The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater. Read Along Thread 2022

[Dillidilly]

INTRODUCTION

Nigel begins his Chronicles proper on 1st November, but there is a lovely, quite lengthy introduction we can dip into during the second half of October.

Last year, posters were also kind enough to share where they had found cut price copies of CC, so hopefully anyone late to the party still has time to find a copy before we start the first chapter.

I had forgotten the lovely introduction. Together with the beautiful photograph at the very beginning of the book, flipping through it and seeing his headings reminded me of why I loved it so much last year!

I'm really sorry it's been mental recently and I haven't read daily. Things are calming down now so will from now on

I didn't realise they did smaller models. Have just been having a little lust on their website. They really are gorgeous.

Brisket.

Last year’s - where I did have shallots but IIRC didn’t have swede then either. Photo taken partway through cooking.

This year’s.

I think Nigel would approve of them.

@ShakeYourFeathers I haven’t read for several days now. Nor have I caught up on the thread. In fact I’ve been putting it off because I feel under pressure and it becomes too much so I’ll avoid it for as long as I can. Which leads to falling farther behind and feeling under more pressure. 🙄 The mind is a very strange thing.

Thank you all for being such lovely company! Am going to make the effort to sit down and catch up today. Hope you all have a lovely day!

Photos from last year:

Apricots, cranberries. Such beautiful colours!

I made cranberry sauce for Nigel’s meatballs recipe, and used the rest for flavoured gin.

Apricot liqueur and cranberry gin. We really liked the gin so I might make some more this year. But I also might not...

Meatballs.

Orange poppy seed cake. I used some kind of filter on the photo as I don’t recall it being bright orange IRL. Nigel would not approve of its garishness.

@TangledWebofMincemeatDeception that reminds me that I need to source a couple more kilner jars and check on my liqueurs in the bottom of a cupboard.

Lovely pictures Tangledx

I did a brisket last week. Four hours in the slow oven of the AGA. It's an old girl (the AGA, not me, though that too) dating from the 1960s. It's perfect for that sort of cooking.

Some fresh Christmassy Nigel from today's Guardian for your delectation. Stuffing, parsnips, cardamom custard... I agree with his view that the main turkey or whatever is superfluous to the feast when the sides are this good.

(PS click on the 'I'll do it later' button if it asks you to register)

@ShaunaTheSheep
You beat me to it - just been reading the recipes in the Guardian!

I'm not even sure why I'm here - it's mid-November, I feel really depressed about stuff I can't do much about (house woes, autistic son woes) and I'm becoming skint before I've really started present shopping - but I do like a bit of Nigel Slater.

And you know what? Having looked at Amazon and realised I can't get a copy for less than £18 I thought 'I'll just check out the charity shops in town, you never know.' And I did, and the very first I went into, an Oxfam bookshop, had it on the shelf, mint condition, £4.50.

Bollocks to Christmas cooking starting on Nov 1st though! 😂Though I might bake my Christmas cakes this weekend. Maybe. But it'll be nice to read along here.

Ah @GlomOfNit It was meant to be!

🎄🎄🎄

I’ve lit the candles, have got a cup of tea, and am catching up.

Today’s read felt really autumnal. Or was it just the weather here?|

@sueelleker thank you for the link for my leg of lamb. Maybe I'll try that with it! I'd rather use it up than it go in the bin & it's vacuum packed so I think should be ok? But we don't often buy lamb at all.

I don't think I'll have time to read today - I'm just on the way to a college open evening with dd1 and her friend. Perfect time to catch up with Advent though, which I started on our way to the last one.

@Dillidilly I’ve finally decided against the advent candles in a jar - my rule is I’m not going to buy anything if I’ve already got something similar. I already have these little (un-numbered) candles to burn for hygge throughout Nov/Dec; they’re lovely and I really do not need new candles...

Instead I found a cute little advent calendar with tiny doors which made me smile (it’s actually a Christmas card). NVN, but I’ll enjoy the hygge of opening it daily.

I went on a charity shop hunt and found three murder/mystery books on a Christmas theme/set at Christmas. I’m looking forward to reading those in December. I hope to come across a copy of A Christmas Carol, too, as I seem to have lost the one I had.

Lovely books! I've read some in the same series I think.

@TangledWebofMincemeatDeception the books look good. Am going to start lining up a pile of December reading. Some MR James would go on my pile.

Also - if you want to do the list of dates/ recipes/ ingredients, I would be happy to do some. We could split the dates and combine in one doc? I can't do it til post Christmas either, but would like to do it.

@GlomOfNit welcome. I love Nige. Sorry to hear things are tough there x

Lovely photos @TangledWebofMincemeatDeception and bravo for having made so much stuff. I share your determination not to buy anything new if I already have something similar - I just did a bit of a make over here moving stuff around, putting stuff away and getting other stuff out to the extent DD thought I'd been on a spree. So glad you found a bargain copy of the book @GlomOfNit good to have you on board. This is a feel good thread to go with a feel good book. In fact I'm making @TheRealShedSadie's mushroom soup tonight.

What are you all doing to me - the food looks so good! I might actually do the brisket this weekend.

I love brisket, a good slow cooker staple. Im also now imagining walking through rooms of glass domed candles, sniffing happily away!

Pouring with rain here today and much colder. Our fire is on and NVN candle is lit. Feels much more Autumnal.

Hope you like the soup Lilian

TangledWeb that photo is the epitome of hygge!

I love a spooky story at this time of year, myself. I can really recommend the British Library's Tales of the Weird series - they're collections of vintage spooky and eerie stories.

Thanks BigBadBarry - nice to see you here!