Christmas Decoration Ideas

Christmas is literally right around the corner and decorating is definitely a huge part of the holidays. Whether you're style is traditional or you like to experiment and get creative, decorating is always a joy for this festive holiday. Reusing items from last Christmas? That's totally okay. You can always add a little something extra to it to make it a bit different from the previous year. Put your own little twist to it.
Let's start with wreaths. Christmas time and wreaths go hand in hand. Wreaths can be placed indoors and outdoors. But the trick is, keep it simple outdoors, not too much. Have those bright bursts of colour inside to go along with your decor. For indoor wreaths, use bright colours; white, reds and greens. You can even get creative with silver and blue, purple and gold.
  

 For outdoor wreaths, use lighter shades of red and green. You can use gold on the outside as well, just to give it that little something extra.

You can also try this. Instead of the usual wreaths, try using shiny Christmas balls. They can be arranged to form a wreath. You'll be surprised at how wonderful and different it looks. 




This one's another beautiful piece of decoration. These are very decorative and tropical!

Center piece arrangements can be done in big or small vases, your choice. For the small vase arrangements make sure there're a few pieces of something brightly coloured in there. This would make the arrangement stand out even though it may be small.

 

If you're using a large vase for your Christmas arrangements try filling it with marbles; clear or coloured. Or even shiny beads, whichever colour of your choice but a festive colour like red or gold will fit perfectly. After you fill the vase with marbles or beads, you can add water if you're using fresh flowers for the arrangement. Then you place your flowers of choice in there. It's different but it looks amazing!

Flowers you can use for Christmas. These are my favourites but if you have a particular flower you'd like to use in your Christmas arrangement go right ahead. Bright red poinsettias are so festive and they honestly just say 'Christmas' when you look at them. Roses; red, white and burgandy are great colours to use for Christmas. Tuber roses, parrot tulips and hydrengeas are different but they look amazing as well. Finally, white or red Amaryllis. These flowers simply bring out whatever arrangement you have. 

What's Christmas without a Christmas Tree?  You must have one! You can stick to the traditional decorations; using green and red. But moving away from the traditional style, you can also use gold and silver ornaments. You have to make sure the colours are coordinated, so use green, red and gold together to give that rich festive feel. You can try blue ornaments paired with some silver. Another one that caught my attention were a few trees I saw decorated in purple and gold and purple and silver. It was different but it looked good. A tree decorated with red, silver and gold ornaments look real good too. But the traditional Christmas colours are green and red. Nothing can beat that. For lights, use multi-coloured ones,white, red or blue lights. Those are my personal faves. Use what you like but make sure it suits your decorations. You don't want a big contrast.

 

Garlands. Another thing that makes a great decoration. Run them around pillars or along railings; indoors and outdoors. Run them along railings however you like. They can be decorated with the same colours you use on your Christmas tree or on wreaths. They really do give a little something extra to the décor. 

Try some of these ideas to give your home a great, bright festive look this Christmas! Have fun decorating! :)

Some Of My Favourite Caribbean Dishes

So today, my mind was on food. I love to cook and try new things. Being from the Caribbean there are so many varieties of food to try. From sweet to spicy and even a combination of both. From the time you smell the local food, the aroma is just mouth watering, literally. Oh and the taste, it's just like a burst of flavours that you wont get over even after the second bite. Here are some of my favourite Caribbean dishes! Try not to get hungry. Enjoy!

 Bake and Shark. 

From the time you hear 'Maracas Bay', you automatically think bake and shark. It's highly associated with that part of Trinidad. It's basically a sandwich, we Trini's would refer to it as 'fried bake'. Yep, in other words it's like fried bread, just a bit heavier.                                     

They slice open the bake and put a piece of fried shark fillet in there. Now that's just bake and shark. There are many other things that are yet to go on to enhance the taste of that meal. You can add a few slices of tomatoes, some lettuce, some shredded cabbage, even some diced onions. That's your toppings. Then there are a variety of sauces that you can use as well. We have local pepper sauce(hot sauce), Tamarind sauce and a shadow benni sauce. If you ask me, honestly I'd say that this is the best sandwich I've ever had. 

           


Jamaican Beef Patty

The first time I had this I was just blown away by its taste and all the flavours. It's a flaky pastry shell, golden yellow in colour. The pastry shell is filled with ground beef and it's usually a bit spicy. Personally, the beef is my favourite. But it can also be filled with chicken, lamb, shrimp, vegetables, cheese, etc.



Saltfish Accra

Also known as saltfish fritters. The fish is shredded then seasoned and mixed into a flour based batter. It is then fried in deep oil. This is mainly an appetiser but believe me it's a totally delicious one. In the batter you can add diced onions, pimentos and chives just to enhanced to taste. It's crispy and the best time to serve is when it's warm.



Breadfruit Oil Down

For those of you who may not know what a Breadfruit is, this is it.
 
This is a one pot dish and you can cook it together with pigtail, fish, salt beef or saltfish. The main ingredients are breadfruit, seasonings (onions, thyme, pimentos, chives, celery etc), chopped dasheen leaves and coconut milk. It cooks in the coconut milk on slow heat where it simmers till the breadfruit becomes soft and tender.



Doubles

Doubles is a common Trinidadian street food. It can be eaten for breakfast, sometimes lunch and it's a great late night bite when you're out on the town. It's like a sandwich; made with bara and filled with curried channa or chick peas. Bara is a dough that is fried until it is golden brown in colour. It can be topped with cucumber chutney, coconut chutney, mango anchar or pepper sauce to give it that extra kick.



There are so many more that I'd like to include, but that'd be way too much now. I'll be posting the recipes for these dishes soon :)