Christmas

Sorry for the lack of updates over the festive season. I'm currently working on 2 essays, planning a 50th birthday party, writing an article on 'hipster mums' and doing a million other things at the same time. Here's a couple of photos from Xmas. Rob got me Liberty Nike's woohoo! I also got a needle felting kit and I'm pretty excited to try that out!

I made mango chutney and lemon curd the other day so I'll post some recipes for those later today!

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas! X

Raspberry Daiquiri

My boyfriends parents have just invested in about 12 litres of spirits and a cocktail recipe book so for the past few nights I've been overdosing on raspberry daiquiris.

Treat yo' self!! Here's what you need:

(Disclaimer: our measures are liberal, you might want to half them if you're a lightweight)

• 50ml white rum 
• 25ml raspberry liqueur
• 25ml fresh lemon juice
• Some crushed up frozen raspberries
• Some crushed up ice
• Sugar syrup (if like me, you like it sweet, boil up 5 tbsp of water with 5tbsp of sugar until dissolved and add in a tbsp.)

Put the rum, liqueur, lemon juice, raspberries and ice into a blender and process at a slow speed for 20 seconds, then pulse for about 20 seconds. 

Enjoy! Drink responsibly etc... But remember, it's Christmas!

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Christmas tree cupcakes! It's a shame the green food colouring was the wrong shade so they look more like Shrek slime cakes that Christmas trees but I'm feeling festive so I don't care! Woohoo!

Christmas Chutneys!

Christmas jams and chutneys! Exciting stuff. I spent 4 hours today perfecting my chilli jam and red onion chutney to put in hampers for my boyfriends family for Christmas. Even though it’s really quite time consuming, chutneys and jams make lovely presents and are perfect for when you’re on a budget!

I managed to pick up some lovely Kilner jars for £1.99 each from Dunelm, and I got all the fruit/veg from my local market so each jar cost less that £3 to make. When they’re chilled I’ll use some scraps of gingham fabric and ribbon to top them off!

It’s important to remember to steralise your jars before you put the jam/chutney in. I do it by popping them in the oven at about 180c whilst I’m cooking but you can also boil them up or even put them in the dishwasher. The dishwasher might seem like the easiest option but the jars must still be warm when you decant the jam/chutney. If you’re not careful when steralising then all your hard work will go to waste as the contents will go off pretty quickly. Make sure you steralise all utensils too!

Here are the recipes- definitely worth a try if you’ve got the patience!

RED ONION CHUTNEY

• 6-8 red onions
• 150g caster sugar
• 150ml red wine vinegar
• 50ml balsamic vinegar 

Thinly slice the red onions and sauté in olive oil for about 10 minutes. It’s important not to let the onions get brown. This shouldn’t happen if you keep them on a low heat and stir frequently.
When they start to soften add the caster sugar and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add the red wine vinegar and balsamic and bring to the boil for a few minutes.

Turn the heat down and leave to simmer uncovered until the liquid has reduced and the onions become sticky.

Take off the heat and leave to cool for about 20 minutes.

Put in sterilised jars and leave to cool completely before putting into the fridge to keep.

Red onion chutney gets better with age so make it now ready for Christmas! Once opened it should last 3 months if refrigerated.

And the chilli jam recipe. This one is slightly adapted from the BBC Good Food website. You’ll need a food processor or a blender for this one.

CHILLI JAM

• 8 red peppers
• 10 red chillis
• Large piece fresh root ginger
• 4 garlic cloves
• 400g tin cherry tomatoes
• 750g caster sugar
• 250ml red wine vinegar

Deseed and roughly chop the red peppers. Peel and roughly chop the root ginger and garlic cloves. Chop up the chillis (keep the seeds!). 

Add the peppers, ginger, garlic and chilli to a food processor or blender and whiz up until the mixture is pureed.

Put the puree in a large pan and add the tomatoes, sugar and red wine vinegar.

Bring to the boil and remove any ‘scum’ (for want of a better word) that rises to the surface.
Take down the heat and leave to simmer for about an hour stirring occasionally. 

When the mixture has become sticky simmer for a further 15 minutes, stirring frequently. 

Take off the heat and leave to cool for about 10 minutes before decanting into steralised jars.  

Leave to cool completely before putting in the fridge. It should keep for about 3 months if kept refrigerated once opened.

So that’s that! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and hopefully my boyfriends family will too!

Merry Christmas!! xxx

Bath Christmas Market

HI! As most of you know, I’m in Bath this weekend staying with my boyfriend. Bath have the most AMAZING Christmas market and I found 2 stalls that were utterly fantastic.

The first one being The Happy Cupcake Company. They actually have a shop in Bath and also a website so be sure to check them out! I purchased some edible gold glitter- perfect for topping cupcakes and adding to champagne this Christmas! I also got the gorgeous cupcake toppers pictured. I’m not usually a big fan of sugar craft (mainly because I can’t do it) so these toppers are perfect. They’ve got a little cone that you stick in the cupcake and they come in orchids and roses.

The second stall that I found was called The Spicery. They came number 4 in The Guardian’s top 50 food websites this year so they’re definitely worth a look! Perfect for Christmas presents, whether you’re making them or if you know someone who loves to cook. We got my boyfriends Mum a set of 4 ‘spice packs’, they’re basically recipe cards and a nice mix of fresh spices for loads of different recipes from curry to braised lamb. Rob treated me to the ‘real mango chutney’ set and the coconut and coriander chutney set, both perfect for my homemade Christmas presents!

And of course the day wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Ben’s Cookies! Their chocolate and orange and white chocolate and macadamia cookies are to die for.

Sorry about the rubbish photos, I’ve just had 5 minutes to update so I thought I’d share with ya’ll!

Hope you’re having a good weekend!

Mulled wine, pear and almond tart

Cannot wait to try this!

Butternut squash, ginger and lime soup

Tonight I’m making butternut squash soup with ginger and lime for my housemate and my BFF. It’s super easy and tasty and it’s nice and warming for winter evenings. I’ve also got a loaf of white bread in the oven!

Here’s the recipe, enjoy!

• 1 butternut squash
• 1 onion
• 1 ginger root
• 2 small limes
• 1000ml of chicken or vegetable stock (I prefer chicken)
• Couple of dash’s of olive oil 

Preheat the oven to 180c (fan).

Half the butternut squash and scoop out the seeds. Sprinkle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Pop in the oven for half an hour.

Whilst the squash is roasting, roughly chop the onion and add to a pan of olive oil. Cook until soft but not brown, this usually takes around 15 minutes.

Grate the ginger and add to the onions.

Toss in the oil for about 10 minutes before squeezing the limes in.

When the butternut squash is soft, you’ll be able to scoop it out of the skins and pop it into the pan with the onions, ginger and lime.

Continue to cook for another 10 minutes then add the stock.

Leave to reduce for 20 minutes then whiz it up and voila!

The perfect winter warmer :) serve with big slices of crusty white bread.

Merry almost Christmas!

Top 3 culinary purchases from the past few days:

• Preserving jars so I can make jams and chutneys for everyone at Christmas!
• An onion shaped plastic thing that you put half onions in so they don’t go all horrible (I was so excited when I spotted this. £2.99 Dunelm)
• CUPCAKE CARRIER! 

When I write it down it seems so boring… I have been genuinley excited over these new additions to my kitchen over the past few days.

I’m also excited about the prospect of a Kitchen Aid for Christmas!

Coffee and Walnut Cupcakes

Today I made coffee and walnut cupcakes :) My babygirl Pearla went missing and I was so stressed that I decided to bake my dark thoughts away. My Grandma absolutely loves coffee and walnut cake so I decided to make these for her.

Here’s the recipe:

• 8oz margarine
• 8oz caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 tsp instant coffee- I LOVE Kenco Millicano
• 8oz self-raising flour
• Handful of roughly chopped walnuts

Whisk up the marg and sugar until creamy. 

Add the eggs. 

Mix 3tsp of instant coffee with a splash of boiling water to make a paste. Add the paste to the mixture.

Add the flour and whisk.

Fold in the chopped walnuts and spoon into 12 muffin cases or 16-18 fairy cake cases. Bake for 25 minutes on gas mark 5.

In the meantime, make some mocha buttercream. I would put a recipe up for buttercream but I don’t know how I do it. I just throw in like an spoonful of marg and then add the sugar until it’s thick enough to stick on the whisk. I’m sure if you Google it you’ll get a great one. Then just add some more coffee paste and a tsp of cocoa powder.

Voila! All ready to pipe on when the cakes are cool.

Enjoy!!

Vintage and Handmade Fair

So as you all know today was the Vintage and Handmade Fair that I’ve been preparing for for what seems like forever. Business was slow but I did pretty well! The hyacinths went down really well. A lot of people weren’t parting with their money though, hard times etc. Either way, it was great fun and there were loads of super talented people.

My favourite stall there was ‘Oh Sweet Bag of Mine’ by Stacey Orr. Her stuff is amazingly bright and colourful and creative. I am planning on investing on one of her lunch bags!
You can check out her stuff and purchase those glorious lunch bags here.

Watch this space as all the stuff that didn’t get sold today will be up on there tomorrow or Monday.

I also have to say a big thanks to my oldest and best friend Elle who sat with me allll day long and kept me company, you should all follow her by clicking here.

Lemon Crunch

I wanted to share this recipe for a long time but I’ve just not got round to it. It’s been in my family for a few generations and I absolutely love it. It always goes down well and it’s so easy to make. There’s no baking or weighing involved.

So here’s the recipe, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

• 1 pack of digestive biscuits
• 3 big tablespoons of margarine
• 1 standard carton of double cream (I use Elmlea)
• 1 standard tin of condensed milk
• Zest and juice of 3 lemons

The part of this recipe I enjoy the most is smashing up the digestive biscuits. Get a rolling pin and smash the shit out of them, until they’re all crumby.
Melt the margarine and add to the crushed digestives. Mix well and then press into a flan dish and put in the fridge to chill.
For the filling, whip up the double cream until it’s thickened up. This could take about 5 minutes with an electric whisk so persevere! Slowly add the condensed milk.

Add the zest and juice of the lemons. Give the mixture a good whisk as it can separate.
Pour the mixture in to the now chilled base and pop into the fridge. For best results leave over night but it’ll taste good after an hour or 2!

Sorry about the photos, they’re not really very informative but you get the idea!

Any Q’s feel free to ask!

S xxx

COME!

If you live in Leicester or the surrounding areas, you should definitely come to this!

Hyacints in teacups...

I thought I’d add some variation to my stall at the Vintage and Homemade Fair and potted up these bad boys today.

My mama had a vintage tea set lying around so we planted some white hyacinth bulbs in them and covered them with moss. We also decoupaged some plant pots last time I was home and there’s some in there but I didn’t get any photos.

I think they look pretty cool now and they’ll look even better when they flower!

Sewing my life away...

I’m spending the day sewing in preparation for my stall at the Vintage and Hand Made fair on Saturday (which you should all head down to if you’re from Leicestershire!) but it’s proving very difficult due to the amazingly cute kitten who keeps trying to catch the needle. I’m so scared I’ll hurt her I’ve had to stop for a coffee and cake break!