The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2024 Part 3

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Welcome to thread three.

The Christmas Chronicles is the story of Nigel Slater’s love for winter. Taking you from 1 November all the way to early February, The Christmas Chronicles covers everything from Bonfire Night, Christmas and New Year to Epiphany. Throughout the season, Nigel offers over 100 recipes to see you through the build-up, the celebrations and the aftermath.

Anyone who hasn't yet joined in, there's still a big chunk of the book to go as you can see from the description above. It's in diary form with an entry most days and is easy to dip in and out of.

Anyway, welcome friends new and old. Pull a cosy chair closer the the fire, light a candle, pour a glass of something warming and settle in.

@Bimblesalong just wanted to wish you every luck for the final bit of your chemo journey.
Hopefully this thread and / or an adjacent Nigel thread (good idea, @RainbowZebraWarrior!), will be a good distraction.

Have the log admirers read “Norwegian Wood”? VN.

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense 😱 I get seriously twitchy when we run low, as it's our main source of heating. I've got 3 woodburners to keep going! Luckily we also got a pallet of what we call cardboard logs- the manufactured ones. They are my backup for if we are ever ill and can't chop/carry or need to get a fire roaring quickly.

Dh initially rolled his eyes when I wanted https://www.directstoves.com/esse-bakeheart-wood-burning-cook-stove.html?infinity=ict2~net~gaw~ar~~kw~~mt~~cmp~21561226313~ag~&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4fi7BhC5ARIsAEV1YiZwFLMc9qagNbMIgE91LVuVWIs8xt7wYRJoH3sAQImCCWinm_Jjzf0aAnnpEALw_wcB this woodburner in our kitchen when we built an extension, but now he loves it. We've now got 2 armchairs in front of it and have to fight the teens to be able to use them. Plus it satisfies my prepper tendencies to have a back up cooker

Urgh. Stupid link didnt work. This one

Ooh yes that's a beauty. We just have one in the sitting room (and central heating elsewhere) but when we decided we needed to move house my one stipulation was that we were putting a wood-burner in - we had a proper big one in the last house - and it was the first thing we did when we moved here

I have not! But I do like the odd (very odd ha ha) bit of Murakami so I will add it to my (long) list

Hello all
Sorry to have been MIA again lately. January feels like it should be a time of calm reflection, but never quite seems to work out that way. It is DH's birthday tomorrow and I will be making him Benjamina Ebuehi's lemon, cardamom and pistachio cake. Obviously not actually Nigel, but I've done it before and it was pretty tasty, so fingers crossed.

At the weekend I'm off to the theatre with a friend - we are going to see something (I have forgotten what, she is organising it luckily) at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. I've never been before, but am very excited about a properly candle-lit theatre.

I enjoyed the porridge entry the other day - I always have porridge for breakfast, usually with fruit, absolutely delicious local honey (thank you @RainbowZebraWarrior 😋) and toasted cashews. If I'm feeling sorry for myself I swap the fruit for dark chocolate which melts in. I suppose Nigel would have a fit 😁

Thank you to whoever upthread mentioned The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. Despite being an avid reader and Christmasist as a child, I had never come across it. Hugely enjoying it now.

We didn't get any snow at the weekend but went up to Cragside in hope of finding some. It had just had a light dusting but looked beautiful as always. Inside the house they had decorated with a theme of nature taking over - my photos are rubbish (busy corralling dc) but it was pretty spectacular and probably my favourite Christmassy excursion this year.

Thinking of you @Bimblesalong

That looks beautiful @GettingFestiveNow and the cake sounds delicious. @Bimblesalong of course I am also thinking about you, sorry to have got excited about logs and forgotten to say.
I just rearranged my cookbooks so the three kitchen diaries can sit together - all Nigels together. Want to see?
(CC and ATF not present as currently on the coffee table. Will need to rearrange again when they go back, although ATF might live upstairs with memoirs. Toast is upstairs)

Beautiful pics @GettingFestiveNow and Happy Birthday to DH for tomorrow. We kept our bees at Cragside one Spring / Summer in recent years and let them feed exclusively on the Rhododendrons there. I can honestly say it was the best honey we've ever had. It was also a total privilege to be able to go up there a couple of times a week and just appreciate the grounds.

@GettingFestiveNow lovely pics and I love Cragside. Last time we were there we had a deer just trot across our path.

I do so love reading but I struggle as it is my hyper focus and I get angry if interrupted. So I can't start a book unless I can finish it and struggle with starting if just generally overwhelmed with life in general. I managed to get back in over Christmas via cheesy medieval murder mysteries that I can burn through in a couple of hours. Love kindle unlimited!

Your art class sounds brilliant @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense

I don't miss splitting logs @BobBobBobbing but I do miss my old real fire. I'm all mouth and no trousers in that respect 

Happy birthdays to mr @MadMadMad

And lots of love to you @Bimblesalong. 4 more to go and we are all rooting for you x

You are right about that st Eval packaging @RainbowZebraWarrior it's a departure and not in the right direction.

Mr Pisco's flight was delayed and then the windscreen wipers on the car went on the blink so he had to wait at Heathrow for the AA. He still is not home and is not happy. I'm in bed with the DSS's, the doggies and a Lemsip. I take on the daily already: liquid iron, B12, Vitamins d and c, a liquid collagen supplement, zinc and Magnesium. I don't think any of them bar the liquid collagen do a deal, (that has made my nails hard as iron and my hair grow), but I daren't stop taking them in case I feel even worse /get more bloody colds without the damn things!

@GettingFestiveNow I love The Dark is Rising. I had flu (again) one Christmas when I was about 12 and managed to read it almost in real time which was excellent!

I had a reading drought earlier in the year (I'm a huge reader and suddenly I just couldn't and it felt like I'd lost a limb). All that got me back into it were these sort of odd horror books by Michelle Paver- one set in the Norwegian archipelago which I think was called Dark Matter- and one half way up Everest. Relatively short but quite creepy-and just the ticket for this cold weather (in case they might be up anyone's street)

Lovely photos and thanks for the kind wishes. Really not necessary but appreciated.
Enjoying the book recommendations. I could do with something cosy that I don’t have to concentrate too hard on. I think I’ll dig out The Shell Seekers again.

@Bimblesalong how about Winter Solstice? Same author as The Shell Seekers but presumably more seasonal?!

I have a very shocking confession to make. I have barely read any of the Christmas Chronicles this time round but have been avidly reading and thoroughly enjoying the thread. And that's just one reason that I'd love a seasonal Nigel adjacent thread with you lovely lot!

Evening all…. What a day… this feels like a friendly thread so I will share…

m We have had DH redundancy looming over us for weeks. Was supposed to be 19/12, moved to 21/12 - then moved to 23/12 then 06/01 then 09/01 - we have been living on our wits and it had frankly been awful. Yesterday was the worst day and I think I just stopped coping. This morning felt better (had a decent albeit pharmaceutical induced sleep). Anyway, he has been offered a new job today. The relief is indescribable.

I am so thankful for this thread. It has been my true sanctuary.

Had to ring an ambulance tonight for a client in my class which was dramatic to say the least. All well now though.

@RainbowZebraWarrior - I got it, you’re lovely, I replied to it!

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense agh nothing worse then not good firewood is there?! We used to live in a house that backed into land with weed by the water board and it came with free firewood. The whole house was heated by solid fuel stoves and open fires so we saved £££. Felt weird going to sleep with a banked open fire in the bedroom though!
@Bimblesalong - you poor love. What’re the drugs called? There are some nasty ones. I’m rooting for you and sending love xxx

0h @AgathaMystery what a stressful time for you all. I'm so glad your DH has been offered a new job.

I love a good woodpile. We have a big inglenook fireplace in our sitting room and one side of it is stacked to the top with logs. I have never actually lived in a house with central heating. Not on purpose, it's just worked out that way. We've lived in our current house for over 30 years and we're so used to lighting fires and putting extra layers on that I don't think we'll ever get around to having It put in! We do have a beautiful, stone, electric radiator in the bathroom though, I wouldn't be without that! I also would never give up my electric blanket!

9 January

A fry-up for a rainy day

I am envious of the North, of Scotland and Scandanavia, with it's Arctic air and drifts of snow. The winter of 2016 brought Scotland twice as many days of frost as it did to England, the west of Scotland even more. Further south, the months of December, January and February often seemed to consist of little more than rain. In truth, England had forty-eight days of rain in the winter of 2016, compared to sixty-six in Scotland. Almost fifty days of rain out of ninety-three. To put it another way, it rained virtually every other day.

That's really great news @AgathaMystery - a ray of sunshine on a dark day. At the moment I'm fully identifying with this sentiment: Further south, the months of December, January and February often seemed to consist of little more than rain. If only Nigel could write as upliftingly about the rain as he does about the cold. January is my least favourite month.

Excellent news @AgathaMystery, so so pleased for you!

Nigel is so right about the southern rain. Everywhere else has lovely snow. We have....mud. In fact I always call February Mud month, and March is never much better. When you have dogs of any kind, but especially little plucky ones like the Jack Russell's, it's a constant battle-they go out clean and come back looking like they are wearing black trousers.

Fantastic news @AgathaMystery I hope you can take a breath and relax a little bit now. So awful to have that stress hanging over your Christmas time.

I'll send Nigel some of my frost. It hasn't gone above freezing here since Sunday. I've used a lot of grit this winter already. It's minus four right now and its taking ages to defrost the car. My lovely hellebores which were in bud last week are shrivelled and dead.

Gosh it’s cold here today. It’s NVN but I spent the best £15 in 2024 on a really good car windscreen cover. It’s so good and saved me 10-15 mins each frosty morning. I will feel a bit smug in a bit when I peel it off!

No snowy pics here so here are some of my mums - the snowy one from the 5th & the frosty from the 2nd. The area I live in has a weird micro climate so I’ve snuggled up my palm trees for winter - so my garden isn’t picturesque!

That’s fantastic about DH and the new job @AgathaMystery what a relief.

@Bimblesalong I re-read the Shell Seekers recently and really enjoyed it, although it is a bit dated now. Very relaxing easy read though. So it must be Nigel-adjacent.

@noodlezoodle I am on Dec 21st of CC at the moment, I am so far behind. That’s with having hard copy and audible to choose from. But I have been reading it every year since it was first issued and certainly know the pre-Christmas parts pretty well by heart now. It’s afterwards I tend to drift away so I don’t know the later chapters so well, I really ought to get back to it.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I’ve only been posting maybe once a week or so, but I do love these threads and an ongoing Nigel-Adjacent thread would be nice, thank you.

We have a woodburner too, but hardly use it now, we had the radiators replace and relocated two years ago and the house is pretty warm without it now, however we do have a well stocked log store. It was a collective effort this year, DS worked at a heritage garden in the summer, they split and season their logs and sell them for a suggested donation, so he wheelbarrowed them to my car in the car park, I stacked them in the car, then I wheelbarrowed them round the back when we got home and DH split and stacked them. So a bit more effort than getting them from the log man but about half the price and they are burning really well.

We had a small amount of snow yesterday which settled and then froze, it is sunny today so looking very pretty but probably treacherous (haven’t been out yet apart from to get the milk and take a quick photo in the garden)

No snow here but very icy and about -1, I’ve just sent DH out to collect our prescriptions as the pavement is quite slippy and he is less likely to fall than me.
I’ve just looked at today’s entry in The Kitchen Diaries and the gingerbread cake has inspired me to add stem ginger to my shopping list so I can try it at the weekend.
@AgathaMystery good news about the job, DD1 has an interview this afternoon after being made redundant at the beginning of December but as she currently lives at home with minimal outgoings for her car and phone she doesn’t have the financial worries that most people would have.

@MadMadMad good luck to DD!!