Yesterday was entirely
given over to the making and icing of a pair of traditional
chocolate logs (one for our table and the other a gift for a friend)
and the decorating of the Christmas cake. The cake was baked almost
two months ago and has been “fed” each week with whisky, now in
the peak of condition it smelled like a small distillery when I
removed the lid from it's tin.
I decorated the cake
with glacé fruits and blanched almonds rather than the ubiquitous
white sugar icing and marzipan as Pa prefers this more traditional
style (yesterdays blog picture shows the finished cake).
The chocolate logs used
masses of butter cream icing, took ages to do and make the devil of a
mess in the kitchen, there is nothing quite like melted chocolate for
making a mess and by the time the job was done I was fit to play
Othello!
After this marathon we
had a late dinner of melted Camembert with fried Haloomi and crisp
rashers of bacon, served with fresh crusty bread, hot tomato sauce, a
warm apricot sauce,and a big salad with lots of celery,simple, fast
and gorgeous.
I am overjoyed to
report that Pa slept well last night and as a consequence I too spent
more time than is usual asleep. This mornings chores required an
early start as my son had the bins to do and I had to prepare the
whole leg of Gammon for cooking and get it in to the oven by no later
than noon.
This piece of meat will
take at least six hours to cook it took two of us and considerable
brute force to get it in to the oven....pheeeeeew!!!
Our turkey arrived
yesterday and will be cooked for dinner on Christmas eve a family
tradition, which , happily leaves me with no cooking to do on
Christmas day and plenty of cold turkey and ham for a bumper meal of
cooked meats and cheeses.
The gammon actually
took over six hours to cook and we were hungry enough to do it
justice by the time we sat down to dinner. The cat ,moth sat beside
my son as usual during the meal daintily accepting morsels of ham
placed on her own little plate,her table manners are better than
those of some people I know.
The evening news
brought a weather warning, apparently another “weather bomb”,(what
the hell is a weather bomb and why have I not heard of it before)!!
the last one .a couple of weeks ago wrought chaos far and wide and I
am thankful that I asked my gardener to dead wood the trees last
week. We had noticed the rising wind during the course of the
afternoon and were not at all surprised to hear that another gale is
expected.
The problem is of
course that in spite of all their sophisticated satellites and and
tons of technical hardware the Met office cannot really tell exactly
when of for that matter exactly where, but judging by the shrieking
wind out side I should say that there is a fair chance that if will
be here... and quite soon!!!!
My son has done the
rounds of the house, bolting doors and locking windows, the fire is
well stoked and should stay in all night...with luck, and we are all
relaxing for an hour or so before bed. Before dark my son went out in
to the grounds to make sure that the doors of the out buildings were
secure and no windows open. Everything that can be tied down or put
under cover has been dealt with so all we can do now is wait.
I am very glad that I
managed to persuade the boys to put log pile by the door and kindling
wood in the porch, come what might we shall at least be warm and need
not venture far while the worst of the weather passes through. Many
years ago a neighbour of mine was almost killed when a tree branch
fell on him while he was outside filling the coal scuttle, it made
quite an impression on me and I'm sure it did him!
It has been a lovely
day, and now, weather,the cat and Pa permitting I intend to try for a
good nights sleep, Failing that it will be Whisky and coffee at two
in the morning,as usual for Pa and I.....it's a hard life, but I love
it. I really do.
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