Twelfth Night Sausage Rolls: Using Up Christmas Leftovers

It's Twelfth Night; tomorrow we celebrate Epiphany - the visit of the Magi to the Baby Jesus - and the end of the Christmas season. Tradition has it that all Christmas decorations must come down tonight, though our Nativity set will remain until we've had our Epiphany party tomorrow. And I've heard people say that today is the day to finish off all Christmas food in the house. I'm fairly certain we won't manage that, having four selection boxes, a stollen, a massive panettone, oodles of chocolate coins, pandoro, a Christmas pudding, and a tub of Celebrations still left to consume! However, if you're looking for a way to use up the remnants of the mincemeat, and can't face another mince pie, you've come to the right place.

Here is my recipe for Twelfth Night Sausage Rolls, though they can be quite happily enjoyed at any time over the Christmas period. We munched our way through them on New Year's Day, so quickly, in fact, that we only had two and a half left when I remembered that I wanted to photograph them! They are moist, and lightly spiced, with gentle Christmas flavours on the inside, and crisp, golden pastry on the outside. Perfect for a snack or light meal whilst catching up on the Christmas telly you missed.

Oops - forgot to do a fancy photo, because they just smelled so inviting!

Christmas Cooking with the Kids

Yeah! Biscuit Art!

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I'll make Christmas cookies with the girls, I thought. That'll be a wonderfully relaxing time for us all.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That's me laughing hysterically, by the way.

Various events conspired against me, and we didn't end up getting started until nearly 4 o'clock, and M hadn't had a nap, despite being up since 5, so what - in my imagination - was going to be a delightful activity, where we bonded and laughed, and made beautiful biscuit masterpieces, actually turned out to be B having a lovely time, whilst I tried to stop M from eating the dough, throwing it on the floor, stealing B's cutters, and destroying the table with her rolling pin! Let's just say that, though I saved the table, I'm fairly certain we're going to find cookie dough in various crevices of the kitchen for months to come.

Day 14 - Rationing Challenge

Today was Father's Day. We contemplated finishing the Ration Challenge a day early so that we could just concentrate on the Hubby and give him so tasty food, but then I thought about all those people who celebrated during the War and made the most of what little they had. Having not used much sugar over the past fortnight, I had plenty of that left, and we even had some butter left last week, so I found a wartime Chocolate Cake recipe. I used butter instead of margarine, because I could. And made a chocolate fudge topping with a bit of milk and some of our remaining chocolate rations, instead of the odd chocolate spread recipe I found that contained flour. I contemplated making mock cream, for the look of things, and decided against it, because it was just too weird. During the War people often saved up their rations for celebrations. Neighbours would club together to provide sugar and fats for wedding cakes; children would arrive at birthday parties with packets of sugar as gifts to replace the rations used on party food.

 

Breakfast

Porridge & honey; tea; milk

Lunch

A brilliant picnic, consisting of bacon sandwiches, cheese & chutney sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, fruit, pickled onions, chocolate cake, orange juice for the kids, and ginger beer for the grown ups. We didn't feel at all deprived. 

Tea
Macaroni cheese with braised cabbage & bacon, broccoli and spinach.

 

 This was a hit! Both girls finished their plates - well, almost. M refuses to touch leaves! Today was a good day for food, and left us finishing our Ration Challenge on a high. Perhaps this rationing business is something we can carry on with. If the Hubby can stop urging me to let him have a Domino's!!

Remaining Rations

Sugar - 2lb 31.5oz 30.6oz 28.5oz

Margarine - 1lb 14oz 11oz 10oz

Bacon/Ham - 12oz 9.1oz 5.8oz FINISHED

Cheese - 11oz 7.5oz 6.5oz 5.5oz 4oz 3oz FINISHED

Lard - 6oz 5.7oz 5.3oz 4.3oz 4oz
Vegetable suet - 2oz 

Tea - 4oz 3.5oz 3.1oz 2.7oz 2.5oz 1.8oz 1.3oz

Meat - 24oz ALL COOKED

Butter - 8oz 7.7oz 7.4oz 7oz 6.5oz 1.3oz FINISHED

Milk - 20pints 17.65pints 15.6pints 13.6pints 11.75pints 9.5pints 7.9pints

Sweets/Chocolate - 12oz 10.7oz 10.1oz 8.6oz 7.45oz 3.95oz

Marmalade - 1lb 15oz 13.5oz

Jam - 8oz 6.5oz 3.5oz

Eggs - 8 6 4  FINISHED

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Rationing Challenge - Day 2

With sugar and jams rationed, people had to find other ways of sweetening their food. The use of honey as a sweetener increased during the war, as it wasn't rationed. Beekeepers were given extra sugar rations, officially to use to feed the bees, but coincidentally, the number of beekeepers in the UK increased! Bees are also important for pollination, which was of a greater necessity with all the extra crop growing going on. Today we've used honey instead of some of our jam and sugar.

Breakfast 

Porridge with jam/honey

Cup of tea for me; milk for the girls

Mid-Morning

The girls shared an apple; I had another cup of tea. 

               

We did some more baking today - honey biscuits, which are quite delicious. 

Rationing Challenge - Day 1

During the war, most workers ate at work in canteens, or at cafés near to where they worked. This meant their rations would go further at home. The Hubby was out at work today, and B had gone with my parents to visit her cousin. M and I missed them. She kept walking around the house, calling out B's name. It felt pretty quiet, and it's been so much harder to get stuff done when I have had to do all the entertaining that B normally does! The upside of it just being M and me today is that our rations will go further this week!  

Breakfast

B & Me: Toast with butter and marmalade 

The Hubby & M: Porridge with jam

Grown ups: Cup of tea each - 1tbsp milk

Girls: 1/4 cup milk each

Mid-MorningThis is when I got hungry. Breakfast was not enough. I usually have eggs or mushrooms, so I need to get some more protein into tomorrow's breakfast. It could also be psychological, in that I suddenly realised I couldn't just find something to snack on and that got me thinking about it. Instead, I had another cup of tea (1tbsp milk) and made some Wartime Scotch Shortbread (4oz margarine, 2oz sugar), to keep my mind off eating.

M had another 1/4 cup of milk and half an apple. 

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

M's first birthday party was at the weekend. We had fireworks and soup and hot dogs and glow stick games. It was such a fantastic party. I gave cupcakes as the adult favours - Toffee Apple and Pumpkin Pie. I searched all over for a pumpkin cupcake recipe and couldn't find one I liked, so I had to make one up. Here it is, in case you are in the same predicament.

This recipe made 12 beautifully fluffy cupcakes, and oh, they were delicious!

For the cakes:

• Melt 125g butter over a low heat. Once melted, turn up the heat a bit and cook until the butter turns golden. Strain into a bowl and discard the burnt bits. Set aside.

NOTE: Use a metal sieve or tea strainer - plastic ones will melt, as I learned the hard way!

Mamatography 33 - Keeping Up With The Bake Off

 

Banoffee Swiss Roll - proud of my first Swiss Roll! Only a tiny crack. Too much filling though. 

Individual Boiled Fruit Cakes - perfect for Christmas gifts. 

Savoury Biscuits - Gluten Free, cheesey. Packed with protein!

I've fallen way behind and I haven't even watched episode 3 of the Bake Off. I have to focus on my children, though, no matter how much I love my baking!

This post is part of the Mamatography 2014 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.

We are taking (at least) a photo a day, a collage or a picture each week to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

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Mamatography 31 - Keeping Up with The Bake Off

The Great British Bake Off is back. We love it in our house. And this year I have set myself the challenge to keep up with the Bake Off. Every week I'm going to try to make each of the items the contestants have made. It will force me to learn some new baking skills, but I'm also using it as an opportunity to do something fun with B. 

First out of the oven is Mary Berry's Cherry Cake. It gave me the chance to use the bundt tin I got for Christmas. B loved making this cake - I got her to chop all the cherries herself, with a sharp(ish!) knife, and she did a surprisingly awesome job. I was so impressed. She helped to operate the electric mixer too, which heretofore she has been afraid of, and she did the decoration. M was meant to be having a nap, but wasn't interested, so we gave her a mixing bowl and a tiny wooden spoon, which kept her occupied for ages. 

For our first attempt, I think we did pretty well, though it was a little dry. Very tasty though. 

Next up are Swiss Roll and some individual cakes. 

This post is part of the Mamatography 2014 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.

We are taking (at least) a photo a day, a collage or a picture each week to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

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