Christmas baking: almond bread

The lead up to Christmas can be such a wonderful time. I think I might even like it more than the day itself. Now I don't mean the shopping with the hoards or driving around on the chaotic streets. Hate all that. It's the Christmas decorating, baking and catch ups I love. When the tree is up and the stockings hung, the carols go on full blast and I mix bags and bags of flour and sugar with towers of butter! So far I've brewed up gingerbread, mini rocky roads, salted caramel fudge, cookies and cream fudge, date, raison and hazelnut liquor truffles and my old favourite, almond bread. My mum used to make this and I've been baking it for at least the last six years. I always make at least four loaves and give it away in clear cellophane bags tied with pretty ribbons (The wrapping is important! I also love wrapping presents nicely. What can be more exciting that opening a pretty package?). Almond bread is also great to serve to guests that pop in ** over the festive season. Great with a coffee or a bowl of cherries. 

Almond bread 

Ingredients

2 egg whites
½ cup caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 egg yolks 

1 cup plain flour
120 grams unblanched almonds

Method

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.
Add caster sugar gradually while continuing to beat.
Fold in vanilla and lightly beaten egg yolks.
Sift flour and fold in with almonds.
Place in loaf tin that has been lined with baking paper.
Bake at 180C for about 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
When cool, wrap in a glad wrap and leave for 2 to 3 days.
Slice with a sharp knife as thinly as possible.
Place on a baking tray and dry in oven at about 120C until golden but not brown.
This should take an hour at most. Turn off oven and leave to cool.
Store in an airtight container. 

** A note on popping in. No one pops in when you want them too, do they? When the house is clean and something delicious has just come out of the oven, all your friends and family are no-where to be seen. The act of popping in seems to be dying off and I wonder if it's a generational thing. I admit that I like a bit of notice when having guests. I need time to pull off my ancient slippers with the paint splotches and wash all the baking dishes! But I have great childhood memories of family friends popping in when growing up, especially at this time of year. So, now that the cupboards are stocked with freshly baked goods, should I put the vibe out for a few pop ins?!?

Tomato, butter bean and chorizo salad

When I made this tomato, butter bean and chorizo salad for a family lunch this week, I knew it was about time I shared it. Last December, our lovely neighbours made it as part of dinner and I immediately asked for the recipe. They went one step further and loaned me the recipe book it was taken from - The Edible Balcony by Indira Naidoo. So strong was my love for this salad that I brewed it up numerous times over the festive period. Since the ingredients aren't highly perishable, I found it a good salad to make while travelling around the countryside to family gatherings. In the morning, I'd cook up the chorizo, cut the onion and mix the dressing, then transport them in separate containers to avoid the dreaded salad sludge. Once at the destination, I simply had to chuck them all together with the tomatoes, tinned beans and parsley. Delicioso!

Tomato, butter bean and chorizo salad
adapted from a recipe by Indira Naidoo

Serves 4 as a side dish or 2 as a main course

400g butter beans, thoroughly washed and drained (original recipe specified 100-150g butter or cannellini beans. I chose to use a whole tin of butter beans as I like them and it makes the salad go a little further)
1 x 250g punnet cherry tomatoes, halved (original recipe specified 20 cherry tomatoes which is a similar quantity to one punnet but too specific for a salad if you ask me!)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
handful flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
Olive oil, for pan-frying
250 g mild or spicy chorizo, sliced
salt and freshly ground pepper

Sherry vinegar dressing

1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (original recipe says you can also use sherry vinegar)
squeeze of lemon (optional)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (the 1/3 cup specified in the original seemed too oily)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Place the beans, tomatoes, onion and parsley in a bowl.
• To make the dressing, place all the ingredients in a jar with a screw-top lid and shake to combine. Pour the dressing over the salad and set aside for a minimum of 5-10 minutes for the flavours to infuse.
• Meanwhile, heat a frying pan over medium-high heat and add the oil to the pan. Toss in the chorizo and cook for several minutes until crispy.
• Mix chorizo into salad and serve immediately. 

Buen apetito!

Going cuckoo for a clock

Today I picked up a cuckoo clock! Yes, it's December and I should be buying for others and not myself but I couldn't resist (and it's just so easy to find things for yourself, don't you reckon?!). 

I've already hung the clock on my dining room wall with all my white picture frames. The photo above is of my Dad, taken in England before his family came out to Australia.

I love the white clock against the black (Dulux Domino). Ignore those empty frames. I do. To be honest I forget they need filling until I photograph that wall. Below is a shot from further back to give you a better idea of how it fits with the photo wall. 

Now can you guess where I got this nifty, little clock? Aldi! I rarely go there but I always check out their catalogue because they sometimes have cool catalogue items for a limited time. The cuckoo clock was in store from today (check it out online here). By the time I got to my local store after work there was only one white clock left and four or five black ones. 

Now in case you think I'm cuckoo for getting excited about a kitsch clock, I'm not the first for falling for this design in recent times. Cuckoo clocks have made a bit of a comeback in the past five years or so. Apartment Therapy has featured them (here) and Lady Melbourne even has one (here). They must be alright :)

Sneak peak: Christmas stocking and advent calendar

This week I'm trying madly to find time to sew Christmas stockings, including mini ones that I hope to use as an advent calendar. That means sewing 25 by December 1! Pictured here are my first attempts with fabric from Spotlight. I grabbed a few Christmas prints from the 'Scandi' range that they have in stock this year and have been excited to get started for weeks now.

I have made a couple more tonight in the other patterns and they are sooo cute. I'll take photos and reveal them, perhaps on December 1 when I have set them out with little treats inside. 

Last year, I made my advent calendar from red and white noodle boxes. Each day there was a different note (mainly things to do to get into the festive spirit, IOU vouchers and notes on the meaning of Christmas including Bible verses!) and 1-2 little treats (mostly Christmas chocolates and lollies or silly things like new socks). The lucky Mister and I had great fun opening them each day.

I was really keen to make a rusty bucket advent calendar last year (like this one below from Ornamenta) but I didn't have any luck finding tiny tin buckets in a short period of time. 

I didn't have a sewing machine either last Christmas so I couldn't make the stocking advent calendar I really liked (see it in an old post here) but this year I have no such obstactle. Yippee.

I love Christmas for all the traditions and the effort we put in to show our family and friends that we love them. We do this in many ways - spending time visiting or inviting loved ones to our homes, making and sharing food, and giving gifts. I love all of these things but in the lead up to Christmas it is the decorating that I love most. Traditions are so important to Christmas decorating as what we do at this time of year is often very much related to what we've done in years gone by, and the special ornaments and rituals are intrinsically attached to our memories. Christmas stockings hung on the mantle for Santa to fill were an important part of my childhood Christmas and each year we used the same ones. Even now, my mum gets out our Christmas stockings and fills them with tiny gifts and chocolates or lollies for us. Seeing them takes me back to the magic of Christmas when I was little and I just loving seeing them each year. For my own stockings, I had my mum trace the shapes of our childhood stockings (we had multiple stockings in two styles) and mail them to me so mine will have a hint of nostalgia in the familar shape.

Now that we have finished re-doing our fireplace and mantle, I am even more excited to make stockings to hang along here and decorate for Christmas (I am such a nerd now and have stashed a few decorations away from the January sales and more recent early season finds). Plus advent calendars are so fun to put together. Collecting little surprises and then having someone else excitedly open them each day makes for a very festive December. Is anyone else doing a DIY advent calendar? I would love to hear about it.

An edible Christmas

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat;
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha'penny then God bless you!

Christmas is coming indeed. So excited! I woke to Sarah McLachlan singing A Merry Little Christmas from my festive playlist and I now have this favourite litte English nursery rhyme in my head (see above). As promised, here is a peek of my edible Christmas gifts. Since we do the Christmas Eve present opening in our family, there's only hours now until I can bestow my little hampers (above) on my family.

Christmas Spice biscuits in snowflake shapes (recipe from Margaret Fulton Christmas: A collection of Christmas favourites).

Christmas Spice biscuits in cellophane bags with snowflake ribbon!

Almond bread (recipe is an old favourite and I'm not sure of the source)

Mince pies yet to be dusted with icing sugar (recipe from Margaret Fulton Christmas: A collection of Christmas favourites).

Cherry and vanilla bean jam (Karen Martini recipe from the Sunday Life magazine in the Age. It worked out in the end after a few tweeks and tastes delicious, but I don't recommend this particular recipe. A few weeks later a notice was posted in the magazine to say the recipe was incorrect -no news flash, we'd figured that out in the cooking process - and a revised version was published. Annoying - I hate dud recipes).

Ye old favourite gingerbread men. These didn't go in the hampers as they were for the kiddies we saw leading up to Christmas (recipe from 09 Coles catalogue that I used last year).

The boxed Charles Whyte Christmas collection

The paper bag version of the Charles Whyte Christmas collection.

Phew! That's it! Lots of time, love and joy went into the making of these so I hope they are gobbled with gusto. Now I think I deserve to kick back to eat, drink and be merry for a few days (oh hang on, I'm hosting Christmas Day and still have a feast to prepare!).

A big thank you for stopping by and reading my blog this year. May your festive season be filled with peace, joy and the ones you love. I look forward to sharing more of the things that make my heart sing when the silly season is fini. xx

Everlasting Wreaths

A wreath represents the festive season almost as much as a Christmas tree, but it has more power in instantly creating a festive mood and welcome for guests to your home. A wreath is a symbol of everlasting life and can really set the tone for your Christmas decor so find or make one you love.

While waiting for a wow wreath last year, I made a primitive wreath of sorts from wire, a garland of doves, red bows and a little red bird decoration. This year, I started the wreath search earlier, so by late November I had the desired plain wreath of twigs (above). With the addition of a big red bow, it's complete for this year. OTT style will surely emerge later in life.

I'm resisting the familiar urge to paint this hall stand white and trying to embrace the rustic, country vibe happening in our entrance hall. The wreath was slung over the coat hook temporarily but its made itself at home there after I realised that it would be squashed between the front door and the fly screen. I love the little white birds nesting on red baubles under the glass cloche. It feeds the part of me that desires antlers on my walls. For now I have the birds (and the angel wing decorations hanging off the pussy willow).

My wreath search was inspired by my mother who decorates a plain, twig wreath each year. These magazines helped too...

Real Living - December 2010

Inside Out

On another vein, there is something fresh and wonderful about these succulent wreaths from Viva Terra.

What could be better than a living wreath to represent everlasting life?

Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

 

Mister Charles bending down to saw the perfect tree

 If you head down the back track from my childhood home you will happen upon a small pine plantation near an empty farm house. It was here that we would go each December looking for a tree, or more usually, a branch. Dad would head up the tree with a saw in hand (not advised, see note below) and we would all stand at the foot directing him to the best branch. At home, Mum would have the decoration box ready and we'd spend hours pulling out the old favourites and dressing the often spindly branches. The magic of Christmas starts with this ritual and the smell of pine needles always takes me back to the excitement that happens around a Christmas tree. 

Since leaving home, I have had a small, plastic tree (pictured above) but this year I'm leaving it in its box hoping it will never resurface. New home, new tree. Last night, we finally had a chance to head out to a Christmas tree farm. A little different to my childhood treks for the perfect tree but just as fun. The first thing I noticed was the divine smell and the friendly faces of the proprietors. With a saw in hand and well-versed on the procedure, we strolled up and down the rows of trees looking for the perfect tree - a full shape but not too big. We spent more time there than all the kids (I think their parents were hurrying them on, needing to get home to work their way through a longer to-do list than ours). It was very exciting and felt like we were living out a scene from a corny Christmas movie! If you're yet to get a tree, I highly recommend a trip to a Christmas tree farm. I hope to make it a yearly pilgrimage.

We drove out to the friendly folks at:

Melton Christmas Tree Farm

Lot 319-391 Leakes Road, Rockbank, Victoria. 

Phone: 03 9747 1078 

Open 1st November to 24th December, 8am-8pm

Our tree this morning:

 

 The decorations were purchased in past years from Bed, Bath and Table, Provincial Home Living, Country Road, Coles and Kmart. 

 A funny little anecdote and a word of warning: Don't try climbing up pine trees and cutting your own Christmas tree. My poor Dad ended up in a wheelchair one Christmas with sprained ankles due to the little ritual I mentioned above. God bless his sweet soul. From memory he felt the ladder move and knew he was about to fall. In a split second, he thought to toss the chainsaw as far away as he could. Thank goodness he remembered all of his kids were below him yelling up their opinion on which branch was best as he was sailing down. Don't ask me why anyone would climb a tree with a chainsaw in hand. The plees of six children might have something to do with it. That fateful Christmas was very possibly the last year we went "down the pines" looking for a tree. After that came the bought ones, so full and fluffy unlike the trees of old. As decandent as a scene from Home Alone with that little something missing :)



The countdown to the perfect advent calendar

The latest hunt in the land of Charles Whyte revolves around Christmas decorations. The theme usually starts with red, white and a touch of vintage. Rustic wooden touches, brown paper and linen usually grab me, as do birds, doves, angels and glimpses of typography (especially of the French variety). Lucky I enjoy making things as I don't find much in my style in the stores and, as I found out on the weekend while on the decoration hunt, the shops are already horribly busy.

Last year it was a wreath I was struggling with but now that I've found what I was looking for in that department (blog post to come), the hunt has moved on to an advent calendar. What better way to enjoy the lead up to Christmas than a beautiful calendar? The little treats inside are just a bonus, but who doesn't like a daily gift?!

The advent calendar yearning all started with this Inside Out cover in 2008. Sadly, there was no stockist information for the perfect stocking advent calendar picured above. Some clever stylist (ggrrr) is probably responsible. Sooo need to get a sewing machine and learn to sew to make all these things I like.

Then in last year's December Home Beautiful magazine there was this printed advent calendar. Almost perfect, but it is from the wholesaler Mediterranean Markets. Poor little 'general public' me has had to write an email to them to see if there is any way to get it.

 I quickly perked up when I saw a few rusty bucket advent calendars online as I thought I could make these easily myself.

 Aspen & Brown rusty bucket advent calendar (around 30 pounds but delivery within UK only)

 Image from Boxwood (supplier not specified)

 Pottery Barn Bucket and branch advent calendar ($299, no shipping outside US)

After visiting Lincraft, KMart, the Reject Shop, the $2 Shop and various other discount variety stores, I am at a loss as to where to find mini tin buckets. This is the only one I found and its got too much going on for this project.

$3.95 from a $2 shop in Highpoint

To rub salt into the wound, I saw mini white tin buckets being used to display stock in a shop over the weekend but they didn't know where they had been purchased. There are lots online, like this beauty, but all overseas as far as I can see. I only have a day left!

On the upside, I found these Morgan and Finch star pegs for advent calendars in Bed, Bath and Table for $14.95.

The ever-smart Mrs Tee suggested I try mini noodle boxes so now I have an interim solution while the rusty pails come my way (or I learn to sew).

Tomorrow they will be stuffed with little treats and strung up somewhere. Let the countdown begin.

Update: The advent calendar is now in place and helping us enjoy the Christmas spirit. What do you think?

Full blog post here.

Waiting for a Wow Wreath

What is it with all the green, plastic wreaths out there? Where do I find a simple, classy wreath for Christmas? I've been asking myself these questions for the last few Christmas' so last year I resorted to fastening my own from a coathanger (above). What do you think? Not sure if a coathanger can be described as classy but I like it more than the mangy green ones out there. The french hens are on a garland from Provincial Home Living and cost around $15. The little red, sequinned bird was also from Provincial and was around $4 from memory. The red bows with the bells were next to nothing at a discount variety store.

By next Christmas I would like to have a plain wreath woven from twigs that I can redecorate each year like my mum does. I found a gorgeous one in the December 2009 issue of Country Style magazine by Wildwood Weaving (picture below). It has a rustic feel with a nest perched on it, and even though it looks like it would have taken time and skill to create, I'm just not prepared to pay $170 for it if I'm planning to remove the nest at some stage.

Looks like I'll have to wait for 2010 to find the perfect wreath. Something special for our first Christmas in our own home...