Mud Cakes and Wine

With my birthday and ZAP birthday so close to Christmas combined with everything going on at school I slightly loose the plot early to mid December as my brain can not calculate every thing  that needs to be done. Friday - Roasted mushrooms topped with caramelised mushrooms and blue cheese served with chips Saturday - Pizza and dough balls Sunday - Roasted Sausages, Roast Potatoes, Carrots and Greens Monday - Gnocchi, Mushrooms and Broccoli with a cream sauce Tuesday - Lamb meatballs with roasted veggies and feta (to be written up) Wednesday - Paella simple. Pasta and tomatoes for the boys Thursday - Asia curry bag from Waitrose as it is my birthday. Tortellini for the boys.

Christmas week, I seem to have been thinking about this day for so long and this is what we are up to Friday 22nd - Fajitas for Mr MC&W and myself. Sausages, beans and mash for the boys Saturday 23rd  - I will be cooking our gammon in cola and we will be having gammon, eggs and chips. Picking up our Christmas box from the village farm shop Sunday 24th  - It has always been Mr MC&W family tradition to have a curry on Christmas Eve and I must admit I love this so that's what we will be having.  Monday 25th - Roast Turkey I am doing a rolled crown, roast potatoes, honey roast parsnips, red cabbage, sprouts with chestnuts and broccoli. With the usual extras pigs in blankets, stuffing etc. I must admit that I am buying most bits in for the extras, as we have three young children and cooking for 10. Pudding will be Christmas pud made by the MIL and chocolate roulade we have brought in from cook. Followed by a huge cheese board - as a family we do love cheese. A ...

Wow where has December gone? For us it has passed in a haze of birthdays, school activities and trying to get organised for Christmas. This week we are having treat meals for the lead up to Christmas Friday 15th - Caesar Salad Saturday - Picnic dinner for the boys as they had a McDonald's for lunch. We are having Charlie Bigham Moussaka Sunday - Mine and ZAP birthday lunch so its a buffet and we went to Cook and got lots of lovely goodies. Monday - Chestnut Mushroom and Fennel pasta. Boys will have picnic as they are having a party at school. Chestnut mushroom fennel bacon fusilli Tuesday - Sticky Chinese Chicken Tray bake served with rice for us all Sticky chinese chicken traybake Wednesday - Pizza and Salad for us all Thursday - Meatballs for us all

This summer the large border we created was filled with summer bedding plants. These have all gone over leaving the border looking empty and sad, we needed something quick and easy for the winter months. Then an e mail popped through from Thompson and Morgan who had a flash sale of winter bedding plants, even better they were garden ready.  Pansy and Dianthus barbatus (sweet Williams) in a range of colours, we would receive 60 garden ready plants 30 of each for £10. We spent  £30 and got a lot of garden ready plants that should grow over the winter and give us some early colour. A couple of weeks later they arrived and when unpacked looked like this and then all you have to do is plant them out. Here are a couple of tips from the lessons I lernt. Remove the plants first and not as you go along. I was taking one out and then planting. This was a bad idea as it took forever. When removing be careful, either do this with no gloves or very thin ones, the ...