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WEBCHAT GUIDELINES: 1. One question per member plus one follow-up. 2. Keep your question brief. 3. Don't moan if your question doesn't get answered. 4. Do be civil/polite. 5. If one topic or question threatens to overwhelm the webchat, MNHQ will usually ask for people to stop repeating the same question or point.

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MNHQ

Nigella Lawson - live webchat - Tuesday 13th December 1 - 2pm

264 replies

RachelMumsnet · 07/12/2011 15:09

It's time for our final Christmas cookery webchat, and you won't be disappointed.... We're thrilled that the domestic goddess herself, Nigella Lawson is joining us at MNHQ for a live webchat on Tuesday 13th december at 1pm.

Just as Cranberry-Queen-Delia caused a shortage of fresh cranberries, 1996 saw the sales of goose fat rocket after it was championed by Nigella as the essential Christmas cooking ingredient. So if you want to know how to make the perfect roast potato or discover the secret to a succulent turkey, join us next Tuesday or send a question in advance to this thread.

Ahead of the webchat, we've been given permission to share Nigella's recipes for cranberry sauce and chestnut stuffing, both from her book Nigella Christmas which is now out in e-book format.

OP posts:
smartyparts · 13/12/2011 12:58

Hi Nigella. I have made your chocolate gooey meringue stack with pistachios on top so many times, I actually think I invented it.

We're having it on Boxing Day. What deserts do you have over Christmas? Traditional or not?

BigBlueBear · 13/12/2011 12:58

housemum I'm very proud of my signed copy. It says Happy Birthday and my name. Definitely one of the better presents my MIL has got me!

ColdTurkeyRemains · 13/12/2011 12:59

Nigella, another big fan here.

I'd just like to know if you have ever, in all your adulthood, worn your hair in a ponytail?

Smile
MNHQ
RachelMumsnet · 13/12/2011 13:00

Nigella has arrived and is about to start answering your questions. She needs no introduction so without further ado let me hand over to you Nigella....

OP posts:
debka · 13/12/2011 13:01

Nigella. You are wonderful. But please tell me, how do you seemingly eat so much and stay so slim?

AhsataN · 13/12/2011 13:01

hi Nigella do you have a quick and easy ginger bread biscuit recipe, or festive treats i could make with my fussy eater of a 2 yr old. thank you

NigellaLawson · 13/12/2011 13:01

Hi, I'm here! Looking forward to answering your questions....

kandinskysgirl · 13/12/2011 13:01

Hi Nigella, I love your fairy lights!!!

DP and I often argue who is better, you or Jamie, I always argue your case v v strongly Grin.

My question is do you ever use/or even watch other cookery programmers/books or do you just like to focus on the things you fancy making? Also do you ever just run out of ideas? (Because I do all the time!!)

midnightexpress · 13/12/2011 13:01

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

BigBlueBear · 13/12/2011 13:02
midnightexpress · 13/12/2011 13:02
NigellaLawson · 13/12/2011 13:02

@ColdTurkeyRemains

Nigella, another big fan here.

I'd just like to know if you have ever, in all your adulthood, worn your hair in a ponytail?

Smile

Yes but never to leave the house! Or rather, maybe some times when my children were younger and I was walking them to school.
JollyBear · 13/12/2011 13:02

Hello Nigella,

I love all the chocolate cakes in feast but my cling film melted on the chocolate. loaf cake. Did my cheap cling film just not cut the mustard?

mumof3teens · 13/12/2011 13:04

Hi Nigella Another big fan here. Can you suggest anything for 6 people for Christmas Eve dinner - something tasty, but as it is my DHs birthday, we will be out for lunch, so don't need a feast?

NigellaLawson · 13/12/2011 13:04

@rubyslippers

Oh wow! Hi Nigella ...

Can you tell me what your favourite cook book is? Also, do you write in the ones you use? My most treasured cook books are the ones from my late grandma with all her notes on tweaking the recipes etc ...

BTW your molten baby cakes are my all time favourite dessert and the recipe is utterly fool proof

I find it so hard to choose just one favourite book. I have a real tug towards Anna del Conte's Entertaining all'Italiana as I found it so inspirational at the very start of my foodwriting career, but with a library of some 4,000 food titles, it's hard to settle on just one. I should say that her latest, about being in the kitchen with her grand-daughter, Cooking with Coco, is the PERFECT family cookbook. But like you, I, too, am particularly fond of my granny's file with its clippings and comments, even if I don't actually cook from it a lot.
And thank you rubyslippers for such a lovely comment!

NigellaLawson · 13/12/2011 13:06

@gateacre1

Nigella We love, love your cookbooks and recipes The fried/oven roasted gnocci are a revelation and one of our favourite meals!

Will you be doing any new TV cookery shows in the new year?

That's certainly the plan! And a book, though the book always come first, and the TV series will be shot after. I just can't do TV every year, it's too invasive into family life and every other year is much more manageable. Of course, I have to get the schedule to suit and the coming year is a difficult one with my son doing GCSEs, my stepdaughter AS levels and my daughter A levels, so there's not going to be any filming done for a while! I hope to be able to pull it out of the bag in time to go out in Autumn, but home life has to come first....

NigellaLawson · 13/12/2011 13:07

@debka

Nigella. You are wonderful. But please tell me, how do you seemingly eat so much and stay so slim?

Well, I do not stay so slim! Like a lot of women, my weight goes up and down. And if I eat regularly, I don't put on weight, and if I work crazy hours, don't sleep, get streesed and then get ravenous, I put on weight. However, I have had to take a policy decision and exercise more. As you get older, I feel it doesn't matter how much or how little one eats: if you don't exercise you blob out! But I'm afraid it's the first thing to go when I'm filming because of the hours!

housemum · 13/12/2011 13:07

You are a wicked temptress, I'm now opening a new tab to order "Cooking With Coco" from Amazon...

BaublesandCuntingCarolSingers · 13/12/2011 13:08

This is like Justin Bieber but for ladies who like stuffing their faces instead of young boys with silly hair!

NigellaLawson · 13/12/2011 13:09

@Ilovepigs

Nigella-

AN S.O.S from a desperate mum!!

Having our first xmas at home after years of going to the inlawsHmm

So I have to cook my first ever xmas dinner

Please tell me your fool-proof recipe for suculent turkey-thanks!

Please, please don't panic. If you brine a turkey, you will never need to worry about whether the bird is dry or juicy: it will always be juicily tender. My turkey brining method is explained in the Witter section (12 December) on www.nigella.com .... I promise you all will be fine.

debka · 13/12/2011 13:09

Thank you for answering me :)

NigellaLawson · 13/12/2011 13:09

@smartyparts

Hi Nigella. I have made your chocolate gooey meringue stack with pistachios on top so many times, I actually think I invented it.

We're having it on Boxing Day. What deserts do you have over Christmas? Traditional or not?

I am mad for anything with chestnuts. But I do that the easy, lazy way by using cans of sweetened chestnut puree. Mont blanc is a old fave - dark choc, chestnut puree, whipped cream, meringue - and my chestnut choc pots (on nigella.com I believe) are a new enthusiasm.

midnightexpress · 13/12/2011 13:09

housemum, I've just done the same. I'll be skint by 2pm at this rate. Grin

NigellaLawson · 13/12/2011 13:11

@mumof3teens

Hi Nigella Another big fan here. Can you suggest anything for 6 people for Christmas Eve dinner - something tasty, but as it is my DHs birthday, we will be out for lunch, so don't need a feast?

I rather like sausages with Heaven and Earth mash, which is mash with some apple and onion cooked along with the potatoes, and have often cooked that for us on Christmas eve, though when the numbers get bigger, I favour ham with macaroni cheese.

housemum · 13/12/2011 13:12

Apparently scientists at Cern have today announced that they have produced signals providing the clearest evidence yet for the existence of the Higgs-Bosun particle. But NIGELLA IS ON MUMSNET!!!! Even more important...