Recipes!

I would type them out but Nigella's is really quite long.

Rudolph Pie (Shepherds)

Apple Cake

Okay, here is how we played with the recipes.
For the apple cake we added about a half teaspoon of almond extract. Only do this if you like the flavor of almond extract, it is just something we love and add to every dessert we make. Best served warm.

Now settle in for the other...
Instead of dried porcini mushrooms reconstituted in water, we just bought fresh Italian Brown mushrooms (use anything).

Rather than marsala wine or the porcini mushroom liquid, I used beef broth mixed with some basalmic vinegar.

You can certainly make this recipe with just beef or just pork. You don't need both. Only if you need the extra fat for the venison should you use the pork. If I did it again, I might just use pork.

We halved this recipe and still had two helpings each the first night, and food leftover for the next two days. If you are better at math than me, you could reduce it again.

Suggestions: I couldn't taste the parsnips in the potatoes, so don't bother, just add potatoes. You need about eight russet potatoes to cover the top without the parsnips (the small ones in the bags). We also added sour cream and green onions to the potatoes because that is how we always make them.

As you can see, you can't screw this recipe up, and you can make it with stuff you keep on hand. I don't really see the need to buy a bottle of wine that I won't drink or hunt down expensive dried mushrooms. Just play around.