Sunday

Good morning.  I'm up with the lark today which means that I have plenty of time before Open House starts at two and no need for any panic - not that I would anyway as all is ready apart from shifting one chair and getting the coffee making stuff ready.

I made some flapjacks first thing yesterday.  It's a remarkably simple recipe (like all flapjacks really) and comes from a book that means a lot to me.

While I was off at college, my mum, being new into the area, got involved in some social 'helping out' kind of stuff as soon as she got her driving licence.  One of the things she did was drive people to and from the local hospital, either for appointments or to visit loved ones.  She regularly took one elderly gentleman there and back to visit his very poorly wife for quite a while and got to know him quite well so he heard all about the arrangements for my forthcoming wedding, etc.

When his wife passed on, he gave Mum one of her old cookery books, saying that it was for me because she had said it was the best book for a new wife to have (in the days before Delia, of course).  That book was the 'Good Housekeeping's Cookery Compendium', actually three Good Housekeeping books in one:  Basic Cookery, Picture Cookery and Cake Making.  It was in a 'used' state then but that made no difference and it's been used by me quite a lot since.  It's a bit dated now (it's as old as I am) but there are still some great recipes and the demerara flapjack recipe is one of them.  Mum used
 the same recipe too.

So it was rather lovely using the recipe again yesterday - and the flapjacks it makes are always lovely!

I was rootling through the freezer yesterday and, to my delight, found some puff pastry that I forgot was there.  That means I won't have to buy any to make Delia's vegetarian sausage rolls, another family tradition.  We like them better than the meat ones.
Here's the recipe but forget about making the pastry unless you really, really want to.  Even St Delia said 'use shop bought puff pastry'.  The filling is wonderful;.
https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/vegetarian-food/vegetarian-sausage-rolls

I've started my list of Things To Do on my scheduled Christmas Prep Day.  It's going to be long so I'll do some stuff beforehand, I think, keeping the real fun stuff for that day.

Beth and I worked hard to get downstairs ready for this afternoon.  Here's a few photos.

 Bags galore.

 Lovely cot quilts watched over by four cute mice.

 Prehugged dolls and lots and lots of clothes plus felt Christmas tree decorations.

 Loadsa cushions.

And two boxes of Christmas cards.

Lovely home made biscuits . . .

And a comfortable area to sit and chat in between biscuits.














How I hope people will come.  xx