Christmas is on its way Stage 4: Bake something suitably Christmassy!

Sorry for the non posting of late, I've been a bit poorly but I'm ship shape and ready to go again and I've been baking.

I decided I'd give gingerbread a bash. I am disastrous when it comes to baking any sort of remotely biscuity based thing so I was very surprised when it all turned out extremely yummy and tasty!

If you're after an excellent recipe try the Hummingbird Bakery book (I love this book so much I can't even begin to put it into words!). Everything I have ever baked from this book has turned out perfect and absolutely delicious.

Next time I think I'll cut them a little bigger, they were more of a ginger cookie than gingerbread as they weren't very soft in the middle, but you live and learn.

Christmas is on it's way: Stage 1: Christmas Cakes

I make Christmas cakes for my family every year. This is now a grand total of four.

When I was younger my Great Nana Wilde use to do this and we'd lovingly tuck into a slice of extremely boozy cake every Christmas. I took over the tradition after a long period of shop bought cakes and thought it would be a nice thing to do for the relatives.

I don't see them very often (most are in the North East) and now the family has expended somewhat I wont be spending Christmas at my Aunty Kathleen's as she has an ever expanding number to cook for with four grandchildren, three children plus partners and that's a lot of folk to be running about after on Christmas Day!  It's my way of contributing to a family Christmas without actually having one.

So this week I started on the epic bake-a-thon that has become quite the tradition in our house, although we were leaving it a few weeks late, we usually have it all done by mid-September.

I always use Delia Smith recipe from her Christmas book and I use 3 barrels brandy as it's a good mid range brandy for cooking and feeding the cake (especially with four, it just about wont break the bank).

So here are the pics of the progress of the first three...the fourth will be complete tomorrow evening (i ran out of baking paper last night!).

Recipe: Cinnamon & Vanilla Fruit Scones

A yummy scone recipe for you, I love cinnamon in scone, it gives it such a lovely taste, especially when they're warm from the over with butter melted into them.

Makes 8.


Ingredients:


50g butter (cubed)
225g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
50g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
50g sultanas
150ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon 


Method:


Heat the oven to 200C
Sieve the flour into a large bowl, add the butter, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Run in butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar and dried fruit and mix.
Add the vanilla extract the milk.
Make a well in the centre of the mixture, add the milk and vanilla mixture but by bit and stir until a soft dough is formed.
Turn the mixture out onto a board and lightly knead until smooth.
Roll into a sausage shape and cut into 8.
Place on a greased baking tray and place into the oven for 15 minutes until scones are well risen.

Cool on a wire rack for as long as you can stand it, or do as I do and five them a generous 30 seconds before smothering in butter and wolfing down!

Hope you enjoy!

Father's Day: A pie from the heart

Have I ever said how amazing my Dad is?

Without going into too much detail he's had some sad times and some good times, he's funny (in that Dad kind of way) and he has always been there for me through thick and thin, through hard times and good, and I completely admire what a strong person he is and how kind and sensitive and honest he is.

He is completely my hero.

For father's day this year I made him a pie, and not just any pie, the pie of pies, the champion pie for all north easterners, the.......corned beef and potato pie!

Corned beef and tatty pie has always been my favourite pie, my Nana made it when I was little and it was always a treat to have it when we'd go visit after moving away. Unfortunately my Nana can't make it any more due to her arthritis so I thought I'd make one for my Dad as it's been years since he had a slice.

There is a recipe you can follow here (if you're going to bake a pie from the NE it needs to be a recipe from the NE).

I have to admit thought I cheated with the pastry, I am not very good at pasty, mainly because I don't make a lot of pies with my husband being a veggiesaurus.

And I made the pic in a long thin baking tray rather than a pie dish as that's how it was made when I was a lass and I thought my Dad would appreciate it. I have had word since that it was yummy (although the bottom wasn't cooked through properly - the joys of having a crap over with a top heating element!)

  

The finished pie! 

A Little Bit About Me…

As I start this blog I feel that I should explain a few things, how I came about to craft and what I love about it (I might even try and find a few pics to go along with it).

I have always enjoyed the creative side of me. Much more than the super anally organised PA side of me (my full time job) and I have recently got back into creating in a few ways. Back to the beginning though.

I was raised by my paternal Grandfolk in Sunderland, something which has influenced by life in countless ways. Unfortunately my Granda is no longer about but my Nana is still going strong at 87 (88 this year!) and I try and see her as much as I can.

Nana & Me at my wedding 2007

I do speak to her every Sunday without fail though and sign off on the phone with this line “love you Nana, kiss hug, kiss hug” to which she replied “you too flower and many of them”. I have been doing this since I moved to Cheshire when I was 7 and far away from my Nana.  I am not ashamed to share this with you as it’s one of the things I treasure in my life. My Granda always used to answer the phone to me with “hallo my little chickadee” I miss this so much, even 18 years since he’s been gone.

Granda & Me 1985ish

Due to my being brought up by my Nana , I have picked up the following skills:

• Embroidery
• Knitting (better on a machine, I can hand knit but it takes me FOREVER and  I haven’t picked up any needles since I was a teenager)
• Baking

And possibly unhealthy obsessions with things being tidy and clean (although this massively slipped in my teenage years).

Embroidery

I used to spend my summers with Nana and Granda when I was a teenager, they had a caravan in Teesdale and if I wasn’t outside messing about in the river with my mates I was inside with a needle, silk and hoop stitching away. My Nana was brought up not to sit and do nothing and it’s something she’s passed on to me.

I have recently started to embroider again ad I’ve fallen in love with it all over again. The last time I picked up a needles was when I took my now husband to meet my Nana for the first time and she asked if I wanted to finish off the tablecloth she’d started as her eyes couldn’t cope with the fine work which was around 9 years ago.

I have inherited a box of vintage patterns and have started adding new ones I have discovered to it.

Knitting

I have yet to start knitting again. The last thing I made was a hat for Tim a while back now, and I have a machine and tonnes of vintage patterns just waiting for me. It’s something I plan on doing soon. My Nana is giving me her full on knitting machine which can do fancy patterns (and I adore fair isle) to replace the travel one she passed onto me a few years back.

Baking

Baking is something I love to do and always have done. I strive to be like my Nana who doesn’t need to measure anything which I find pretty amazing! I haven’t baked for a while. Mainly due to these things:

1. When I get stressed I bake. A LOT.  The great cake push of 2009 when I got made redundant has not been forgotten by me or Tim.

2. I joined slimming world a year and a half ago and have managed to get myself back to a dress size 10 again and am more than happy to keep it that way.

I do make four Christmas cakes for the family every year. It’s something my great Nana Wilde used to do and I thought I’d try and keep up the tradition, I enjoy it and it’s nice to give something to my north easterly family when I don’t seem them on Christmas day.

I am going to start again this year though and try for once a month and see how the weight gain/loss goes!

There are of course other things I would like to achieve this year and from now on and I thought it might be nice to document this in some way. Mostly as every time I make something I’m overly impressed with the fact I could do it in the first place.

So this is my list:

• Bake once a month
•  Embroider til my heart’s content
• Knit some jumpers/hats/mittens for this winter
•   Learn to Draw
• Learn Ballroom all over again
• Do some mini craft projects and design a few of my own
• Write More

As my husband is now at Uni and I am trying to pay off my debt I am hoping the above will come in rather handy with presents/cards for birthdays.

Apart from the dancing, that’s for me only. I danced when I was younger and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’ve been to two classes and I love it and have surprisingly not forgotten what I’m doing!

Anyhow if you do read this I hope you enjoy it!