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!

My ds loves the green shop, which is great when it comes to wrapping for presents!

It is grey and grotty here in Cheshire but my day was lit up by my brother video calling me from the harbour beach in St Ives. A favourite place for family holidays. Equally grey there but so good to see and I could almost smell the sea air. His wife is working in Cornwall for a couple of days and he had delivered her to her day’s workplace then went on a wander. She has a very interesting national level job, which I’m very proud of but it would be too identifying to say what!

let’s hope the promised sun comes out tomorrow.

I forgot about this until today but was so glad when I searched to find you had all started. My weekend will be spent catching up I promise.

Have now ordered a kilner JAR as the apricots don't fit through the bottle necks!

But they make nice posh Ribena bottles for the dinner table.

I did wonder about that. Mine just managed to fit through the wide necks of the kilner milk bottles.

How is everyone this evening? I just got the two fillings I needed today after over a month of waiting. Very strange experience. I had to have double the local anaesthesia as I don't respond very well to it. Feeling a bit bleurgh now. It also feels rather chilly tonight.

Sorry about your tooth but glad you got the fillings after quite a wait
I’ve just come home and do not want to drive any more today thank you. One of those days spent sitting in traffic then this evening I did the same route there and back three times - it’s only 20 minutes away but that adds up to two very tedious hours. Once this afternoon as I had a physio appointment at 430 (sprained ankle) then home for literally 7 minutes then same route to take daughter to football training then home, to the local pub for an hour (Friday night, soda water) then back to collect her. I’m done now.

@bigbadbarry I get that. I've driven a lot back and forwards today and didn't get home until almost 8pm after DDs specialist PT session. The other thing that adds to it is driving in the dark after not really being used to it for months. I'm also trying to type this message with a cat on my chest as apparently he's missed me terribly and I am a Very Bad Mama for staying out late!

I am tucked up in bed with a hot apple brandy and apricot brandy happily cooling in a kilner jar I found at the back of the cupboard and sterilized. There's much more apple than brandy in this drink but I am still feeling very Nigel while perusing the options for bus tours of the London Christmas lights!

What a beautiful cat @RainbowZebraWarrior! I am exactly the same with dental anasthesia - apparently I metabolise it really fast so I always have to have loads. You're not by any chance a redhead are you? It's a known issue for many redheads.

Not a redhead, no, but I have Ehlers-Danlos and it's a known issue with the condition that we don't respond to certain meds including anaesthetic. I have to carry a medical card about other symptoms / complications. Interesting that it likely different variations of genes that causes this particular issue, though.

Bears, you probably do want to* *go on an actual tour but in case you or anyone who doesn’t usually get buses would be interested in the info, the ordinary bus routes can be good too.

EG the no. 9 bus route goes from the Aldwych all the way past Charing Cross Station, Trafalgar Sq (where the Christmas tree will be), up lower Regent St, turns up Piccadilly Circus, down along Green Park and Hyde Park Corner and along Knightsbridge past Harrods etc. There'll be lots of twinkliness along that route.

The 390 bus goes from Euston all the way up Oxford St to Hyde Park Corner so good for seeing all those lights too. Obviously not open-topped but definitely cheaper!

It will be very busy and therefore slow progress but imho it can be a lot of fun sitting on the top deck of a London bus near Christmas.

Ab @RainbowZebraWarrior glad you got your fillings. Tuck yourself up warm and sleep well

Cake is made! I shall be making another one for my mum when I go to visit next week so this one was more of a practice run (it never seems to need as long in the oven as it says in the recipe!) I found the Mozart accompaniment so soothing I left it playing in the background for the rest of the day while the lovely smell of cake permeated every corner of the apartment - a little moment of joy.

Me too! Candles and tealights. I used one of the tealights earlier in this burner, which belonged to my (slightly hippy) mum.

Btw, thanks to @Seasidebubbles . I wouldn't have thought of looking in TK Maxx/Homesense if I hadn't seen your pist.

Snap! I metabolise lidocaine very quickly… so I have a diff anaesthesia for dental work now. I also needed a c section under GA as mine is a true anaesthetic resistance so a spinal or epidural was also off the cards. Such fun!

I’m feeding the Christmas cake tomorrow. Got big needles and big syringes from work for the task. Absolute monsters. NVN.

Today's entry is one of my favourites 😊 I use lists for everything & have a specific notebook for Christmas. Nigel's right (imo) that now is the time to start writing the lists, and mine are well underway. Gift lists for the girls are short and sweet this year mind you - two items for dd1 have cost just shy of £250 and used her entire budget!

I did try a Christmas planner once but it didn't really fit how I plan/write lists so I gave up, used it as a scrappy notebook for other things, and went back to my A4 notebook instead.

If I recall rightly, some of you had some really nice notebooks for your lists that you discussed last year? Mine are a hodge-podge of unused exercise books acquired at the end of the year, or brought home by the girls, notebooks I've bought, and ones I've been gifted. I still have the absolutely beautiful one gifted to me one year in the MN secret Santa - it's too pretty to write in, I just admire it every now and again 🤣 .

Good morning, @LillianGish that cake looks so good, I feel I can almost smell it.
It is so very cold here today. We've had a constant fog for nearly a week now, it's about -6 but because of the freezing fog it feels much colder. The frost on the trees is incredible though, I'll try to take some photographs later.
I had my appointment yesterday at the breast clinic, so I had saved up reading here to get through the wait. It was a relief to hear that there is only cysts and "nothing scary". They explained that I have very dense tissue and couldn't see everything clearly. I have to go back for another mammogram and ultrasound in 6 months as due to the density of the tissue and how early I was checked, they couldn't guarantee that there was nothing there and there is a possibility that it was too early to find. They were extremely supportive, I'm armed with lots of information, encouraged to go straight back if anything changes and actually feel good.
The journey there was filled with foxes, reindeer and three of the biggest moose I have ever seen standing together at the side of the road.
Today we will make gnudi ready for tomorrow. I'm going to try and get the family to have a go with me.
I love Søstrene Grene! We have lots of The Green Sister's here! My recipe box is from there. I don't have one close anymore, but had a visit yesterday in the city. I was thrilled to see that a Lagerhaus had opened too! I used to love that shop when we lived in Stockholm, so was so happy to go in yesterday. I bought two baubles for my kids from Tomte Elf and an advent candle holder thing for the table.
Oh! I see so many posts from people in Cheshire! I grew up in Crewe, so know Haslington, Sandbach, Nantwich etc well. My mum is still there.
Happy Saturday everyone!

9 November

The Christmas list and a Fig tart

"The row of notebooks, black, brown, indigo, fat with bookmarks and held together with tape, gets ever longer. The handwritten books where I scribble not just notes and recipes, but my endless, obsessive lists. This morning, while it's still dark, I sit at the kitchen table, get out the current little black book and start this year's Christmas list"

@IngenTing that is such good news, you must be so relieved. Looking forward to some frosty photos!

Good to hear from you and that all sounds quite reassuring @IngenTing

I keep flipping back to last years thread and copy and pasting the 'Taster entries' and its interesting to skim past some of last years posts and see where we were at / what we were doing.

But lists. Yes, love them. Very important are lists in my life. It's a bit like many things; the planning and thinking about things are often the best part. A warm frisson of excitement when I look at the list of what I've bought DD and how I know she's going to love some of those things. Lovely.

@IngenTing that's reassuring! And good that they'll follow up to be sure. You must feel a million times lighter. Out of interest - how big is a moose in real life?

Great news @IngenTing, so pleased for you. And as ever jealous of your cold weather. We lived in Canada for two years when my DD's were small. We never got over the wonder of the deep snow, -30 lake effect wind chill and icicles as long as the girls were tall. All my Canuck friends loathed it, (outside of purposeful snow sport activity) and thought we were mad to be out in it every chance we got. I use to walk the girls to junior kindergarten every day pulling them in their wheeled wagon thingy over the ice and we got some very odd looks!

Our lovely doggy came home yesterday afternoon, very sorry for himself with a huge cone that he must wear for ten days (I am going to try and get him a softer one today) , a big bandage on his leg, and half his fur shaved off from his op. He is already putting a bit of weight on the leg. So now a long 8 weeks where he can only walk on it for 5 mins, three times a day and must not be allowed to jump or jar it. I think we will be watching a lot of box sets on the sofa with him as he loathes being in his crate. It will be a quiet and testing few months potentially, but we are so happy to have him home.

@lucysmam I can confirm that a moose is very large indeeed-or the Canadian variety were. The size of a very large horse, but more solid seeming. Plus added antlers. (Horns?? Not sure what they are called on a Moose).

Good news @IngenTing , and glad the pup is home @piscofrisco . Box sets on the sofa sound good as the weather gets more misty and cold.

@ElectiveAffinities I was thinking about a "normal" bus - I used to live in London and spent a lot of time on buses but I suspect the numbers have all changed! No. 9 sounds like a good bet.

Today DS and I are off to the fireworks. DD has opted out. I really need to find things she wants to do - left to her own devices she just stays in her room or hangs out with friends. Makes me a bit sad as we used to do everything together but I have to get used to it I suppose.

Hello again everyone, just had the opportunity to catch up with both the book and the thread. I'm having a lovely Saturday morning in my Nigel Nook with my winter thyme candle and a blanket.

In candle news, I am enjoying the St Eval but it's tunneling despite my being very careful on the first burn. Lovely scent though which even DH who is not a fan of scented things has commented on. Now the evenings are darker we have beeswax candles burning on the dinner table top which really is one of my favourite things.

Very strange weather this week. I took DD to our towns (spectacular) firework display, wearing winter coat and boots because that just Feels Right for such an event. There were people in shorts and t-shirts! Then yesterday was very mild until mid afternoon when it suddenly felt like the temperature had dropped a lot - interestingly the temperature display in my car was the same before and after the change so I wonder if it was a humidity thing rather than the actual temperature - it almost felt like it could snow.

A lovely haul of festive goodness at a local second hand shop yesterday. A set of six russian dolls, quite unlike any I've seen before, and a pretty little Christmas dish. The dolls will be a present, but the dish is staying with us.