When I agreed to host the Seasonal Gingerbread House link up I decided to persuade Greg to make something with me. If anyone follows him on twitter you will know that he loves his history and so therefore wanted to make a historically accurate structure. At first he wanted to make the Duomo in Florence and I had to explain that,
a) this was completely new to me and I had never made gingerbread houses before
b) this was not the Great British Bake Off
c) I had no idea how to create curved gingerbread

After scaling back his expectations we compromised on Stoneghenge.   

This really is Greg's creation, he made sure that everything was accurate and figured out how many of each piece he would need, you can see his plan in the picture above. All I really did was make the dough and help with sizing the pieces.

For the dough we used the recipe from BBC Good Food website. Be warned the recipe make tons of dough! I also made two other little houses and had lots of dough left over.

We used the inside cover of some Graze boxes for the grass and we trimmed the gingerbread pieces with a sharp knife to give them a flat surface so that they stood upright. We were so pleased with how it turned out and it looks wonderful in the lounge. We have had many compliments from our visitors.

I will be compiling the Seasonal Gingerbread House link up after tomorrow so you have a little more time if you want to link up.

I always have too many candy canes leftover at Christmas and I love hot chocolate! I made some of these as little gifts for friends. The peppermint taste is quite subtle and you need to keep stirring the hot chocolate to spread the peppermint flavour. This is also a really good way of using any broken candy canes.

You will need a pack of plastic spoons, 100 grams dark chocolate and some crushed candy canes. 

1. Melt the dark chocolate.
   
2. Dip the plastic spoons into the hot chocolate until covered.
3. Place on greaseproof paper and sprinkle on the crushed candy cane.
4. Leave to set.
5. When you want to use the spoons heat a mug of milk and stir in the chocolate spoon.

As these use up Christmas leftovers I am entering them into my No Waste Food Challenge which this month focusses on using up Christmas leftovers.

There is still time to enter as it doesn't close until 31/12/12.

Just a little post to say Happy Christmas and a big thank you for reading my blog.
Kate 
x

So I finally got round to making my first gingerbread house as part of the Seasonal Gingerbread House link up there is still time to join in as I won't be doing a round up until the end of the month.

I used the recipe and template from BBC Good Food website. Be warned the recipe make tons of dough! Enough to apparently make 4 smaller gingerbread houses. I made two gingerbread houses, a stonehenge (which will be blogged soon) and still had lots of dough left. I used the template for the cosy cottage. Everyone had warned me to be patient when making the house but I had not realised just how long it would take! Mine took quite a while to set but I am really pleased with the results and have had lots of compliments.

I am submitting this as my entry to the Christmas Seasonal Gingerbread House link up. Do join in we would love to see your creations!

I am a massive fan of lush and for the last few years have been buying their products as little gifts for friends and colleagues. As I like to try and make things myself I thought it was time to try making my own bath bombs. These are very easy to make and can be flavoured however you like. For the festive season I used cinnamon and cloves. 

You will need to buy a few supplies - mainly bicarbonate of soda and citric acid, the other ingredients and equipment should be things you already own. I bought my supplies from Summer Naturals.

To make 36 mini bath bombs:
- 3 silicone ice cube or chocolate moulds
-  150g citric acid
- 300g bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of ground cloves
- 5g olive oil
- sprinkling of water
- gloves
- edible or cosmetic grade glitter (optional)

To make:

1. Line the moulds with a little of the glitter.
2. Measure out the citric acid into a bowl.
3. Sieve in the bicarbonate of soda and spices and mix thoroughly together.
4. Add the oil and don't worry if the mix starts to bubble a bit.
5. Now add a small sprinkling of water and mix the powder with your hands until the mixture resembles wet sand and gently sticks together. You may wish to wear gloves as the mixture becomes very cold when it is mixed together. Be very careful not to add too much water - not much is needed.
6. When the mixture resembles wet sand carefully pack into the moulds making sure to tidy the edges of the bath bomb.
7. Leave overnight to harden. Don't worry if the mixture expands slightly.
8. On the next day gently remove from the moulds and package. Just add 2-3 to bath water for a lovely warming and relaxing bath.

I was recently sent a hamper from the lovely people at Olives from Spain and asked to come up with a marinade for my olives. The hamper was packed full of exciting ingredients; green and black olives, herbs, cheese, chorizo and oil to play around with. I came up with three marinades as I could not decide on just one. Make sure you serve these with plenty of crusty bread to soak up the flavoured oils.

Winter spice marinade
My first marinade was inspired by the season and included star anise, cinnamon and cloves. This marinade needs to be steeped for a few days for the flavours to develop and is best served without the spices in case someone tries to eat the woody bits! This provided a really subtle warm taste to the olives.
To make:

1. Drain the olives from the brine.
2. Place the olives in a container and cover the olives with olive oil.
3. Add a stick of cinnamon, star anise and a few cloves.
4. Leave overnight to steep and take out the spices.
5. Serve in a little dish.

Flavours of Spain marinade
My friends loved this marinade of green olives, lemon zest, rosemary and manchego cheese. The citrus of the lemon and intense flavour of the rosemary cut through the creamyness of the cheese and give a lovely flavour to the olives and oil.
To make:

1. Drain the olives from the brine.
2. Add chopped rosemary leaves, lemon zest and small cubes of manchego cheese.
3. Cover in olive oil.
4. Ready to serve in a few hours.

Citrus and spice marinade
This was my favourite marinade with black olives, orange zest and cardamon. The zest of the orange was a nice compliment to the deep flavour of the dark olives and the cardamon added a gently heat to the taste.
To make:

1. Drain the black olives from the brine.
2. Add the zest of orange and bash a few cardamon pods to release their seeds.
3. Cover in olive oil and leave to steep for a few hours.

So Jaime from Jaime's Kitchen and I were saying on twitter that we would like to try a gingerbread house this Christmas and we thought we should share our journey with you all and give you the chance to join in. 

At this point we asked Jude from A Trifle Rushed to join us as she has been making wonderful Gingerbread houses all year round you can see them here. With this in mind we plan to do a link up of seasonal houses throughout 2013 - Valentine's, Easter, Summer and Halloween. 

So I am kicking it off with Christmas Gingerbread houses. I feel wholly unequipped for this as I have never made one before but Jude and Jaime have asked me to host so I am running full steam ahead into this challenge.

To give you some confidence Jude has a whole range of blog posts on her gingerbread houses and can be found on twitter as @atriflerushed please feel free to tweet her your FAQs.

To kick us off I have asked a few key questions:
Q. Do you need to trim your gingerbread after baking?A. Some gingerbread needs a trim, it's a good idea to use a ruler or a template for an irregular shape. If you've used a mould it's generally ok without a trim.

Q. What icing glue is best?
A. I find Royal icing makes the best glue.  Once you've put the house together and it's setting you can keep the remaining icing in the fridge, so long as it is sealed.  It will keep for a few days.

Q. what is your one gingerbread house making tip?
A.The most important thing  I have learnt is not to rush.  Make sure your gingerbread has really dried out before you start building, and then let the house set, before you decorate.

The rules:

• We don't mind how you make your gingerbread house. If it is chocolate, cake, biscuit or part of a premade kit. 
  
• Send me your blog posts and pictures to turquoiselemonsblog@gmail.com 
  
• You are welcome to resubmit old posts just please add the badge and link back to here.
  
• Please tweet your entry to @turquoiselemons using hashtag #seasonalgingerbreadhouse
  

I will do a round up post as soon as we have a few. I will add to it each week up to Christmas so that any of you who haven't participated in the first few weeks of December can be inspired.

Do chat to us on twitter about your creations:
Jude @atriflerushed
Kate @turquoiselemons
Jamie @JaimsKitchen

I found this lovely branch out on a walk recently and wanted to make it look a little special for Christmas. I sprayed it with a light coat of white spray paint and let it dry for a few hours. I then popped it in a vase with some bright baubles and decorated with little light sparkly baubles. Very easy and quick!

A big thank you to Elizabeth who hosted November's No Waste Food Challenge. This month we are focusing on Christmas - a time when we all over indulge and tend to have lots of leftovers. I don't mind if you use mincemeat, Christmas day food leftovers, cheese platter leftovers - anything that you have bought for the festive season and you end up having as leftovers. I would love you all to join in!

Challenge conditions

1. Please send an e-mail of your challenge entry to turquoiselemonsblog@gmail.com by the end of the month.
2. Please include the title, recipe and a link to your post. If the recipe is not your own make sure you credit the author. 
3. Feel free to republish old posts just make sure you add a link to the challenge and add the challenge badge.
   
4. Make sure you email before the end of the month.
5. Please also include a link back to this blog and use the badge.