Merry Christmas 2013!

Make peanut butter caramel fudge - tick
Bake shortbread - tick
Bake sweet potato pie - tick
Make salad and grab meat for the barbie - tick
Wrap presents - tick
Go to Midnight Mass - tick 
Crank up the Christmas carols on the stereo - tick
Make sure tummy is ready for the eatathon ahead - tick tick tick

Now all there's left to do is to wish you all the merriest of Christmases!!

Wishing you and your whanau love, joy, and deliciousness this festive season. 
Hope you get to spend it in the company of friends, family, and loved ones.

Whatever is beautiful and meaningful for you, and whatever brings you happiness, may it be yours this Christmas.

Wishing you a togethery and remembery Christmas filled with love.

Meri Kirihimete.

Christmas noms: Cinnamon shortbread

Leaving your Christmas baking till last minute too?
 
We've just come back from an epic five day tramping trip down in Nelson Lakes which meant we had to be really organised early on for Christmas this year or we'd have to do everything last minute.

Three guesses for which option ended up happening. 

Luckily, I had an inkling we might not get our act together and tried out this recipe for Cinnamon Shortbread the Baking for Hospice Christmas round beforehand just so I had some last minute Christmas baking ideas up my sleeve.

Christmas noms: Peanut butter caramel fudge

Not to get all Nigella on you or anything but this stuff is like crack.  (Too soon??)

It’s creamy, salty-sweet, peanutty perfection. And so gosh darn addictive it really should be illegal. Oh, and did I mention it only takes like 10 minutes to make? Stop it!

I made it for the Baking for Hospice Christmas round just been and found myself “tasting” a substantial amount of it. Just to quality check it of course.

I don't even usually like fudge.  Usually it's too sweet and crumbly and just like eating a sugar cube, but these puppies are chewy and creamy and the peanut butter gives it a salty sweet edge making them ridiculously easy to eat.

To be honest I just could not stop shovelling this stuff into my face.  Yes, I went a bit nuts over it.

Peanut Butter Caramel Fudge, why you so good?

Christmas noms: Pan de higo brandy balls

This great little stocking filler is a veritable journey around the world.

The recipe is a bit of a mash up: part Pan de higo or Spanish fig cake, part Chinese New Year date and walnut candy and part English brandy balls.

You could call these UN balls.

Christmas noms: Eggnog macarons

Eggnog eggnog eggnog. Creamy spiced bozziness. What's not to love about eggnogg?

I have raved about my love of eggnog before, and what better way to celebrate Christmas eggy-nogginess than to make Eggnog Macarons!

Now, while I do try and post really easy recipes up on my blog, every now and then I like to make a use-every-bowl-in-the-kitchen kinda recipe just as a challenge and just because it's so much fun.

Only when there is a dishwasher nearby, of course.

This is one such recipe.

Christmas noms: White Christmas Rocky Road

This is the rocky road to end all rocky roads.

Truth is, actually, I'm in love with this rocky road.

To me this rocky road is perfect.

{love actually: only the greatest christmas movie of all time}

All those amazing colours make it look like a like a stained glass window.  It's almost too pretty to eat.  Almost, coz once you have one piece you forget all bout how pretty it looks and just want to scoff the lot.

What usually happens at Christmas is that I make a batch and it gets eaten as quickly as I make it and people are begging for the recipe.

It's so good you might want to sing a song about it stark naked on TV on Christmas Eve.



{via tumblr}

Pre-Christmas Sneak Peek

I've been meaning to post.