Author: boomingbanter

There are different traditions on when to remove the Christmas decorations.

Some friends take them down immediately after Christmas most people think they should come down before the Epiphany. We’ve been known to keep ours up till way after that.

Today was glorious here with bright sunshine and warmth so no excuse we took everything down outside and in. Full days work it was too!

In the past I would get really sad when we had to do this because the lights bring such sparkle to a dark time of year.

Since Aaron came into our lives though we replace the Christmas things with Chinese decorations in anticipation of the Chinese New Year.

This most important date in the Chinese calendar is dependent on the phase of the moon. For 2019 it will be on February 5 so exactly one month from today.

This will be the year of the PIG. Not considered as highly auspicious in China but for us we have our little Irish pig so we’re betting it will be great. Nothing like the luck of the Irish even for à Chinese.

Blessing # 208 – Blended Heritage

The pursuit of all things teaming with goodness continues. So when an ancient jar of pickled beets was discovered in the depths of the pantry they seemed to perfectly fit the bill.

Beetroot is one of my very favorite things but Krishna and Aaron can’t stand it. So they had no problem with me scoffing the entire jar.

Beetroot may be packed full of micronutrients and antioxidants but it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to protein. When in doubt when it come to protein hit the eggs.

Or as it turned out in this case DON’T. While poached eggs and spinach may be a marriage made in Benedict heaven. Eggs and beetroot are demonic.

Isn’t it funny how satiating a meal is when the items just don’t gel together yet on their own they are both perfectly fine!

Blessing # 207 – Trials and Errors

The antioxidant boost was taken seriously throughout the entire first day of the year!

Even dessert had a healthier than normal twist to it. Baked Apples stuffed with raisin and cinnamon. OK a bit of butter and sugar was used to bind the stuffing together but that fat is needed to help the absorption of all that goodness!

This was a fairly common dessert in Ireland, maybe still is, but we make it only once in a blue moon at our home today.

It was one of the first recipes the girls in first form of Victoria College Belfast were introduced to in our Domestic Science Class.

Some of us had Mrs Bell as our Domestic Science teacher others had Miss McBride. Both ladies were absolutely adorable. They loved us all so much and had such gentleness and patience especially with the eleven years old girls of the first form.

Their classroom was so sparkling clean. The first lesson we ever learned from them was called Washing White Wood! So no excuse for a stained chopping board.

They were so different in appearance. One round faced and small the other extremely tall and slim. But when they put an arm around your shoulder to offer a little help both smelled like a fresh baked cake!

When clearing out the house in Ireland the recipe book they used with us resurfaced. It had suffered a little over the years and is a tad stained and sticky but it holds more than the entire internet when it comes to recipes that bring back happy memories.

Blessing # 206 – Sweet Success

 

The seasonal feasting in the USA starts on Thanksgiving and goes on non stop till New Years Day. This made it 38 days in 2018!

Over the course of the season my personal contribution to raising green house gases and global warming through excessive eating hit an all time record.

Being at home with more time to think of food and plan what we’d nosh plus more continuous access to chocolates, cookies and cake meant I put on a good five pounds.

Not having to go to work also meant an extra glass or two of fizz could be sipped of an evening without serious consequence! There is no doubt this was a major villain in the equation.

Interestingly over the same period Krishna lost weight which does not say much for my culinary or baking skills! Although it does say a lot for his self control!

Being in the food business and in particular the area of energy metabolism means that the excess intake needed to gain this weight stares me straight in the face.

To gain five pounds you need to ingest about 18000 calories more than you expend. So since  Thanksgiving till today this means about 450 calories excess each day! Sounds a lot right?

In holiday spirits though this is equivalent to six chocolate truffles or five chicken wings or four mini mince pies or three frosted cookies or  two samosas  or a bottle of champagne! All of which I could polish off easily any day!

Less obvious but so easily hidden at this time of year 450 calories equals just four tablespoons of butter.

Well there are all the veggies too you might say! Like the 12 cups of Brussel Sprouts needed to hit that daily excess number. These are so much easier to resist unless of course they are drowned in that butter with some chestnuts and crispy bacon which they tend to be to at this time of year and that elevates their calorie content to a zip buster level!

So the day has come to bid farewell to the blindfold, face the challenge to redress the excess and burn it or burst!

First thing today out came the grapefruit and pomegranate. All those little fat cells may not know it yet but they are going to get zapped with antioxidants.

As they start burning away skin will be glowing! Eyes will be sparkling! Hair will be shining! Well at least that is the plan and for a few days at least there will be a self righteous smirk on my face!

So glad though a certain red liquid has so many virtues it must still be considered therapeutic even in the most stringent régime!

Blessing # 205 – Beaujolais, Bordeaux and Burgandy

As we say goodbye to 2018 and hello to 2019 many of us will be celebrating and spending time with family and friends and thinking of our loved ones near and far.

There are many traditions for New Year in Ulster. No doubt linked to our Scottish heritage.

We always looked for a tall dark stranger to be the first to cross the threshold of our home and if he carried a piece of coal even better.

We’d clean the house till it was shining bright on New Years Eve but woe betide anyone who swept a speck of dust out on New Years Day lest we sweep away our fortunes.

While a devoutly religious person my Mum adhered rigorously to these traditions and often told me of a year when all sorts of bad things happened. She attributed this to a red haired woman pushing her way into our house at the stroke of midnight to wish us good luck. All sounds very spooky!

In his Christmas Message of 1939 King George quoted a poem by  Minnie Louise Haskins called God Knows. The poem was written in 1908 and was given to him by his daughter Elizabeth who was only 13 at the time.

What wisdom from one so young and what grace that has endured.

Blessing # 204 – Brighter than Light

Do you have a favorite Christmas hymn or carol?

Charles Wesley’s Hark the Herald Angels Sing to the glorious music of Mendelssohn is tops for me.

This season at our Church we got the treat to sing it twice. First, accompanied by our youth orchestra on Christmas Eve and today by our wonderful organist.

This was always the recessional hymn we sung at the midnight service at Holy Trinity Ballylesson that we went to every year as a family. My Dad was usually pretty discrete when it came to singing but he relished this hymn and sang it with gusto. Never do I hear it without thinking of him singing it by my side.

When Charles Wesley wrote this hymn the original words he used were:-

Hark how all The WELKIN rings glory to the King of Kings!

Well what we wonder was a WELKIN?

Turns out that in ancient times when such epics as Beowulf were written it was believed that the world was encased in a huge crystal bell called a WELKIN.

On rare and highly auspicious occasion the WELKIN rang. Isn’t this such a lovely image.

Today when we look at the wonders that the Hubble Telescope sends us back from space perhaps it is not too far from the truth!

Blessing # 203 – Watch The Word of Welkin

About eight years ago we were invited to a party. We bought an orchid in bloom to give the lady of the house. It never reached her!

The orchid had been placed behind the drivers seat in our car, it tumbled over and the bloom broke off. So of course it was no longer gifting material.

It came back with us and was given a home on the kitchen windowsill where it has remained.

Over the years the windowsill has become more congested with  herbs and within the last year even another orchid but old faithful is still in place and going strong.

The plant has never been repotted or moved from it orginal spot. It is perhaps not the most beautiful specimen but each day it is observed with fondness.

It really does its own thing. It throws out moisture shooters that occasionally have to be tamed. Now and again it will give a new leaf or will loose one but what it does without fail is bud and bloom.

Each time it offers a new bud it is a little sign of hope that makes us smile.

Each bud takes weeks to develop into a flower and its progress is check at least daily.

Over the years the plant must have gone though this cycle at least a dozen time. It’s doing it just now and so too is it’s new buddy beside it.

It is amazing to watch how something so beautiful as an orchid flower can emerge from this little bud.

It is also a reminder that even if you get a little broken at times finding the right place gives you resilience to produce wonders.

Blessing # 202 – The Power Within

We had a lot of stale bread hanging around since our Christmas Eve fondue. So rather than make croûtons as we usually would today we got adventurous and made bread and butter pudding.

This was a first for us but is one of those traditional British dishes that people have been making for years to use up odds and ends rather than waste them.

Its a pretty well balanced little meal when you think of the bread, eggs, milk and fruit. Maybe a bit high in the sugar but as Krishna reminds me often his father would say « if you put enough sugar on it you can even eat straw »

Some of my culinary exploits have on occasion called for a larger than healthy sweetening solution but today this was not the case. It may not look great but it tasted yummy.

Blessing # 201 – Recipe to Keep

In the UK the day after Christmas is called Boxing Day and it’s filled with traditions.

Boxing Day has nothing to do with the sport of Boxing but today many sporting features take place on that day.

It’s all about leftover eating, sleeping and some binge watching of TV. Maybe a series like Downton Abbey. We’ve taken to going to see a movie and went yesterday to see Mary Queen of Scots. Surly oscar material.

Some say that the name dates back to the time of big houses just like Downton when servants would be given a gift in a Christmas Box and maybe even get a little time off to visit their friends or family.

Years ago I often spent the evening of Boxing Day with my friends Michael and Lorraine. This was before the days of budget airlines like EasyJet and they’d get out the holiday brochures and plan their summer vacation. This brought dreams of the warmth of Spain or Portugal or Italy into their kitchen and something very tangible to look forward to now that Christmas was over.

Just this week on the day of the equinox Sandy MacHattie posted that his Dad would always remind him that this darkest day meant new light lay ahead.

My Dad would also say faithfully every year on Boxing Day “well that’s the Christmas over for another year. The days are on the turn now, not long till the long nights are in again”

We can only imagine what this prospect must have meant for him in the days of his childhood before electric lights, indoor plumbing and central heating. It reinforces though the gift and riches of optimism which my Dad was given in abundance.

Blessing # 200 – Seeing the Light and Dreaming of Summer

 

My Mum and Dad didn’t keep alcohol in the house. Most likely because they knew if it was there my Dad would drink it! Usually he’d go to the pub and get a skin full on a Saturday instead!

The exception to this was at Christmas when “drink” as it was referred to had to be brought in.

The back hall of our little house would be stuffed with food and cans of lager, beer, stout and a bottle or two of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry and Black Bush Whiskey. As soon as anyone walk through the door a drink would be offered!

No wine was ever bought apart from the Sherry and a non alcoholic specialty called Clove Wine that could strip the skin of the roof of your mouth.

This was the sixties and seventies and working class people just didn’t drink wine! All this changed though as I got older and started mixing with the middle classes.

These friends parents drank wine and went to foreign parts for vacations. At parties we’d drink wine in copious quantities. One particular popular “vintage” of the era was called Blue Nun.

These same pals ate exotic dishes like stroganoff which to this day I still couldn’t spell without autocorrect! For Christmas instead of trifle they had kirsch soaked Black Forest Gateau or Pavlova!

Of course I started insisting we get wine too at Christmas and I will never forget the look on my Dads face when he tasted the Blue Nun! Let’s just say he stuck to whiskey!

My Mum drew the line though at the exotic desserts she said if I wanted them I could make them. This was attempted on a few occasions with little success.

Yesterday we ate from my Mom’s dinner service a very traditional roast beef dinner served as she would have served it but with a glass or two of wine to wash it down. It was followed by a Pavlova for dessert that ironically Mom came to love and ordered often when out for dinner but never did make at home!

Blessing #199 – Enjoying the Best of Both Worlds