Solstice and Christmas Blessings

Summer Solstice was celebrated here on the 22nd and tonight I sit with a smaller than usual family getting ready for. the next celebration.. My two kids from another mother are on the other side of the country with their maternal grandmother, my son and grandson are several thousand kilometers away back in New Zealand.. My Christian daughter Sarah loves Christmas and I get a lot pf pleasure out of making it special.. her boyfriend will join us for a traditional celebratory meal of roast turkey, roast veg, Brussels sprouts, followed by pav good raw cream and Chrissy cake..  it is always feels a little sad without my son with us, but we will give him a call.. tonight we will dine on German sausage, potato salad and sour dough rolls - a tradition I remember from my childhood and set by my German mother..
For my Scottish husband New Year is the bigger celebration.. but that is another post..
Tonight though, I wish all my readers, a safe and happy holiday.. no matter what path or faith you follow.. my wish for you all, is abundant blessing to your hearth and home, and a safe and prosperous new year..

Bit of this and that

It seems forever since I was here blogging. So many things going on, and sadly I have just not had the energy to share them. It has been my first Christmas running my soap business, and I have been blessed it has been so busy, however I had not been 100% prepared for the rush. I have been working sometimes 6 or 7 hours a day.. next year, I will have a better idea of what to expect. A couple of little challenges have been popped up,  throwing a spanner in the works, an unexpected night at the hospital last week and  more Drs and tests this week and next.. all little things that make settling down to blog, just a little harder.

However, we did get the tree up on Sunday, we opted to replace our tired old artificial one, with a real one from a Tree farm.. the house smells so nice, with the fragrance of pine.

Today, I got the cake done, a bit late on it, but last week I managed to get all the cake fruit soaking in a  serious amount of booze, thanks Delia Smith for the recipe   I didn't take photos as I was doing it to share, but when the cake is turned out I will take a few. From what I can see and feel this is a very moist cake..
I have recently started to get some beautiful raw milk, oh it is so nice... last week I bought a small pot of cream and today, I used the cream skimmed of the milk mixed it with the cream and made some beautiful butter. I did not add enough salt for my husbands taste buds, but it is so smooth and silky and how natural does it taste!

This was the butter after about 3 minutes mixing

Draining off the buttermilk..

While I had not added enough salt, this buttermilk was a little to salty to use, *shame faced* I threw it away, I didn't know what to make with it.

This was after I had "rung" it out and rinsed it a few times in ice water, to get rid of the last buttermilk.

The finished butter... ready to eat

Well, thats me lot really, aside from a pot of cherry jam, made when the power went out for 8 hours the other day ( got to appreciate a gas cook top in a power cut)

.. luvely stuff :-)