Savoury Sausage Rolls

I absolutely love sausages.  Aren’t they so versatile – perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner? For me sausages are a real comfort food.  But add some puff pastry to the mix and whip up some sausage rolls – mmmmmm.  Perfect when your craving something tasty and savoury or they also make great party snacks/nibbles.  Hope you enjoy these as much as I do xx

Ingredients

400g good quality minced sausage meat (if you can’t find the pre-minced one just buy pork sausages and remove the skin), 1 tsp mustard, 1 finely grated granny smith apple, 50g cranberries, 50g macadamia nuts, 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce, Pinch salt, Puff Pastry (I use the store bought one  - 340g)

Blitz the cranberries and macadamia nuts in a processor until finely chopped and then place them into a bowl with all the other ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Roll out the puff pastry and spoon the mixture into the pastry, fold over and cut into strips (shape them in to whatever size you like).  When they have been cut into your desired shape fork the edge of them (dip the fork in to cold water) to seal the edge.

Brush the top with an egg wash for a nice golden finish.

Pop them in a preheated oven @ 180°c for about 40-45 mins.

These yummy sausage rolls taste best served warm with a little chilli sauce.

Delicious Chocolate Cake

I’ve been under serious pressure, for years now, to produce the perfect chocolate cake for my other half who is a massive fan of chocolate cake and with the comparison of ‘mother-in-laws great chocolate cake’ I wondered if I’d ever win him over with a great Choccie Cake.  I’ve tried so many recipes and they’re never just quite right. I came across 2 recipes with elements in each that ‘sounded’ like they could be nice so I took what I thought would be the good bits from each recipe and below is the recipe and the end result piccies.  Its moist, rich and pure indulgence.

Styling my Ribbon

I could spend hours browsing beautiful images and shots and swooning on such fabulous sites like Sweet Paul, Donna Hay, What Katie Ate and White On Rice Couple. Inspirational – oh yes BUT be warned – completely addictive.  There’s a lot to be said for beautiful images, especially when food is concerned and I just love how they style these shots – it just leaves me with my mouth wide open in awe of the beautiful food and beautiful styling.

I invested in a good camera a while back so my Easter Resolution is to try and master it and (TRY) to start styling my own shots for my Home and Gift brand – Island Living that offers a range of fab floral aprons, linen tablecloths and tablerunners, cushions, throws, hanging hearts and lots more gorgeous country cottage style Home and Giftware.

My other half bought me some lovely pink flowers (brownie points for him as he knows I love, love pink flowers) – carnations and roses in 2 different shades of pink so I thought they would be perfect to use to showcase my Pink on Pink ribbon.   So my first project was to do a shot of my range of Ribbon and Lace and here’s the result.

 

Source: J Fennell @ Island Living

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Source: J Fennell @ Island Living

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Source: J Fennell @ Island Living

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Source: J Fennell @ Island Living

Pretty Gift Wrapping

My take on contemporary style gift wrapping – gorgeous black and white saddle stitch ribbon and a little crystal heart.

 

 

Vintage Suitcase Storage

I recently bought a set of gorgeous vintage suitcases.  They are so fab for storage – magazines, books, all my craft supplies, fabric and they look pretty funky too.

What do you think of vintage suitcases as a storage option?

 

Here are some other images I found on Pinterest:

Source: Pinterest

 

Source: Pinterest

 

Source: Pinterest

 

Source: Pinterest

 

Source: Pinterest

 

 

Lace Packaging

I love nothing more then to get a beautifully packaged gift and my mother-in-law really is the queen of wrapping.  I just got some fab new lace in stock and here are my attempts at packaging some pressies with lace.  Kind of pretty if I can say so myself

 

Winter Warmer Veggie Soup

I’m trying to loose a bit of weight and eat healthier and I’m one of those people thats just not into dieting as I love my food way too much.  So I figured a hodge podge of veggies (full of healthy stuff) with a dash of a spice or two might result in a nice soup and I love experimenting with ingredients.  The result was absolutely delicious and the only problem is to try and restrain myself from drinking the whole pot – its a great hearty Winter Warmer Soup.

Veggie Soup