All Things Christmassey

[ASYLUM NINJA]

wow i would post up  a gingerbread house i made a few days ago..
but its not really ready ._. and i kinda ate some of it..

I dreamn't i was eating a giant marshmallow once.... when i woke up my pillow was gone, true story 

And the reason that this is relevant to the christmas thread is..... well it isn't it was just bothering me and i needed to share thanks for listening

[dfusioness]

new christmas song for you x

[dfusioness]

christmas recipe for the week xx



Christmas mini-muffins
Christmas mini-muffins

Make 24 mini muffins in cute individual cases – perfect for Christmas canapés or as a daily advent calendar-style treat.
Ingredients

    *

      200g/7oz self-raising flour, sifted
    *

      100g/3½oz golden caster sugar
    *

      100ml/3½fl oz sunflower oil
    *

      75ml/2½fl oz milk
    *

      1 large free-range egg
    *

      50g/1¾oz qood quality dark chocolate, chopped
    *

      1 heaped tbsp high quality mincemeat
    *

      50g/1 ¾oz good quality white chocolate, chopped
    *

      50g/1¾oz dried (or fresh) cranberries

Preparation method

   1.

      Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and put 24 mini-muffin cases inside a mini-muffin tin.
   2.

      Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl, then make a well in the centre. Whisk together the oil, milk and egg and slowly pour into the bowl, stirring gently. Divide this mixture between two bowls. In one bowl add the dark chocolate and mincemeat. Add the white chocolate and cranberries to the other bowl. Stir very gently.
   3.

      Divide the two mixtures among the 24 muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and risen.
   4.

      Remove the muffins to a wire rack and eat warm.

[ASYLUM NINJA]

We are so lucky to have our own nigella 

[dfusioness]

hmmm yes, im very good with my hands x

[dfusioness]

new one for you love fizz xx


jamie's mulled wine
drinks
This is dead easy to make and tastes like Christmas in a glass. It's a lovely celebration of those traditional festive spices like cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. If you've got your own favourite spices, then feel free to add those to the pot too. Let everything cook away and warm up gently so the flavours have time to mingle with the wine. I like to leave my mulled wine ticking over on a really low heat and just ladle some into glasses as and when guests pop in.

Peel large sections of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime using a speed peeler. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in your halved vanilla pod and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar. Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you've got a beautiful thick syrup. The reason I'm doing this first is to create a wonderful flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It's important to do make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you'll burn off the alcohol.

When your syrup is ready turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and both bottles of wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it's warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve.
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ingredients
• 2 clementines
• peel of 1 lemon
• peel of 1 lime
• 250g caster sugar
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 fresh bay leaves
• 1 whole nutmeg
• 1 whole vanilla pod, halved
• 2 star anise
• 2 bottles of Chianti, or other Italian red wine

[dfusioness]

found this, enjoy xx

[dfusioness]

as its now the first of december, thought it only right we should start of with the history of advent calenders, check back here every day for a new pic xx


History of the Advent Calendar

    * The origin of the Advent Calendar can be traced back to the 19th. Century. The first styles came from the protestant area. So religious families made a chalk line for every day in December until Christmas Eve.

      The first known Advent Calendar which was made by handwork is from the year 1851.

      Other early styles were the Adventclock or the Adventcandle - a candle for each of the 24 days until Christmas, like todays Advent wreath. So in religious families little pictures were hang up on the wall - one for each day in December. An other tradition was to paint chalk strokes on the door, one per day until Christmas Eve.

      In 1902 a Christian Bookshop in Hamburg published a Christmas Clock which was very similar to that published 1922 by the St. Johannis printing company. (Dominik Wunderlin, lic.phil. Swizzerland). The Austrian (NÖ) Landesmuseum is giving the year 1903 as the year of the first printed Advent Calendar. In 1904 an Advent Calendar was inserted in the newspaper "Neues Tagblatt Stuttgart" as a gift for their readers.

      In contrast to the above Esther Gajek says that the first printed speciem was made in 1908 by a Swabian parishioner, Gerhard Lang (born 1881 in Maulbronn, Germany -died in 1974).

      When he was a child his mother made him an Advent Calendar with 24 "Wibbele" (little candies) which were sticked on a cardboard.

   
     
   
   
     

    * Later Lang was a participator of the printing office Reichhold & Lang. He produced little colored pictures which could be affixed on a cardboard at every day in December.

    * This was the first printed Advent Calendar, although without windows to open, published in 1908. This Calendar was named "Christmas-Calendar" or "Munich Christmas-Calendar". At the beginning of the 20th Lang produced the first Advent Calendars with little doors to open.

      At this time as well the Sankt Johannis Printing Company started producing religious Advent Calendars, with Bible Verses instead of pictures behind the doors.

      The Advent Calendar started a triumphal way around the globe. But Lang had to close his company in the thirties. Until that time he had produced about 30 different designs.

      The World War II terminated the success of this German tradition. The cardboard was rationed and it was forbidden to produce Calendars with pictures. The first printed speciem after the war were printed by Richard Sellmer in 1946.

      We know that Advent Calendars filled with Chocolate was already available in 1958.

[GamerMan316]

Old joke time

I got a Liverpool advent calendar this morning but all the windows were boarded up. 

Couldn't resist. 

[dfusioness]

Old joke time

I got a Liverpool advent calendar this morning but all the windows were boarded up. 

Couldn't resist. 

sweet, very funny, i love it 

[dfusioness]

not christmassey but i thought it was funny

Why do City fans put team stickers on their cars?    So they can park in handicapped spaces.

[nCogNeato]

[nCogNeato]

[nCogNeato]

I had a hard time deciding whether to post this in All Things Christmassey or All Things Stupid.

[dfusioness]

new advent pic for you, happy christmas xx