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Festive bits and bobs

Having celebrated Christmas with the Cardiff branch of the Battenburg family this year, I didn’t spend as much time in the kitchen as usual. I avoided most of the peeling and chopping and was designated saucy chef by my brother in law and as I happened to have a bag of cranberries in my suitcase, I made a cheeky little sauce: dissolved about 170g of sugar in the juice of two oranges, then added the cranberries on a low heat for an hour or so. The sauce was a bit tart on its own, but was perfect with the rest of the festive meal. I also did the bread sauce. Had to steal some bread from mother-in-law’s stash next door – it was a traditional recipe, with the only twist being the use of white sliced that was perilously close to its DO NOT EAT THIS date. I could consume this sauce by the bucketload, but annoyingly, for once I didn’t make too much. Oh, and Mark made: roast turkey, roast chicken, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, swede, carrots, peas, sprouts, sweet potatoes, stuffing. They were all delicious too… No photos – far too busy having a good time.

This was a little gift for Missy B. I now know just how spectacularly bad for you salted caramel is: butter! sugar!! cream!!! We LOVE it, especially this festive version, with golden sparkly bits in it.

I also took some of these extremely cute and tasty little Italian biscuits on the trip to Wales. 

They came in handy as a way of saying a heartfelt thank you to the very helpful staff at Paddington Station, who came to the rescue of my glasses when they blew off my head and onto the Bakerloo Line track. Yes, really. Missy B was mortified, but once they’d stopped laughing at me, the lovely station supervisor and his staff made an exception to the usual rules and set about rescuing the specs there and then rather than making me wait until after Christmas. I did pull my saddest face and explained that, frankly, I can’t function without them these days. Calls were made and the next train was ordered to stop halfway into the station while one of the men made the daring mission to pluck the glasses back to safety. So then I had the train driver chuckling at me too. But I was able to see for Christmas – I do love a happy ending!!