Christmas cooking and carving

Christmas comes but once a year. Which is a blooming good job as far as I'm concerned.

What with the very unusual sub-zero temperatures, the snow and ice, plus looking after the incapacitated, I for one, am very glad to see the back of it this year.

Chris's wrist developed into gout which was very painful indeed and he was not the jolliest of Festive companions. Unusually I had left making my Christmas cake until the last minute. As he always ices it (and there was no way I was going down that route) I showed him various alternatives amongst my recipes. He was not impressed and said he would rather do without. (Cue for a martyred expression).

We went to my sister's for Christmas Day whereupon it fell to me to carve the turkey because everyone else professed themselves to have absolutely no idea where to start. Since my elder son once trained as a chef my guess is that he had more than no idea but, as it was Christmas, I thought I'd have a go. It was dead easy. Just another thing for men make a fuss about!!

I also carved the ribs of beef that I (over)cooked for Boxing Day. I cannot imagine how I ever passed Maths O level. I made a right hash of calculating the cooking time following Delia's tried and trusted method. The trouble was the conversions from kgs to lbs etc. I thought I'd got it right but the meat, good though it was, was drier and greyer than I would have liked.

Nigella's ice cream cake made by my sister was star of the show on Christmas Day. If you are ever entertaining people with a sweet tooth then you must try this. Mind you, it may contain nuts . . .

I made her Franglico tiramisu again for Boxing Day. It was much better this time (and I put it in a prettier dish).

But my favourite recipe was one which I remember my aunt making years ago. She cooked Christmas lunch for my dad this year and said that he had 3 portions of Brandy ice cream. This is easy, decadent and absolutely the tops with Christmas pudding. And it doesn't need an ice cream maker.

Belinda's brandy ice cream

4 eggs

5 oz caster sugar

5 tbsp clear honey (aunt uses 3)

1 pint double cream

8 tbsp brandy (aunt uses max of 5)

You need 3 large bowls!

1. Separate eggs.

2. Beat egg yolks and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in honey.

3. In bowl 2 whisk cream until thick then fold in the brandy.

4. Fold cream into egg mixture.

5. In bowl 3 whisk egg whites until stiff then fold these into the egg/cream mixture.

6. Freeze.

It comes out of the freezer soft, smooth and ready to eat. Makes 2 litres.

(Belinda was my cousin's bridesmaid who once went on a very posh cookery course and made the recipe there - this will have been about 30 years ago).

It's absolutely gorgeous.

A Happy New Year to one and all.

P.S. I managed to pick up a half price iced Christmas cake from Waitrose this morning. Just as well because a certain person had been saying it was a shame we hadn't got one!!

76 trombones

In 2009 the extended Lark family was completely spoilt for family celebrations. We had 18ths, 21sts, a 50th, a 75th and a daughter's wedding. This year seems meagre by comparison. Our 30th wedding anniversary falls on St Cecilia's Day and we are expecting our first grandchild in August. Great causes for rejoicing of course but not really enough for a family who like to meet up a lot and who like their food. So we celebrated Chris's 76th with a Sunday lunch barbecue. All 4 of our kids came, 2 partners, my mum drove down from Northamptonshire (she is 82 in August so that will be another party) and my sister and nieces. None of my family are big drinkers (I have to make up for them all) so we were really thrilled that the eldest son, who works in advertising/marketing, brought us several cases of the new flavours of J2O. These have been designed to work with food instead of red and white wines. The jury is out on this but as they were free we're not complaining!




We had garlic bread, crisps and dips to start and then the usual suspects made it to the grill. Costco burgers and sausages, and chicken thighs marinated in Nando's peri peri sauce. There is no point in doing anything else for my lot at a barbecue. This is what they want, and anyway they're waiting for the puddings! I didn't go mad on the salads either because they tend to hang around for a long time afterwards. But Costco have started selling tubs of those little balls of mozzarella which were lovely with some good tomatoes, tiny Greek basil leaves and olive oil. A big pan of Jersey Royals (an amazing price of £1 a kilo in Tesco), bought coleslaw and various bits of greenery completed the main course. My mum, having just returned from Amalfi, was particularly pleased with the buffalo mozzarella. (And she'd bought me a small bottle of Limoncello too).

And so to the desserts. Nothing I hadn't made before but then why change a successful combination? There was Squidgy Chocolate Torte and Mascarpone and Marmalade ice cream from the BBC Good Food website. For the record I don't think I shall make the ice cream again other than to use up marmalade. It wasn't really worth the faff. It tastes lovely but the mascarpone adds very little.

As promised Anne brought Nigella's Ice-Cream Cake. This is a really big hit with twenty-somethings but is a bit too sweet for me.

And finally Crunchy Lemon Pie, trashy but divine. By Monday evening there was nothing left of any of the puds. By the way, I didn't deviate at all from any of the recipes.

Happy 76th Birthday Chris! Now to find some Limoncello recipes . . .