Sad but true…10 things..

1) Yesterday I made another Christmas cake as unfortunately the first one looked very nice on the outside but was not cooked through in the middle 🤢. Here’s the new one… spot the difference?! (apart from the fact it’s definitely cooked through this time… actually slightly overcooked now)

The difference is the smooth fondant icing as Tesco’s had sold out of the ready made Royal Icing. Don’t ask me why after 30 years of cooking Christmas cake to the same recipe perfectly suddenly I can’t cook it any more. I suspect it’s our new oven a few years ago.. I think I had a couple of years of slightly overdone cakes due to a slightly hotter oven, and now I’ve gone the other way and cooked for a shorter time for fear of overcooking. At least the Christmas pudding is still perfect 😍. And the cake no.2 is edible/won’t make us ill.

2) I have to go back to work tomorrow.. no more getting up at 10.00 a.m.

3) David and I have nearly polished off a turkey breast joint meant to serve 8-10 people. We had it hot on Christmas Day, cold for Boxing Day lunch, last night chunky turkey curry as below, and now a curry portion left in the freezer.

I made my turkey curry with fried onion, hot curry powder, coconut milk, a squeeze of lemon, black pepper and spinach. I served it with basmati and wild rice.

4) I still have some pumpkins I grew for Halloween. 🎃 I think they’re still OK. I might get around to cooking with them later this week.

5) Our new kitchen is not finished… I’m thinking Easter 2022… that way I won’t be disappointed (hopefully!).

6) I now have 4 books from the library I’ve started reading simultaneously.. and am in danger of not finding time to finish any of them 🤣. Here is the latest one I just started as I need to read this for our January book club meeting. It doesn’t have any full stops in it!! What’s that all about?

7) Usually I quite like ironing, but recently my laundry basket has exploded! The ironing no longer fits in the basket and has erupted out of the top and down onto the floor in the hall… what a mess!

8) The weather has been really murky and miserable all Christmas break. We’ve still had a nice time though.

9) The only Christmas TV we’ve watched has been the news as well as one prerecorded Doctor Who. We haven’t played any board games or done any jigsaw puzzles either. I’m not sure where the time has gone.. possibly eating, drinking and napping.

10) I went to see my parents today to drop off Christmas gifts. They still don’t allow visitors inside the house due to Covid concerns. We chatted on the doorstep looking up at their first floor window. Apart from taking my Mum to the dentist recently I was beginning to wonder if she still had legs as I’d only seen her top half for 2 years.

That’s all folks. Happy Twixmas! 😊 Xx