Monthly Archives: December 2011

by | December 30, 2011

Special Moments from Christmas 2011

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful break over the long holiday weekend.  Apologies for the lack of posts this week, but the computer and phone have been switched off for the past week so that I can give the family my full attention and do all those important things with them like playing board games, watching movies, going for long walks… oh and let’s not forget all that festive eating and drinking ;)

For us, this Christmas has also been marked by a sad occasion.  On the evening of 23rd December, M’s nan sadly passed away.  She was such a wonderful lady, with a heart full of kindness and generosity.  She will be greatly missed by us all.

At the last moment, our Christmas plans changed and, instead of hosting at our house, the three of us went to Dorset to spend a few nights with my mum and her dogs, Poppy and Beau.  We had the most special time.  Here are a few of the highlights…

Here’s Lil’ L opening his presents from Santa. Unbelievably, that boy actually got dressed at 7am before he left the bedroom. That’s a first!

I, on the otherhand, have spent most of the holidays in my gorgeous, new fleecy pjs’ and fluffy slippers that my mum bought me for Christmas :)

M helped me prepare the Christmas dinner.  It was totally delish… and, by consensus, the best nut roast I’ve made to date ;)

My mum practically lives in Verwood Forest and we love going out for long walks in the mornings with her dogs.

It’s such a beautiful forest!

Here’s me and my mum with the dogs.

And here’s Lil’ L, who will turn even the smallest twig into a shooting device.  What is it with boys and guns???

The forest is filled with this beautiful yellow bracken.  Don’t get too close though as it’s super spiky.

We also found came across some beautiful holly bushes.

While we’ve certainly indulged in festive eating, our family walks have been a great counter balance.  One day, we went for a 6 hour walk along the beach to Bournemouth.  It was an exhilarating day and all that sea air really helped to blow the cobwebs away! 

Guess how long it took for Lil’ L to get his feet soaking wet…

about twenty seconds!

Poppy and Beau loved playing on the beach!

They didn’t seem to get tired… even after six hours of playing!

Unsurprisingly, Lil’ L didn’t like the fact that his feet were soaking wet.  Luckily, M&S was open in Bournemouth and the boy was back to his smiley self after he’d put on a fresh pair of dry socks :)

I loved all these colourful beach huts.  I looks like someone has worked their way through the Dulux colour chart ;)

Once we’d made it to Bournemouth Pier we popped into the town centre to get a bite to eat.  The town was heaving with shoppers!  We couldn’t wait to get back on the beach.  The return journey was filled with lots of laughter, games, a sneaky times table practice and a beautiful sunset :)

Thanks family for such a beautiful Christmas :)

Time to get back to those board games now ;)

If I don’t manage to post beforehand, I bid you all a very happy New Year.  I hope that your 2012 will be filled with good health, prosperity, happiness and a good dose of fun and laughter ;) Take care xx

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by | December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve

‘To Do’ List

1. Make some raw chocs to hang on the Christmas tree. Check

2. Make a lentil & nut roast for Christmas dinner. Check

3. Decorate M’s birthday cake (SO LATE!), light the candles and sing happy birthday to him. Check Check Check

Classy candles eh? They remind me of Lil' L's magnetic letters :)

4. Decorate the Christmas Cake. Check. Me & Lil’ L turned it into a giant snowball :)  

5. Make some coconut marzipan balls with the left over ground almonds and desiccated coconut. Check.

To make these I used 1 cup ground almonds, 2 tbsp agave syrup, 1 tsp vanilla extract and a few drops of almond extract. I rolled them in apricot jam to make them sticky, then rolled them in coconut :)

6. Wrap the presents. Check.

 

Just got to have a shower and get dressed, then I’m done! :)

Have a great weekend everybody!  Happy Christmas! Happy Yule! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Winter Solstice! I send my warmest wishes to you all. HAVE FUN! :) xx

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by | December 23, 2011

A Day Out in London – Graffiting in Banksy’s Tunnel

For the second part of M’s 40th birthday present, I’d arranged for him to spend a few hours in Banksy’s Tunnel in Leake Street, London with graffiti artist ‘G’. 

While they were hard at work, Lil’ L and I met up with our gorgeous friend Helen for a delicious Thai lunch at Busaba.  If you’re ever in London, I highly recommend a stop at one of the Busaba restaurants as the food is outstanding.  After stuffing ourselves full of delicious eats, we headed to the Natural History Museum.  I was blown away by the beauty of the museum building.  The collection of dinosaur bones was pretty impressive too ;)

Check out what M and G were up to while we were gone… (BTW, it’s legal to graffiti in Banksy’s Tunnel so don’t get alarmed!)

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

 G is clearly a great teacher and M must be a quick learner.  I dread to think what mess I would have produced if I’d had a go! ;)   

Big thanks go out to G and Helen for giving us a such a great day out in London :)

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by | December 21, 2011

A Birthday Surprise, Yummy Eats & Yak Yeti Yak

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Hope you all have a great day!  I’m posting early today as we’re off to London for part 2 of M’s birthday surprise ;)

Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes left on my blog for M (or ‘Mr Bit of the Good Stuff’, as Candy calls him ;) ).  On Monday, M turned the ripe old age of 40 and, to mark the occasion, I had 2 great surprises lined up for him (one for Monday and the other for today) :)  

Both M and I have got a keen interest in art but unlike me (who hasn’t got an artistic bone in her body) M is a dab hand with a pen, pencil or paintbrush.  For a while now, he’s been mentioning that he’d like to have a try at stencil graffiti art so, on his birthday, I arranged for Stuart, a graffiti artist, to come to our house and give M a 1-2-1 tutorial. 

As well as being an artist in his own right, Stuart travels all over the UK and internationally to teach individuals and group workshops.  I was so grateful that he was able to stop by Monday to spend a few hours with M.

It rained non stop on Monday, so Stuart and M had to squeeze in our very messy garage.  Both Lil’ L and I were fascinated with Stuart’s suitcase full of spray cans.  Here’s one of many photos that Lil’ L took of the suitcase :)

Stuart was a great teacher, not only helping M with technique, but also in the development of his creative ideas for the two canvases that he was going to produce.  Here’s a shot of M in action (minus his head as he wants to remain anonymous ;) )

The two pieces of work he produced are already hanging on our living room walls.  They’re not bad for a first attempt are they?

 

 

He’s definitely got the spray painting bug now and can’t wait to have another go.  Luckily, I’ve got another surprise lined up for him today  ;)

While the boys were busy being creative in the garage, I decided to get creative in the kitchen and try out a new recipe.  Since I had some ready-made puff pastry sitting in the fridge, I decided to have a go at making Viva’s Chestnut Pate En Croute.  It was so simple to make, and ready in less than 30 mins. 

I cut it into four large slices, and gave a slice each to Stuart, M, Lil’ L and the last one for myself.  The feedback was very positive, and M suggested that this bake would be great for Boxing Day dinner.  While it was delicious as it was, next time round I may add some chopped chestnuts, pine nuts and porcini mushrooms to make it even more special :)

Here’s how I made it:

Chestnut Pate en Croute (based on Viva’s recipe)

Serves: 4
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-30 mins

Ingredients
2 onions, chopped
1 stick of celery, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
100g / 3 1/2oz button mushrooms, sliced
Half a tin of unsweetened chestnut puree (a full tin is 435g, so you want 215g)
2 tbsp fresh soft breadcrumbs
1 tbsp brandy
salt and pepper
1 sheet of Jus Rol ready-rolled puff pastry (rectangular, not round)
soya milk to glaze

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F / Gas 6
  2. Fry the onions and celery in the oil in a large saucepan, covered until the onions are transluscent.
  3. Add the garlic and mushrooms, and cook for 2-3 mins.
  4. Mix in the chestnut puree, breadcrumbs, brandy and seasoning until everything is well combined.
  5. Unroll the pastry and place carefully on a lightly-oiled baking sheet.  Pile the chestnut mixture lengthways down the middle third of the pastry.
  6. Make diagonal cuts 1cm / 1/2″ apart on the pastry on either side of the chestnut mixture.  Fold these up alternately to make a lattice covering it.  Brush the pastry with soya milk and bake for 20 mins or so, until browned.

Viva has produced a fantastic mini guide full of delicious vegan Christmas recipes.  The guide can be accessed online here.  I’m planning to try out a few more of their recipes over the next couple of weeks.

After we’d had lunch and said goodbye to Stuart, we headed into Bath as Lil’ L wanted to take his dad to the cinema to see Arthur Christmas in 3D (another birthday treat).  All of us really enjoyed the film.  Arthur is a very sweet, kind hearted guy :)

For dinner, we went to one of our all-time favourite restaurants in Bath… The Nepalese ‘Yak Yeti Yak’. 

So what do I love about this restaurant?  Basically everything! … The delicious food, the great ambiance, the gorgeous interior, and their stunning dinnerware.  I must get me some of those brass platters and bowls ;)

We opted for the veggie set menu ‘Dal Bhat Tarkari‘ (rice, dal, aloo channa, popadum, fresh stone-ground chutney, dhai, and our choice of individual vegetable dishes – Chyauko Tarkari (stir fried mushrooms), and Aloo Tamar (fermented bamboo shoots stir-fried with new potatoes and black-eye peas).  Between the three of us, we’d soon polished off the lot!

For dessert, I had Kir (coconut creamed rice lightly spiced (with cardamon, I believe), sweetened, sprinkled with toasted shredded coconut and served chilled).  This dessert was totally scrumptious and I can’t wait to have a try at making it myself.   

All in all, Monday was a great day of fun-filled activities and eats, and I hope M enjoyed it as much as I did :)  

Time to head over now to Jenn’s WIAW party and see what my foodie friends are eating.  Hopefully I’ll get some inspiration for Christmas. 

I still have no idea what I’m going to be cooking over Christmas and as I’m hosting this year, I really need to get organised.  At the moment, I’ve a huge urge to go to the supermarket and buy lots of ready made food and be done with it.  I’d much rather be playing games with the family and watching movies than slaving away in the kitchen.  But, is that too much of a cop out?  What do you think?

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by | December 16, 2011

Raw Choc Giveaway Result

Just a quick post to announce the winner of my raw chocolate giveaway.  The comments were placed in chronological order and a random number was generated using RANDOM.ORG.

I’m pleased to announce that the winner is Sarah from Everyday’s a Picnic.  Well done Sarah!  I’ll email you shortly to get your postal address.

Well, school’s out now so holiday season has officially started for us :)   It’s also M’s birthday on Monday.  I can’t believe he’s actually going to be 40!!  Scary! (what’s even scarier is that I’m not far behind him… where did the last 20 years go???)

While M doesn’t think that anything’s planned for Monday, I’ve got a couple of great surprises lined up for him ;)   I’m definitely making sure that this milestone is marked BIG STYLE!  As soon as I get a chance to get back on the computer next week, I’ll reveal the surprises.  Fingers crossed he likes them!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody! xx

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