Peppermint Bark

Hello! How are you all? Hanging in there? It's still complete madness here, but we're smiling. Every day seems to bring some kind of school event, party or nativity. Angus needed three different fancy dress costumes this week. Yes, three. The children swing between moods that are happy, excited, tearful and downright unreasonable. They - we - are very tired and are all looking forward to Friday. But I have to say that Christmas in a primary school is a pretty delightful thing. It's hard to feel too bad about the stresses of the season when there is so much unbridled joy and innocent anticipation coming from all those small people (who I have grown rather fond of). Thank you also for your lovely comments on my last post. I wondered whether I'd overshared, but sometimes you need to be honest. I choose to share and celebrate the things in life that make me happy on this blog, but sometimes there are all kinds of other things going on at the same time.

Anyway, here is a fabulous idea I saw recently for a last minute gift, for teachers or anyone else. Not everyone, I've found, likes jam or chutney. We get through at least a jar of jam a week in this house, and an awful lot of chutney too, but not everyone is the same. Quite a lot of time and effort goes into making preserved gifts and sometimes you need something from the kitchen which is a little quicker and easier.

Peppermint bark is essentially chocolate, any kind, melted and combined with crushed pieces of candy cane, then broken up into shards when it's set. You could do anything with this basis for an idea though; add dried fruits, nuts, broken biscuits, honeycomb. You could layer one type of chocolate upon another or swirl them together to create a marbled effect. It's a very child friendly gift to make and, a bonus for me, it doesn't matter how neat it is. In fact, it's supposed to look a bit messy I think. 

To make a batch I used 400 grams of chocolate with 12 candy canes (they came in a small box of 12 from Sainsburys for £1) and a little peppermint essence. You don't have to use this but I wanted my bark to taste quite minty. I made two batches, one with white and one with dark chocolate. I put a teaspoon of peppermint essence in the 400 grams of dark chocolate for a stronger flavour, and only half a teaspoon in the white chocolate batch for a milder, creamier sweetness.

Melt the chocolate, either over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave. Blitz most of the candy canes in the food processor so that you have a mixture of crumbs and small chunks. Stir this into the melted chocolate and pour it onto a baking tray lined with a greaseproof paper. With a sharp heavy knife, break the remaining candy canes into larger chunks and sprinke over the top. Leave to set in a cool place, but not the fridge. I covered my trays with clingfilm and put them in the garage. 

When they're set remove them from the tin and break up randomly into smallish chunks.

This bit is fun. The chocolate more bends than snaps but it's easy to get similar sized chunks. I layered one piece of white with one of dark chocolate in little cellophane gift bags. Add a ribbon and a spare candy cane if you have one and hey presto, a lovely homemade present.

One batch, with 400 grams of chocolate, will give you three generous bags of chocolate bark. I reckon it cost about £3.50 to make, so that's just over £1 a bag (not including things like ribbons and whatnot) which is pretty good value.

Christmas Trees and Birthday Cakes

We've had one of those crazy, slightly breathless, pre-Christmas weekends where social engagements seem to collide and it's all brilliant but also a bit manic. On Friday night I rushed straight home from work and somehow managed to cook the children some tea and get ready to go out at the same time, so I could be ready in my little black dress for the taxi to my work Christmas party at 6pm. (Whoever booked that 6.30 table doesn't have children...) But I love Christmas parties and I work with such lovely people, so it was going to be a nice night out. I did the sensible thing and declined offers to go clubbing (!) and was home by 11pm because we had tickets to go to the pantomime on Saturday morning. We went to see Cindarella at the Kings Theatre in Southsea and it was completely and utterly brilliant, funny, silly and entertaining. I remember my grandparents taking my sisters and I to see a panto there when we were little and I always like an opportunity to recreate moments of my childhood Christmases with my two. John was dragged along only slightly against his will, although he did concede afterwards that it was quite good fun. Bella and Angus loved it. 

I did have a slight blip yesterday afternoon though. I was trying to wrestle the tree into it's stand (the bloody trunk was too wide for the base, queue lots of sweary sawing in the garage from John) while also trying to untangle the fairy lights and to stop the kids from taking everything out of the Christmas boxes at once, and I was fretting about the 24 cupcakes I needed to bake that evening for Bella's birthday party, ready to ice this morning, and I was also fretting about piping said cakes as I really am quite appalling at piping. And at the heart of a cake related panic lies a panic that the birthday cake/party will not meet the expectations of your child. It's not that she's particularly demanding, but more that she believes I can do anything and everything because I'm her mum. I said to my mum (who was there because John and my Dad were fixing the lights in the kitchen) "I just feel a bit panicky. About everything." You know that feeling you get in your tummy before you go into an exam? Like that. 

Because that's the thing about this time of year - it's a lot of stuff all at once, and it can make me anxious if I'm not careful. I keep an extremely close eye on my mental health (although it's not something I discuss much here) and have learnt to spot wobbles or blips, and what I need to do to stay well. Often it's just to simply do less, but that is hard in December.  All I wanted to do yesterday was slowly enjoy decorating the tree with the children, just taking our time and enjoying the moment, because it's a good one. This is what John did: he took it upon himself to cook all the cakes, twelve vanilla and twelve chocolate, and our dinner that night, while I faffed around with baubles and nativity scenes and slowly righted myself. After we put the children to bed he handed me a glass of wine and gave me a hug. He just knows. He is a good man.

And this morning, I came downstairs and switched on the tree lights and it was all cosy and sparkly. I piped cakes at dawn and was ready for the second party of the weekend. Bella will be nine next Friday and we held a party at home for six of her school friends, ordering some of those build-a-bear type kits where you can stuff your own soft toys which went down very well. I find children's birthday parties quite stressful and was somewhat braced for this one, but actually it was fun. They are older and more interesting, her friends, and they chat and tell you all about what they're doing at school, what songs they love, what they want for Christmas. They danced a lot and I was thankful for a large living room, so there was lots of space for musical statues and dance-offs. There was no single birthday cake this year, for Bella had requested cupcakes instead, with gold cases, turquoise icing and Ever After High cupcake toppers. She is nothing if not specific. The party was declared "the best ever" - she she says that every year, but I'll take it. After we'd cleaned up, I spent the afternoon sitting on the sofa with some crochet while watching The Box of Delights. I rarely sit down for any length of time during the day, unless I'm ill or something, but today I needed to and felt better for it. 

John cooked dinner again tonight. He made up something involving chicken thighs, chorizo, peppers and paella rice, and it was good. And as I sit here and look back at the weekend I think that yes, it was a success, but it was also a bit much. The coming week will be exceptionally busy, for the children and for me, and certainly for John who works in retail and will be working very long hours over the next few weeks. But I am going to pace myself, and I am looking forward to next Friday very, very much.

Wishing you all a stress free week. 

Tin Can Tea Light Holders

I've come to realise that crafting is one of the things I do to prepare for things - Christmas, Easter, birthdays - and that doing something creative just adds to my feelings of anticipation and the gradual build up to the event.

I've seen these tin can tea light holders/luminaries done a few times in magazines and on pinterest and was keen to have a go as it seemed like a fairly easy and inexpensive way to add a bit of Christmas sparkle to the house, and they just look so pretty. All you need is a few empty cans, a hammer, nails, and paint.

This is how I made them. First, collect your cans, washing them out and removing the labels and as much of the glue as you can. Then fill the cans with water and then freeze them, to stop the metal getting too dented when you create the pattern. 

Draw your chosen design onto some greaseproof paper, cutting the paper to roughly the size of the label on the can.

You could also draw directly onto the can with a marker pen if you prefer. Use a couple of elastic bands to keep the design in place on the can.

Transfer the designs onto the can with hammer and nail. Wrap the can in an old tea towel to stop it rolling around while you work and also to catch the drips from the melting frozen water inside the can.

Firmly and quickly tap the nail with the hammer, following your pattern. You could try varying nail size for different hole sizes if you like. You can see my can dented a little here but it doesn't really show when it's painted.

Let the can defrost in the sink and, when it's completely dry, you can paint it. I used spray paint because I already had some in the garage leftover from other projects, and it's very quick and easy to apply although do make sure you use it in a well ventilated area.

They look nothing special in daylight, but at night, with a tea light inside, they are transformed into something beautiful.

I also sprayed four cans copper to spell out the word "Noel". (It was quicker than tapping out "Christmas" onto nine cans.)

These look so festive and pretty by the stove and the warmth of the copper is lovely against the black hearth.

The bottoms of the tea light holders do get hot, so take care which surface you put them on. For the three white holders which I keep in the porch, I use those little battery operated fake tea lights which are lovely and also safer. I use real tea lights for the ones in the living room where I can keep an eye on them.  

I love that you can take something as everyday and utilitarian as a tin can and with very little effort and a few tools you can transform it into something so sparkly and pretty! Things like that make me very happy.

Gingerbread Dala Horses

Last Christmas, I was given a dala horse cookie cutter by a good friend of mine. I like Dala horses, like their stocky shape and colourful patterns, their roots in Swedish history and folklore, and find them totally charming. 

I have a couple I brought back from a holiday in Copenhagen a few years ago; a little bright red one bought at the airport in a tacky souviner shop, and a classier blue and white one purchased in the glorious Illums Bolighus department store in the city centre.

I wouldn't say I collect them, but if I were to see one in a charity shop I'd snap it up. I have for a long time wanted to make some iced dala horse gingerbread biscuits - partly to give as gifts, but mainly for my own amusement - and so today, while it the weather was vile outside, I baked.  

The plain gingerbread doesn't look particularly inspiring. First I tried white icing on brown but as you can see, it looks like a child did it and I actually tried really hard here. Those people who bang out 48 identical iced biscuits on the Great British Bake Off while under time pressure...well, hats off to them. 

So I covered each biscuit in while fondant icing. Rolling and cutting these shapes out was sheer pleasure after the icing pen traumas and they instantly looked...less brown.

And then out came the red icing tube and while I attempted to draw on some horse related decoration. 

They don't look quite how I imagined they'd turn out, but I rather like them. The red and white is Christmassy and the simple shape and decoration is enough. But most importantly they were fun to make. Not everything has to be perfect (this is a revelation for me!) and sometimes it's just enough to spend an hour or two in the kitchen making something nice. 

When the red icing has hardened, they can be piled up and put into cellophane bags or boxes to be given as gifts. Or you can just eat them - they keep really well in an airtight container. We'll be giving some away and eating the rest.

And while all this was going on, Bella and Angus were engrossed in their own biscuit decorating. After I'd showed them how to roll out the fondant icing, I just gave them total free reign to decorate their gingerbread hearts with whatever they could find in the cupboard.

I think you'll agree that they outdid themselves here. A close up is necessary so you can appreciate just how fully loaded these biscuits are.

There are personalised ones too...M&D for mum and dad. Lucky us.

It was one of those rare harmonious kitchen moments; the children shared the rolling pin and did not bicker, I did not shout, the radio was on quietly in the background. The kitchen was a complete disaster by the end of it, with icing sugar over every surface and cake decorations crunching underfoot, but we had a lot of gingerbread to eat and that is always a good thing.

Joining in with Jennifer's  Winter Project Link Party.

December

I'm still not ready for Christmas. Presents still need to be bought, made and wrapped, cards remain unwritten, but I'm feeling pretty calm about it all, amazingly. It will be another few weeks before we buy and decorate a tree but I am sneaking bits and bobs down from the Christmas boxes in the loft; a snow globe here, a few miniature pink cable cars there. I'm decorating by stealth. An Advent Calendar is strung along the banister and chocolate is now eaten before breakfast.

A while back I came across a Dala horse letter holder on eBay. I know! Who knew such things existed? It's only at this time of year that I actually need a letter holder so it's really quite useful and just the right amount of kitsch. 

I have bought stamps, of the Christmas variety - and goodness me stamps are expensive! - and also a poinsettia, which was gratifyingly inexpensive. Little traditions to get me in the mood. Soon I'll be buying the Radio Times. 

Bella's homework this week was to make some Christmas decorations for the tree in her classroom. Out came the hama beads in what was one of the most enjoyable homework sessions I've ever contributed to.

I've been doing some festive crafting too, making some tin can tealight holders. They were great fun to make and I'll share them here soon. 

Something rather exciting happened this week too - our home was featured in January's edition of Style at Home! I find things like this very surreal and always feel awkward about sharing them, but of course I am thrilled to bits, not least because we are very normal and live in a normal house with UPVc windows and a leaky roof, rather than a period cottage or something, and so it's nice to think that people find that interesting or inspiring. I am endlessly interested in how other people live and decorate their homes and so I suppose it comes as no surprise that others are too. 

I took some photos - you wont be able to read the text I'm afraid, but I thought some of you might want to see how it all looks.

And no, my house is never that tidy. No-one's is. But it was altogether a really enjoyable experience, and of course fascinating to watch how the stylist and photographer "build" a room, tweaking this and smoothing that, adding props and creating a look that matches the magazine's brief.

I love Friday nights, with the thought of the weekend ahead. Tomorrow Bella and I are going shopping together in Chichester while Angus spends the morning with my mum and John works. Tomorrow night I'm going out for drinks with some mum friends from school, and on Sunday I plan to bake and potter. World events and government decisions have caused me to feel sad and frightened this week, and made me want to stay close to home surrounded by family and warmth, cooking and crafting and snuggling. We are so lucky to live as we do, in relative safety and security. 

I wish you all a happy weekend my friends.