Christmas Wishes

Peaceful wishes for Christmas to all my cyber friends.


Christmas baking - the Bûche de Noël for dessert on Christmas Eve, and a brioche for breakfast on Christmas morning. At the time of writing this, we haven't yet had the brioche, but I took the advice of a workmate to try using some Italian 00 flour (he'd just been using some for traditional soft bread-rolls from the part of the country he comes from), and it certainly rose beautifully and feels lovely and light.

I tried to make the Bûche a little less rich than last year when I used ganache and a cooked buttercream - and judging by C's verdict after eating the trimmings off the ends, I succeeded. I'm still using my mother's original recipe, which actually I think is  American and not French at all, as it comes from The Gold Cook Book by Louis P. De Gouy, who was the chef at the Waldorf Astoria for 30 years. It's my brother who has the book, but I have the recipe on an index card, and so far I've managed not to lose it. I guess, actually, since De Gouy's father was the "Esquire of Cuisine" in the royal courts in Belgium and Austria, it could have European roots.

I added four peacocks to the flock of birds adorning my tree this year - when I saw them in TK Maxx back in November I couldn't resist them; one has taken up a perch for the evening on the log. I appear to have lost the little sprig of holly I made for it a couple of years ago using an Impression Obsession die, so this time I cut a couple of sprays of ivy from Yupo, reckoning that it wouldn't get soggy even in contact with the cake.

The brioche recipe is from Stephen Harris in The Telegraph. We won't be having raspberry compote with ours, I bought some nice jam in a fine-food store.

Waah....

We were all set to watch the next instalment of The Beiderbecke Tapes as light entertainment last night. And the DVD player wouldn't work. Bit of thinking, and maybe my 30 day trial of the nVidia decoder for using with Windows Media Player had expired. So I tried loading my old DVD program - no joy. Ten o'clock last night, and I was still getting nowhere, even after paying to download a PowerDVD decoder. Frustration all round. Things are partially working today - but I want my money back if CyberLink's tech support can't deal with what seems to be a common fault. They suggest I update my graphics drivers - well, I had enough cop to do that before I contacted them.
Anway, today was spent mostly in the kitchen. We have a Tanzanian friend coming tomorrow before she heads back home for good. I was going to make a tagine, but there was no fresh coriander in the local greengrocers, and he wasn't going to be getting any in till after lunch. I hoped to be finished in the kitchen by then, so we're having a curry instead. It's called Beef with Cashew Nuts, but really I think it's a case of a Korma by any other name, with a bit more cardamom than normal. For dessert I'm trying a creme caramel with a difference: the milk and cream were infused for a while with coffee beans and a cinnamon stick. It smelled almost like toasted coconut, for some strange reason. I also made a batch of brownies, and right now it's time to go and cut them, ready for afternoon coffee.

Just two Greek photos today - a beer bottle on the old disused salt flats, and an old Venetian bridge. I think the name translates as five arches. Five something or other; I recognise the five, and am guessing the arches. These were both on the east coast. The salt flats were amazing, very photogenic in an abstract way. Swirls, and cracked ground, and red and white texture. I don't know if the red was just from the soil - not the colour of the rest of the earth in that particular area, or from iron salts somewhere reacting with all the salt.