Some Christmas things

Ok, I know christmas has now passed, but seeing as I hadn't started my blog then, I thought I would just post the above two photos anyway. As you can see the first one are some funky santa slippers which I totally adore and were a totally unexpected but very welcome pressie, and the second are apple and jam tarts that I made. The tarts were a bit experimental for me as it was the first time I tried making them without lard as I've been finding that the pig's lard (I cannot find vegetable lard here, which I normally use alongside hard margarine) was making me ill. So this time I tried it with just hard margarine. The texture wasn't as good, and I think the taste was compromised slightly, but overall they weren't too bad, and definitely were edible. I also made an apple pie, which Mr W certainly took a liking to and ate with gusto, along with chocolate ice cream! I have to make my pastry without eggs (or nuts, not that you put nuts in pastry!) as I'm seriously allergic to them, and go into anaphylactic shock if I have just the teeniest trace. I'm used to it now, as have had my allergies since I was about 3 years old. Thankfully my mum was very good at baking pies and tarts, and flap jacks so I didn't really lose out that way, I just could never have shop-bought ones or ones that other people have made. And when it came to my birthday parties, I only once could actually eat the cake, when my mum decided to make me a special cat "cake" which I totally adored and was made out of chocolate covered rice krispies and had liquorice all-sorts for eyes and whiskers. (All the other birthdays my mum still bought cake for everyone else at my party, I think partly for show and so that no-one missed out).