Jack's Birthday

I've been terrible at blogging recently and I can't believe how quickly the year is passing! I'm going to get back into the swing of things now that jury service has finished.


It was Jack's birthday on Tuesday; I'd already given him his birthday presents a couple of weeks before as they were too big and too heavy to wrap (a huge metal toolbox/cabinet on wheels and a telescopic ladder, both of which he had asked for), but I did take him out for dinner on Tuesday and we decided to go somewhere different and so headed towards Oxfordshire and the Thames to go for dinner by the river. We had a nice dinner in The Swan at Streatley, before having a little stroll by the river to walk some food off. It was a nice hotel/restaurant in a lovely setting and Streatley and Goring are very picturesque, with lots of big expensive river-fronted houses.

After our meal we headed home and our friends popped over for a slice of birthday cake and a game of Shuffleboard. Has anyone else played it? It's a seriously addictive Dutch game where you push wooden discs down a table to try and get them through holes at the bottom for varying points (probably a terrible description of how to play the game)! I bought us a beautiful handmade beech Shuffleboard and we've enjoyed having a game each evening. I'll try and get a photo of it next time we play it.

Birthday Boy!

I spent all of Monday afternoon baking Jack a birthday cake, along with over 100 sausage rolls for him to take into work with him, as requested by his work colleagues who love my homemade sausage rolls. The cake was hard work but it's possibly one of my best cakes to date when I look back and compare it with the previous birthday cakes I've made Jack over the past nine years. It's a 4-layer chocolate 'drip' cake; the layers were sandwiched together with whipped cream, then the cake was covered with buttercream icing and a chocolate ganache drizzled over the top. I then made some chocolate shards (Hotel Chocolat eat your heart out!) and decorated the top of the cake with these and various other chocolate goodies. Jack was amazed with it and I'm pleased to say it tasted great, though too sickly sweet for me so I only managed about half a slice! I made Jack take the rest of the cake to work the next day to get rid of it - we're both trying to be really healthy before we go to America next month! I've included a couple of photos of the cake below, hopefully I'll get a recipe up soon for you all!

Making the chocolate shards was fun!

Em x

Weekend; Dog Show & Huge Roast Dinner!

Hi all, hope you're all well!


I'm a little late in writing a weekend blog post but better late than never! Did you all have a nice weekend? We had glorious sunshine on Saturday morning, though it was chilly, followed by rain and then more sunshine on Sunday so we can't really complain. I'm very glad that we made the most of the sunshine on Saturday morning as the heavens really did open that afternoon.

We enjoyed a trip out Saturday morning to the All About Dogs Show at Newbury showground. We attended last year and found it good fun and it was nice to see lots of people there again this year. There's a flower and garden show on at the same time which you get free entry into when attending the dog show and so it was nice to buy some bargain plants too. Barry enjoyed meeting lots of dogs of all shapes and sizes; he was quite nervous, as always, around other dogs but that's exactly why we go to these types of events where he'll hopefully meet lots of friendly dogs. He was amazed at watching the K9 Aqua event where the dogs launch themselves into the water after a tennis ball. I think he'd have been good at this as he loves tennis balls and loves water but he wasn't going to let me out of his sight and there's no way I was going for a swim! We did however take part in the hurdles which Barry really enjoyed. I waited at the other end and he flew over the straw bales to get back to his mummy as quickly as possible! He went so quick he almost somersaulted over the last! He was so tired by the time we got home that he almost seemed glad when we told him we were popping out without him!

Happy worn out dog

Jack and I popped into Newbury on Saturday afternoon; we bought some dinner from the butchers and bought me my very first pair of walking boots! I live in my wellies at home when out walking and they're so comfy and versatile that I don't feel like I need better walking shoes, however we're off to Wales this weekend and I feel like walking boots will be a good purchase as I'll live in them from now on! I tried on numerous pairs, some felt so heavy on my size 4 feet! I eventually found a pair I really liked; they're very comfy and quite lightweight and I've worn them on a few dog walks now and they're great for supporting my weak ankles (how do you build muscle up on your ankles?!). I'm sure I'll rack up plenty of miles in them anyway; my Fitbit informed me this morning that since last Autumn when Jack bought my Fitbit for me as a Birthday present, I've walked the length of Italy - 736 miles to be precise! Although that obviously includes miles you do around the house when doing housework and we all know just how much ground you cover darting from kitchen, to living room etc.

My first pair of walking boots!

We had a nice quiet Saturday evening finally catching up on the Night Manager (BBC 1 TV drama series). It was very good, Tom Hiddleston is a great actor and I can see why they've now put him in the running as a potential 007 of the future, though I still wish Daniel Craig would continue as he's a great Bond. We had an indoor barbeque on Saturday for dinner; we bought marinated ribs and chicken wings from the butchers, all reduced as they don't open Sunday and wanted rid of them. Very tasty and I can't wait for outdoor barbeques.

I also spent Saturday evening baking a fruit loaf for my Nan and Step Grandad as we were visiting them on Sunday for a roast dinner and catch up. Syd has a sweet tooth so I knew he'd be over the moon if I turned up with a cake for him. I also bought Nan a beautiful bunch of flowers.

Fruit Loaf for Syd

And Flowers for Nan

We had a lovely roast dinner at Nan's on Sunday; she did far too much food as per usual but Nan is famous for that! My brother and his girlfriend joined us too which made Nan's day, she loves to see her grandchildren and it was lovely to catch up. Both Nan and Syd were also very pleased to have Barry there too for lots of cuddles, sadly they had their Boxer, Daisy, put to sleep a few weeks ago, so they feel very lost having had dogs in the house continually for over two decades. Daisy lived to a very good age for a Boxer though and was totally spoilt, so I keep reminding Nan that she lived the most wonderful pampered life with them. Barry was a very good boy anyway and did stay still briefly to be cuddled to death by both Nan and Syd (they treat him as if he is a great grandchild!).

My Nan was fascinated by my brother's selfie stick - I always laugh when I see people with them but it was the best way to get us all in this photo.

Nan cooked roast beef and pork chops, "because you can't have just one meat", along with a field's worth of broccoli, cabbage, parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts, roast potatoes AND new potatoes! Nan also did one of her famous Yorkshire puddings, which we all passed around as if it were a hat and tore off a piece (it's tradition in our family!). This huge dinner was then followed up with strawberries and ice cream. It was lovely chatting away with Nan and Syd anyway and I felt guilty when we had to head home again, but it's a two hour journey each way to Bedfordshire so we wanted to be able to get home and make lunches etc. for work on Monday. Nan as usual sent me home with half the contents of her freezer; a whole chicken, a gigantic gammon joint, steak for Jack and bacon. She tried to send me home with a 4kg pork joint too but there was no way that beast would fit in my freezer sadly! So instead she replaced said pork joint with a dozen fresh eggs from their hens and some chews for Barry.

Beautiful fresh eggs from Nan's hens, laid that day

So it was a lovely weekend of dog shows, a little bit of gardening and family time. Lovely! I'm counting down to the end of the month when my parents return from their latest trip out to France, I've really missed them this time and it's feeling like a really long time so I'm really looking forward to seeing them at the end of this month. I said 'really' a lot!

I'm also very excited for our trip to Wales this weekend! I surprised Jack for Valentines by booking us in at a lovely B&B Pub that's pet friendly too so we're going for a mini holiday. It's my first time to Wales too which is exciting as the scenery looks stunning. We're off to the Wye Valley; it's less than 2 hours' drive from home and looks like there are plenty of walks to explore, which Barry will love. We're staying in Penallt, not far from Monmouth and I've already planned our walks while we're there (just staying Saturday night but heading there early Saturday morning to get two full days there). I've planned for us to head towards Abergavenny on Sunday and we're going to do a walk on Blorenge mountain, so that's exciting. If anyone has been to the Wye Valley and can recommend walks, places to visit etc. then please do let me know. As I say, it's a totally new area to us so I'm only planning walks based on my internet research. I hope the weather is nice, regardless we will still have fun!

Have a good week all!

Em x



Chocolate Easter Cake

Hi All,


Yesterday I spent forever hours baking a rich chocolate cake which I then decorated with an Easter theme (called an Easter basket cake). I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I think that's only because I did actually take my time for once rather than rushing the decorating part.

So it's a very moist and rich chocolate cake, with fresh whipped cream sandwiched in between, then covered with a thick chocolate frosting, with green sugar sprinkles to represent the grass. Then, mini eggs and little chicks to finish the Easter decorations.

Jack wanted a slice of it last night but I slapped his hand away and put it safely into its container and in the fridge ready for Jack's parents who are due to arrive with us this evening. They have a sweet tooth like Jack so despite it being a rather large cake, I don't think it will take long for us all to polish it off, I might even treat myself to a small slice if I can manage how sickly sweet it will all be (give me savoury any day)! I think I upset my new work colleagues when they got wind of the fact I like to bake but didn't bring anything in for them, oh well it will be their turn next!

While busy baking up a storm in the kitchen yesterday (or making a big mess as Jack says), I also tried a new recipe following on from one of the New Years Resolutions I set myself this year and cooked something new at least once per month; I did a simple but very tasty Chicken and bacon potato pie. It was creamy and lovely and I served it with some tenderstem broccoli. It was so easy to put together and pop in the oven once the cake had come out and made for hardly any washing up either - the perfect kind of meal!

Thanks for all your love for Barry, he's feeling much better and just about his normal self again, so he sends big wet kisses to you. He's back on his normal food (much to his dismay as I think he prefers boiled chicken and rice to his usual biscuits), back to normal walks and just his usually happy chappy self, so a big relief for us. The illness cause still remains a mystery; we're waiting for biopsy results but they think the likelihood is that these will only show up inflammation and obviously we'd rather they came back clear anyway. The vet seems to think he might just be the kind of dog that has a bad flare up (kind of like IBS) every so often and it will result in a stay at the vets for him each time in order to get fluids into him because he gets so dehydrated from the days of constant sickness. Hopefully he doesn't have too many cases of it because he's a fit and healthy dog apart from that and doesn't have too many disgusting habits, though he can't say no to a little taste of a rabbit poo or two on a walk...!

Sleepy yesterday evening after a long walk and monitoring my baking progress - he refuses to go and have a lie down while I'm cooking and instead stands in the kitchen doorway the whole time watching me. Jack says one day Barry will take himself off for a lie down but I highly doubt it, he doesn't ever stop!

Right, I had better get on with tidying the house and making up the guest bed before Jack's parents arrive. Jack is on hoover duty and I'm on bed making duty (because for the life of him he's useless at putting a duvet cover on!), then we're rewarding ourselves with a very rare Dominos pizza treat seeing as it's the long weekend and pay day today.

Have a lovely Easter everyone, hot cross buns in the morning!

(Apologies for talking non-stop about food...)

Em x

Last Weekend's Cooking & Baking - Gooey Choc Chip Cookie Recipe

Hope everyone is having a good week and I'm sure you'll all agree with me that I'm glad to see the back of Storm Imogen. It's a beautiful day here today; clear blue skies and sunshine, just a little chilly breeze too. It's definitely getting lighter in the evenings now too so I can't wait to be able to take Barry on longer evening walks around the fields again rather than having to stick to the village with a torch.

Last weekend I had a good tidy up in my kitchen cupboards. It was a job I'd written on my list of "to do this year" jobs and so I'm impressed I've managed to do it so early on into this year. I'd bought a few little plastic baskets to make it easier to store things in the cupboards, particularly my baking cupboard which is full of sprinkles, flours, sugars and all sorts of sweet delights. While the kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it with everything balancing on the sides, I also decided to bake something while all the baking bits were out and the easiest thing to make was going to be choc chip cookies as I seemed to have quite a collection of chocolate!

I've probably mentioned before but I don't really have much of a sweet tooth but do enjoy making sweet things for other people. I do however really enjoy these cookies even if I only manage to eat one compared with Jack who could polish two or three off in one sitting! These cookies are so easy to make, the recipe can be adapted to include anything you prefer (smarties cookies, white chocolate and raspberry are lovely etc.) and they take minutes to cook. I'm not a fan of crumbly cookies, I much prefer the gooey type and so this is how these turn out.

Ingredients:
125g butter, softened
100g light brown soft sugar
125g caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1tsp vanilla extract
225g self raising flour
1/2tsp salt
200g chocolate chunks (or chips)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Cream the butter and both sugars together until fluffy and then gradually mix in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour and salt to the mixture, followed by the chocolate chunks. Give this a good mix until it becomes a dough, then use your hands to great a big ball of cookie dough.

Create smaller balls from the dough, about the size of a walnut and sit on a greased baking tray a sensible distance from each other to ensure the cookies have room to spread as they bake.
Pop in the middle of the oven for just 7 minutes before removing from the oven. I use a spatula to finish flattening the cookies before transferring them onto another tray or rack for cooling. Be careful if using a wire rack as the cookies aren't quite cooked and so can sink through the rack!
You'll find the cookies are crisp and golden on the outside but have that gooey chewy texture in the middle, yum!
They certainly go down very well in our house!

I thought I'd include a photo of my now organised baking cupboard; one of anyway because I seem to have so many baking bits and bobs!

Nice and tidy once more

 

I also cooked us a nice meal of beef fillet steak; it's the first time I'd cooked fillet steak. It's probably my least favourite cut of steak; it's tender but in my opinion there are far more flavoursome cuts, sirloin being my favourite because I love the fatty bit too! I did however cook these well considering it was my first time and I did them with a red wine and balsamic reduction which tasted lovely. This is one of my New Years Resolutions; to cook at least one different dinner each month following a recipe in the many food cookbooks and magazines I have! I'm actually doing quite well this month because tonight I'm cooking a smoky sausage casserole following a recipe in the most recent Good Food Magazine, looks tasty so we will wait and see...

 

Lovely beef fillet from the local Griffins Butchers in Newbury

 

 

Now that you're all drooling at the thought of cookies and steak, I feel like I've got my own back on all the amazing photos I've seen of pancakes so far today which have been making me very hungry! :-)

 

Em x

 

Chilly Weather On The Way

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend; it seems long ago already and I hope I'm not constantly living for the weekend while wishing half my life away the rest of the time! To say I've been tired and stressed recently is a bit of an understatement, so the weekend for me was all about trying to recharge the batteries a little and change my mind set.

Winter warming crumble...

Jack took me out for a 'date night' and we went to my favourite restaurant, Nandos, followed by a trip to the cinema to see Star Wars which was fantastic. Last time I watched a Star Wars film was on VHS! I then spent the weekend having a good tidy up and giving the house a bit of an early spring clean. We've almost been here a year now, how quickly time has flown, only seems like yesterday that we were going through the nerves and excitement that is buying your first property! I'm very organised (and not ashamed to admit it!), so our house is usually always quite tidy but there are always jobs I neglect through the year like wiping down dusty skirting boards and asking spiders politely to refrain from making cobwebs in the corners of my rooms. I also made a start on organising my craft area in our second bedroom, photos to follow soon I hope!

I cooked us a lovely posh version of bangers and mash on Saturday night, one of our favourite classic dishes. I cooked the sausages in red wine and served it with caramelised onions, garlic mash and buttered cabbage. Not exactly healthy but tasty nonetheless! We're not on any diet, I'm a big believer in everything in proportion, a balanced diet and you'll be just fine. We are however challenging ourselves to a sugar-free month which we think we'll start in February. It'll be no problem for me as I don't have a sweet tooth in the slightest, but Jack (aka Mr Sweet Tooth) might struggle a little. I didn't help the situation by making a lovely apple and raspberry crumble on Sunday!

I love cooking and like pretending I'm also good at presentation...!

 

 

Finally, just a quick note to say that I'm trying to make some positive adjustments in my life at the moment; happiness is so important and I'm trying to make some changes which will hopefully give me more time for myself and make me a lot happier, so please just keep your fingers crossed for me and hopefully I'll have more to tell you soon :-)

 

Em x

 

14th December: Handmade Gifts No.3 - Mini Fruit Loaves, Cushions and Ipad Cases!

Just a few more handmade gift ideas for anyone who may be struggling for ideas. All of these were easy to make/bake/sew.

Mini Fruit Loaves
Jack bought me a lovely mini loaf pan from Lakeland a few years ago and I love it! It's heavy and they usefully have loose-bottoms. So far I've only done simple mini fruit loaves using the tray but I think some mini lemon drizzle loaves would be very good, that's going on one of my lists for a rainy day!

Please let me know if you'd like the recipe I use for making my boozy fruit loaves

 

I used some cellophane and ribbon to keep my mini fruit loaves fresh

 

 

Cushions
I made some cushions for my parents' house in France a few years ago. I opted for feather-filled cushions from John Lewis, but Dunelm also have a great range with lots of different shapes and sizes. I bought some fabric from Ebay in two varying colours and I sewed a nice piping around the edge of the cushions too. This was a cheap gift idea and I loved spending the evenings doing some sewing - this year crochet has definitely replaced my sewing obsession, who knows what it will be next year!

 

 

Ipad Sleeve/Case

I made this for my Mum's friend and was so pleased with how it turned out that I also made myself one. It doesn't require a lot of fabric - I made this with a fat quarter, some wadding, a few beads and some ribbon for edging. Again, this was a very simple sewing project; I used my sewing machine to make the main sleeve and then everything else was hand-sewn. I used a bit of elastic and a button to stop the ipad sliding back out.

 

 

 

 

Have a good day!

 

Em x

7th December: Mince Pie Making

I made my first mince pies of this Christmas over the weekend and they went down a treat! I used my homemade mincemeat and barely made a dent in the first jar so I don't think I'll be running out of mincemeat anytime soon.

 

I decided to use different cutters to make my mince pie pastry lids and the stars were definitely my favourite. I did however put too much mincemeat in the pies and a lot bubbled over! Oh well, they were still tasty and sticky.

 

 

 

Once they had been baked and cooled I dusted them with some icing sugar. They were enjoyed by us all and Jack's parents yesterday, so I think I need to make some more this week!

 

 

 

Have a good week everyone!

 

Em x

 

 



4th December: Handmade Gifts No.1 - Homemade Granola

Another daily December blog post and this time with a handmade gift idea; Granola. This is Jack's favourite cereal but one he doesn't have too often because it's not exactly healthy with all the sugar in it, tastes good though.

 

Its nice to have a go at making some gifts if you have the time and this one I love because you can present the granola in a pretty jar and decorate as you like. This recipe is easily adaptable to what you prefer too or whatever you have in the cupboard that's suitable.

 

You will need:

• 4 mugs of rolled oats
• 1 mug of dried fruit (I used half a mug of sultanas and half a mug of dried mixed fruit which included blueberries and cranberries)
• 1 mug of chopped nuts (I used pecan nuts, brazil nuts and almonds - Jack's favourites)
• 1 heaped teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 200g butter (more if you want)
• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
• Half a mug of light brown soft sugar
• Dark chocolate (cut into small chunks)

 

 

Method:

 

This recipe is nice and easy and totally adaptable to what you prefer or what your family/friends would prefer if you're gifting it to them. An alternative to maple syrup is honey, you could stir in some nutella rather than chocolate chunks and so on. The above ingredients are rough estimates that I used and this filled the large jar shown in the above photo.

 

 

 

Mix the dried fruit into a bowl with the oats before stirring in the ground cinnamon. Add the chopped nuts and any other dried ingredients you may fancy adding (ground mixed spice is also nice for this recipe if you want to give the granola an extra 'gingerbread' taste).

 

 

Melt the butter in a pan and then take off the heat. Add the sugar and maple syrup and mix well. Pour this sticky mixture into the dried ingredients bowl and give it a good mix to make sure everything has been coated well. Melt and add more butter if needed (I did say this recipe isn't healthy!).

 

 

Spoon the mixture onto a lined shallow baking tray and make sure the mixture is evenly spread out. I lined my tray with foil but greaseproof paper works too. Bake in the oven at 150 degrees Celsius, not too high anyway or the top will brown too quickly. I baked mine for about 20 minutes and it was perfectly golden.

 

 

Remove the tray from the oven and allow the mixture to cool for a while. Once cool, use a wooden spoon to break up the mixture into granola clusters or smaller bite-size clusters - whatever you prefer. Add the chopped chocolate to the tray (make sure the granola is cool enough first) and mix into the granola. The granola can then be spooned into your decorated jar!

 

 

 

The granola keeps well for quite a while, though I've not tested how long that is because its gone pretty quick in our house! Enjoy! I've added this recipe to my recipe page for future reference.

 

I hope you've all got exciting plans for the first December weekend, I wonder what the weather will bring. I had some bad news last night; my best friend's mum passed away yesterday and it was a total shock. I'm utterly devastated for my best friend and her younger brother and can't begin to imagine how they're feeling. I'm going to see Jess tomorrow to offer my support and lots of hugs, though it's very hard to know what to say to make it better, but hopefully by being there I will be of some help. We've lived next door to each other since we were born until I moved to Newbury and Jess moved to Suffolk to live with her partner, so our friendship is very strong and I was very close to her family. Life can be so unexpected and sad at times.

 

Em x 

Nan's Coconut Buns (With Recipe)

Morning all!

It's been eight years since my Nan passed away but she's always on our minds. She was very traditional, liked to say it as it was (i.e. "Emma stop tucking your hair behind your ears, they'll stick out), but one thing I loved was her old-fashioned ways. Dinners there would always be some warming stew and lunchtime was always a cucumber sandwich (with a dash of vinegar and cracked black pepper). I'm very grateful to my Nan for showing me how to knit, how to make colourful scrapbooks and giving me some sewing advice too or I might not be half as creative and craft-obsessed as I am now. She was very independent (my Granddad passed away back in 1994 so she had many years on her own) and was still cycling along the busy Cambridge roads well into her eighties. Every Christmas she stayed with us, which meant every Christmas the pennies would come out for a card game of Newmarket before she'd hurry into the living room to have the TV at full volume to watch every single soap on TV! I love recalling the funny memories you have of family members who have passed, it shows that regardless of how much time passes, you'll always remember them and they'll put a little smile on your face as you do something that reminds you of them.

Almost every weekend when we visited my Nan, she would always have a batch of freshly baked coconut buns waiting for us and we'd polish them off pretty quickly (especially my brother!). For many years now I've been meaning to make some coconut buns like Nan's, so imagine my delight when I discovered her hand-written recipe on a sheet of paper tucked into one of her old cookbooks! I made a batch last week and I have to say they tasted lovely, very refreshing thanks to the fresh orange but I don't think they were a patch on the famous Nanny Skinner coconut buns!

Anyway, here's the hand-written recipe should anyone wish to make them; if you struggle to read Nan's writing (I did have to look twice at a couple of words!), then let me know and I'll write out the recipe for you. They were very tasty and very cheap to make (I bought all of the ingredients in Lidl and their desiccated coconut was very nice). Nan's recipe is to make a cake but I did the same amount of ingredients and it made 24 small buns.

 

Here's a few photos of my baking progress, they were all demolished within a couple of hours of arriving at my Parents on Thursday!

 

 

 

 

Always thinking of you Nan and Granddad xx

 

Homemade Mincemeat

I've had my first ever attempt at making my own mincemeat ready for mince pie making next month. I don't like mince pies, but I do love making them and always just buy jars of mincemeat. However, after some pestering from Jack, I've made my own following a very easy recipe in the latest issue of BBC Good Food magazine.

Ingredients Needed:
1 Orange
1 Lemon
2 Bramley Apples
Candied Peel
Dried Mixed Fruit (Sultanas, Currants, Raisins etc.)
Ground Mixed Spice
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Nutmeg
Brandy or Cognac
Dark Brown Muscovado Sugar
Beef Suet (or vegetable suet)
Empty jars!


I don't usually buy food magazines as it's much easier and cheaper just to browse blogs and websites for tasty inspiring recipes. I do however always buy the Christmas issue of the Good Food magazine because 1) it comes with a free calendar with tasty recipes on, 2) I just like drooling over the food photos! The mincemeat recipe was in their "make ahead" article and I was pleased at just how easy it was. The mincemeat smells amazing and was really fun to make. All you do is chop the apple down nice and small, add all of the other ingredients to it except the suet and give it a good mix. Cover it for a few hours, or overnight if possible, then add the suet. Mix again and then spoon into jars - simple! It's been so fun in fact that I've raided the cupboards to find more ingredients to add and make some more - I made three jars worth following the recipe. Next year I intend on being far more organised to make the mincemeat earlier so it has much longer to mature.

Chopping the apples into tiny pieces was probably about as difficult as this recipe got and tripping over Barry too - he sat at my feet in the hope I'd drop some apple (he's a fruit and veg fan).

Adding the brandy and muscovado sugar turned the mincemeat a lovely colour and the smells were sweet and spicy; the recipe just said to add ground mixed spice but I also added further ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg as these are my favourite spices when making fruit cakes and they always taste so good.

I then had to leave it overnight before adding the suet. I added beef suet as the recipe suggested but vegetable suet can be used too (beef suet is just what's always in our cupboard). I sterilised the jars using the hot soapy water and dry in the oven method - thanks to many of the lovely blogs I follow for the useful tips on sterilising jars.

Here they are all filled and ready to mature in the cupboard for a while. The recipe says they'll last up to a year but I should think just past that won't kill you - I hope so anyway as I still have pickled onions I made last October that I'm saving for Christmas and they taste just fine (again, recipe said keep for a year). I used my nice jars for the mincemeat, I'm keeping my old jars for the pickled onions I'm intending to make, when I get around to it..

Tonight's plan is to make more mincemeat so I can give some to my mum, then I need to get on with making Christmas cards; I've got so much craft stuff that I set myself the challenge of making Christmas cards this year as opposed to buying any. I've made two so far, I'm aiming to make around 30 if I can.

When does Jack Frost arrive?

After a weekend of mist, fog, wind, rain and more rain, I'd like to know when the weather will dry up and get cooler! I don't like this persistent mild wet weather, I hope the frosty but sunny days arrive soon.

Sadly the weather meant Jack couldn't get finished with his shed building, so instead we've almost finished the coving in the main bedroom. Just the tricky chimney breast to do (with 'inny' and 'outy' corners) and then it'll be over to me to caulk and paint the new coving. Our main bedroom will then be complete in terms of decorating. I'm going to buy a curtain pole (and curtains) this week, I'm getting a bit sick of our makeshift curtain (a big duvet cover pinned up!) but until we had finished the painting and decorating I didn't want to put some nice new curtains up. I did buy a book on curtain making as I'd like to give it a go, but I think I'll choose a smaller window instead of our huge bedroom ones (not sure I'll be that good!). We then need to finish furnishing the main bedroom; at the moment we're making do with two clothes rails, a few plastic tubs as bedside tables and a workmate as a TV stand!

I had a much needed hair cut on Saturday after god knows how long neglecting to find a hair dressers. I've had my hair cut by the same lovely lady for so many years that when I moved to Newbury almost 3 years ago it was really tough to find somewhere new (I instead opted to book a hair cut every so often when we went back to Cambridge to delay having to find somewhere new). I have however now found a lovely salon with very friendly staff members. The lady who cut my hair was lovely and it was a relief I have to tell you that they actually listened to what you're after. Hair cuts really aren't cheap anymore though hence why I don't go as often as I should. Jack's so lucky to be able to pop to the Barbers in the next village and have his hair cut for £5 but then it probably takes them less than 5 minutes to do it! Though the hair dresser blow-dried my hair beautifully (something I can never seem to do), it was totally wasted when I left the salon, scarpering to the car as quickly as possible in the driving wind and rain! Jack (ever the gentleman) told me how lovely my (bedraggled and now frizzy) hair looked nonetheless. We then rewarded ourselves with my favourite kind of weekend breakfast; sausage, egg and bacon bap!

I am nicknamed the Bacon Queen!

Other than venturing out to the farm shop on Sunday morning, the rest of the weekend was spent indoors (in the warm). We did brave the weather a few times to walk the dog but even he didn't enjoy the wind much! I finally managed to get my latest crochet project finished; I've made a scarf for my best friend for Christmas in a beautifully soft part-Alpaca wool. I can't post photos of the scarf yet in case she spots it on my blog! I'm very pleased with it anyway and after quite a few hours, it's given me a lot of practice with lots of different crochet stitches. I've been busy crocheting holly leaves and mini-wreaths too that I can either make into a sort of bunting or just hang in various places around the house - photos to follow once they're finished. I have also nearly finished our big crochet blanket for the bed, it's probably at double-bed size now and our bed is a king so just a few more rounds to do. I can't wait to snuggle up in it!

Jack's work colleagues love my baking so I made a giant fruit loaf yesterday which was probably all gone by 9am this morning! I always make mine quite boozy and leave the dried fruit soaking in white wine and brandy for at least a few hours before they go into the mixture so I hope they're not drunk now..

Making Fruit Cake

I didn't get any photos of the big fruit loaf but I did also make some mini fruit loaves, they're so cute! I love everything in miniature! Good things come in small packages, that was what I was always told :-)

Have a good week!