Future Mince Pies....!!!

I do believe one of my favourites nibbles during the Chistmas period has to be a real good mince pie, warm, not cold with some vanilla flavored whipped cream on the side..................who i am kidding, lots of cream all over the pie :D

Yesterday I made up my Christmas mince, oh the smells of fruit & spices & brandy all mixed into one Yummmmmmm!!!!!!

Here's a peek at the whole operation

I make it around this time every year & try desperately hard not to dig in before the whole mince pie eating season begins, not an easy task I'll have you know, requires a lot of fortitude from the entire family!!

But we scrape by, somehow!!!  The recipe i use is from good ol Delia Smith, always a winner with Christmas recipes. I'm sure it could be found online, fortunately for me one of my sweet daughters bought this book for me two years ago & it is def a treasure.

Also did a bit of scone baking, to complement some plum jelly i threw together last week, actually i'm a bit afraid to step on my scales at the moment as its been quite an inactive time for me, Tae bo beckons in the not too distant future!!!!!!

Back to the scones, they sure was goooooooood heh heh!!!

Washed down of course with multiple coffees.

I absolutely have to give you the recipe for these scones. It is the simplest scone recipe ever & quite possibly one of the nicest i've tried, its from an old Womans Weekly mag.....

375g self raising flour

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1/4 teasp salt

30g butter

300ml low fat milk

1.  Preheat oven to 240/220 fan assisted, Grease deep square cake tin.

2. Sift flour, sugar & salt into a large bowl, rub in butter with fingertips.

3. Make weel in centre of flour mixture, add milk & mix to a sticky soft dough.

4. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface, knead quickly & lightly until smooth ( don't overdo the kneading, a v light one is all thats required )

5. roll out to 2cm tickness & cut out rounds

6. Place rounds side by side, just touching, in prepared tin, brush tops with a little milk.

7. Bake in oven for approx 15 mins ( i find 12 is enough in my oven as it tends to be a wee bit hotter)

And thats it, enjoy with real butter, jam, cream whatever you fancy

 Before I sign off for today, i want to show you this treasure i found in our church thrift shop last week. As you know i want to open an etsy shop, real soon, haven't really had the energy to do much sewing yet, but today i will be making my first bag with some of these....

Beautiful pieces of tweed fabrics, not a lot of yardage but certainly enough to do some real winter style patch work designs......coming sooooooooon!!!!!!

Aren't they delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope to do one today, will post it this week with a bit of luck.

Well my crochet hooks are beckoning, ripple is growing up fast, where does the time go eh!!!

wasn't so long ago it was just a chain of stitches.

Love you guys & thanks for all your sweet comments

Karen Xx