Tutorial: felt polaroid christmas ornament

supplies needed:
white felt. [the 9" x 12" rectangles from craft stores are perfect!]
scissors
pencil/chopstick
iron
sewing machine & thread
picture(s) [i used 4x6 inch pictures]
ribbon



***ETA: if you're making these for small children, i recommend adding a piece of thin chipboard [like a piece cut from a cereal box] to your ornament to prevent it from getting bent as easily. just cut it the same size as your photo, glue it to the back of your photo and slip it into the polaroid felt sleeve.


1. cut your felt into a 9 inch by 4 1/4 inch rectangle.


2. fold in half, hamburger way. And sew a straight line 1/8 inch on two sides, creating a little pocket, with the folded edge at the bottom. [i used dark thread to show you which two sides, but you can just use white.]


3. turn it right side out, and poke out the corners with a chopstick or the eraser side of a pencil.

4.iron on the lowest setting on your iron.


5. cut out a square on one side for your picture. mine ended up being approximately 2 3/4 inches. set aside the felt polaroid.


6. trim your photo. [mine ended up being approximately 3 3/8 inches by 4 inches, but it will vary on whether or not you have portrait or landscape photos and where your seams ended up.]

7. insert into your felt polaroid sleeve. if it doesn't fit, trim off 1/16 inch pieces until it does. set felt polaroid with picture aside.

8. trim your ribbon to the desired length. [mine ended up being about 8 1/2 inches, laid flat.]


9. start in the upper right corner, and sew a straight line down to corner, making sure to back stitch at the beginning. turn the polaroid, while the needle is still insterted into the felt and the presser foot is raised, sew along the bottom [folded] edge of the polaroid. turn again, and sew up the other side.


10. when you get to the top left corner, stop you sewing machine, and get your ribbon. cross the cut ends, so that it creates a loop for the polaroid to hang from.




11. insert your ribbon, so it is centered on the ornament. be sure to put it behind the picture, but in front of the back layer of felt on the polaroid.


12. sew across the top of the polaroid. back stitch over the ribbon to make sure it is secure. when you get back to the upper right corner, back stitch again.


13. sew a straight line across the bottom of the picture square and hole, back stitching at the beginning and end.

14. trim strings and enjoy your polaroid ornament!



Just remember, that you polaroids don't need to be perfect. i think that's what gives them their charm, just like real polaroids.



Source: http://katiecupcake.blogspot.com/

Christmas spirit cocktail

ingredients
• Tequila
• 1 or 2 pomegranates

This is so simple to make and just one will definitely raise the Christmas spirits! Just remember, it’s about injecting a little fun and flavour into the party, so don’t get carried away.

Pop a bottle of good-quality tequila in the freezer for an hour, along with a shot glass for each of your guests.

Cut your pomegranates in half and take their seeds out. The easy way to do this is to hold one half of a pomegranate cut-side down in your hand and bash the top of it with a spatula so the seeds come tumbling out – make sure you’ve got a bowl underneath to catch them all!

Fill your shot glasses with pomegranate seeds, pour in your iced tequila and depending on your style either sip it, or knock it back. Don't swallow until you've crunched the pomegranate seeds because they add a real burst of fragrance and flavour in your mouth. Delicious!


SOURCE: http://www.jamieoliver.com

Christmas pud sundae

ingredients
• 150g fresh cranberries
• zest and juice of 1 large orange
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• zest and juice of 1 lime
• 250g fresh vanilla custard
• 2 medium bananas, peeled and sliced into 1cm slices
• 2 x 298g tins of mandarin segments in natural juice, drained
• a knob of butter
• 200g cooked Christmas pudding
• a handful of flaked almonds
• a splash (or more!) of whisky
• 1 x small tub of good-quality vanilla ice cream


dressings / sauces | serves 4
Christmas pudding is a leftover that is so easy to use. It doesn’t lose its flavour or texture when you warm it.

Put the cranberries, half the orange juice and all of the sugar in a small pan and bring to the boil. Let it simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you get a lovely thick sauce. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool.

Stir the zest from the orange and lime into the custard and put the slices of banana and mandarins in a separate bowl with the lime juice and toss.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan and crumble in the leftover Christmas pudding, along with the flaked almonds. Toast lightly, add a good lug of whisky and fry gently until crispy.

Divide most of the mandarins and bananas into the bottoms of four sundae glasses then spoon over some of the zesty custard. Top with a scoop of ice cream, drizzle over some cranberry sauce then sprinkle over most of the Christmas pudding mixture. Finish with the remaining bananas and mandarins and any remaining Christmas pud.

SOURCE: http://www.jamieoliver.com

The best roast turkey christmas or any time

Ingredients
• 50g/2oz butter
• a sprig of fresh sage, leaves picked
• 12 strips of pancetta or thinly sliced streaky bacon
• 1 bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
• 4 medium red onions, peeled
• 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
• a big handful of breadcrumbs
• a handful of dried apricots
• 300g/10½ oz minced pork
• zest of 1 lemon
a pinch of grated nutmeg
• 1 large free-range or organic egg
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 12 small fresh rosemary sprigs, plus a few extra
• 4–4.5kg/9–10lb turkey, preferably free-range or organic, at room temperature
• 2 carrots, peeled
• 1 large orange
• olive oil
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 1.1litres/2 pints chicken or vegetable stock

main courses | serves 6 - 8
One of the biggest challenges when cooking a turkey is the legs take longer than the breasts. The breasts dry out in the oven while you’re waiting for the legs to cook. I like to push stuffing between the turkey’s skin and breasts, increasing the thickness of the breasts so they take the same time to cook as the legs. The result? Juicy turkey all round!

Preheat the oven to maximum. Heat a saucepan until medium hot and drop in the butter, sage leaves and 6 of the pancetta or bacon strips. Peel and chop 2 garlic cloves and 1 onion. Add the garlic, celery and onion to the saucepan and fry everything gently until soft and golden brown. Take the pan off the heat, add the breadcrumbs and, while the mix is cooling down, chop the apricots roughly and stir them in. When the stuffing has cooled down, add the pork, lemon zest, nutmeg, egg and lots of salt and pepper, and mix everything together well.

Slice the remaining strips of pancetta or bacon in half and slice 1 peeled garlic clove into thin slivers. Place a rosemary sprig and a garlic sliver on one end of a halved strip of pancetta and roll it up tightly. Repeat with the other pieces of pancetta until you have 12 little rolls. Stab the thighs and drumsticks of the turkey in 6 places on each side. Push a little pancetta roll into each hole until it just peeps out. This’ll give your turkey thighs a fantastic flavour and will keep them moist while they cook.

Chop the remaining onions in half and slice the carrots thickly. Give your turkey a good wipe, inside and out, with kitchen paper, and place it on a board, with the neck end towards you. Find the edge of the skin that's covering the turkey's breasts and gently peel it back. Work your fingers and then your hand under the skin, freeing it from the meat. If you're careful you should be able to pull all the skin away from the meat, keeping it attached at the sides. Go slowly and try not to make any holes! Lift the loose skin at the neck end and spoon the stuffing between the skin and the breast, tucking the flap of skin underneath to stop anything leaking out. Pop the orange in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up and stuff it into the cavity. Weigh the stuffed turkey and calculate the cooking time (about 20 minutes per 500g/1lb 2oz).

Place the bird on a large roasting tray, rub it all over with olive oil and season well. Surround with the chopped carrots, onions, remaining garlic, cover with tinfoil and place in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down right away to 180°C/350°F/gas 4, and roast for the calculated time, or until the juices run clear from the thigh if you pierce with it a knife or a skewer. Remove the tinfoil for the last 45 minutes to brown the bird. Carefully lift the turkey out of the tray and rest on a board that’s covered loosely with foil for 20 minutes while you finish off the veg and gravy. Skim the surface fat from the roasting tray and add the flour and stock. Place the tray on the hob and bring to the boil on a high heat. When the gravy starts to thicken, strain it into a bowl. Carve your turkey, serve with the gravy and dig in!

SOURCE: http://www.jamieoliver.com

Spiced sugar & christmas popcorn

INGREDIENTS
Makes 1kg of sugar
• 3 fresh bay leaves
finely grated zest of 2 oranges
• finely grated zest of 2 lemons
• 6 whole cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 10 gratings of whole nutmeg
• 1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways
• 1kg unrefined caster sugar

Makes a large bowl of popcorn
• olive oil
• 2 knobs of butter
• 250g popcorn kernels
• 6 tablespoons spiced sugar


snacks and sides
What’s mad about this is that, even though all of these spices and flavours are so pungent on their own, they actually taste like tutti frutti sweets when together. You can use this sugar for so many things; from a sweetener for porridge, sprinkled over baked bananas, or to make a gorgeous Chantilly cream. It will keep for a while, so if you’re going to make it, you may as well make a batch and keep it in an airtight container.

Whack the bay leaves, orange and lemon jest and all of your spices into a food processor and give it a good whiz. Once that’s well blended add your sugar and whiz again so you’ve got a lovely spiced sugar. Because there’s quite a bit of moistness in the zest and vanilla pod it’s a good idea to pour the sugar onto a baking tray, spread it out evenly then leave it to dry for a few hours.

Once the sugar is nice and dry, pass it through a sieve to catch any larger pieces of spices. Discard anything left behind in the sieve then put your sieved sugar into an airtight container, where it will keep happily for ages.

Spiced Christmas popcorn

Popcorn only takes a few minutes to make but it smells, sounds and tastes brilliant; it’s a great thing to have going on in your home. If you’re feeling a bit creative you can divide the popcorn between some little sandwich bags, tie them with ribbons then give them out as a bit of a Christmas treat to adults and kids. If the sugar settles on the bottom of the bag just give the bag a shake before tucking in.

Put a few lugs of oil and your butter in a large pan over a high heat. Once the butter has melted, add the popcorn and stir well to coat the kernels. Put the lid on straight away and leave it for a few minutes. It will take a few minutes to get going so be patient. As the popcorn gets going give the pan a shake every 30 seconds or so to make sure the kernels all get popped. Put your spiced sugar in a large bowl and when the popcorn is ready add it to the bowl and quickly toss it and stir it into the sugar so the hot popcorn picks up those lovely spiced flavours.

Serve the popcorn in a big bowl or in little bowls dotted about the house. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that this is one of the nicest popcorns I’ve ever had. It’s delicious and has to be better for you than caramels, toffees or cheap artificial sweets.

SOURCE: http://www.jamieoliver.com