The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2025

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello all, it's that time of year again!

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 Christmas Chronicles (Notes, stories and 100 essential recipes for midwinter) book begins on 1st November, however there are 25 pages of Introduction. That's why I start the thread one now; to allow time to prepare and fully appreciate Nigel in All His Splendour come 1st November.

Some regulars to the thread already have the book. For anyone new, it's a challenge to see of you can pick up a bargain. Vinted has come up trumps in the past, as has ebay. A rare and precious charity shop find is always a bonus. Don't forget, you can also listen along to Nigel's dulcet tones via Audible.

I shall post daily and we can share our thoughts and feelings on the days recipes, sentiments and indeed Dear Nigel himself. Observations of nature and the seasons are also very welcome.

So welcome to old friends and new, and don't forget that reading by candle light is particularly enjoyable. Cire Trudon may be one of Nige's candles of choice, but it's somewhat pricey. We don't discriminate against other less expensive brands - even if they are NVN (Not Very Nigel)

Pull up a chair, light a candle, grab a cosy blanket and join in!

@Paetina York was indeed unkind to us with the weather! Although I've just got home, further south, and the rain is much worse here.

The bad weather meant it wasn't too ridiculously busy though. Christmas market was nice enough, some of the usual tat, some nicer local crafts etc. Had a lovely catch up with friend I was meeting, and came home with a haul of candles, incense and wax melts, and some matches in a fancy box (haul pictured, some of these will be little parts of people's Christmas presents but definitely some for me too 😁).

Had a NVN at all M&S Christmas toastie - cannot recommend it.

Pine & cedar incense and listening to the rain here this evening I think...

What a glorious Friday night with a candle and glass of red wine, catching up with the thread… love your colourful gloves collection @RainbowZebraWarrior !! And the soap chat!! All in all I am liquid soap type of person, but I have one solid soap that I brought from Riga Christmas markets last December. Grapefruit scent with an actual amber in it. I don’t know how I am supposed to use it for washing, but so far it is just sitting on a shelf looking pretty 😊

Riga Christmas market isn’t something people talk a lot, but it was lovely. Small but cosy, lots of unique pieces made by local craftspeople on sale. The food and drink as well, all local and traditional. Writing about the soap reminded me about the Christmas drink I had, it was served in the ice cube, the liquid inside was warm, strong and sweet. Made me “pissed as a newt” quoting Nigel himself. For dinner we had special type of grey peas with ham and onions, local sausage and sauerkraut, and some more that I don’t even remember anymore.

@martha79 - weather in York has got even worse this evening. I have the day off work on Monday so will venture out to the market. Hopefully shouldn't be too ridiculously busy yet.

The wind is just starting to pick up here, I'm happily snuggled up in bed listening to the rain against the windows.
This morning I was grumbling about how mild it was, it looks like next week I'll be complaining about the cold 😅

Windy and rainy in the north west.

I’ve just had a very long day - I don’t yet own the book, but just reading this thread by our fireside is making me very content!

November

Frost fairs and braised brisket

I ache for snow. The last generous fall in this garden was January 2013, when the Yew hedges tilted drunkenly with it's weight. I ache for silence, for the sound of my own muffled footsteps as I walk up thr garden path. But most of all I ache for icicles. When I was seven or eight, icicles hung from the greenhouse like trickles of icing on a gingerbread house. They shone in the late afternoon sun. I snapped off the longest as a rapier for a mock fight with an imaginary friend, and galloped across the snow-covered lawn in a one-man jousting match. Before I went in for tea, they other icicles met their fate, as a unicorns horn, a fencers épée and lastly a shimmering javelin.

I've just realised that 16yo DD hasn't experienced proper snow, the last time we had any here that settled was 15 years ago, so she doesn't know what The Silence feels like 😲

Ah. The Silence. A truly wondrous and magical thing. We have snow forecast here for DDs birthday next Friday. It will likely be sleet though, unless the temps drop a bit lower.

I've just been catching up with Nigel's insta posts and I see he's hinted that a new book is coming (he's waxing lyrical about tea and says "Whenever the next book appears (no date yet)..."

I also note that it still mentions a three part documentary for 2025 on his website.

Come on Nige. We need new content! 😊

I do hope he listened when I 'asked' for a Christmas Chronicles follow up earlier this year.

I’m in full agreement with Nigel on the snow. Last year we went to Finland as we all wanted to see proper snow so badly. My girls were spoiled for it as we lived in Canada for a time when they were tiny, but the DSS’s hadn’t really ever seen deep drifts and big icicles. It was magical. I fear we are in for a dampish, warmish, muddy winter this year, though I see next week looks bright and cold which will be right up my street.
I am up early as I slept very badly. I’ve a nail appointment and then I will treat Myself to a cardamon bun from the Swedish bakery in town and a mooch around the market before an afternoon of dullsville life admin bits and ferrying children around. I also plan on making some salt dough for a big starry wreath I’m planning-but we will see how it goes. These things often look better in my mind than in practice!
At least it has stopped raining at last, though it was still lashing down at 3am when I got up with the Daschund.
A Happy Saturday to all :)

@RainbowZebraWarrior oooh new Nigel content, how lovely to think of new things!

@piscofrisco how’re you doing? Thankyou for the comment about a cardamom bun, I too will
go in search of one today.

We do not have that delicious snowfall silence here, as our lovely builders arrived at 7.15 to do various odds and ends. I am itching to do some baking in the new oven - last night I made our first meal, a traybake of winter roots and blue cheese from Rukmini Iyer’s vegetarian roasting tin book. I find it such a handy one to have, as I can chop a load of stuff up and bung it in. I love veg which has been roasted so that the natural sugars caramelise.

Today will mostly be about getting more stuff back into the kitchen now the main cabinetry is done, although I also have the ingredients to make dh a gluten free lemon drizzle. I spent a very pleasant interlude last night categorising and alphabetising my spices and herbs into the new cupboard door spice racks! VN

DS is away at mum’s. She lives in a town with a ford which floods in heavy weather. It did not disappoint last night and ds was reporting on the daft drivers getting stuck in it.

@Bimblesalong Love that book - it's very much my way of cooking.

One of my Scottish relatives reported the first dusting of snow on the hills near them yesterday. Bring it on, far rather that than this rain.

A musical day for me today - rehearsing (all Christmas music) this morning, then going to a very reflective Remembrance-themed concert this evening.

Nigel's icicle musings reminded me of the ivy-intertwined ones I saw at the start of this year...

That looks lovely @Bimblesalong.

I remember snapping icicles as long as a foot as a child. We had a lot of snow in the winter (Yorkshire Dales), much more than we do now, I remember a couple of winters when it was so deep that we disappeared into a snow drift, nowhere to be seen 😂 when we fell off the dry stone wall we were walking on. It is forecast to get very cold isn't it.

@Paetina I need to make a hair appointment (hairdresser in York), I'd forgotten about the market crowds.

We always go away somewhere with snow in December/January for what feels like a bit of a reset 🌨.

I've got a couple of work things to work through this weekend, but I don't mind as I love being at home at the weekend in the winter, warm, candle burning, lots of time to cook and slow cook things in the oven, perfect.

I added plums to my Waitrose order after my gorgeous dessert yesterday and am planning on making this type of thing. Waitrose have a new line of Madagascan vanilla clotted cream - this has also found its way into my basket to serve with the plums.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Good morning- I'm still in bed, with a big mug of tea and the dog as a foot warmer. It's finally stopped raining. I shall get my very very wet washing in and start again.

This morning we're taking a load of bags to the charity shops and I'm going to try and resist bringing more stuff back.

Gosh @martha79 those Ivy intwined icicles are gorgeous. Gothic Nigel!
That’s a lovely recipe @AGreenWitch I love stone fruit and will look that one up.

More icicle content from me here in a trip up an extinct underground volcano tunnel in Iceland a couple of years ago. Some of them look like moomins! Then I’m putting my phone away and getting on with stuff!

Ah ha, I have finally found something good about long covid, because I have to take regular 5 min breaks it means I can pop onto MN all day and still get things done 😂

Well so far this morning I have sorted out the cistern, had an 8:00am haircut, and have just worked out the salary plus on costs for an extra body for a .5 post with the safeguarding team at the school where I am a governor, Nigel is scheduled for early evening after quilt group… I need to label up the pieces from a mystery quilt to be pieced tomorrow but we are tackling modern quilt design, as it involves colouring in and special paper, it should be fun!

I also think it might be a day for sausage roll making…

@LatteLady I was also thinking about sausage rolls this morning! Great minds, and all that

I'm having a lovely lie in with a mug of tea and a spooky book, will have to get up soon though as it has stopped raining and we have a full day ahead of us building pallet furniture for the pub I work in (don't ask!, I don't know how I get pulled into these schemes)

Before I leave I'm making a chick pea and paneer curry so its ready when we get home. Have a lovely day everyone.

Some amazing pics!

@AGreenWitch I've just updated my waitrose order to add rainbow carrots on (I'm now fancying a cheesy baked veg dish a la bimbles) and I also saw the new vanilla clotted cream so one has also fallen in my basket. I also note there is a Sicillian lemon one (not sure about that) and the ubiquitous salted caramel which I wish would just bog off!

I've had a deeply disappointing breakfast. Thought I'd try a new muesli so bought Duchy organic fruit and almond muesli. More like dust, I'd say. I always add extra nuts and seeds, and even doused it in some of our lovely honey, but nowt could make this taste good.

DD had just asked me to make banana bread later and I may also get in on the sausage roll action.

Just to mention that I'm aware we only have around 50 posts left on this thread, so I will be preparing thread 2 this evening. I'll obviously post the link here.

Have a good day all.

I am having a lazy morning catching up with Nigel and my library book. DH and I went to the cinema yesterday in our County town (a beautiful tiny old building) and watched The Choral, which was excellent. I bought crusty bread, cheese and pâté for a late lunch yesterday and we finished it off for supper in front of the fire. VN!

Hello all! I've been a bit absorbed with the ongoing roofing work, which as I mentioned presses ALL my anxiety buttons, and hiding in my work shed (which is nowhere near as gorgeous as Bimble's - no crochet throws, no candles (though I might stick one under an upside-down flowerpot when it gets properly cold) and no electricity! I've been busy making stock for the local Christmas markets I'm doing. Only two, I'm a terrible marketer and should have organised more! The shed is at least a distance from the house so I don't have to listen to broken tiles rattling down the roof to the ground.

I did a ham in a marmalade glaze that was ... mmm, quite nice? And Nigel did have a ham thing a few days ago. Not as good as Nigella's Ham in Coke! but good to stop the gap. It did mean I opened what I think is my last jar of my own marmalade from this year. I made three batches (four if you count the emergency batch I made in Lisbon when I had to go over to dad in January after he'd had a fall. There's a marmalade orange tree in his garden!) and virtually all of it gets taken to Portugal and given to him. Ditto jam. They are both terrible hoarders, my parents, and need nothing (save from decluttering and some practical help with being old) but dad does love jam, so that's what I give him.

Since then, we've had the Rain, which always triggers my house worries, but for us, thank goodness, it was ok. Didn't get the persistent leak going and the part of the roof currently under felt and nothing else seems fine! I think we were about 20 miles south of where it got really bad.

Last night DH and I went to a gorgeous seasonal folk gig, and I'm thinking about panto tickets. We always do the relaxed performance because of DS2 (it's cheaper, too!). It's a very traditional panto with no celebrities, and I really like it.

Tonight is an outing too - it's the village ghost story evening! Really hoping mine is one of the ones that gets read out - I've become very protective of it so I hope it won't be shunned.

I need a nice sausage idea for this evening. Sausage hotpot?? Sometimes I just skin them and make easy meatballs.

I think the lemon cream could be nice with raspberries in the summer @RainbowZebraWarrior . 👎 with salted caramel here too.

I was thinking about this thread as I made soup with some tired broccoli and a bit of Stilton this morning. The fact we are all here feels like a coming together of people who want to appreciate a certain lifestyle doesn’t it. Something we embody all year round, but CC brings everyone together.

I’m on freezer clear out here, Berry crumble later plus pot stickers to use up a small portion of pork mince and chicken something or another with pak Choi and broccoli to use that up. I’ll dip into Every Grain of Rice for inspiration (and adapt as I usually do).

A bit like @RainbowZebraWarrior I need to remind myself that I am only cooking for two most of the time.

@GlomOfNit one of my favourite things to do with sausages is to untwist the links and roll into a big Catherine wheel, sticking sage leaves and slithers of garlic between the rolls before baking it. Not very imaginative but I just serve it with onion gravy, creamy mash and something green.

I’d love the folk evening you’ve described, sounds great.

Oh and in the spirit of trying to be More Nigel, and then being very NVN: last night on the way to the gig I dragged DH into TK Maxx to seek out posh candles. Absolutely sod-all! The wannabe-dupes in Aldi did nothing for me either. I'll have to look for St Eval elsewhere.

On the NVN front, I cracked and bought a box of Who Gives a Crap loo paper the other day! I love this year's kitsch wrappings. I do think it's good paper (I have to remind the family not to use as much as the cheapo stuff from Lidl as you don't need to) and I use WGAC paper wraps for stocking presents.