Feeling Festive with TTDER

Tuesday afternoon I hopped on a train to head to the lovely Tea Drinking English Rose's house for a sleepover. Charlotte met me at the station and we practically blew back to hers, it was so so windy and rainy! Not exactly the nicest weather, but luckily inside Charlotte's it was toasty warm and oh-so-cozy. And, of course, we had a cup of tea straight away.





We sat on the couch and chatted away for a little while, and then Sebastian (her lovely beardy man!) and his sweet mum came in for more tea and chats. After Sebastian's mum left, Charlotte cooked us some dinner and we munched in the living room.. and then a bit of silliness ensued - for some reason Charlotte and I decided to braid our hair as beards and have a mini bearded photoshoot?? I don't know what got into us, but my suspicions lie in the Winter Berry and Prosecco crisps from M&S we snacked on (sidenote: if you haven't tried those, go get them immediately. Crisps covered in gold stars.. not sure there is a more festive treat).





After we'd calmed down a little we went into town to meet our friend Chris for a drink and board games at one of their local pubs. We attempted to play Cluedo but all that was in the box was the board, Mrs Peacock and the lead pipe so I feel the mystery wouldn't be all to hard to solve. Instead we played Connect Four (seriously, how long since you've played that game!?) and had quite a laugh doing speed rounds and blind rounds.





We ended the night having mince pies and mulled winter juice, all of us completely knackered and going to bed almost immediately afterwards.





Wednesday morning Charlotte and I woke up and made tea and porridge - bakewell porridge! Almond essence and cherry jam and creamy oats with a cup of tea and our pyjamas in the morning sun, couldn't have asked for a nicer, more calm morning.





We then watched Christmas films - Arthur Christmas and The Santa Clause - while eating all the festive treats; glitter macarons, more Prosecco crisps and Christmassy fruit buns filled with brandy cream. All the while snapping pictures and chatting and laughing loads and loads.





All too quickly it was time to leave my little elf buddy and return to Brighton. I packed up my floral bag, and Charlotte walked me to the station and we reluctantly said goodbye to one another. I'm unsure when I'll see her again as I'm moving home so soon.. it's never fun having to say goodbyes and harder when it's someone you've grown so close to.







But, next time we see each other there'll be a miniTTDER (!!!!) joining us on our elf adventures and I'm certain it will be just as lovely and fun and giggly as always. I love spending time chez TTDER & Sebastian, and I'm already looking forward to the next time :)

xxxxx

12 Days of Baking: Day Six

I don't know if I've mentioned this on the blog already, but since moving home I've started working at little cafe. It's pretty much the only place in my town that doesn't quite feel like you're in central Newfoundland, except for the fact that every single person who comes in generally knows at least one, if not every other person drinking coffee in there.

Anyways, obviously we have treats there as well as coffees & teas, and there's often homemade biscotti in jars. For some reason the people of Gander just don't seem overly keen on biscotti and tend to go for the partridgeberry scones or the giant muffins. Both of which are insanely delicious, I might add, so I really can't blame them.

But it's rare that someone comes in for a piece of biscotti with their coffee. Why! Biscotti is the perfect coffee drinking companion. I don't even drink coffee and I know that! I'd happily dunk a piece in my coffee (and then not drink the coffee and order a green tea instead). It gets all coffee-y on the outside but is still nice and crisp! What more do you want from a biscuit?

I'm rambling. What I'm trying to say is while the biscotti may not fly off the shelves at work, there are only about 3 pieces of this batch I baked left from about two days ago. So you should make it to go with your morning drink of choice. And the people of Gander should really jump on the biscotti train too.

(Recipe originally from The Globe and Mail, I nixed a few things and use this version)

12 Days of Baking: Day Five

  

My mom gave me the idea for these cookies as she was browsing through pinterest one day. She's super obsessed with it (and has finally stopped calling it "Pinecrest"), but often forgets to actually pin the things she wants to keep! So after a quick and easy reindeer cookie search we found them once again.

Instead of the recipe on the site we found, I used a recipe from the good ol' Joy of Cooking cookbook, which we thought was the gingerbread recipe we always use, but for some reason these turned out nothing like the gingerbread I usually make. My parents took our ancient copy of Joy of Cooking to the cabin and this was a newer edition, so I'm wondering if the recipe had changed or something?

They still look super cute, and while they don't taste like the classic gingerbread men I'm used to devouring I really wouldn't turn my nose up at them. 

Those tiny little m&m noses! The wee antlers! Once again I'm fawning over cute cookies. I must go and find myself a life.

12 Days of Baking: Day Four

Yet another Minimalist Baker recipe!

This was kind of everywhere the other day, so I jumped on the bandwagon (sleigh? too much?) and made it straight away. Gingerbread granola! Does that not sound like something you also need to go bake straight away?

It's pretty much almost gone now, and while I did give some of it away I'm not going to lie.. the guilty culprit is me. It's just so eaaasy to walk by and grab a handful from the little Christmassy jar my mom popped it in for me. Or take it as a snack to work. Or have for breakfast. Or lunch.

Anyways. There's all kinds of good things in it, so at least I'm not shoveling hedgehog shortbread in at the same rate, eh?

12 Days of Baking: Day Three

Guys, it's really really hard to open a candy cane without smashing it to pieces.

Just thought I'd start this post off with that. And end it. 

(Recipe from Minimalist Baker)

12 Days of Baking: Day Two

  

Seeing as I'm not in England for Christmas, I figured I'd bring a bit of British tradition to Newfoundland by baking tiny little mince pies.

Now, I've only had a mince pie once before, and that was two years ago, so I wasn't quite sure where to start. Luckily, the lovely Alice steered me in the right direction and pointed me towards Nigella's Cranberry Mincemeat and Paul Hollywood's Shortcrust Pastry. Both recipes were easy peasy and came together in no time. After a little debate about what size I should make them, I decided on teeny tiny bite size pies. Cute seems to be the theme so far on this baking series, doesn't it?

 Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), they're way too easy to just walk by the plate and pop one into your mouth. But, tis the season, right? Plus there's like, cranberries and raisins in there so that means it's good for you. We'll stick with that, anyways.

12 Days of Baking: Day One

Guys, it's DECEMBER.

Instead of waffling on about where did this year go (seriously though.. where did it go?? Didn't I just move to England or something..) I'm just going to start sharing the cookies I baked today! I figured since I do an embarrassingly excessive amount of Christmas baking, I'd post it all on the blog this year. Also maybe it will get my butt in gear to get back to blogging, I've been pretty slack lately, haven't I?

Today I baked these little hedgehog guys. The recipe is from Bake at 350 because for some strange reason the recipe I've been using since I was little for cookie cut outs failed yesterday. Three batches. But we won't talk about those.

Instead can we just focus on how cute these tiny hedgehogs are? I saw on this instagram a little while ago and decided I HAD to make them as soon as I could. So simple and so cuuuuute. Look at them. I just want to eat them up ;) 

Christmastime

A pretty, cold winter sky



All I could think about this Christmas was making gingerbread men, so make gingerbread men I did!



Getting together with friends at Christmas is probably the best part

Actually, seeing Hey Rosetta (My favorite band!) at their Christmas concert might have been the best part. There were mummers and it snowed and every song was amazing, as usual. You should give them a listen if you haven't before!

Oh, and there's me holding onto a few of the men I made.

This is where my pup can usually be found, napping in her cupboard in the kitchen. My parents are redoing the kitchen this winter and I'm not sure what she's going to think of it when she doesn't have a little corner with a blanket to nap in.

I ordered these silly sweaters for my brother, sister and I to wear Christmastime. It ended up being quite an ordeal getting us all in the same room to wear them, but they're so ridiculous that I'm glad we did.

Another one of my favorite things about Christmas - cracking nuts! (Is that weird?)



When we went visiting my Nan and Pop on Christmas eve, they had out a bunch of old photos. I fell in love with this one of the two of them in front of their Christmas tree when they were so young - isn't it dreamy?



My friend Heather made us all the cutest cards this year, look at those little buttons!



It has been unusually cold for December here in central Newfoundland this month, which I am one hundred percent not a fan of. However, when I went out to my car and saw this frost constellation on the windshield, I couldn't help but think it was pretty.



One of my nans gave me instax film for Christmas, so now I'm all stocked up to snap pictures of my adventures in England!

My cousin Robyn and I at the little outdoor Christmas Market my town had this year. It was bitter cold out so I warmed up with a latte, and naturally when my ten year old cousin decided she wanted a chocolate marshmallow I had to have one too. What? It was delicious.

How were your Christmasses? I hope everyone had a lovely time with family and friends and lots of holiday cheer. It was so nice spending loads of time with everyone in my hometown before I move. Everyone was all in one place which is a rare occasion.

Next up: The New Year and my move to the UK. I couldn't be more excited for both.

Happy New Year, dolls! See you in 2014.