I remember making cheese straws in nursery. That's the level of difficulty we're working with here...except these cheese straws have an extra sophisticated twist to them! Easy to make and a definite crowd pleaser, you can't not have these on your spread this Christmas.

All you need is:

• an egg
• two sheets of ready rolled puff pastry
• grated mozzarella 
• a jar of green pesto ( I bet red would work just as well though!

Step One: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Step Two: Line a baking tray with some foil and then roll out your first sheet of pastry.

Step Three: Spread a generous layer of pesto across the whole sheet and then sprinkle on your grated mozzarella. 

Step Four: Lie the second sheet of pastry on top so you have made a sandwich with it. Then cut into strips of around 4-5cm width and as long as you like! 

Step Five: Twist the strips and then rub some egg over the pastry so that they leave the oven with a nice glaze. Pop  them in the oven for 25 mins.

They taste best served warm straight from the oven!

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A Few Snaps from Christmas

I hope everybody had the merriest of  little Christmases yesterday :) Here's a few snaps from my Christmas..

I still get pretty excited and can't sleep on Christmas Eve, so I tried to unwind with a festive read and bath bomb :)

Cosy PJs are an absolute Christmas Eve essential. 

And it always helps to have a nice cosy bed to climb into!

By the morning, my teddy was joined by this lovely Christmas Angel, bought by my mum, along with a polar bear cushion to match my winter bedding. I used to hate going into home decor shops when I was little but now I am almost obsessed with making rooms look pretty!

After exchanging gifts, I got changed into this outfit which I love and am trying to get as much wear out of before Spring arrives! 

Whilst the turkey roasted, we watched films and ate too many nibbles - I had promised myself I would be a bit more sensible this year, but of course that failed miserably. You know how it is!

My mum is a fabulous cook and made this Christmas Wreath salad for starters along with smoked salmon terrine mmmm.. definitely one for philadelphia lovers!

The main event was amazing as always! We've always eaten at home on Christmas Day and I wouldn't have it any other way.

My Aunty, Uncle and Cousin spent the day with us along with their three dogs, so we all went for a refreshing dog walk to look at all the Christmas lights before collapsing onto the sofa for some more film watching :)

All the best for 2016 everyone!!!

p.s. I made a facebook page for my blog, all likes appreciated - click here 

The Festive Build up

I am so happy to have a spare bit of time to myself to write a post. It has been a while now! Sadly, I forgot my charger for my camera when I came home for Christmas so I'm afraid these pics are just from my phone- sorry!

With Christmas quickly approaching, I wanted to bring some of that festiveness to my blog :)

Last weekend, Tom and I decided to make some iced Christmas cookies to share with friends. We used this recipe, which is ironically called Easter Biscuits but never mind..it worked! We left out the cinnamon and currants though and just stuck to vanilla essence (so actually we forgot to put that in but I recommend adding a drop or two!). 

For more festive bakes, have a look at the melting snowmen I made last year! 

Both are the sort of biscuits you made in primary school and they bring back so many childhood memories making (and eating) them.

I drove home for Christmas on Thursday and walked in to my bedroom to find my parents had got me a brand new bed, bedding and fairy lights as an early birthday present. My mum also got me a little Christmas tree which I am in love with!! 

The bedding is from Asda, who apparently have a fair few festive designs out at the moment. I love how it's Christmassy without being too tacky. Just a nice subtle nod that says "yes, it's winter." 

The fairy lights that you can just about see are little pine cones, made from silver and white glass! They're so cute!

Finally, I just wanted to mention a little something I treated myself to; the Soap and Glory Box! You get 9 full size products for £30 which I think is an absolute steal when you think how much the products are individually. I got one last year and I still have some left over - it really is fab! 

You can find the link for it here.

What have you been up to over the festive build up? Let me know in the comments below or send me links to any Christmassy posts! I'd love a read!

Manchester Christmas Markets

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...well, at least it is in Manchester! Its annual Christmas market has arrived and is there to stay till the 22nd December

Last weekend, Tom and I spent the day exploring the festive streets of Manchester and I have since been sooooo excited for Christmas. The miserable weather did not get me down that day..

The air was filled with the smell of waffles, bratwursts and ...garlic (in a good way trust me!) I'm also a huge fan of the German style wooden huts they had like this ^^^^^^^^

I haven't been to Manchester that much so hadn't realised how amazing it is for shopping! Selfridges was certainly getting its Christmas on with these beautiful decorations!

A Selfridges in Manchester..who knew!!?? Or maybe you did and that's just me..

The talking tree was begging for a photo really wasn't it.

When is the right time to get excited for Christmas? Everyone seems to disagree on that one but I think we'll all agree that you can't control the festive bug if you go somewhere like this.

I managed to pick up a few Christmas gifts which I'd love to share with you but I know some of the present receivers will be reading this so I  better stay hushed for now! There was a good range of traditional and a bit more unique gifts though and also lots of edible ones!!

 Sooo much chocolate and fudge!!!

We ended the day in one of the bigger markets and by this time it was getting darker so the lights had their full effect.

Cheese filled bratwust anyone?! I wish they had stalls selling these all year round because they really are better than your standard hotdog!

And what better way to wash it down than with tummy-warming mulled wine! You pay a £2 deposit for the mug so if you really love you can keep it :)

I love this photo of all the roof tops. Imagine if we all lived in little Christmas villages like this all the time - how cute :)

So I'd say this day was my first big festive event :) Have you got anything Christmassy planned or do you still think it's too early for all that?

A few gift ideas plus a cheeky discount code for you all

It's getting to that time of year where we're all starting to think about starting our Christmas shopping and if you're like me, you'll also have a lot of friends that have their birthdays around this time. As  I've spent a fair few weeks looking for the ideal gifts, I thought I'd make a post with a few nice suggestions!

I was very lucky to be contacted by Debenhams and asked to review a bouquet* from their new Autumn range which you can view here. They are all beautiful and it took me a while to choose one but in the end, I went for ' Designer Delicious'.

I've always thought of fresh flowers as more of a Summer thing, but this range was well thought out with lots of orange/golden shades and berries which were a lovely touch.

They lasted a good two weeks and I'm pretty sure that if I knew how to look after flowers properly, they would have lasted even longer!!  (I'm a bad flower mummy!)

Flowers are a classic gift and I personally would be over the moon to receive another gorgeous bouquet like this (hint hint Tom if you're reading)...

I did get a little snap happy but I wanted to capture the flowers as they all opened. It was great that they hadn't when they arrived as it meant I could get the most out of them :)

If you'd like to order some for a loved one (or yourself!!) then you can get 25% off your flowers with this code: DFBLOG25... This is valid across all of their flowers except for the flowers by post.

HERE IS THE LINK

There's so many different colours and flower types that you're bound to find one that suits your loved one best. I am so OCD about stuff matching my room (which is blue and red) so I was delighted to have found this bouquet that met my fussy needs!

I have lots of lovely jewellery that I never wear because a) I can't find it and am too lazy to look for it  or b) I've lost it. This is why I looked into jewellery boxes to find something nice and simple where I could keep all my jewellery in one place!Speaking to people, this seems to be a common problem which is why I think this would be such a fab but practical present!

Utility is my 'go to' place for present ideas and I chose this sleek and simple jewellery box*. It tucks in very neatly when it is closed but when you pull the drawer, it extends out and has a handy mirror on the top that means you can check out how glamorous you look with all your bling on! (Did I actually just type bling....oh dear)

So here it is all filled up and I have actually been wearing jewellery much more often since getting this!

At £35, I think it fits a lot of people's budgets and if not then you could always get some jewellery instead :)

I am in love with Estella Bartlett jewellery! They usually cost around £15-20 and are so simple and pretty. I always play it safe when buying people jewellery because you can so easily get it wrong!!

How lovely are these hearts please?! 

I also wrote a post about making your own birthday box which will fit any budget so have a peek! 

What do you think? If you have any gift guides, I'd love to read them so drop a link in the comments :)