Warming Meals and Winter Flowers

The weather has cooled at last and more like the usual November. Cosy nights by the fire and crisper days. Happy times in a warm kitchen, baking, cooking, and filling up the freezer with Christmas goodies.

My lovely daughter, Sam, helped me to make the Christmas cake. We always do this on my birthday. It’s stashed away now in a cake tin to mature, and I will sprinkle it with sherry a couple of times to boost that wonderful festive flavour.

We needed a quick lunch, so I made delicious chicken soup the day before. I always find soup is even better the day after I make it. The flavours develop and it thickens slightly. We enjoyed some chocolate brownies I’d made and frozen on another baking day.

It was a lovely way to spend my birthday. The kitchen was full of Christmas aromas. Spices, brandy and sweet ingredients. Plus, a tasty lunch and chocolate cakes. Wonderful!

One birthday treat was a visit to our favourite local nursery to buy plants. Always a pleasure for me. I have popped the plants into a bed which was created when we had the landscaping done. Meanwhile, I look around the garden and find pleasure in the leaves. Some still clinging on and others glistening wet on the paths.

I spotted a tiny snail clinging on to a brown and shrivelled leaf.

The winter clematis has lots of buds and a few opening flowers. In a week or two it will be a picture.

You don’t often see the white flowers on holly but there is a little cluster of buds just behind a trellis fence which I managed to catch with my camera.

A few small roses keep surprising me. Their beautiful petals look so fragile and yet they withstand the wind and rain and still manage to look lovely. The hydrangea we planted a few weeks ago is still blooming and full of colour.

Winter days call for satisfying and warming food. The cost of groceries is worryingly high right now but here are two suggestions for cheap, tasty and nutritious meals.

Boil and mash potatoes. Drain a can of salmon, sardines or mackerel and mash into the potatoes. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and spread the mash in the pan. Brown on both sides and then serve with vegetables and your favourite sauce or chutney. If you have a steamer, you can cook frozen peas above the potatoes as they boil. That will save a bit of fuel.

For a vegetarian alternative, one which I love, cook red lentils to a mush and then add to the mashed potatoes. The lentils need to be just covered in water so that it’s absorbed and not too sloppy. Cook in the microwave for ten minutes, uncovered, or cook on the hob for about fifteen minutes until the water has been absorbed. Brown in a little heated oil, as before, and again serve with vegetables and sauce or chutney.

Cheap and enjoyable, full of protein and easy to do.

With you again next week. Meanwhile, enjoy your Christmas preparations. Bye for now.