Merry Christmas and a Spot of Christmas DIY

I grew up with a very different version of Christmas to what I know today. Christmas was about family and friends getting together. It was about sharing kuswar (Manglorean Christmas sweets) with neighbours and singing carols with the church choir. It was about building the best nativity crib with 'meadows' grown using wheat grain. It was about drinking moderate amounts of port. It was not drunken or commercial. Don't get me wrong, I love my current version of Christmas too. I love making our home all cosy with lots of lovely scented candles and Christmas decorations. I love the warmth of mulled wine and hot spiced cider on a cold wintry day. I love Ed's version of  the traditional English Christmas meal. I enjoy getting creative with Christmassy projects. And, who in the right mind doesn't like presents? 

The last few months have been incredibly busy and I did not get up to my usual projects like making Christmas puddings, advent calendars or homemade chocolate. But thanks to my friend Raahil, I did semi-produce a DIY wreath. Raahil is a creative soul and so is her mum Trudi. Trudi sent us some basketry willow (which she grew herself) and we used that to make our fabulous wreath. We used a mixture of foliage from Trudi including holly, and bay leaves and winter jasmine from our garden. We tried to replicate Trudi's version of the wreath but we did have to resort to jute twine to stop ours from having spasms. We intertwined the twigs, secured them into a circular shape using twine and then added the foliage and winter jasmine. I need to add a few winter berries to the wreath for more colour but I *love* how it's turned out. The photos below are self-explanatory and hopefully there is just enough time for you to make one too. Hope you have a merry Christmas. Ann x

 

Medieval England Via Morocco: Peterborugh Christmas Market

Peterborough often gets bad press for not being quaint enough compared to Cambridge and cool enough compared to London. The fact is that the city has rich history, decent shopping, quaint villages surrounding (and within) it, great transport links and a lot to offer. It is also a popular commuter town due to the lower house prices compared to Cambridge or London. This Peterborough bashing bothers me most when I attend events like the Cathedral Historic Christmas Fayre. It was quirky and unlike any other Christmas market I've seen yet did not attract the same volume of crowds as some of the other markets. The Berber market in the Cathedral square was a feast to the eyes and yet it was the same story there too. This blog post is my little attempt at putting the cool back into the city I now call home. I am also framing a Peterborough travel post in my mind as I write this. Watch this space.

The Christmas market in Peterborough had two distinct sections this year. The Moroccan Berber market (selling beautiful glass-works, painted tagines, tapestry and sheeshas) and the Historic Christmas Market with medieval themed stalls where vendors dressed in period costume advocated back to basics washing routines, falconry, knightly pursuits and sold unusual yet Christamassy goods.The Cathedral green formed the setting for a fireworks/fire-eating display led by a couple of medieval monks. The market had a spooky cool factor about it for reasons I am struggling to pinpoint. It was perhaps that whole historic, going back to your roots theme or perhaps because I thought the spirit of Katherine of Aragon (buried in the cathedral) was drinking mulled wine in the sky!

Whilst the market has numerous fascinating stalls with things my foreign self had not come across before, I'd like to mention two particularly interesting stalls. The first was Suzie and Martin's stall selling fruit leathers and exotic jerked meat. Beef marinated in wasabi sauce, venison, port and cranberry jerky, hibiscus and apple fruit leather, this stall had the most random yet interesting preserved foods I've come across. I am looking forward to using their pear fruit leathers in desserts and ice-cream over the holiday period. The other marvellous stall belong to Scott and Sally Mittuch of Natural Spa Supplies. Scott explained how the humble alum could be used as an after-shave product, deodorant and more. Scott also explained the benefits of rhassoul clay , argan oil  and the back to basics approach to personal care. It reminded me of childhood summer holidays in Kerala where my cousins and I used freshly ground turmeric for facials and freshly extracted coconut oil for hair care. Time to get over my fixation with Elemis and Kerastaste perhaps? Or should I start a section on ethical washing ;-) ?! Ann x

Lincoln Christmas Market

Like most of you, our Decembers are usually crammed with social events and pre-xmas family catch-ups. The husband is a 'northerner' and we sometimes use Lincoln as a halfway point for catching up with his family. This year, we planned one such catch-up to coincide with the Lincoln Christmas Market. Ideally, you should plan your visit to this Christmas market on a Thursday or Friday when the crowds are thinner. I would also recommend reading up the top ten tips for visitors to the Lincoln Christmas Market.

We took the train up to Lincoln so as to be able to consume copious amounts of mulled wine without having to worry about driving. We arrived at Lincoln just in time to see the beautiful steam train 'Union of South Africa' arrive from London. I grew up in India and  so steam trains don't excite me that much. Ed on the other hand, bounced incessantly. Geek. We then grabbed some quick lunch before heading up Steep Hill ( the most self-explanatory street name ever) to get to the market. The place was heaving and we moved like the body of a great bumbling giant. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the Castle from where the market stalls started.

The market was definitely the biggest I've seen so far. The stalls were quite close together which makes them challenging to get to amidst the maddening crowds. I must admit that I lost the will to explore towards the latter part of the market. Don't be misled by my little frustrations, I did have a lovely time. My favourites included the Russian Doll stall with the most beautiful hand-painted Matroyshkas I'd ever seen. I could have spent all evening just there. I also enjoyed checking out the Massagicals stall, the Neal's Yard Dairy for its humongous cheeses and other little craft stores. My absolute favourite was the Traumrauch stall with their handmade candle houses. I bought a lovely two storey house from Northern Germany (the only real estate I can afford in this recession) which doubles as a candle house and oil burner. I'm very excited about using it over the Christmas period. Actually, I might as well start now.

Lincoln is historic city, well worth visiting even without the Christmas market. Its beautiful cobbled streets, steep roads, little vintage shops and tea-houses, the Cathedral and the castle are all  great reasons for you to plan a visit to this lovely little corner of England. I've also discovered a wonderful charity shop here and watch this space for my review post. Hope you are enjoying your Christmas season shopping! Ann x

Finnish Christmas Market in London

My lovely friend Iiris recently invited us to the Finnish Christmas Fair in London. It's been nearly six years since my fantstaic trip to Finland. I was very excited at the thought of reliving that visit and also experiencing some Finnish Christmas traditions. So last weekend, Ed and I trundled down to London town for an evening filled with Finnish and Scandivandian culture.

We first headed out to the delightful Scandinavian street market selling oodles of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish goodies. I was tempted by beautiful home design pieces, yummy cakes, gravadlax and ginger spiced hot chocolate. The main bit of the Finnish Christmas Fair happened within the premises of the Finnish Church in Albion Street. We drunk lovely warm glögg (a Finnish mulled alcoholic drink) and I nearly blew my brains eating far too much mustard with the Finnish national vegetable (a juicy sausage with mustard and condiments). Sadly, the reindeer and mash was all finished-yes I would have eaten Rudolph ;). The stalls sold lots of salty and spicy licorice (very much an acquired taste), several varieties of rye bread and a multitude of Finnish Christmas goodies. I bought a selection a Finnish goodies including salmiakki, fazer chocolate, savoury bread and rye bread. Nom nom nom!(except for the licorice which was a teeny bit strong for my taste).

I'll love you and leave you with some snapshots of the evening. And, I'd definitely recommend keeping an eye out on the Finnish Church website for next year's event! Ann x 

 

 

Hot Spiced Cider

This is another favourite winter drink. Nice and easy and very warming and a little less potent than mulled wine.

Ingredients:

1 litre dry cider

50-100g caster sugar

2 Cinnamon sticks

1 tbsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg powder or a whole nutmeg

4-6 cloves

Half an orange with peel.

Method:

In a saucepan, heat the cider and add all ingredients. Simmer for about 5-10 mins and leave it to soak in the spices. Serve hot.

The traditional recipes include rum and orange peel (rather than whole orange) but I like the extra fruitiness the whole orange brings and like to limit the alcohol content.

Mulled Wine!

Its getting closer to Christmas and neighboring counties have already had their first share of snow. We don't really need an excuse to make mulled wine but the frosty weather made a good case. I love making and drinking mulled wine and the recipe is simple. Add a bottle of any half-decent red wine in a saucepan, add 2 quarters of an orange, stir in about 100g caster sugar, a couple of star anise, a bit of allspice, a pinch of nutmeg, a stick of cinnamon,  a couple of cloves and get it simmer for a while. Do a quick taste check and serve when you're satisfied with the end result.

Christmas Pudding Style Advent Calendar

My husband and I are chocolate fiends and any excuse to get more of the stuff works. Ed said he'd like an Advent Calendar and I thought why buy when I can make one. I wanted to make something different and Ed suggested a Christmas Pudding theme. I bought 2 felt sets from John Lewis and went about planning the calendar. Unfortunately the felt squares were not big enough for the base of the calendar which meant I had to sew four bits together.

I drew a template of the pudding and numbers (days) and used that to cut the felt to shape. Once you've got all the bits cut out, its really a case of sewing it all together. Once I got to the numbers though I was getting a bit tired of the sewing and decided to use the glue approach instead. I sewed a ribbon border to finish the calendar. The end result is as seen in the photo. A few finishing touches to do but otherwise my pudding calendar is ready! Happy calendar making! Ann x