No.102 Christmas at Bentovention

Hello all! Big T and little t returned to school after their Christmas break yesterday. We had a nice time together over the festive period and cooked and baked to our hearts' content. Most of our baking went un-photographed, since our priority was relaxing and enjoying one another's company rather than documenting our activities. Sadly, that also meant that we took very few photographs of our Christmas time at all! Just a few on the 25th.

I'd like to share a few of the Christmas things I did photograph. Above is one of the school lunches little t had before the holidays. It contains vegan sausage and stuffing panini sandwiches, a home made treacle-mincemeat mince pie, soy-cheese and crackers, a satsuma and purple plum, a box of raisins and a candy cane. I usually put tinsel and an ornament on the cooler bags the children have for bento at Christmas time but this year I came up with the idea of gift wrapping the actual lunch.

Below are the two centrepieces the children made for our living room and dining room. The gold platter was Big T's design and the red platter was little t's. I gave them glass dishes, candles, ribbon, scented dried flowers, slices of orange I baked in the oven with cinnamon and holly snippets, then I let them make their own arrangements. I was REALLY pleased with the outcome.

Next up are some pictures of the main dish I made for Christmas day, which was a nut and cranberry wellington. The filling consisted of pureed chestnut, chopped walnuts, garlic, wholemeal breadcrumbs, steamed cranberries and fried, diced white onion. The pastry was also my own vegan creation, which I did make a little thick in places. It held it all together though. The children thought it was delicious and my husband thought it was double delicious (he had a double portion!).

For all of you that enjoy a peak into my cooking and my home life here on Bentovention I'd like to wish you a happy new year to come! little t and Big T have started to take soup and tea in their new flasks to school each day while the weather is so bitterly cold. Normal bento making will be resumed again soon!