Katie's Christmas 2015 - My Top 5 Christmas/Holiday Songs

It's 2nd December!  This post was originally planned for 1st December so I could get really excited about it being December, but I was busy yesterday with coursework and then auditions for BUSOM's production of Back to the 80s (there were some really good auditions yesterday and I'm really looking forward to seeing more people audition both tomorrow and on Sunday).  I'm spending today at home in pyjamas, attempting to concentrate on coursework, but right now, I'm listening in to my friends Lauren and Chloe doing The Yes/No Show and the Coffee House Sessions interview on RamAir, so I thought this would be a good time to write the first of my Christmas posts for this year.  So on around Tuesday or Wednesday for the next few weeks, I'll be posting some Top 5s (like how I did my Top 5s while in America in July), and on Fridays, I'll be posting a recipe as usual but I'm going to try to make it a bit more Christmassy.  So the first of my top 5 series for the Christmas 2015 season is my Top 5 Christmas/Holiday Songs!

Top 5

1. The Pogues - Fairytale of New York ft. Kirsty MacColl - DEFINITELY planning on singing this with somebody at karaoke at uni either tomorrow or next week!
   
   
   
2. Band Aid 20 - Do They Know It's Christmastime? - Yes, I know this isn't the original version and there'll be different opinions as to which one is the best (the original Band Aid in 1984, Band Aid 2 in 1989, Band Aid 20 in 2004, or Band Aid 30 in 2014), but the Band Aid 20 version in 2004 is the version that I have heard a lot.  I will be playing both this version and the original version during my Christmas shows on RamAir over the next 8 days, so listen in tomorrow (Thursday at 11am) and next Thursday at the same time.
   
   
   
   
3. Michael Bublé - Cold December Night - Some people seem to have the impression that now it's December, Michael Bublé has suddenly come out of his Christmas lair for us all to hear his music.  I've had his Christmas album in my Christmas music rotation for about 4 years now and I still love it.  In fact, the second I stepped into the main building at uni yesterday afternoon (1st December), I heard Michael Bublé's duet of White Christmas with Shania Twain playing through the speakers.  Cold December Night has always been my favourite.
   
   
   
   
4. Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody - Tomorrow (3rd December 2015) is the 10th anniversary of one of my 11+ entrance exams and also my first concert with the Huddersfield Choral Society Young Voices junior choir.  It was Countdown to Christmas at the Huddersfield Town Hall and the second of about 8 times I sang there (the first being with school for the Mrs Sunderland competition when I was 8 in 2004).  Amongst our well-used Disney and Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat medleys, we had a selection of Christmas songs including Bob Chilcott's Can You Hear Me (which we learned some sign language for) and, much more excitingly, Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody!
   
   
   
   
5. Barney - Happy Holidays Love Barney - Okay, this is actually a Christmas/Holiday album rather than just one song, but including classics such as Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The 12 Days of Christmas and Deck the Halls, as well as more Barney-specific songs such as Habari Gani (Swahili for "How are you?", a common greeting for during the 7 day Kwanzaa celebrations), Hey Santa Claus, It's Twinkle Time and a magical Christmassy version of I Love You, it's just a fun and at 36 minutes and 21 tracks, quite a quick Christmas album to listen to as a whole.  Even though I'm now 20 and a half, this is what I'll still listen to during car journeys with my mum and brother during the last week of term.  Having it on my iPod as well means I can listen to it while doing stuff at uni, but don't tell anyone that ...
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Super Salad Sandwich

Last Thursday, for the Wellbeing Week Festival at uni, a couple of people from Jamie's Ministry of Food came to do some cooking demonstrations and tasting.  Unfortunately, I was busy doing my show at RamAir while they were doing the demonstration, but I picked up a Get Food Smart recipe booklet from their table in Student Central during a song break.  This top-ranking recipe is for a sandwich full of colourful vegetables and is perfect for lunch any time of the year and especially with friends.  Next week, I'll be starting with ideas for Christmas dining and will also be giving a few top 5s, so look out for those!

Ingredients (serves 4)

4 radishes, halved
5cm piece of cucumber, halved lengthways
1/2 small carrot, halved lengthways
2 cauliflower florets
1/2 small red pepper
1/2 small apple
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 sprigs of soft herbs, such as dill, flat-leaf parsley or basil, or 2 sprigs of fresh mint, leaves picked
1/2 punnet salad cress or sprouting herbs
a handful of peas
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
4 seeded wholegrain rolls
2 tablespoons hummus

Instructions

1. Using a table knife, cut each radish half into three pieces on a chopping board and place them in a large bowl.
2. Use a teaspoon to scoop out the watery seeds from the cucumber, and discard them, then slice each cucumber half into four pieces and add to the bowl.
3. Cut the carrot into 8 even-sized pieces, then snap apart the cauliflower florets into bite-sized chunks and place both veggies into the bowl with the others.
4. Pull out the pepper's stalk and scoop out the seeds and pith with a teaspoon, discarding all.  Cut the pepper into four long slices, then cut each slice into four segments and add to the bowl.
5. Place the apple half, flat-side down, on the board.  Cut into six even pieces, discarding the core.  Add to the bowl.
6. Place a clean tea towel on the chopping board and pile the veg and apple in the middle.  Fold over each corner of the towel so your ingredients are wrapped up like a parcel.  Squash with a rolling pin to break the ingredients into little pieces.
7. Measure the vinegar and olive oil into a large bowl and blend into a dressing.
8. Tear the herb leaves into small pieces (if using dill, snip it with scissors), adding them to the bowl as you go.  Snip the cress or sprouting herbs into the bowl, then add the peas, seeds, squashed veg and apple.  Using your fingers, carefully toss all the ingredients with the dressing until they're nicely coated.
9. Halve each roll horizontally and spread the insides of each one with hummus.  Divide the vegetable mixture between the base of each roll.  Place the lids on top, press down lightly, and enjoy!

Stuffed Peppers

Yesterday was BUSOM's winter showcase, Meet Tony and Olivier, which was very fun but I'm now very sleepy and stressed about coursework, so check in with me next week when I have a special post planned.  Here's an awesome starters idea from the January 2015 edition of the ASDA magazine!

Ingredients (serves 4)

4 large peppers, any colour
100g giant cous cous
350ml vegetable stock, made with 1/2 a stock cube
50g sultanas
50g sundried tomatoes, drained and chopped
25g pine nuts, toasted
300g can haricot or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
salad, to serve

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C, 170 degrees C with a fan oven, or gas mark 5.  Cut the tops off the peppers and scoop out the seeds and pith.  Put the peppers and lids on the tray and bake for 15 minutes.
2. Put the cous cous into a pan and cover with the stock solution.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 8 minutes.  Add the sultanas and tomatoes.  Simmer for 2-3 minutes, before taking off the heat and mixing in the pine nuts and beans.
3. Leave the cooked peppers to cool slightly, then fill with the cous cous mixture.  Put the pepper lids on top, then cook in the oven for 12 minutes.
4. Serve with salad.

Winter Veg Minestrone

In the past week or so, the weather here has really changed dramatically.  On Monday, I had to walk between buildings at uni to go to yoga at the gym and then go back to editing my project, and the hood of my coat got SOAKED!  Meanwhile, I'm spending my evening cosy in bed with pillows and a good catch-up on Red Dwarf.  I've been talking to Saph Joy, who I met last month at one of the BBC Radio 1Xtra Academy Q&As (which I still need to complete my post about), and she's recently been considering going vegan after seeing Food Inc., and I told her to go and read the wonderful Ally's page on vegan meal ideas and that although I'm not currently a vegan myself, I have lots of vegan-friendly recipes on my blog.  When she said she'd look for my blog for food inspiration though, I realised that I'm so much more of a smoothies and desserts person, rather than a main meal one, so this is an area that I think I'll start trying to up my game in.  I found this recipe for winter veg minestrone in the January 2015 edition of the ASDA magazine, and being low in fat and containing 2 of your 5 daily portions of fruit and veg, it sounds like a pretty good idea for families to eat this winter to keep bugs away!

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons for the bread
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, diced
1 small butternut squash, peeled and finely diced
390g carton chopped tomatoes with herbs
3 tablespoons tomato puree
2 x 300g cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
600ml stock made with 1 vegetable stock cube
100g spaghetti, broken into small pieces
160g baby spinach, washed
200g baguette
1 clove garlic, peeled and cut in half

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large pan, then add the onion and celery and cook for 2-3 minutes, until soft.  Add the butternut squash and cook for another 8-10 minutes, until it starts to soften.
2. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, cannellini beans and stock.  Bring to a mild boil and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the spaghetti and stir.  Boil gently for 10-12 minutes or until pasta is cooked.
4. Stir in the spinach and boil for 1 minute until wilted.
5. Preheat the grill.  Slice the baguette and drizzle the remainder of the olive oil over the bread, then rub the garlic halves over one side of each slice.  Grill until golden brown and serve hot with the soup.

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

This recipe for spiced pumpkin cake is one I found on the recipe card I collected at the UBU Green Thursdays pumpkin-carving event from last week!  I've adapted the original recipe a little bit to have dairy-free margarine and mashed bananas instead of the 2 eggs, just to see if it's ok.

Ingredients (makes one 23x33cm cake)

110g vegan margarine (such as Pure)
220g dark brown soft sugar
135g bread flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g pumpkin puree
1 1/2 bananas, mashed

Vegan cream cheese frosting (2 cups)
1 cup icing sugar
108g vegan margarine, cold
2 tablespoons non-dairy milk (such as almond or hazelnut milk)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Use a bit of margarine to grease the inside of one 23x33cm or similar sized baking dish.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or gas mark 4.
2. In a large bowl, combine the margarine, dark brown soft sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, pumpkin puree and bananas.  Mix until smooth.
3. Spread the mixture evenly in the baking dish and bake for 25 minutes.  Frost with the cream cheese frosting recipe shown below once cooled, if desired.
4. For the frosting, process all the ingredients together in a food processor for about 1 minute.
5. Scrape down the sides of the food processor and continue to process for another minute until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
6. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Here are some photographs of what I got up to over the Halloween weekend:

1. Carving pumpkins with UBU Green Thursdays.
   
   

   

   My pumpkin at the beginning.

   
   

   

   The unscooped insides (including seeds) of my pumpkin.
   Scooping the flesh out of the pumpkin was very messy!

   
   

   

   My finished carved pumpkin!
    

2. Archery's Halloween session, for which I dressed up as Jafar from Aladdin (there was a long black skirt)!
   
   

   Posted by UBU Archery - Photography/Film on Friday, 30 October 2015

    
3. Singing with BUSOM at the university's Red Ribbon Society's open mic night. This was my costume for being a magic broom from the Sorcerer's Apprentice in Fantasia.
   
   

   Posted by Bradford Student Productions on Monday, 2 November 2015