Roly Poly Mince Pie Pastries! Pin.007

This was the pin I was meant to do oh.. well.. nearly 3 weeks ago now.. I was umming and ahhing over whether to make them on not, part of me felt that making mince pies after Christmas was just weird! However, I am not one to accept defeat so I persevered telling myself that they were pastries really.. not mince pies.
Let me tell you, these were worth the wait!

The original pin led me to the BBC Good Food website. You can see the original recipe here. I'm always on the look out for new ways of doing classic recipes, last year I made Jamie Oliver's mince pies (also very yum). I thought this year I'd give these a go.

I'm not really sure what to call these, so i've settled for 'Roly Poly Mince Pie Pastries'

Ingredients:
50g caster sugar
1 sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry
411g jar traditional mincemeat
1tbsp milk
25g flaked almonds

Optional:
Icing sugar
Glacier Cherries

You'll also need:
Rolling pin
Baking paper/greaseproof paper
Baking tray

1. Scatter the sugar over the worktop, unravel the pastry, then roll it out so it's a quarter bigger, but keeps its rectangular shape.

2. Spoon and spread the mincemeat evenly over the pastry leaving a border along the longest edges. Fold one of the longest edges over the mincemeat then roll the pastry tightly into a sausage shape while gently pressing the pastry into the mincemeat. When you get to the other edge, brush it with milk and press down to seal in the mincemeat. 

3. Press both ends in gently to plump up the roll. Okay.. I may have been being dumb but I thought it meant to push the ends of the roll together as shown by the black arrows below.. BUT.. it actually meant push in the direction of the orange arrows (referring to the ends of the pastry sheet, I think).

As a result, my pastry roll looked like a squashed catapillar:

Looks kinda gross right??

4. Put the pastry in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm it up. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/ fan 180C. Cut the roll into 12 rounds, about 3cm thick. Lay them evenly spaced on a large, greased baking sheet on a baking tray and flatten them with your hand so they look like squashed Chelsea buns. 

As you can see, mine weren't the neatest slices, the pastry teared a little, so some of the mincemeat came out.

5. Scatter the almonds on top and bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and the mincemeat sizzles.

Sorry this picture is so blurry, I think my camera lens got fogged up, but you get the idea! I left mine in for a little too long, you want them lighter than the ones in this picture!

6. Leave to cool for 5 minutes - keep them separate so they don't stick together - Haha, yeah right! They will probably get stuck together, especially if you mincemeat oozes out like mine. Just make sure your baking tray is properly greased!

I then added two steps of my own:

7. Once cooled, make up some icing using a minimal amount of water, you want a fairly thick consistency. Swirl the icing over the pastries, making a blob in the middle for your cherry. Put half a glacier cherry on each pastry.

I really recommend icing them, though feel free to leave off the cherry if you're not keen on them. They made my slightly overcooked pastries really moist and yummy!

I'm not very experienced with using pastry, so I did find it a bit fiddly and awkward at first. However, despite oozing mincemeat and slight overcooking these pastries were really tasty and definitely worth the effort. The preparation doesn't take long, though you have to take the 30 mins chilling time into consideration. I think I may have been a little hasty in getting the pastry out of the fridge which may be why it tore.

"These were really tasty, I think the icing and the cherries really made it something special. It's a great alternative for the traditional mince pie. I'd happily eat these all year round!"

If you have any leftover mincemeat, or find any in the sales, give these a go, I promise you won't regret it!

Is there a particular pin you would like to see me try?  If you look on the left side of this blog under the section 'About Me' you'll see a heading 'Pinterest'. If you click on the image it will take you to my Pinterest page where you can see all the things I've pinned. Comment on this post if there is anything in particular you'd like to see me attempt and I'll do my best! Otherwise I'll choose something at random for my next post!  

Jazzed Up Fairy Lights! Pin.006

Hello and Merry Christmas! Forgive the shortness of this post but hungry husband and I are currently on holiday and have hardly any phone signal/internet!

Anyway onto this short post. Though I decided to do 2 pins this week.. I so far have only been successful in doing one! This is a great way of updating your fairy lights. So here goes:

'Jazzed Up Fairy Lights!'
Another super easy pin. When I clicked on the pin it said 'blog not found'. Boo.

You will need:
Fairy lights (I used 2 sets of battery powered lights from Wilko's and joined them together). You ideally want lights with a clear or white wire, a green or back wire doesn't look so good. Battery powered lights have the benefit of being able to be used anywhere.
Organza Ribbon or 'Tulle' fabric

And that's it!

I tried two different ways of using the lights, I'll put both here and you can decide for yourselves which you like best!

Method 1: Find a nice sized vase and wrap the ribbon around the outside of the vase. You'll find if the ribbon has been stored on a reel it will easily fit into the vase. Secure the ribbon with sellotape and put the lights in, making sure any switches are accessible near the top of the vase.

It will look something like this:

Method 2: Cut roughly small strips of Organza ribbon and tie round the lights at regular intervals. Continue tying ribbon all the way down the lights, the more ties the better. (This was the method I liked best).

Personally I prefer the second way but I think both look nice. 

I like it, it was simple, quick, cheap and effective. The lights I used weren't actually as blue as the picture, they were white lights. Warm white lights and/or cream ribbon may have worked better, but I couldn't find any! It's nothing to write home about but it has a nice effect...

Soon to come....  'Roly Poly Mince Pies!'

Oh Sew Simple Gift Tags! Pin.005

Here's my pin number 5! This is my jazzed up version of the original pin posted below. The original was pretty in a minimalist kind of way but not really me.. You can find the original pin here which will take you to the blog Simple Pretty. The blog then directed me to the etsy site where you can buy 6 of these gift tags for $10. (Or if you prefer you can follow my tutorial below and make your own!)

These were so easy I'm not even sure I can call this a tutorial.. but hey, here's my tutorial for 'Oh Sew Simple Gift Tags'...

You will need:
Card (I used left-over lined note cards from my student days.. )
Thread of various colours
Needle
Left over buttons/sequins
String/twine
Hole puncher

And that's all!

First I cut off the top section of the note card to get rid of the ugly blue line...

On the left side of the card I drew a vertical line. I then chose some pretty thread and a matching button...

And used backstitch to sew down the vertical grey line with the pink thread and did two cross-stitches at the end. If you're lucky enough to have a sewing machine then make use of it, as it will make the job much quicker! However, if like me you haven't got one, you can just do it by hand.

It doesn't matter if the line isn't perfectly straight, it gives that 'home-made' feel to it (well... that's what I told myself!). You can use any stitch you like. I remember backstitch from my school days but if you're not familiar with it, it's really easy:

I then did another line across the top like this:

Put the two coloured threads together and sewed on the button...

Used the holepunch and attached the twine. And hey presto! It's complete!

I will stencil on the names once I decide who to give them to (with ink pen, I am not ready to try paint again after the trouble I had with my last pin... shudder...). I did three different designs, which one do you like best?

As long as you have the hang of running stitch and backstitch you'll find it easy enough, and even easier if you have a sewing machine. I would advise sewing along the lines as it much easier to get a straight(ish) line. It does take a little time, so not so useful as a last minute save!

I really like them... They're really nice to use for a special gift. It's also a good way of using up note cards that would have just been gathering dust. BUT in my opinion it's a fair bit of effort for something that will, in all likelihood, get chucked in the bin. To make them more of a keepsake maybe you could write sayings or phrases on them and then attach magnets to the back to make a fridge magnet? Or you could tie them onto door handles as decoration? Do you have any other ideas? 

Double pin time! Because it's nearly Christmas I will attempt two pins this week. Am I mad? Yes, Yes I am!

'Pretty Christmas Lights'

and... 'Roly-Poly Mince Pies' - these look yum!

For some reason comments have been disabled on here for people not using Gmail, but it now works (hopefully!)

Christmas Card Holder! Pin.004

I was looking forward to doing this pin, as one of my favourite parts of Christmas is decorating the flat and making it Christmassy! We don't have a tree because we haven't got the space (and I dread to think what would happen to it if our kitty Pandora got her paws on it!)... So we decorate in other ways!

Mrs Dinner Therapy gave me my first Christmas card last week (yes she is eager!) but what to do with it? I know I'll make a Christmas card holder!

I pinned this about 6 weeks ago, thinking 'I bet that's easy to do'. When it came to doing the pin I clicked on the link and it took me to 'The Anderson Crew' which featured a picture of the card holder. Charming blog but shock horror! Where is the tutorial for this pin?! There was none!

So yes.. consider this post a tutorial for 'Make your own Christmas Card Holder', or rather.. 'How not to do it!' I made it up as I went along (as I do with most things!). I did it from scratch, but feel free to find a nice Christmas sign and use that instead!

You will need:
Wood/sturdy cardboard
Sandpaper (if using wood)
Patterned paper
Clear varnish/PVA glue
Pritt Stick or similar
LaserJet or InkJet Printer
Good quality ribbon (2-3m)
Superglue
Pegs

I decided to use another leftover piece of wood as I thought it would be more durable than cardboard. I sanded down the wood first so it was smooth:

And I bought some red spray paint and thought I'd try stenciling on the letters for 'Merry Christmas':

But it came out all blurry like this:

The paint bled into the wood.. I don't know if I should have primed it or something first? Needless to say it didn't look good :-( I sprayed it all over with the red paint, but it also didn't look good! Plus the red paint was reeeeally messy! It also looked a little too much like blood which freaked me out!

I tried stencilling the letters onto silver card, which I would then stick on the wood...

But as you can see this didn't work out either! So I tried painting on the previously painted red wood...

This didn't look good either... so I started again. I used a different piece of wood and I used a template from 'Today's Fabulous Finds' and used the method from one of my previous posts: Paint Stirrer Signs.

I printed on patterned paper, put it in the fridge for about 20 mins or so to dry. I then stuck it onto the wood, and varnished it. The printed ink blurred a little, probably because I didn't let it dry long enough. It looked much better than my previous attempt though!

UPDATE...

Okay so I left it overnight for the varnish to dry and today I added the ribbon...

My original plan was to use my hot glue gun but I found that the glue didn't attach to the ribbon very well, and would peel off if you put too much pressure on the ribbon. So I used superglue instead. I left the ribbon really long, so that I can cut as much off as I need to when it's hung up.

I'm planning on attaching a hook so that I can hang it on the wall, but I need to pop to B&Q to get some. So for now it is sitting on my bookcase. I'm hoping that it will still be there tomorrow morning after Pandora has had free reign of the lounge!

This was tricky... especially if you try do it the way it looks in the picture. Using spray paint and stencils is really time consuming and messy as you have to wait for each letter to dry before you move on. It worked much better printing the image and sticking it onto the wood.. OR even better.. BUY a Christmas sign and attach the ribbon!

It was okay, it didn't help that there was no tutorial, and I really didn't know what I was doing! I think I will attempt stencilling again when I've done a bit of research! I'm fairly happy with it though, and looking forward to hanging it up, and filling it with Christmas cards!

UPDATE... It took a while but here it is hanging proudly on the door, I love it!

Click on the image below to see Pin. 005 'Oh Sew Simple Gift Tags!'. Simple but cute gift tags, suitable for Christmas or Birthdays or whatever!