Wednesday 31 January 2018

January Celebrations

Hello.  Thank you for dropping in, it's lovely to see you here.  It's the last day of January and the sun is shining here, although it's cold enough for me to be wearing a scarf indoors.  January can be difficult, can't it, after the fun and sparkle of Christmas and New Year?  A time to get back into the old routines, made more dreary by cold, wet, grey days.  Everyone seems to be desperately searching for signs of spring - there are snowdrops aplenty on social media, labelled as spring flowers, but really they are winter flowers, aren't they?  The truth is that, astronomically speaking, we are not quite halfway through winter.  For me, it's a question of mindset, I have treated January as the winter month she is and, with no expectations of spring sunshine and warmth, it's been fine.  I have sat by the fire in the evenings, a blanket over my legs and a mug of hot chocolate in my hand, hunkering down in my nest, reading books, crocheting blankets and watching television.
 
However, this hibernation has been punctuated by celebrations which have definitely satisfied any longings we had for fun and sparkle .  First, there was The Mathematician's birthday: we filled up the car with family, cards, gifts, flowers, cake and love and drove over to Loughborough to spend the afternoon with her.  
 
 
I must tell you about this cake:  fifteen months ago we visited Portchester Castle with the Best Beloved's family.  The church which lies inside the castle walls operates a café and as the weather was kind for the time of year, we sat outside to drink our tea and coffee and eat cake in the sunshine.  Some of us had the ginger cake which was so extraordinarily good that others of us, who had eaten other cake, then bought ginger cake on our recommendation!  I mean, this cake made us gasp, it was sooooo good.  My niece went inside and asked for the recipe and was told that it was very strange and included fresh ginger, black pepper, water and oil.  Armed with that information, I hunted around the internet and eventually found the recipe here.  I'm not sure that I got the oven timings right - I made the usual adjustments for a fan oven but they weren't right and I think the instructions were actually written for a fan oven - and I know that my decorating skills are, ahem, "rustic" but, gentle readers, the cake was a triumph (she says, blushing modestly)!  Zingy ginger with a warm background of cinnamon, cloves and, of course, that black pepper, perfect on a wintry day.  It feeds ten people easily and I shall definitely be making it again. 
 
Our second celebration was a few days later, when we went to the University of Warwick to see The Teacher receive a Master of Arts degree.  I have been to several graduation ceremonies before but this one was special.  Please allow me this outburst of parental pride.
 
 
 
The third celebration was on the 24th January when I celebrated the life and works of Robert Burns in a Welsh household with some other English friends!  It's forty years since I went to a Burns Lunch and I've never been to a Burns Supper, and I don't really know why we were doing it on the wrong day, but I took with me some suitable Scottish postcards from my 1970s scrapbook and introduced my friends to the Selkirk Grace and the traditional Gaelic toast of "Slainte Mhath" (Good Health).  We ate haggis, neeps, tatties and carrots -
 
 
followed by cranachan -
 
 
and finished with cheese and biscuits.  This is Caboc, which was first made in Scotland in the fifteenth century and which I don't think I have eaten since I left there in 1979, but now that I have discovered that I can order it online and it will be delivered to my house the next day, I shan't be leaving it for another thirty-nine years before I eat it again!  It was just as delicious as I remembered it to be.
 
 
So that was January.  I almost wrote "I got through it" because I know that many people regard it as a month to be got through, but that seems a bit unfair on all the people who have birthdays this month (there are four of them in our family) and actually, I have done more than that, I have celebrated it. 
 
See you soon.
 
Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x
 

25 comments:

  1. You make the cake seem so enticing! Wondering just what a fan oven is? I see recipes in the England version of Country Living magazine and always wonder what the difference is. Hoping you might address it in a future post as I'm sure I'm not the only Yankee who loves to buy and read the magazines from England.

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    1. After research, found that fan oven is same as convection oven.

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    2. I had to look up "convection oven"! Yes, you've got it. I reduce the temperature by 10 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit) and the cooking time by 10 minutes per hour for my fan oven. I hope that helps. x

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  2. Yes, we celebrate January here, too. Two sons, a daughter-in-law, a brother, and a niece have birthdays. Congratulations to that grand achievement of your daughters! Your Burns supper sounds like a fun event. I'll have to look up Caboc and see what the ingredients are. Enjoy your last little bit of January!

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    1. My mother always says that it's the birthdays which get us through January. Caboc is basically made from double cream, I think, so it was a rich person's cheese, and it's rolled in oatmeal. It's a very unhealthy treat! x

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  3. So tempted by that ginger cake recipe I’m off to click on the link. I can imagine how proud you were at the graduation. Very special :) B x

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    1. Tremendously proud, Barbara, especially as she wrote her dissertation when she was eight months pregnant! The biggest shock about that cake is the fresh ginger - 115g of it! Do have a go. x

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  4. What a wonderful proud Mum moment, congratulations to The Teacher. Your Burns supper sounds delightful, as does the amazing ginger cake.

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    1. Thank you! The Burns Lunch was fun, although I rather think it was because my friends wanted to try haggis rather than to celebrate Rabbie's life and works, but good food with good friends is seldom bettered, I think. x

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  5. What an interesting sounding cake, who would have thought of black pepper in a cake.
    Congratulations to the Teacher on the MA, having gotten one I know what a lot of work they are.

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    1. Thanks Janet. The cake recipe was surprising, I've never made a cake with fresh ginger before either, and there was quite a lot of it! x

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  6. Congratulations to the Teacher, and birthday wishes to the Mathematician. Your January sounds properly feted. I'm okay with it being winter, too, and don't want to rush spring. But once February arrives, I become impatient to a fault! I'm off to investigate that intriguing ginger cake recipe.

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    1. Thanks Lorrie. Let me know if you try the cake. I'm itching to get out into my garden, it looks so scruffy, but there's a reason why the French call February Pluviose! x

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  7. What an exciting month full of memories, celebrations and cake! x

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  8. Sounds as if you have had a lovely cosy and yet celebratory January too. How proud you must have been of your Teacher. The cake looks very tasty and the cheese looks interesting, I must look out for that variety:)

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    1. I've never found Caboc in England Rosie. It's a young cheese, I think you are supposed to eat it within 5 days of manufacture, so perhaps that's why. I think it's made without rennet so it's good for vegetarians. x

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  9. The cake looks and sounds delicious. You've had a memorable month. Congratulations to the Teacher and enjoy your rightful parental pride. X

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    1. Thank you! I'm definitely going to make the cake again. I am still basking in that pride. x

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  10. It all sounds wonderful and happy and you must be so proud! Congratulations to the Teacher and Happy Birthday to the Mathematician. x K

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    1. Thank you! We certainly made some family memories in January. x

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  11. Congratulations to you all on lovely celebrations! The cake sounds delicious and the taste is more important than the looks - although it looks delicious to me!

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    1. Oh thank you Amy! I have always worked on the principle that the taste matters more than the way it looks and it's just as well, really. x

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  12. Oh, it sounds like a wonderful month of celebrations. Congratulations to all. Marie x

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  13. I had to pop back to tell you that I made this cake for Mr Candytuft’s birthday and it was absolutely delicious. Thank you for the recommendation. Marie x

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