Tag Archives: Christmas

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.

Cranberry Stuffing Loaf

Cranberry Stuffing Loaf

This Cranberry Stuffing Loaf is a delicious alternative to traditional Christmas turkey stuffing. Suitable for freezing, this tasty dish is perfect to defrost as a lunchtime winter warmer. A Dairy Diary recipe. For more delicious recipes visit the Dairy Diary Recipe Collection.

CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE

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.

Honey Roast Parsnips

 

Christmas isn’t Christmas without roast parsnips. The honey in this recipe adds a little extra sweetness and turns the humble parsnip into something very special.

 

Honey Roast Parnips

Honey Roast Parsnips

Serves 4
Time 35 mins
Suitable for vegetarians

 

Olive oil 2 tbsp
Unsalted butter 50g (2oz)
Parsnips 900g (2lb), peeled and quartered lengthways
Clear honey 2 tbsp

1 Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7. Heat oil and butter in a roasting tin on top of the stove. Add parsnips and fry until golden on all sides.

2 Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, turning occasionally.

3 Pour honey over roast parsnips and coat evenly. Season and return to the oven for 5 more minutes, or until tender.

Cook’s tip
Small or medium sized parsnips give the best flavour and texture.

A Dairy Diary recipe.

 

Christmas countdown

It’s the last week in November and the Christmas countdown has begun. Today I opened my brand new Dairy Diary for the first time and added next year’s holiday dates – two booked already, how fantastic!

It may just be my obsessively organisational nature but there is something lovely about opening a new diary and filling in all your details – with your best writing pen and handwriting of course! Then two weeks’ later the book is full of lots of scribbled notes in several different pens!

It’s been a very industrious and Christmassy weekend, with craft projects and ‘Stir-up Sunday’ – traditionally, the day when Christmas puddings are made – with the whole family joining in to ‘stir-up’ the mixture. We made delicious Calypso puddings from the 2010 Dairy Diary, refreshingly different with pineapple and mango as well as prunes and apricots.

 

Home-made Christmas card

Isaac's Christmas card

Working on the 2011 Dairy Diary, with its card-making feature, has inspired me to make cards for loved ones this year. I’m afraid time as a working mum doesn’t allow for all my cards to be home-made but the special people in our lives will get mummy-commissioned cards made by my son, who will be two in December. First we found all the buttons cut from my clothes over the past ten years (some in frightening colours and patterns!) and sorted them into colours. I drew a triangle on a ready-made card and Isaac spread the triangle with glue and covered it with buttons, placing an extra one underneath for the ‘trunk’.

He thoroughly enjoyed himself with gluing and sticking and they looked surprisingly good. The most effective card is a shocking pink with black buttons (especially for Auntie Claire according to Isaac!). Let’s hope Auntie Claire isn’t reading this…….

 

1 … 6 7
Blog at WordPress.com.