Merry Christmas everyone.

I hope everyone has a lovely time tomorrow and the best of luck for the new year. :) 

An Imbolc cake. Updated many times.

Ok, so its a Christmas cake that I didn't have time to make in advance, I had all of the ingredients, but I didn't have the time. So I thought it would be a nice idea to make it now, while I have a day to do it, and time to feed it brandy ready for Imbolc. So far I've got the fruits soaking in brandy, waiting until I've found a big enough cake tin. I know that my dad has one but he is currently in Scotland.

30 minutes later: I've added the flour, salt and spices and it smells amazing. 

2 and a half hours later: And finally, finally! I got the tin from my dads house and it's now in the oven. It went in at 7 pm and its going to come out about 11:30. :/ I hope I haven't over filled the tin.... Or added too much brandy.

I am going to be tired at work tomorrow. 

I would like to thank my other half for cutting out and arranging the grease-proof paper for me, for driving me to my dads and for possibly being the one to remove the cake from the oven when I've passed out from exhaustion.

Ta dah! 

Parsnip. Updated.

I dug up my first parsnip of the year today. Its a big one. :) 

When I was cleaning it up and chopping off the rust I noticed that my parsnip had a little friend. I painstakingly put him on some foliage and popped him in the compost pile.  

I put the pen next to them so that you can see the size of the thing. 

That one parsnip filled the tray completely, and a bit too much to be honest. 

So after putting it in a bigger tray I added olive oil and salt, and I'm going to make parsnip mash and lamb ribs. :) 

                                   
                                       And then I'll start wrapping some Christmas presents.

Update:

I really, really liked this. I added orange juice, plain yogurt and a tiny bit of milk to make the mashed parsnip a little bit more runny. 

I looked out of the window while I was cooking and I saw the most beautiful sunset. The photo doesn't really do it justice, the sky was so, so pink and just beautiful.  

Can't think of a title.

It took me ninety minutes to get home today! NINETY MINUTES TO TRAVEL ABOUT FIVE MILES! Within sight of the house I heard a very loud, sad meow and I ended up helping a young cat climb down out of a tree and when I got through the front door I discovered that a nice lady that I have never met had sent me some mashua tubers in the post for absolutely free. :)

Well, I guess that's one way to deal with cocoa...

But its actually a precaution against the bird flu that is unfortunately floating across Europe.

My girls have all moved into my greenhouse for the next 30 days.

We'll have to carry them into their coop at night but it could be worse, and they seem happy enough.

Cocoa.

We need to trim cocoas wings.

We really need to trim cocoas wings.  

A bit early.

We've decorated our house for Christmas, its a bit earlier than I would have liked, but that's life.

I've bought some really. really cute decorations this year. :D 

Chicken Breakfast.

I made the chickens some porridge with water, scratch, grapes and mineral boost. I also gave them a huge head of spring cabbage but unfortunately my phone ate the picture. Its important to give them nice things when its cold out. They need the extra calories and it cheers them up. 

I made myself some grape porridge too. :)