The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater. Read Along Thread 2022 PART 2

[LillianGish]

A continuation of the brilliant thread started by @Dillidilly who I hope is still lurking somewhere and reading along

My neighbours had red candles in their windows for St Lucia and it looked lovely. Must remember that for next year!

@Ihavedogs I’m sorry to hear your bad news, sending condolences 💐

Is Kumihimo very Nige, do you think? It's a handmade candy cane, this afternoon's labours. I really enjoyed making it.

Hi there,
Have only gone and made the mighty stollen cake, blimey, its a bit of a beast!

Looking at ways to store it and Google is telling me it will keep for several months in a cool place. Is this right, seems too good to be true!

Oh and in what world does it serve 8, it really is massive.

Isn't it just? You'll find it gets eaten remarkably fast though...

I had to freeze mine in chucks to have any hope of saving some till Christmas fitting in my clothes!

I’m very impressed with everyone’s craft and cooking activities! I am not at all crafty and don’t have time to cook much. I have made a Christmas cake which I will ice this weekend and I’m off work next week so will hopefully make some mince pies or something at some point.

Craft is something I find a small window for (2 afternoons a month), for social/mental heath reasons as much as anything. It's good for me!

My dc are grown so I don't get to do anything with them, and I don't have to ferry them around, so I have time to do it for me!

16 December
Pickles, pruning and a baked apple

I was in time with Nigel today- I saw lovely silhouetted trees on the horizon yesterday. The forced rhubarb won't be happening, though the dressing sounds good and this will be my go to book for pickling dressings from here on!

Is that just raw salmon, rather than smoked? I have some, I could try the recipe, rhubarb aside. I'm not quite sure how I feel about raw fish that I've prepared rather than bought it sushi!

I’d definitely make it (and have made similar things before) but the fish needs to be very fresh.

It's a frozen piece, presumably frozen on the ship, these days? I'll check the packaging.

Frozen is good I think, as long as it was frozen quickly whilst very fresh (which apparently is how they do it) - will have killed off anything potentially lurking in there.

17 December
Panettone, a love story
This chapter reminds me, I must get a mini panettone for DH's stocking - for Christmas Day breakfast. I also love Nigel's paean to carols and share his powerful sense of nostalgia. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can be moved to tears by them (many's the carol service where I think I might have got something in my eye!) As usual, he has a great way of putting all of that into words - something you'd never quite nailed down, but you end up thinking: "Yes! I know exactly what you mean."

Right, you lovely lot!! Does anyone have a recipe for those oat balls from ikea? DS1 loves them, and ikea didn't have any! I can make them up, but thought I'd check first.

Basically oats, Marge and sugar dipped in chocolate if I remember correctly.

And cocoa!

Sorry @picklemewalnuts i don’t! But I expect google will throw up some good recipes.

We used to make cocoa balls (same idea but with cocoa powder added and rolled in dessicated coconut) a lot in my childhood. A really good, comparatively healthy treat.

@LillianGish I haven’t read today’s chapter yet, but I absolutely love Christmas Carols/hymns. Silent night is one of my favourites. I instantly feel peaceful when I hear it. Also love We three Kings, Oh come all ye faithful, Hark the herald angels sing. I love them all really. I, too, am profoundly moved and can easily get tearful if I let myself.

I also like Christmas songs of the popular music variety - the more classic the better except for a few favourite more recent pop songs. For several years when I was suffering badly with extreme stress and anxiety, the only thing that would calm my mind in the dead of night was singing (in my head, not out loud) ‘Silver Bells’. Somehow it would help so much and the fear would dissipate. Often I’d find myself able to fall asleep. Funny how the mind works.

I’m looking forward to reading today’s chapter. 🎄

I'm a huge sap and will cry over practically everything. I love carols and some of them definitely give me a wee sniffle. I love singing the descants although don't get many chances to do so without looking like a show offy wanker!

I was walking around a shop last night and heard this song (Pentatonix) over the sound system - I hadn't heard it before and just kept thinking that I LOVED the harmonies - I'm definitely going to be adding it to my Christmas playlist -

I also love singing (used to do so in a couple of bands), so Christmas is right up my street from that perspective. I’ve not listened to Pentatonix - keep meaning to as I’ve seen mention here and there. I also love harmonies; I can still remember the first time I ‘heard’ the harmony to a song I was listening to and found I could sing it.

I'm just settling in to read now. I also love carols. There's a gorgeous nativity video that made me weep- I'll dig it out and post it here.

That's a good pentatonix one!
I'm lucky to get to sing at church, any harmony I like! Make it up as I go along.

Here...

I'd forgotten 'The holly and the ivy'.

We don't sing enough carols. We have about 4 services available, so that's only 16 even if you sang nothing else.

One of my favourite carols is Coventry Carol - beautifully mournful

@Starlitexpress how are you getting on with your stollen? I got a chunk of mine out intending to eat it over the next few days and had to re freeze it due to my inability to leave it alone!!

I got all behind again but I listened to about 10 days worth tonight while decorating the Christmas tree (we only got it yesterday because of waiting for DS to come back from uni). Our tree is a riot of colour, NVN bit we love it.

I also love carols. DD and I went to a big singalong Christmas concert last week (both traditional and pop songs) and then during the week I went out with a friend to one run by our local churches - they take it to all the open spaces in town one by one, there were about 50 of us singing by torchlight, just beautiful. There is a bigger one in our market square later this week too.

I have a few Pentatonix songs in my Christmas playlist but hadn't heard that one before. I love harmonies too, I like Mary's Boy Child, When A Child is Born and The Bing Crosby / David Bowie Little Drummer Boy. I also love Oh Holy Night. I also have a few from the Jethro Tull Christmas album. It is a long playlist! Oh and Sinead O'Connor's Silent Night is the most beautiful thing.

18 December
The almond paste
I actually made, iced and starting eating my cake some time ago (after the excellent suggestion by someone on here that Christmas cake could be eaten throughout December) - so this chapter is now rather surplus to requirement for me. Needless to say, I didn't actually make my own marzipan and I'm not sure I would have done even if I'd read this chapter first. As Nigel says: "You may be wise to buy your almond paste ready made." I'm interested to know if anyone has actually had a go?