Tag: from the kitchen

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creating Christmas * day 14

The gingerbread men

As requested by Master Freddie, today was gingerbread day and as Little L and Sweetie were here for the weekend all the grandchildren took part (though baby Chocolate only helped with the decoration as he arrived later).

I cheated and bought two packs of the ready made gingerbread from Sainsbury’s. I noticed it in the ready roll pastry chiller and thought it a good idea….and thank goodness I did as I had little time to make some beforehand and when all said and done the children are really eager to cut out the shapes and then get down to the serious business of decorating.

I would say it all went off successfully – you can usually tell by the size of the mess and the extent of the stickyness!

DH rolled out the gingerbread, whilst I filled the waiting oven trays once the shapes had been cut and a bonus – there was no squabbling over the cutters.

The 10 minute wait for them to cook, with watchful eyes on the oven…… and at last the decorating could begin.

Sweetie decorated the least of them, but ate most of them!

Little L is quite artistic and was able to control the icing better. I love her gingerbread man with a moustache!

Master Freddie’s technique was to pile everything on….it will all taste good.

With the remains of the white chocolate and sprinkles we made some chocolate lollies for Christmas.

The clearing up was a mammoth task, but with all hands to the deck we managed to clear the table to have lunch when their mums and dads came to join us – probably thankful that granny had volunteered to do this.

Afterwards, my younger daughter unwrapped her birthday presents with a lot of help from the little ones. Little L had made her a lovely card that was like one of those children’s activity books with pop up sections and flaps to raise and pull out bits.

They all left with trays of gingerbread and a few other crafty bits we had made over the weekend and now everyone has gone home and peace has descended….. bliss.

But, I must get back to finishing my cards.

Methinks, it is going to be a mad week ahead as we move ever closer to the big day. We have a neighbour’s get together, a hairdresser’s appointment and another concert to attend. The crowds are building up now to such an extent that you have to wait in a long queue for the smallest of things, or even to park the car or vacate the carpark.

Luckily, I won’t have to go back into town for very much now other than the fresh fruit and veg. I do need to take stock though of what is still to be done and go through my list.

Hope you had a lovely Christmassy weekend and for those of you that are under the weather I wish you a speedy recovery. X

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creating Christmas * day 12

The humble mince pie

I don’t know about you but as I get older a mince pie gives me more trouble than I need at Christmas. Call it indigestion, heartburn or whatever I know when I have eaten one these days.

It is a bit miserable that I can’t eat them without suffering anymore as nothing says Christmas quite like a mince pie; I swear they have been in the shops since we returned home from holiday in August. In Sainsbury’s, like most supermarkets, they are piled high but are never as good as a homemade one, at least I don’t think so.

I still make a few but these are mainly to give to people dropping by unexpectedly or take to some event. I like to make those tiny ones that you can eat in a mouthful and they do make a lovely little gift.

Strangely, I can eat a small amount of the wonderful Ecclefechan tarts that we can buy in our local Sainsbury’s now. They are like a cross between a Yorkshire curd tart and a mince pie. At one time we only ever saw these in the shops in Scotland when we went up to our cottage, the little town of Ecclefechan being only a short detour on the way to Stranraer.

So I will stick with these at Christmas time, maybe one day I will try out a recipe for them!

As I missed posting this yesterday, there are two posts today so that I can catch up.

Back soon x

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creating Christmas * day 9

The Nutroast

I like to make our Christmas dinner early as being vegetarian we don’t eat turkey. This year once again DH made our nutroast. It is a more elaborate nutroast that we have for Christmas, a recipe that my daughter found years ago from the pages of good old Woman’s Weekly.

Not only does it have to freeze well but it has to be transportable if we are dining elsewhere on Christmas day and this year we will be at my sister’s, I think, though we haven’t actually had a direct invite from her, but my daughter tells me she is expecting us. Let’s hope that is right and we are not a surprise when we turn up.

Each year I say to DH don’t cook the nutroast too long as we will have to reheat it, but I fear it might just be a touch too cooked, never mind it will still taste good and even better as he made it.

Today, we went supermarket grocery shopping. It is getting noticeably busier on each visit now and the carpark much fuller and there is a bit of a scramble to secure a place, not quite carpark rage but a lot of honking of horns and near misses.

We didn’t need to buy much of anything for the week’s menu plan, mainly all the fresh chiller foods and vegetables, so I made use of all the Nectar offers and stocked up a bit on anything reduced like the coffee and butter; these are such expensive items now.

I also had to pop into town to get a birthday card for my younger daughter for the weekend and look for a small gift to go with the money we will give her. I had a quick look in TK Max for something for her and saw a ‘possible’ that I might go back for later in the week. I had a quick look at their Christmas bits and pieces as they get some quite unusual things.

DH likes having a mooch around there too. He doesn’t generally like shopping but insists on going. I wanted to get some nougat for him for his stocking but today he stuck to me like glue and I could not shake him off long enough to go and buy some without him noticing.

It isn’t often he sees something he likes, but he showed me a set of four rather lovely little ridged flutes in quite a solid glass – quite inexpensive and they would be ideal for a kind of knickerbocker glory style dessert. I wasn’t going to say no to them as I like them too and I am already thinking of what I might serve in them.

I found some rather fun decorations for the tree too, brightly coloured iced biscuits (or are they cookies I am not sure of the difference). Not that we really need any more decor. I might split them between myself and my daughters.

I do like tissue paper to wrap presents in and TK Max and Homesense have had some lovely printed ones and this stocking design is great for the grandchildren’s presents.

And the calendar is so much fun – I will definitely be making one next year and might even see if they will appeal on the coffee morning craft stall.

Tomorrow is our visit to Mrs Gaskell’s house…can’t wait.

Back soon X

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creating Christmas * day 5

The Christmas cake

I hate to rush myself but I do need to get a move on.  Having spent every day this week out and about for one event / appointment or another I need a day at home to gather my thoughts and stop them swirling around in my head.

And a bit of a tidy up in the house would be good – the vac has not been out of the cupboard all week.

So today is a day at home making the Christmas cake.  It is undoubtedly one of my favourite tasks for the wonderful aromas alone; the unmistakable smell of Christmas circulating the house.  I shouldn’t be, but I am nervous about the cake this year, although it is very much a tried and tested recipe the oven times in my new oven are far from tested and remain rather trying.   I can’t quite get the temperature or time right and last year it was slightly underdone.  DH ate it anyway, (he wouldn’t miss a chance for fruit cake) but I dismissed the idea of giving any to anyone else.

My recipe was, I think, from a Good Housekeeping Christmas magazine…a long time ago.  It is virtually organic; virtually, because the cloves and mixed spice in the ingredients list are hard to find (if they actually exist organically). 

I do prefer organically grown food even though it is hard on the budget, Sainsbury’s have a good range but some things have recently disappeared like their organic oranges so an ordinary one had to suffice.  I began using this recipe because it has chopped apricots instead of candied peel (of which none of us are a fan).

DH always helps me parcel it up now with brown paper and string – he was once a scout so can do a suitable knot. I make a dip in the middle to stop it rising too much and keep the top flat. So into the oven for a few hours and then the hard bit of deciding if it is done or not, I will err on the side of caution this year and go for slightly over done rather than underdone.

Once out of the oven and cooled it will be parcelled up and fed rather erratically, as in when I remember with a little tipple of brandy.  At some point I will marzipan the top (remembering the apricot jam this year to avoid a dash to the co-op for some), and then top it with some ready roll white icing.  I don’t bother with the sides as I hide everything under one of those traditional old fashioned cake frills.

It will be ready then for the grandchildren to put the decorations on, most likely when we are all together on Christmas Eve. We use the same little figures each year but I bought a new Santa this year as the old one looked a bit faded. I expect all four of them will join in this year – so that will be fun. Master Freddie had to decorate it all by himself last year as the other grandchildren were unwell and stayed at home.

Thank you Joy for your lovely comment and poem on my post Advent day 2 for anyone who didn’t see the comment here is the lovely little poem by Eleanor Farjeon, it will be copied into my journal for me to look back on.

How will you your Christmas keep?
Feasting, fasting or asleep?
Will you laugh or will you pray,
Or will you forget the day?

Be it kept with joy or pray’r,
Keep of either some to spare;
Whatsoever brings the day,
Do not keep but give away.

Have a lovely day everyone, back soon. X