Christmas biscuit practice

So all the talk about Christmas and homemade Christmas snacks made me hungry for my Christmas biscuits so I just HAD to whip up a test batch. I found a family of gingerbread people biscuit cutters in Sainsburys for the bargain price of £1.75 and although the mixture comes out quite wet the shapes turned out better than I expected. I then dipped them in some

New Christmas Wreath

As part of my preparation for Christmas I've been thinking about the massive list I need to write of things that need to be done at home in readiness for the Christmas period. Christmas is a very special time of year for our family but even more so this year as it's L's first proper Christmas and we have two special guests coming for Christmas lunch; Grandma & Grandad R (B's parents). It will be the first time that we have had guests for Christmas lunch and I has a lot of hard work ahead of her as she tries to come close to Grandma R's wonderful Christmas roasts!

There will be more blogging about Christmas dinner as time draws near, but in terms of preparing the house I need to start at the very beginning; the front door and the Christmas Wreath.

B's Chocolate Factory

Today I want to share with you my favourite recipe of Christamas Chocolates by master chocolatier Marc Demarquette which I found on the UKTV Food website. This recipe is by far the easiest and nicest recipe I found. The taste little Christmas and your home will smell simply beautiful.

One batch (depending on how you cut them) can make loads of chocies! I must have made about 10 batches of these a couple of years ago, at least one batch ended up being "tested" for quality!

You won't find many people who don't love chocolate, especially at Christmas time. I simply cut the chocolate in squares, wrapped them in some cellophane and put them in a small wedding favours box. It was simply and effective, but you could really go to town and decorate the chocs with nuts, candid peel, mazipan, sprinkles, more chocolate! You could even write little Christmas messages on them.

Christmas Chocolates - http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/597280

Mmm biscuits...

This week I have been thinking about homemade Christmas presents and what I have made in the past. My most favourite thing to make was some Christmas chocolate truffles and some Christmas Spice Biscuits. They went down a storm. It took a little trial and error to find the perfect biscuits but the best recipe I found was from the So Feminine website. They are nice and chewy and just the right combination of Christmassy spices. I topped mine with melted dark chocolate (the perfect partner to gingery spices) and sprinkles.

Why not whip up a few batches? They could make the perfect gift for older relatives, especially when presented in a nice glass jar with a big red gingham bow on top. 

Perfect Christmas Biscuits - http://cooking.sofeminine.co.uk/w/recipe/r804/christmas-biscuits.html

84 day's to go...

Phew, sure is hot here for October. But with just 84 days to go until Christmas arrives I need to be thinking about Christmas shopping and crafting, not BBQ's and ice creams!

As this is only L's second Christmas we are still trying to work out what Christmas should be like for the Freckle family. Both M and myself have traditions from our own families, but would also like to make our mark as a family by creating our own traditions.