Highlights December

               

Kids Party platter

 While us grown ups are enjoying stinky and hairy cheese as Sophie puts it i thought i would make the girls a platter a bit more to their taste, with all their favourite nibbles.

 Both girls always love the bento style of snacking and we have done loads of lunch time bento boxes which making eating fun.

 Two happy snackers

Cherry Vodka

This is Lish not a word i use often but this is a lovely tipple and to simple to make.

1 x mason jar
1 x liter of vodka
1 packet cherries soaked in kirsh you could make these yourself but you can also get these from Waitrose.
1 tin of black cherries in syrup
Nice big handful of fresh black cherries sliced round to release the juice

put everything including the syrup leave for a week if you can before drinking.  This is also lovely over chocolate ice cream.

Sloe Gin

Known as mothers ruin, gin sure can de ruffle the feathers after a hard day, adding sloes to the gin can add great flavour and is pretty simple to do and makes a lovely drink for Christmas.

We started making our sloe gin back in September as we now are lucky to have a sloe bush or two in the meadow.  We wait till the fruit looks good and plump which is normally around the first frost but with the climate change and it being warmer you can always put these in the freezer instead.

You can prick these and pop them into a bottle of gin and turn every now and then and wait till Christmas to drink it. 

However we start by pricking and popping them in a jar and leaving for a few weeks and then we use or cocktail muddler crush the berries so they are all macerated which gives loads more flavour, a few days before Christmas this is passed through muslin into sterile bottles ready for drinking. 

I have added a second picture below to compare to the top picture so you can see the colour change and only imaging the flavour development.  The top picture is taken 2 weeks of making and only pricking where as the below is muddled and left just before Christmas.

No Suet Mincemeat

Suet in mince pies has never appealed to me for me i would rather have more fruit spice and booze in my pies than the addition of course fat.

Sophie and i have been tinkering with a few made up recipes in the kitchen for mincemeat for our Christmas mince pies.

150g sultanas
150g currents
150g raisins
150g semi dried cherries, i get the ones that have been dried but then soaked in kirsh or you can do this yourself
100g dried cranberries
50g semi dried dates
50g semi dried figs
3tsp heaped cinnamon
3tsp heaped all spice
3tsp heaped ginger
1 fresh grated nutmeg
grated rind only of lemon and orange
4 tbsp heaped course cut marmalade
1/2 35ltr bottle of brandy more if you want

you can pretty much do as you please with this recipe putting in more things that you like and leaving out what you don't, just place it all fruit in a blitzer and mince slightly to break the fruit up then put everything into a bowl and stir together before spooning into a preserving jar i always add a layer of brandy to the top of the jar so the fruit can have an extra drink, i then leave this for a week or two before using.

When i come to use it i spoon into a bowl and then add
50g chopped walnuts
100g chopped pecans
2 grated fresh apples skin too
flesh of a clementine chopped and added

Gin Fix

For all you poor mummies and daddies out there, There are no social services to protect you from over zealous children for you however this might help sooth the nerves when they go to bed.

Shake ingredients over ice and serve in a martini glass

2 shots Plymouth gin
1/4 shot triple sec
1 1/2 shots pineapple juice
1/2 shot of fresh lemon juice
1/4 shot sugar syrup

Honey and Cumin Almonds

Christmas Holidays are coming which means the girls will be off saying they are bored and they are hungry so here is a small activity they reaps the benefit of a nice nibbly snack too.

300g almonds
2tsp of black sesame seeds
2tsp of normal sesame seeds
4tsp of cumin seeds
1tbsp olive oil
4tbsp honey

toast off the cumin seeds in a pan and grind, add everything to a big bowl and mix together before turning out on to a lipped baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10 mins at 200c.  Leave to cool before eating.

Decorating the inside of our house

 Everything is glitter and sparkle in the house and our hall way is the welcome to the house with a lovely woodland wreath winding its way up the stairs, Frosty pine branches with pine cones and gold tinsel and lights topped with lots of woodland creatures, a deer, squirrels, hedgehogs, pheasants, owls and of course lots of robins

 We have 4 Christmas trees yes that right 4!!! One in the living room, as below a simple one for the kitchen, one outside which is a box hedge cut to a point but looks great covered in lights and the girls have their own tree in the play room, with loads of crafted felted decorations i made them.... Oh the fairies also have their own tree too so maybe that's 5.

 We have a mixture of lights white and coloured as i do like both and i remember a few years back coloured lights were snubbed as many people just went for white lights.  But these days the led lights are so good the coloured lights look fantastic.  I have white as well as i stuff our glass star that sits on the top with half a string of lights to make it light up and use the rest on the tree.

the rest of the house is also covered in light and my kitchen is super sparkly and i have branches that Sophie has collected from our walks sitting over cupboards with lights and frost