The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2024

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello all, it's nearly that time!

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 begins on 1st November, however there are a good few pages by way of introduction. This is why I start the thread now; so that we have time to prepare and settle in.

A lot of us already have the 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.

I shall post each day and we can share our thoughts and feelings on the day's recipes and sentiments. It's particularly lovely to share any memories and personal traditions (as Nigel himself does)

Note: Reading by candle light can be particularly enjoyable. Cire Trudon may be one of Nigel's favourites but they are somewhat pricey. Share your festive finds here, even if they are at the cheaper end of the scale and possibly NVN (Not Very Nigel)

Pull up a chair, grab a cosy blanket, and light your candle of choice. It's that most wonderful time of the year!

<Preens at being called V Nigel by @LillianGish - high praise indeed!>

I'm another one who loves a dusky walk, with all the lovely glimpses of people's homes through not yet drawn curtains.

Halloween took over here the last few days - DPs a remote worker and his company do crafty activities on special occasions like Halloween where the remote workers and their families can join in over zoom with the folks in the office - so I ended up baking chocolate cupcakes with orange icing for decorating and getting all the crafty bits out to decorate witches hats yesterday! On Halloween proper we carved our pumpkins (keeping the little one back for cooking), baked gingerbread, dressed up and the kids watched Hotel Transylvania (again!)

Not much time outside sadly, but hopefully tomorrow I'll get out in the garden and give it a final mow and plant out the daffodil and snowdrop bulbs I bought (allegedly squirrels don't like the smell of these, so I'm hoping they'll do better than the tulips and crocuses that the squirrels dug up last year!)

@Bimblesalong hurrah for magic mouthwash! I've had meds in the past that affect my taste and it's so depressing forcing yourself to eat when nothing tastes of anything much.

@JustAMiddleAgedDirtBagBaby that crochet blanket is wonderful - what an amazing thing to have!

So many folks around Dunster! My parents lived near there for a while after retiring and it's such a lovely area.

@RainbowZebraWarrior Saturday morning nature reserve jaunts sound wonderful, even if it is getting cold now where you are! I'm quite looking forward to cooler weather, but as we're on the South coast it will likely be a while yet! Like Nigel I'm always hoping for snow, but we do rarely get it.

I finally got to sit down and read the introduction and first entry yesterday, though it was to the not very relaxing sound of my kids having a zoom call with some friends! Definitely not at all a Nigel like ambience! 😂 Hopefully I'll have a more relaxing experience for the next entry!

I've just snipped it pretty much as it is into tiny pieces to include with the sausage meat stuffing mixture as a nod to something resembling Nigels recipe (and a but of taste / texture) I'm basically trying to make it slightly lower fat so I dabbed the bacon with kitchen paper after it was cooked. Sacrilege really, but a needs must situation health wise.

I'm making it later tonight, so I'll include pics of how the sausagey bacon balls have turned out.

@RainbowZebraWarrior look forward to hearing how the stuffing balls work out, I'm keen on that turkey and lardon recipe but realistically lardo will be very difficult to find I think!

I managed to cleanse the house of all things Halloween today in between bouts of breastfeeding my six week old. I've been enjoying lighting candles randomly throughout the day, as its fairly grim weather, and it really does add such a lovely ambiance...

Making Nigella's roast plums with maple and star anise for dessert tonight, feeling suitably autumnal.

Also enjoyed the fallen leaves from the Japanese maple in my garden. Now, I didn't plant this tree nor have I ever done anything to tend to it, but it felt VN all the same!

Hope everyone is having a lovely day, I have a friend coming over and we are going to watch Strictly, eat cheese, drink wine and do some block printing

Good evening, all.

@lucysmam here are my experimental chocolate cabins. I swirled melted menier chocolate around the moulds first, then filled them with a rocky road type mix. I used marshmallows, cherries, and rice crispies as they were for DD to try. My Waitrose delivery isn't here yet, but I do plan to do them again with pistachios, etc, for a more grown-up version.

Very happy with them and DD loved dusting them with icing sugar for the final 'snowy cabin look'

I feel cold and achy tonight. Not sure how much of that is just down to being on a small windy island in the North Sea earlier today.

Oh my goodness @RainbowZebraWarrior those are beautiful!

I don't know what it is about little house-shaped things but I am an absolute sucker for them.

Relishing the early dusk and the nights closing in. Much prettier than the rather drab day (and ever so slightly Atkinson Grimshaw!)

I'm hoping it's not too late for me to join? I stumbled across you all at 5am when I couldn't sleep and it sounded so wonderful and just what I need right now, that I've ordered the book which will be delivered tomorrow.

My boys are grown up now so I'm excited to find new ways to make Christmas and winter magical and special but DS1 has a hobby that is a little crazy at this time of year so not sure I can commit fully but I'm going to try.

Candles lit, wine poured and fire lit in anticipation of starting properly tomorrow.

I’d like marshmallows, rice crispies and cherries <child> but I would also enjoy pistachios. They look lovely.
I’ve caught up today as it took me a few goes to get through the intro. I still have some of Nigel’s apricot/orange/anise brandy in the fridge from last year! I like to annotate cookbooks so I see I used half apricot half prune. Might tidy that up tonight.
I skipped ahead a little bit and made Nigel’s banana cake from <spoiler alert> 30th November. I had bananas that needed to be used and while I am extremely loyal to Nigella in the way of bananas I thought I would give it a go. It looks quite light and spongy and I think it might be good with yogurt and fruit perhaps for breakfast. Which is very Nige.

@RainbowZebraWarrior they look fabulous.

I didn't get round to trying Christmas cake in mine - the thermostat in my oven's knackered & the edges of cake #1 have caught quite badly 😥 so I was toying with trying the second in the air fryer - no idea how long for though.

It's either that or I bake at somewhere around 40° on the dial which should be low enough for a slow and non-burny bake 🙄

Wow @RainbowZebraWarrior those chocolate cabins look amazing!

OH assembled the apricot brandy today while I made a cottage pie. Not a NS recipe (Gary Rhodes, loads of red wine and very tasty) but properly autumnal and once OH is down from his shower will be consumed with buttery leeks and savoy cabbage.

The fire and candles are lit, the red wine is open and all is well with the world. (Apart from being chasing Amazon to refund £8.99 that they took when I inadvertently signed up to Prime without realising it. They make it VERY easy to do that, and very difficult to get the payment reversed 😡)

I did 80% of my Christmas shopping today, went for a walk in the countryside with my dog and read my book by candle light while in the bath.

All this talk of candles made me think of Hyacinth Bucket, candlelight suppers, anyone?

We were supposed to be going to our town's Bonfire night event (it's much more than just that) but DH got the wrong weekend (he has form for this) so I made parkin instead which also has very dark and autumnal vibes.

That is such a beautiful photo @LillianGish

@StrungWithSilverBellsAndFlowers I know that Gary Rhodes recipe! He used to use a lot of wine in his recipes (being classically trained as a chef when back in the day the focus was on all things French)

@drspouse ooh, Parkin. I have a fancy that it is a Yorkshire thing(?), but it was my Nanna's favourite and was readily available here in NE England bakeries up until the 90's and I've never seen it since! A gloriously dark, gingery, soft and squidgy delight that isn't really comparable to anything else bake wise.

We are just back from our evening walk. There are obviously firework displays going on, but thankfully all in the distance.

I have got so behind on this thread! Am just catching up whilst watching The Cure on the telly, which I think is probably NVN.

@Bimblesalong I made the butternut squash and feta pasta yesterday, it was delicious.

Yay @ClaudineChronicals - so did I 🤣. I added some cherry tomatoes to it, bunged some walnuts on 10 mins before the end to toast and stirred in a few handfuls of spinach. It was delicious- a really easy healthy autumn meal.

@ClaudineChronicals also watching the cure on beeb2. Flippin fantastic!

They still have "it" don't they?

Funnily enough, I made Parkin today. I doubled Nancy Birtwhistle's recipe and baked it in big roasting pan. Tasted it warm out of the oven and it's a massive improvement on the Good Food recipe I tried last year which was dry and just a bit 'meh'.

It's also filled 3 full tins so I've got plenty to share around at work/family etc.

Bottled my sloe gin today and have made the figs and prunes. My kitchen definitely smelt like Christmas! I have been so rushed the past few years with work that it was lovely just enjoying listening to music and spending time enjoying the smells and process of making something today. Roast for returning children tomorrow - will be making a bit of stuffing of my own. I've been on a hamster wheel in the classroom and bringing up 4 children with a husband working away from home for so long, I'm just getting used to not feeling guilty for doing normal stuff. It's lovely!

Oh no disaster I've missed the start - was so enjoying the pre-amble thread . Have been concentrating on settling into new job and got all behind - marking my place and will be settling down with both book and thread to catch up this afternoon!

It isn't a race.🙂

I often let a few entries pass so I can read them at once.

Good morning! Beautiful photographs! @RainbowZebraWarrior Your "sjokoladehytter" are beautiful!
Yesterday we made the warm apple drink, but without the brandy. Alcohol is so expensive here (£13 for a pint of warm lager) and we don't really drink brandy etc, so I couldn't justify it. Maybe when pop over the border again to Sweden. Also, thought it would be good for kids to try.

It was bitter cold here yesterday, we took the kids on their skis to the local shop in the village, so the apple drink was perfect for when we got home!
I put extra apples in it when it was cooking. Didn't add them to the glasses, but used all the apples for a crumble. Added cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg to the crumble mix and made a warm caramel pouring sauce. It worked beautifully.

I drove over to Sweden about 3 weeks ago and I was thrilled to find ricotta! So it's ready in the fridge for gnudi.
The turkey mince stuffing/meat balls look wonderful. No lardon here for me (or turkey mince), but I can get Elgfarse (moose mince) which actually might work. So this will hopefully be some fun and delicious substitutes!
We had a wild windy and snowy night last night. I was able to take a (terrible, refections and everything) photograph from the corner window.
Happy cosy Sunday to all.

@RainbowZebraWarrior your cakes look amazing

Would make a lovely little Christmas village!