Here’s another yummy festive recipe for you to try. It’s super quick and super easy. Perfect for a festive snack, party table, or pudding. Mince Pies is an absolute classic.
You’ll need:
A jar of mince meat
A sheet of shortcrust pastry
A circle cutter and a smaller star cutter.
Butter to grease the tin
One egg for egg wash
Any other ingredients you want to use to flavour your mince pies.
I didn’t follow a recipe, but here’s what I did…
Grease the 12 holes in cupcake tin with a small amount of butter, to stop the pastry sticking.
Use the circle cutter to cut out the base of each mince pies. Use the star cutter to cut out a top for each mince pie.
Press one circle into each hole in your baking tin.
Bake the cases in the oven just until they start to turn slightly darker (7ish mins at 200°c)
Spoon a teaspoon of mince meat into each pie case, this is when you can add any other flavourings of your choice. I added a square of dark chocolate and a dollop of caramel. If you want more traditional mince pies, just stick to mince meat on its own.
Top each mince pies with a star, pushing it down a little so that it sticks.
Egg wash the top of each mince pie to ensure it turns that lovely golden brown.
Bake in the oven at 200°c for 10 minutes but keep an eye on them.
I hope this finds you well and you are enjoying Blogmas so far!
This is a different post to one that I’ve done before, but it kind of came to me randomly, and I thought it would be a fun one to share.
We love going to the cinema (unlimited card ftw) and watching Christmas films at home all cosy. Me, my twin sister and my husband all went to the cinema for an Unlimited screening and I thought it would be fun to make us a yummy treat.
The latest trend in cinema snacks seems to be toppers for popcorn, so I thought I would take that to the next level, and of course, add a festive twist. I went down to our little Tesco and chose my treats before assembling at home.
I went for:
Tesco sweet and salty popcorn
Lindt mini balls
White chocolate buttons
Milk chocolate coins
Mini choc chip penguin biscuits
Squashies ‘Naughty & Nice’ sweet mix
I mixed them together in a big bowl (which was actually way harder than I thought 🤣 – I did make a bit of a mess!!) I then shared it between out three tupperware boxes to transport to the cinema.
It was super yummy, festive, and just something a bit different! This would be great for a trip to the cinema, a cosy film night in, or for a gathering /party over the festive period.
We are officially one week into Blogmas! It’s been fun so far. Now that we are well and truely into December the Christmassy events are really starting to happen, and this week I had my first Christmas work meal.
We went for a lovely 3 course meal at a cosy local pub. It was very cosy in there and I loved their real Christmas tree.
I had a delicious cauliflower and parmesan soup for my starter. This was so yummy. I don’t usually go for soup but this was really tasty and perfect as it was such a cold and wet evening. It also came with the softest bread.’
For the main course I went for the turkey Christmas dinner. Now I always used to have a rule that if I went for a Christmas meal I didn’t get the turkey, I waited until Christmas day… but then I realised this year that its such a wasted opportunity to have loads of different versions of my favourite ever meal.
This was a really yummy roast with delicious roasted roots, pigs in blankets and a massive Yorkshire pudding. I also came with the yummiest homemade gravy (this was my favourite part).
For dessert, I chose the chocolate orange (one of my favourite flavour combos ever) profiteroles. These were so yummy I could have eaten about 3 more portions, haha. They came with loads of chocolate orange sauce, and the cream inside was so light. Lovely.
All in all, we had some really yummy food and a good laugh together! You don’t always get the opportunity to chat to everyone at work during the busy day so it was lovely to have a catch up.
I think its time for a festive treat don’t you!? And what better way to start than with this delicious but also super simple Chocolate orange fudge recipe.
I think that Chocolate orange and Christmas are synonymous with one another and it is one of my all time favourite chocolate flavours, but it just hits different at Christmas. Who needs a satsuma in their stocking when you can have a chocolate orange, right!!
This recipe is by Jane’s Patisserie and you can never go wrong with her recipes.
It is so simple and you only need three ingredients… A chocolate orange, a can of condensed milk and some festive sprinkles of our choice.
These would make brilliant as homemade Christmas gifts, yummy sweet treats at a work get together or Christmas party, or just as a easy activity with the kids.
These went down a treat with my husbands work colleagues and I can confirm that they go brilliantly with a cuppa!
An absolutely unbelievable weekend, one we’ll never forget.
I can’t wait for the football season to start up again!
Our Birthday!
We had a fun birthday weekend celebrating together. We grabbed lunch and spent the day hanging out together on Saturday. Delicious picky bits at Revs in the sunshine, mini golf, cocktails, and the cinema.
On our birthday, on the Sunday we had a delicious brunch together, exchanged our presents, spent time with family and had a birthday meal with cake to round off the weekend.
Oh… and we may have got a matching tattoo on our birthday as well 👀
We enjoyed a bottomless brunch in the sunshine 🌞 followed by some fun and games at a local bar, including interactive darts & karaoke.
A lovely family holiday to Norfolk.
We stayed in a lovely air bnb cottage in Norfolk. We went along with my mother in law, brother in law, my husbands Auntie, Cousin, and Grandad. We had a lovely time chilling out, cooking together, exploring nearby towns and Norwich City, walks (weather permitting), and we even hired a boat, which was a highlight!
& I saw some bats, which was epic.
Going to see Take That live!
I will always love seeing Take That live! No one does it better. I can’t believe that this was the 7th time I’ve seen them love!!
Another fun month! And we are almost halfway through the year!!! Madness.
I took my nephew to the cinema a couple of times in March. They are my little cinema buddies after all. We watched Migration & Kung Fu Panda 4.I went to the football a few times this month. We go with my Dad and I share a season ticket with my sister. The bottom photo is from the women’s match, this was the first time they had played at the stadium, and it was a great game 5-0We celebrated ‘World Book Day’ at work – I dressed up as Harry Potter ⚡️We celebrated ‘Mothers Day’ with our traditional homemade afternoon tea. I made a Victoria Sponge, topped with buttercream and a Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake! Me & Mum also went out for a nice lunch at a nearby cafe/garden centre.We celebrated my Uni friends’ baby shower this month, too!! It was lovely to celebrate and catch up.WE FINALLY HAVE NEW FLOORING AND WERE ABLE TO MOVE BACK INTO OUR HOME !!We enjoyed a fun (& delicious) Easter Sunday! With our traditional Chinese for dinner.
& finally,
We watched Mark Watson, the comedian in our hometown. I bought these tickets for my husband, for Christmas! He has seen Mark Watson a few times and really enjoys his comedy. I myself hadn’t seen him live before but he was very funny and I would definitely watch him live again. We got to meet him afterwards, too, and get a signed copy of his book.
I’ve always enjoyed doing a few ‘baking’ recipes on here, every now and then, particularly at Easter time.
All that delicious Easter chocolate in the shops or that you may receive can be put to good use by yourself or your small people – it’s super easy and great fun too!
So what is Easter Bark you say?
Well it’s shards of decorated chocolate.
And here’s how it’s done (by us anyway)
Ingredients
X2 large bars of Milk Chocolate
X2 large bars of white chocolate
Sprinkles
A selection of your favourite Easter chocolates to adorn
Recipe
Prep a baking tray with a lining of baking parchment, make sure it covers the sides of your baking tray a little too, not just the bottom.
Melt your different chocolates (we went for milk and white for the kids – dark would also be delicious) in separate bowls over water (or in the microwave)
When the chocolate that you wish to have as your base is ready (ours was milk), pour that into the baking sheet and spread out so it covers the bottom in an even layer. Don’t spread it too thin.
Drizzle over the other chocolate/s that you’ve melted (our white chocolate) either yourself or the children need a cocktail skewer to swirl the chocolate carefully to create the marbled effect.
Adorn with your sprinkles and chosen Easter Chocolate, trying to evenly distribute it throughout.
Pop into the fridge (or freezer if you are impatient like us!! 😂)
Once it is fully solidified, break it up into shards and ENJOY!
Super easy, fun & delicious! Perfect for occupying the kids this Easter hols – my nephews and niece loved it (especially the eating part!)
This Feb Half Term, we embarked on our latest Italian adventure, this time in Northern Italy. This trip was sort of inspired by our 2020 Italy trip that never was (thanks, Covid!)
We changed the plans a little from the original idea, as we only had a week half term instead of the Summer Hols, but we knew we wanted to travel around more of Northern Italy. I found some cheap flights to and from Verona, and we went from there.
Let’s see what we got up to!
Day 1 – Travelling to Italy
Sat 17th – Today was mainly spent travelling to Italy. It was pretty uneventful (and actually an ok flight, and that’s coming from someone who isn’t very fond of flying)
We arrived in Verona at 7 pm and after a short bus ride and a check-in at our hotel we went in search of food.
The little Pizzeria (Rio’s) that we found nearest to our hotel did not disappoint. It was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had in Italy.
Day 2 – Verona
Sun 18th – Today, we spent the day in Verona, exploring the town.
We did lots of walking.
We had a short tour of the Verona Arena, which was really cool!
It’s the best preserved Arena in Italy!
The Arena was probably my favourite ‘sight’ of the trip.
In the early evening, we travelled to Lake Garda, the next destination of our trip.
Day 3 – Lake Garda
Mon 19th – Today, was we visited Salo in Lake Garda.
It is home to the longest promenade in Italy.
& it is very beautiful.
They also do a bangin’ sandwich. This was an insanely good lunch. That bread 🤤
We had a lovely time walking up and down the promenade as well as looking through the city streets.
We rounded off the day with a delicious dinner, Caprese, Rosemary Foccacia, Risotto, and Tiramsu – so good.
Day 4 – Lake Garda
Tues 20th – We started off Day 4 with another yummy breakfast at our lovely B&B before we headed off to get our bus tickets for the day.
We didn’t realise a market was on, and it was quite extensive. There were some amazing food stalls, including fruit, veg, soooo much cheese and meats.
We decided to pick up some bits and create our own lunch. We chose a delicious fresh tomato, a fresh ball of Mozzarella, a fresh Foccacia, and some amazing strawberries. Delicious.
These made a yummy picnic.
In the afternoon, we headed off to explore another part of Lake Garda – Sirmione.
They are known for their delicious gelato, so we had some in the sunshine when we arrived!
We then had a walk through the castle and town on our way to the ruins of a Roman villa. There was a museum and the ruins itself so that was really interesting to see.
The ruins were so vast.
Once again, the weather was amazing.
We went back to freshen up before having a delicious dinner and a chilled evening in our room.
Day 5 – Milan
Wed 21st – Today we travelled to Milan! We were sad to leave our lovely accommodation in Garda.
Milan Centrale Station is massive! It gives Grand Central Station NYC Vibes for sure.
We spent the day doing LOTS of walking around Milan, seeing the city on foot, there is some cool architecture and graffiti. We picked up some more delicious ice cream, and we went to the Leonardo Di Vinic museum to round off the day.
We had these incredible crepes for dessert from those amazing Gelatoria that we discovered first in Verona.
Day 6 – Milan/Verona
Thurs 22nd – Today, we travelled back to our starting point, Verona, for our final leg of the trip!
Once we made it back Verona (after a 40 min delay at Milan) we freshened up and spent some time just chilling/reading in our hotel room.
It rained in the evening, so we just ventured out nearby to get some food. We didn’t stay out for long before heading back and watching a film in bed.
Day 7 – Verona
Fri 23rd – Today was the only day it rained pretty much all day. We had been so lucky with the weather so far. Typically, we had our Verona Walking Tour.
We didn’t let the rain dampen our spirits and we both thoroughly enjoyed the tour of the city. It was so interesting and Verona is such a beautiful place.
Booking a tour is well worth it!
We grabbed a spot of lunch from a place near the end of the tour, as recommended by our tour guide. The fresh pasta was delicious, and the tiramisu was insannnne.
We were very glad to have such a lovely shower in our hotel room because we were freeeeeezing 🥶 after walking back in the rain.
And of course, we had another delicious dinner to round off the day!
Day 8 – Verona
Sat 24th – Today was our last full day 🥲
The weather was beautiful, which was great for our final day. We headed over to a cafe that we heard was really nice. We had yet another delicious coffee and pastry.
We spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon looking around the castles museum – it was really interesting with our audio guide, and at the top, you get soke beautiful views of Verona.
After all that exploring and walking around, we enjoyed a lazy afternoon in the hotel.
In the evening…
WE WENT TO VENICE!!! My favourite 😍
It was beautiful as always ❤️
We had a delicious pasta dinner when we arrived…
… before heading to our favourite gelatoria!! 🍨 Su So is incredible. We had to squeeze some in for dessert.
It was buzzing in Venice as it was the Venice Carnival that weekend.
Venice is truly unique.
I love sitting by the Grand Canal. It’s so peaceful.
💗
Day 9 – Home time
Sun 25th – Today, it was time to go home!
We enjoyed a nice walk into the city centre of Verona to find a nice cafe for breakfast again. We really enjoyed doing this the day before.
We had a final delicious coffee, pastry (and Lasagne for Tim 🤣)
We then had a walk around a bit more, including the arena before heading back to make our way to the airport.
We had such a brilliant trip and it was great to see so many new parts of our favourite country.
I finished off our Christmas Day dessert with a dark chocolate glaze and some festive sprinkles!
Fun with my Niece, giving her her Christmas Eve box and baking some festive CupcakesOur Christmas eve meet up tradition with our friend Demi. We went to a little cafe this year as our usual spot Byron closed down 🥲
Me and my sister watched ‘It’s a wonderful life’ at the cinema
One of my favourite traditions -In the evening, we drove around our local area and looked at the Christmas lights. We found loads of awesome ones.
I have my Nephews their Christmas Eve boxes, and they put out their bits for Santa and the Reindeer before bed!
We had a delicious picky dinner of a baked camembert with tiger bread 😍 whilst we watched the ‘Miranda Christmas Special’ on TV.
All that’s left to do when I get home is to put out my stocking and tuck into bed with my Christmas pyjamas!
Roseanne Byford 