thelittlebigfoodie.wordpress.com

If you’re short on time it doesn’t have to involve hours in the kitchen though – plenty of supermarkets sell party food around this time of year, and if you use shortcuts such as shop bought pastry, you can easily whip up some budget-friendly sausage rolls or tarts in under an hour 🙂 I think homemade cakes and cookies make great Christmas presents, but often the run up to Christmas can get quite busy, so it’s hard to find time to bake things fresh. I have a ridiculous stash, but I still love making homemade nut butter as you can add whatever flavour you want and it’s so quick and simple. I use digestives and chopped nuts with butter, golden syrup and melted chocolate as a base recipe, but I add other things depending on how I feel, including dried fruit or chopped up chocolate bars (I love the caramel that rolos and boost bars add!).

I fell in love with Rome from the moment we arrived from the beautiful cobbled streets, old fashioned buildings and little delis to cafes and gelaterias on every corner. We’d chosen a hotel just outside of the city centre, as we wanted to spend some time relaxing too, and hotels in city centres tend to be pretty cramped or overpriced