Well, the season has not been completely jolly for everyone, all things considered, but it is the time for reflection and prediction. We have busied ourselves with home and garden matters, done a lot of reading, eating and drinking. I suppose a good resume would be books ‘n’ booze by the fire!
I’ve enjoyed making new recipes and dealing with the last of the seasonal fruit. Our neighbours kindly supplied lots of quince which are excellent roasted. But I did keep some back to make jelly which is great on bread or oatcakes for breakfast and is also a good accompaniment for roast pork with its delicious rich fragrance and amber tones.
Of course, I was riveted by the American elections on November 4th – it seems that the world was holding its breath and praying that the present incumbent’s term of office was not extended. Happily prayers can be answered and to celebrate the outcome I made a specially designed pasta flora!
One recipe I’ve always wanted to try out is red velvet cake. Now I’m not a great lover of sponge cake, but if it’s doused with alcohol and layered with creamy filling, then a gateau goes down a treat! The red food dye had little effect so it was a brown velvet one with cream cheese filling and topping.
In hot weather it’s lovely to have a creamy, refreshing cheese-cake but as it got cooler, I yearned to try out the cooked New York cheesecake with its more robust, richer texture. The sultanas, which have been soaked in home-made liqueur, are cooked with the filling, then once cooled, honey is drizzled over the cake. The recipe calls for a good helping of thick yoghurt so the flavours are quite Greek, despite the name.
We don’t go out much so lounging clothes are the daily garb. On Christmas Eve, as we dressed for dinner, Z was aghast to find he was having difficulty in doing up his trousers. Just des/serts?!
Gripe alert! A group who have thoroughly annoyed me are the ‘mask debaters’, the covid conspiracy theory purveyors, the anti-vaccers. They generally share the characteristics of not being professionals or experts in the relevant field, of paying scant attention to those who are, yet they preach their position as if they hold the key to hidden knowledge and those who oppose them are ‘sheep’ who cannot see through the master plan that the unidentified ‘they’ are plotting against us. They claim to have more insight and awareness for having discovered these evil plots to deprive them of their rights, freedoms, etc. For me the anomaly is that despite their assumed superiority, they are more than ready to adopt the victim role and accept the fact that they are actually projecting themselves in a weak, defenceless position rather than an omniscient one!!
And, yes, I do feel a little guilty about slamming them – they know not what they think. But I have a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card, courtesy of a dear friend who put Z’n’me on Santa’s Nice List ! Isn’t that special?
Finally, let me end my last post of the year by wishing you all the best for the coming year.
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