Holidays are coming

Again, I do apologise for being a very bad blogger but I have been quite busy recently with some personal stuff which I will disclose at a later date for you!

But, as today is the 18th December it means that there is only 1 week until Christmas is here and I am very very excited!! It will be my first christmas where I actually make the whole dinner and lay the table for my family which I am terrified of doing because I have never cooked a turkey before.

How lovely!!

On the upside, my present from my mum came two days ago which I am also very very happy about it is a Brother XL2620 Sewing Machine and it is a beautiful piece of machinery, see for yourself!


I love Christmas, I love going to Midnight Mass on Christmas eve, I love opening presents with the people who mean everything to me, I love the films and tv programmes that cover the entire TV world and I absolutely love when it snows on Christmas day!

Today is actually a snow day over here on the Isle of Man, I've never seen snow like it over here and to be honest I've not encountered snow like it in a long time, our car has actually dissapeared under a thick white blanket. I love snow days where you can stay inside nice and warm and go and make snow angels outside and have proper snowball fights, its like being a child again! Fantastic!

Anyway, Im going to spend the day with my husband in bed watching tv and playing in the snow!

Happy Holidays!!

 

 

Baking on days off.

So ladies and gentlemen, today I decided to bake my first ever fruit cake which, if I must say so myself I was very proud of.

Fruity cake

Ingredients:

200g Self-Raising Flour
100g Butter
100g Caster Sugar
100g Mixed Dried Fruits
1 Level teaspoon finely grated Lemon Rind
1 Egg
5 Tablespoons Milk

1 Level teaspoon of Cinnamon

This is how mine turned out!

• Grease cake/bread tin
• Stir flour in to a large bowl and rub in butter finely.
• Add Fruit, Sugar, Lemon Rind and Cinnamon then mix to a batter with milk and egg.
• Stir to evenly combined Do Not beat.
• Transfer to the prepared tin.
• Bake at 180 C or 350 F in the middle of the oven for about an hour (depending on the strength of your oven.
• Leave in tin for 5 minutes then turnout and leave to stand on a wire rack.
  

After baking my lovely cake I then decided to make some Peanut Brittle as a present for my mum for Christmas.

Peanut Brittle

Ingredients:

240g caster sugar
1tbsp butter
200g roasted or honey roasted peanuts

 

And this is how mine turned out

•  Put sugar into a saucepan and heat over a medium heat for about 15-20 mins stirring frequently until melted and light brown in colour.
• Add butter and mix well. Slowly stir in nuts until well coated.
• Dampen a clean, heat-resistant board or place some baking sheet onto a wire rack and pour the toffee mixture onto it.
• Roll mixture into balls using a metal or wooden spoon. Cool and store in a tight plastic container until ready to serve or if making for a gift wait until cool and put into airtight jar.

So hope you like the recipes and if you want to send me comments with your versions of these beauties then please feel free to.

Merci Au Revoir!