HO HO HO...Merry Christmas...

 

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2013!!


 

A Christmas Feast....

 

Last weekend my friends Mary-Jane, Vanessa and I put on a Christmas Dinner for our parents. We decided on a traditional Christmas feast. All the meals were made by the 3 of us. There were 11 people altogether, unfortunately my Dad wasn't well and couldn't make it.

 

Bailey was ready to welcome all the guests...

 

This is the lovely set table, along with menu scrolls, place cards and bon bons.

Everyone seated ready to eat...hope they like it.

 

For entree we had Roasted Pear with a breadcrumb herb crumble, prosciutto wrapped around the pear and fried haloumi cheese on top with a balsamic dressing.

 

For main there was Roast Pork, Leg of Lamb, Roasted Parmesan Potatoes,

 and mixed greens with a garlic herb butter.

 

 Mary-Jane made the bread, one was Multigrain and the other Rye.

 

 For dessert there was a mini Plum Pudding & a mini Lemon Meringue Tart. Mary-Jane did a great job on the plum pudding, perfect shape!

 

 We also made up a gift bag for each person for them to take home.

 

Each bag included a mini Fruit cake (made by Vanessa), a couple of Choc Chip Cookies & mini Honey Jumbles (made by Mary-Jane) and Shortbread (made by me) which I forgot to add to photo.

This is Jake with his bow tie on, he was the hired help for the night, oh that reminds me I haven't paid him yet...haha!



It was a great night and everyone had a wonderful time.  I think it might become an annual event!

 

Busy, busy, busy.....I have been doing some baking for Christmas gifts....

 

Cherry Shortbread



 

Rocky Road

 

 This year I tried a cake I haven't made for a long time...Creamy Light Fruit Cake....it is so yummy. I decided to make mini ones instead of a square cake that way I can give as gifts.

A bit more baking is still to be done this week and a get together on Saturday night then rest until Christmas Day.....hopefully!!

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to trim back the lavender as it was getting untidy and this is what I found....

 

 One of the black birds that make a mess digging in my garden has made a nest at the top of the lavender bush...they originally built a nest in the rose on the arch at the front gate but that obviously wasn't good enough so she built this nest, a weird place as I thought birds nested up high.

I know I shouldn't be encouraging them to make more babies that will dig up my garden, but how could I resist with those cute little blue speckled eggs! How amazing are bird nests, so round and well packed!

Lastly, I would like to say my thoughts are with all the families in the US which have had their loved ones taken from them in such a horrible way.....so young and innocent....

Enjoy your day!
xx

Christmas Card Making....

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to my friend Meighan's house to have an afternoon of card making.  Meighan has been making cards for years so I decided to give it a go.  We had a great afternoon!

 

These are the four patterns that I made, which Meighan designed herself. Quite easy to do and I didn't stuff them up.  We ended up doing 8 cards altogether, 2 of each card. The top left one is upside down...oops!

 

My tomatoes have been growing like crazy so I have been picking them green so the plant will grow more fruit and the bugs don't eat them.  I also picked over the weekend some of my first beans....yippy...love beans!

 

This last Saturday was very hot....40 degrees.  It was so hard to get motivated. On the Saturday I had my neighbours son's 5th birthday party....wow, how were we going to cope in that heat. Well, the kids were fine, there was a mini pool with slide into it, a slip and slide and water pistols, so all the kids had a ball of a time, while the adults were at boiling point.  We would duck inside to the air conditioning to cool off for a while and back out the heatwave. They had a clown for games, making balloon animals and face painting...boy she must of been hot...I kept waiting for her makeup to start running down her face...ha ha.   The main thing was that all the kids had a great time....and they sure did!!







 Enjoy your day!
xx