Sunday 17th December - Crafts for Third Week of Advent and etc

Yesterday turned into chaos as I tried to get ready to post this week's crafts, which are some very traditional puff pastry recipes, wrist warmers (have you noticed a 'garter stitch' theme? I hate doing purl!) and a magic paper flexagon.

I was testing the puff pastry recipes for this week at the same time as trying out a new and interesting microwave 'mug cake' recipe, when an old friend, dating back from when our families lived next door to each other back in about 1957 (!) - we were toddlers then - telephoned.

It made for a hectic half an hour as I juggled microwave, air fryer and telephone; but it was lovely to catch up and share news of our families. I was bridesmaid at her wedding, and god mother to one of her girls, and she is god mother to our son and we have always kept in touch for over 60 years.

The mug cake recipe needs thinking about. It probably didn't appear at its best, as microwave cakes need to be eaten immediately or they become stodgy and tough and rubbery and I was enjoying our phone conversation too much to eat cake. I shall give the recipe another go...      

The wrist warmers were also not without incident - regular readers of this blog have no doubt sussed that I'm just as incapable of following instructions exactly, as I am of producing a blog post without typos. My excuse for the typos this time is that my laptop computer, which I was actually using as a laptop instead sitting comfortable at a table, suddenly gave me a 'battery low' warning and I needed to finish the posts in  hurry.

Re the wrist warmers; I discovered I had miscalculated the amount of yarn in the ball. It looked as though they would work out anyway (such an optimist) and so it proved. As with the pigs-in-blanket and cranberry sauce puff pastry puffs, where I had neither cranberry sauce nor pigs-in-blankets. 

I suppose that is the difference between gourmet fine dining, and couture clothes construction, and what I manage to make using what I have.

The Christmas wreath which I constructed this morning is a case in point. The 'spring wreath' has been hanging on the outside of the shed door all Summer and Autumn. I took it down, wrapped the the holly garland from last year around on top of the leaves and spring flowers, added tinsel and finally a couple of poinsettias which must be decades old now.

I shall probably have another go at that trailing bit of holly in the next day or so - it was time for lunch and I was getting cold anyway. But I'm quite happy with the result - what can you expect for 15 minutes of wreath wrangling?

   

Monday 11th December - The Tree! and other bits and pieces

 

I started thinking about the Christmas Tree yesterday, Sunday, but there was a bit of clearing and tidying to do first before it could go in the bay window;

so I went and made cranberry, orange, apple and onion chutney instead. I started with a Delia Smith recipe, very easy, and just took an hour.

I say 'started with' - I added an apple, used cider vinegar, couldn't find and cinnamon sticks... you know how it goes... I also made just half quantities (there is only one chutney-eater in this household - me) and put it into the half-size jars I bought specially for home-made stuff. Otherwise I followed the recipe... 

Himself had zoomed off in the car to rescue a friend with a computer problem, returning in time for lunch and to clear the chest in the bay window. That seemed plenty for a first pass. After lunch the chutney was cool enough to put away, but the jams and chutneys cupboard was blocked by the shredder and a toppling pile of paper awaiting its fate.  

 So he dealt with the obstacles, and the chutney is sitting in a cool-ish dark place until it is ready.

I just drew a little duck - the Jacquie Lawson calendar picture for Sunday.

Today, then, was tree day! I think this is the first time in years we have 'done' the tree in a single day. We took it gently; found the tree and put it up. How sad and small it looked!

 As we progressed, it began to look more respectable; lights and tinsel

baubles (just silver, gold and red - the only colours my mother would allow on the tree!), star, tree skirt, and, my latest purchase, battery operated tree candles! 

I love them - they take me straight back to my childhood, when the electric tree lights we used for many, many years were a Dutch set of candle-shaped lights that had paper-clip style coil to hook them onto the branches, and white lights when all my friends (how I envied them!) had strings of multi-coloured flashing lights.  

As the afternoon became darker the tree really came into its own;

 I might add the little German-style wooden decorations tomorrow...

I realised today - how has it taken me so long? - that the reason I have always felt so harried about getting ready for Christmas every year is because until just a few years ago - 2020 - I was always working full time, and completely embroiled in possibly up to 20 school concerts of varying complexity. As well as accompanying for music exams and preparing my own piano students for their exams. 

Presents, decorations, food, cards just all became added things threatening to derail an already crammed schedule. All it would take is for a colleague, or worse still, for me to be unwell, and everything would pile up until, until... yes. indeed!

  

I am so enjoying this leisurely pace. I did desperately want to clean the bay windows before the tree went up because of the streaks and smear and spots - too late - tra la la - I won't even be able to see them through all the tinsel! 

Ho ho ho - Happy Christmas, everyone! 

Thursday 5th January - which day is 12th night?

 No, don't answer that. There are two many choices. When are you celebrating Christmas? When do you start counting from?

I KNOW that Epiphany is tomorrow; and lookee lookee - here are the Three Wise Men stitched impossibly tiny on 16-count Aida. Just typing those words makes my eyes water.

  

You can see my sensible-count-Aida nearby. This is Ang's December contribution to the postcard project. I just have about half an hour's stitching before I need to iron the material to remove the frixion pen, and then I can post it.

The Three Wise Men stitchery is barely one and a half inches each way. There's a bit of gold thread involved in the star. Ang said she had a bit of a frazzling time sewing the picture to the cloth, but to my mind it makes the stable look really rustic.

I'm so pleased with the picture. The images of 'Star' and 'Light' are what I will be considering this year so the picture is Just Perfect. 

Our Christmas decorations are all taken down and carried upstairs except a string of lights that will stay in the window until Candlemas (2nd February) and a few decorations that we discovered after everything else had been packed. Isn't that always the way?

What is unbelievable is that this is the sum total of all our decorations now;

The tree in its box at the front, a sainsbury shopping bag of tinsel with the tree skirt dropped on top, and all the other decorations and lights boxed and bagged and zipped into those two green bags. After forty years of random unsorted bits and pieces, we did a clear out (including three Christmas trees, remember?). Now that we have a small tree we didn't need anything like the number of decorations, so we have given them away, some with the trees, some to charity shops.

What a relief, and it only took an afternoon to reach this point.

(Word to the Wise; store Advent decorations and calendars, and spare Christmas Cards somewhere more accessible than the deep dark recesses of the loft.)

  

Tuesday 3rd January 2023 - the Real Tuesday, all day

It is a properly dismal day out there. However I am warm, and have a mug of tea by my side, and I've already had a 2nd cup of coffee (we drink teeny tiny teeny cups of Nespresso coffee, and we DO recycle the pods) with the last of a Stollen. I cut out the marzipan and hand it over to Himself; it is rather wasted on me.

Christmas Goodies Sit-rep;

• Three boxes of chocolates consumed; two more and a bar of chocolate in waiting.
• One Stollen and half a Christmas cake consumed - another Stollen, the other half of the cake and a Panetonne stacked up ready.
• One packet of Lebkuchen finished; another packet, and two packets of Speculaas not started.
• One selection box of shortbread biscuits unopened.

I think we will be able to 'cope' with all these over the next few days, weeks, months!

We'll chomp our way through the Christmas cake next - we tend to have Christmas goodies with our 'second cups' of coffee. It's quite  routine-ish sort of ritual; a Nespresso with breakfast, another mid morning, and the third after lunch.

Very Occasionally we have what we term 'A Four Coffee Day' when we feel that it's all been a bit Too Much.

I'm overwintering my geraniums (I can't get used to the idea that they are now called pelargonuims) on a windowsill on the landing, with mixed results. I took cuttings from the couple that I had, and brought them indoors when the weather got colder. I was a bit saddened to see that three of them seem to be giving up the ghost;

which leaves me with seven, from the original four plants. Then I saw this;

One is going to have two red flowers, and it's friend has a couple of buds. 

Monday's to-do list is waiting for me... I've finished my tea... and I think I've finished today's blog post... so I am running out of reasons not to get on with it...  

 

        

Thursday 29th December - getting through the lists

There are so many half finished things on my list that I'm having difficulty doing anything...

So I am trying to get one thing done and dusted each day.

Today I will almost certainly finish The Second Sock. I'm whittling down the number of stitches as I get closer to the toe. Then i need to have a close look at The First Sock; I'm fairly sure I  need to redo it from the heel onwards. It's a good job that I'm more of a 'process' person than a 'product' person. 

Them, I really must finish the December Postcard Project.

And finish making and sending New Year cards. I was given a Hobby craft online course as a birthday present, and I chose 'Brush lettering for left-handers'. It was an excellent course, and writing the cards is giving me plenty of practice, I've had a few lapses of concentration from time to time;

I said I would send detailed notes on the recordings a pupil sent me before Chrismas. Each set of notes takes me heading for half an hour. I've done the Debussy Arabesque and the Chopin Nocturne, just a Schubert Impromptu and Scarlatti Sonata to go. I should get on with this.

I've nearly finished the January 'print and post' newsletter. One section to write, and pictures to source.

An hour's concentration would see off most of these tasks.... what's stopping me?

Ah, but it's still Christmas;

We are lighting the candles on this tree 3very day at lunchtime.

Christmas Day 2022 - Hodie Christus Natus Est

Christ is born today!

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee! 

Also, I note from the weird diagrams on my new phone that sunrise is three minutes earlier than yesterday, and sunset is a minute later.

Another reason to rejoice!

Saturday 24th December - A Strange Day

We said goodbye to our remaining cat this morning. She was heading for 20 years old, in reasonably good shape, but we had seen her back legs growing weaker this year. Today was the day they gave up on her; we had an early appointment with a strange vetinary practice as our usual one was closed. The vet we saw was just wonderful,  gentle, careful,  proficient and everything was as good as it could be.

Ah well. You know this day will come when you bring the kittens home, and when the time comes it is a good and beautiful thing when you can ease them from one world to the next.

As I stood shivering and waiting for Himself to bring the car round I took these pictures to remind myself that Spring will come;

I hope you have been enjoying the Great Advent Antiphons. I find them extraordinarily hopeful to reflect upon.

I am enjoying the sweet taste of the last of the Advent Calendar treats. Tomorrow- as the cowboy Carol goes, 'There'll be a new day beginning from tonight"

Happy Christmas 

Friday 23rd December - Tidying up, dealing with odds and ends

 We reached the point of deciding how much more Christmas Decorating we would do, and the answer was - none. I normally fill the hearth with baubles and tinsel, and we usually drape tinsel along the bookshelves, but this year we are going for a simpler look. 

To be fair, there are Christmas decorations or lights wherever you look, so we are not entirely minimalistic.

Almost all the present swaps are  complete; just our next door neighbours left. My brother appeared this afternoon. He brought me a lovely basket of fresh and exotic salad, exactly what I asked for. It is in the coolest part of the hall, ready for me to investigate further tomorrow.  It isn't the sort of thing that one can wrap. I've handed over three bags, one to be kept in their larder, one for jolabokaflod, and a surprise Christmas present to unwrap.

What's jolabokaflod? I found out about it last year. In Iceland (the country, not the shop) people give books on Christmas Eve, to be opened and read straight away. So I have bought books for my brother, sister in lay, their sons and my father, who will be staying with them for Christmas. 

So, the sitting room is nearly clear, the other end of the room is tidier than it was, all the presents are stacked under the tree and we are heading to a state of relaxation 24 hours sooner than normal.

The to do list for tomorrow is very short.

Thursday 22nd December - wrapped the last present!

Daybreak was late this morning, and dusk came early. Or so it seemed, probably because it was grey and drizzling all day. 

Himself was off to the dentist again. Our practice has changed hands, and flung itself from a more or less one man band to a team of specialists. It's a good thing we have both retired as this new system entails multiple visits, but He reported that this was the most skilful experience of having two crowns done ever. There will be a couple more visits, to the gum specialist and then the crown specialist, but not until next year. He came back in a considerably more cheerful frame of mind than I was expecting. 

Meanwhile I zoomed a friend who has come down with covid for the first time having dodged all through, even though she was working in schools all the time. She's feeling really rubbish on day two, and resigning herself to Christmas alone this year. 

I'm hoping that plans for my father to go to my brother's house actually happen this year; he's being collected tomorrow go and stay for a few days. Last year it was cancelled as there was covid in my brother's household at the time. Fingers crossed.

This covid business.... goes on and on.... I read that sternation is now one of the symptoms.  Sternation? I looked the word up. It means sneezing. Does that mean if you regard a scene with consternation you start sneezing at it?

My Advent candle, once so tall, is reduced to a stub... just two numbers left. I have it on the table and light it at lunchtime. One number is just long enough for lunch. I was finding that if I left it to the evening I would forget it and burn too many numbers in one go. 

As I announced in the heading of this post, I have wrapped the last present - hooray! It always grieves me to be wrapping presents at 2am on Christmas Day knowing that in a matter of hours they will all be unwrapped again. 

Tuesday 20th December - Full Speed towards Christmas

The days suddenly start rushing towards Christmas about now. 

I'm always astonished at how slowly the start and baubles are added to the cloth Advent Calendar at the beginning of Decembet, and how quickly they are added in the week before Christmas Day.

This year, in spite my  good intentions,  I have only written about a dozen cards mainly for our nearby neighbours along our road. The only ones that made it into the post box were to piano pupils. I did buy extra cards in case I ran out (ho ho ho) which is probably where the snag arose - life being contrary and so on. I think my best bet is going to be to send out New Year's cards this year. I wonder what would be a good picture to choose?

I used to have quite a good system of starting at the front of the address book or the back of the book in alternate years. This year.... ah well.

I've made a rich boiled fruit cake. I'm not calling it a Christmas cake as I've had too many disappointments. This time I  took the economy recipe that I used to make back in 1977, added extra fruit and used rum to cook the fruit, butter and muscovado sugar. I even cooked it in the top oven because the recipe dates back to before fan ovens were common. 

Now I'm wrapping presents and stashing them under the tree as I go. Just a few final decorations to sort out, and then - let the season begin!

Friday 16th December - energy slump

I'm supposed to be joining our book club zoom tonight; it's a 'mixed meeting' in the sense that some meet together as we all used to, each bringing a plate of something halfway between party food and supper food. We would graze on a mixture of bread and unusual cheeses, olives, marinated prawns, sliced cold meats, salads and savoury snacks, followed by a mix of fruit and dessert. Luckily we all have reasonably robust digestions.

Now we are a mix of face2face and zoom members. This is a curious situation; the conversational conventions for zoom and in person mmeetings are very different. Also, we zoomers can hear, but not see all of the face2facers. We watch, it's a bit like watching a TV programme,  and listen, and a disembodied hand will appear passing a plate of quiche or bowl of salad. There will be a conversation round the table, and a conversation using chat between the zoomers, commenting on the 'programme' that we are 'watching'. 

Later, when the food has been consumed (we zoomers have usually got a drink - wine, sherry, tea, water - and some kind of snack - crisps, cake, biscuits - too.

Tonight the book club is discussing 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' by Muriel Barbery and then deciding between 'Slow Horses', 'The Twyford Chronicles', 'Outliers', and 'The Nickel Boys', if I have remembered correctly.  I've said my prefernce is for any except 'The Nickel Boys' which sounds a bit of a tough read.

I'm not joining in; the events of December have caught up with me, ending with with that slippery descent at the beginning of the week

(Not surprised that Tuesday was a day of doing nothing! I'm improving day by day)

And the usual end-of-term energy slump has landed. I shall be asleep in bed before they start on dessert.

However we have created a decent looking stack of mostly Christmas presents and stuff to take to our halfway meeting point with our children tomorrow.

Sunday 11th December - Icicles and Mincemeat

I have resorted to draping a knitted rug over my knees as I type this...

Snow is falling, softly, damply, almost apologetically, along with a steady drift of leaves from the oak tree at the bottom of the garden. Nearly all the leaves have gone from the apple tree, so the bunting is visible now, all faded and forlorn. I should venture down there to see if the snowdrops are coming through - the first few snowdrops usually appear at the base of the tree just before Christmas Day, so that we can have a couple in a little vase on the table. But it is TOOOOOOOOO cold today. The back door step is near to 'outdoors' a I have gone all weekend.

And look! Hanging from the shed roof! Can you see them?

I am making mincemeat in the crockpot. When I investigated the cupboards and shelves I couldn't find any, but luckily I had enough ingredients to make a half quantity of Delia Smith's Christmas Mincemeat. 

I only use two recipes, one dating bake to a cheap booklet I bought when we were first married, called 'Christmas in your Freezer', for mincemeat made with applesauce to be kept in the freezer, and Delia's recipe from her Christmas book - but you can find it online here. They really are the best recipes - if I can find the freezer one I'll post it in the next day or so.

The Delia recipe (which she says keeps for up to 3 years!) requires the mixture to be cooked in a low oven for three hours to melt the suet, coating everything in a layer of fat which is why it keeps so well.

Half quantities exactly fitted into my tiddly little crockpot, and an hour on high (it is cold in the kitchen) followed by a couple of hours on low seems to have worked. I'm at the stage of stirring it every so often as it cools down - if you don't, the liquid suet rises to the top of the dish and sets in a solid layer, not what you want at all. 

Quite frankly I haven't yet bought a shop mince pie that I really like - the Waitrose beurre noisette pies are the closest to date - nor yet a jar of shop made mincemeat that is worth consuming the calories therein. 

There is nothing to beat home-made mincemeat and home-made mince pies.

Thursday December 8th - Christmas Cleaning

We are more likely to do Christmas Cleaning than Spring Cleaning.

Today I finished washing the sitting room windows while the furniture had been pulled out for Himself to do serious hoovering in and around and behind, all the places that get skipped when we just 'run the vacuum cleaner over the floor' in the normal way.

We also had an unplanned kitchen floor cleaning episode;

I'm not exactly what happened as Himself was dishing up lunch, but the kitchen floor is lovely and clean now.

Now, much later on, we have reached 'all is calm, all is quiet'.

Apart from the steady muffled 'tramp, tramp' as we both do our marching on the spot trick to improve our step counts. It has been far too cold to go out!

Tuesday December 6th - Who lives on the moon?

 

Monday 5th December - Another step along the way to Christmas

 

The little tree is decorated. This must be the earliest we have ever completely decorated the Christmas tree in years,

And the better of the 5ft Christmas trees that seemed to be breeding in the loft has been collected.  I added a carrier bag of baubles which are surplus to requirements and also too large for the new tree. I have kept the woolworths baubles which have come out every year since we married.

Back then we were living on an extremely tight budget, so those six baubles, three pieces of tinsel and a small artificial tree was all that we could afford. The tree and tinsel disintegrated decades ago, but the baubles live on as a memory of that first Christmas. 

*******************************

We spent the day in London,  another routine appointment.  Cardiology this time. Everything went well, the driving, finding ourway to a different part of the labyrinthine hospital buildings, and the consultation. In other words, no marked change, carry on as before. The consultant approves of marching on the spot as an alternative to outdoor exercise when it is too cold or wet so I will continue to get my steps in that way, 

 

Saturday 3rd December - the Christmas Tree fiasco

 It appears that we currently have 4 artificial Christmas trees in the house. If I think really hard I think I can account for them all, although initially I did wonder what weirdness had been going on in the attic all year.

This is the 6ft pre-lit tree that we bought a number of years ago. Last year I found it was becoming very tiring to decorate it. I took most of the month (this picture was taken on 2nd Dec last year) and I resorted to decorating thexside facing me, cautiously turning the whole tree round, and doing the other side a few days later.

So, in the interests of downsizing, we bought a 4ft replacement,  considerably smaller but much easier to decorate. Here it is at about the same stage as the tree above;

However we discovered two more 5ft trees in the loft! I've already offered the pre-lit one on the church email group and it will be collected tomorrow.

I can account for one of the 5ft trees; for a couple of years the pre-lit tree and its powerpack were separated after one Christmas, so we bought another tree. But how did that other tree get there?

Anyway, I shall send round another email tomorrow,  and if there are no takers then I'm sure a charity shop will accept them.

Saturday 26th November - Dusk is falling on an eventful day

This birthday has been special for so many reasons. Actually, each birthday is special in its own way.

Breakfast in bed is now a normal part of my routine, but breakfast in bed with presents is something else!

As the day went on there has been a steady stream of visitors, bringing presents, cards, flowers, a complete meal in a bag, as well as the deliveries by post and by van today and the preceding week.

I'm quite bowled over by everything, and am enjoying re-reading cards and looking at the pictures on them (especially the one of a lady wearing lycra, clutching a glass of wine and watching her washing machine go through the spin cycle - securely taped to the machine is her fitbit step counter... 'another few minutes and that should be my 10,000 steps done' - SO true!)   

and looking AT my book 'The Kitchen Cabinet' but trying not to start it before January, as it goes through the culinary year from January to December... I think I WILL start it in December though... and read it through the year to next November!

I have received a Jacquie Lawson Advent calendar - part of our traditional Advent now. I really don't mind giving it a plug here as it is so lovely. Possibly even better than a chocolate Advent Calendar. 

Each day there is something new and delightful to see when you click on a bauble, but while I am waiting I can click on the star and find all sorts of activities - a word puzzle, jigsaw puzzle, Christmas Bauble smashing game (yes please!), patience and create a snowflake. I know from past experience more will be added as the days go by.

I have just investigated the trial Christmas cake. Unfortunately, even if I cut out the middle I don't think it can be saved. I can hear Paul Hollywood's voice 'It's underbaked, nearly raw'. Oh well. I have tried just saving the edges, but even that's not great. But  - oh - the flavour! I shall bake it again tomorrow. At least, with it being so small it is not a hugely expensive undertaking.

Tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent. Seems so early - still another couple of days before we can start opening all the windows...

Thursday 10th November - Still on top of things - How long can this last?

Ten days into November and I'm still roughly keeping on top of things.

Admin; writing up and emailing the note for yesterday's piano lessons, posting the notebook for this month's swap (my notebook partner's book dropped through the letter box today - hooray!)  

Housework; washed the windows in the small bedroom which catch the morning light and annoy me when the sun is shining and shows up every mark and smear. The cobwebs were something to marvel at - all due to that big black spider that scuttled into the crevices as my wet soapy cloth came near.  

Sewing for the post card project; it is a minor marvel that I am already part way through this month's design. 

Knitting; I'm suffering from second sock syndrome, you know, the sock I was going to finish last February? I've had a torrid time with it and in the end started again.

Christmas; What?!? I hear you cry! I've wrapped a couple of presents ready for a family meet up in a few days, so save posting them as one is heavy and the other flimsy.

Other stuff; I had a brainwave, and waited until I was alone in the house to explore my plans for a major furniture reshuffle involving me new desk, the ailing Roland digital harpsichord, my stationery trolley on wheels and a small filing cabinet on wheels. I managed to get everything measured, drawn up on graph paper and little shapes cut out for the relevant items before He returned from his work to find - well, it could have been worse. I had managed to restrict myself to paper cut outs, and not physically move anything while he was out.

The harpsichord needs a replacement power supply (Roland don't appear to make that particular one  anymore) and the power strip it plugs in to needs replacing as one by one the individually switched sockets have stopped working so only one is functional. 

So step one will be source the power supply, step two is a biggy, because the lead for the power strip goes BEHIND the tall cabinets to the socket behind the furthest one - there is a hole cut into the back of the cupboard at that point (are you still with me?).

As a gesture towards this, I have given up my wastepaper basket to become a home for all the knitting needles which were in the way.

But now, where shall I deposit all the little snips of paper and stray threads? This is perfect. Youtube to the rescue.

And here are the instructions. If, like me, relentessly chirpy cheerful musak drives you mad, you can perfectly well watch it with the sound off. Although there seems to be a cute little giggling baby on the track at one point.

Monday 27th December - Pause - it's still Christmastide!

First of all, a very big thank you to everyone who took part in 'Pause in Advent' - whether they were contributing, or just reading. Thank you for the comments, and all the insights and ideas you shared. 

My 'Advent Dolls House' calendar, just waiting for Father Christmas and his reindeer.

One of the headteachers I worked for used to have Christmas completely tidied away by the end of Boxing Day, as though it had never happened. Everything boxed and bagged and packed away into the loft, the whole house swept, hoovered and dusted.

I have a feeling I kept some of the decorations up until Candlemas, in February las year. Maybe not the tree, but possibly the lights around the window.  Some of the decorations stay out all year; a crochet Nativity set of characters loll about in a disreputable fashion on one of the bookshelves,

(That donkey looks more than strong enough to carry a vastly pregnant women and all the luggage for 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem on rough roads up and down the mountains)

 a lovely little olive wood Nativity scene always hangs on another wall, and this lovely carved wooden scene stays beside the fireplace.

 Leaving a few Christmas decorations out on purpose is like having a fixed point of reference from one year to the next.

I gave Himself an Advent Calendar as a Christmas Present, full of his favourite marzipan. A couple of years ago we spotted chocolate Advent calendars in the bargain bin when we went to buy milk at our corner shop a few days after Christmas Day. We added them to the basket, feeling very childish, and hugely enjoyed doing a sort of backwards countdown from Christmas, opening a door each day until well into January. It seemed to softened the boundary between 'Christmas' and 'not-Christmas'.

Advent has been busy - not as much as previous years as the catering and social organisations have been so simplified - and now, these days between Christmas and New Year feel like a real Pause. 

A time to reflect, and read, and ponder, and just generally catch up with myself.

I wrote the rest of my Christmas cards on Christmas Day (still two left to write, now I think of it) and they were posted today. 

I hope you are all having a peaceful time, and wish you all the very best for the New Year.

Tuesday 23rd November - Stir up Tuesday - Christmas Cakes

 Yes, I know, should have been 'Stir up Sunday'.

I could have made the Christmas Cake then, but my eggs weren't perfectly fresh. The are fine for ordinary cooking, but not for Christmas Cake!

I used them for an experimental cake on the Saturday. This is all that is left;

It is so good that I am going full steam ahead with the real version now that I have obtained fresh eggs from the milkman.

The original recipe comes from BBC Good Food, and is called the 'Simmer and Stir Christmas Cake'.                          

As usual I have NOT followed the recipe exactly! For a start, I want to make a 5" square version in our Air Fryer, for the sake of convenience, time, and energy-saving. However the cake turned out so well that I would be confident to work to the original version if I wanted an 8" cake.

From somewhere else - I think from the Nigella website - I discovered that to reduce the ingredients from 8" to 6" round cake you want to use 40% of the original quantities. That was a useful bit of information to start with.

So, for a 5" square cake, this is what I did;

Weigh into a suitable pan 

• 60g butter chopped into pieces
• 70g dark muscovado sugar
• 250g luxury mixed fruit including mixed peel and cherries 
• juice and zest of either an orange or a lemon
• 20 ml whisky (Laphroig!)

and bring to the boil, stir and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Allow to cool. First time around I did this on the hob, second time in the microwave.

Meanwhile, prepare the cake tin, lightly beat an egg, weigh out 30g flaked almonds, and sift together

• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 80g plain flour
• generous teaspoon of mixed spice

Once the fruit and sugar mix is cool enough that it won't cook the egg, stir in the egg and the almonds and mix, then add flour little by little and mix well, but gently, until there is no visible flour.

I didn't have to pre-heat the air fryer, so I put the cake in for 50 minutes at 115C, and then 77 minutes at 110C. I have a feeling that maybe I should have take it out at about 70 minutes, but the first cake was a little under baked so I didn't want to risk it. (For the Airfryer, we've worked out that lowering the temperature by around 10C and the time by a guesswork amount seems to be about right.)

When I took the cake out at the end, I stabbed the top all over with a skewer and pour a tablespoon of whisky over the surface. That should deal with any dryness!

It's looking (and smelling!) very promising.