The Wright side of life: A whirlwind week for Karen...

Not in a bad way, in fact I have had a fabulous week, but I have to confess, I did say last week that I would be sharing my biscotti recipe with you, the biscotti is on hold for one more week, please bear with me, it is top of the to do list now!

What happened was a bit of a media overload. In one week, I did my normal slot on 5 Towns Radio plus a prerecording for when I am on holiday, I did some filming for Channel 5, BBC Radio Leeds dropped in to my kitchen and I did my monthly slot in the studio at BBC Radio Leeds.

This was how it went. On Tuesday between noon-2pm I broadcast live from The Hut in Airedale near Castleford. This is a community radio station and you can tune in online by visiting http://www.ukonlineradio.com/5-towns-radio. It is my choice of topic and songs and I try to choose a new theme each week. Last week I covered sleep, night time and dreams, this week coming I am talking about diamonds. The show is repeated on Fridays again between noon-2pm so why not tune in and keep me company?

On Wednesday at quite short notice I was booked to do some filming for Channel 5 alongside my Bake-Off Contestant friend Terry. We decided to make a cake to take along as a gift for the crew. Terry made a very big black forest gateaux to represent one of his favourite cakes. I made four cakes all themed around Christmas, I stacked them one on top of the other a bit like you would for a wedding cake. I dressed the cakes with some lovely simple things, fresh holly, dried oranges, fresh fruit, poached pears, dried pear flames and a glass of festive sherry. I was so thrilled with how the cakes looked when they were set up. It took two strong men to carry them into the filming studio. We had a great time and fingers crossed early in 2020 the show will be on our telly screens.

The next day I headed over to the 5 Towns Radio studio again to do a recorded show to be played when I am on holiday next week. This time my husband John was involved as I had asked him to compile a playlist of some of his fave tunes so that I could play those and chat to him about his choices, this was a bit of fun and saved me a few hours of planning and preparation for the show.

That wrapped we headed home to have a bit of a tidy up as BBC Radio Leeds had messaged me to ask if Richard Stead the breakfast show presenter and Sarah Wakefield who does the news could come to my kitchen to make a Christmas pudding. We did have a great laugh, messing about and doing a bit of a spoof together. Between all the high jinks we did put together a very passable pudding which we have now scoffed, needed to be done!

The week was nearly over but I still had some work to do in preparation for my live slot from the BBC Radio Leeds studios on Sunday. I join the presenter Tim Crowther the last Sunday each month between 11am-noon for a bit of a foodie slot. This week we discussed Stir Up Sunday, the traditions surrounding the festive pudding and I even read out a paragraph from the Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol.

We also sampled a parsnip side dish that I devised, I call it parsnip skordalia, it is parsnips mashed with white wine vinegar, garlic powder, olive oil and a little honey, It’s gorgeous and an easy alternative to roasted parsnips for Christmas.

The last thing we talked through was the good old Yule Log. I made a chocolate orange one and took it in with me. It does make a great alternative to Christmas pudding and can be prepared a few days before Christmas and it look so festive with a sprig of holly and a dusting of icing sugar to represent snow.

Finally done I came back home, put my feet up, poured myself a small glass of sherry and reflected on my blessings and how fortunate I am to be able to experience all these mad but exciting things.

Next week I promise, a biscotti recipe, until then have a great week!

For more tips and recipes go to http://www.karenwrightbakes.co.uk