Monday 24 December 2012

Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh vs. Mince pies and Gingerbread men...

For the first time in a very long time the calender fell into place for us to spend Christmas day away from home with the folks.
" Great" they said...."can you bring Mince pies....and gingerbread men" ( you do bake such really nice ginger bread men)
Well in for a penny, I thought, in for a pound...time for some cake too!

But lets start with the ginger bread...


I like making ginger bread...its a doddle.. just bung all the ingredients in a big bowl... stir like mad till it all comes together in a big lump of dough...

 

let it rest a over night in the fridge, roll it out , cut to the traditional shape - or any shape you fancy, decorate and bake...



Now onto the mince pies... well there's no secrets there.  Its pastry and mince meat put together in the traditional manner...

 

Well ...no secrets unless you count the home made mince meat.  This is the last jar from last year's batch. It might be a while before I get to make this again as we don't have an apple tree at the moment.  Planting fruit trees is one of the first things on next year's gardening to do list.

Finally I had a new toy to try out.  I L-O-V-E it that my toys arrive before Christmas! - can you tell what it is?

I decided that the best thing to try in it would be my trusty honey cake recipe... with some added sparkle for the season, a pinch of edible glitter in the honey lemon glaze...

 

 
..and you get fabulous sweet glittery Christmasy houses.  And for those family members who prefer their cakes chocolatey...well...

 
 




I could make pretty patterns in cake mixture all day!
But there are chocolate houses to make and bowls to be licked clean...

 

Right I'm done now, and done in as well.  time to sit down with a cuppa and one of those gingerbread men. Come on Santa time, time to come and do your thing.. We're ready now!


Sunday 16 December 2012

Soup glorious soup I

One of the best things I've discovered about winter is soup.
With a bit of careful planning ( i.e. buy a stack of plastic storage pots that handle being in both a freezer and a microwave) a batch of soup can provide lunch for a whole week.  Its healthy - focus on vegetables and a pot of soup is easily 2 of your 5 a day, warming and cheap.

Thanks to Jamie Oliver this is one of the simplest ones I know...


Sweat the onion, carrot and a bit of celery in a couple of table spoons of olive oil, add some veg stock and the whole pack of peas...


Add a really generous handful of mint...the number of times I've made this soup I've come to the conclusion there is no such thing as too much mint... so add as much as you think it needs and then add another few for good measure...


Let it simmer away for about 10 minutes...


Then blend...


and pot it up for 5 super healthy lunches!


Yes I know it looks like gloop from an ancient episode of Star Trek but trust me - its yummy, particularly in a cold office in the middle of the week when everyone else only has a sandwich or last night's chinese left overs to tuck into!







Sunday 9 December 2012

Jack Frost came to call....

Its the middle of the month now and thoughts, well small person thoughts, are beginning to turn to the magic of what a white Christmas might bring...
A few consecutive nights of heavy frost in the garden help to whisper promises of what that special time might offer....

 

 

Even dried out seed heads look magical and other worldly...


 

Normally you wouldn't find me within 5 metres of a spiders web - but they look so spectacular, fragile and ethereal in the bushes or dripping and collapsing under the weight of three nights of frost...


 

Even the decking has taken on an other-worldly nature...


Talking of nature...  I went to have a nosey look at the bee hives....there was a fine layer of ice on top and I'm trying not to be worried by the number of dead ( and frosted!) bees on the landing board.  I know the colony can't support a whole hive full of bees throughout the winter but it does seem so very harsh that so many have to die so that the core of the colony make it though to spring.

 




Saturday 1 December 2012

Quilting itch I......

I really wasn't expecting this to happen.
This feeling of urgency came over me ....it simply sprang up from no where ...  but there was suddenly an itch and it needed to be scratched...
Browsing a bundle of magazines might show me a cure and help me find a plan to deal with the itch...

 

Plan in hand a trip to the very lovely Aladdin's cave known locally as creative quilting soon gave me some goodies to play with...


Just a wash and a press and they will be ready for cutting...


 

Step1: chop a bunch of squares into two...so you get two triangles...

 

Sew them on opposite sides of a central square...

 

It begins to look a little like a production line, but the results come together quite quickly...


Bet you can't guess what happens on the other two sides of the square...

 

 

And just when you think its going swimmingly well and life is super peachy...

 

Its a deliberate mistake (honest) to remind me that sometimes you have to stop scratching that itch and take a break with a cuppa.  More later!

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