A Couple of Christmas Recipes... Tried and Tested.

Before you start to wane at the mention of MORE festive cheer these recipes (though they worked great for Christmas) were not particularly Christmassy so I thought I'd share...

Goats Cheese and Red Onion Tarts:

Recipe I found here. I used the same pastry recipe as I did for my mince pies and I garnished the dish with rocket dressed in balsamic vinegar and olive oil. This was a bit of an "IN YOUR FACE LAST YEARS PREGNANT ME!!!!" and it was goooooood.

 White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake:

This recipe started out as this recipe but as recipes do it evolved to...

Ingredients

180g Digestive biscuits
75g butter
200g Raspberries
120g Sugar
500g Cream cheese
200g White chocolate
1/2-1 tsp vanilla extract

Crush the biscuits. I used a blender, you could bash them in a sandwich bag with a rolling pin.

Melt the butter and mix the crushed biscuits in. Spread around the bottom of a 20cm cake tin and bake at 180 for 5 minutes. Leave to cool.

Mix the sugar, cream cheese and vanilla in a bowl. Again I used a blender (love that thing) but you could do it by hand and work off a few of the impending calories.

Melt most (Leave a few squares for grating later) of the chocolate (microwave or on the hob) and fold the melted chocolate and most of the raspberries in to the mixture. Don't mix too much. You want the chocolate swirled through and the raspberries kept whole.

Chill overnight.

Decorate with left over raspberries and grated chocolate.

VOILA! Unbelievably good cheesecake which takes NO longer than half an hour! :D

The Alexander Christmas Experience...

When I was a kid I never really understood why my Mum got SO excited about Christmas. I guess I just thought "but your presents are rubbish creams and perfumes and Dad has to buy them because you're too old for Father Christmas... What's to be excited about for you?!"

This year I found out. Oh it's so exciting. I'd even go as far as to say Christmas as a Mum is MORE exciting than Christmas as a child. 

To be privileged enough to give your baby presents. 

To feed your family good food. 

To sip a glass of something festive. 

To be able to give your loved ones their Christmas under your roof. 

It was amazing from start to finish and I'm still riding the feel good wave of festive glow!

I feel so lucky and so grateful. I feel so loved and in love. What a wonderful time we had... MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

Silent Sunday... Let the Celebrations Commence...

Christmas Baking

This is NO foodie blog. Granted. But lets forget that for a moment and marvel at my efforts to pretend for a day...

Tomorrow we will host an open house for our friends, family and neighbours. We're offering mulled wine, some baked goods and bucket load of festive spirit. I have been FAR too enthusiastic with my invitations and I can only hope people bring coats and so are happy to stand in the garden...

A couple of recipes I plan to serve up are...

My Mum's recipe for mince pies;

500g Stork baking margarine (or any other butter)
1k self raising flour
3 jars of mincemeat (shop bought... like I said... this is no foodie blog)
2 beaten eggs

Crumble flour and butter into a breadcrumb like consistency with your fingers. Make a "well", pour in water, knead into a dough. Don't overwork.

Roll out to 5mm thickness. Use large circle cutter to make bases. Add a teaspoon of mincemeat. Brush egg around the edges. Cut out a smaller "lid". Place on lid. Brush top with egg. Bake at 180 celsius for 10-15 minutes.

Gingerbread;

I found this one. 

 Chief in charge of tasting...

 Did I mention I LOVE her?

 "I'm getting a hint of winter snowflakes with an undertone of blackcurrant and old boots..."

Lesson:

Bake. It's Christmas. Shop online (with wine) and sit in all day baking whilst you wait for deliveries.

Christmas Stress & Measuring Expectations...

I am sure I am not alone in my childhood Christmas memories being littered with such Mummy catch-phrases as...

"I get NO thanks from NO ONE!"

"I'M JUST TRYING TO GET ORGANISED!"

"I suppose you all think the Christmas fairy organised all this?!"

And other such theme tunes from the festively pressurised.

Now I get this is my first Christmas as a Mum and all I have to worry about is one little baby and a husband. But mix in half a dozen December birthdays, the fact we're hosting Christmas and some of THE most disorganised family members known to man and I'm about ready to bust out a shrill "I get NO thanks from NO ONE!"

I have a glimmer of it now. I don't like it. I don't want to go there. I want to be a source of fun for my children. I don't want to set myself up for being the bad guy but I also don't want to feel unappreciated.

There's a balance to be struck somewhere. It involves asking the following...

Who am I doing this for?

What is my goal?

Are my expectations realistic?

Am I so busy building "perfect" memories that I am missing the real stories being written?

I need to measure all this. Slow down. Absorb. 

A few snaps from our trip to Jimmy's Farm... The PERFECT spend of a sunny winters day...

 Lesson

This will be the most wonderful Christmas. The only variable is if I am really there to see it.

Photography Tricks... Starbursts!

Thanks to the wonderful free tutorials at i heart faces I had a little go at creating Christmas tree starbursts, so I thought I would share my attempt at recreating them. Unfortunately I don't have a remote trigger so there is some movement but overall it's a pretty neat "trick"...

 Love this...

 Salt dough decs...

Love this too...

Homemade Christmas Card Handprint Tutorial...

Seeing as my initial vision of a Christmas Card photo didn't exactly go according to plan... Here is plan B which I actually kind of love.

My first crafting session with my baby girl... Relatives, loved ones, friends... Await your masterpieces... 

Lesson

Blank cards £2 for 12 + stamp ink (£5 each colour) left over from baby blessing handprint masterpieces = WAAAAAAAAAY cheaper than bought Christmas cards!