It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Photo from Martha Stewart

There are only 34 days till Christmas  - eek!  This year I have decided to switch it up a gear and to get super organised.  I have 13 to dinner this year and I want it to be the best christmas ever.  I will be sharing a christmas activity every day between now and the big day to help you to feel prepared.  

I have bought a stack of magazines and my pinterest board is full to bursting with ideas.  As well as making lots of delicious goodness, I want to try my hand at some crafts and some handmade gifts.  Of course I am reading lots of blogs with lots of great ideas for Christmas and I will share these with you if I think you will be interested.  If anyone has any resources that they wish to share then please let me know.

Today I made these lovely Christmas Chelsea Buns.  The recipe was from BBC Good Food and can be found here.  I have to say that these turned into monsters in the oven and were enormous once they had cooked.  But they were absolutely delicious with the fruity mincemeat adding just enough of a festive vibe.  

If you are thinking it is too early to start the big christmas gorge just yet, then you could make these now  and pop them in the freezer.  Defrost them the night before you need them and then give them a 15 minute blast in the oven.  They will make a great christmas day breakfast.

Minced Beef Parcels

The past two days have been busy as I was delivering a coaching workshop in the beautiful city of York.  So today I just wanted to bake, chill, catch my breath and spend some quality time at home.    Whenever I have days like this I always over-commit and honestly believe that I can create thousands of baked masterpieces like a true domestic goddess.  The reality is of course totally different and in fact I made two things one of which grew into a monster in the oven (more in another post).

In my fridge I had a pack of steak mince, some sweet potato and a pack of filo pastry that had been languishing for a few days, so I decided to concoct some little minced beef parcels.


I fried up an onion with some garlic and then added the mince and a teaspoon of curry powder

While the mince was browning, I boiled the sweet potato until soft and cut my sheets of filo pastry into squarey-rectangles that were about 20cm x 10cm

Once the sweet potatoes were cooked I chopped them into tiny pieces and added them to the mince.

I took 2 sheets of filo pastry and added about 3 tbsp of the mince mixture to the middle

I them made them into parcels, drawing in the corners like so:

I brushed them with beaten egg, popped them onto an oiled baking tray and baked for 20 minutes at 180 until golden.

They were really lovely served with some tzatziki and mango chutney

The Recipe for Minced Beef Parcels

Olive oil
500g minced beef
1 onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic
1 tsp curry powder
2 sweet potatoes peeled and chopped
1 packed filo pastry
Egg for glaze

Serve with 
Tzatziki
Mango Chutney

• Preheat oven to 180
• Heat the oil in a frying pan 
• Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the sweet potatoes 
• Add the onion and garlic and sweat until translucent
• Add the mince and fry until brown
• Add 1 tsp curry powder and leave to simmer until the sweet potatoes are cooked
• Drain the sweet potatoes, dice and add to the minced beef mixture
• Cut the filo pastry into 20cm x 15 cm 
• Take 2 sheets of filo pastry and add 3 tbsp of minced beef mixture
• Assemble the pastry into parcels
• Place the parcels onto an oiled baking tray
• Glaze with beaten egg
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins until golden brown
• Allow to cool then serve with tzatziki and mango chutney

Yummy!