Sam's First Beigli

No hungarian Christmas is complete without a little bit of beigli magic! And this year is no exception. To up the anté, I used a filling that would make most English people make a double take. Yes, the traditional eastern European filling of syrupy ground poppy seed deliciousness

And yet actually, against all odds, it seemed to go down really well! Sam actually looked like he enjoyed it and asked for more slices over the following days.

Sam's comments:
The filling was a bit sweet but I love the taste of poppy seeds. I liked the pastry too, and there was a nice little crunchiness on the top. It was delicious and I can't wait to have some more! 9/10

Sam's First Baked Alaska

So in the spirit of festivity, I decided to bake Sam a couple of things I know he'd probably enjoy. Starting off, we had baked Alaska! Yes, the fabulous creamy, meringuey, cakey goodness! Who could resist? Just to make it that little bit extra-special and Sam friendly, the madeira-cake lined dish was filled with Ben & Jerry's Caramel Chew Chew flavour ice cream.

Working quickly, on account of the cake diminishing quickly, both due to the rapid consumption and the melting ice cream, we managed to get through most of it, and were very satisfied.
Sam's comments:
It was absolutely delicious! The constrasting temperatures of the hot meringue and the cold ice-cream was really cool - 8/10!

Sam's First proper Christmas Dinner

Yes, it seems Sam has missed out on the joy of a full traditional English Christmas meal. Since it was deemed bad luck to have chicken on Christmas day, and Sam could only be cajoled into having one other thing apart from chicken and curry, I compromised and made him a beef burger (I wrapped mine in puff pastry in an attempt to introduce some festive fun into this dish). But I spiced things up by adding pigs in blankets, caramelised shallots and chestnuts to his normal roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings (my kitchen is a no brussel zone).
Things went off to a good start, as Sam seemed pleasantly surprised by the caramelised shallotts after initial scepticism, but things hit a low as he bit into a pig in a puff blanket, and almost spat it out again. Sadly there was not a recovery to be seen with the chestnuts.

Sam's comments:
It was a nice Christmas dinner with delicious potatoes and the burgers were scrumptious, but the melanoma was not very nice (by that, he means the one chestnut he tried! ~ Eva)
Caramelised shallots: 7/10
Pigs in puff blankets: 3/10
Chestnuts: 3/10

Sam's First Pizza!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Sam has thus far come through life without letting the savoury delight that is a pizza pass his lips. Why? I hear you ask. Well, the offending food stuff in question that has stopped him developing a junk-food habit that most men boast about is in fact cheese. Yes, that yummy, gooey stuff we all know and love on our pasta, lasagne and pizza. Without it, food would be so, so bland. Yet here was Sam trying it for the first time 

After a shaky start to get over the initial shock of the cheezy gooeyness, Sam persevered with a spicy chicken and chorizo pizza from Zizzi's. The battle was fierce, but in the end, the pizza was defeated

Result! A look of sheer delight as the pizza has successfully gone down. Surely with this one dish defeated, what ever will be next? Tune in for next time, as Sam tries a Christmas meal with ALL the trimmings!

Sam's comments:
I worked my way into the meaty parts, away from the cheese islands, and eventually got through it.
Overall 7/10