Soooooooooooup!

I am on a soup making fest at the moment - it seems like a good idea to have soup as a standby for a meal when Mum is here over Christmas and the New Year and when I was down at Paps yesterday the veggies looked lovely and fresh and are relatively cheap at the moment.

On the hob this morning and in gargantuan proportions bubbling away were, in no particular order, cauliflower, pear and cheese (not blue as per the recipe but with white stilton instead) and a pot of carrot and coriander and finally leek, potato and butter bean.

We were having a bit of a dry run for Christmas Day in that we were 'spacing' out the day with a three course lunch, a nice TV programme and a game of cards.  We started out with a small coffee cup of the cauliflower, pear and cheese - just a small amuse-bouche to get our tastebuds going before the main event.  Mum had bought some lamb tenderloin and cooked it so all I needed was to heat it up and do the veggies to go with it.  I am on a roll with my roast potatoes, I have them down to a fine art and today we were also having Yorkshire puddings, green beans, carrots and cauliflower.

After what was a delicious lunch we settled down to watch an episode of a programme I had seen advertised in the paper the other week and which I thought Mum would really enjoy - called Our Yorkshire Farm it is the story of Amanda Owen and her family as they contend with their extensive flock of sheep, sprawling fields and the challenges of winter snowfall at the isolated Ravenseat Farm.  Amanda has lived at the 2,000 acre farm, located in North Yorkshire since her early 20s when she met and married tenant farmer husband Clive (20+ years her senior) with whom she now has nine children!!!!

It is a fascinating insight into their lives, the scenery is absolutely stunning and the children delightful - and you know me I don't like children but Sidney and his sticky out ears is an absolute star.  So fabulous to see children enjoying the great outdoors and not a single electronic gadget in sight.

Pudding today was a lime and coconut panna cotta served with fruits of the forest.  A nice light end to the meal which everyone seemed to enjoy.

I want to try and make Christmas Day as stress-less as possible so I shall be invoking the 7 P's - proper prior preparation preventing piss poor performance!!!  Elena just used to hoot with laughter when I used that saying in fact she said she wanted that on her headstone but then I think she would agree that she wasn't prepared in the end.  I always think about her at this time of year remembering how we gatecrashed her on our Christmas Jingle just a couple of days before she passed away - Mina, Clare and I sitting around her bed slightly squiffy and her saying she would have loved to have joined us and we would have loved her to have been able to.

I know that we are all concerned about Christmas this year so it is important to me that I make it the best I can.  I am sure that by planning our meals in advance and planning our viewing in advance we wont be sitting around twiddling our thumbs looking at one another!!

The weather deteriorated quite badly today - it started out bright warm and sunny and then by mid afternoon it was grey and we had that miserable drizzle that seems to seep into everything.  We worry about Mum driving back although she said that the weather once she was at Kathikas was ok and it was fine all the way home and the washing she had left out had dried.  We are always relieved when we have the call to say she has got home safely.  John was settled watching the derby matches that were on this afternoon - the Arsenal game was a corker.  I got to grips with Christmas present wrapping - we don't have much but it still needs wrapping all the same.

Great great news tonight that I have heard from my lovely friend Hazel that she will be visiting again next year.  WOO HOO so excited!!