Very Exciting News and Mulled Wine to Celebrate

There have been some very exciting happenings here in Charley’s Kitchen recently. Firstly, I am very proud to announce that Charley’s Kitchen will soon be opening its doors to the public, well the young public at least. Charley’s Little Kitchen will be running a cookery course for 7-11 year olds through February half term.  I’ll be posting more details about this as events unfold and the website is currently under construction, but its full steam ahead and I am so excited! Secondly, I am busy discussing my kitchen overhaul with my builder which means soon enough I will have a workable kitchen again thus enabling me to update the blog more regularly again (which I know you have all been anxiously waiting for!)

With all the good news a little celebratory tipple seemed only appropriate, and as the festive period is well and truly upon us mulled wine seemed like the right choice. Just making this makes the house smell of whimsy! I have adapted a recipe from Delia Smith, you can adjust the amount of honey and sugar according to taste.

1 orange

1 lemon

½ stick cinnamon

Handful of cloves

4-6 tablespoons honey or brown sugar

Level teaspoon ground ginger (or a little knob of fresh)

Bottle red wine

750ml water

Halve the orange and stud it with cloves. Slice the lemon and the rest of the orange.  Place all the ingredients in a large pan over a medium heat. Heat until its starts to bubble and then turn the heat to low so it does not boil (otherwise you’ll boil off all the alcohol). Taste after about 20 minutes and add more sugar if it is too bitter. The flavour of this just gets better the longer you heat it, just make sure it does not boil!