December recap // Life Lately, Party Food and Mince Pie Cocktails

Evening everyone… This week has been a difficult one but not for any reason other than I’ve been absolutely knackered! Its been a struggle getting up in the dark and all I’ve wanted to do is turn over and go back to sleep. Works been interesting but I’m definitely still on holiday mode. Hopefully this week will be better and we can get back into popping to the gym too!

December was an amazing month – it was one of those that flew by but also felt like it lasted a while probably because we fit so much in!
We spent the beginning of the month getting ready for Australia. I always overpack so wanted to try and bring just what I needed. I managed to cut down what I was bringing but could have taken it even further… oh well! I’ll get there with the light packing one day 😋
The week before we went to Oz, we popped to Tamatanga for an Indian after work and before we went to see Sigrid. They do such a delish thali and their chaat bombs are up there too! If you haven’t had chaat bombs before you’ve been missing out! Next time you go out for an Indian make sure to have them and let me know what you think 👍
The most delicious chaat bombs!!!
Love me a thali!
The weekend before we left I went down to London while Tim went up to Edinburgh for a Stag Do. I spent the Friday evening with my parents, had brunch at Skindles and then went to catch up with my school friends for lunch on Saturday. We went to a Turkish restaurant in Balham and we had allll the halloumi – delish! Saturday afternoon was spent chilling with one of my oldest friends Hannah – we got our nails down and spent the evening eating pasta and drinking wine while catching up – the perfect weekend.
Some of my fav Eggs Benedict <3
Love the decor at Skindles
That Christmas tree 🎄
The next morning, we were up bright and early to get to the airport to catch out flight to Australia.
I’ll leave the Australia catch up for another series of posts otherwise I just wouldn’t do it justice… What I will say is that the trip was just out of this world – the only down side was the flight time and how long it takes to get there. The flight was ridiculously long and we really struggled with jet lag the following week. Definitely never had it like that before…

The first day we were back, we were up so early… Tim was up at 3am and I was up at 4:30am so we got up and had made hot cross buns by 5:55am!

We were looking forward to just chilling for half a week – eating all the party food and drinking all the Bucks Fizz. Its not the Christmas season if you don’t have Bucks Fizz!

We started off our first day back with blinis and prawns and then literally just chilled. We ate lots of party food for a couple days as well as lots of chocolate and cheese.
Can’t have Christmas without party food…

I took the opportunity to catch up on blogging which was long overdue! Have a read of the following if you want to have a scroll through some old pics from the last decade… I definitely enjoyed doing that recap!

Out of Office
A Decade in Review: 2010-2020!
The Best of 2019 – Happy New Year!!!

We spent a couple days with Tim’s parents which was another nice chill. Tim’s mum hasn’t been very well and in an out of hospital for the past couple months but is hopefully now on the mend. So it was nice to spend some time with them both. We had a nice late Christmas roast with all the trimmings and pigs in blankets too of course!

Tim also made some mince pie cocktails which were sooo alcoholic but very tasty! A couple years ago he had a mince pie cocktail at Gingers Bar in Brum but hasn’t seen one since. So this year we thought we’d try and make one. Next year we’ll try and make a creamy version but that’ll be in 11 months time so heres’ to hopefully remembering!

We used a BBC Goodfood recipe for the cocktails – make a note of it and give it a go at Christmas!

Ingredients:

For the mincemeat syrup:

100g golden caster sugar
50g mincemeat

For the garnish:

4 tbsp caster sugar
4 tsp mixed spice

For the cocktail:

4 tsp mincemeat
100ml gin
100ml sweet red vermouth
20 ml dark rum

Method:

  1. To make a mincemeat syrup, put 100ml water, the golden caster sugar and mincemeat in a pan and bring to the boil. Cool and strain though muslin into a sieve. Separately, mix the caster sugar and mixed spice, then dampen the rims of 4 martini glasses and dip in the sugar and spice mixture.
    1. Muddle the mincemeat in a cocktail shaker (you may need to make in 2 batches), then add the gin, sweet red vermouth, dark rum, 80ml mincemeat syrup and ice. Shake well and strain into your prepared glass.
      This week I’m busy busy but looking forward to it! I’ve also started up a cake club at work which I’m so excited about! Only issue… I’m baking first! I’m baking for Tuesday this week and thinking of doing a lemon cake. It’s definitely one of my favs so think it’ll go down well. What’s your favourite cake?

      Until next time,

      Cathers xx

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