The Autumnal Christmas Chronicles Preamble thread

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hi, and welcome to the Nigel Slater appreciation society Christmas Chronicles Premable thread.

The thread will start proper in late October where we begin our annual journey of reading the Christmas Chronicles in real time. It is a cosy, heartwarming event that one can dip in and out of as life allows. Think flickering candles, woodsmoke, delicious recipes, the odd home made tipple, and bucket loads of touching Nigel-esque anecdotes. It is a veritable Hyyge of a thread.

This thread is to see us through until that time. You will find me, like a squirell, checking on my store of candles at the back of the cupboard.

It's also worth noting that Nigel's new book; A Thousand Feasts is out on 26th September. (with a deliciously Autumnal cover)

Haha. Thanks. I love Nigel's Christmas specials. (12 tastes of Christmas?)

I also have a trusty brown sweater like the one Nigel describes as his favourite.

I'm just finally, properly, reading through A Cooks Book and noticed the portrait photograph that I posted yesterday was only taken in 2021 by Jenny Zarins.

Sounds great @SunshineonLeaves is it this one?

cosyart.co.uk/products/its-very-warm-cosy

@RainbowZebraWarrior that cardigan is amazing!
Today me and my daughter collected some wild blueberries and tyttebæer in our local forest. Over the weekend I'm going to make some "Cranberry but not cranberry" sauce for Christmas. I'm going to use some Swedish Blossa Glögg in it too. Hopefully we'll be able to package it up nicely and send it back to family in the UK as part of their Christmas packages.

@Midlifeshenanigans actually no although that also looks lovely. I’ll have a Google and see if I can find mine.

My book arrived and I'm very glad I picked the 'used- acceptable' condition one from Amazon for £8 because it's literally pristine! Looks like it's never even been opened, so what a bargain.

Also, my absolute unnecessary fake oodie arrived from amazon too! A silly bargain for £14. It's MUCH thinner than my real oodie, which is what I wanted as my (new build) house is too warm to wear it. This will do nicely!

Yay to fab shopping!

my fake oodie with heating elements is still floating around planet evri …

That bowl of berries is VVN @IngenTing - absolutely stunning. I’m not so sure about oodies (had to google - definitely not a thing where I live!). Just rereading the intro to A Cook’s Book while I wait for September 26 to arrive, everything in Nigel’s house/life is so spare, pared back and neutral I’ve just broken off to declutter my kitchen. It has poured with rain all day here, but it is still very much August rain and I am sitting by the open window listening to the sounds of summer in the city (ie the sounds coming from other people’s open windows - chinking glasses and a low hub-bub of Friday night dinner and drinks). Candles are lit - which I suppose is an early concession to cosiness, but I haven’t crossed the line into autumn yet. Christmas is unthinkable at the moment.

Good morning, all.

I woke up to Alexa telling me it was foggy, so I groaned, thinking we had definitely tipped into the 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'. It's a beautiful sunny day, so I'm glad she was wrong. Cup of tea then I'm off to the nature reserve for a spot of birding.

@IngenTing Your berries look amazing. My Dad is a big forager. So much so, that they have an extra freezer for his autumnal bounty. He also hunts, fishes and is a beekeeper. We have chickens on our allotment too, so we are very self sufficient in meat, Veg, fish, berries, honey and eggs.

I've had something of an obsession with cloudberries for years. Partly due to a recipe book called Falling Cloudberries, and partly due to a wintery scandi novel I read recently. We don't have them here, but I'm thinking of buying some seeds and trying them. This time next year I'd love to have a few jars of cloudberry jam tucked away.

I always lurk on the Christmas thread and promise myself I will buy "the book" but never do. Just ordered from Amazon but I love autumn too so hope its OK to join.

It is feeling slightly autumnal here in South Wales. Breezy and cool but dry, thankfully.

@RainbowZebraWarrior What was the wintery Scandi novel please, if you don't mind me asking? Also - what do cloudberries taste like?

It's actually Chick lit, really. It's called Winter beneath the stars by Jo Thomas. I'm not usually a big fan of this type of stuff, but it has quite a bit of substance to it (I felt) and I love reading anything wintry. Here's a synopsis:

(Btw, I believe cloudberries taste rather like blackberries; they also look like the orangey equivalent)

Hi everyone, I lurk this thread every year but haven't posted or bought the book yet. Do you think it would be enjoyable for a vegan? I know most of the recipes aren't anywhere near being vegan, but I am a huge cold-weather person and I think I might just love getting into the cosy spirit! I think I'd be able to veganise some of them, too. What do you reckon? 🎄🎄🎄

Christmas Chronicles is so much more than a recipe book @HowManyDaysTilChristmas - I think it would be enjoyable even if you didn’t cook anything from it. To be honest, the recipes are almost incidental.

I think you'd be able to veganise as you wish. He writes so beautifully. I was reading the Kitchen Diaries II this afternoon and enjoying that.

@HowManyDaysTilChristmas

Here's a link to a companion thread kindly done last year woth lots of the recipes on.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/christmas/4927066-christmas-chronicles-recipe-thread-2023-partner-to-the-read-along-thread

Having a quick look the cream could easily be replaced with alpro, oatly or homemade cashew cream? Dried fruit is obviously vegan 😁 We can have a go?

To be to fair to Nige, he likes recipes where plants are the stars but he includes more traditional stuff in this book and it was 2017

I agree. I challenge myself sometimes to make something either without meat, or whatever I just dug up out of the garden. I've also made his Sausages and Beans recipe without the sausages or with Vegan sausages. I'm not a fan of sausages anyway.

We have just had our evening walk. I was going to say that I can't believe it's September tomorrow, but actually, I can. It's so much cooler, and the spiders webs everywhere is a giveaway.

Our village is quiet now, and almost all of the crops have been harvested. We've had a film crew here for the past two weeks and I won't miss them (Sheridan Smith's new drama) I'm very much now looking forward to DD going back to school and getting back into my usual routine. I've been sorting through my Christmas cards tonight, so I'm in that zone now. Appreciate that not everyone thinks as far ahead as I do.

Thanks everyone for the reassurance. I'll be ordering it then. 😀

I'm so happy that it's September tomorrow!

@RainbowZebraWarrior Your Dad and his lifestyle sound amazing! I grew up in Crewe, so not many opportunities to forage. 😆 I taught myself and learnt from locals here in Norway.

Today we found an abundance of chanterelle mushrooms. It was tricky as the birch trees are already yellow and their leaves are falling.
Cloudberries, multebær, are quite rare to find, people tend to know spots and keep it secret. We usually find some growing next to small streams or very damp/wet conditions. They grow low and spread out across the ground, but a large patch will only give 3 or 4 berries, making them even rarer! You can also buy them frozen here, but they are quite expensive.

The ones I find I use with blueberries to make a jam. This jam usually signifies the start of Autumn here as my kids go back to school mid August and we usually make the jam the weekend before they go back.

@HowManyDaysTilChristmas I like the book to read but I haven’t made many things from it as a vegan, as I feel if a recipe hang itself on butter or bacon, rather than as incidental/garnish ingredients, it’s probably not worth adapting.

I did successfully veganise the chocolate and Guinness Christmas cake talked about last year, happy to share the recipe.

Fabulous chanterelles @IngenTing My Dad used to do a lot of mushroom foraging. He still does occasionally in the woods by one of the farms where we keep our bees. There are also hazelnut trees there. It's amazing what he comes home with some nights!

I found this when I was going through my Christmas cards last night. I think I bought it from B&M. I'm just having a quiet cuppa and marvelling at It's whimsy. I think my child like brain imagines who would live there. Just a little thing, but magical and joyful to me.

(Note: cat in background always tries to be centre of attention)

That's cute, @RainbowZebraWarrior! I've also been getting ready as I ordered a set of diamond art Christmas cards to make. I'll start them soon. They're really cute and traditional! Will be a fun little activity for me.

Lovely mushrooms! My friends live in the mountains of Barcelona and forage mushrooms to freeze and dry as they grow a lot of their other food in their garden.

Does anyone have crafty projects on the go that tend to get started through autumn and winter? I’m knitting a fairisle Cardi and have finished the main body. I’m preparing it for steeking - wish I’d known about this technique for longer!