Since Christmas eve the weather has become distinctly chilly at night, with hard frosts in the mornings and beautiful, clear, blue , sunny skies during the days; warmish, even!
We went to Brassempouy to spend Christmas day and Boxing day with Julie and Adrian, to help them eat their enormous turkey. The food, drink and company were all superb; it must rate as the most relaxing Christmas ever.
The high point of Boxing day was maintaining a tradition started by Adrian’s grandad, apparently much to the annoyance of Ade’s mother. Christmas dinner sandwiches. The trick is to put some of everything you had for Christmas dinner; ie turkey, potatoes, carrots, sprouts, stuffing and even gravy, into a sandwich. You are allowed extras, such as mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, etc. It was challenging to do this with rice cakes instead of bread, but I rose to the challenge and the result was very tasty.
I got back to work, well slightly, this afternoon, getting on with the painting in the next bedroom. I love the colour, powder blue with a hint of lavender; I just hope I’ve mixed up enough; as usual I didn’t like any of the colours available to buy, so ended up by mixing my own.
Making a Christmas dinner sandwich with rice cakes may have been challenging to make but I bet it was even more ‘challenging’ to eat!
Has the Cawthray mince pie bakery closed up shop till next Christmas or are you continuing to take orders?
One of the French traditions, which the girls loved, was the festival of the Kings on the 6th January. All the schools got served with a couronne (generally chocolate chip brioche) which contained a little figure – the child who got the piece with the figure in it became king for the day- the bakery even supplied a paper crown with it. (UK Health and Safety would have a field day). So look out for them in the bakeries and supermarket.