An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

Our allotment owner Zwena organizes a Christmas get together for us each year at her house with mulled wine and finger food.It is great to see everyone because at this time of year very few of us make regular trips to the plots. My contribution were these delicious cranberry & white chocolate muffins which I read about on allotment2kitchen blog . They are moist and the cranberries add a tart taste to them. Another person brought this beautifully dressed seasonal cheeseboard. Zwena's home is an old farmhouse which she has lovingly preserved in its original layout...no melamine kitchen units here! I forgot to take a pic of the kitchen which boasts an range for cooking and heating.This real Christmas tree dominates this room, it is all of 11ft high! The fireplace with the library in the background A table centre made by Zwena.We had a lovely evening chatting under candle light,we may not see each other on the plots for quite a while so it was nice to see everyone and wish them the...

I found a recipe for boozy mince pies on Lynda's blog I decided to give them a try as she recommends putting brandy in to the mince fruit mix.!My daughter Linda had made fruit mince last year and I had still one jar left, well matured by now so I added the brandy to it. I also used Lynda's pastry recipe and believe me it is melt in the mouth! My own Linda had also made cranberry sauce from scratch and it was delicious( she also peels chestnuts for stuffing)! I have tried bought cranberry sauce in the past and thought it was vile,so on seeing cranberries for sale in the supermarket this morning I thought Why Not? Followed the recipe and it turned out OK, phoned Linda and she said put some Christmassy spices in to it. I added nutmeg, cinnamon and as I had the brandy to hand I threw in a lash of that too.A point of information a'lash' of anything is an Irish measurement of indeterminate or indiscriminate proportions!This stuff is seriously finger licking good and may not ...