Paint Swatch Christmas Cards

This is a great one to do with the kids, especially when they are school age and need to take loads in for their friends / teachers!!

What you need

• Paint swatches (I picked mine up from Homebase but most DIY/paint stores have them)
• Blank cards or sheets of card folded
• Christmas Text 
• Buttons
• Sequins
• PVA glue

Instructions

Step 1 - Select your swatches

I walked into Homebase and had so much choice that my Christmas trees were almost purple but in the end I stuck with green and brown. However, if you want to be more adventurous and give everyone a different coloured tree, then go for it!

If you can't get your hands on any then coloured card will do the same job.

Step 2 - Cut out your tree

Cut a triangle from your swatch. I ended up having to cut this tree in half as it was too long for my card but you can adjust this to whatever works for you. I like a range of different sizes so they don't all look the same.

Step 3 - Plant your tree

With a few dabs of glue on the back of your tree, stick it to the front of your card. I used a ready made pack of blank cards I already had in the house but you can just buy sheets of card and fold/cut them to the size of your choice.

I also cut a small piece of the brown paint swatch to use as the base of the tree, also gluing it onto the card.

Step 4 - Add sparkle

For some reason I also had a tub of sequins in the flat that had snowflakes and stars (as well as some dinosaurs and cats mixed in - don't ask) so I was able to glue a few of these around the tree to add a bit of sparkle. Circle sequins or sticky gold stars will have the same effect though.

Step 5 - Add your Christmas Message

Print out your Christmas message. I've attached a sheet full of Merry Christmas labels for you to use but feel free to come up with your own.

Glue this onto the bottom of your card and then a button on either side or use more sequins / stars to finish it off.

I'll be back,

Gluten Free Dragon Rolls Sushi

I loooooove sushi and one of my favourites is dragon rolls but the tempura bater and soy sauce both have wheat in them which sucks for those intolerant to gluten so I tried out a new recipe last night and the results were pretty tasty!

What you will need:

Ingredients

• Sushi grade rice (I get mine from Tesco)
• Shrimp or king prawns
• Cucumber
• Avocado
• Nori seaweed sheets
• Gluten Free soy sauce
• Chilli paste (optional)
• Garlic paste (optional)
• Salad of your choosing (I used spinach, radish and cucumber)
• Vegetable oil
• Batter (100g gluten free plain flour & soda water or tonic if you want more of a lemony taste)

Tools

• Sushezi or sushi rolling mat
• Sharp knife

Step 1 - Prep your fish

I used king prawns as they are easier to find in the supermarket, cutting them into smaller pieces to that they are easier to lie in a straight line within the sushi

Step 2 - Make your batter

Add 100g of gluten free plain flour to to a bowl and then slowly mix in your soda/tonic until it's a thin paste. If you dip your finger in it then it should slightly cover your finger but not look too thick.

Remember to clean your hands first!!

Step 3 - Cook Fish

Fill a small pan about a 1/4 full with oil, whilst putting your fish in the batter whist your oil heats up. Once the oil is hot enough (you can tell this by dropping in a small amount of batter to see if it sizzles and rises to the surface) then slowly add your fish and leave to cook for a few minutes until golden brown. Then very carefully remove the fish from the pan and place on a piece of kitchen roll to dry out.

Then leave the fish to cool.

Step 4 - Make your Sushi

Take half a Nori sheet and place your fish and some strips of cucumber in a straight line on the sheet. Then roll the sheet up, wetting one end so it sticks.

I have a Sushezi so then I just put my sushi in the tube, place the Nori sheet in the middle, close the tube up and compress, before pushing the sushi out. Alternatively, you can use a sushi rolling mat.

Step 5 - Add the scales

De-shell half an avocado and thinly slice it, as well as slicing your sushi (it works better if you clean your knife between sushi cuts).

Then take a few slices and layer them on top of the sushi like dragon scales

 

Step 6 - Make your sauce

Now you can just have soy sauce on it's own but I like putting it in a small tub with some chilli and garlic paste before shaking to mix up.

Step 7 - Garnish your plate

Garnish with a salad of your choice or just load up on the sushi goodness!!!

I'll be back,

Gluten Free Gingerbread House for your Mug

I've got lots of friends who have a difficult relationship with gluten (including myself) and the holiday period is particularly hard with all the meals out and goodies being brought into the office so this year I'm going to try my hand at a range of gluten free recipes so that all of these gorgeous girls can enjoy Christmas as much as everyone else!

The Recipe

Ingredients

Gingerbread

• 300g of Gluten free plain flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 2 heaped teaspoons of powdered ginger (or less if you only like a hint of ginger)
• 1 heaped teaspoon of powdered cinnamon 
• 250g of honey
• 125g of shortening (brands such as Trex, Flora White or Cookeen in the UK)
• 1 tablespoon of treacle

Icing

• 1 sachet of powered egg white
• 250g of royal icing sugar
• 1 cap-full of vanilla extract
• water (I used 5 table spoons)
• sprinkling of desiccated coconut for the roofs

The Method

Step 1 - Make the Gingerbread

• Heat the shortening, honey and treacle in a pan until it starts to boil and then turn if off and leave until it is room temperature
• Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then mix in the liquid ones once they have cooled. You'll have to get your hands dirty of this one and don't worry about it being quite a soft/oily consistency)
• Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the freezer for 1 hour (or in the fridge overnight if you are not in a rush). This stops the dough expanding when you put it in the oven
• After removing from the freezer, put whatever you are not using just now in the fridge to keep it cool

My dough looks dark in this picture because I put too much treacle in my first batch. Yours should look lighter than this.

Step 2 - Roll your dough

I put my dough in between 2 sheets of grease proof paper on a chopping board and rolled until it was about 1/2 a cm thick

Step 3 - Cut out your house

Print out my Gingerbread house template onto some card and cut out the shapes. before placing the template on the dough, sprinkle a little flour over the top so that the card doesn't stick to the dough.

Cut out two of each to make 1 house

 Step 4 - Bake

Put them in the oven for 8/10 minutes at 180 degrees celsius. but keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. it will still be a little soft when you take it out the oven but will harden up as it cools.

Make sure none of the pieces are touching otherwise they will join together when baking

Step 5 - Leave to cool

Leave your pieces out to cool as they need to be cold to touch before you can put on the icing

Step 6 - Make the icing

• First beat the egg whites with 2 tablespoons of water until they are light and fluffy
• Add half the icing sugar and 1/2 more table spoons of water as needed
• Repeat with the rest of the icing sugar

Step 7 - Build your house

Pipe the icing on the house pieces to join them together. The small squares are for the sides of the house and the larger rectangles are for the roof.

Step 8 - Let it snow

Ice the roofs and then press some coconut of the top to make it look like snow. Then all that's left to do is serve them to your friends on mugs of your favourite hot drink, I recommend a chai latte!

I'll be back,