A Christmas Fair at Waddesdon Manor

Its been a while but we finally have a new adventure to share with you all. it has taken a little longer this time and we are sorry to anyone who has been patiently waiting, but we have been holding out for a new camera a Nikon d3300 camera. We love sharing our adventures but our last camera broke and it was time for something new with hopefully higher quality. Today we headed over to Buckinghamshire to visit Waddesdon manor's christmas fair. We found it completely by accident last year while looking for a national trust property to visit and we loved it green garlands and fairy light covered wooden chalets,  which had loads of food and gifts and decorations. They had warm mulled wine and mince pies being served, sheep rugs to warm yourself with while you sat for something to eat. Its perfect to get you in the christmas spirit. We stayed until it got dark to see the light trail which leads through there gardens with a light installation by artist Bruce munro.

With our trusty map in hand of the grounds we decided to see inside the house first 

armed with our fancy new camera we headed in to explore

The house felt like a winter wonderland, beautiful decorations in every room.

After our adventure around the house we felt very festive it was our first real taste of christmas this year and it filled us with christmas spirt. We headed out of the house and could not help but be drawn into the shops cover in christmas gifts and sweets to fill our bellys, it is almost christmas after all.

There was a nice spot for kids and big kids to write there list to santa

The sweet shop, we could not resist its treats 

A bite to eat before we headed towards the christmas fair. we never go anywhere 

without our flask of tea to warm us up at this time of year.

The christmas fair itself was situated on the south side of the house.  

Filled with little cabins with different goodies from food to decorations and gifts 

These are actually made of chocolate along with horse shoes and tools the detail was incredible and yummy 

As we walked through the lights with the jolly vendors the smell of food filled the air, from warm 

hot chocolate to honey roasted walnuts it was hard to resist, 

we did fold and bought some cranberry Wensleydale cheese for christmas day

We found a lovely little vendor selling christmas decorations hand made out of 

paper mache we had a good look around and could not leave without buying one 

We hardly noticed it getting dark with all the christmas lights around us 

we decided it was a good time to go and see the art installation by Bruce munro 

The light trail by Bruce munro was situated around the grounds of the house
 it was a walk around a trail of tents which in time to music and radio would change colour

After a beautiful day we walked back to the car taking another look at the house lit up behind us.

Would recommend this to anyone its a lovely day out and if you don't fancy eating there or its to busy there is a good pub called the long dog just opposite it and there food it lovely. THE LONG DOG

Pumpkin soup

We hope you all had a lovely Halloween and your pumpkin carvings kept away the ghouls  for another year. In this blog we will show you how to use your extra pumpkins that you have left over to make pumpkin soup. A perfect way to use the last of your pumpkins and make you feel all autumnal.

There are many varieties of pumpkin and gourds to choose from some are best for carving and some are perfect for cooking. we decided to use the crown prince as it is an old variety winter squash with a lovely nutty flavour perfect for pumpkin soup. It also stores very well and can be kept for up to 3 months if kept in a cool dry place.

This recipe will serve 6-8 or 2 for a long time if you freeze it, and it freezes lovely

You will need

A 4kg pumpkin 

4 cloves of garlic 

olive oil

2 onions 

1.7 litres of vegetable stock

1 tsp of cinnamon 

ground nutmeg

Step 1
The first step is to preheat your oven to gas mark 6. Then cut your pumpkin into wedges if your using a Crown prince like we are be warned they are notoriously tough to cut into, so using a very sharp knife or a chainsaw if you have one handy that will do the job.

Step 2

Once you have cut your pumpkin into segments you will need to peel your garlic using 4 cloves. put the pumpkin and garlic cloves onto a baking tray and drizzle on some olive oil and a sprinkle on a little salt and pepper, Put them in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until tender. Whilst you waiting for them to cook continue onto the next step.

Step 3 

Whilst your pumpkin is cooking away in the oven its time to chop up your onions extra points to anyone who can do this without crying. add the onions into a large pot and put in 2 tbsp of olive oil with them cooking them on a low heat for 10-15 minuets until golden brown

Step 4

Once your pumpkin is nice a tender take it out of the oven and cut off the skin, add the pumpkin to the pot with the onions,then add your 1.7 litres of vegetable stock and sprinkle in  a pinch of ground nutmeg and a table spoon of cinnamon and bring to the boil. 

Step 5

Allow the soup to cool and you can either transfer in batches your soup to a blender or use a hand blender. we used a hand blender as its all we had. It smells amazing.

 Blend the soup together until thick and creamy 

Once your soup is smooth and creamy you can sit back and enjoy this lovely autumnal treat
its easy at this stage to put in containers and pop in the freezer in single servings.