I would like to start off by telling you that one of our purchases in Manchester has turned out to be one of our most brilliant ideas so far.
Whilst passing Hotel Chocolat our feet somehow accidentally turned in at the door, even though we didn’t actually want anything. We just thought that we might look.
It is not good manners just to wander out of a shop empty handed. We bought a bottle of salted caramel chocolate flavoured vodka, just for courtesy’s sake, obviously.
I have never drunk anything like it. It tastes every bit as nice as one might think. I am on my second glass and thought I had better write to you quickly before it got the better of me and I became incapable of writing anything apart from fuzzy and badly structured drivel about how chocolatley happy I am.
Hence I am still sober but I think that situation may not last long.
I will tell you about my day whilst I still can. When I have finished we are going to watch a film and drink some more. This is because we are still on holiday.
It is also because our limp-dishcloth state of being has metamorphosised into some sort of horrible plague. We are not sick, unlike poor Number One Son-In-Law and Lucy have been. We are aching and tired with sore throats and earache and awful viscous coughs that leave us gasping for breath.
We are very sorry for ourselves.
I am not doing too badly having taken every pain-relieving drug I can lay my hands on, and then washed them down with salted caramel chocolate vodka, but Mark has inexplicably decided to soldier bravely on this afternoon, and now is feeling decidedly rubbish. We have been limping around spluttering and groaning and think that we might go to bed early again. We did this last night, and slept for twelve hours before the dogs had a desperate urge to visit the garden. After that we staggered about miserably until the drugs started to work and we could get along with our lives.
The children did not stir until after lunch. In the meantime we went to the Co-op and the library and I did lots of washing and ironing whilst Mark mended the tin fish candle holder that we bought in Ripon. You may recall that this did not hang properly, and you will be pleased to hear that it does now.
After this we finally got around to making the mince pies.
This is a job which has been lurking in the back of my seasonal anxiety cupboard waiting for me to have some spare time. It has to be a good chunk of spare time because making mince pies is an awful lot of fiddling about.
Today not only did I have plenty of time but also I had Mark to help, so we got on with it together. Mark is very helpful but does tend to eat quite a lot as he goes along and has to be supervised.
I need to reassure the hygienically conscious that we were very careful indeed to keep washing our hands and not to cough or spray horrible germs anywhere near the cooking area, although actually the mince pies have turned out to be so very alcoholic that I doubt any germ would survive anyway.
We were very pleased to find that yet again the mincemeat has been a runaway success, and the mince pies pack a truly magnificent kick which we put down to the addition of some of our French neighbour’s eau de vie. We have had some pears and sugar soaking in this for several years now and I can promise you that they made a marvellous addition to the mincemeat. The mincemeat has been soaking in cognac for a year as fruit, and then another year in more cognac in jars as mincemeat. I am very pleased indeed with the way the final product has turned out although believe it would be wisest not to eat them at work.
We chucked some bacon-swathed sausages in the oven as well, and now the house smells gorgeously seasonal, of woodsmoke and cognac and sausages and cinnamon pastry, and also of spiced oranges. This last was an accident because I had forgotten that I had left some dried oranges in the oven when I turned it on to warm for the baking,. They got quite well done, but it didn’t matter because it smelled ace.
We were further heartened by the arrival of an enormous box of Hotel Chocolats which turned up in the post as a surprise present from my sister, I hope she doesn’t mind that my contribution to her Christmas has been manufactured by me in the kitchen at home.
I am going to go and watch a film. What a lovely way to spend an evening.
We might help it along with some salted caramel chocolate vodka and some mince pies and Hotel Chocolats.
I love this time of year.
