Sunday 18 November 2012

Sangria style Mulled wine

As promised a recipe for mulled wine:

A good mulled wine is, for me, the ultimate taste and smell of Christmas in a glass. A real winter warmer on dark, damp nights. I love this Sangria style recipe which makes it a bit more fruity which I adore. You will need:

A couple of bottles of red wine of your choice (I like a good bottle of Chianti) 
Pomegranate juice 
250g caster sugar
2 cinnamon sticks 
3 star anise pods
6 whole cloves
peel of 1 lemon 
1 thinly sliced pear 
a couple of handfuls of pomegranate seeds 
2 oranges 

Firstly peel your oranges and lemon and put in a large pan. Throw in the sugar and juice from the oranges and put on a medium heat. Add cloves and cinnamon sticks. Splash enough wine over to cover it all and allow to boil for a few minutes. If you do this first and allow the sugar to dissolve you create a delicious thick syrup - without the treat of burning off the alcohol from your wine! Once the syrup is made turn to a low heat, pour in the pomegranate juice, chuck in the sliced apples pears and pomegranate seeds, along with the star anise and the rest of the wine. Gently heat and serve to warm the bellies of your Christmas guests.


 - A generous splash of brandy can be added for a little extra gusto! 

Thursday 15 November 2012

Stockings

I always find Christmas gifts a little tricky as you want to make them unique and special for each individual. This year I have decided to make a Christmas advent calendar for my boyfriend with a red stocking for the 24 days before christmas. Take a look see...

They are taking me forever! Now all I have to do is decide what to put in them... any ideas?

Christmas warm up




Moving to London I have quickly realised that celebrating Christmas starts early... Covent garden has all the xmas decks up and this year the theme seems to be 'the bigger the better'. Being huge Christmas enthusiast I'm embracing this to the full. Prehaps its time for some mulled wine... recipe to follow shortly!