Happy January, how was your festive break?! I have peeked out mid hibernation to share some recent photos and favourite seasonal recipes with you. We have gone all vintage and cosy with our winter styling this year in this little old house of ours. The fairy lights will stay out indefinitely and all our linens and layers seem to have been gathered in tones of dusty pink, warm browns, cream and the palest peach.
We had a lovely festive break with lots of visitors and days in and out with family and friends. These pictures are from our New Years Eve breakfast, I was craving all things mulled and warm with spice and we happened to have a bag of pears delivered with our veg box so it had to be poached pears to start the day. The scent of spices and sugar on the hob in the AM is so good!
Dean bought me some beautiful flowers before Christmas from my favourite The Real Flower Company, and I broke the bouquet down to fill two vases and had enough left over to decorate the breakfast table. These perfectly blush roses added a romantic air to the setting and were exquisitely scented.
I used a mixture of modern and vintage cutlery and glassware – I won Rose & Grey’s styling challenged back in October and managed to snap up some of their beautiful fern engraved liqueur glasses as a prize. They looked dandy on the table and are just right for a seving of port (or Grape juice).
The rest of the table was set with a mix of teacups and handmade ceramics layered with some linen napkins. I hand dyed these a subtle shade of peachy pink on the hob using leftover red wine and some hedgerow fruits for colour. The twiggy accents were foraged from a December walk.
Warm colours, festive flavours, a cosy setting and some of our favourite people – all the best things to create a relaxed and happy last day of 2018! Keep on reading for the recipes.
Our festive breakfast serves four. Poached pears with creamy vanilla plant-based yoghurt and sweet spiced biscuits crumbled over the top, with a glass of port (or juice) to keep the cheeks rosy!
Mulled Poached Pears – (adapted from this Delicious Magazine Recipe).
1 bottle (75cl) hearty red wine
600ml of filtered water
Pared zest and juice of 1 orange
Pared zest of 1 lemon
3 slices of fresh ginger
2 star anise
4-5 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
125g caster sugar
4 ripe but firm pears, peeled with stalks intact
Method – Pour the wine and 600ml water into a pan. Add all the other ingredients, apart from the pears, put over a low heat, then stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 15 minutes.
Return the pan to the heat, then add the pears. Bring to a gentle simmer and submerge the pears in the liquid turning occasionally for 40 minutes, until just cooked and ruby red.
Remove the pears and place in a bowl, set aside to cool completely before serving.
To make a syrup – Bring the poaching liquid back to the boil and reduce by half (to about 500ml) until slightly thicker. Turn of heat and leave to cool.
To serve – stir 1 tsp of vanilla paste into a tub of coconut, almond or soy yoghurt and divide between four bowls. Place a pear in each and spoon over a little of the syrup and crumble a spiced biscuit over the top – (recipe below).
Pepernoten – recipe via Food Bandits
(to serve on the side and crumble over the pears – makes lots!)
100 g self-raising gluten-free flour,
100 g ground almonds,
50 g coconut oil,
2 tbs almond milk,
70 g coconut sugar,
pinch of salt,
pinch of nutmeg,
1 tsp ground cinnamon,
1/5 tsp cardamom,
1/5 tsp ginger,
1/5 tsp baking powder.
Preheat the oven at 150 degrees and line two baking trays with baking parchement. Mix all the ingredients together and knead until it forms a flexible dough. Then form little balls out of the dough (I made mine about an inch), press lightly on the top and place them on the baking tray. Bake them until golden brown in the oven for 25 minutes. Enjoy! We have made these five times since November, cannot get enough of them :)
Dining any time of day by candle, fire and fairy light is such a joy. Especially in the dead of winter when nature is in a deep sleep outside your door. Have a cosy end to the week x
