Christmas is over, now onto New Years Eve

Well Christmas is over, and a very quiet and peaceful day we had.

Now we are onto New Years eve, a very quiet night it will be, we are usually fast asleep before midnight.

So I hope you all have a very safe and happy New Year.

Christmas cooking and parties

Christmas parties for my daughter have started, off to one tonight for a christmas BBQ.

Today I start my christmas cooking, I wasn't going to make chocolates this year, but perhaps I might make one batch of truffles and peppermint creams. I will post the recipe afterwards as they are new ones, so I need to see if they work.

Ho Ho Ho !!!

christmas lights

Finally at last our christmas lights are up, as we have had non stop rain for days they are up later than usual. I have 2 new lights this year a reindeer in the garden bed outside our window and a flashing "merry christmas" light on our front window.

waxing and christmas

I passed my written test for waxing, I only have the practical tonight then I am finished. Yeh !!

I was in Melbourne on the weekend, I did some christmas shopping, it is madness, people seem to think that it is christmas eve, or they are trying to get all the shopping done early.

garden, christmas and bolognaise sauce

Well what a busy weekend, even though it rained most of Saturday we were able to get the standard roses and lavender planted in the garden bed in front of our house. We have 2 of double delight and 2 of freesia, both perfumed which is a must have for roses.

We put up our christmas tree in the lounge yesterday, because I want to get as many days of christmas lights in as possible.

Bolognaise sauce, I thought I would make some yesterday morning. I got it all started turned the heat down low, then went outside to talk to my husband. He asked me if I wanted to replant our hanging baskets with the petunias we had bought an Saturday, which I did after finishing then tidying myself and the table up, I sat down and looked at the clock it was 11.40, my husband asked if I had thought about what to have for lunch, just as he was asking I remembered the sauce. With that I raced inside yelling over my shoulder I bet it has burnt dry, to my amazement it had thickened quite a lot but hadn't burnt. We ended up having it for tea last night but I did need to add some water to it to heat it up. My husband said it was the best sauce I had made in ages.

Just goes to show that sometimes cooking isn't about the time spent looking after it, it can be the time spent ignoring it !!

crunchy chicken with honey mustard dipping sauce

Hasn't it been hot, we are in the process of getting air conditioning before xmas.

A recipe for easy crunchy chicken with a honey mustard sauce, I made the other night.

Crunchy chicken

- I used 2 chicken breasts with the skin off.

Remove the tenderloin and cut the breast into similar size pieces. I got 10 pieces. Beat 2 eggs together - we are lucky to have fresh eggs straight from the chooks. Place 1 cup chips and 1 cup of cornflakes - doesn't have to be Kellogs can be no name, in a medium freezer crush together by hand until it is mostly pieces the size of a 5 cent piece or smaller. You can use a combination of both or all cornflakes - this doesn't give it the really crunchy flavour but is still quite nice or all chips. Place a cake rack on a tray. Dip chicken into the beaten egg, then drop into crumbs, push down into crumbs to ensure that you get plenty stuck on. Then put onto the rack. Bake 180.c fan forced or 2oo.c without fan. It took about 20-25 mins to cook. I carefully turned them after 15 minutes to get crunch on both sides.

Honey mustard sauce - while the chicken is cooking place 1/4 cup water, 2 tbsps honey , 1 tsp seeded mustard & 3 heaped tsps dijon mustard in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil simmer until thickened slightly 5 - 7 minutes, can take less time so watch it. Check for flavor you may prefer more mustard or honey. Tip into a small dish to dip you chicken into when cooked.

Enjoy!

You can make the chicken but don't cook it, then freeze them for a later date.

More nails and waxing

Waxing - Practice practice practice that was needed to pass my test - written next week then practical. Nails - Stripped my acrylic nails off - and re did them, now all new and fresh with a beautiful mauve glitter french manicure.

I have been very busy over the weekend shifting my daughter. Made the Nigella chocolate again today, with my variations for my eldest daughter as she loved the last one. On Sunday afternoon I made samosas and pasties, very tasty.

Fingernails

I have been busy yesterday re doing my nails. I am a nail technician - I work out of my daughters hairdressing shop -so I can do my own acrylic nails. My eldest daughter says that I do them too often, not really as I want to try different designs on my own nails.

This is a picture of one of my designs, I am not the best photographer when it comes to photographing my own hands.

Nigella's chocolate cake recipe

I made a chocolate cake recipe by Nigella , instead of using sour cream I used homemade greek yoghurt. The cake didn't rise very high so I sandwiched it together with a little bit of chocolate icing on which I drizzled over some morello cherry sauce I had sitting in the back of cupboard, before putting on the top cake. I then iced the whole cake with the remaining icing, and decorated it with little pale blue sugar hearts. It was a hit especially with the oldest daughter who doesn't like chocolate cake or JAM.

adding a new string to my bow

I am in the 4th week of a waxing course, one of the many things on my - things to learn before I am too old - list.

It is amazing what people will reveal of and about themselves when there is a pot of hot wax nearby.