Weekend Cooking - Nigella Christmas

As promised, this is the final of four posts taken from this delightful book. This fourth recipe Eggnog Cream and take from the website.


Ingredients

350 ml double cream
125 ml advocaat

Method

1. Put the cream into a bowl and, using an electric whisk, start whipping to aerate and thicken.  While it's still floppy, whisk in the advocaat, and once the yolk-yellow, eggnog-flavoured liqueur is combined and the cream thick but still soft, stop and spatula into a generous bowl and serve with the pudding.

Sounds just the thing to add some zing to the Christmas pudding!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by BethFishReads

Sending Christmas Wishes

"Remembrance, like a candle,

Shines brightest

at Christmastime"

Charles Dickens

With Mum in hospital, this Christmas it does not feel very Christmas like.  I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the people who have sent good wishes to myself and my family and included Mum in their prayers while Mum has been poorly.  It has been very much appreciated and I have shared those good wishes with Mum, who is truly amazed at the power of the internet.

So, without further ado, from my house to your house Happy Christmas!

Video - Maid of the Seas

Yesterday I shared my Virtual Advent Tour post, which centred around the Lockerbie Disaster that occurred on 21st December 1988.

Earlier today my husband shared the following video that he had come across from YouTube with me, which visually sums up all that I said.

Weekend Cooking - Nigella Christmas - Yule Log

As promised, this is the third of four posts taken from this delightful book. This third recipe is for Yule Log and is taken from Nigella's fabulous website









For the cake
6 medium egg(s) (separated)
150 gram(s) caster sugar
50 gram(s) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
4 teaspoon(s) icing sugar (to decorate)

For the icing
175 gram(s) dark chocolate (chopped)
200 gram(s) icing sugar
225 gram(s) butter (soft)
1 tablespoon(s) vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
2. In a large, clean bowl whisk the egg whites until thick and peaking, then, still whisking, sprinkle in 50g of the caster sugar and continue whisking until the whites are holding their peaks but not dry.
3. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining caster sugar until the mixture is moussy, pale and thick. Add the vanilla extract, sieve the cocoa powder over, then fold both in.
4. Lighten the yolk mixture with a couple of dollops of the egg whites, folding them in robustly. Then add the remaining whites in thirds, folding them in carefully to avoid losing the air.
5. Line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment, leaving a generous overhang at the ends and sides, and folding the parchment into the corners to help the paper stay anchored.
6. Pour in the cake mixture and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Let the cake cool a little before turning it out onto another piece of baking parchment. If you dust this piece of parchment with a little icing sugar it may help with preventing stickage, but don’t worry too much as any tears or dents will be covered by icing later. Cover loosely with a clean tea towel.
7. To make the icing, melt the chocolate – either in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water or, my preference, in a microwave following the manufacturer’s guidelines – and let it cool.
8. Put the icing sugar into a processor and blitz to remove lumps, add the butter and process until smooth. Add the cooled, melted chocolate and the tablespoon of vanilla extract and pulse again to make a smooth icing. You can do this by hand, but it does mean you will have to sieve the sugar before creaming it with the butter and stirring in the chocolate and vanilla.
9. Sit the flat chocolate cake on a large piece of baking parchment. Trim the edges of the Swiss roll. Spread some of the icing thinly over the sponge, going right out to the edges. Start rolling from the long side facing you, taking care to get a tight roll from the beginning, and roll up to the other side. Pressing against the parchment, rather than the tender cake, makes this easier.
10. Cut one or both ends slightly at a gentle angle, reserving the remnants, and place the Swiss roll on a board or long dish. The remnants, along with the trimmed-off bits earlier, are to make a branch or two; you get the effect by placing a piece of cake at an angle to look like a branch coming off the big log.
11. Spread the yule log with the remaining icing, covering the cut-off ends as well as any branches. Create a wood-like texture by marking along the length of the log with a skewer or somesuch, remembering to do wibbly circles, as in tree rings, on each end.
12. You don’t have to dust with icing sugar, but I love the freshly fallen snow effect, so push quite a bit through a small sieve, letting some settle in heaps on the plate or board on which the log sits.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by BethFishReads

Virtual Advent Tour - Lockerbie

I am delighted to take part in the Virtual Advent Tour hosted by Marg & Kelly. This is the third time of taking part. It is a wonderful way to meet other bloggers and spread festive cheer! When I decided to take part I selected two special dates - this is the second of those two dates.

The 21st December is my husband's birthday. He is the ultimate Christmas baby -  and loves the whole Christmas hype, foods, tree decorations and lots of sparkling, twinkling lights.

Sadly, there is also another dimension to the day. On my husband's 16th birthday in 1988 the Lockerbie Air Disaster happened. Pan Am flight 103 fell from the sky a victim of terrorist activity and landed in the Lockerbie area. The main fusilage fell in the parish of Tundergarth, a rural hamlet about 4 miles from Lockerbie whilst another part of the aircraft fell into a residential street in Lockerbie. 

My husband always remembers those events and the lives lost. Not just the 270 people, both passengers and crew on the plane, but the residents of Sherwood Crescent including a friend of my husband.

Lockerbie remembers the tragic event in such a tasteful and sombre way. There are various plaques and memorials in Lockerbie and Tundergarth.

1. A Series of plaques at the Church in Tundergarth Parish, Lockerbie
2. A Memorial at the location where some locals were killed - Sherwood Cresent, Lockerbie
3. The Memorial at Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie
4. Plaques at Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie
5. Tree Plaques at Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie
6. Headstones within Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie

Over the last 20 odd years I have visited the memorials fairly regularly and taken photographs. It was a truly tragic event and yet the locals of Lockerbie have embraced the situation with such a degree of decorum that is refreshing. 

The town will never forget the bond that exists between the border town and the United States. It will never forget the disaster, nor that in a split second or two the lives or so many were lost or changed beyond comprehensible thought. The population of Lockerbie tend the memorial and graves of all as if they are tending one of their own and that is what is so refreshing.That even in death strangers are welcome and remembered.

Dryfesdale Cemetery and Memorial Garden
Taken by Julie Goucher April 2006

You can view the range of photographs commemorating the disaster HERE at GraveEncounters

Virtual Advent Tour - Kiva - Genealogists for Families Project

I am delighted to take part in the Virtual Advent Tour hosted by Marg & Kelly. This is the third time of taking part. It is a wonderful way to meet other bloggers and spread festive cheer! When I decided to take part I selected two special dates - this is the first of those two dates.

The 18th of December always signifies two things in our family, exactly one week to Christmas and my late beloved Grandmother's birthday. Today she would have been 101 years old and I so wish she was here, more so this year than any other.

Back in 2011 I made my first loan of $25 to the Genealogists for Families Project at Kiva. The basic principle is that you loan $25 through the scheme to individuals who do not have access to traditional banks. When the loan is repaid you can either withdrawal your money or loan again. You can make many loans or just one or two. The choice is up to you. I should point out, that you don't need to be a genealogist to join the genealogist team, who have made loans of a staggering $82,250 at the time of writing this post. To demonstrate how successful the project is, when I wrote a similar post in 2011 the team had loaned $5,350. In fact for the last two years I have made regular loans and I always make a loan commemorate my Grandmother's birthday.

My Grandmother was a true inspiration to me. We spend many, many hours together, shared shopping trips, hospital visits, conversations, jokes, hugs, cuddles and laughter. When she passed away she left a void that was very big and I knew that I would never fill that void. That has indeed been the case and today, I feel a real sadness, not just that she is not here, but that Mum is in hospital and I so wish that my Grandmother was here, so that I could share my worries and concerns and tap into the wisdom font that my Grandmother was.

So, in memory of an outstanding lady, who gave me so much I have made another loan with Kiva.

Christmas is the time for giving and I want to commemorate the lady who was my Grandmother. Acknowledge her achievements and values and to assist others in her memory.

The photograph here is of my Grandmother, Lilian Edith Butcher nee Matthews (1912 - 1995) on the occasion of her 21st Birthday.

If you would like to join the team, then please click HERE

Weekend Cooking - Nigella Christmas - Star -Topped Mince Pies

As promised, this is the second of four posts taken from this delightful book. The second recipe is Star-Topped Mince Pies and this recipe makes 36 of them! This comes from Nigella's fabulous website








For the pastry

240 gram(s) plain flour
60 gram(s) vegetable shortening
60 gram(s) butter (cold)
1 orange(s) (juice)
1 pinch of salt
350 gram(s) mincemeat
1 sprinkling of icing sugar (for dusting) 

For the cranberry studded mincemeat - makes about 600ml

75 gram(s) soft dark brown sugar
60 ml port
300 gram(s) cranberries
1 teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon(s) ground ginger
½ teaspoon(s) ground cloves
75 gram(s) currants
75 gram(s) raisins
30 gram(s) dried cranberries
1 clementine (zest and juice)
25 ml brandy
3 drop(s) almond extract
½ teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
2 tablespoon(s) honey

Method

1. Make the mincemeat in advance.  In a large pan, dissolve the sugar in the ruby port over a gentle heat.  Add the cranberries and stir.  Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves, currants, raisins, dried cranberries and the zest and juice of the clementine.  Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until the fruit has broken down and has absorbed most of the liquid in the pan. (You may need to squish the cranberries a little with the back of a wooden spoon to incorporate them fully.)  Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.  Add the brandy, almond extract, vanilla extract and honey and stir well with a wooden spoon to mash the mixture down into a paste.  Spoon the mincemeat into sterilised jars and, once cool, store in the fridge for up to two weeks.
2. Then once you are ready to make your mince pies, get out a tray of miniature tart tins, each indent 4.5cm in diameter, along with a 5.5cm fluted, round biscuit cutter and a 4cm star cutter.
3. Measure the flour into a shallow bowl or dish and, with a teaspoon, dollop little mounds of vegetable shortening into the bowl, add the butter, diced small, shake to cover it, then put in the freezer for 20 minutes. This is what will make the pastry so tender and flaky later.Mix together the orange juice and salt in a separate, small bowl, cover and leave in the fridge to chill. 
4. After the 20 minutes, empty the flour and fat into the bowl of your food processor and blitz until you’ve got a pale pile of porridge-like crumbs.  Pour the salted juice down the funnel, pulsing until it looks as if the dough is about to cohere; you want to stop just before it does (even if some orange juice is left). If all your juice is used up and you need more liquid, add some iced water.
5. If you prefer to use a freestanding mixer to make the pastry, cut the fats into the flour with the flat paddle, leaving the bowl in the fridge to chill down for the 20-minute flour-and-fat-freezer session.  Add liquid as above. I often find the pastry uses more liquid in the mixer than the processor.
6. Turn the mixture out of the processor or mixing bowl onto a pastry board or work surface and, using your hands, combine to a dough. Then form into 3 discs (you’ll need to make these in 3 batches, unless you’ve got enough tart tins to make all 36 pies at once).
7. Wrap each disc in clingfilm and put in the fridge to rest for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.
8. Roll out the discs, one at a time, as thinly as you can without exaggerating; in other words, you want a light pastry case, but one sturdy enough to support the dense mincemeat. This is easy-going dough, so you don’t have to pander to it: just get rolling and patch up as you need.
9. Out of each rolled-out disc cut out circles a little wider than the indentations in the tart tins; I use a fluted cookie cutter for this.  Press these circles gently into the moulds and dollop in a scant teaspoon of mincemeat.
10. Then cut out your stars with your little star cutter – re-rolling the pastry as necessary – and place the tops lightly on the mincemeat.
11. Put in the oven and bake for 10–15 minutes: keep an eye on them as they really don’t take long and ovens do vary.
12. Remove from the oven, prising out the little pies straight away and letting the empty tin cool down before you start putting in the pastry for the next batch.  Carry on until they’re all done.
13. Dust over some icing sugar by pushing it through a tea strainer, and serve the pies with one of the butters from "Nigella Christmas".

Picture courtesy of Nigella's website

Weekend Cooking is hosted by BethFishReads

Weekend Cooking - Nigella Christmas - Seasonal Breeze

As promised, this is the first of four posts taken from this delightful book. The first is a refreshment called Seasonal Breeze (page 11) and does not contain any alcohol.

The recipe is simple.

1 part chilled cranberry juice
1 part chilled clear apple juice
1 part chilled and freshly squeezed orange juice
ice (optional)

To make one glass - the three ingredients should be in equal parts of 75 mls each. To make enough for 10 glasses each part should be in equal measures of 750 mls each.


Nigella's tip is that this can be made in advance and kept cool. Adding chunks of ice just before serving.

Chin, Chin!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by BethFishReads

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Recipes

My Grandmother always used to buy hamper coupons from the Unigate milkman, I don't know if she received any special discount as my Grandfather had worked for them up until he retired, but she always had the coupons and then exchanged them a week or so before Christmas for a hamper.

There was always lovely boxes of chocolates, biscuits, tins of ham and deserts and a shop made Christmas pudding. I am sure that there may have been a bottle of Sherry in the hamper, even though my Grandmother was not able to drink alcohol. There was also some lemonade and dilutable juices - like Robinsons, and some fruit.

Even though we had the hamper there was also other bits bought or made. The Christmas cake, and Christmas Puddings were both home made, a delicious joint of gammon that was cooked on the stove on Christmas Eve to be consumed for Christmas Day teatime, a tin of Victoria biscuits made by McVitie's

We always had Turkey for Christmas Day along with the trimmings. On Boxing Day the usual lunch meal was bubble and Squeak with either the Turkey cold or made into Rissoles. I still have the mincer that my Grandmother used and I still do some of things that we did when I was a child, and those special moments live on for another generation.

Mum makes the most lovely rum truffles, with the proper stuff, not the cheap essence.

Every year, this rather tatty extract from a Woman's Realm Mag appears. I had chance to have a proper glance at it. The receipe is from The Archer's Country Cookbook by Martha Woodford published in 1977.

I can certainly vouch for the truffles!

4oz dark cooking chocolate
4oz icing sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons ground almonds
2 tablespoons double cream
2 tablespoons rum
chocolate vermicelli

Melt the chocolate over a basin of hot water. Beat in the icing sugar,egg yolk,almonds,cream and rum and pound altogether until mixture is smooth, and form into little balls. Roll each truffle in a little vermicelli and coat it.

My Grandmother spotted this Christmas Cake recipe in a copy of Woman Magazine, and since then both my Mum and I  have used it.

The photograph is of the actual page from the magazine, which does look in rather a sorry state! The actual date is gleaned from a book review on the reverse of the recipe - 1983!

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Music

Well, being married to a Christmas baby, I can not escape the almost weekly viewing of the film Home Alone. Four films were made, we have all four, but films one and two are the favourites.

Anyway, one of the Carol's sung on the film is simply lovely and I had a real challenge trying to find out what it was called and had to resort to getting the film and playing the credits!

Here is the details from YouTube - The Song is Carol of the Bells written by John Williams.

Here are the lyrics

Hark! how the bells
sweet silver bells
All seem to say
throw cares away.

Christmas is here
bringing good cheer
To young and old
meek and the bold

Ding, dong, ding, dong
that is their song,
With joyful ring
all caroling

One seems to hear
words of good cheer
From everywhere
filling the air

O, how they pound
raising the sound
Oer hill and dale
telling their tale

Gaily they ring
while people sing
Songs of good cheer
christmas is here!
Merry, merry, merry, merry christmas!
Merry, merry, merry, merry christmas!

On, on they send
on without end
Their joyful tone
to every home

Hark! how the bells
sweet silver bells
All seem to say
throw cares away.

Christmas is here
bringing good cheer
To young and old
meek and the bold

Ding, dong, ding, dong
that is their song
With joyful ring
all caroling.

One seems to hear
words of good cheer
From everywhere
filling the air

O, how they pound
raising the sound
Oer hill and dale
telling their tale

Gaily they ring
while people sing
Songs of good cheer
christmas is here!
Merry, merry, merry, merry christmas!
Merry, merry, merry, merry christmas!

On, on they send
on without end
Their joyful tone
to every home.

On, on they send
on without end
Their joyful tone
to every home.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas Cards

I remember both my Mum and Grandmother sending cards, but not how many or what happened to them. I have a few old cards, perhaps the last one received from a particular relative, or those with a photograph or letter. Any that my Grandmother received I now have. I always keep the card given to me by family members and special friends and mark on the back the year received. I have every card my husband has given me.

Currently they are in a box packed away in a box awaiting scanning and archiving. I can't really remember where they were displayed, I suspect the mantle piece as that is where I have mine and on the dresser and other furniture in our lounge.

I probably started sending cards when I as about 12 or 13. Mainly to school friends, but when I left home and then subsequently married to family members. In many cases a Christmas card is the only contact we have, which is a shame.

When we first set up home together and started sending cards as a couple I asked for Stuart's card list. He looked at me blankly and said he only sent about 6 cards, I was amazed, that meant the other 60 odd were mine! Since then I have written all the cards and letters and Stuart's list has not really got any bigger. My list has reduced a little bit, but not by much. Even people that I communicate with on line, up until now still received a card in the post and they get an additional email. I keep the email letters and file these with letters I receive, along with any letters and cards that arrive in the mail. From this though I am going to reduce the amount of cards I send.

I usually aim to send my cards out early December, but each year I seem to get later and later. The overseas ones always go first and the final posting date looms this week.

At the end of the 1980's I bought a card booklet, with the details of card and present and address. The book was set up for about 10 years. At the end of the 10 years I looked around for another book similar but no one seems to sell them any more, so I have a bit of paper in my Christmas card box and each year tick or highlight in a pen to say that I sent the card. I really should find a better way of recording it, but somehow the scrappy bit of paper is likeable. I usually buy Charity cards apart from ones that I send to close relatives. I tend to go for the Charities whose good cause has touched our family life, mainly Cancer Research as many of my family have suffered in this way.

This photograph is of my Great Grandmother, Annie Prudence Butcher nee Harris,which was sent as her Christmas Card in 1955.The picture was taken in Guildford Surrey England in the prefab house the family lived in after the War.

The photo was certainly sent to her children, I have my Grandfather's copy George Butcher (1908-1974) and I know of at least one cousin who has his father's copy.

Do you have a copy in your photo collection? If so please get in touch.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas Trees

Taking part in the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

As a child we always had an artificial Christmas tree I think, usually a traditional styled green one with pretty coloured fairy lights and the fairy that my Grandparents used to put on their tree.

When I married we purchased a lovely and different artificial white tree which we got from the department store here in the UK called Alders, they have since gone under, but the tree lives on with another family.

Tree Christmas 2011 - copyright J Goucher

Our current tree, which is shown here is also artificial but with a look of realness about it. It is a beautiful green one, with a hit of snow and built in lights, nice and tall, well taller than me! - It is about six foot. My hubby is the usual tree decorator in this house, I find it a bit of a performance; I am not known for lots of patience!
I would really love a real tree, but we don't mainly because of mess and because they are not terribly pet friendly and we have to remember Alfie's paws!

Outside, on the edge of our path leading to the house we have a medium size planter situated on the end pillar. There did use to be a leaping salmon until it disappeared, despite us not living in a dubious area, anyway after spending over a year looking for a replacement fish, and failing we decided on the planter. That spent a few months empty then about three years ago we saw in the local garden centre a miniature Blue Spruce and thought why not? It sat in the planter, undecorated the first as we were not able to find suitable lights for it, but since we have located some lovely solar powered lights.

Weekend Cooking - Nigella Christmas

I am cheating ever so slightly and writing this post in January! Just before last Christmas I caught on the television the end of Nigella Christmas the TV programme. I was inspired with one of her recipes and had to watch. Whilst watching, I reached for my iPad and located Nigella's website

A few weeks later I was in the library and wondered if they had the Nigella Christmas book in. They did and what a whopper as I carried it home.

I spent a few hours reading and enjoying the recipes and pictures. The text is quite like Nigella having a conversation with you, it is like welcoming an old friend. There is a degree of familiarity and I liked that.

Back to the book. The book is a delight. It oozes quality and it is simply one of those books that says pick me up and buy me!

Chapters in the book

• The more the merrier 
• Cocktails, canapes & manageable mass catering
• Seasonal Support
• Come on Over
• Stress free suppers
• The Main Event
• Joy to the world
• Christmas baking & sweet treats
• All wrapped up
• Edible presents & party preserves
• A Christmas brunch for 6-8
• A bevy of hot drinks
• Dr Lawson Prescribes......
• Stockists
• Acknowledgements
• Index

Over the coming weeks I am going to share a few recipes from this delightful book. You can create an account on Nigella's website and book mark some recipes.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by BethFishReads