Feeling a bit ginger?

After all the excessive celebratory food and drink consumed over the last few days I think we are all feeling a little bit ginger! However, there are times when only a cup of (Yorkshire, or at least English) tea will do! We don't have to forfeit the seasonal sweet offerings as they all go perfectly well with this beverage whether it be warmed mince pies, Yuletide log or a slice of Christmas cake (served with cheese in Yorkshire!)

My personal favourite is a ginger biscuit, delicious at any time of year but made seasonal with the use of a snowman, snowflake or star cookie cutter. The recipe below was passed on from my mum who used to let us make gingerbread men as children. You can vary the amount of ginger according to taste but I like mine to do what it says on the tin, ie taste of ginger!

4 oz Stork margerine

4 oz Demerara sugar

8 oz Self Raising flour

1 tbsp Golden Syrup

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

3 tsp Ground Ginger

Cream together the margerine and sugar then add the syrup.

Add all the dry ingredients and form into a ball

Roll out and cut into shapes

Bake on a tray at gas mark 4 for 10-15 mins

Leave to cool for as long as you can manage without trying one!

Can be decorated with piped icing or a dusting of icing sugar

Bake and enjoy ...

Oh Sinner Man!X Oh Cinnamon!

ISorry, no, not the spiritual song recorded by several artists since 1956 and played on recorders in primary schools up and down the country!

Cinnamon is a spice available in stick or powder form and used in cooking, baking and beverages as well as having medicinal uses. Watch any Christmas cookery or baking show and you can be sure the presenters will inhale the aroma of whatever they are preparing and agree, that is the smell of Christmas!

My mum told me that when she was younger they used to light the ends of cinnamon sticks and try smoking them!!

Popular dishes include Christmas Cinnamon rolls baked together in the shape of a Christmas Tree but it is also used in biscuits and cakes. Although available all year round, it's warming properties are possibly what make it a seasonal spice.

Eggnog is a popular Christmas Drink (referred to in the 1932 novel Cold Comfort Farm as "Hell's Angel" and taken for breakfast). It usually consists of milk, cream, sugar and eggs whisked together with brandy (or sherry or rum) added and a good sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

Each Christmas as we wrestle with the Christmas Tree, lights and decorations I feel we should be singing carols and clinking our glasses of eggnog in a resonating "Cheers!"

So here it is, a great big Cinnamon Eggnog Cheers to Christmas!

Now bring us some figgy pudding!

Figgy pudding originates in the 16th century when it was a kind of porridge. In the 19th century it resembled the pudding we recognise today and was at the height of popularity, also known as Plum pudding and Christmas pudding. Yes it really is like steamed Christmas pudding but made with the addition of dried figs. In days gone by we vegetarians probably could not have eaten it as it would have been made with suet but nowadays the pudding recipes are mostly vegetarian versions.

The seasonal song "We wish you a Merry Christmas" is sung by Christmas carolers who ask to be paid in figgy pudding. And, of course, they won't go until they get some!

In Victorian England, Charles Dickens penned "A Christmas Carol" and wrote about the pudding made by Mrs. Cratchit which would, no doubt, have resembled the figgy/plum/Christmas pudding we know today:

"... the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.

Oh, a wonderful pudding!"

So, let's indulge ourselves in the past, present and future of Christmas. In the words of the carolers, "We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year".

Chestnuts roasting by an open fire!

Having tasted my first chestnut some 30 years ago I broke out in a rash and thought I must be allergic. It turned out to be an allergy to elastoplast thankfully! It would be such a shame to miss out on this seasonal produce. It's very rare to see the street vendors with their glowing braziers offering a brown paper bag stuffed with the sweet hot nuts nowadays but, if you do want to see them, now is the time.

Chestnuts are extremely versatile as they can be used in savoury dishes such as soups and stuffings to add flavour and texture. They are a popular addition to Christmas Day Brussels Sprouts.

Much as we would all like to sit beside an open fire roasting our own chestnuts, they do have to be peeled (shell and inner skin) once cooled. However, an easier alternative is to use Merchant Gourmet packets which are already cooked and peeled for convenience. The added bonus is that they can be used all year round.

Alternatively, chestnuts can be boiled in sugar and water then dried in the oven and used as a topping on cakes (marrons glace) or made into a puree (creme de marrons). However, for your convenience, this can also be purchased in a can or jar. 

Having had recent success with Nigella's coffee ice cream I am aiming to make the No-churn chestnut ice cream from her Nigellissima book - seasonal, easy peasy and scrummy - that's my kind of Christmas!

And so, I'm offering this

Simple phrase to kids from

One to ninety-two

Altho' it's been said many times

Many ways

"Merry Christmas to you"

Advent(ures)!

Today is Advent Sunday (as well as Stir-up-Sunday - read last year's blog!) Advent is the Sunday closest to St. Andrews Day (tomorrow this year) and marks the start of the Christmas Season in the UK. Yay! I love all things Christmas and am already feeling the buzz!

Advent is a little like Lent and some people fast or give up certain foods. Orthodox Christians often don't eat meat and dairy during Advent and on certain days also forego wine and fish, therefore practically vegan!

To count the days in Advent we use calendars (the chocolate ones being my favourite) or candles to mark the four Sundays leading to Christmas. Any child of the 1970s will remember the Blue Peter Advent Crown where the mix of wire coat hangers, tinsel and lit candles was surely a fire hazard to any child attempting to make one.

There are also Advent Songs sung in Churches and Schools, the most famous probably being Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel. This should not be confused with Emmanuelle, the rather rude film I accidentally watched in 1979 with a friend at the cinema. Yes really! It was in the days when you got to see two films for the price of one. The film "10" with Bo Derek and Dudley Moore had just come out and we planned to see it. The extra film was Emmanuelle and, eager to get our money's worth and believing it to be a scarey film, we trotted off to see them. Unfortunately Emmanuelle was shown first and we slid down in our seats and concentrated on our sweets and chocolates, not daring to get up and go out for fear of being seen in the rather sparsely populated cinema! Indeed it proved to be a scarey film for two innocent teenage girls and was an endurance test with the prize being the film of the moment, 10.

Giving thanks!

Thanksgiving Day in the USA is the 4th Thursday in November and therefore falls this Thursday November 26th. Rather like our Christmas Day, it is traditionally a family and friends occasion including sharing a special meal. Whilst the pilgrims would have eaten whatever they could lay their hands on, nowadays the fare consists mainly of turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, buttery mashed potato and vegetables. Pudding is pumpkin or apple pie.

Vegetarians may eat tofurkey! This is a a meat substitute of vegetarian protein made from tofu (soybean protein) or seitan (wheat protein) and the stuffing within is made from grains or breadcrumbs bound with a herby gravy. Personally, this does not appeal to me at all but for those who don't eat meat for ethical reasons, it may well be a good substitute.

The Pilgrims probably did eat turkey, along with other fowl and seafood. They would also have had some vegetables, including pumpkin, nuts and fruit including cranberries. Although they would not have understood at the time, the cranberries would have given them necessary vitamin C.

Fresh cranberries are now in season and can be simmered in water, fruit juice or wine with added sugar and spices to make cranberry sauce. I actually have a fridge full of the stuff left over from the breaded camemberts I buy as my go-to meat substitute when the rest of the family are having meat and vegetables.

Cranberries can also be used in muffins, cakes, apple pies and trifles. Another tip is to add a spoonful to gravy, whether it's a meat or vegetarian stock.

Another benefit to these little ruby red gems is that they are a superfood, being one of the richest sources of health promoting antioxidants; although you would need to eat a substantial number of raw cranberries to get the very best out of them!

Teething Trouble!

Today I ate my first Christmas treat; a Maltesers Merryteaser Mini Reindeer (suitable for vegetarians). Well, I'm now going to suggest renaming them Maltesers Notsomerryteethbreaker Mini Reindeer (suitable for vegetatians but unsuitable for anyone wishing to hang on to their precious gnashers). I am pounding away on this keyboard in a state of teary-eyed fury. 

As you know, I am a chocolate lover, 'though Mars products would not be top of my wish list; me being more of a Cadburys kind of girl. However, chocolate is chocolate and Christmas is coming so I succumbed to one of the little blighters, only to get a piece of honeycomb stuck between my two front teeth leaving me (feeling like Nanny McPhee) with a chipped tooth. A moment on the lips, a lifetime with a chip! Hopefully not, as I shall have my Dentist on speed-dial in the morning with a view to repairing it. The outcome will, no doubt, be more dear than deer!

My family have, with some sympathy, had their fun out of my plight. Yes, I may be able to whistle now. Yes, I should mind the gap. Yes, all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. 

On that note, please wish me good luck at the dentist and then I can wish you Merry Chrithmath!