Now what better cheat could there be than to take a bunch of  prepared ingredients, shoving them into the cooker and leaving them for eight hours. Seriously? Why has it taken me so long to get behind the slow-cooker movement?

Anyhow, back to Tescos last week. I saw the hugest lump of meat  joint of Pork on special offer. I bought it because it was on offer, not having the first clue what to do with it, but when you are buying over 5kg of meat for a tenner, you know you’ll be able to find something. And I did:

Pulled Pork in the slow cooker

The recipe called for pork butt, not that I have a clue what that is, and I had shoulder, but I figured it would work anyhow.

The recipe also called for Diet Pepsi. I didn’t have that, so I used Diet Coke.

The recipe called for Barbecue Sauce. Nope, not that either. HP Fruity.

It’s kind of pathetic when a recipe calls for three ingredients and you have to use a substitute for every single one.

And do you know, it was awesome. So awesome that we are still eating it. So let me tell you a few things that you can do with 5kg of delicious pulled pork:

Freeze it, in batches. A little goes a long way.

Serve with mashed root vegetables, broccoli and some of the reduced sauce.

Slap in a bun with a dollop of applesauce.

Spoon over rice with a side of stir fried vegetables.

Make pulled pork tortillas with avocado, refried beans and some sour cream.

Put it between two tortillas, sprinkle with grated cheese and microwave for a minute or so.

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Elevenses never really went anywhere, it’s just been a little forgotten.

We want to empower people who feel the need to have a nice little sit, with a cup of tea and a nibble at around 11 o’clock. The kids are at school, you’ve made countless packed lunches, the dog’s been for a walk and before you start your day (as if it hasn’t already been going for hours!) you need a bit of a recharge. Maybe put your feet up, give your mum a ring or check your Facebook page; it really doesn’t matter just as long as it restores the calm in your head and heart. You might call us crazy, but we find that a buttered crumpet or slice of cake at this time of day is just what’s needed. We want people to embrace this mid morning snack, in all its glory and we want you to join us!

Anchor Butter is a heritage brand, which has been loved by families for generations. Providing people with a proper butter, for perfect puddings and really good roasts.

I remember when we first moved to our current house, there was a weekend of celebrating marriage at our local church. As we were having our daughter christened that weekend, I wanted to offer something to the cake sale that accompanied the exhibition. Knowing that the established community would have cakes totally sewn up, I thought I’d  play it safe with a no-bake offering. It got a suitably luke-warm reception when I placed it on the table, told the ladies what was in it and left them to it but was delighted to find that it has almost all sold by the time I returned. DH was furious that there wasn’t more left for him. I felt that I had been welcomed into the church!

When I was growing up, Rocky Road used to be called Fridge Cake and was made from stale Digestives and sultanas. I am not entirely sure when it morphed into Rocky Road, but I love it. I love that you can dress it up or down, depending on the recipients: for adults I use pistachios and pecans, cranberries, blueberries and Goji berries; for the children, I dice dried apricots, sultanas and add a big handful of Shreddies.

Whether I make it for big or small, I do use good quality chocolate and butter  (and Golden Syrup) to make it. I tend to use St Nigella of Lawson’s recipe to make it, or at least as a starting point.

Once you’ve made your Rocky Road, shove encourage it into the heart-shaped containers with the back of a spoon and press down. Then, melt a packet of Red Candy Melts, and add a layer of the red chocolate-esque goo to each heart-shaped wedge. Then sit down with a cuppa at 11am and feel the love for Elevenses.

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I have been focussing on the season, and the children, though. Last night we all camped out under the Christmas Tree, an idea I saw via twitter from Dinosaurs and Octopuses which I just knew that The Girls would love. And they did: no doubt they’ll still be talking about it next year (as will my middle-aged bones)!

gratuitous photo of my festive sweater

Today we made a beautiful snowflake wreath, an idea I’d seen on pinterest from a few cupcake liners. I did the cutting and they did the glueing but I think they did a great job.I’ll have to remember the cupcake liner trick for next year: way easier than cutting up squares of paper.

We also made snickerdoodles from a recipe that Me, The Man and The Baby directed me to on Two Become Four, although to be honest it was inspired by Barbie: A Christmas Carol rather than the fabulous red glitter. Barbie movies have become the ‘new big thing’ in our house, and the mere mention of Snickerdoodles being a British girl’s favourite ‘cookie’ in Victorian England, makes me giggle, but heigh-ho. They did taste yummy.

And, after seeing a few shop assistants who were dressed as Elves, and reminding my Girls that Santa is still watching them, we thought we’d offer the Elves a sweetener in the form of Elf Wands.

Just pop a marshmallow onto a lollipop stick (you could use a candy cane but I used all mine up on our Christmas Cake) dip in melted chocolate, then dip again into a bowl of festive sprinkles. Leave to dry and put a couple out each night in case the Elves feel a little peckish. I confess I did give them a potted version of Tara’s heart-breaking post on why Santa won’t be visiting her daughter in the hope that keeps them on the straight and narrow.

And in other news, I finally finished the wrapping presents and the Christmas Cake decorating. Now you know why we had no candy canes left.

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I’m delighted to say, with fingers crossed and simultaneously touching wood, that things do seem to be improving. I’ve yet to establish why she prefers the room. Facing the garden, the guest room is quieter, so that could well be it.  But then I wonder whether she likes the weight of the double duvet on her as she sleeps. The overriding advantage is that, should she wake in the night, I am no longer forced to sleep on the floor at her side, shoulders wedged between bed and wardrobe. Instead I crawl between the covers next to her and get a more comfortable night than I would otherwise.

The complication with this development is Operation Christmas, which traditionally operates out of the Guest Room. There is a mini Everest of plastic bags, each relating to a person or group of people, holding gifts which need to be wrapped and distributed. The problem is that the room is out-of-bounds every night, so the production line I usually have throughout December will not be operational this year. Minimalist wrapping may be the way forward.

Thus my keen-ness to find home-made gifts that need little fancifying. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at cookies in a jar recipes online, after a recent trip to Ikea saw me bring back a dozen Kilner-style jars (does anyone ever go to Ikea and not buy a whole bunch of stuff they hadn’t planned to?) The recipes are mostly American and involve cups, and invariably call for different sized jars that the ones I have committed to. So I had to mix and match a few recipes until I found something that worked. The cookies are so delicious, I suspect I will feel a pang of regret giving them away to friends!

Little Big Girl named the cookies: she saw Dimples playing with the flour that had been liberally sprinkled across the kitchen (that’s cooking for children with you) and remarked that it looked like Angel footprints. I like to think that it’s because they are a taste of Heaven too!

For each jar of Angelic Christmas Cookies, you will need to layer the following ingredients into the jar*, packing them down firmly as you go:

• 150g plain flour
• 1½tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 75g oats
• 75g smarties or m&ms (or chocolate chips)
• 50g soft brown brown sugar
• 50g caster sugar
• 50g chopped pecan nuts (optional)

Once you have packed all the ingredients into your jar, put the lid on firmly and decorate with ribbon. Don’t forget to attach a recipe card so that the recipient can make them!

For the recipe card:

Put the contents of the jar in a bowl and add:

• 1 egg
• 80g  melted butter
• 1tsp vanilla extract

Stir ingredients until thoroughly combined. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of the dough and roll into a ball, then place on a baking tray and flatten slightly. Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool, if you can wait that long.

*my jars are 1/2 litre or 1 pint.

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Fortunately for me I had been making my annual batch of Cranberry Sauce earlier in the day, and a vague memory of once making Nigella’s Croissant Pudding.

For Cranberry and Chocolate Croissant Pudding, you will need (all amounts are approximate as I made it up as I went along):

6 stale croissants

400g chocolate

200ml each double cream and milk

4 eggs, beaten

half a jar of cranberry sauce

6 stale croissants

Firstly, tear up your croissants and arrange in a large ovenproof dish.

Next, pour over the cranberry sauce.

Put to one side, then break your chocolate ( I used one bar of dark and one of milk) and put into a pan with the cream.

Warm over a low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and glossy.

Remove from the heat and slowly add the milk until you have the best hot chocolate you will ever taste. Resist the temptation to consume it all by quickly mixing in the beaten eggs.

Pour the gloopy mixture over your be-jewelled croissants as evenly as possible and leave to soak for ten minutes or so.

Cook at about 180C (I’m particularly vague on this bit because it was cooked at the house where we were eating, by the hostess.) for about 30 minutes or until the top is crispy and set.

Enjoy with a large dollop of ice-cream.

Note there are no ‘after’ shots: it went very quickly!!

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I love the Ready-to-Roll range. We’ve used the Croissants since I was young and lived in Brussels. We found out that the tins needed to be kept in the fridge after one day hearing popping sounds coming from the kitchen. Further investigation revealed that our recently purchased croissants had exploded in the cupboard, breaking a couple of mugs with the force of the blast and meaning Dad had to take an early wander the following day to the Boulangerie. Lesson learned.

I made the croissants too with some of my young charges and, more recently, with LBG and her Dimpled Sister. They are so simple to use and the children really enjoy feeling like they’ve made something. My Girls love baking anything. And I’m not quite up to the Great British Bake-Off standard of making my own breakfast pastries from scratch. Certainly not first thing in the morning on a weekend.

This particular Saturday morning, I had a particularly challenging walk to look forward to and was under instruction to eat carbs, so I figured it was the perfect time to test out the recipe, and I have to say that it rocked.

To make Monkey Bread, you will need:

1 can of Jus-Rol Bread Rolls

75g caster sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

120g light brown sugar

120g butter

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 2lb loaf tin (it’s really important because the caramel will stick to the tin).

2. Using scissors, snip each of the rolls into several pieces.

3. Put the caster sugar and cinnamon into a large ziplock bag, then toss several of the dough pieces in the bag at a time until they are coated.

4. Lay the coated pieces of dough in the loaf tin, spreading them evenly, and repeat until all the pieces are in the tin. Set aside.

5. Put the butter and sugar in a non-stick pan over a low heat and stir until all the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil. Stir the bubbling caramel constantly for one minute then remove from the heat. It should go without saying that molten sugar is insanely hot, so do take care.

6. Pour the caramel evenly over the top of the dough in the loaf tin and put on a baking sheet in the oven for around 15 minutes until the dough has risen. Keep an eye on it as the sugar will burn quite easily.

7. Once cooked, remove from the oven but leave in the tin for ten minutes or so for it to cool, then serve and stand back. It’ll go very quickly and you don’t want to get caught in the crush!

Oh, and I’ve no idea why it’s called Monkey Bread.

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Step 1: make a cake. I used a mix and baked it in a rectangular tin. Once cool, I used a cake cutter to stamp round mini-cakes from the rectangle.

Step 2: take one tub of ready-made vanilla frosting and dye red. Think blood-bath.

Step 3: cover the cakes in the icing. I found it easiest to ice the sides and then the top. Smooth the top as much as possible. Leave to firm up for half an hour or so.

Step 4: pipe on details with black icing. I used a ready-to-pipe tube.

• Draw a line down the centre of your cake.
• Cross that line in the top quarter of the cake and fill it in. This is the head of the ladybird.
• Pipe spots onto each side of the line

Step 5: Using a small amount of white icing, pipe white dots onto the head of the ladybird for eyes.

Step 6: delight and amaze 12 Kindergarten children.

Happily shared: Creative Link Party

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