I've got presents to wrap today, but hopefully I'll find time to make some mince pies to take to my daughter and son in law tomorrow when I take their presents. She's working some long shifts between now and Christmas Eve, so don't suppose she'll have a lot of time for baking.
“I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh
OH loves mince pies but I can only get them if I trek to the English store 30 miles or more away and then they're mass produced factory things with far too much pastry. I make mine either open topped with a drizzle of icing or else just a star of pastry which doesn't cover the whole thing.
English class with the scientists today. Theyv'e had mince pies in previous years so I'm trying them with Christmas mini muffins from the BBC Good Food website. They're a mix of mincemeat and dark chocolate and I've already got the mincemeat soaking up some extra brandy........
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast. "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
When I used to teach English to foreigners I used to take crackers along at Christmas. They always seemed amazed by them. Are we the only nation to litter the table with waste paper, wear silly hats, read out appalling jokes and think that we are having a "jolly good time"?
Apophthegm - a big word for a small thought. If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
I go to England in November and buy crackers (see family as well though) as they don't sell them in France.
My mince pies looked like yours, Tootles, but without the decoration. 75 were eaten at the Carol Service and 25 I took home. Other people made them too. I wish I knew how Gemma did that.
We are encouraged to buy French meat in France. There is a big pig farm near us. They live in fields with sheds for shelter. In the spring and summer the fields are full of huge sows with lots of babies. The sows lie in the sun and the piglets play.
The pigs are very big, the legs are huge, usually sold in slices.The pork crackling is usually removed. They sell it separately to boil with beans (haricots). I think it's revolting - all soggy, fatty and white. Lots of the eggs here are free range, I only buy free range eggs. The veal calves aren't separated from their mothers, they live in the fields with their mothers, not in barns, so the meat is darker and tougher than the veal I wouldn't eat years ago in England.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
I loathe crackers,(paper hat horrors) but OH loves them. He's taken the whole of Xmas week off so I need to keep him too busy to do a raid on the English shop. Luckily, he still has two of the compost heaps to turn and a huge pile of chipped bark to spread on the fruit bush bed................... and I can get him out dog walking for a couple of hours a day so it should be OK.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast. "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
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I've got presents to wrap today, but hopefully I'll find time to make some mince pies to take to my daughter and son in law tomorrow when I take their presents. She's working some long shifts between now and Christmas Eve, so don't suppose she'll have a lot of time for baking.
OH loves mince pies but I can only get them if I trek to the English store 30 miles or more away and then they're mass produced factory things with far too much pastry. I make mine either open topped with a drizzle of icing or else just a star of pastry which doesn't cover the whole thing.
English class with the scientists today. Theyv'e had mince pies in previous years so I'm trying them with Christmas mini muffins from the BBC Good Food website. They're a mix of mincemeat and dark chocolate and I've already got the mincemeat soaking up some extra brandy........
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
When I used to teach English to foreigners I used to take crackers along at Christmas. They always seemed amazed by them. Are we the only nation to litter the table with waste paper, wear silly hats, read out appalling jokes and think that we are having a "jolly good time"?
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
I go to England in November and buy crackers (see family as well though) as they don't sell them in France.
My mince pies looked like yours, Tootles, but without the decoration. 75 were eaten at the Carol Service and 25 I took home. Other people made them too. I wish I knew how Gemma did that.
We are encouraged to buy French meat in France. There is a big pig farm near us. They live in fields with sheds for shelter. In the spring and summer the fields are full of huge sows with lots of babies. The sows lie in the sun and the piglets play.
The pigs are very big, the legs are huge, usually sold in slices.The pork crackling is usually removed. They sell it separately to boil with beans (haricots). I think it's revolting - all soggy, fatty and white. Lots of the eggs here are free range, I only buy free range eggs. The veal calves aren't separated from their mothers, they live in the fields with their mothers, not in barns, so the meat is darker and tougher than the veal I wouldn't eat years ago in England.
I loathe crackers,(paper hat horrors) but OH loves them. He's taken the whole of Xmas week off so I need to keep him too busy to do a raid on the English shop. Luckily, he still has two of the compost heaps to turn and a huge pile of chipped bark to spread on the fruit bush bed................... and I can get him out dog walking for a couple of hours a day so it should be OK.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw