A christening!

The term properly refers to the acceptance of the recipient of a christening, or Baptism, into the church of Christ. It means to "bring to Christ."

In this case, our latest grandson is due to be christened this weekend.  As a Church of England tradition the actual ‘christening’ will often be added at the end of the normal Sunday service.  So, hopefully we won’t have to wait too long as for other little ones it can be tiresome!

This ceremony does give the family the excuse to meet, join with friends and neighbours to enjoy and formally recognise the latest addition to the family.  Hopefully, the weather will be kind to allow a barbeque to be held outdoors otherwise it will be a finger buffet style meal indoors.  Either way, I am sure our grandson will be totally oblivious (he is only 6 months old) as it will be his nap time anyway!

Whilst strolling through the realms of this talented team of interior designers I came across some beautiful items that might be perceived for the celebration of a christening.

Stained Glass Manager by Creations in Glass.

A handcut beautiful opalescent iridized stained glass, for the base & foiling the pieces using the copper foil technique, and soldering to a music box base that plays away in a manger there are two wise men & baby Jesus.  Perfect for that Christmas christening!

 

 

Christening gifts can be difficult to source but what about this useful item?

The Owyn Toy Box by Mod Mom Furniture

The Owyn Toy Box is a modern organic-style chest designed for any room in the house!  Use it to store everything from toys to gadgets to blankets. It has two easy lift-off lids that fit the top like a puzzle. Easy for little hands to manipulate!  The Owyn Toy Box is separated into two convenient compartments under individual leaf lids.

Looking for something to keep as a memento of this auspicious occasion?  Why not this item which you will agree is a little diferent?

 

Decorative Silver Giraffe Flower by Yoola

The artist created it as most of their creations using the smallest crochet needle available in the market and a silver colored copper wire.

 

 

 

For a reminder of how we welcome cherish this new child into God’s midst this delightful image would be prefect!

Gift of a Child by DeborahVoizin

This is one of my most favorite images. It shows how tiny and fragile a newborn baby is, in comparison to adult size hands that will be caring and guiding this sweet child through life.

 

 

 

Perfect for that old fashioned style!

Victorian Style Crochet Christening Cape by Precious Quilts aka me, On a Whimsey!

Can you imagine your little one on their special day wearing this romantic Victorian style christening cape?

 

And, so I look forward to our family gathering next weekend!

Family and Food!

Family and food, the ultimate comfort, you just can't beat it!

It was DH's birthday on Saturday so a few weeks ago we thought it would be lovely if we could gather as many of the kids and their respective partners together. This sounds so easy! It is not. Bearing in mind we all lead busy lives, some working shifts and some living in different parts of the country it is no mean feat to try to make sure there is a date when everyone will be available.

Anyway, long story short...... this Saturday being All Saints Day as well as DH's birthday we tried and actually succeeded!

Now that we knew who was coming the planning had to start regarding food. Everyone is used to coming here and eating well. Some our our children are excellent cooks, adventurous whist others due to time constraints manage very well. I always wanted to instil the fact that as long as you can read you can follow a recipe. Once a week many years ago when the kids were young each had a turn on a Saturday to plan, prepare, cook, serve and eat a homemade meal. The only stipulation had to be that everyone would like the type of food. I would get their shopping list on the Friday so that Saturday afternoon, or earlier, each child would take it in turn each week to cook their meal. Some were naturals, others a little more challenged! One of them decided to create pizzas for us all. Lovely thought until I saw the mess in the kitchen created during the base making process and lots of flour. And so, we come back to today.

Since everyone might be arriving at different times a 'sit down' meal would not be practical so I decided on making a variety of curries plus a cottage pie (made with beef whilst Shepherd's pie is made with minced lamb) for anyone not too interested in eating curry.

Thursday I did the shopping whilst Friday was taken over with cooking. Nothing like making the curries the day before to allow the flavours to mature and mingle.

The curries I made were cumin scented chicken curry, prawn curry, Korma chicken curry. Rather than just cooking ordinary rice I made a large dish of vegetable Biryani rice full of a good Basmati rice, cauliflower florets, peas and onions. As accompaniments I added poppadams, plain naan bread over which I had sprinkled some cheddar cheese with sliced red pepper (the hot stuff) and then placed in the oven until the cheese melted. Obviously there would be the usual mango chutney and raita (cucumber, yoghurt and mint).

As you can see it was a tight squeeze getting all the dishes to heat up in the oven!

Afterwards for dessert we had creme caramel. Don't you just love licking the bowl from which the pudding was released; all that caramel which sits there ready for eating!

To accompany this we had a tarte tatin which, I have to admit, was shop bought but nonetheless had a lovely sharp lemon taste to cut through all the curry flavours that still lingered.

With both puddings I used a recipe I saw in a recipe booking called Autumn Fruit Salad. Basically, pears and apples cut up, dowsed in icing sugar and then placed in a very hot frying pan to caramelise the outside of the fruit thus leaving it nice and firm on the inside. Once that is done, add some blackberries which I still had in the freezer and add a little Calvados (apple brandy).... yummy. All that was missing was a touch of cream!

Once we had all partaken of this feast it was time to sit and play with our grand daughter who held court and enjoyed all the attention from her aunts and uncles. Now I know I am biased but isn't she cute?