The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2025 - Part 3

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello all, and welcome to Part 3. We Continue our CC journey.

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 began on 1st November.
We continue to read along and comment with the book which is set out in diary form. I will make a post each day (or let you know if there is no entry on a particular day)

For anyone new, it's a challenge to see of you can pick up the book as 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.

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!

I have the makings of the magic ice cubes! And I know we’ll all benefit from them this Christmas, thanks @petitpasta .

I made crystallised ginger, but rather than being that mellow, chewy stuff you use for baking, it’s absolutely fiery! Blow your head off. So I think I’ll be using it to make ginger tea rather than anything else!

I started feeding my cake today. Vodka and citrus syrup. The good news is, even if we don’t like it much, I have people over for 12th Night so I can feed it to them 😅

I too have saved the ice cubes!
Glad your meds got sorted @lucysmam. I dare not come off my HRT @martha79as whilst it hadn’t stopped all my symptoms it has stopped me having hot flushes every 20 minutes of the day and that was intolerable. I do hope they get you some answers soon.
Impressed by teens writing Christmas cards at all, never mind in multiple languages!

My present sorting plan was disrupted as someone had left some sort of plastic tray in the oven which duly melted over two wire shelves when it was turned on to pre heat to roast a chicken. So I spent an hour and a half scraping foul smelling liquid plastic off the wire shelves and oven bottom. I was not best pleased.

DH then arrived home grumpy as there was no food (in fairness he had been out since 6.10 am as had an early meeting in London, and also grumpy as his Christmas hamper from work consisted of a bottle of wine and some posh crunchies essentially (from daylesford to be fair but a bit of a step down from his usual one which has been superb in past years). Still, as I pointed out, something (still very nice) is better than nothing. Thus our first festive argument ensued :)

I am bringing our table top pizza oven to work this morning as it’s Christmas pizza day. It’s wedged in the back of the shed and heavy so I suppose I will need to get up and wrestle with it in the pitch dark. At this point I’m beginning to feel it will never be actually light again!

very much regretting saying I will work an extra day this week now as I’m very behind on the home front. Still it will all get done. Or not.

Happy Wednesday to all

I love fiery crystallised ginger @PrizedPickledPopcornyou can send any excess to me :)

17 December

Panettone, a love story

A dome of pale yellow cake wrapped in brown and gold waxed paper. Here and there a nib of candied peel, crisp sugar crystals embedded in it's walnut coloured crown. Light, sweet, soft, fluffy even. A fairy cake made by angels.

Mmmmmmm, panettone. We have two sitting patiently on the wine rack, with two pandoros perched on top. Now we’ve finished the frangipane mince pies (who would have thought that 24 of them would have gone since making them on Saturday with only three people in the house?) we can choose which of the wrapped Christmas bready treats to start with…

Gosh I love panettone - I ordered one in a grocery shop the other day but it was substituted with scones!

The ice cubes sound great.. I must defrost my freezer at some point over the holidays as it's almost frozen shut at the moment. I can't imagine Nigel would allow this situation to occur - I imagine he has a freezer cleaning schedule and a very mindful, almost therapeutic ice-scraping process, which he's probably eloquently described somewhere ;)

In more Nige-like news, I have new pans and baking trays arriving today - he probably would have gone for something fancier but M&S had 40% off their own make and I have looked at them in the shop before and thought they seemed decent enough. They'll replace some passable but not great ones I bought off Amazon in spring 2020 in the midst of a frantic house move (I had no bed or sofa for a few weeks, so cookware wasn't a priority).

@piscofrisco I am dreading the return of the overnight hot flashes, but on the other hand if it helps the constant nausea it may be worth it. Compromise is never fun!

@DarkEyedSailor i think that was the guy who has the Princeletdrift insta account. My claim to fame is walking down Princelet street after Dennis Severs place and seeing Princelet guy taking in his deliveroo 🤣. He has moved now and has a reputation for fabulous under restoration of his homes. VN
(first 2 pics outside Dennis Severs, 2nd 2 on Princelet St).

My cousin managed to trace our family tree back to the early/mid 1700s to family living in Fournier Street, I always think of them as I walk through to Brick Lane, Cousin found it a fairly simple job to find them as until the early 1960s no one had moved any further out than Mile End /Bow. Then we got 'posh' and moved to Kingston 😂Dennis Severs house is one of my absolute favourite places at Christmas, I love walking through it in the silence just imagining the people who have just left the room.

PS, I feel a little better this morning, I may survive after all!

I think the historian Dan Cruckshank owns a house on one of those streets, he too has 'under renovated' it, so looks beautiful, no electric etc.

So, I don’t really understand Instagram. I have an account because someone in my life uses it for messaging for some unknown reason.

But recommendations for following would be very welcome! I have just this minute followed Nige!

I follow lots of crafty accounts, Miranda Hart, Ill advised by Bill Nighy is also a very funny account and something that was recommended on here. Then I follow things like local aurora groups, local attractions and local businesses and NT properties I also follow Alicepottery from here.

Pleased you're feeling a bit better @thebabessavedme

I've been grocery shopping, filled the car up with diesel, and bought an oil filled radiator for my still freezing cold conservatory 🙄 I've also wrapped all of my presents. Yesterday I delivered all my cards as it was a nice, dry day. I have bought and need to wrap all of my mother's gifts (including buying and wrapping my own gifts from her) and deliver her cards - assuming she ever gets round to writing them - if she leaves it until Christmas Eve again, I will crown her. She's not incapable, she's just become even more difficult to manage and avoidant as she's become older. I am jiggered so I'm having a little break.

Around 11 years ago I had to go to London to collect my birth father's ashes. He had ended up in the Spitalfields area and I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed walking around there for the day. I've not been back since as it's just not possible with or without DD.

@piscofrisco I hear you on the hot flushes 40 to 50 times a day. It took me a long time to get my GP to agree to HRT, in the end it was the hot flushes that persuaded her as I said it was pretty crap on top of chronic pain and chronic fatigue. Hope you managed the pizza oven without doing yourself a mischief in the dark (love the idea of Christmas pizza day!). It takes both me and DD to lift ours.

Loving your London stories and the photos - more places added to my list to explore. I traced some ancestors to the wonderfully named Cock and Hoop Yard (I don't think it was very glamorous, there were about 14 of them living in one house).

Got whisked back to the doctor's this morning and the short version is they've diagnosed long COVID, signed me off work for the rest of the year and I prescribed what I can only describe as extreme rest.

Feeling slightly more festive now after watching our KS2 production of A Christmas Carol (in it's entirety!) as my sidekick sat with his mum to watch 😊. This evening is the local secondary's production so I'm off to that with dd2, then will catch up with book and thread. Hope everyone's having a good day!

Oh I have to visit the Dennis Severs house! Have wanted to for ages and all the talk on here makes it sound so wonderful. It will be my new year resolution to go in 2026! A trip to London is a big thing for me, I went back in the spring for a weekend with a friend. It was the first time I had ever stayed away from DD3 and the first time since pre-covid I had done anything like that. It was amazing! We are planning our 2026 weekend already so I will add the house to our long list of things to do.
Just cooking a curry for tea before I go and get DD from preschool - her last day before Christmas - so I'm enjoying the peace 😊

Oh no @martha79 sorry to hear about the long covid diagnosis. Sending gentle hugs and hoping you are able to actually rest.

Thanks for the inspiration @Markknopflersheadband I have a few leftovers to use which would make a decent curry. I should be home from school run by 3.30 which allows it a good few hours in the slow cooker before supper time (DD eats early, I eat late).

I just used powdered as that was all I had

This reminds me of my foodie almost 20yo who, at the age of seven, ordered steak and advised the waitress that he preferred sirloin to rump.

He's been eyeing up my shallow lidded Le Creuset casserole dish so I have bought him a Sainsbury's dupe for Christmas. He's the only student I know who took a meat thermometer to uni - and uses it!

Oooh I watched the ITV Inside M&S at Christmas last night, they were 'inventing' new Panettones, they eventually went with a cherry and chocolate version.

Now I have to admit to you all, I've never eaten a panettone! eek So can I have some recommendations of supermarket buyable ones to try please? Although they've probably already sold out! When buying the M&S party food in my Ocado basket lots of those had been snaffled, I had to change the delivery date and managed to get a load of the veggie ones. They were delivered today and I got lucky as they'd added an extra veggie tacos box as well. :D I also managed to get some mushroom vol au vents - I love vol au vents, takes me right back to the 70s Christmases, them and prawn cocktails for Christmas Day starter (off the menu now we're veggies :( ah well.)

Similar story here. DD told her Primary school that she didn't want to stay for school dinners as "Mum cooks proper food" I also remember seeing the school dentist in the 80's and telling them I didn't require their services as I had a Real Dentist.

Mr Darcy is on his chair, which is pulled right up close to the stove. He also has a new best friend; Snow Dog.

Oh, I will have to catch up with that (and buy a new telly, as mine in my bedroom conked out six weeks ago, and I can't figure out how the one in the lounge works!)

I think most of the supermarket Pannetone are likely made by the same supplier. I haven't bought one this year, but usually get one from Sainsbury's or Waitrose. They are fairly dull on their own, if I'm honest, but are pretty good with some single or double cream. If you end up forgetting about them until after the New Year, then they make for an excellent bread and butter pudding. If you can be bothered / have time to brave the supermarkets atm, they usually start to reduce them around now.

I’ve also never had a pannetone I don’t think (I’m pretty sure I said the same last year when this chapter came around). I always suppose they will be dry. I could get on board with a cherry and chocolate flavour one though I think!

Sorry about the diagnosis @martha79though I hope being signed off feels something of a relief-you really need to studiously rest as hard as it is at this time of year.

They aren't really dry. They're just very very light, like a brioche. I adore them - much my favourite of the christmas cakey things. Also lovely toasted.

My pizza cheffing went quite well -we made 24 pizzas from
scratch between 11 and 3 with only one small fire !
Back again and Friday to do it for the co farmers that come on those days. I’ve just Made some more dough up for it.
AND I’ve been though the presents. One dd has more, the others pile is smaller but has more expensive items. In past years I would have fretted about it but they made their own lists and im hopign that at a week or so off being 20 and 18 they can live with the indiscrepancy at last. I don’t miss the years of them going bananas as one had one more present in their stocking. (But I do miss them being small).