Winchester market has been at the top of my list to visit for quite some time, and leapt at the chance to go recently, however was left a little disappointed. There were not as many stalls as I was expecting, and a lot of the beautifully crafted items I found to be a tad on the expensive side. The cathedral was the perfect setting for the market, with the grounds and courtyards housing each stall.
There were some gorgeous Christmas decorations that were very tempting, and I would of invested in a few pieces, had I not made a solemn promise to myself to not buy anymore (I don't think our Christmas tree can take any more) unfortunately I didn't manage to get many good photos as by the time I'd finished skating may way around the resident ice rink it had gotten quite dark, hopefully if I get the chance to go again next year I'll get some better snaps . . .
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The finishing touches have been made to my Mum's Xmas tree, just in time too, I left to come back to Bournemouth the next day!
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Today we ventured out into the Suffolk countryside in search of the family Christmas tree. The farm was plonked in the middle of nowhere (Stanningfield to be exact) but it was well worth the expedition. The barn was brimming with the smell of Christmas, there were some lovely decorations and wreaths on display, as well as mince pies, shortbread, teas, coffees and hot chocolate to keep the energy levels up whilst searching for the perfect tree. This years search was significantly quicker than lasts years, which might of had something to do with the freezing cold temperature! Eventually we settled on a 6ft traditional tree, fingers crossed it will last until the big day without dropping too many of it's needles!
There were also some animals housed in the barn to keep the children occupied (and myself) whilst the grown-ups browsed. I ended up spending more time petting the animals rather than helping my Mum look for the tree . . .
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We had a lovely craft market at work today, with everyone with crafty talent put had a stall selling their wares, I bought this beautiful piece from Sea-Saw designs by Caroline Harris, an early Christmas present to myself!
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These are so simple and inexpensive to make -
What you'll need -
Cardboard luggage tags - a size that will fit your chosen stamp on comfortably
Festive coloured Ink pad - I've gone for a Christmassy red, but you can use any colour that you like that corresponds with your wrapping paper.
Stamp - I picked up this 'Merry Christmas' stamp from Paperchase, a snip at just under £3, however ebay and Etsy are great places to start looking, shop around as they vary greatly in price.
Garden twine - I've found that garden twine seems to work the best with these tags, and is relatively cheap in comparison to ribbons and threads, have a look in local garden centres, there are a range of festive colours available
How it's done -
1. Ink up your chosen stamp, making sure that all areas are covered.
2. Then simply centralise the stamp above the tag, once happy with the position, stamp the design on to the tag, making sure to press down quite hard.
3. Remove the stamp, and leave to dry for a couple of hours or preferably overnight.
4. Cut the string to the desired length andfold in half, thread the through the luggage tag hole. Pass both ends of the twine through the lop and pull tight.
6. Annnnnd, voila! you have your luggage tag!
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It was a beautiful day along the south coast today, and we decided to take full advantage of the fact that this could well be the last decent weekend we have for the rest of the year and packed up a picnic, jumped on our bikes and went for a bike ride to Hengistbury head, we then walked down to the beach, and then back through the nature reserve back to the bikes.
It was such a clear day we could see right across to the Needles on the Isle of Wight.
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This weekend Jason's parent came over to help with the new(er) car and to also help fix the lights, that have been on our 'to fix' list for nearly two years, I'm pleased to say the lights are now fixed, finally!
As a big thank you we decided to make a carrot cake, I've not made or eaten one in a long time, as I cannot stand cream cheese frosting, bleurgh! I used a recipe out of the very first Great British Bake Off book. Instead of making two sponges, we made one large one, obviously this nearly doubled the cooking time, and half way through I had to put some foil over the top to stop it from burning, but it was cooked to perfection!
It's one of the most moist cakes I think we've ever made, even after only a day, next time I'd like to leave it a few more before devouring it.
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A tad late I know, but we couldn't find any pumpkins last weekend for love nor money, however, this week we managed to bag ourselves one.
I've never made anything with pumpkin before and never even really tried it, so I thought a simple loaf cake was as good a place as any to start. I cut the pumpkin in half, hollowed it out, removing all of the seeds and white stringy bits. I then put both halves on a baking tray lined with foil and popped it in the oven at 200ºC for 30-45 minutes (obviously this is dependent on the size of your pumpkin, ours was 1.5kg).
Then wait for it to cool and scoop out the orange flesh, making sure not to get any of the outer skin whilst doing this. Pop it in a blender and blitz into a puree, and voila! You have pumpkin puree for half the price you'd pay in the supermarket and nearly three times as much (we got about 700g from ours).
What you'll need -
* 200g Plain flour
* 1 1/4 tsps Bicarbonate of soda
* 1 tsp Salt
* 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
* 1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg
* 255g Pureed pumpkin (shop bought or home made)
* 200g Dark brown soft sugar
* 110ml Buttermilk
* 1 Egg
* 2 tbsps Margarine
How it's done -
1. Pre heat the oven to 180ºC. Lightly grease and flour a 23 x 23cm loaf tin, and set aside.
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl.
3. Mix in the pumpkin, brown sugar, buttermilk, egg and butter until well blended.
4. Pour into the loaf tin and smooth the top.
5. Bake for 1 hour or until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Enjoy!
Next week we're attempting Chicken cobbler, stay tuned . . .
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