A little more than 12 days to Christmas...but

This might help... we can start with the slow roasted turkey!
Remove the wishbone for ease of carving. Loosen the skin over the breast and stuff with your choice of stuffing, fill the cavity with onions,  lemons cut in half, and a good handful of herbs.  Cover breast with a lattice of streaky bacon.  Rub butter over the skin.  Place in a roasting tin on a rack or a me poi (roughly chopped onion, celery, leek and carrot).  Cover loosely with foil and place in the simmering oven over night.
Note:  If your simmering oven is slow, you could start it off in the Roasting Oven for about 15mins to give a head start!

8-10lb - 8-10 hours
11-16lb - 9-12 hours
17 - 22ob 10-14 hours but it all depends on your simmering oven.

Here is a good stuffing recipe
125g Breadcrumbs
1 Onion chopped
2 Handful's Herbs (sage, parsley, thyme) chopped finely100g Tub of Cream Cheese
Chopped smoky bacon
1 beaten egg, seasoning.  Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and combine thoroughly then STUFF!

Feeling Christmassy?

We are about to purchase 'the tree' until then, Christmas is coming!  To get us all into the mood, we held a charity extravanganza for St Michaels Hospice and raised £602 - a great achievement and lots of hard work rewarded.  We played Christmas Carols while Jacqui demonstrated the best way to decorate your perfectly iced Christmas cake (wish we could all do it like that!).  After a few glasses of mulled wine, it all seemed possible.  Here she is, concentrating!

Toast and Jam

Tis the season of mellow fruitfulness and I am enjoying all those long evenings curled up in front of the fire with a nice slice of toast and jam.

So much so I have bought in a whole load of lovely jams from the Ludlow Jam Pan so I am spoiled for choice.

Choices include:

Greengage Jam

Classic Raspberry

Dumpsie Dearie

Marrow and Ginger 

Rose Petal Jelly

Victoria Plum Jam   

   http://bettytwyford.com/preserves.html                                                                                                                     

Lovely festive stocking fillers for little ones

Keeping children entertained over Christmas can be tricky but encouraging them to get inspired with baking is always a good option!

The Fairy Cupcake Book and Teddy’s Dinosaur Book are perfect for keeping the little people in your house happy between Christmas and the New Year. These books allow children to keep a note of their cookery experiences and encourage them to experiment with new recipes. A perfect introduction to the world of simple baking.