Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Read Along 2023 - Part Two

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Continuing from Part 1

For anyone who has not already had the pleasure, the annual Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles read along is a real time annual MN tradition.

The book began on 1st November, however there is still time to fully appreciate Nigel in All His Splendour as it takes us to Christmas and beyond.

Most of us already have the book (or Audio book) For anyone who doesn't, it's a challenge to see of you can pick up a bargain. WH Smith has come up trumps in the past, as has ebay. A rare and precious charity shop find is the holy grail and adds a certain special-ness that simply extends that warm, fizzy Nigel feeling (and some well earned smugness)

I shall continue to make a post each day and we can share our thoughts and feelings on the days recipes, sentiments and indeed Dear Old Nige himself.

Pull up a chair and a cosy blanket and join in. Twinkly lights are optional, but candle light is definitely recommended. Regulars and newcomers are welcomed like old friends.

@LillianGish what a find! I love having something like that to put away for - Ooh, I was going to say next year - later this year.

I may contemplate doing a Cooks Book read along. I'm going to have a flick through the book tonight and see if that would work.

Definitely keeping this thread going, though. It's strangely become more of a comfort blanket for me now that Christmas is over and the opportunities for real life festive sensory-seeking dwindle.

18 January

Crumbs

At first glance, a visitor might think my long, thin, green-upon-green garden wouldn't be especially friendly to wildlife, but listen and you will know better. The birdsong in this little urban space is relentless and delightfully so.

I meant to mention yesterday about Wasailling. My day was robbed from me as it was my monthly hospital treatment day so I ran out of time. I find the ritual quite fascinating though and love to watch the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall episode in which he participates in the event. Anything involving old folklore I feel should be treasured, particularly in this modern and very tech driven age we now live in.

Oh, I'd forgotten you're in France, you lucky person! Hope it's great - are you saving it for next year or using it brighten the new few dreary weeks?

I find it interesting that near where I live, in urban Birmingham, there have been several Wassail events. Over the past few years community groups have worked with the Council to plant fruit trees in parks and this year have been holding Wassails. I think it's lovely that this very traditional celebration is being continued in a very modern city.

The Ellington Morris Men perform various wassails around community orchards in the Maidenhead area, I remember covering them when I was a local news reporter back in the mists of time. From memory they used to pour cider on the roots of the trees. Hope all is well after your hospital appointment @RainbowZebraWarrior. I shall be saving my Advent calendar for next year @SqueakyDinosaur - I know I will completely forget about it and it will cheer me up immensely when I find it among the Christmas decs.

OMG. I love Nigel, it's official! I was just browsing his latest insta posts and saw this one about Marmalade making. I was admiring his shelves / lighting / coffee machine when bang! I've just realised that I have electric sockets in my pantry. Why have I not thought about putting my coffee machine in the pantry and freeing up some bench space? I am now ridiculously excited about doing this and am off to start making space on a shelf immediately.

I am sharing your joy @RainbowZebraWarrior - and wishing I had a pantry!

We have a pantry (and it was one of the things that made me want our house) but it's literally just a full size door from one end of the kitchen into the space under the stairs. So it starts reducing in height as soon as you go into it, and there is no chance of standing in it to make coffee. But very exciting that it will work in your space.

I think the coffee machine looks great in the pantry photo. A real fancy one, not one that takes pods. @RainbowZebraWarrior that sounds like a fab plan.

That Nigel photo exudes calm.

Doesn't it? DD helped me clean the pantry last night, and we cleared a load of space. Before I had the pantry built, I had open shelves and actually, these were better as it forced me to keep things tidy and 'pretty' I've got a pod type coffee machine and I've put it in there, but it looks like a pound shop version of Nigel's set up 😆 I'm now looking for a proper coffee machine. It's difficult, as nothing lives up to the vintage Italian one I had in my old café. Need to work on this over the weekend as its my new pet project. First port of call is raiding my mother's old Denby Daybreak collection.

Does anyone have a proper coffee machine they can recommend? I've looked at the one Nigel has, but not sure I want to spend £500

How exciting to have a new project @RainbowZebraWarrior. Sorry I can’t offer any information about ‘proper’ coffee machines, we just have a small Nespresso one and a cafetière. I do like having a pantry, it’s not huge and doesn’t have an electric socket, but I wouldn’t swap it for any number of kitchen drawers and cupboards, even though a clear out every so often is essential - out of sight out of mind means things get shoved to the back of the shelves and go out of date. My treat to myself to cheer up the dark winter nights is a hamper of St Eval Bay & Rosemary candles - my favourite scent. They arrived yesterday, beautifully packaged and smell gorgeous!

DH bought this one for his (small) workplace in the January sales for £160, not sure where from, he had it at home for a few days but I didn't get time to try it before he whisked it off to work. Up till now he has used an aeropress at home and I use a stovetop Moka pot. He is, shall we say, particular about his coffee so would have chosen quite carefully. We ditched out on Nespresso years ago. I liked that it didn't take up too much room and looked nice.

https://www.delonghi.com/en-gb/dedica-arte-manual-coffee-maker-ec885-gy/p/EC885.GY

@Bubblesbythesea totally agree about the 'out of sight, out of mind' aspect. Ashamed to say that we filled a bin bag last night (four half boxes of cereal!) I feel that wouldn't happen to Nigel, although I appreciate he's mentioned about spices etc when doing a pantry spring clean.

That St Eval hamper looks gorgeous. Was it a deal, as in a set hamper, or did you choose the items yourself? I've been off and on their website for weeks and can't decide what to choose because everything just looks beautiful (especially the dipped candles!)

Thanks for that @EversoDisorganised I love delonghi and have a few small appliances already made by them, including my much loved kettle. Sounds like that could be a contender.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I just chose the Bay & Rosemary hamper because it’s my favourite scent and I’d been wanting to get all the things in it, so thought I might as well go for it and get them all at once!

I got my DH this as a big birthday gift a few years ago. I’m very much team Tea with the very occasional coffee but he uses it multiple times a day and is very happy with it (despite being unsure if it was an extravagance he didn’t want/need!).

https://www.delonghi.com/en-gb/ecam250-33-tb-magnifica-s-smart-automatic-coffee-maker/p/ECAM250.33.TB

I just read the penultimate chapter and feel a bit sad that the book is almost over, despite not managing to post much (I’ve been unwell over the last month) but have kept up with the book and the thread. I do already have A Cook’s Book though…🙂

I really want that St Eval hamper now! There’s a lovely article about them in this month’s Country Living magazine if anyone reads it - I get it free from my library on the Libby app.

Thanks for the info about the Country Living article about St Eval candles @MerryMidwinter , just read it on the Libby app. I’d been thinking about treating myself to some of their candles for a while but can only buy them from a shop when I visit my daughter - haven’t found any stockists on the north east coast. Decided to go for broke and order the hamper on line. I’m sitting enjoying them right now!

Good morning, and how is everyone doing?

I'm just catching up on Nigel's latest insta post. I'm not a fan of puddings, but very much like the sound of hs Mushroom Casoulet and Roast Pork dishes.

For the first time ever, I left my Christmas tree up, and I've absolutely loved having it still there.

It'll come down this weekend, but I was late putting it up and then went away for Christmas and New Year, so I felt like by Twelfth Night I had barely even seen it.

When I take it down I also need to have a massive rationalisation of decorations, as even with a 5' tree, quite densely decorated, I still have at least 2/3 of my decorations still in their boxes.

Thought while the weather is so mizz I would make a start spring cleaning, then when the weather brightens up, having got rid of the dust, spiders etc which have been lurking in the dark corners, I would feel justified in not spending time doing housework, only doing what my Mum called ‘a lick and a promise’. How far I’ll get before I run out of steam remains to be seen! Nice to be back in touch @RainbowZebraWarrior and @SqueakyDinosaur , I’ve missed the thread these past few days and wondered where everyone had gone.

@Bubblesbythesea I love spring cleaning, but due to health issues can only do a little at a time, so I feel like it's one step forwards and two back. Have bagged up some stuff for charity in the last week or so though so feel like I'm on a roll!

Feels like ages away till the last chapter on 2nd Feb. I often wonder why there are occasional gaps of odd days in the CC, then this long one. I guess it came down to number of pages in the end?

I'm still hanging sure till we have finished to maybe start A Cooks Book thread.