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I am sick of diets!

Okay, it may only be the 11th January, but already I am sick and tired of hearing about diets and the latest slimming fads.

Please ignore the word ‘diet’ in my previous blog – I simply meant we would enjoy eating lots of soup rather than copious handfuls of chocolate!

I have just read a very inspiring article about how to be happier, not necessarily thinner. Dr Mark Porter: my prescription for better living in 2010 it contains so much fantastic advice. My mantra in life is probably quite similar (but of course involves food too!):

  • A LITTLE of what you fancy does you good.
  • Smile and always be cheerful.
  • Drink plenty of water (plus an occasional glass of red wine).
  • STOP eating when you feel full.
  • Be creative and make things.
  • Don’t buy sweetner-laden foods (research shows that the sweet taste actually makes your body crave sugar).
  • Read the TV guide BEFORE switching on the TV, if there’s nothing on you fancy, leave it off.
  • Cherish your friends but don’t waste time on those who don’t cherish you.
  • Use the Dairy Diary!
  • Cook.
  • Snack on healthy foods.

Talking of snacks, don’t forget our poor feathered friends during this cold snap. Our new book Seasonal Garden Ideas (due to launch this spring) has the perfect recipe for them to munch on.

Robin’s Christmas Dinner
Sturdy metal, ceramic or wooden container with a strong handle.
Large double-ended metal hook.
500g (1lb) lard plus mixed birdseed and nuts – try to find a mixture that contains dried mealworms which are a real favourite of robins. You can even find packets of dried mealworms to mix in with the other ingredients.

1 Melt the lard in the saucepan but ensure it doesn’t boil or burn.
2 Carefully pour the melted fat into your container, then stir in a mixture of birdseed and nuts and mealworms. Put aside to cool and set hard.
3 Attach the hook to the branch of a tree, then hang up your fat container from the handle. Try to site it in a reasonably sheltered area, and make sure the hook can’t slide off the branch. It will swing around as the birds land on it, but this won’t deter them – and it may help to keep greedy squirrels at bay.

And for us humans, snack on Cheese Flapjacks from Hearty and Healthy Dairy Cookbook (see below). Or for those lazy days why not visit Graze.com –  a mail order company who specialise in delivering healthy snacks to keep your blood sugar at a happy level throughout the day – what a revelation! I’m most excited about my first package due on Wednesday. There’s a voucher for a free sample in the February issue of Delicious magazine.

A Winter Wonderland

Wow, what a beautiful drive to work this morning. The alarm clock may have been something of a shock, as was the need to get dressed within an hour rather than four, but it was worth it for the view alone.

Winter WonderlandI only wish I had pulled over to take a photograph – it would have made a perfect Christmas card for later on this year (that still sounds strange!) A sugared almond backdrop of milky pink and lilac with the bare trees and plants heavily crusted in frost, sparkling in the sunshine.

Missed out on the Dairy Dairy at Christmas?
The Dairy Diary office has been in a blur all day with us trying to get on top of all the phone calls, emails and letters we have received today and over the holiday. There are always people who expect a Dairy Diary Christmas gift and receive something else yet they don’t want to miss out on their diary! To all who are wondering, yes they are still available and can be purchased at www.dairydiary.co.uk or by calling 0845 0948128.

Of course, New Year’s resolutions are front of mind at the moment, and after the excesses of Christmas my other half and I have decided to opt for a soup diet for the next few nights’ dinner. First on the menu is Spaghetti soup – wholesome, healthy and delicious. I will be scouring all our cookbooks and diaries for more inspiration over the coming evenings. We have also decided to abandon the depressingly bad evening television for more happy entertainment, such as reading, board games and painting – I wonder how long that resolution will last!

Merry Christmas to all our blog readers

Is it just me or is everyone else’s head stuck in a perpetual checklist this week?

Have I bought all the gifts; Have I wrapped all the gifts; Have I delivered all the cards; Is all the food in the fridge; When and what do I need to cook; What shall I wear etc. etc. there is no let up. Roll on December 25th! With a two year old, it’s going to be really magical this year. We have some cunning ideas for Santa Claus and his reindeer too, with muddy hoof prints in the conservatory and a wisp of beard on the mince pie plate. It’s like being a child again I am so excited!

Things are almost all finished for this year in the Dairy Diary office. All the orders have been despatched, the office has been tidied and the proofs for next year’s books signed off. We have also drawn this year’s competition winners. Four of our lucky purchasers have each won a £250 M & S giftcard – I am VERY envious.

All that remains to be said for this year is Happy Christmas to all who read the blog. Have a truly festive and fun-filled time and a very happy 2010. I am sure for lots of us 2009 has offered many ‘ups and downs’, but let’s hope 2010 is just full of ‘ups’!

Our last recipe to share with you is this gorgeous chestnut soup – perfect for warming you up after a wintry stroll and for using up that surfeit of chestnuts. Enjoy.

Fabulous Festive TV

At last, something with a real feel-good factor on TV. For three nights last week I was glued to Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas.

What a fantastically inspiring program. Of course, for us normal people finding the time (and money – £75 for teddy bear fabric!) is not that realistic, but I did take inspiration from many of her ideas.

Gilding pears with real gold leaf was a touch decadent, but I will certainly be using ordinary fruit – possibly apples, dusted in powdery silver glitter, with a name card inserted into each stalk. I have also tied lengths of ribbon around each dining chair to give the Christmas table a more opulent look (see p38 of the 2009 Dairy Diary for this and more ideas for the table). Instead of hanging up the old tired-looking artificial wreath Kirstie and our gardening book, Seasonal Garden Ideas, inspired me to make my own. Armed with handfuls of foliage from the garden, I pinned and tucked evergreen twigs onto a moss-stuffed wire ring and finished it off with fir cones (collected by my two year old), cinnamon sticks and dried orange slices. It’s a very lovely addition to my front door.

Of course, I haven’t escaped cooking this weekend, I finally – yes late I know – made my Christmas cake. I love the Jewelled Christmas Cake from the 2009 Dairy Diary; it is simply delicious and looks so impressive. It’s a shame my decorating skills are not so impressive, though without having to use icing (which is always a disaster) perhaps this year, I may just create something worthy of the table.

Frosty frivolities

We had the first real frost last week – a beautiful, thick white crust enveloping the blue/grey fields and trees, sparkling when touched by the morning sun.

It made me feel very Christmassy but reluctant to go to work.

A walk in the countryside would have been much more preferable! However, work’s been great, we are still selling lots of diaries, gift packs and cookbooks, all the books for next year have been sent to print and we have been designing our radical Dairy Diary sticker sheet. This is a new addition for 2011, which should make weekly planning easier. No excuse for forgetting a birthday with a Dairy Diary sticker sheet!

The cold weather has set off Christmas preparations with fervour – present wrapping, card writing and even making festive bunting for the house – triangles of wrapping paper (in teal of course, to match the décor) threaded onto wool (thank you Prima). Of course, there is the obligatory cook-fest that comes with this time of year. This weekend I decided to get ahead of the game and did some Christmas cooking for the freezer.

For the Big Day I have made Cranberry Stuffing Loaf from the 2010 diary and I also made a couple of batches of the Chestnut soup (also from the 2010 edition) – perfect to defrost as a lunchtime winter warmer.

Preparing for Christmas

What a mixed week last week was! It was a mixture of feeling extremely festive and extremely stressed!

We have been flooded with orders on the week that Nick, the divisional manager, decided to take a golfing holiday!

We sold the entire cookbook reprint before it had even arrived but luckily we have a second delivery on its way very soon. It’s great that the books are so popular. As a Christmas special we are also offering a lovely free Dairy Diary pen with each giftpack sold (yes I have kept a few for the pen pot on my desk!)

On a festive note, tomorrow of course, we can open the first window of our advent calendar! I still get embarrassingly excited about such Christmas traditions. We have a very traditional Christmas dinner in our household and as Christmas orders need to be made soon I have started planning Christmas lunch and how much I may cheat this year.

For many complex reasons, last year we enjoyed a completely shop-bought lunch. It was tasty but nothing in comparison to proper home-cooked fayre. One side dish which will definitely be on the menu is the Treacle-Glazed Red Cabbage from the 2004 Dairy Diary (click here for recipe). It’s always really popular with everyone reaching for second helpings. I think I will also bake the Honey roast parsnips from last year’s diary (see below). Of course, everyone’s Christmas lunch varies and today Jamie Oliver tweeted a picture of Christmas tree-shaped pizza, consumed for Christmas lunch! Each to their own.

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