Embroidered Map

I like to make my boyfriend something for Christmas and this year I was torn between cross stitching George Washington and this map detailing our trip across America, both of which would be a memoir of sorts of our trip this summer. I settled on the map because I have cross stitched things for him before and I have never sewn on paper before. I found the idea on A Pair and A Spare. I got the map from my old childhood atlas, sewed on our route and then stuck it some A£ card before framing in a black IKEA frame.

Crafting Christmas: Gingerbread Biscuits

This recipe is the last from my Great British Bake Off calendar and was actually the recipe I most wanted to try out when I flicked the recipes last Christmas when I recieved the calendar. I can’t believe how quickly this year has flown over! I baked them up one gloomy afternoon to cheer the household up; the smell of gingerbread is so festive and warm!

Gingerbread Biscuits

Makes 12

• 350g plain flour
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 175g unsalted butter
• 150g dark muscavado sugar
• 4 tbsp golden syrup

2 baking sheets lined with baking paper

Sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl.

Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan large enough to hold all the ingredients. Set over a low heat and stir gently until everything is completely melted and smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and tip in the flour mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon to make a firm dough.

Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured worktop and leave until cool enough to handle, then gently knead to make a neat ball. Leave until cold before rolling out. Preheat the oven to 180C. Roll out the dough, cut out 12 large shapes of your choice and bake for 8-10 minutes until just slightly darker.

Crafting Christmas: Geometric Gem Christmas Decorations

This final set of decorations are for my aunty and uncle and are also from Stitch the Halls. I really like this modern take on Christmas decorations. In order to create the geometric shape waste canvas is used which I did find a bit wasteful (haha) but oh well.

Crafting Christmas: Selection of Festive Edibles

I made this selection of Christmas edibles for my grandparents. They were so fun to make! In the end I chose to make James Martin’s parkin, fudge (from my tried and tested ASDA recipe), the cookies are from the blog the Wallflower Girl, and the two chutneys are from my DK Jams and Chutneys book.

 

 

Crafting Christmas: Victorian Toy Christmas Decorations

I wanted to make a set of decorations each for my family. For my parents I chose these Victorian-style toy decorations. These were stitched onto vinyl canvas which was a first for me but super easy to do. I got the pattern from a book called Cross Stitch.

Crafting Christmas: Woodland Animals Christmas Decorations

I stitched these Christmas decorations up for my aunty’s mum and dad. The patterns are from What Delilah Did: Stitch the Halls and are meant to be for bunting. I thought they would look great as Christmas tree decorations.

Crafting Christmas: Spiced Holiday Nuts

For Christmas I always like to make some foody gifts for friends and family. When this little recipe popped up in my bloglovin’ feed I knew it would be a perfect addition to my festive food repetoire. The recipe is adapted from Clean Food Dirty City.

Spiced Holiday Nuts

• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups nuts and seeds (I used a mix of Brasil nuts, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds)
• sea salt to taste

Preheat oven to 160C. Mix cumin, chilli powder, curry powder, ground ginger and ground cinnamon in a bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over a low heat. Add spice mixture and stir well for about 3-4 minutes, be careful not to burn. Place nuts and seeds in a bowl, add spice mixture and toss well. Spread the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, turning the nuts twice. Remove from oven and toss in a bit of salt. Let them cool and store in an airtight container.

Crafting Christmas: Mince Pies

This year I really wanted to try my hand at mince pies right down to making my own mincemeat (however, I did cheat this bit and bought some pre-made from ALDI –  and it was so good! I normally hate mince meat). For the pastry I used a recipe I found in Stella magazine by Orla Kiely. I very mistakenly overfilled my mince pies so they were rather tricky to get out of the tins but we managed to save most of them, phew.

Mince Pie Pastry

Makes 20

• 350g plain flour
• 225g butter, chilled and cubed
• 100g icing-sugar
• finely grated zest of 1/2 an orange
• 1 tsbp double cream (you may need a drop more)

Make the pastry so it has time to rest. Whizz the flour and butter with a good pinch of salt in a food processor until you have a breadcrumb-like mixture. Add the icing-sugar and zest, briefly whizz again, then add the cream. Whizz again. The pastry should come together to form a smooth ball. You might need a little more cream. Don’t overwork the dough – as soon as it forms a ball, take it out, press into a thick disc, cover with clingfilm and chill for an hour.

Take the pastry out of the fridge to soften a little before rolling it out. Don’t let it get warm. Butter 20 holes in two 12-hole pie tins. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of a pound coin. Cut out 20 circles slightly larger than the holes in your tins. Gently press the circles of pastry into the holes. Roll out the remaining pastry to the same thickness and cut 20 star shapes to top each pie. Lay these on a lined baking-sheet and put them and the pie tins in the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Fill the pastry cases 3/4 full with the mincemeat mixture and bake for 16 to 17 minutes. Eight minutes before the end, add the tray of stars to the oven. Remove everything from the oven and leave the pies in the tins for a few minutes, the carefully lever them on to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool.

Christmas Fair at Bishop Auckland Castle

After having such a brilliant time at afternoon tea at Auckland castle I was really excited to attend their first ever Christmas fair held in the castle grounds. Although it only had 14 stalls all the stallholders were local artisans, craftspeople and traders and there was quite a range of products on sale. There were stalls selling jars of make your own cookie mix, locally brewed ales, flavoured liqueurs, chutneys and jams, handmade chocolates, tea-cosies, aprons, Christmas decorations and handmade Christmas cards. I snapped up some beautiful and fun little cards as well as a bottle of locally brewed IPA from the Black Paw Brewery. My mum picked up some homemade cherry jam as well as some delicate handmade pottery pieces. Everything was very reasonably priced especially for the quality of the the items we bought. There was also hot mulled wine on offer and for only £2.50 for a MASSIVE cup-full how could you go wrong?

Christmas Weekend in London

My sister and I spent the weekend in London just before Christmas to do some shopping, eat lots of delicious food and do a bit of touristing. Here are a few photos of what we got up to!