Christmassy Food

The main event of Christmas day for us was dinner in the evening.  Quite unusually we had no fowl but venison.  I had bought two large cuts at the Wells Food Festival and had these stashed in the freezer.  I had paid a bargain price for two fresh neck fillets just around 1Kg each.  I knew it was going to be a slow cook so decided to cook this in advance on the 23rd. It would be easy to seperate off what we needed on the day, with the balance being used for something else.  Just in case we should come across a friend whom we met last minute and wanted to invite to share our meal with us, as we did last year, there was more than enough. In the event it was just the two of us.

The venison was cut up and cooked in a similar way to a beef ragout but with a little port instead of wine, wide strips of orange peel, home made damson preserve, juniper berries, celery, carrot, onions, lardons, chestnuts and port.  We had the ragout along with jacket potatoes, sprouts and roasted carrots and parsnips.  A great side was stewed cranberries and apples with rosemary. To think this came from just one of the fillets and I'll be able to do something similar again with the other one.  Two fillets cost me £14, which made the over large portions just about £3.00 per serving including all the veggies. That could be the best bargain Christmas Lunch we have ever had!

Boxing day saw me make up four fabulous pies which went straight into the freezer. Exactly a week after we had the Venison ragu for our Christmas Lunch, we tucked into one each  for our New Year's evening meal.  

  

A great hit has been Delia's Duck Liver Pâté with Armagnac, except that not having any armagnac, I used Brandy. Though after reading up about Armagnac, I think I ought to source a bottle and add it to the cupboard.  Since these bottles last me years, it will be well worth trying it. 

Not yet tried is a recipe that I also saw on Delia on Line. I've already printed off the recipe for  Potted Pork.  and the ingredients are on my shopping list. Many years ago I used to made potted meats as a cheaper and much tastier option to buying ready sliced ham etc.  Now I am trying to not buy over processed foods and in any case it is great to avoid all the packaging.

The Cheat's Way for In a Vase on Monday

 I learnt from Cathy last week, that this time of the year a little cheat can be excused.  Cathy each week is the cushion against which our arrangements snuggle in cosy formation even if we have been caught out as 'cheaters'. Cathy is very sweet and I am sure that her sticks and stones are not meant to be hurled my way but enjoyed!

I have dug deep and I believe others and I have used the following ruses:

Dried flowers and Seed Heads: three hydrangea heads not from our garden.

The lovely aqua coloured dried Hydrangea Seed Heads were kindly given to me by a fellow WI member when we attended Carolyn's home a couple of weeks ago.  We all made table centre arrangements with a workshop from Alison who used to post on our get together regularly.  Alison now runs Floral Acre full time. I was surprised to hear that the Hydrangea has deep red flowers, and have been promised cuttings in the spring. The Poppy Seed heads come from my garden.

Props consist of a pretty silk and silver decoration I made at our WI Kenilworth craft group under Kay's guidance back in 2008..I embroidered the date on the back in silver and it is brings back fond memories of our weekly get togethers.  The stars are beads on pipe cleaners a present many years ago from my daughter in law, and some little wooden robins in a naïve style reminiscent of the Folk Art which I used to admire greatly when we members of Compton Verney

No water...none required, and the arrangement will last well and will be refreshed with other props later.

Not a Vase but a platter.  A beautiful hand crafted repoussé Arts and Crafts Brass with Copper decorations 

Flowers not from our own garden as explained above

Flowers featured before as per the poppy heads.

There, I now promise to be good, to tell the truth and not to cheat expect if I have to!

Happy Christmas everyone, and a big thank you to our dear Cathy.

Christmas Breakfast Bread

 

First pieces enjoyed for our Christmas breakfast thing morning.  Here it is out of oven late last night.  I had to increase the milk in the recipe.  I increased the size by using three egg yolks.  The original size would have done very nicely.  I shall probably tweak the recipe but in principle make something like this instead of a tall Panettone next year.

Focaccia alla Panettone on the Bakery Bits site.  I may well drop them a message and see if there was a typo regarding the recipe. 

Christmas Baking Review

 Although I love to try different recipes and techniques, because this Stollen is as good as it gets, I have kept exactly to Andrew Whitley's original recipe in Bread Matters. I've been making this each year, and the first time I mentioned this in a post was in 2011.

Andrew Whitley's Christmas Stollen

I baked my Pumpkin Panettone, but with goose eggs rather than hen eggs this year.  I used pistachio and pecan nuts, and the fruit soaked in my Old Mauritian Rhum.  I thought there was a little too much dough, so I made two smaller brioche tinned buns.  The rise was great, but the next morning, when I saw the  panettone cooled, I realised that I ought to have done my usual trick of cooling it upside down,  suspended with long skewers through the base.  We enjoyed that for breakfast on Christmas morning, and it is delicious, and this morning had a slice lightly toasted for a change.

I felt so grateful to have a little encouragement from Mandy on Christmas eve, and asked her to share again with me the recipe for the Ricciarelli Mince Pies she had made this year. We had a conversation about these quite early in the morning, and forwarded that the quantities in the recipe were not quite enough to make the 12.  In the end I tweeked the recipe.I must remember to write down my variation in my recipe book, as when printed from the Good Housekeeping site, it only gave quantities and not method.  I upped the pastry by 50% but doubled up on the Ricciarelli as I fancied some almond petit fours.

With all that is happening with the 'will we have one, or not post Brexit arrangement', families having to plan last minute Christmas meals because of new travel restrictions, etc., too many people were out last minute shopping, and anyway all the Pistachio and other very good Turkish delight was sold out, the Ricciarellis would be my 'chocolates', since now chocolate is nearly top of the list for causing adverse reactions.

The pastry needed a little more water than the recipe even though it had two egg yolks.  Once chilled it handled easily and there was sufficient for twelve standard and twelve mini mincepies.  I also got to play with my wooded pastry pusher.  The mincemeat was my homemade January 2020 vintage one. The 12 minis are in the freezer for later in the week.

My response is why make any others, since these are just perfect!  I'll be using the pastry recipe and the Ricciarelli recipe even if not making mince pies. 

Christmas Braised Red Cabbage

Happy Christmas Steve: the braising of the red cabbage is complete, the house smells divine, and the Pumpkin Panettone style Christmas breakfast bread is rising. Yesterday during our WI Zoom Camera Club, we were introduced to the term Steve: we all thought it was probably a 'joke' from one of our member's 'young adults' to make fun of the parents, but we heard today that Steve is the slang word for the day before Christmas Eve, ie 23rd December.

A week or so ago, Kay a dear friend from Kenilworth asked me for the recipe of the red cabbage dish I used to share with her.  I have been making this for years, and would take a jar along to our sewing group, and found out that Kay enjoyed it so much, it was even eaten cold straight from the fridge.  

I bought Delia's Three Part Cookery Course back in the early 1980s, that is forty years ago now!  Then I bought 'Delia Smith's Christmas' as soon as it came out in 1990.  I've just checked, Delia had another one in 2009, all that is besides the point, and quite honestly, the recipe for her braised red cabbage is on line.

The only changes are that I use cider vinegar, red onions, and this year added some dried cranberries.  By coincidence I am taking some of this round to Anne, later today. I was also in the very long queue, all with our masks on,  for Holly's stall, she is the Duck, Goose, Chicken, Egg lady at the market today, and I learnt that a couple of friends were just giving up afterwards, and would not have their red cabbage after all.  I wonder if I can stretched this three ways?

A quick phone call after writing this post to Anthony and Maggie meant that I didn't have to drive round to their place.  A quick salutation to our trusted greengrocer, along which the long queue deterred many as it was also pouring with rain, resulted in a red cabbage being tossed across in exchange for a pound coin.  Bet there were some laughs!  They now have enough cabbage to last a few days.

Mystery Christmas Gift

Beautifully made out of wood, attractively packaged in brown paper with pretty string, smooth and silky, heavy....suggestions of what to use this for in the comments below please.  (Update: Acacia Wood)

Other treasured Christmassy things included a Christmas Tree Box made with a group of friends led by Kay, and a Gingerbread Biscuit brooch a present from a previous Christmas from Izzi.  Around this time of year I attach it to one of my hats. 

In addition to this a great nibble made by Veronica and Izzi nicely presented in a new Kilner storage jar were Italian Taralli, and another jar of home made sweet delicacies of fudge, and chocolates.

Sweet Pastry and Christmas Mincemeat Pies

Going back a few years my most favoured flour supplier was Shipton Mill where we loved to pick up our order, and later when we moved, I found a baking buddy and shared a 'post free' delivery on account of the bulk order.  Now relocated further south, I get 8Kg bags from our local shop: The Good Earth, of stone ground organic flour from Stoates and Sons and I like to pick up different types of flours on my travels, as well.

Yeasted bread is my thing, however I am a little nervous of pastry.  I do however have a periodic bulk making of mincemeat, usually for stuffing jacket apples.  I remembered reading Clive Mellum's unusual technique for making pastry in 'My Life in Baking 50 years on'.  "Impossible to overwork this", "It will be short and pliable even after the second mix"...he is telling the truth!

I shall never be daunted when making pastry again and will write a few extra tips down on the recipe page in the book.  This lot was made yesterday and are ready for a quick warm up and a dusting of icing sugar tomorrow. 

When a Panettone can be a brioche

For some of our breakfasts over the holiday period we usually enjoy a large Panettone.....

In more recent years, I have 'tampered' with the recipe and have come, for the moment, to prefer a pumpkin based panettone dough.




However this year, I felt that with just the two of us being around for breakfasts, a different option was called for.  Since the dough is veering towards an enriched brioche dough, why not bake the mixture in brioche molds:

Since I am also continuing in 'my use what we have' phase rather than stashing a yet greater variety of ingredients, for the dried cranberries I used some dried dark cherries than I had been macerating in calvados, some local somerset walnuts, pistachios, raisins that had been soaking in marsala wine, and my home made orange candied peel which I now find much better stored in the freezer.  Next time I ought to glaze them with egg wash.  These were made a few days ago and were frozen ahead of time, and have been warmed up each morning, after being taken out of the freezer the previous evening.

The tins were a gift from my sister Lizzie many years ago, and they are just the right size for a nice generously sized breakfast treat.

Other bread baking was a sourdough bread enriched with egg...which has worked amazingly well, and was delicious with the pate I made.  Again just a use what we have...I had bought some pheasant and apple mincemeat from the game keeper at Well Market.  Having first lined the tins with streaker bacon, I then half filled them with the seasoned mincemeat, added a layer of soaked dried cherries, completed the filling...and baked the pates in a bainmarie in the oven.

I have refined my canape sticks and will offer up the recipe in another post.

Three Christmas Rings....

To wish everyone a Merry Christmas I have not quite five rings to post.......

Wreath base woven willow kept from my wreath making last year, and simple ivy from the garden...Christmas ribbon which has been round my Panettone for at least ten years!  Little light up balls, new this year.

Most delicious and aromatic biscuit wreath made by my Grand daughter Izzi.  Its now half way demolished after our long walk around Wells and out along the stream....

The little Christmas Tree is a box I made a few years ago, guided by our sewing queen bee at Kenilworth WI.   The beautiful embroidered white table cloth and large napkins are from my mother's linen treasures.  The red edged napkins is Swedish a present from my nephews Grandmother many moon ago, which has an outing each Christmas.

Our breakfast made by Mr S was my favourite: boiled egg, with sourdough brioche and plain sourdough break and preserves.  A 'stasher' bag yet to have its first use.  A present from the Ws...and Mr S laughed, well we both did, as we recalled the day a few months ago, when I found out that my blog had been knocked off the top spot when you type in Stasher...by the manufacturer of these alternatives to plastic bags. 


In the middle of our breakfast table...my little ode to nature's beauty.......

Cranberry and Nut sourdough Loaf

This is one the December 2017 baking challenges from Jane Mason's Book: Perfecting Sourdough.

I doubled up on the bulk fermentation ingredients, then make half with dried cranberries and pecan nuts, and the second one with hazelnuts and raisins.  For the flours I used a mix of half and half white strong wheat, and creamy spelt.

As always the nuts were first baked a little in the oven till smelling and light golden, then with the fruit they were soaked in some of the liquid overnight, whilst the sourdough from the fridge had its overnight refresh.

These loaves took a very long time to rise, most probably because it was so cool.  They are meant to rise in proving baskets, but I felt more confident using tins for this dough.

They were shaped up and put into tins around 15:30 on Saturday, and by 18:00 still were not ready, so they went into the very cool conservatory for an overnight 'refrigerated' rise...but at 6:00 am they still were not high enough in the tin.  Having been brought them back into the kitchen then, and having been given a boost by sitting on top of the cooling toaster from breakfast, they finally went into the oven at about 11:00 am.

The Cranberry and Pecan Nut loaf is now in the freezer, and will come out for Christmas morning breakfast...but I could not resist cutting into the hazelnut and raisin loaf:

The flavour is topnotch, with hazelnuts warm and mellow, and the raisins soft and tangy in contrast..spread with a little butter and thick honey, then have made a tasty snack with Sunday afternoon tea.

In a Vase at Christmas

Mr S & I spent a lovely day with our nearest and dearest. In a Vase at Christmas was on Izzi's list of decorations for the big day.  

Decorated cake, gingerbread house, tree laden with interesting decorations, crackers filled with windup father Christmases and reindeer, which we then raced with much fun and excitement...non went in straight lines!

and to top the Christmas Tree a hand made fairy....

We enjoyed a lovely meal cooked by Matthew, with contributions of peeled veggies from Somerset at lunch time.  In the afternoon, a walk, a few rounds of the board game Labyrinth  which everyone had turns to join in. Then a little ballet concert given by Izzi...but I also just had to join in, the music was too enticing.  Its so lovely to think that all the steps were the same as I had learnt when I was little.

Austrian Christmas Bread the Sourdough Way

This is the December 2016 Challenge from Jane Mason's Perfecting Sourdough book, the recipe is on page 144..  I love to bake at Christmas:  most years I bake Christmas Cakes and other treats.  This year in our New Home, we have both been busy unpacking and getting to grips with urgent DIY etc.  I was to have bought a small Christmas Cake from the Country Market, but it closed before I got there!

Most years I buy a Panforte, and I could tell that I had, for many years, been meaning to make my own, by the date on the unopened rice paper in the drawer!  So a home made Panforte is taking the place of Christmas cake this year.  A small slice with a glass of Port is a fitting finish for a special meal.

One of our favourite eats for Christmas Breakfast is a Panettone.  One year I even devised a recipe for Panettone based on Pumpkin.  We do love this tradition, so I may well bake one for the New Year.  I rather like the one with Pumpkin and will use butternut squash this time.

This year we shall have the sourdough Austrian Christmas Bread.  I set this as a December Baking Challenge on our Facebook Page.  With ground almonds, sugar, butter, anise seeds, and fruit, I am expecting some delicious slices with a large cup of coffee, on Christmas Day morning.  I used up the last of my own home made crystallized orange and lemon peel.  This has been so successful that I am thinking of making another batch after Christmas.  It was quick and easy using the Pressure Cooker, and there are some very good citrus fruit around for Christmas.

I left the sourdough overnight with its first refreshment and got kneading this morning.  By the time I had got back from shopping, it was ready to have the fruit folded in and be shaped ready for its last rise.

Before it went into the oven, as per the recipe I brushed it with melted butter before slashing it, but it did not have the glossy finish of the loaf in the book...

I'm happy with the rise, and its beginning to smell a lot like Christmas!

Christmas Book Worms

Isn't is just wonderful to see children enjoy reading for themselves!  Yesterday we spent a wonderful day together, and a peep into Izzi's room gave this great view of the reading corner.

In the weeks and days leading up the Christmas the household had been preparing...Izzi took me into the garden and showed me where the door was in the fairy house at the bottom of the pear tree..and the theme continued to the table decorations.  This lovely one Veronica had made by painting a twig and hanging on more fairies.

Izzi had been watching Junior Bake Off, and is maybe one of the youngest fans of Mary Berry...and had followed her suggestion of making place names for everyone.

The buns for tea were freshly made, with Izzi's own choice of varied seed toppings..enough for today and the second large batch of guests expected on Boxing Day.

Izzie's present to me, and one she bought herself was one of Mary Berry's Books:  Cook Now Bake Later...and guess some of the presents going the other way!  Book of Buns by Jane Mason to Veronica, and Baking Bread Together  for Izzi, from me.

And now, I am ordering a book for myself.

Liz lent me this really lovely book a few weeks ago, and I have been snatching a few paragraphs at the end of each day from The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift, and enjoying it so much.  Its a book that I would want to read many times..anyone who loves history, stories about gardening, the countryside and wildlife would love this one.  By all means borrow it from the Library, which I would have done, if Liz insisted on having her book back in a timely fashion, but this is one I want to keep on my shelves, keep dipping into again and again.  After all if Liz has it back now, it will be there for her to lend out and allow some else to become beguiled!  I want to be able to write notes in mine...

Just in time..Socks ready for Christmas

Yes...here are my socks finished last night, started last Thursday at Knit and Natter at the Almanack!  Knitted from West Yorkshire Spinners special Christmas yarn, but using my standard 'can knit them with my eyes closed nearly' pattern!


After all an easy pattern is needed for nattering, chatting to hubby, catching up with some of the TV we have recorded, and sitting down to celebrity University Challenge, whilst at the same time having a deadline to meet: New Christmas Socks for my feet on Christmas Day.

Thank goodness they have brought on the oldies for the mini series of University Challenge, and have backed off some of the very difficult mathematics and science questions, so that now we are getting relatively high scores, and so finishing with a more upbeat feeling!

As I took these out to the conservatory to photograph this morning, the story of the Iceland Yule Cat came to mind.  I was introduced to this story by our entertainer at our Horticultural Club Christmas Party, and he haunts those at Christmas time, and eats those who don't get new clothes.  Quite a gruesome story, and probably not one for the Children!    So now the Yule Cat will avoid me at all costs, when I wear my new Christmas Socks!

To counteract this frightening story I offer the lovely WI custom at our group, to offer the Birthday 'Girls' of the month, a posy...this month is my birthday, no surprise there..and I was the only one this month.  Kaye presented me with this lovely little Christmas Tree, which she had very nicely decorated with  mini bunting in the same colours as the bunting we made for our WI Christmas Tree marking the WI's Centenary.  There were the tiniest of stitches catching the smallest of pennants...Thank you so much Kaye, I shall treasure this little tree and in a few days time after my birthday it will be planted in the garden.  When I was born my father planted a lovely Christmas Tree in the garden in Mauritius, and it grew and grew, until sadly one year it was blown down by a cyclone.

Inspired by Friends

One of the blogs I follow is Daisy Deb's.  A few weeks back she posted about making a lovely wreath from material from her garden.

Just as I had decided to focus on a more simpler Christmas, I was also starting to feel that I was missing out by not being sucked in by all the media hype:...lets be will lots of friends and family each of the days, lets spend lots of money on expensive gifts, lets spend and decorate the house with the latest 'good taste' decorations..which oddly change dramatically each year!  I have received gifts and ideas from friends and family in previous years, and somehow I feel completely blessed by them, and they come back each year to make this time of year special for me.

I walked out into the garden and surely with the little bit of sunshine, and the birds flitting about in the garden, I started once more to feel at ease.  With my secateurs in hand, I snipped at long vines of wild dark green ivy growing over the fence from adjacent gardens, then found the bag of holly which I had cut a few days back in the shed, together with some lovely aromatic conifer snippings, and a bit of spare gold ribbon, made up this wreath.

It is just made by twisting the ivy round and round, then weaving other bits in.  There is no wire or string...so the whole thing, minus the ribbon,  and crocheted snowflakes by Cynthia, can be tossed into the recycling bin, when the twelve days of Christmas are over.

All I need to do now is find that hook, and ask Mr S to climb up the ladder and fix it to the Apex of our porch.  Thanks so much to Daisy Debs....Happy Christmas to you and to all my family and friends.

Sock Knitting and other seasonal crafts.

Sometimes you just have to thread a project onto a slip of wool and start another one.  Its not often that I do this, but when Kay asked if I would knit up some yarn she had, I was more than pleased and wanted to make sure she would have some cosy socks as soon as possible.  Kay had learnt to knit with long needles which she tucks under her arms, so she is a very competent knitter, but just could not get on with short needles.  Kay is the leading light of our WI and runs our craft group..so I deemed it an honour in deed.  Here they are made to measure...standing on the tissue paper to draw around and measuring with a tape measure at our sewing group got us giggling.  So here they are, finished in less than 2 weeks.

And here are the socks which were temporarily put on hold, but again finished a couple of days ago from another ball from West Yorkshire Spinners.  They give a needle size for 3.25mm.  For socks one uses 2.5mm, so that there is a firm fabric, which is comfortable to wear.    There is usually a problem with the colours after you have turned the heel, such that you almost get a strap effect...and I suddenly got inspired to remove some of the yarn so that the colours continue down the front of the foot in the same sequence, the bands are a little narrower at first since the rounds are longer at the instep, but I am much happier with this.

Sadly our WI is getting smaller and smaller, so are we going to have a big recruitment drive after Christmas.  This didn't stop the committee coming up with some great ideas for our December get together.  Instead of giving each other Christmas Cards, and also have the old Bran tub £1 present, this year we had a lovely range of hand made Christmas Decorations worked on by some members, and we put in a donation which is going to a local Charity. Pat also read a cherry Christmas Poem which had been read at the group meeting.

As well as news of our members who have moved away, or were absent, we sat in groups and had fun time making a hand made Christmas Decoration.  The Room which we share with many other groups is just the right size now after we were in the much larger hall.  We had bunting up marking our 100th Anniversary.  

Our craft group had embroidered pennants with each year date, and each decade was a different colour.  It had decorated the Christmas Tree which our WI group had entered into the Christmas Tree Competition at St Nicholas Church in Kenilworth.  Kay who came up with the inspired theme, and led us in our efforts and Irene had set up the tree.

Just how much glitter and which colours to use...one of our member is driving down all the way to her French Home for the Christmas Break, with one hanging from her car mirror!

Some of us who had remembered to bring our Autumn Craft group projects, set up our Christmas Trees.  We had painstakingly made up the Christmas Tree boxes under Kay's direction...all starting with  shapes of card which we cut from cereal boxes, then with fabric, glue and curved needles covered the boxes and added some embellishments.

The two little miniature nativity scenes are so sweet.  Mine is the green one covered with mistletoe inside.  I had decided to use only material and bits I already had, and did a little ribbon work and sewed on some sequins.  To think that before I had joined this group...I had hardly done any sewing crafts!

Christmas Morning Breakfast Bread

In recent years we have had panettone for Christmas Morning Breakfast and I have enjoyed making several versions.  This year I felt like a change, and was really happy to find Orange & Anise Snowflake Bread on Domestic Gothess's blog, and Hannah has cleverly organised things so that there is als an easily printable version.

As Mr S was away at a show today, and I had this damp and dreary Sunday to myself, I thought it was just the time to try this. The one I am freezing is the better one which I shall finish off on Christmas Morning, in the oven, and will freshly apply melted butter and icing sugar on the day.

I started off with warming up the milk, and to cool it down, poured the 100ml straight onto my weighed and chopped orange and lemon candied peel mixture...I did not have sufficient candied orange peel, so added some of the lovely candied lemon peel from a different batch.  In the meantime I pondered about the Star Anise.  I have the whole ones, and I have ground Anise, but no ready ground Star Anise..so into my little spice grinder I added two whole star anise and some of the sugar and ground that down together.  This worked rather well.

I then drained off the milk, and added the 80g bread flour, and the fast action yeast....after doing the clearing up of the breakfast things, the Starter was Ready to Go!

The orange had just a few tiny dark dinks in an otherwise lovely skin, so I cut them off before grating the zest off directly into a larger bowl to make sure I caught all that lovely orange oil.  To this the egg, orange blossom water from my lovely little brown bottle from Nielsen Massey, my organic cold pressed rapeseed oil rather than the olive oil of the recipe, and two eggs, and the sugar and anise mixture.  After a good whisk round, I then added the flour and the Starter.

With no bread kneading machine except for my arms and hands, it all went onto the worksurface, and with my scraper in one hand, I managed to work the dough beautifully, and after ten minutes stretching, then softened butter was added and kneaded again, before finally the chopped candied peel was added.

After resting the dough...it was time to shape it, and I followed the instructions...but got rather carried away or was it just a mistake, but I cut too many times, and ended up with an eight armed snowflake..but the second one had the six as per the recipe.  So not a snowflake at all since all snowflakes have six points only, and they are made of frozen water, but oh so pretty, and so tasty.

After resting again they were brushed with egg glaze then went into the Oven at Gas Mark 4, half way along the cooking time, I swapped them over in the oven, and also turned them round on each shelf.

Maybe a little more pulling to get the star shape as good as Hannah's.  Tomorrow my little taster is coming round with Penny, so I am planning to have some left to have then.  Just now, I am off to make Sunday Afternoon Tea with a taster of Christmas Breakfast Bread!

The second loaf is going into the Freezer...which I defrosted and cleaned out today, ready for the Christmas stash of goodies.  The one I am freezing is the better one which I shall finish off on Christmas Morning, in the oven, and will freshly apply melted butter and icing sugar on the day.

Having eaten some, I must say that the 'bread' is more sconey than I would like, so having had some advice from Jane Mason, I shall try it with less yeast next time, and allow for a better longer first rise.  The flavour is excellent, but I need to work on the 'mouth feel'.

Twelve Days of Christmas

During the Twelve Days of Christmas our household has had many things to celebrate. For those who know me well my name gives one of the reasons. Although I feel that there is no need to count the years any more, I realise that I had been overestimating the years, and that I am in fact younger than I had thought! Of course, I feel even younger. So definitely no more counting....just celebrate! I think what had thrown me was my big wish to get the dratted bus pass, but it looks as if they are forever moving the goal posts, and who knows it may have to be completely withdrawn by the time I get there!

I've had the most wonderful array of presents, and some came through the post. I had a lovely book from my London Bread Guru, and then a big box from my Swindon Knitting Guru! On Christmas eve we returned from a walk at 11:45, to find a card from the Post Office to say that they had tried to deliver a parcel at 12:30! Well no chance of fetching it before the Christmas close down.....anyway on the 29th I very nearly had a tantrum on the floor at the Kenilworth sorting office, when they could not find my parcel.

I did not have the card on me, and they suggested that the parcel leaflet was from a different delivery company, but no I said that it was just like the ones on their desk. They looked and looked, and then they asked if I knew who the parcel was from. Luckily I had had a email heralding the parcel, and eventually they found my parcel filed under my friend's name. Well her name was on the parcel, but oh so small.....so my tenacity paid off.... and Wow how I've been spoilt, I love the cloth parcel covers, and the goodies, and after the consumables are gone, I shall have three little treasures of curved rosewood cable needles, and other treasures too. Until now, I've just grabbed a double pointed sock needle, but now I have THE RIGHT TOOLS for the job!


Christmas day started off with -10C at 9 in the morning, but the roads were clear. The day was spent in the midst of loved ones, with delicious food, warmth and love. All one could wish for. In the afternoon we set out for a walk, to enjoy the daylight. This lovely group of berries must surely have been devoured by now by the hungry birds.
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Little Izabelle was a delight, and I could not resist getting down on the floor and having a play with her toys. The first course of smoked salmon, sour cream, and blinis made by Veronica was much appreciated, then delicious turkey, and vegetables and the best of roast potatoes cooked in goose fat...None of us managed any pudding, except for a piece of the apricot filo roulade I had made, and only when we got back from our walk. So I hope that the large jug of Brandy Sauce was used up with the pudding, the next day.
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So from me to all my readers, and to myself here is my favourite Christmas Picture.