What a busy Christmas Eve it has been!
The presents are finally all wrapped….
We’ve whizzed around town and village delivering gifts…
…the mince pies are baked and beckoning….
…my makeup for tomorrow has been selected and is standing by…
…every inch of the house is decorated (something that only happens on the 21st, a household tradition as it’s always done just in time for my birthday on the 22nd).
…and Mr Darcy is ready for lots of attention…
All that is left to be said is a big fat Merry Christmas to you all!
I shall leave you with a gift… our family mince pie recipe.
Every year at Christmas my mum used to bake me mince pies, until last year she wrote down the recipe so that I could have a go at home. These mince pies are fail safe, they only take 10 minutes to prepare and have the crumbliest pastry you can imagine (I like mine extra thick… but you can roll your pastry as thin as you like!).
Directions are very simple too, when you’ve made your pastry, roll it out, and cut out 12 bases with a pastry cutter. Put these into a greased baking tray and spoon in about a teaspoon of mincemeat to each. We’re mincemeat snobs in our house (if there is such a thing), it has to be luxury mincemeat. Last year we couldn’t find it and the pies just weren’t the same.
Roll out the rest of the pastry for the tops – any shape goes, I like to mix and match.
We devour these at Christmas by the dozen. My husband is always very happy when I whip up a batch. Just ignore the vast quantities of fat that go into this… it’s Christmas after all so the calories don’t count!
Well, that’s me signing off for a few days. We’re imposing a ‘media blackout’ tomorrow, it’s cheesy movies, cooking and good old fashioned family time all the way!
xoxo
