Christmas Pain!

Don't worry, we are all ok - but here's a French Christmas recipe for you. It was featured one day last week on my beautiful Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar - a set of traditional seasonal recipes. This year's calendar has a Parisienne theme. So here is Pain D'Épices.

PAIN D'ÉPICES - This classic spice-laden quick bread is served alongside savoury dishes (such as foie gras or cheeses) or warmed with butter.

• 250ml/9fl oz milk
• 250g/9oz honey
• 170g/6oz rye flour 
• 125g/4oz plain (all-purpose) flour 
• 50g/2oz brown sugar
• 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) 
• 1½ tsp salt
• 1½ tsp finely grated orange zest
• ½ tsp black pepper
• Mixed spice (adjusted per your taste):1½ tsp ground cinnamon, 1½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground nutmeg, ½ tsp ground cloves, ½ tsp anise seeds

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, brown sugar, bicarbonate of soda, orange zest, salt, pepper and spices. Warm the milk and honey in a small saucepan, stirring until the honey is dissolved. Gradually add the milk and honey to the flour mixture, stirring until a smooth, uniform paste is achieved.
2. Pour the batter into a prepared, buttered and floured, loaf pan (23x5cm/9x2in). Bake in the centre of a preheated oven at 165C°/325°F for 40-45 minutes, until deeply browned. Transfer the loaf to a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then tip out of the pan. Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving.

I decided to make this on Saturday afternoon. Bob was a great help - I had no anise seeds, so he ground up a little bit of star anise in the pestle and mortar. 

The method was very easy - but I needed slightly longer in the oven than I thought - 50 minutes. The finished loaf looked, and smelt great!

And while it cooked, I took down all my spices, wiped the jars, removed outdated stuff, and put them back in proper alphabetical order! All ready for a New Year of Baking.

I have hung a few late arrival random decorations on the rack, along with the lovely spice star Liz bought me years ago from a German Xmas Market. You can just see my jug of twigs and baubles which was a fiver from a Dorset CS in 2018. This year, under the twiggy 'tree' I've placed a shepherd. He was £1.50 in a CS in Manchester last month. Bob and I both liked the simplicity of the figure.

As I was pottering in the kitchen, Bob came in and said he thought he'd heard a car and voices outside. I went to check, in case we had visitors. It was a young family who had driven into the Close to look at the Nativity Tableau. They had brought their little boy last year, and he'd really loved it, so they decided to visit again. This charming 5 year old had all sorts of questions, and wanted to tell me about his baby sister, who was asleep in her car seat. We chatted for a while then he went home with his family, with some Christmas Chocolate. A delightful unexpected visitor.

The JWs had come round a little earlier, wanting to ask me what I thought about Jesus. "Which way did you come into the Close? from the left or the right? They pointed , and I said "So did you see the tableau? I believe Jesus is the Reason for The Season" Had I actually read the Bible recently? "Yes," I said, "this morning. I'm sorry, I have to go, I am in the middle of baking. God bless you!"

Upside Down And Back To Front

I finally got my bakeware sorted! It has only taken 4 years! When we came to Cornerstones for Christmas in 2020, I realised that in the 11 years since we'd got this property, I'd been accumulating bakeware here.

If I was here for a week or more, and I wanted to make cakes or pies, I'd pick up tins in CS, or sales. And when we retired, I brought my pans from Dorset, and I had a lot of duplicates! On Saturday afternoon, I pulled the two huge plastic boxes out of the relatively inaccessible corner cupboard and sorted everything out.

I now have a large box of perfectly good, but surplus, bakeware, ready to go back to a CS. I've admitted that the still wrapped silicon macaron sheet is never going to be used, and the heavy shortbread mould brought back from holiday 20 years ago, and used twice, is a waste of space.

I have reduced the collection by 50%, and made a careful list of what I have kept. And also noted that my large rectangular springform pan [as used for big celebration cakes] will only fit in the right hand oven, below the fan, with the oven shelf put in upside down [and needs 1½ times my regular Xmas cake recipe] The cupboards are much tidier.

I had an unexpected flash of inspiration last week. I want to wear my pretty blue skirt over Christmas, and I wanted a simple plain blue sweater to go with it. But I've been very strict all year about clothes buying. 

I suddenly realised that I could wear the pretty blue cardi which Steph gave me a few years ago, but put it on back to front! It goes beautifully, and looks great under my black jacket. Wearing B2F was very popular in WW2 during clothes rationing. 

Have you done any successful decluttering recently? 

Do you ever wear things B2F? 

[I know Kezzie tucks in dresses to wear as tops] 

What I Bought In Walsingham

There is always an issue when I go out for the day - what will it cost? And some venues may feel very expensive, and there are "add-ons" like parking, food etc. Our Walsingham trip was not too bad - although we could have spent a lot of money if we'd wanted...

Little Walsingham is a very small place, and everywhere was in reasonable walking distance, we paid £4 for our parking [I do like this sign from another religious venue]

We arrived and parked at 9.30am. After our first visit [the Orthodox Church] we walked back to the village centre, and visited the "Read and Digest" Tearoom. by the old village Pump.

This was a quirky little venue - with an amazing selection of teas, and delicious sausage rolls [plus cakes, scones, coffees and more] We each had two generously sized rolls [his with mustard seeds, mine with red onion] made from local pork, with a good pastry crust, and locally sourced chutney. The teapots each held 2½ cups of tea. The bill was about £15 - for a very filling breakfast.

We then walked up to the Catholic Chapel. We passed another tea and gift shop [closed on Mondays] 

I was particularly taken with the three metal magi on a rocking donkey which was in the window. My photo did not come out [too many reflections] but I found this online. Cute, but too expensive!

Then we visited the "Let The Children Live!"Charity Shop. I have never visited a CS with two rails of ecclesiastical vestments before! Surplices and stoles and scarves etc...And everything at very low prices- books were 4 for £1. I found two I liked, a Pie Minister Cookbook, and an Ian Rankin detective one I'd not read. I couldn't see anything else I wanted, so gave the lady £1 anyway,

There will be pies, Bob will be happy! I didn't buy any candles, or cards saying "I prayed for you at Walsingham", which were on sale in all the churches we visited. I think God hears our prayers wherever we are, and location is not as important as the action of doing it. In the CofE church there were racks of small prayer cards, with a sign saying these were all free, so I took 2 for special friends. 

And then we walked back to the car. I bought my plaque in the Shrine Shop [£12.50]

We drove back via Fakenham and stopped at the big Sue Ryder CS. Bob got a bit of audio gear and I bought a craft book [to be reviewed later] total spend there £7.

We spent around £33 in Walsingham, but that included breakfast - and then there was the CS spend on the way home. The plaque was a special treat to celebrate 3 years of retirement at Cornerstones.

It was lovely to have a morning out together - we've been quite busy with other stuff in recent days. We were home by 2 for a late sandwich lunch.

And I gained a lot from the day which cost me nothing...So I am very happy.