I love it when your child announces that they absolutely must take 'something yummy into school today, Mamma' on the very day that said item is required. There's nothing like a flat-out impending parent-fail to make your creative juices flow. It also helps if you have what could be described as a 'sprinkle fetish'. Thus I found myself with a packet of Chocolate Digestives, a bar of white chocolate, some jelly diamonds, red chocolate buttons and a … [Read more...]
Kick-start Christmas: how to make mince pies and an Amazon Giveaway
It's day of the Kick-Start Christmas Giveaway and I'm sitting watching Barbie The Nutcracker with The Girls. I can feel stirrings of something approximating Christmas spirit, despite the early hour. Which makes it the perfect time to tell you about today's Giveaway. It couldn't be simpler: I have a £25 Amazon voucher. No tricks, no plugging. Yours for a comment telling me what you'd buy with it. And if you are feeling generous, you might … [Read more...]
Angelic Christmas Cookies in a Jar
I'm probably going to curse myself now, but I seem to be doing reasonably well with my Christmas preparations. That said, things have been slightly complicated of late by the fact that the Dimpled Assassin, who is famed for her bad sleeping habits, has adopted the guest bedroom as her bedroom of choice. She spent the night there recently when Lord and Lady M to stay, and had a miraculous night's sleep. DH and I have since embarked on a test-run … [Read more...]
Cranberry and Chocolate Croissant Pudding
Do you ever have that moment of panic when you realise that you are leaving for a friend's house in 45 minutes and you are meant to be bringing dessert. Except you haven't bought or made one. There's nothing like that kind of pressure to get your adrenaline pumping. Lets just say I have a better understanding of the phrase "necessity is the mother of invention." Fortunately for me I had been making my annual batch of Cranberry Sauce earlier in … [Read more...]
Chicken and Roast Pumpkin Risotto
Scraping out all those pumpkins (and I think I did five, but lost count) has left me with an awful lot of pumpkin guts to do something with. Once I was able to look at them without feeling nauseous, I remembered the leftover roast chicken in the fridge and a plan formed in my head. This risotto has no cheese because DH and the Dimpled Assassin are intolerant, but feel free to stir a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan through before … [Read more...]
How to make Monkey Bread
I've seen Monkey Bread around the internet, but mainly on US blogs and sites. Given that we don't get Pilsbury Ready-to-Roll Biscuits here, I assumed that I'd have to wait until I was in Arizona next summer to have a go at making them. Then, wouldn't you know, last week I was in the supermarket and I saw these new Jus Rol Ready to Bake Rustic White Rolls and thought that they might be exactly what I needed. I love the Ready-to-Roll range. … [Read more...]
The Best Coffee Icing in the world
I am an excellent wife. Actually that’s not true all of the time but on this particular occasion I excelled. I have been noticing that DH is not as keen on chocolate cake as he once was. It turns out that bought cake never lives up to my home-made cakes [insert smug grin here], and that his cake of choice when outside the perimeter of DG Manor is coffee and walnut. Naturally I waited until he went to work after sharing this piece of … [Read more...]
