Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Having thought sometime in October that I was fairly well prepared for Christmas, suddenly  December arrived and I realised I wasn't, hence the lack of updates on the Christmas preparations, which I was too busy getting on with and being late with to actually blog about!  Anyway, we finally got there; husband home, house cleaned and decorated, mince pies made, wreath assembled, shopping done and various meals prepped and frozen.    Phew!

We were all ready for the arrival of our Christmas guests - my parents and brother coming all the way from Kent!

We went for a quick amble around Meavy on Christmas eve, catching a flash of bright winter sunshine before the clouds arrived with a shower of icy rain.

We made a few friends on the way home.

Christmas day broke beautifully sunny and clear, perfect to accompany our breakfast of homemade panettone (burnt, oops) and opening stockings.

We went for a pre-lunch appetite-building walk in the glorious sunshine, lovely apart from when taking selfies...

By the time we got home we were just in time for a few presents with coffee and lunch-prepping.

Lunch started with baked goat's cheese with beetroot pate and sourdough toasts.

We then moved on to the main event - a giant roast chicken accompanied by the crispiest roast potatoes and parsnips, braised red cabbage, green beans, mushroom and chestnut stuffing and crabapple and damson gin jelly.

It was delicious!

We had to have a bit of a break before we could even think about pudding, so we did a bit of clearing up before slumping in front of the fire in the squashy seats, to finish our feast with a chocolate hazelnut praline cake and clotted cream.  Needless to say, nothing much was achieved after that, we watched the lovely Queen followed by several films and then crawled fat and happy to bed.

Today required a good walk to burn off some of the effects of yesterday's celebrations, although sadly the weather wasn't quite as gorgeous as yesterday's and we got soaked!  Despite the weather, the walk was still beautiful, we went up to the Dewerstone near Bickleigh; the boys climbed the super steep hill to the views at the top (slightly blighted by clouds and rain!) and Mim and I followed the path along the river which chuckled and raced over the rocks past us.

  All the better to enjoy cold roast with piles of chutney and mayonnaise on our return!

The Ultimate Hangover Cure

As we are in the midst of the festive season and celebrating hard, I thought it might be helpful to share a brilliantly peppy-uppy hangover cure to keep you partying for days on end.  With this recipe in your arsenal you can glide elegantly and sparky-eyed through the year!

Although there are a couple of slightly odd ingredients, there isn't anything that can't be found in your local supermarket, nor is anything too expensive - this is truly an every-man's (or every-lady's) remedy.  It's also super easy to assemble so can be made on even the most fragile of mornings.

Before you start, put the kettle on.

While it boils, have a glass of water, and put:

Pinch peppermint leaves (or a peppermint tea bag)

Pinch fennel seed

Pinch chopped rosemary (fresh or dried)

Slice of fresh ginger (keep sliced fresh ginger root in the freezer for instant use)

1 tsp cider vinegar

0.5 tsp honey
in a tea strainer (or a sieve over a mug) and cover with half a mug full of boiling water.

Leave for a couple of minutes while you get the blender out of the cupboard, then top up with cold water to make it a drinkable temperature and add

1tbsp lemon juice.

(I didn't have any lemon, nor any fresh ginger, but lime and crystalised ginger worked just as well.  I also added a pinch of green tea leaves.  You could also throw in a nettle tea bag if you have one).

Sip the infusion whilst you assemble your healing nectar:

Half a banana, fresh or frozen
1tbsp pumpkin seeds
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
A handful of berries, fresh or frozen
2tbsp oats
3tbsp yogurt
8tbsp coconut water



Put everything in a blender and blitz until smooth.

Once you have quaffed your recovery magic, get started on eggs (or tinned sardines), hot buttered brown toast and a proper cup of tea.  In not too long, life will begin to seem worth living again and you can crack on with a spring in your step!

Bread and Butter Pudding

Well while we're at it, you may as well have this recipe too; just the thing to accompany your spiced hot chocolate

Bread and butter pudding is very useful for using up stale bready things, anything from a standard loaf to leftover croissants or brioche, and is also extremely good made with things like teacakes or cinnamon buns.

It makes quite a spectacular pudding - beautifully crisp topping and a light fluffy custardy innards, with minimal effort, just as good for a dinner party as for a post shopping recovery snack!

Serves 4-6

About 10 slices bread (or an equal quantity of whatever bready thing you're using)
salted butter
400ml milk (semi skimmed or full fat)
100ml double cream
3oz/75g caster sugar
4 eggs
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
a sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg
optional - fresh or frozen berries or dried fruit (currants are particularly good)

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4
I used a 23cm diameter and 5cm deep baking dish for the above quantity

Melt the butter and brush one side of the bread with it (you can also spread it un-melted, but brushing on is way quicker).

Brush your dish with melted butter too and then cover with a layer of bread, butter side down.

Paint with butter and top with a sprinkling of fruit.

Repeat; you should get another layer of bread, then fruit, then bread.  Butter the final layer with particular care, leave no spot un-buttered, this is the secret to the lightest crispiest top to your pudding.

In a jug or bowl, mix the other ingredients and whisk well.

Pour over the bread and bake for 30-40 mins until puffy, golden and crisp.

This is best served hot, but is still delicious cold - the leftovers (if there are any) make for an excellent breakfast.

Gingerbread Spiced Hot Cocoa

Whether you've been braving the shops or the freezing countryside, there is nothing quite like a mug of hot milky chocolately to defrost the toes, calm the nerves and re-boost ready for whatever excitement the evening holds!

We have very smugly managed to nail all of our Christmas shopping already and so headed out this afternoon for a stunning but nose-freezing amble on Dartmoor instead.  By the time we got back we were in desperate need of hot cocoa defrosting in front of the fire.

Nothing fancy or complicated here, and you can make this in a saucepan or do the whole thing in the microwave for extra ease.  Quaff as-is for a standard pick-me-up, or if you're feeling a little bit naughty, top with a generous layer of whipped double cream.

Per 2 cups (because it's always jollier to share with someone else, or maybe this makes just enough for one person with a spare cup for seconds...)

500ml milk (semi skimmed will do, full fat will be extra amazing)

3tbsp cocoa powder

3tbsp light brown soft sugar (adjust to suit your taste)

0.25tsp ground cinnamon

0.25tsp ground ginger

Put everything in a microwave proof jug/bowl and microwave for about 3 minutes.  Stir/whisk well until smooth and lump free, then microwave again for a few more minutes.

Pour into mugs, sit somewhere comfortable and give yourself up to the glorious chocolately love.

Apart from adding millions of pictures of two little mugs sitting in romantic positions - in front of the fire, under the tree etc, I can't make this any more complicated!  Sadly life is just too short to start faffing about with positioning the mugs, we just got on with drinking it in front of the fire!

The Traveller Returns

After weeks of silence I suddenly received an unexpected phone call from my husband last week!  Even more unexpectedly he said that they were on their way home and could I go and pick him up that very afternoon.  I absolutely could, and did, and it is just wonderful having him back!

(this is what very very cold people look like)

We went off for a little Dartmoor adventure yesterday; so much funner with a lovely husband than walking by oneself!  We went up to Princetown and parked in the Plume of Feathers' car park.  From there there's a track that leads straight onto very nice wild Dartmoor; sheep and ponies, gorgeous views, puddles for sploshing in and a biting wind all included.

You can just wander along as far as you fancy and then turn back when you start getting peckish, and trundle towards the wood smoke scented warmth and comfort of the pub.  It was in fact rather a lot colder than I'd anticipated and I was swiftly approaching a state of ice-lolly-ness when we finally stumbled over the threshold to thaw our limbs by the fire.  Once warmed and settled with a drink we excitedly awaited lunch - pie and chips.

You can tell these are genuinely homemade as they take about 20 minutes to arrive however every minute's wait is worth it the moment they are finally set in front of you.  I had a steak and ale pie and Edward had chicken leek and stilton and both were utterly delicious.  The shortcrust pastry crumbled to perfection, the filling was rich and full of flavour and the chips deliciously potato-y and perfectly cooked.  All in all, extremely good and just what we needed to recover after the arctic conditions of our walk.  Just a note of warning if you do go, do not plan to do anything too strenuous afterwards...

A Quick Catch Up...

Oops, sorry for such a long break!  Edward was away so I decided to go and seek company, travelling East to visit my in laws, my aunt and my parents; a glorious week of footling about and doing lovely things with lovely people!

As usual I was terrible at photographs, but I didn't really do anything photo worthy anyway, just drank lots of cups of tea and spent hours chatting!

I did manage to snap some beautiful skies on the way home though; a lovely welcome back to Plymouth!

Then last weekend I went for another adventure all the way up to Sheffield to stay with the lovely Alicia.  We had a gorgeous weekend wandering about Sheffield, rummaging happily in antique shops and perusing a rainy Christmas market.

As I was travelling home by train I had to be very sensible and restrain from buying hundreds of things, but I did find some little sundae dishes at a suitably bargain-y price that I just couldn't leave without

We stopped for the an insanely good lunch at The Greedy Greek, a very unassuming little place with the most amazing food!

Pretty sure it's impossible to make a falafel wrap look beautiful, but who needs to really when they taste that good....

It was a perfectly soft pitta bread absolutely rammed with salad, perfectly cooked and full of flavour falafel and loads of amazing sauces.

Sorry not very exciting today, more to come soon!