… which was finally finished at 2am on Wednesday evening. It’s not one of my fanciest (see below) but the boys love it.
THIS is the fanciest one I’ve ever done, but that was when my only job was housewifing.
Tag Archives | Christmas
Secret Santa
I have a real problem with Secret Santa. Christmas has already got unbearably commercial, most of us have significantly more than we need and, on top of the pleasurable business of buying gifts for our families and close friends, someone decides that we have to buy presents for our colleagues as well. Not our special friend in the Accounts Department or the Lower Fourth, but someone randomly drawn out of hat and about whom, the chances are, we know nothing.
I hadn’t really come across Secret Santa until Boy the Elder was at his vile former school. The teachers encouraged the children to participate on the grounds that it generated good spirits within the class. OK. Except that it wasn’t a secret and the teachers insisted that the children reveal who had given the gifts.
Boy the Elder refused to participate (which made him even more unpopular) because he felt that it was an unfair pressure on children from poorer families and that it degraded the pleasure of buying a gift for someone who was a special friend.
Irish Alice’s daughter, Yippee I A, refused to participate at her school for the same reasons, although I discovered today that the children are spending in the region of £20 each on a Secret Santa gift for their classmates. Yes folks, £20.00. That’s more than I would expect members of my family to spend on my children.
Irish Alice told me today that someone at her daughter’s school has stolen a load of these presents from under the tree in the Common Room. The theft amounted to approximately £180 worth of gifts. The really unpleasant thing is that the children are all too willing to reveal how much they’ve spent and some are demanding compensation. The police have become involved and an investigation is underway. Yippee is trying really hard not to crow.
This year, BTE has joined in Secret Santa at his new school because a) there are only 11 people in his class, b) they are all good friends and they know each other well, c) they agree not to spend more than a fiver and d) the gift giver remains anonymous. I still don’t like it but at least it’s being done in the right spirit.
Secret Santa just strikes me as being one more example of nothing ever being big enough. It’s not enough to send your colleagues or classmates a nice card or share a Christmas drink. You have to buy them something to actively demonstrate your deep love for this virtual acquaintance. It’s not enough to feel pity and private grief for the death of your neighbour, you have to be seen to wail and sob and leave cheap flowers and nylon teddies at the location of their demise. It’s not enough for the Herald Angels to sing – unless we get the chance to vote them off.
Last Christmas Posting Dates
Just a reminder for my international visitors of the last recommended posting dates for International Air Mail from the UK that will be certain to arrive before Christmas (God willing if we’re spared, as my aunt used to say).
| South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East, Japan, Australia and New Zealand | Monday 5th December |
| Eastern Europe, USA and Canada | Friday 9thDecember |
| Western Europe | Monday 12thDecember |
What have I come to?
This afternoon I went to my local church for the first time to see their Christmas Tree Festival. Nearly a hundred people in the community had decorated Christmas trees on themes of their own choosing; some clever, some beautiful, some unspeakable.
I was somewhat alarmed, however, to read this notice under the first row of trees.
Dear Lord, what sort of place IS this?
Do not eat the trees? The local shop also sells gloves with six fingers….
Baked Apples stuffed with Mincemeat
Like me, I bet you have at least half a jar of mincemeat left over from Christmas. Now’s the time to use it up. Baked apples are a wonderfully comforting pudding and can be served with fresh cream, crème fraiche, custard made with custard powder or Creme Anglaise (made from scratch). This recipe is dead easy and quick to make.
BAKED APPLES STUFFED WITH MINCEMEAT
Utensils:
1 x ovenproof dish
1 x apple corer or sharp knife
Ingredients:
1oz / 30g butter
4 cooking apples
4 Tablespoons of mincemeat
2 tablespoons of honey or golden syrup
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 / 360 / 4
Grease the dish with a little butter
Remove the cores from the apples
Place the apples in the dish
Fill the centre of the apples with the mincemeat
Dribble the honey or syrup over the apples
Put a little blob of butter onto each one
Put a couple of tablespoons of water into the dish
Bake for about 45 minutes or until the apple is nice and soft
Serve
Leftover Stilton (or the cheese that broke the camel's back)
In which is demonstrated the uses for leftover Stilton Cheese in Cauliflower or Broccoli and Stilton Soup, Leek and Stilton Soup, Cauliflower or Broccoli Cheese, Huntingdon Stuffed Pears and Stilton and Nut Mousse.
* * *
If, like me, you have been left with a chunk of Stilton large enough to set up in business as a purveyor of fine fromage, you will, by now, be staring at your cheese plate with a mixture of admiration and fear. On Christmas Eve, I went to Welton’s in Great Bowden to collect my Christmas order of a small Pork Pie, some Black Bomber, some Brie and a modest amount of Colston Basset Stilton.
A proportion of the Stilton was consumed at Christmas Tea with a chunk remaining that was manageable by a single adult over a period of a week. But as luck would have it, I was given a massive chunk by Sister the Second who had been over-serviced by her supermarket. It is sitting in the fridge glowering at me like The Cheese in the Railway Carriage so evocatively described by Jerome K. Jerome.
I was going to spin this out over a couple of days, but that would be too much like the Stilton.
This is what you can do with it.
HUNTINGDON STUFFED PEARS have been featured earlier. Click on the link for the recipe
CAULIFLOWER OR BROCCOLI CHEESE use the cheese sauce recipe in the link but substitute Stilton for Cheddar. It’s rich but gorgeous.
CAULIFLOWER OR BROCCOLI AND STILTON SOUP **
Utensils:
1 x medium saucepan
1 x stick blender or ordinary blender
Ingredients:
1oz / 30g butter
1 medium onion – finely chopped
1 medium cauliflower or largish head of broccoli – broken into florets
1 pint / 600ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 tblspn mixed herbs or a bouquet garni
½ a medium potato – peeled, diced and cooked
½ pint milk
4oz / 120g Stilton Cheese
Method:
Melt the butter in the pan
Add the onion and fry gently until soft
Add the cauliflower or broccoli, herbs and stock and milk
Bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the vegetable is soft
Allow to cool slightly, add the potato and remove the bouquet garni if using one
Mix to a smooth puree with the blender
Stir in the cheese until it has melted
Serve
** Post post note: Leek and Stilton also make an excellent soup. Cook 2 large, finely sliced leeks in with the onions then add the stock and proceed as per the recipe.
STILTON AND WALNUT MOUSSE – serves 8
Utensils:
8 x ramekin dishes – greased & with a circle of greaseproof paper in the bottom
1 x medium saucepan
1 x whisk
Ingredients:
1oz /30g butter
2 level tablespoons plain flour
7floz / 200ml milk
7floz / 200ml vegetable stock
1 sachet of gelatine
40z / 120g Stilton cheese
2 eggs – separated – whites whisked to form stiff peaks
¼ pint / 150ml crème fraiche
2oz / 60g walnuts – chopped
Method:
Melt the butter in the pan over a medium heat
Stir in the flour to form a thick paste
Gradually whisk in the milk and stock until it thickens and starts to bubble
Remove from the heat.
Sprinkle over the gelatine and whisk until it has dissolved and is thoroughly mixed in
Add the cheese and stir until melted
Whisk in the egg yolks and season to taste
Fold in the crème fraiche with a metal spoon
Then fold in the whisked egg whites and gently stir in the walnuts
Spoon the mixture into the prepared dishes
Chill until set
Serve with a green salad
Gone Walkabout
By the time you read this I will be in London. After a lovely, relaxed and indulgent Christmas Day, we are meeting up with my family in Marlow and then staying a couple of days with the Aged Parent. The Father of My Children brought the turkey; he was charged with obtaining said item and naturally left it to the last minute. The last turkey in the shop (!) was brought to the house on the back of a flat-bed trailer. Boy the Younger felt obliged to bring out a pair of crutches whilst warbling “God bless us – every one!” It was delicious. I will be taking food parcels to all and sundry in the South.
I am also taking our laundry as the washing machine is still frozen solid.
I hope you’re all enjoying your break, and many thanks for all your good wishes.
Sunday Poem 68
Mr & Mrs R and the Christmas Card List – by Connie Bensley (1929 -)
Shall I cross them off?
It’s twenty years since we last met.
Of course Mr R and I once thought
we were made for each other -
Ah, that heart stopping moment
by the kitchen sink, when he took off
his spectacles and fiercely kissed me.
But all that lasted less than a week
and what I recall more vividly
is Mrs R’s good advice:
Always plunge your lemons in hot water
before you squeeze them.
One more year perhaps.
Merry Christmas!
May I wish all my readers a
Very Merry Christmas
and a
Happy, Healthy and Prosperous
2011
May we send good wishes to all whom we love
And to those who have no one to love them
Free Gift Tags
When the festive season is over, don’t immediately throw away your Christmas cards or take them for recycling. Sift through them and select ones that can be cut up for gift tags for next year. Cut them straight or use pinking shears (serrated edge scissors?) to make a crinkly edge.
Either put a hole in the top with a hole punch and thread a bit of glittery string or wool through them, or just put a bit of sellotape across the top side and it can be flipped up like a hinge. Any that are not suitable can be recycled in the special card bins and the remaining cut up bits just go in with the cardboard recycling
I haven’t bought a gift tag in years.
