Daily Bread

The excesses of the festive season have resulted in some excesses in the tummy region... for more than one of us in this household. So in the spirit of January there has been some resolving to eat more fruit and veg and less cake.

But the desire to bake is a strong one, so instead of cake today I've made bread. A good healthy soda bread...

The perfect accompaniment to a bowl of fresh vegetable soup.

Except it tastes so good and I've eaten so much of it I think I might have been better off with cake!

Should you wish to join me in pretending to be virtuous... my recipe:

Put 500g strong bread flour in a large bowl (I use 350g wholemeal and 150g strong white). Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda. Rub in 30g of cold butter. Stir in enough buttermilk to make a soft dough. The amount needed will depend on the flour used (wholemeal flour soaks up more liquid) but it should be between 280 - 420 ml (10-15 fl oz). Knead until smooth and shape into a flat disc. Put onto a baking tray, mark the top with a cross and bake at 220 deg C for about 35 minutes.

Serve warm with lashings of butter and jam 

Best eaten within 24 hours.

A Time to Reflect

Much as I enjoy Christmas and all the build up, I find the period of limbo between the festivities and the New Year celebrations makes me restless. I always relish the thought of January and the idea of new beginnings and probably even more so this year. When I withdrew from the MA in November, I made a conscious decision not to give too much thought to my work during December. I felt I needed time off. There was always going to come a time when my studies finished and I would have to ask "what next" but I hadn't expected it to be quite so soon and I felt I needed the time to come to terms with this.

I've been reflecting not so much on resolutions for 2012 but ambitions. I know it's not going to be easy directing my own work without the structure of an organised course and somehow I'm going to have to find the discipline to focus on what I believe to be important. With the start of a new year, I felt ready to tackle this head on. Then I woke up on New Year's Eve, sneezing, full of cold and with yet another eye infection and I feel as though my brain has turned to mush. I don't feel I can tackle anything!

This feeling of not knowing what I want to do was not helped by unexpectedly receiving results today for the only piece of work I handed in for the MA. I didn't think it would be marked but it was and I did much better than I ever expected... "high standard", "exemplary", "a strong submission." Suddenly I was overwhelmed with regret... perhaps I've made a huge mistake. Perhaps I could cope with the work along side everything else after all?

But the feeling didn't last long - I know I was not enjoying the course whether I could do it well or not and I just need to find my own direction. And that may take me some time. I know I'm still interested in lace and holes, missing parts of stories and costume... and suddenly I have a renewed interest in Miss Havisham. 

So meanwhile, I'll just work some samples without thinking too much about it and see where it takes me. I won't worry about making mistakes and getting it wrong.

And I'll have to trust that I'll find my way... all in good time

Another One Bites the Dust!

After days and days of preparation Christmas Day has come and gone in a bit of a blur and was over before we knew it. I had a lovely day with my family that seemed mostly to involve lots of eating and drinking and many hours in the kitchen but as you can see help was at hand from three of my boys.

Boxing Day was a more leisurely relaxed day. Some family members left and others, along with family friends, arrived and we had Christmas dinner pie which is a bit of a tradition... left overs under pastry basically!

As well as some more puddings... a Buche Noel...

and more Christmas Rocky Road.

We manged to speak to the one family member who had been absent from our celebrations... Joe spent Christmas on the beach in Sydney and had a bowl of chips for his Christmas dinner! For many years, another Boxing Day tradition has been a game of Pictionary but Ben bought me a new game this year so eight of us spent the evening on a marathon game of Balderdash that lasted four hours. I don't think we've all laughed so much in ages.

It wasn't the only good present I had either... I seem to have received enough gorgeous bath and skincare products to keep me scented, buffed and polished all year long (Do you think someone's trying to tell me something?) And I've also got some super reading material to keep me busy... not to mention a shiny new Kindle. As someone who has always loved the physicality of books I've had my doubts about an e-book reader but I'm coming round to see its benefits. It won't ever replace books for me but I know I will get good use from it given the number of paperbacks I can get through.

So that's my Christmas... fun... but I'm not sorry it's over. I like the idea of clearing the house and having a fresh new start in January, full of new exciting possiblitites. Roll on 2012!

Day :: Twenty Four

To all my blogging friends...

To those who've sent me Christmas cards, emails and messages, to those who've stuck through all these advent posts (whose idea was that?), to those who've left comments throughout the year and to those who silently read... thank you!

I would like to wish you all a very special Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful new year.

Day :: Twenty Three

You would think that after the stollen incident I would have learned that this is not the season to experiment and try new recipes... but you'd be wrong! Every year I make Delia's Cranberry and Orange Relish to accompany our Christmas lunch. It is tart, spicy and everyone likes it. But this year I fancied a change and made Nigella's "Redder than Red Cranberry Sauce"

Well it is certainly red... but oh so sweet and sickly! The book says "if you find it too sweet, which is unlikely, just spritz in some lemon". I put in the juice of a whole lemon and it was still far too sweet. I've made cranberry jam! So there was nothing for it but to start again and go back to the tried and trusted recipe, which has more cranberries but less than half the amount of sugar. Much better!

But all was not lost and the cranberry jam came to the rescue. The mince pies have all been eaten and the mincemeat is all used up so instead I used the cranberry jam with the almond mince pie recipe...

And have made cranberry almond pies which have been declared a success.

Although the glitter may have been a step to far.

(My excuse is I get excited this time of year)

I'll be back tomorrow for one last post before Christmas for those of you who have stuck with me throughout December... although I rather suspect there are less of you now than at the beginning of the month!

Day :: Twenty Two

I'm back on list:

• Food shopping - tick (& feeling very smug!)
• present wrapping - tick

Although I'm not sure the homemade bags...

with all those paper snowflakes, were ever on my original list.

But I think they were one of my better ideas... unlike the stollen!

My chickens have gobbled up the stollen. However, the wild birds, like my family, have given it a wide berth!

Day :: Twenty One

I'm working my way down the list:

• presents bought - tick
• decorations up - tick
• puddings steamed - tick
• cards written and posted - tick
• christmas cake decorated - tick

There was a lot of marzipan left when I finished decorating the cake so I decided I would make stollen. But something went wrong and instead of the light fluffy cake like dough filled with fruit and a melting marzipan centre I seem to have made a stollen brick... two of them. I made myself eat a slice for breakfast just to see if it tasted okay but wish I'd stuck to porridge! Looks like the birds are in for a treat, although I fear they might be unable to take off after eating this!

Oh well... that will teach me to go off-list.

Back on it today... wrapping presents.