Fa la la la la, la la la la!

Ho Ho Ho Cathy!

Gosh, what a lot of baking, and it all looks so good. Your presentation is second to none dear.

We had a fabulous Christmas and only finished off the last of the turkey gravy this afternoon. We've been eating roast dinners every day to use it up, all except for yesterday when I went to London for my lunch. It was a very special occasion as an old friend from abroad was visiting, so I made the trip to Covent Garden to see her. We had a light lunch accompanied by Champagne Cocktails. Ever so slightly dizzy, I just about made it to the right platform at Paddington to catch my train home. On alighting at our local station I had a twenty minute walk, which might have been a bit spooky, had the bubbles I had imbibed not kept me all warm and floaty.

We have enjoyed all the usual festive village traditions including the Christmas Coffee Morning and the Christmas Pudding. The latter, is a special evening when a mixture of villagers get up on stage and do
a turn, a little bit like all the wonderful ingredients that go to make a Christmas Pudding in the culinary sense. Speaking of which, I didn't make a pudding, but not to be out-done by you my dear, I did make Mince pies (with home-made mincemeat),

a Christmas cake,

a Trifle,

Christmas cookies with the children,

and some Bread Sauce. I know that Bread Sauce doesn't really count as baking but I do so love it. I go a bit heavy on the cloves as you can see.

On Christmas day I cooked the lunch, and all was going swimmingly until I went to prep the sprouts and found there weren't any. The silly woman who put together my veg order at the local market had not put them in and I had not checked. It didn't really matter because we had lots of other veg and I put some frozen peas on the plates for a splash of green. When I gave mother the bad news however, she looked gloomy and remarked:
'I always say it's not Christmas dinner without sprouts' - typical.

The next thing was that the oven started smoking. Some of the juices from the turkey were leaking onto the bottom shelf, so I took out the bird and got on my hands and knees with a fish slice to scrape up the sticky black mess. Just then Mr B from up the lane stuck his head through the open window to give me some of his chocolate covered Vodka Damsons. I must have looked a right state when I got my head out of the oven to wish him Merry Christmas. To top it all, as soon as I'd cleaned up the mess I managed to drop my delicious bread sauce on the exact same spot. I was quite upset, so I scraped it up and put it back in the bowl. Nobody seemed to notice, although it wasn't quite as creamy as it had been and there were a few little black flecks in it.

Anyway, we all survived. It's turkey curry tomorrow and the day after we are off to the panto - oh yes we are!

Speak to you in the new year, much love, Lucy. xxx

PS The Damson Gin worked out very well and I shall be making more next year. I found out too late that when you have drained off the liquid you can make a very nice crumble out of the gin-soaked damsons. Alas, ours were already on the compost heap!

Chocolate Shortbread

My dear Lucy; Happy Christmas! You didn't need to apologise for being so busy in the run up to the holidays - it was madness, wasn't it? But so joyful! We attended all the Chino children's nativities, which were wonderful; the little ones were a shepherd and a traveller and the eldest was a boy in a play about being homeless at Christmas. I cried at them all and for very different reasons: the 'traditional' nativity was so sweet, complete with X-Factor-style dancing from some of the angels! And the more contemporary offering made me so grateful for what we have that I admit I wept with gratitude. How awful it must be to be alone and struggling, when everyone appears to be so happy at this time of year...

Anyway, needless to say, Christmas for us was joyful and my baking was triumphant!

I made a couple of batches of Chocolate Shortbread [Page 31] and gave some to friends, with a bottle of wine, as a gift; the rest I kept for the boys, but felt the need to sample some myself with a cup of tea... Yum!

We had a houseful, so I ended up baking quite a lot: Saturday was Death by Chocolate (as recommended by you) and was delish!

(I added white chocolate stars for a more festive feel!)

I was "brave" enough to bake on Christmas Day due to the fact that Mr. Chino cooked the lunch. Pudding saw me revisiting the Lemon Meringue tart [Page 168], but this time with less disastrous results due to cheating and buying ready-made pastry cases from the supermarket - this provided a delicious, and safe, alternative to the debacle that ensued when last I tried this recipe. Unfortunately, I neglected to take photographs so Margo won't get to see that I really can make this dessert.

Finally, on Monday, I made Bread and Butter Pudding [Page 297]. Now, previous attempts to make this humble pud had baffled me, with something akin to a sweet toast and egg concoction emerging from my fan oven. Not so, this time! Hurrah! I am now able to produce something so light and moist it borders on the erotic; there were groans and murmurs of delight as we ate!

Now all the guests are on their way back to Shropshire, the beds are stripped and the vacuuming has been done. Christmas feels like a world away, but I am reminded of Santa's visit every time I hear the little ones knocking out a tune on the drum kit; wishing you 'peace and joy' for the season!

Much love, Cathy. xx

Sticky Nutty Flapjacks

My Dear Cathy,

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month! Did Santa leave you anything exciting in your advent calendar this morning?

So sorry for the delay in responding but I'm up to my ears, as I'm sure you are. Concerts, school trips, baking for this event, helping at that - I'm quite exhausted. Last week I helped the school with their Church of England inspection (ho ho ho), I have been asked to make trifles for the village christmas lunch next week, and I have been asked to sit on two more local committees. I might as well get a job darling! I'm dealing with wardrobe for the school nativity play (little Latte is narrating AND playing Mary. I have hand-made her costume out of crushed velvet). I was so behind with all my shopping, that I have just placed a panic order with Amazon which might just save my neck.

Now, I did bake a variety of little cakes for the Brownies last month and they were beautiful en masse, but I forgot to take a picture! Never mind, here are some Sticky Nutty Flapjacks (p61) which I baked in my electric oven on Sunday last. They turned out much better than previous attempts in my somewhat aggressive gas oven which you know all about. Very easy to make and you can pretend they're healthy because they've got oats in!

The Halloween party was fun by the way, but I was unable to make the grand entrance with my fabulous hat and costume that I had planned. Including my high heels and huge pointy hat I must have measured six foot nine, but the cottage has low ceilings which I had not allowed for, and as a consequence, I had to stoop all evening. The hostess had turned down all the lights to enhance the spooky mood and this made it difficult for people to see me. I had a terrible crick in my neck by the time we went home - which wasn't late because one little Latte was so scared of the gruesome decorations and sound effects that we had to leave early!

My diet is a great success thank you. I have lost a stone and a half. One or two people have been kind enough to comment, though I had expected a bit more reaction. Quite honestly, I think some people are just too mean to mention it. I even wore a shortish skirt to the Curry and Casserole Night at the Village Hall recently, but this only resulted in shocked faces. C'est la vie!

I may not get the chance to write in full again over the festivities, but I will try to drop you the odd short note if that would be welcome?

Toodle-pip, Lucy. x