✯That child on Christmas Eve ✯

I can remember way back to when I was a little girl, the excitement I  felt on  Christmas Eve. My grandparents would arrive in the morning, and the preparations in the kitchen would begin, my grandad was an amazing cook, and his talents were passed down to my mother, then to me, I was always standing on a stool watching and helping. When I was a teenager he taught me how to make proper Indian curries, He grew up in India so really knew his stuff.

I really miss those times.  I try very hard to keep up the traditions for my own family, my daughter loves being involved in the kitchen, ~ it's her turn for the stool now, and she really is getting the hang of handling pastry, she's only 4! We made our Christmas biscuits yesterday, and son number 2 helped too. They got creative with the icing too! The tree is now adorned.

Decorating the tree

Today I have made my ham which I make the same way every year, it's to die for! Recipe from last year HERE

Studding the ham with cloves

I also made a massive batch of cheese straws, and definitely won't be having dinner tonight as have been picking at these all afternoon .

I always cook my turkey on Christmas  Eve too, but am out for lunch tomorrow for a change, so will make the most of a relaxing Christmas day. My boys will be back to me on boxing day, and I will be making a roast rib of beef dinner, YUM!

So I'm all done ,baking complete, presents wrapped, hampers made.

The chutney and jams were made in October. The truffles were made yesterday ~ a  Delia recipe and were really simple, but messy. I have hot hands which didn't help! You have to work speedily!

My daughter took most of these photos, she's always at the ready with my camera phone when I'm mucky!

My lovely Royal Doulton Santa came out of hiding today, this belonged to my father, I inherited it when he passed away, Sadie keeps gazing at it in wonder, he is rather Jolly isn't he?

My daughter is begging me to put her bed as can't contain her excitement.....

Oh how I wish to be that child on Christmas Eve again...

Time for me to have a large glass of wine and enjoy the smells wafting through the house. First watch Raymond Briggs Snowman with Sadie before she goes to bed. Am muchly looking forward to watching BBC adaptation of  Great Expectations., and Alistair Simm version of Scrooge, and Capras It's a Wonderful life for the Zilliionth time!


Have a wonderful Christmas everyone. XXXX

Best brownies and Mince pies!

I can't remember if I've blogged these brownies before, anyway if not here they are again. They are so delicious (I really don't have a sweet tooth but love these!) and very economical as you don't need to spend a fortune on bars of chocolate with 75% or more of cocoa solids. I just use normal; supermarket cocoa. Children will enjoy getting involved in the making of these.

Thanks Dee for the recipe.

You will need:

150 g/5oz unsalted butter
255 g/9oz sugar
80g/3oz cocoa powder
Pinch salt
1tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
75 g /2 1/2 oz plain flour
Cup of nuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts. Optional.


Preheat oven to gas 3, 160 C, 325 F. Grease and line a square dish, approx 9 x 9  inches  with baking parchment.

Melt butter in a bowl in the microwave, or in a pan over a medium heat, add the sugar, and then the cocoa powder , stir until all the lumps are gone.
Add the vanilla, salt and eggs and stir well. Gently fold in the flour until just combined, don't over mix, then stir in the nuts if using.

 Pour into  your dish.


Bake for 50 mins-to an hour, or until the top feels set, insert a skewer, it should be moist and squidgy in the middle.

Cool in the tin, and cut into squares. Tastes divine!

I also made another batch of mince pies today, shop bought are NOT the same... They don't last long in my house, my husband and kids love them, not a fan myself. This recipe is brilliant, but you MUST add some cold water or milk to bind the pastry together, or it is more like biscuit. Whoever devised this recipe must have made an error in not stating this in the ingredients.

Link here

Happy baking!

Chicken Pox remedy

 My little girl has the dreaded  chicken pox. It came out last Friday and she had been in agony for 2 full days when it peaked. Unfortunately it started in her lady bits, and has been worse there than anywhere else on her body.

 Calamine is useless. My mum  picked this stuff up from Boots, it was expensive at nearly £10, but  my goodness the difference in the relief it gave her was incredible, and she is no longer walking around like Douglas Bader!

 Thought I would share, as anyone reading could pass on if they no of anyone with a child suffering.

I didn't think C pox  was common at this time of year, but my daughters teacher said it always rears it's ugly head at Xmas time. I popped up to the school to pick up Sadie's cards yesterday and there were 10 children absent from her class alone!

 I'm so glad she will be all better in time for Father Christmas's arrival :)

Birthday week!

 I turned 29 again on Tuesday, I wonder how long I can keep this up?

 What a lovely week I've had so far.  The perfect start on Monday evening was Sadie's Nativity concert, she was an angel, it was gorgeous, and I cried as always, it's been a while, as my boys are 14 and 16 now. Lordy, how I'm going to treasure these times as they won't be happening again, until I'm a granny, I'm in no rush for that!

Christmas angel

Nativity

I spent most of my birthday preparing party food for the evening, which took 3 times as long as it should as my cooker is on the blink. :( How I need a range type) Hint hint!

 Drinks were had on Tuesday eve, with my husband and kids, my mum and my brother and his girlfriend, I have been suffering ever since,  I went to bed at midnight, Ben went at 5am! He should never get the guitar out! I've had the most awful hangover since, and  have no idea why, bad batch of wine maybe? I didn't mix my drinks or even drink that much more than usual quota? Maybe I'm coming down with something? PLEASE not just before Xmas, I was ill last year and it ruins the festivities :(

Gratefully received Pressies this year:

Husband ~perfume
Mum~more perfume
Boys~ Love lettered blocks, and a great tin for storage containing shortbread( A marked improvement on last years sieve)
Gorgeous bunch of  lilies form brother and girlfriend.
My friend J bought me a beautiful perfume bottle.
K and P a Lotto ticket, which unfortunately I didn't win!

I have been painting a large oil  portrait for a friend ,of herself nude, which had it's unveiling on Wednesday night over a couple of glasses of wine, she was well pleased, which I was relieved about!

Ben took a couple of days off work so we could get on with finishing  Xmas shopping etc, and we went for a  nice Chinese lunch yesterday.

We are celebrating again tomorrow night with friends,  which means copious amounts of booze and good music . I am cooking Chilli the day before, as will taste better, as it matures overnight, with home made garlic bread, and coleslaw and  rice.  Dessert  will be Tarte Tatin, followed by a nice cheeseboard.

To solve my problem with not being able to cook enough stuff in my oven ,  I have bought a small rotisserie, which will be a godsend over the Xmas period, especially when I'm doing a roast, as can cook a joint and potatoes in that which will free up cooker for other stuff.

Must say I'm glad that I'm going out for for Xmas lunch this year, will be great not having to cook all day! ~My Mum's treating us, then we can come home have some nice cheeses, drinks and relax.

I'm loving all the decorations this year, I can never stop buying them, I LOVE them! I am especially pleased with my dresser which is displaying some lovely Christmas stuff, some of it very old, inherited from my grandmother. The ruby red Poinsettia just looks stunning!  I'm loving cosy evenings in, candles lit, fairy lights twinkling fairy lights....

Decorating the tree

The snug

All we need now is lots of snow, complete with cheesy Michael Buble Christmas album...sigh....

Hope your all enjoying your Christmas preparations! xx

Christmas Cactus

Flowering early this year like everything else. The vibrant green and red just say CHRISTMAS!! Very cheery. :)

Can't wait to get the decorations and tree up.....

Remembrance poppies

I have just been reading a blog I follow all about Remembrance, and would like to share it with you.


http://www.cherrymenlove.com/blog/2011/11/lest-we-forget.html/comment-page-2#comment-37693

Cherry posts a link to Ebay for purchasing crocheted poppies, and all proceeds will be donated to The Royal British Legion and Help For Heroes, they have already raised over £1000!

It is so VERY important that we NEVER forget what these men and their families endured for our freedoms, and remind our younger generation of the facts.

If I could crochet I would make these  myself, but still don't know how, but I know plenty of bloggers I follow can.

 Maybe  some you great crocheters fancy doing this as a fund raiser, the poppies are much nicer to wear than the paper kind, and will raise more money.

I think it's a lovely idea :)


XX

A day at Duxford

Yesterday we  headed up to Camridge to the Duxford Aviation museum, to look at the planes and also to watch the airshow. This was mainly for the benefit of our daughter who is aeroplane obsessed.  The weather was glorious, and it was a most enjoyable day.

Admiring the Lancaster

These aircraft are just magnificent and breathtaking, it's to hard imagine that they can even get airborne.

My daughters favourite is the Lancaster bomber, she has been fascinated by aeroplanes since she was a baby, and has seen the Lancaster in flight a few times at our airshow in Southend, and screams in excitement she is so in awe of it!

Concord

Sadie liked the colour of this one below:

Loop

Prime view

Memphis Belle

EX RAF Fellows

Always a humbling experience to think about what these gentlemen  have been through.

A very happy girl flying her inflatable plane who has now been named Bertie bomber.

 Just before we came home I had a stroll and looked  through the stalls and the bookshop, with the faint music of  Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields playing in the background, such a fascinating and nostalgic time, we romanticise it, but must have been extremely hard.

I myself came away with with a small greetings card above, I have resisted these so far based on all the silly slogans, as they are so common now, so just a small traditional one for my kitchen wall will be fine.

Hope you all had a good weekend. x

Nude Artwork in progress

This is my latest oil painting in progress. I love painting nudes, really like this pose, here are a 3 stages of it.

This is just referenced form a pose on google.

First stage

This is stage 1, blocking in rough shadows.

Stage 2, improving, getting colours and blends in.

Stage 3

This is my favourite stage, getting lots of detail and definition in, and warming all the tones up and getting nice soft blends with a big soft brushes, My paintings are totally smooth, no brush marks,although I do want to experiment with techniques. I do have a go and then going back to my old ways, old habits die hard!

I have one more stage to go on this , but it won't look much different, just little thongs that irk me.

A painting is NEVER finished you know......

Melting moments

Melting moments? These biscuits had me in a bloody meltdown for an hour and a half this morning!

 For those of you that watched the Great British bake off, you may recall  Mary-Ann making these in Episode 4, which was primarily biscuit week. I for one really enjoyed the show, and thought it was a real close call between Mary-Ann and Jo, both of whom I thought were brilliant in their own ways. I am now following both of their blogs, as they have some fantastic ideas.

 These biscuits were a damn bugger to make despite following the recipe from Mary- Ann's blog  here, mine didn't quite turn out looking as lovely as hers, but they do taste really good! Maybe I will try the Croquembouche next...err no .

I had real trouble getting the mixing to pipe from the bag, it was far too stiff, god knows how she managed it, I beat the butter until it was really soft, but the volume of flour and cornflour made it just like pastry ready to roll, which is correct for biscuits ( it should be very short) I had to add some milk just to get it soft enough  so as to be able it to squeeze through a big star tip in the pipe bag, even then it was still really difficult and I gave up and  rolled and cut the rest out into heart shapes, they still looked nice. I just made some ordinary buttercream and sandwiched them together with that and some strawberry jam.

Draw a line of gel food colouring, liquid is no good

Ready to pipe

Not bad for first attempt

The kids are sorted for a treat today then.

Happy baking!

Remembering Steve Jobs

COMMENCEMENT SPEECH AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY, 2005

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.''

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.''

"Stay hungry, stay foolish."

Wet and windy Cornwall

We had our week in Looe in Cornwall last week, it was nice to get away  but the weather was awful. First time I've ever been in September where the weather hasn't been warm and sunny, but we made the best of it, we came home a day early though. As I mentioned in my last post we haven't been to this part of Cornwall before so it was fun exploring new places.

Boat trip

Walk down to Polperro harbour

Polperro harbour

Lovely shop in Fowey

Cream tea

Yay! the sun came out!

Best pasty shop in Looe

I made my Chilli jam and  onion chutney at the weekend,  and tastes good too!

Other than that , I  have been  tidying garden, autumn cleaning, general pottering, and helping Sadie with her new puzzles most of the weekend, she has now gone on to 200 piece !!

 Sadie started school full time today bless her she was so excited this morning! I will miss her chatter, but will also enjoy the quiet....  New painting projects will be commencing soon! Watch this space.