Edible Gifts and Festive Highlights

Time, as always this close to Christmas, is slipping away so quickly. As I type, my sister and her family are flying over the big pond from America. In just a few hours I’ll be causing an emotional scene at the airport, being that my sister is coming home for Christmas for the first time in eight years. It seems as though the preparations for Christmas started for me back in October, when I began creating festive recipes for the Good Food Channel. Luckily, one of my tasks was to create a batch of pomegranate vodka, a splash of which added to a glass of champagne or prosecco, will offer the perfect welcome!

Make Your Own Pomegranate Vodka – Recipe for the Good Food Channel can be found here

Edible Gifts

One of my most popular posts this year has been the piece on edible gifts that I wrote for JamieOliver.com, which proves that the popularity of making your own Christmas food gifts is as high as it was last year.

Here on my own site, the most searched-for post continues to be my Polish Spiced Christmas Cookies – Pierniczki. With the help of my good friend Monika again, I’ve just about managed to decorate a batch of Polish Christmas cookies this year and they are filling the house with the most wonderful aroma of fresh gingerbread.

There’s also a lovely round-up of edible gifts over on Katie’s site, created for the Good Food Channel, too.

Henri Le Worm App

Tablets are becoming increasingly popular. So, if Santa brings an iPad or a mini iPad to your house this year, make sure you download an app called Henri Le Worm and his amazing cooking adventures, created by Raymond Blanc’s son, Olivier Blanc and his friend, Charlotte Salt with character voices by Simon Pegg. Back at the end of the summer, I had the great pleasure of attending the launch of this very fun app for kids, at Brasserie Blanc in Covent Garden, where my own children got to cook with the culinary genius that is Raymond Blanc himself. Of all the events I attended this year, this launch was definitely the highlight for me. The app has also stood the test of time, as my children still click on ‘Henri Le Worm’ whenever they get the chance and engage with his story, the game and Raymond’s recipes. The music is particularly catchy, too!

The Hungry Student Cook Books

And finally, if you are looking for a gift for a student, then you must buy The Hungry Student Cookbook trilogy by fellow food writer Charlotte Pike. Charlotte is just about to commence a course at Ballymalloe Cookery School in Ireland and I wish her the very best in her new culinary adventures. I’ll admit, I am a little bit envious! You can buy all three books over on Amazon for around £16.10.

I helped to test some of the recipes within these books, but my favourite recipe of all has to be this very simple Dorset Apple Cake. If you have a son or a daughter or a neighbour or a friend at university, they’ll be one term in now and will have faced the reality of having to fend for themselves, so I’m sure they will appreciate a tailor-made cook book to help them through the rest of the student year.

There’s one more exciting thing I have to tell you about, but it will have to wait until tomorrow as I have to dash to the airport now!

What has been the highlight of your year so far?