Self-medication

 I went for a routine appointment

and came out with high blood pressure.

Several attempts only succeeded in raising it further.

So this is my attempt to bring it down.

And if tranquil beach scenes don't do it,

then surely off-season Sissinghurst

with nobody around to spoil Harold's vistas

should be beneficial.

And if that doesn't work

I will try dark chocolate

and having a laugh.

It's beginning to look a bit like

A perfect dawn.

Time to see off this beastly bug for good.

The leaking coolant pipe in the car has been fixed

(yes that was the third thing),

the meat has been collected,

the veg box delivered,

the cake has been iced,

the Advent windows admired,

cards and twinkly lights,

are disposed about the house.

O. has made a huge batch of seething sourdough

and I have cracked open

the Quality Street.

Interesting how much smaller the old tins were.

And finally the orange pastry recipe for mince pies
from my  'well used' Josceline Dimblebey book.
I hope you can read it Frances.

High tide

We are not a large clan.

The normal crew these days is 2 people,

so it is lovely to have the tide bringing 

a veritable flood of family and friends to the kitchen table.

A birthday is always an excuse for chocolate cake.

This one is Chocolate cake with lime from

Sarah Raven's Friends and Family.

As usual I cooked too much.

We are awash with leftovers.

It is still raining.

Is it time to build an ark?

Winter solstice visitor

Not one glimmer of sunlight

on this the shortest, darkest day of the year.

Here's some sun I saw earlier.

I think I may have made my last trip to Sainsbury's,

the one where I use up all my Nectar points.

I baked a ham.

O. made up a jar of Jamie Oliver's hot chocolate mix,

I will make waffles - a first,

and we will welcome a university friend from Chicago.

I can get her verdict on my peppermint bark.

Sugar high 2

It is at this time of year that I begin to read about

peppermint bark on American blogs.

It is spoken of with real affection and slight nostalgia.

Layers of dark and light chocolate are

sprinkled with crushed red and white candy canes

 and  flavoured with peppermint.

I determined to make my own,

but nothing is quite the same here.

I had to use mint humbugs,

(rather more brown and white than red).
I wasn't sure if my cream was heavy enough.

There wasn't enough white chocolate in the cupboard

so I added a milk chocolate layer.

But I put it in a nice jar and saved the trimmings as cook's perk.

Then I made my grandmother's May Toffee

because that's traditional too,

and saved the trimmings as cook's perk.

The cook is feeling quite perked up now

and may not sleep tonight.

Golden Day

Golden, bittersweet day.

Found

this little bunch in the garden.

Clematis armandii, skimmia and

a naturalised hyacinth

the exact colour of Bristol blue glass.

My reward for hours of hard labour.

The group birthday cake was also made and iced for

the first of three close family birthdays.

Happy birthday J.

Here's a little gift for you.

The evidence

I know the sun must have shone

briefly 

because 

I have

the evidence. 

I know we must have had birthday cake for P.

because I have the evidence for that too.

Sarah Raven's Chocolate cake with lime.

Limes are essential for vitamin C.

Chocolate is essential for February.

Gracious living

'Basil and I will meet you at Oxford. 

Could you bring a box of Charbonel's chocolates - chiefly No.9's.

Put it down to Mother. I'll pay her.'

But Easter has forgotten them.

'Well what was to be done? 

A thousand times over would she have exchanged 

her new dressing-case 

for a brown papered parcel of chocolates.'

No matter -

'If I wire for them,' Easter thought,

'they'd be here in the morning.' 

from Mad Puppetstown by Molly Keane.

Then of course I had to know -

what flavour is a No.9?

And Victoria Leadbitter at Charbonnel et Walker

was happy to help.

It is the Café Charbonnel a coffee flavoured dark chocolate.

Is it still available and what are the other flavours?

She wrote again from her splendid address:

1 Royal Arcade,

28 Old Bond Street,

London.

'The chocolates are not really numbered anymore,' but

Many of them are still made today; 

we just tend to refer to them as their names rather than their numbers. 

Although plenty of our customers who have been shopping with us 

for many years still refer to them in numbers. 

We often receive handwritten notes

 from customers requesting boxes filled with 

certain numbers to be sent to their homes.

 We still custom fill boxes for our customers all the time. 

Customers can call, email and drop in store 

to have a box filled with whatever they prefer.

 We can keep a record of your purchase and preferred chocolates 

so you just need to give your name and ask for a repeat order.

We pride ourselves on our personal service

and remembering our customers by name.

Our most popular chocolate today 

is our Pink Marc de Champagne Truffle.

Although this one is only six years old.

Our most popular traditional chocolates are our English Rose

& Violet Creams which we have been making 

since 1875, to Madame  Charbonnel's original recipe.

As soon as the list arrives I will place my hand-written order.

The large crocodile dressing case with gold fittings from Asprey

with its legion of gold-topped boxes

 may be a superfluous accoutrement these days

but chocolates will never date.

Coming home

The sayonara parties are over,

the last presents exchanged,

case packed,

(overweight with all those presents)

and he's in the air on the way to Dubai.

All he has to do now is find a UK airport

fit to land a plane tomorrow.

And we have to find a motorway

clear enough to drive on.

I've bought the Thermos flasks,

and industrial quantities of Fruit and Nut chocolate.

Shameless toadying

My walnut whip cake.

Using my mother's walnut cake recipe

with a chocolate ganache icing.

(For Mr M.)

My Carlton ware lustre garlic bowl.

(For Mrs M.)