Christmas and Beyond!


Well, its all over and what a successful Christmas it turned out to be! Yes, I did manage to make some non-Sabled mince pies and they were very tasty! My stuffing roll, take one, became a stuffing pancake but tasted fine. Take two was much more successful! The cheesecake was also a hit as too was the mint chocolate roll, with those who like dark mint chocolate!

The christmas cake was also tasty and took pride of place on the christmas table. We also scored a haul of presents so decided to make them last all day! Best present? Well, they were all great but we had bought ourselves a Nintendo Wii which we left until last thing, about 8.30pm! It has to be the most painful present of them all! I ached so much for the next two days, all the bowling and tennis, good grief. It also went down a storm on Thursday, when my family was over!! Some mean tennis players and bowlers there!

Oh, and we went to see The Snowman in Glasgow! It wasn't what we expected at all!! They had the Scottish National Orchestra there and while they played the music we watched the 'cartoon' on the big screen! It was really nice! Then in the second half we had carols with some audience participation! It was a great night, very different from anything I have been to before!

On Christmas eve we were also out and about, we went to a midnight service, it was really beautiful. And the minister was a great laugh! Only the second time I have been to an evening Christmas service, so something to remember!

Of course no blog entry would be complete without some photos so here they are:

"Whars Me Present"


"All Dressed For Xmas"

The Mince Pies - Take One!

Okay, so I make mince pies today! Now anyone who has seen my mince pies before knows that they win NO prizes for looks! Taste fine but look ridiculous, mincemeat all over the place! But today, I remove from the oven nine perfect looking, nice tasting mince pies!! I am so chuffed, 24 years of effort has gone into the making of these perfect mince pies but all that time has finally paid off!!!

I leave my fabulous creations on the side to cool and go off about my business revelling in my pie making prowess!! I soon return.... disaster has struck and it is grey and furry!!

One of our delightful cats, Sable, has been up on the side after the mince pies!! What kind of cat eats mince pies anyway!!? But worst of all is that she hasn't EATEN any of them, just knocked the top off one and pushed it onto the floor. But, she has still be thorough in her ruining of the pies! Oh Yes! She has carefully licked all the icing sugar off the tops of the others. So they are sitting there, still looking fine, just cat drooled! My poor mince pies! :( At least she could've eaten one, appreciated them more! But no, just make it so no one else can have them.

Ah well, making pies again tomorrow by the looks of things!

Christmas Cooking!

Okay, so i have decided to cook a lot of the christmas dinner myself this year, as I am not working i may aswell make the most of it right!? So, today, stuffing. Prepare to be bored by a rant about stuffing. I pick what looks like an easy, yet different, form of stuffing. 'This won't take long' I think. Whack ingredients in a bowl, mix, roll, freeze till xmas! Well, two and three quarter hours later I am still making it!! It had better taste excellent!! I never knew how long it would take to de-shell about 30 chestnuts! But it did end up looking pretty good, just glad i decided to make it in advance!!
And so you can all have fun making it too: chestnut and cranberry stuffing roll

I have to admit it is quite fun making food for xmas, well its fun making food at all, but xmas in particular! I have also made my own christmas cake this year too, and seriously, DO IT!! The whole house smelt xmassy for hours, all spicy and orangey! Yum! Yum! I'm not actually a big fan of christmas cake myself but it smelled so good I am going to have to try some!

Next up on my list of things to make will be a cheesecake and a chocolate marquise, with after eight mints!!

So, Christmas is here again!!



So it's Chistmas time again! I have to admit i am not feeling as christmassy this year as I did last year, but there you go! I have pent this afternoon turning the door to my kitchen into the Doorway to a Winter Grotto!!! (Simple add Snowflakes on doorframe!!)


I have been up to Christmassy things however. Been to one xmas party so far and one meal out, one in Edinburgh and one in Glasgow. Glasgow was a laugh, went on all the kiddies rides in George square! On the carousel, now theres something that I haven't done in a while!!



Off to the pantomine next week and the Snowman, not sure what that is but it must be something like ballet! Unless its Stomp! presents...





Beowolf in 3D

So we saw our first 3D film a while back, and got a great photo of us in some rather fetching specs! It was really good, both in terms of the story and the 3D effect! Very entertaining although twice the price of seeing the regular film!!! But a great night out and a good change to the norm!!!