Christmas Candy

Candy is the North American word for sweets or confectionery. We tend to think that candy canes come from America with the first recorded Candy sticks dating from 1837. They were white to begin with and later the red stripes were added as well as peppermint flavouring and were referred to as candy canes in 1866.

In 1874 they were connected to Christmas and since then have been given different interpretations, ie the "J" shape stands for Jesus with the white representing his purity and the red his blood.

Another story connects the canes to Germany in 1670 when a choirmaster gave them to the children attending a nativity service. The shape was meant to symbolise the shepherds crooks.

Whatever the truth is, they make good Christmas decorations, stocking fillers and sweet treats. Whilst okay for vegetarians, they are not recommended by dentists!

Most chocolates are suitable for vegetarians but you need to check sweets as marshmallows and anything gummy contain gelatin.

Check these out. If you shop around there are plenty of non-gelatin sweets out there - just as tasty without being nasty.

Short Cuts

 Such a busy time of year - shopping, cooking, baking, wrapping, decorating and, of course, socialising - sometimes there is no time for the simple things.

This is when a short-cut meal comes into its own. Something warm, comforting and quick. Here is one of my easy-peasy cheats teas.

A vegetable and bean chunky chilli soup strained
+
A packet of quick-cook rice
+
A tub of plain yogurt or sour cream
+
A few tortilla chips

Warm through, cook, dollop & place on the side.

Not the healthiest but definitely convenient and okay just occasionally.

Now, time to write those Christmas cards.

Baubles, Birthdays and Brownies

Double celebrations today - obviously it's countdown to Christmas and the decorations are up. Also it's my daughter's 21st birthday this week which called for a family roast dinner followed by Bailey's tiramisu and birthday brownies.

It was a new recipe and worked a treat so whether you're celebrating Christmas, birthdays or just feel in the mood for a sweet treat, give them a go.

- Melt 185g butter & 185g dark chocolate together

- Separately whisk 3 eggs with 270g caster sugar until light & fluffy

- Whisk both mixtures together

- Sieve 85g plain flour & 50g Cocoa powder into the above mixture 

- Pour into a tray & sprinkle with 100g milk chocolate pieces

- Bake at 170 oC for approximately half an hour

- Leave to cool before cutting, sprinkling with sieved icing sugar (or sparkly golden stars!)

Kitsch Christmas Cocktails

Trip to London✅ Girls Only✅ Black Friday✅ Nearly Christmas✅ Cocktails✅

All of the above and more. We didn't have to search for Christmas Spirit. London was illuminated in glorious twinkling fairy lights whilst fake snow sprinkled the shoppers and chestnut stalls did brisk trade.

My veggie food highlights were meals at The Ivy and Dishoom; both in Covent Garden. Whilst in the area, we visited the pop up bar Miracle in the Henrietta Hotel and Restaurant, currently a Christmas winter wonderland.

Cheesy festive music✅ Fake snow✅ Staff wearing Christmas jumpers✅ Twinkly lights and decorations✅ Fabulous menu of Seasonal cocktails served in kitsch glasses and mugs✅

Oh YESSS!

Feeling Festive✅

Christmas - New Year!

So, here we are in the lull time between the excitement of Christmas and the expectation of a new year.  My Christmas Day was spent with family; they eating turkey, pigs in blankets(!) and chipolatas and ... yes, sharing my nut roast!

I have to say it was a triumph.  The recipe I used was from an old Cranks recipe book as follows:

1  medium sized onion

1oz/25g butter

8oz/225g mixed nuts

4oz/100g wholemeal bread

1/2pt/300ml vegetable stock

2tsp/10ml yeast extract

1tsp/5ml mixed herbs

Salt & pepper to taste

Basically you just blitz the nuts and bread finely.  Chop and saute the onions.  Boil the stock and yeast extract.  Combine everything.  Place in a greased shallow baking dish and bake at 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4 for 30 mins until golden brown.

It looked a little like very dark stuffing and not particularly appealing but tasted absolutely delicious!

Around our dining table jokes and stories are shared, old and new.  Every year we await a mention of the RAF by my father and father-in-law (both of whom did National Service) and my mum shares a tale of a friend who would fry left-over Christmas Pudding with his cooked breakfast.  It's our tradition to share these stories and Christmas is all about tradition.  New Year, on the other hand, is all about resolutions and new beginnings.

My resolution, as always, is to be a better person.  I have already resolved to write this Blog for a year and, as part of that, aim to try out more vegetarian recipes.  Happy New Year and watch this space!

Christmas Dinner

"What do you eat on Christmas Day?" is the question I am asked every year.  I would love to come out with some exotic menu but usually mumble something about having all the vegetables and trimmings without the meat.  It is true that there is so much to eat on Christmas Day that I don't feel I miss out at all.  Occasionally I have added a cooked Camembert as a quick and easy "main".  This year, however, is going to be different!  For the sake of writing this blog, I am going to make the quintessential vegetarian meal ... Nut Roast!  I have only eaten it a couple of times and have certainly never made it, so here goes!  I shall let you know the outcome next week.

During my married life I have had a couple of Christmas food disasters.  Once, after returning from the pub on Christmas Eve, I decided to solve our beer hunger with a chip butty.  We ate the rather sad sandwich only to find the next morning that what I had thought were oven chips were, in fact, normal frozen chips which I had merely defrosted and wedged between two slices of bread!  On another occasion we had set the turkey timer way too early and returned home on Christmas morning in rather a hungover state to the smell of a fully cooked and cooled turkey - yuk!

Before having a family I would normally offer to work right up until Christmas Eve.  It was often good fun working in an office with time for a fuddle* with colleagues.  On one occasion the Finance Director asked me the usual question "what do you eat on Christmas Day?" I replied in the usual way but added that for the rest of the family I always cooked a gibbon! Hoho! Everyone thought this was hilarious.  I had meant to say a capon, otherwise known as a large chicken.  The meat eaters would have been very happy ... no fighting over who gets the leg!

* fuddle - a communal buffet for a special occasion; often hosted within the workplace.

Waxing Lyrical!

Christmas comes at the darkest time of the year, heading towards the shortest day on December 21st. We use fairy lights and candlelight to brighten those dark days and nights.  In Victorian times Merchants would give candles to their best customers at Christmas to thank them for their business throughout the year.

Wax is used to make candles but can we eat it?  Do we even know we are eating it? Is it vegetarian?

Edible wax (ester) is used to coat some fruits so they appear shiny and attractive.

Paraffin wax, derived from petroleum, is often used in chocolates to make them appear glossy and prevents the chocolate from melting at room temperature.

Shellac is used to coat sweets to give them a hard shiny appearance and is a by-product of the Lac insect.

Several years ago on Christmas Day I produced a Yuletide Log complete with a row of The Snowman candles.  They were such cute figures that I decided not to light them for fear they would melt quickly. One family member thought they were made of icing and promptly ate one!  Ah well, it didn't kill him so, although I wouldn't advise eating candles, it seems that waxes used in confectionery are in fact safe and what's more, probably vegetarian!

Work Colleagues!

When I first became vegetarian, only one of my friends didn't eat meat (but did eat fish). My boss at the time, however, had an eleven year old daughter who had decided she didn't want to eat meat at a very young age and he and his wife had allowed her to go with it.  This was a brave decision given that it was the late eighties and vegetarianism was fairly uncommon as well as the fact that children need all the nutrients they can get and so the parents had to ensure she had a good, well balanced diet without meat or fish.

For my first Christmas as a vegetarian, said boss bought me a copy of their family bible - "No meat for me please!" by Jan Arkless.  It was a small picture-less paperback which proved to be invaluable as it provided recipes for the vegetarian in the family. Some 24 years later I still refer to my battered copy although many recipes are committed to memory from constant use.

Whilst working at the same company, I shared an open plan office with seven others; five girls and two men.  The girls provided teas and coffees each and every day whilst the two men never thought to put the kettle on!  We moaned about them all year but at Christmas would be rewarded with a miniature of brandy and a bottle of Babysham - happy days! They would also buy us a box of chocolates in the form of those lovely shell shapes - Belgian Duc d'O.  We all loved them although nobody could pronounce their name until someone in the office named them "duck doo".  Even the thought of bird droppings could not put me off them!