Meant to say, @drspouse that your restaurant experience sounds wonderful. It is only right and proper that venison should be cooked in a pound of good butter! My Dad eats a lot of venison, and I have to keep coming up with new rubs and marinades for him. His current favourite is jerk venison ribs. He eventually arrived home last night after his snowy expedition with twelve partridges. My Mum is going to be very busy making game pies (even though she hates the fact that he shoots). Apologies too, to the resident vegetarians and vegans. It's a strange balance being animal lovers and also largely self sufficient meat eaters.
@LillianGish those vintage cards are wonderfully whimsical!
@ExpertlyDecorated ouch to dropping the lego box and having to rebuild. I totally get what you mean about it being a differnt skill. Get ahead gravy I'm sure has been discussed before. As has been recently mentioned on the Poncestastic thread, I think it's the star anise that divides people.
@Bearsinmotion hope the interview went well. Also, it sounds like you had a lovely London trip. Pleased your DS enjoyed it too. City trips can be very overwhelming when you're used to village life.
@ChessieFL Happy birthday to your DD!
@Mediocrates hope your puddings turn out well. I thought about making one today, but there really isn't any point as there's nobody but me who eats it. I love the process, though. I've just had a recipe emailed from New York Times cookery though for Christmas pudding ice cream, and I am definitely going to make it for myself with my small waitose pud. I also used to make Christmas pudding shortbread which is absolutely divine, so there are plenty of recipes out there if you have leftovers.
@NowLightOneThousandChristmasLights hope the Nisser are behaving themselves. It really was a joy to see them yesterday. We have two rubbish pounshop type elves (called North and South) which apparently I still have to get out this year. To be honest, one was gifted to us a few Christmas's ago when we found ourselves in a hotel after our house flooded. We came back to our room one day and there was a tree up and an elf sitting on top. The hotel staff were amazing, so there is quite a special memory attached.