The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2024 Part 2

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Welcome all new and old friends.

The journey continues.

@piscofrisco I love the tree by your fireplace - VN. We bought our tree this morning from our local florist - they didn't have a netting machine (for reasons I didn't quite understand) so she lent us a trolley to wheel it back and then a neighbour helped us up the stairs. It is currently resplendent in a string of white lights (VN) before DD and I decorate it this evening. I do think decorating the tree is the ultimate Christmas moment. Hope everyone is safe from the storm - a bit breezy here, but otherwise rather a lovely day for the reopening of Notre Dame.

Hope everyone is safe and well tonight.

I went out early with DD and my Dad on a work errand on the other side of the river. That is, we used the tunnel to go under the Tyne. There was no way we were going over the Tyne on any of the bridges in this weather. Took me two hours to warm up when I got back. I've got rainwater coming under the front door due to the direction of the wind, but apart from that, we seem to be OK.

@piscofrisco I love the decor and the Twigs are amazing.

Me and DD had a VN day at the National Glass Centre making our very own flame worked glass Christmas decorations. We made glass stars and icicles. Such fun, and although the end results are by no means perfect, they shall take pride of place on The Twig and the tree once we get them back (they need annealing overnight). In previous years we've done the blow your own Christmas bauble sessions which were also fun. This course was much harder work! It's such a shame the centre is closing next year as it has become one of our Christmas traditions.

The bus home was delayed by 25 minutes so I've now go a hot chocolate with a very large slug of chocolate praline rum in to help me defrost.

I meant to mention that @piscofrisco has done a grand job with the decor and the Twig looks amazing! Also, pisco did you make Party Mouse? If so, I'm very impressed. I keep chatting to him on the way past his little perch on the shelf where I've put him.

I'm just properly reading through and hoping that @MadMadMad made it to Vienna ok. If so, please do post some photo's if and when you can.

@Confusedmeanderings also hope you made it OK to Alnwick assuming you didn't delay (either way, hope all OK and you are safe and sound)

@lucysmam how did the stollen and oranges turn out? I have a tried and tested recipe for biscotti somewhere if you're still after one.

The St Eval tealight advent sounds like it's been a real winner. @LillianGish I see you mentioned Biscuit as being a favourite. Was this a Diptyque advent you had? If so, Biscuit is also a favourite of mine.

Hope you're doing OK @EphemeraleEudemonia and also @NowLightOneThousandChristmasLights as you've both mentioned you've been struggling of late. Sending hugs to you both and hoping all is well.

@MamaWeasel hope the chicken tikka masala went down well. It sounds just the ticket on a crazy, wild December night. Sorry to hear about the greenhouse.

@ChessieFL I love your Christmas tree tealight burner. I also have a couple of treasured souvenirs from a trip to Poland.

@MovingCrib hope you're doing OK and DS isn't too poorly.

@BobBobBobbing making glass stars and icicles sounds seriously impressive (and VVN) please do share pics if you can. Such fun, indeed!

@HannahDefoesChristmasHamper hope you're doing ok too. I noticed youv'e not posted much lately and hope you don't have too much on your plate.

@AgathaMysteryDD and I watched That Christmas the night before last and loved it. It's the only Christmas film we've watched so far and it was a great choice. Much love to your lovely friend 🧡

Also hope DS' roof is OK @Bimblesalong and all is as well as can be with you this evening x

All looks fine with ds’s place thanks, @RainbowZebraWarrior He has been sending me sunny pictures from Rome too.

We’ve lost a few trees in the village, including this beautiful ancient “Roman Holly” which has taken part of my friend’s sandstone wall with it. It’s going to take some shifting. It feels like a fallen Ent tbh and I hope that some of the wood can be used for carving beautiful things. it’ll take a while to get it cleared and there are a few major roads blocked with other trees so it won’t be a priority.

@RainbowZebraWarrior yes please to the biscotti recipe!

Stollen is very tasty! We did end up freezing half though - it did turn out as huge as I thought 🙈 The oranges are still dehydrating in the air fryer...may have been better in the oven in hindsight.

They're not far off though, I don't think.

I have a Durance Advent calendar @RainbowZebraWarrior. I feared Biscuit would have too much vanilla in it, but in fact it had just a hint and I loved it. Watching the reopening of Notre Dame on TV with DD - illuminated by the white lights of the tree and a few candles. DD has just requested we postpone decorating the tree until tomorrow night because it looks so beautiful with just the white lights - VN indeed.

That was an impressive round up @RainbowZebraWarrior !! Glad you both enjoyed That Christmas - it’s just lovely isn’t it.

Hello everyone. I've been wildly behind with both book and thread but took the opportunity to catch up with my reading today by candlelight as we had no power.

We were in the red warning area overnight and this morning and it has been very wild indeed. Not the highest wind speeds I've known here (that was 94mph a few years ago and utterly terrifying), but very sustained howling wind. Trees down everywhere and we lost power for a chunk of the day but seem to be back to what passes for normal now. We're on the coast of Ceredigion, and yellow and even orange weather warnings have become so common over winter that it's easy to be a bit blasé but Darragh was not to be messed with.

Hopping back a few days - I have made the spiced chocolate cake, a few years ago. My main recollection was that it was nice but didn't quite live up to my hopes. I remember thinking my sister would enjoy it though, and may make it for her birthday on the 17th.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I did make Party Mouse...I got quite into felting when I was managing a residential MH unit during the second lock down. I ended up moving in to it for about a two weeks at one point as we couldn't staff it to the minimum required levels for a while and that was all there was for it. In my downtime when everyone was asleep it gave me something to do to keep me awake. He was one of my better attempts so I'm happy he has gone to a good home and is being chatted to :).

Hope everyone is staying safe and cosy and warm in the storm. Even for us it's been quite windy so I can only imagine it being pretty scary in areas badly hit. My ex sister in law is on the Welsh border near Knighton and she messaged me earlier to say she was ok but a bit scared, and there was debris flying all over the place. She was planning to bed down in the lounge with her Dog as she said she felt a bit more exposed upstairs.

We have had my lovely Nephew here with my mum and dad. He is getting married in May and is so excited and optimistic about everything . Lord I wish I was 26 again!

@JustAMiddleAgedDirtBagBaby myself and DD are making the choc spiced cake tomorrow - we have high hopes for it so I hope it delivers!!!

Sad about that grand old tree @Bimblesalong. I wonder what stories it would tell if it could.

Hello everyone. I hope you're all ok. We made it to Alnwick - just! We planned to set off at 8.30, but delayed until 10.00 hoping the wind would blow itself out. Then part way up the M5 the dashboard of the car lit up with a warning about an emissions fault. We limped into the nearest service station and the flaming. RAC wouldn't come out because it was an amber warning not a red one. They just said find a garage. Easier said than done! To cut a long story short, a random AA van pulled into the car park, DH went to ask them for advice about where to take the car and they very kindly looked at it for us and had It sorted in 5 minutes! We arrived in Alnwick 4 hours late and we're now tucked up in the warm!

Good gracious me @Confusedmeanderings glad you’re safe and warm.

@LillianGish Notre Dame looks amazing. Can’t wait to see it. I visited Sainte Chappelle just as it reopened and all the vitrines had been restored and cleaned. It was like being in a jewel box.

@piscofrisco it may be a bit “woo” but I had a definite sense of sadness and sigh from that poor tree. It has green bursting out of it all over (its downfall I know) and definitely was not ready to fall. I’ll have a walk in the daylight to see it. we heard at least one other tree fall from the little wood opposite us which contains a stand of poplars. The sounds the trees were making were very unusual.

8 December

Spice, crumbs and cream

There has been a golden tin by the coffee machine for some time now. Each year I fill it with Lebkuchen that I bring back from late Autumn trips to Cologne, Oslo, Gothenburg or Vienna. The best I have ever had hail from Nurenberg. You can buy them in Britain of course, but I like to hunt these out nearer their spiritual home.

Hi all,
we are not in Vienna we are back home - our initial flight was cancelled and then a replacement flight this morning and all they could offer was a flight very late this evening which they couldn’t guarantee would go! However, the airline website cancel button just gives an error message and the phone lines are too busy to take the call so I don’t know how we make sure they know we are cancelling and want a refund. We then need to do battle with the insurance for all the other costs. DD was also most put out at us having to cancel as she was looking forward to the house to herself for a few days.

@MadMadMad sorry to hear this. I hope you get your insurance sorted and can arrange something nice to look forward to. I guess planes are all over the place. I’m wondering if DS1 will get back from Rome later.

@RainbowZebraWarrior now, a tin for biscuits next to the coffee machine. Why on earth haven’t I done that? Amaretti for me!

Oh no @MadMadMad that's such a shame and how frustrating for you. Hope you manage to get it all sorted.

@Bimblesalong that poor beautiful tree. It makes my heart so sad to see it. Riciarelli I think for me in the beside-the-coffee-machine biscuit tin. In fact I may make some today (they are gluten free, too!) I need to dig out a nice tin.

@lucysmam I am going to dig out that biscotti recipe this morning for you.

Thank you @RainbowZebraWarrior , dd2 will be pleased!

I'm just settling down with CC for today's entry. I've got my old wax melt burner out & have a surprisingly nice melt in it from a cheap Home Bargains set my friend gave me!

Poor old tree @Bimblesalong . We have a huge sycamore at the end of our garden & I often wonder what it would tell us, if it could. It also scares me a bit when the wind's strong, to think that it could potentially fall one way or the other straight into someone's bedroom!

@MadMadMad I hope you manage to get through to someone & get it all sorted. Your poor dd, not having the house to herself made me chuckle. I can just imagine the huffing from my two 🤣

@lucysmam I cannot find my written recipe anywhere, but I remembered it was a Nigella one. Couldn't find it in her website either, but found a version here. Looking at the ingredients, this definitely rings a bell and it's pretty faff-free as biscotti go.

She also does a pistachio and cranberry one that I've made before, but that's not currently on her website either. Can be found in the Nigelissima book apparently.

Anyway, here's the chocolate and almond one:

thedeblicious.wordpress.com/tag/nigella-lawson-biscotti/

Thanks very much 😊

@MadMadMad so sorry to hear about your Vienna cancellation. DH had a similar experience with a trip to Budapest a couple of weeks ago when snow disrupted flights from Paris. He still hasn’t stopped talking about the frustration of being cancelled/rescheduled/cancelled again, hanging round the airport all day and the eventual realisation that it was too late to bother (and my own disappointment that I wouldn’t be having a nice, quiet couple of days reading Nigel in peace 🤣) I feel both yours and your DD’s pain.

Oh, @MadMadMad - how frustrating for you. I do hope the insurers don’t prove difficult.

I seem to have accidentally chimed with Nigel in that we currently have a packet of lebkuchen residing right next to our coffee machine. However, they’re from Lidl, not their spiritual home in Nuremberg, so alas I hit the NVN square yet again and slip down the ladder to hopeless tackiness 😉