Author: Oana

Spare a thought…Christmas sorrows

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I have been so bloomingly and naively unaware of grief at Christmas. Call me simple or sheltered or disconnected from reality or just pure blessed. For me, even as a child in Romania with not too much to receive at Christmas, the season has always been cheerful and sometimes even magical. I realised early on that Christmas, like any other major festive celebration over the year, is not so much about things or food as it is about people. So I trained myself to recreate a patch of magic on every special occasion, especially since we had Emma, using simple things like a Christmas tree, festive baking and most importantly, spending time together. But this year the reality has hit me on various occasions: only yesterday, a Facebook friend was sharing the sad news of her dad’s passing. Just this morning I read a very raw article on Parentdish by  a lady who finds herself single at Christmas, after the failure of her 10 year marriage. Not to mention the blog entries or Facebook updates …

Christmas presents for the healthy-minded loved ones

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I know this post comes a bit too close to Christmas but if you are like me, always struggling to find appropriate Christmas presents for the healthy-minded ones in the family,  you might find it helpful. A few weeks back the lovely people at Global Bounty invited our wee family to choose from and then sent us a selection of their wonderful products to try out. We got gluten-free morning cereal, a couple of natural supplements from Iceland (the country!) for children and grown-ups and loads of yummy and variously flavoured ginger chews. We had a go at each and every one of them and were very satisfied with their quality. The muesli have NO artificial sweeteners, nor sugar added, only pure oats and dried fruit, to my health-conscious hubby’s delight! Highly recommended for coeliacs and people suffering from thyroid dysfunctions, like myself. The chews are great for ginger lovers, I use them for sore throats and bad breath, they work like magic! My favourite flavour at the moment is the peppermint but I like …

Easy weeknight dinner: Just-Rol Puff Slice

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Well, I am on my last hundred meters in this race, as they say in Romania. Baby is nearly here, I am bigger than I have even been and most days in no mood for cooking nor baking. But my lovelies still need fed ( I could survive on mince pies and baked potatoes, if it was up to me!) so I am cooking the easiest things I can think of. Last night it was chicken curry, cumin rice and bought in naan bread. The sauce from a jar, oh the shame… They still ate it and said it was nice so many thanks to Home Bargains for their choice of sauces :-). Tonight I remembered the Just-Rol puff pastry I bought the other day and decided to make some sort of home pizza. Here are my ingredients ( I had chicken cooking in the pan while I was getting my puff pastry ready and added some grated Cheddar cheese at the end): I rolled out my pastry onto a buttered lining sheet, added a …

The Christmas Tag

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I came across this in one of Victoria’s, from “Verily, Victoria Vocalises”, tweets and decided to join in the fun 🙂 I am also joining it in with #Magic Moments, at The Oliver’s Madhouse, because for me, Christmas and the weeks leading up to it have always been full of magic. 1.  Do you prefer a real Christmas tree or synthetic? I love real Christmas trees as they remind me of Christmases past. Of my dad dragging in a shabby but really fragrant Christmas tree many times as late as Christmas Eve. Of decorating it with my brother to our hearts’ delight. Of tree needles you would have found in the carpet during the spring deep cleaning…But this year I am too pregnant to care and my little one too young to have preferences so we decided to put up only the fiber optic one. It looks well though, if I say so myself… 2.  You’re in a coffee shop, it’s December, what do you pick? Oh, it must be a gingerbread man, a mince …