't be offended if you hate me a bit now). There will however be plenty of cake posts coming up soon, but first I want to share some of my new goodies with you.

I got two new cook books from my boyfriend, Jamie's 15 Minute Meals and Gok Cooks Chinese. Apparently I own too many baking books (is such a thing possible?) so he got me these instead, plus I think he had forgotten which ones I already have. They've both been on my wishlist for a while but hadn't got round to buying them myself. I'm hoping that I will actually use the Jamie Oliver book as I bought his 30 Minute Meals when it came out and have only used it once. I've been wanting to try cooking Chinese food for a while now, need to go and buy a wok though so I can do it properly. My boyfriend also got me a £20 Lakeland voucher and I went and spent it a couple of days ago. Towards the end of November I asked him what he was thinking of getting me for Christmas and I was expecting the typical "Don't know yet, what do you want?" kind of response, but instead he said "I'll buy you something from Lakeland". I was about to go in the kitchen to do the washing up but instead got my laptop out and browsed the online store and emailed him a list of 10 things to choose from. I did all this whilst he was sat on the sofa net to me watching TV. I think I must have given him too many options, hence the voucher but I did manage to get 4 things for my £20 (plus an extra 96 pence) so I'm very happy with that.

First thing I picked up was a 16cm hemisphere cake tin. I have no idea what I'm going to make with this yet but I'm sure it will be a useful addition to my bakeware collection.

I then added this silicone spoon mould which I've had my eye on for a while. I'm thinking it would be good for making little biscuit spoons to serve with a mousse or a fool for dessert.

The next two things I found were reduced in the sale and I got this 21cm fancy cake tin which I think will make even the simplest sponge look pretty.

And this Norwegian Kransekake set of cake tins. This is not something I've ever tried before but I've seen quite a few pictures of it now and it looks amazing. Need to find an excuse for a celebration and a party to make it though.

In addition to all these lovely things, one of my friends bought me this beautiful cake stand which came presented in a very pretty box. I'm keeping the box even though I'm not sure where I'm going to put it. I need to find little things to store in it.

Finally, my Mum and Dad got me this Mason Cash bread baking set. I seasoned the baking stone yesterday and I'm looking forward to baking on it soon. I think it will make a great pizza stone as well. The bowl is 30cm diameter which is perfect as I've been lusting after a Mason Cash bowl for years. The idea is you prove the dough in the bowl and use the stone as a lid instead of clingfilm and then bake the bread on the stone.

I think did quite well for baking/foodie gifts this year, talking about my blog to my family and friends constantly has obviously paid off!

Finally at the end of this rather long post are a couple of New Years Resolutions/things I want to try and do this year. I don't normally make them but these are all food related so I thought I'd share them.

1. Have a go at making sourdough bread from my own starter. If anyone has any tips on this please share as I haven't even begun to look into it properly yet.
2. Actually use the recipes in my ever expanding collection of books and magazines and share some of the results here. I'm going to try and make at least one thing a week.
3. Make macarons for the first time, again any tips greatly appreciated.
4. Write up some of my mid week meal recipes. I cook from scratch nearly every night or reheat leftovers from the previous day and I feel like sharing some of those dishes with you.
5. Make some progress with my baking to do list as it has been a bit neglected lately

Well done if you got this far, I seem to have waffled a bit today! All that's left to say Happy New Year and I hope 2013 is a good year for you :)