My great-auntie Gertie, she of the rabbit-skinning speed record (Portly passim), used to keep a drawer full of gifts in her dressing table. Not ones she had bought in advance, the sort of thing you stash away on the off-chance you’ll match it to a suitable recipient, but ones she’d been given. It was not uncommon to get back the Christmas present you’d sent her a year or two earlier, neatly re-wrapped. Continue reading
The elder tree is a remarkable thing. It doesn’t look like much – it’s more of a weedy shrub or a shrubby weed than a tree – but it gives us fragrant elderflowers early in the season, and deliciously winey elderberries at this time of the year. Continue reading
The turkey is on order and the Christmas cake is made. Time to think about what else will be on the Yuletide table at Mrs P’s. Our family likes a traditional Christmas dinner: turkey with all the trimmings including chipolatas and bacon, and a whopping great piece of ham to eat cold with the leftover bird on Boxing Day (and to pick at every time they pass the fridge, along with a fistful of cold sausages).
Jackie Kennedy lays out the wrapping for the salmon
Usually I buy my chipolatas and ham from a good butcher but this year I went on a Christmas curing course with charcutiers Jackie and Sarah at Marsh Pig in Norfolk. Continue reading