Brie & Cranberry Twists

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Brie and cranberry is one of those marvellous combinations which is symbolic of Christmas. The sweet tang of the cranberry against the smooth creaminess of the brie is a very indulgent flavour to enjoy, but one that vegetarians have known about for years as a staple filling in coffee shop sandwiches.

These little crackers are a perfect treat as a canape at a party or as a light snack.

Brie & Cranberry Twists

  • Makes: 2 sheets makes 6
  • Preparation time: 10 minutes
  • Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

  • ready-made filo pastry
  • brie, cut into 1 inch chunks
  • cranberry sauce
  • melted butter
  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  2. Cut the brie (straight from the fridge so it retains its firmness) into 1 inch chunks.
  3. Unwrap two sheets from the ready-made filo pastry. Filo pastry dries out very quickly, so return the unwanted sheets back to the packet and seal it. Have a damp tea-towel ready to drape over the filo pastry which is being used to prevent it from drying out and cracking.
  4. Brush one sheet of the filo pastry with the melted butter and lay the second on the top, this will help them stay together.
  5. Cut the pastry into sixths.
  6. Place a 1inch chunk of brie in the middle of each sixth, with a small dollop of cranberry sauce on top.
  7. Fold over the edge of the filo pastry, brushing the layers with melted butter to help them stick together.
  8. Turn over the pastry to the seal is on the bottom and place on a non-stick baking tray. Gently twist each end like a cracker and brush over with melted butter to glaze.
  9. Bake for 10-13 minutes, but check after 10 minutes.
  10. Leave to cool slightly before serving.

Brie & Cranberry Twists

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Linking to Recipe Of The Week and Tasty Tuesdays

Exploring The National Trust: Lanhydrock, Cornwall

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This time of year is so very cold, dark and oppressive that I find it very difficult to summon up the energy and desire to be the super mum who is proud of preaching, "There's no such thing as bad weather you know, just bad clothing." Because actually there is such a thing as bad weather, you just have to have the will to brave it, accept it and face it. Call it the post-Christmas blues if you like, but I'm struggling to pull on my thermals and wellies.

However I'm beginning to think of the wonderful places that we do visit in the more agreeable weather, especially as it gives me the will to think about adventuring when it's 20°C lower than my preferred temperature.

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Tips For Completing a 365 Photo A Day Project

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1100.

That's how many photos I've taken over the past three years.

In actual fact I've taken a great deal more photographs than that, frequently I take 1100 photos in a day if we've had a special family trip out somewhere. However I have taken at least one photograph, every day, for the past three years. The reason for this happy snapping is something called the 365 Project: A Photo A Day, Every Day, For A Year; I couldn't stop now even if I tried!

I have posted every one of those photographs on this blog under the 365 page, and it is a wonderful thing to look back on. During the past few years there have been many everyday and ordinary moments with my son and family that I would have normally forgotten. I skim through the photographs of my 365 projects and suddenly a wave of memories engulf me and I am there; I'm in the garden watching three generations of my family having a snowball fight. I cannot emphasise enough how wonderful a project it is, or how fulfilling it is to take the photograph on the last day of the year knowing that you've done it!

I've learnt a few things over the past three years that make completing a 365 Project easier, and I thought I'd share them for anyone embarking on a project this year.

Tips For Completing a 365 Photo A Day Project

  • Snap, snap and snap again:
    • This is the first and foremost guideline. I personally feel it is better to have taken ten photographs throughout the course of the day and have the choice to select the best or most apt, than to struggle to find one for the day. Developing a habit of taking photographs is not difficult and becomes second nature very quickly. I'm a bit of an expert at whipping out my phone and capturing The Boy before he's even noticed.
    • And if the worse thing happens and it gets to bedtime and you've forgotten to take a photograph, there's nothing better than a sleeping child shot. Use a torch to illuminate them and provide a warm glow rather than the flash which is harsh and risks waking your child up!
  • Always have a camera to hand:
    • It doesn't matter whether it's a phone camera or a swanky dSLR, I've often heard the expression that the best camera to have is the one in your hand. Children won't pause for you to run and get the proper camera, they also won't repeat it if you missed it as the setting was the wrong one. Photography is art, but it's also about capturing a moment. For most parents it will be entirely about remembering their child at that point in time, when you look back at the photograph in a year you won't care if it was take on a mobile phone or an £800 camera, just that it was taken.
  • Organise:
    • I had a general folder for all my 365 photos in the first year and I numbered them as to which of the 365 days they were. Disaster! During the 2013 project I set up a folder for each month and named each photograph using the date format with the day in brackets, e.g. 1st January 2014 (Wednesday). It makes it easier for me to find the relevant photographs quickly, and to check that I've got them all!

    Tips For Completing a 365 Photo A Day Project

  • Edit:
    • Sometimes a photograph doesn't turn out quite as intended; the lighting might have been too dark or the colour is all wrong. Worse there may be a little photobombing incident, or a smudge or stain in the wrong place. Crop, lighten, clone or airbrush the mark. The queens of editing on mobile devices are HPMcQ and Point And Snap The World. I use Picmonkey.com to retrieve many a photograph. If the worst happens and a photograph is grainy and poorly exposed, I lighten the photograph, turn it black and white and put a little sepia filter on it. Suddenly I have an atmospheric and dramatic photograph which has been saved from the recycle bin.

    Tips For Completing a 365 Photo A Day Project

  • Challenge and Improve:
    • Use the experience to hone your photography skills. I very quickly realised the importance of composing a photograph, if only to ensure there wasn't a pile of washing in the background or my shadow wasn't covering half of the subject. Work out how to take advantage of natural lighting to ensure the photograph is exposed properly or as backlighting, use the rule of thirds to help with composition, or use silhouettes to create a wonderful effect. A Party Of Seven has a fabulous series called Mammarazzi helping to explain some more advanced photography principles. You do not need a fancy camera to take fancy photos.
  • Themes:
    • Somewhere around the third month, you may well lose the desire to ever press the shutter button again. If this happens, set yourself a theme to interpret which will help freshen up your photography. The wonderful A Kilt And A Camera has used the themes 'Through' and 'From Where I Stand' for an entire year, the latter was a wonderful theme to interpret which I often borrowed in slow weeks. Likewise Carole Finds Her Wings has set herself weekly themes to follow and been very imaginative. I've also used the FatMumSlim Instagram prompts, and Britmums provide Snap Happy suggestions.
  • 365 and Blogging:
    • If posting on a blog to take part in a linky like the one I host, it is easier to do a weekly round-up post than to post daily as that is very restrictive on your free time. I use Picmonkey.com to create a collage of my seven photographs which I put into one post and write a description for each day. I also have a separate page on my self-hosted blog to keep my 365 posts on so as not to flood the main home page. Ensure that the photographs aren't too small otherwise your audience won't be able to see them properly, most websites accommodate a width of 500 pixels.
  • Enjoy:
    • Doing a 365 project should be about capturing the every day and the fun, it should be enjoyed and not feel like a chore. Capture the fun.

Other tips provided by the 365 bloggers who join in with my linky each week are:

  • Don't beat yourself up when you forget and end up with a photo of the washing up or the book you're reading.
  • Have spare batteries for your camera so you don't miss out on snaps when they run out!
  • Pick a theme you can have fun with.
  • Make your photos fit with your life, so its the good the bad and the ugly… it would be nice to have perfect well captured pics but its not going to happen in this house!
  • Don't compare photos – just because someone else has taken a professional looking picture with an all singing all dancing dSLR camera, it doesn't make your quick phone snap any less important or meaningful!
  • Don't worry about impressing anyone – it is a photo a day of your life and they are memories of your life and what is important to you. Even if it is a photo of a sleeping child, a flower in a vase or a meal you have cooked as long as it is important to you that is what matters. Don't feel stressed trying to take a better photo, just enjoy taking the ones you do.

Tips For Completing a 365 Photo A Day Project

With thanks to Jenny from Mummy Mishaps, Kate from Family Fever, Pippa from Redrose Mummy, Emma from The Mini Mes and Me, Jaime from The Oliver's Madhouse, Carole from Carole Finds Her Wings, Peg from A Kilt and A Camera, and Jo from Jo's Nursery for the above suggestions.

The Chair, Again

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The chair is the same.

Less padding in its seat now, but that's ok because there's more in mine.

The green cushion is squished out of all recognisable shape and could never be interpreted as ever having been square now.

But the chair is the same.

The tune on the mobile is the same.

Your dark eyelashes rest against your flushed cheeks in the same way that they did three years ago, but now those cheeks aren't as round or chubby. The Cupid's bow of your lips is more pronounced, your nose longer and taking shape. Your hair darker and more coarse.

Your face is still squished against me in the familiar manner of a child desperately seeking comfort from his mother, desperately trying to take the pain (of yet another wretched ear infection) away.

You curl an arm around my neck and pull yourself closer. Bring your knees up to your chest as I wrap my right arm around your lower half tighter to stop you from slipping. My left arm is burning with the strange angle it is contorted into to hold you close. Three years ago I could hold you with one arm nestled into me and type up a blog post with my right hand on my phone. Now I need both arms to hold you tight, while your legs dangle almost to the floor over the edge of my lap.

I contemplate my next move. How do I lift you enough to place you back into bed? Waking you is not my concern, the sheer effort of standing up while holding you is enough to consider. I tuck you in and smooth your hair, positioning Oliver Monkey under your arm. When did you become so big? Tonight has proven though that you won't stop being my baby for quite some time yet.

And the chair is still the same.

Two Thousand And Thirteen

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I am not one for the sentimentality of New Year's Eve.

I genuinely struggle with people who feel that because the clock strikes midnight and one day turns into another that all of a sudden the slate is wiped clean, and they can forget mistakes or negative things that have happened. I am the type of person who believes that everything happens for a reason and we should learn from things that happen to us. It is, after all, better to regret something that you did do than something you didn't.

However, as I sit here with my husband pottering in the kitchen and my son ensconced in his cocoon upstairs, I am taken with a surge of reminiscence.

So what happened in 2013 to our little family?

Anything special?

Any huge changes?

No. For us life continued in an average day to day fashion.

With rainbows and snowball fights. Cycling down a one-way path and learning to swing. Eating an ice-cream on the beach in 5°C. Rolling down a bank. Climbing a tree. Jumping from a tree. Frolicking in only pants in the sand and scaling the London Eye. Standing on a swing. Driving a tractor. Going on a rollercoaster for the first time.

Turning 4, 36 and 38.

Collecting conkers. One wedding. Not singing 'Big Red Combine Harvester' on stage. Singing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' on stage. A holiday in Butlin's. Another one in Dorset. One in Cornwall too. Several weekends in London. Discovering the importance of cousins. Of siblings. Waving goodbye to a brother as he emigrated to the other side of the world. Enjoying the relationship with the other. Jumping from a moving swing. Squelching in mud. Meeting a shrinking man. Giving Welsh cakes to a short, Welsh man. Swinging on a rope swing. Making new friends. Developing longer standing one.

And did I mention the swing?

2013

The Gift Of Christmas: Food Banks

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As the first day of the school holidays, today is a special day. It's a day of the promise of two weeks together, making and playing, visiting all our old haunts together and enjoying each other's company. Today started early with a visit to the doctor (an appointment I've been waiting for for over a month, and still I got the time wrong!), followed by a breakfast pastry and then a trip to Aldi. Just like every other person in Cardiff.

However, unlike the rest of the shoppers there we weren't stocking up on last minute cheese purchases or yet another bag of crisps, we were buying food for our town's food bank.

Donating was something that I've been intending to do for some time, however news that one of my school's families had been made homeless on Friday made me even more determined. The thought of children I've taught and a family I've known for eight years not having food on Christmas Day breaks my heart. I decided to talk about it with The Boy in the car before we went in and gently explained why we were shopping for other people. He was most aggrieved that a bank could take away someone's house from them and thought it wasn't kind; he completely has a point and maybe those in charge should discuss their practices with children before coldly making decisions based on money.

As soon as we got into the store, he reached for the cereal, then turned to the coffee and tea. We'd talked about how the food needed to be in tins or packets, and actually it's very difficult to shop keeping only that in mind. However £35.oo buys an awful lot of tins and packets of pasta and we had three large reusable shopping bags crammed full.

We've just come home from taking it to the church, and The Boy was fascinated with the process. The warden was keen to explain how the food was stored, and distributed in pre-sorted shopping bags dependent upon if they were single, couples or families. It is humbling to see the mostly empty shelves and the bags already made up for families, shocking to think of the amount of people that will be going without a basic diet this Christmas while we are enjoying the excesses of the season.

We spent £35.00 which is more than I intended to but to be honest it's not that big a dent in the budget at this time of year; one less unnecessary present, no Starbucks this week, and a few chunks of cheese less to end up going off because no-one really likes Wensleydale.

If you're thinking of donating to a food bank, these items are a good starting point:

  • Rice and dried pasta
  • Pasta sauces
  • Baked beans
  • Tinned spaghetti
  • Tinned vegetables (including potatoes)
  • Tinned fruit
  • Coffee and tea bags
  • Sugar
  • Dried milk
  • Gravy or stock cubes
  • Cereal
  • Jam or marmalade
  • Biscuits
  • Apple/orange juice
  • Squash
  • Toilet roll, nappies and sanitary towels.

Most of us in this country are only one step away from the breadline, it only takes a lost job to destroy lives. When you're buying last minute treats this week, can you spare a few tins to donate to your local food bank this Christmas?

The Trussell Trust are a nationwide network of food banks, however there are also many independent food banks running in churches and community centres. Our local one is an independent and I find it comforting to know that our donation is going to people I may know in the community.

10 Top Tips For Beautiful Photographs This Christmas (Infographic)

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Last week we were initiated into a rite of passage for every parent of school-age children; it was The Boy's first Christmas concert.

I honestly didn't hold up much hope for him participating with any part as he had completely frozen during the Harvest festival, able only to stand on stage and try very hard not to cry. It broke my heart watching him trying to be brave, and so I was very nervous for him performing as one of thirty seven stars in the infant school's nativity last week. It transpires that I was far more nervous than him as he took every song and action in his stride. Nothing phased him!

As is usual with these types of performances, there were two showings during the week; we went to the first one and my mum was due to go to the second one two days later. Unfortunately, The Boy was struck with a horrendous cough which made him sound like a seal barking and he couldn't manage the second stint. My poor mum missed her beloved, youngest grandchild performing in his first concert!

Luckily though, help was on hand in the form of the video recording we'd made on our trusty Sony video camera during the first performance. Despite the unintentional enthusiastic efforts of the tallest child in the entire world at preventing us from seeing The Boy singing, we managed to get quite a few shots of him singing his little heart out, performing all the actions and pulling his star headband down over his eyes pretending someone had turned the lights out. That's normal, isn't it?

Nonetheless, my mum didn't miss his performance, she just has to see it virtually. Thank goodness for modern technology capturing the important moments in life. My 365 photo project is all about ensuring that those magic, everyday moments are remembered, and a good camera is the essential tool for snapping that moment.

Just in case anyone wasn't sure, it's Christmas time; possibly the biggest, single event of the entire year for saving those magic moments. It's a time to both freeze a laugh or a precious cuddle in a single photograph, and also to record the hustle and bustle, the squeals of the ridiculous present, the joy of perfectly cooked food being placed on the table. A precious cuddle, a stolen kiss under the mistletoe, a day of happiness.

Cameras are so intuitive that they can be used in a non-intrusive manner to complement our busy lives. Below are some amazing tips for capturing Christmas, quite a few of them I'm going to ensure we use: setting up a tripod with a video camera for the present opening, using the continuous capture setting, photographing food and the table setting. All of these things make a Christmas special and build happy memories.

Top 10 tips to take beautiful Christmas photographs - Infographic
Courtesy of Sony

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A Message From Santa: Portable North Pole (Review)

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Last Christmas I logged onto Portable North Pole, a video message service enabling Father Christmas to send personalised videos to children. The process was simple and I was able to input a few photographs with details about the event, and these were incorporated into the video to make it truly personal.

This year I was offered a review code for the video and I eagerly accepted as I knew how much he would like it. I sat down to start inputting the information and was met with a few hurdles along the way. First of all (despite being told the contrary) the code I was given was for the basic video, and I paid for the upgrade to the full version as I knew it would make the experience more exciting for him.

The process should be relatively simple; select 'nice' or 'naughty', boy or girl, input name (and check the pronounciation), date of birth, country of residence, etc. So far so good. There then follows a series of options about a target the child may have been asked to meet that year, and there were quite a good range. The next step is to choose what toy the child would like and this is the first problem, under the broad category of 'toys and games' there is the choice of: a certain toy (not customisable), Barbie doll, board game, construction game, doll, figurine, Lego, plush toy, or puzzle.

No car. The Boy wants a car.

It's a fairly innocuous choice of present, but it's not on the list. Therefore his video has the words, 'Wish list: a toy' on it, which I think it fairly poor to be perfectly honest. He's old enough to read those words now and he'll see that Father Christmas has no idea what his present request is, which is odd because one of the photographs I submitted was of him writing a letter to the big man asking for a car…

The next step is the first stage of spending additional money. An extra £2.49 will unlock the 'all the premium options' (additional scene selection, 3 additional pictures, twice as much video (almost 6 minutes), unlimited online views during the Christmas holidays, plus a bonus video from Santa for Christmas Eve). I paid it because I wanted to make his video even more special, but it's the first step of many of being confronted with the option to spend more money.

On the next screen is where the child's photo and one other is entered (if the premium package has been paid for then up to five can be entered). However once you enter the initial two photographs, then the options for what the photos can depict is significantly reduced to only five or so. If I'd known that I'd be having to choose a photo of a pet (we don't have one) or an object (really?) then I wouldn't have paid the £2.49 upgrade.

If you haven't upgraded, then you're prompted again before the confirmation screen with additional parental information. The video is then ready to play, again a range of additional costs appear; for example you can download the video for £4.49 because the website version is only available during the Christmas period (don't forget!).

£4.49.

On top of the £2.49 already paid.

Don't get me wrong, I think the video is a wonderful thing and Father Christmas is so genuine and warm in it that I know The Boy is going to find it magical.

pnp

However, if I purchase the downloadable version on top of the premium cost then I will have spent £6.98 on a six minute video for him. And I've got one child. If I had more than one, it's going to start getting costly pretty quickly. Added to this, the iPad app with a range of games and access to the video is £2.49. There is also an iPhone app, which is the one that I accidentally downloaded onto the iPad.

So far we're looking at:

  • £2.49 for the premium video (a more customisable video)
  • £4.49 for the downloadable version
  • £2.49 for the iPad or iPhone app.

Is it just me that thinks this is wrong? There is something so intrinsically wrong about charging so very much for a simple message from Father Christmas for your child.

But of course parents do it because they feel they have to in order to feed the magic of the season.

I chose to pay for this product, however I wanted to write an honest review to show parents what to expect when visiting the site.

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Addendum:

I didn't need to download the iPad version of the app as the iPhone app worked perfectly well on the iPad. And downloading that has made paying for the upgrade worthwhile. When I installed the app I was given 5 credits which could be used in various ways. One of these ways was to download the video onto the iPad, downloading it via the laptop would have cost £4.49 however it was easily done onto the £2.49 iPad app. Bizarrely, when I started the download onto the iPad, it enabled it on the laptop without needing to pay the additional £4.49!  In addition to this, there are a few other videos (birthday and Christmas Eve messages) which can be downloaded onto the iPad app, and there are games and an advent calendar. It's also possible to spend the credits on a 'telephone call' from Santa!

The Boy has watched the video several times a day, every day since I did the message for him. In the future I will happily pay for the premium upgrade (£2.99) and the iPad app (£2.49) but forgo downloading the HD version on the laptop because I don't think it's needed when you have the others.

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