First jigsaw completed.

 Not very exciting for me but DB loves trains. We got a box of 4 x 500 piece train jigsaws from a charity shop:

Only took 2 or 3 days.

Hope you are all having a grand time!

Herewith my presents from family and our walking buddies as well as each other:

12" and 6" paper pads, two boxes of Pritt sticks and a bottle of special glue for crafting. Two video games, a new glass tea pot for my herbal teas, two hand creams, one soap and a packet of tissues for out walking as I am always asking for one!

Oops! Just found under the tree, a jar of Blackberry jam from a friend and a little wooden house ornament for the tree from my niece.

 We ate our Christmas meal at 12:00. Only fresh items were the swede and brussels sprouts. Gammon was sliced from yesterday and steamed, roast potatoes and roasted carrots and parsnips were home made and air fried from frozen, cheese sauce to finish.

For tea, we shall just have a cup of tea and Christmas pudding with either custard or brandy sauce.

We shall feast!

 We might be on our own but will make the most of it!

Today I cooked the gammon. It will be sliced tomorrow. Roast potatoes and roast vegetables will be thawed. Just Brussels to cook fresh. We shall have cheese sauce instead of gravy. Christmas pudding and brandy or baileys sauce to finish if we have room.

Tea if needed will be a sandwich, sausage roll, pickle and trifle. Yum!

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Must be mad!

 We popped out to do some last minute food shopping yesterday. Despite not getting in until 09:30, the roads were fine.

We called in M & S for a look around. Busier than normal, but bought what we needed and got out. It was getting busy.

Then onto the Grape Tree for a selection of fruit and nuts. Elsewhere, DM bought a small bottle of varnish for a model he’s making, then we took a break in our favourite cafe. That was almost empty when we arrived, but full as we left.

Time to get out!

On the way home we visited Farm Foods and topped up with Magnum ice cream lollies (6 full size ones for £6) and 2 large top half legs of lamb for £19.98. 

We won’t need to shop again until the New Year hopefully.

Living in a hollow

 Our village lies in a bit of a hollow, making two step verification by phone extremely difficult!

This morning for example, we tried to order oil via the internet and after 4 failed attempts gave up. Three were via mobile phone, one via the new digital land line.

Mobile phone strength at best is usually 2 bars, quite often 1 bar and regularly 0 bars. People can often be seen around the kerbside, phones held aloft, trying to get a signal.

In the end, for the oil order, we had to wait for the company to open and phone them up. They could tell we had tried to order, oh er Mrs!

Christmas vegetable price drop

 This is the time of year when vegetables normally associated with Christmas, get greatly reduced. In Lidl, they were all 15p a bag. Not so in Morrison’s. They were all 50p a bag unless you had a loyalty card, then they were 19p a bag.

We got ours from Lidl needless to say.

A small present and food bank items came to £10, a few store cupboard items, £10. Excluding those, we still spent £66, terrible prices for not a lot of food. We are also changing over to their stock cubes as they are 1/4 of the price of Knorr.

Our normal shopping day is over the festive days, not days to go shopping for sure. We hope to not venture out again until about 2 days after those days.

Air Fryer Sausage Rolls

These were cooked in my Cosori air fryer, which I use for baking as it has a top and bottom element:

180C for 10 minutes, 190C for 10 minutes. The two right front rolls are pigs in blankets in pastry aka sausagement, wrapped in streaky bacon, then pastry. They were yum!!

I also trialled making sausagement using minced pork shoulder, bacon, cheese and breadcrumbs, plus salt, pepper and sage. This mixture was then put into a bladed food processer and turned into a more paste like consistency, it worked very well. 

Tuesday morning, signifying bad weather, we woke up to a glorious sunrise:

4 out of 10!

 That was our score for our Christmas meal last night. We would have been better getting a meal from the regular menu plus a dessert, it would have been both cheaper and probably nicer. We have eaten there in the past and all has been well.

Our roast beef dinner consisted of 6 small slices of meat, full of gristle which we could barely cut. A big cardboard Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes that were actually deep fried, very very dark brown. Vegetables were okay and consisted of cauliflower, broccoli, carrots peas, Brussels and new potatoes. There were so many we barely ate 1/4 of the plate between the 4 of us, a little ball of stuffing and some gravy.

For dessert I had a sherry trifle served in a small jar. Mainly jelly, a bit of sponge, a scant tablespoon of runny custard, a ball of spray cream and some sprinkles. The others had a cheesecake and ginger cake with ice cream. This course was better.

I asked for Malibu, nope. Cointreau, nope, so settled for a soft drink. Oh and they forgot to give us spoons to serve the vegetables with. Our table, festively decorated simply had a Christmas napkin!

Needless to say, their tip was very small. We have decided in future years to still go out at Christmas but each normal food.

Just a few decorations

When we spend Christmas on our own, I really struggle to be bothered. It used to be my most favourite time of the year, far surpassing birthdays, not anymore.

For a few Christmas times, we have just used the middle and top of our tree. This year, just the top:

These went up simply because our two school buddies who we walk with, often come here for a cup of tea, after we have been out for our Christmas meal. Quite frankly, I didn’t want to bother doing even that.

They though share their time with their families who all live locally or travel to them. I try not to get too upset over tales of the fun times they will have, the games they will play or all the conversations they will have.

I know I am not alone feeling like this. Don’t get me wrong, we really enjoy each other’s company and can do what we want when we want. Christmas just isn’t what it used to be that’s for sure. 

Prepping for Christmas with my air fryer

 Firstly, I had to buy 10 individual tartlet tins for my mince pies as regular tins don't fit the air fryer:

Mince pies duly made. The mincemeat was 1 year old but had had copious amounts of Brandy put into it and tasted like new:

Finally, the first batch of Duck fat roast potatoes. After par boiling, they were added to hot fat (just 1 tablespoon) and air fried for 20 minutes. Super crispy outside, soft and fluffy inside - yum! They nearly didn't make it to the freezer!

Roasted parsnips and carrots were also cooked but I forgot to take a picture.

Goodbye Sage….

 Our first grand dog is being put to sleep in the next half hour or so. We can’t be there unfortunately. She is a wonderful dog, faithful and just gorgeous. She celebrated her 13th birthday on Monday. Her health has been deteriorating for a while now.

Whilst she has had a good innings, she will be sorely missed. R.I.P gorgeous lady.

Right chilly!

 Although last night was our coldest, just under -3C, it was nowhere near as cold as winter nights a few years ago. These often had -10C as a normal overnight temperature.

I was freezing though. Despite wearing a long sleeved nightie, being under a winter duvet with a fleece blanket on top, I just couldn’t stay warm. When I awoke this morning, after a fitful night, I was curled in a tight ball.

Hot meals and snacks, heating on 18C, on and off, plus the wood burner going, the house felt a bit chilly. We stayed where the fire was, only venturing out to get food and hot drinks.

Doesn’t bode well does it, especially if the winter gets cold for long periods. Good job I am wearing lots of layers, thick socks, fingerless mittens and have a woollen blanket close by!