Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to those of you who are visiting for the first time as part of the Advent Calendar Blog Hop organised by Jo of  Serendipitous Stitching

My stitched piece is adapted from a free design by The Sampler Girl. 

This is also my finish for The Needlecraft Haven Monthly Challenge. My version is stitched in Carrie's Creations threads in Luna, Wine and Koala Claw. I changed it a little from the original, adding a couple of little snowflakes around the text and hearts between the snowflakes to carry the colours through the design a bit more. I also changed the three large snowflakes. I freely admit that this is more symptomatic of my problems than of any issue with the original design, but I looked at those snowflakes and I came over all Darth.

So I made mine symmetrical

Anyway back to the blog hop. Jo asked that we share a little about our Christmas food traditions. Ours are all very standard I'm afraid, turkey, Christmas pud etc, but we do always have baked brie for tea on Christmas Eve, which I make like this:-

Lightly oil an oven-proof dish with olive oil, chop a nice big bit of fresh Cornish Brie (of course you don't have to use Cornish Brie, but don't use the cheapy processed kind it doesn't melt properly) into largish wedges as required to fit the dish. Over the top scatter crushed peppercorns, some sprigs of thyme, a clove of garlic, roughly chopped, and some thick strips of zest pared from a lemon. Don't be too precious about chopping things up small, you're going for rustic here. Drizzle a little more olive oil on the top and bake at 180 for about ten minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Serve immediately with lots of warm crusty bread to dip into the meted cheese. I usually put out some sticks of carrot, cucumber and pepper as well so I can at least pretend it's a healthy meal!