Christmas Food

A most spectacular Pav...if I do say so myself!

Cherry and Lemon Tart

Tiramisu Truffles

White Chocolate and Coconut Truffles

Well the food excesses of Christmas day are over! I feel like all I did yesterday was eat and eat.... after a few days of cooking and baking and therefore just about expiring in the awful humid heat we have had. I went through packets and packets of butter (I think about 6-7 at least), tons of sugar and flour not to mention the chocolate!

For gifts I made a lovely butter shortbread and Annabel Langbein's amazing Chocolate Chip Biscuits which are my current favourite (they are on here). Then Harry decided that he wanted to give home baking to the family as his present instead of buying something which I loved the idea of. However it did mean lots more baking to do the day before Xmas. He made Caramel Shortbread and a Crispy Shortbread recipe which you can find on the Foodlovers website. If you like your shortbread to have some crunch then this is the recipe for you....delicious! I wish I had taken some photos of these but in the rush I just didn't even think about it. I also baked Pecan tarts and Xmas Mince Pies (all homemade including the Xmas mince).

For breakfast I kept it pretty easy with delicious Paneton pastries and Croissants accompanied with Te Horo jam and the phenomenal Lewis Creamery butter. If you haven't tried this butter yet, it's really worth it for a special occasion. It's pretty pricey but the flavour is like nothing you would have had before....unless you remember the way butter used to be! I also had a platter of lovely fresh fruit and some good yoghurt to go with it as well as good coffee and of course bubbles!!

Lunch was at George's and if I do say so myself, we always put on a great spread. This year I did boneless leg of lamb which I BBQ'd and served with a lime, chilli, ginger dressing and lots of lovely fresh herbs, potatoes roasted in duck fat (these were amazing and I think were quite possibly the star of the meal), a smoked salmon, avocado and rocket salad. George did a ham, a duck and mango salad, a roasted beetroot salad and some delicious mustard fruits. For dessert I made up a platter of the Pecan and Xmas tarts, Tiramisu truffles, White Chocolate and Coconut Truffles; a Cherry and Lemon tart (from Baking Dish...it was like a Lemon tart without the pastry), and a stunning Pavlova. I always use the recipe from Nigella's How to Eat book and this time used 6 egg whites. I think it looked like my best one yet. However Pavlova isn't my favourite thing and instead I tend to go for Russell's amazing Berry trifle so I don't know first hand how it tasted. 

Finally dinner was a more sedate and easy BBQ so I took some Broken Glass Jello (it always goes down well with the kids) and a Stripey Chocolate Cheesecake. I didn't even remember to take photos sorry.

So that was our day of excessive eating. I hope you all had a lovely day too with lots of lovely family time and lots and lots of good food. Merry Xmas!

Christmas Madness Photos

Harry with Santa's treats

Accompanied by a letter

About 530am....after an initial 2am wake up call and much sighing, tossing and turning

with the much wanted Furby

1st meal of the day...morning breakie at our place with George, Russ, Claire and Kathryn and of course us

Harry with Nana

troughing down at lunchtime...becuase it was raining we were all forced inside

one happy baby

Mama and pup

spot of clear weather and a relax after lots of yummy food

Neenee with my babies

me with with my babies

Grandmothers

Me with my sister....I know I know we look totally different!

George, Bobby and Todd

with mum and dad

Dons and I

with George and Russ

Baby Cooper...only 4 weeks old and very very kissable

Cousins- Beau, Harry, Hollie and Mini

Gaz and Maz

Uncle Farran (Faz) with some of the kids

Uncle Marc and pup

Moziah and Baby Ante (only 8 weeks old)

Look at that delicious smile

I know I know this is all about the photos but it's a really easy way to share them with family and friends overseas so please be patient....the food one will follow! Christmas for us started with a 2am wake up call, followed by much tossing, turning and sighing and a tiny bit of dozing until I finally gave up and relented at just after 5am!!! Therefore by 8am when the boys dads and Reubs other mum and her partner arrived for breakfast we felt like we had been up for most of the day already. 

Lunch was at George and Russells where between us we put on a pretty good spread (more on that later). My family and George's family all come together and we eat far too much and catch up on all the gossip. After we dragged our ridiculously full, bloated pukus home, and after an hours rest and a fresh shower it was time to head to Dons family Xmas. It's always so much to do on the day but as we have such a big family between us, it would be awful to miss out of seeing any of them. However we still managed to fit in a bit of the BBQ food before dragging our tired selves back home to relax and go to bed. 

I love love love Xmas day even though it's full on busy, I always eat far too much so feel like a total blimp, and the lead up is crazy. I love the feeling of family and the closeness that we are so lucky to have. Boxing Day is a total recuperation day for us....I could not imagine heading out into the madness of the the sales, where the boys can hang out with their new presents and I can eat chocolate and look at my lovely new cookbooks. The next post will be a food one.....

Guest Post by Harry my Lego

Hi  my name is harry and i am Megan's son and i am 8 years old.for Xmas I got this Lego from my Mummy and Mama and they said it was very expensive.Today we have spent the HOLE! day trying to build it. it took us about 3 hours to do. when we had finished it I thought to take some pictures and post them on here as a quest post. 

I loved Xmas day and i got heaps of presents and I had a very fun time we had a Xmas breakfast and a Xmas lunch my favorite thing was having the Xmas lunch.

Thanks for reading

Harry

  

Macaroon Cupcakes and Presents

Macaroon Cupcakes

This (and a few of my following posts) is a little late. Although I have been on annual leave for the two weeks leading up to Xmas, it has been SO busy with the end of year bits and pieces, Harry's birthday and Xmas looming (and that's not everything), that blogging is the last thing I have felt like doing or have had the time to do. So I have to do it in bursts like this so at least some things get a post before I forget where I got the recipe from or what I have made!

I made these for Harry's two dance teachers and for his lovely and amazing teacher at school. I love giving things that are homemade as I think so much more thought has to go into it as well as effort to make it. I kept the decorations pretty simple and indulged in my love for all this rainbow glitter of which I have an ever expanding range of colours. That stuff is AMAZING and can make something simple looks just that much more glamourous. I have now got a couple of different chocolate moulds which are so easy to use with white chocolate melts (no need to temper the chocolate!) then brushed with some lustre dust to give it some shine.

For the flavours I made a plain but rich chocolate with chocolate buttercream and a Macaroon with a Chocolate Ganache. The recipe was from my favourite cupcake cookbook called Miss Melicious Cupcakes and I highly recommend you purchasing it. Because she's a local girl and I like to support local business (especially ones like this), I won't post the recipe here but I could pm it to you if you want it. It's delicious cupcake and one which I will make again. But honestly, put this book on your Santa list and if you are really really good you might get it for Xmas.