A Very Merry Cranberry from Team Hagstones xx

Hello Friends,
Just a quick one from me today. My festive list is just about complete & we're ready for seasonal japes & jollity.

Albert Whiskers deigned to pose for a portrait.....though note to self for next year.........

........when I make my mini sausage pies, he can be sent for a run round the garden while the cat flap is temporarily locked. Never have I cooked anything where he's been so under my feet, meowing like a starving cat who has just spotted the Very Last Sausage in the World. He only discovered sausages earlier this week & they are clearly much on his mind. He even tried going outside & sitting under the kitchen window just in case one of my pies happened to fall out while cooling. It didn't, & he's had to make do with cat biscuits to fill the vast gaping chasm that is his tummy!

The cake is made & iced........

and I decided against the rutting reindeer when his other antler also fell off, so it's Frosty & Father Christmas this year.

The mince pies are made, using the cranberry mincemeat I made recently......which brings me onto the cranberries......those luscious red fruity jewels..... (hang on, I think I was channelling my 'inner Nigella' there for a moment) which we only see in December.

Whether you want to make cranberry mincemeat.......

......cranberry chutney, cranberry vodka - no photo due to obvious reasons - or cranberry & apple jelly.......

......then the canny time to buy your cranberries isn't now, it's just after Christmas. Cranberries are one of those seasonal items which most people only want in December. However, if you are a keen cook & like to make preserves for the pantry or to give as gifts, or you fancy having some cranberry vodka bottled & ready for festive slurpage this time next year, then you need to get hold of some a lot earlier than that, & this is the problem because they won't be around in the shops till it's too late to do much with them. As a very seasonal item, they're also expensive. £3+ for a very modest amount isn't unusual, but if you look in the supermarkets between Christmas & New Year, you can pick them up for a titchy fraction of this - our best bargainmongous ones were from Waitrose at 20p a punnet. They freeze brilliantly & easily last a year, so that's what I do, & I'm hoping to find some as soon as annual demand for them has peaked. So there's a little money saving tip.....but only if you a) like cranberries b) like actually doing stuff with cranberries. If not, just go to the sales as usual & don't waste valuable shopping time shouldering people out of the way in supermarkets in your search for cheapo small red fruits!

And lastly, of course, whether you, like us, celebrate the ancient midwinter feast, the birth of the son of your God, a welcome time spent with your nearest & dearest.....or a fusion of all three, we would like to wish you all a Very Happy & Peaceful Yuletide.
May your blessings be bright,
C x

Grow your own Christmas Tree - Winter Solstice 2014

Hello Friends,
Hope you're all enjoying this very mild winter solstice weekend. I'm talking Christmas trees today, which seemed an appropriate activity to be getting on with. We brought our winter tree friend indoors last weekend to decorate.

I'd love to tell you that I grew this from seed, but that would be a big, not very festive fib. We sent our old artificial tree to landfill several years ago, something I don't like to do if things can possibly be recycled. We then compounded this distinctly un-green act by buying ourselves a new one - a very stylish bare branch one, constructed from bound wired lights contorted into a tree-shape. It looked fabulous, so classy, but despite bowing down before its twinkly loveliness, there was for me, an undercurrent of unease about the thousands of 'Fake Tree Miles' (made in China) & the sheer amount of non-recyclable components involved. Decided we would mitigate this by using the tree for as many years as it lasted..........& therein lay the problem! We got about 3 years out of it before the wired branches started coming apart, half of it refused to light up & the insulation degraded leaving bare electrical wires all over the place. Like most electrical gadgets owned by myself, it was eventually pronounced an 'Expletive death trap' by the Big Hairy One in the relationship........before being binned off to landfill.  
We decided we could solve the ethical issues by buying a real tree in a pot & growing it on. We dithered about this for so long that by the time we went back to choose, there were exactly 3 trees left - one topless, one seriously wonky & one on the verge of expiry. A no-brainer - we purchased Wonky (pictured above) & it has just been adorned for its 4th Christmas. Despite received wisdom that potted Christmas trees are reluctant to survive for more than a couple of years. Wonky is kept well-watered, particularly in summer, repotted every March with a scoop of yummy bonemeal & puts on lush new pine-scented growth every Spring......

.....and this year, it even produced a couple of fir cones! (I think it's a Nordman Fir).

I so enjoy tending our own tree through the seasons, ready to bring inside for Yule, that I've today sown a packet of free seeds to see if I can raise some tinies. 

    

I just used ordinary potting compost & a couple of recycled festive coffee shop cups. These then need to be covered with a clear plastic bag or you can make a little cloche by cutting up a plastic bottle, & placing outside somewhere sheltered, such as up against the house wall until the teensy trees have germinated.

In the spirit of a certain well-known sticky-backed plastic loving programme, here is one I prepared earlier.

This one's a Colorado Spruce, & grew from a sowing of an identical packet of seed about 3 years ago. Despite a good germination rate, I lost all but one tiny tree from this batch to a combination of weird, possibly Evil-Weevil induced wilting & a very persistent blackbird who was determined that the ultimate gourmet snack lay concealed beneath. Such is life as a gardener. You win some, you lose some.....but hey, it was free seed, & I do like to experiment with growing things.

So......if you are getting sick of all the plastic stuff imported from China at this time of year, which will find its inevitable way to landfill where it will never bio-degrade, & you have room somewhere in your garden for a modest potted tree, give it a go......buy one.....you could give a shunned imperfect tree like Wonky a deserving home, or go hardcore & sow some seeds. 

Hope you are all having a lovely winter weekend.

Bright Solstice Blessings from we three at 'Hagstones',

C x

Christmas card from your Tory MP?

Hello Friends,
Well, there I was having a productive December morning, house trimmed up.......

......front door adorned (for free, I might add, some unruly shrubbery & secateurs being a true money-saving combo at this time of year!).......

......& feeling pretty full of seasonal goodwill on the whole, when 'plop' onto our doormat landed a large cream House of Commons envelope. Was it a 4th response to my heckling in support of constituents' right to recall errant MPs? It wasn't. It was a Christmas card.......leading me to the 'What to do with the Christmas card from one's Tory MP" dilemma.

As dilemmas go, this one lasted all of 30 seconds. It's a cheery pleasant card, designed by a child at a local primary school (well done, Oliver, aged 11) 

 but I would feel more goodwill if our MP selected one of our local primary schools for his children's education..... or indeed, actually lived in his constituency instead of 100 miles away. The message inside the card wished me a 'Very happy Christmas & New Year', which was nice enough, but put me in mind of the dramatic increase in numbers of homeless people during his party's time in government, as well as all the families who will be eschewing turkey dinners for a food bank parcel this year. I thought about how our MP always votes in line with his party's cruelly divisive policies, regardless of whether they are of benefit to the majority of his constituents, as well as supporting those which are actively destroying our NHS, public libraries, youth services, Surestart as well as many other services I, my family & friends hold dear.

I thus found that I was unable to accept Festive Wishes of Goodwill from our Tory MP, so what to do with the card? We are a household hot on re-using & recycling.

Idea no. 1: Heavy duty litter tray liner. This would have been useful back in the summer, but now we have an outdoor 'come & go as I please' cat, we no longer need to provide a litter tray.

Idea no.2: Cat puke clearer-upper. Not a pleasant job, this, & being something of an emetaphobic, I have resorted to stiff pieces of card with past cats to assist with clearing. Albert Whiskers, however, appears blessed with a cast iron stomach, rendering such an innovation unnecessary.

And then a situation presented itself. For the last few weeks, we have been visited by 2 very large & equally persistent slugs. They seem to be breaking into the house via an air brick, compressing themselves sufficiently to squidge under the cupboards until reaching the apparent Slug Eldorado which is our kitchen floor tiles. They always visit together, late at night, just as we are thinking of going to bed, & have nothing to hand with which to remove them, so.............

Idea no.3: Slug scooper!!!  Just ten minutes later, the device was made........

......and you can see that by separating the card into its two halves, I have been able to create an additional back-up device, which will I am sure be useful as a replacement or indeed a 
re-enforcement should our unfortunate sluggy problem escalate. If you too are a conscientious objector where Tory MP's Christmas cards are concerned, you too could make this handy scooper using only scissors & the vast outlay of 2 staples per device. Just cut the card along the fold. Now fold both edges to the centre. Make a 4 cm cut into both the creases, then bend the resulting strips into the centre. Fold in anything that is sticking out to neaten, & secure with staples. Simple! Slugs, I am waiting for you tonight so as to be able to test run my not-yet-patented device. 

So there you are. Problem solved!
Hope everyone's having a good week. I'm looking forward to icing my Christmas cake, but the the reindeer I was planning to put on top has lost an antler & looks a sorry mess. I can either say I'm going for realism this year & that he's been rutting, or think again!
Cheers all,
C x

Christmas Songs & 'Helpful' Cats

Hello Friends,
Well, I'm getting 'proper festive' now. Yuletide....perhaps my favourite time of the year. This week, I've been doing things with cranberries (more of that next time), finishing my gift-wrapping, sorting out jars of my preserves for people's hampers & generally getting in the mood. I wish I could say that Albert Whiskers has been helping, but his contributions been dubious at best. At least kipping among the presents as I tried to wrap them meant he wasn't diving onto paper & string.

As I attempted to finish the last hand-knitted gifts, I kept coming across soggy lengths in my yarn where he had been sitting at my feet chewing it. No yarn out to play with? No problem, he will just fish something out of my knitting basket with his paw & toss that around. Helpful? Hmmm. Yesterday, his common sense all but deserted him. Such is his determination to check everything on the floor just on the off chance it might be a 'Dreamie', I spotted him pick something up in his mouth & chew it for a few seconds before spitting it out........it was an open SAFETY PIN!! What a nice little festive spend at the Vet that would have been!

I've had lots of Christmas sounds on this week. Having spent many years singing in choirs, I listen to a wide range of carols & other Christmas music too, but there are lots of times when I  want to listen to Christmas songs........& I think I'm slightly more tolerant of cheesy pop at this time of year, too. What are your favourite Christmas songs? These are my top ten festive favourites:

*Jethro Tull - Ring out solstice bells - I never tire of this winter folk/rock classic, even though back in 1976, I remember thinking Ian Anderson was a weirdo. As an adult, this has become my favourite 'pop' song of the season. Now, watching the video, I think 'Yep, I'd take him out for a drink. We could stand on one leg at the bar & talk about Yule-y stuff'. I've included a link just for this song, as it's my No. 1.

*The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York - Great song, great lyrics, especially the lines, "I could have been someone. Well so could anyone". RIP Kirsty, a talented musician who died too early.

And in no particular order:

* Slade - Merry Christmas, Everybody

*Wizzard - I wish it could be Christmas ever day.
OK, these two suffer from over-playing, but I have to include them, as I so clearly recall seeing them on Top of the Pops in 1973. What a year that was for Christmas songs! At home, we had neither a TV or pop-culture (both parents being totally classical musicians) so I relied on my friend's house next door for TOTP. If we'd fallen out that week, I had to make sure we were speaking again by Thursday night! Good songs like these made the seemingly endless 'Tomorrow's World' programme seem almost bearable.

*David Essex - A Winter's tale - No reason, apart from it being a well-crafted song, well sung, which has good DIY karaoke value when I'm making the mince pies.

*Greg Lake - I believe in Father Christmas - I always enjoy hearing this classic, as well as murdering it annually on my piano - sorry, Greg!

*Donna Summer - Winter melody - I think this one gets a little overloooked in amongst all the others. It's neither a stomper, like Slade & co, or a missable piece of cheese, I like the laid back intro & accompaniment & it's another good track for a sing-along. 

*Mariah Carey - All I want for Christmas - This is at the more cheesy end of my festive song-list, but it's a great one for singing along too, & while my vocal range isn't as many octaves as Ms Carey's, shove a couple of gin & cranberry juices in my general direction & I won't care about that! I always think the line 'I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas Tree' is the lyric least likely ever to be sung by my sister, who likes presents extremely really very very much indeed!

*The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't let the bells end) - It's a bit of a 'break-up' song, really, but it's such a fun track full of all the rock cliches I insist upon for a top Christmas song, & the video never fails to make me smile. "You went away upon boxing day, Now how the hell am I gonna make it to the New Year"........I don't know, Justin....my concerns are more to do with how the heck you're going to pour yourself out of those trousers!

*Status Quo - It's Christmas Time - A 2008 recording but with all the feel of a proper traditional Christmas pop song, with guitars & hair (though admittedly not so much of the latter these days). A totally unpretentious sing-along track, so let's raise a glass to the Quo - still rockin'!

Now for the bottom of my Christmas Song Barrel:

-Gary Glitter - Another rock & roll Christmas  (Earworm)
-Elton John - Step into Christmas (Massive earworm)
-Mud - Lonely this Christmas (Just No)
-Wham - Last Christmas (Sorry, I know this won't be a popular choice for the Barrel Bottom, but I have had more than a sufficiency of this cheesy festive offering. I've never liked it, & I don't care if the video does have lots of snow in it, it's just not for me).
-Little Drummer Boy - As sung by David Bowie & Bing Crosby (or indeed by anyone else)......
......& finally, my worst Christmas song of all time......I was going to say 'to date', but I am confident that in all probability, there will never be another I loathe as much as this. It's......
-Mistletoe & Wine - Cliff Richard Why? I find this tune an earworm which, when finished destroying your ear, commences actually boring into your skull. The lyrics are wince-inducing, especially the dubious use of English as we know it displayed in the line "Children singing Christian rhyme". This would make sense in the plural, but would then require a change to 'mistletoe and wines", which sounds more like a festive header at the off-licence. Suffice it to say that I would rather be shut in a lift with a lively arachnid & only sprouts & whisky to sustain me, than ever hear this song again!

I'm going to play 'Ring out Solstice bells' again now, to expunge that thought from my head!

What are your best & worst Christmas songs?
Until next time, when I shall be bringing cranberry joy!
C x

Blackberry & apple gin

Hello Friends,
Hands up who's feeling festive! Me, me, me! I love December. I enjoy doing seasonal things just as our ancestors have done for generations before us, when there would have been a much greater awareness of the seasons changing. You won't find any air-freighted strawberries in this house, I can tell you. There are so many strong folk traditions around December, as well as things I look forward to doing all year. This morning, I've been getting on with just one of these things, as it was time to bottle this year's home-made fruit liqueur. This year, I made Blackberry & Apple Gin. 

It looked like this when I started it off in early October.........

  
......but the colour & richness gradually develops into a jar full of lush berry-coloured loveliness just in time for Yuletide.

It's so easy to make these liqueurs that I'm surprised more people don't do it. For Blackberry & Apple Gin, you need a standard size (about 750ml) bottle of gin.......& there's no need to squander your best Bombay Sapphire, the 'Like brands only better' varieties are perfectly fine here. You'll need a clean kilner jar or any large jar with a tightly fitting lid. Sterilise it first by washing in very hot water then drying it in a low oven. Scoop 250g blackberries into the jar along with a chopped apple which you've peeled & cored. If you've only got titchy little apples, use two. Then add 300g ordinary white granulated sugar. Seal the jar & shake. Now all you've got to do to make the Festive Purple Magic happen is to shake it every day for a week to ten days until the sugar has dissolved & the colours are starting to run. Leave for about 3 months in a cool dark place, then strain & bottle it.  

This is really easy. Scald a jelly bag by pouring a kettle of boiling water over it in the sink & use it to line a sieve. if you don't have a jelly bag, use a clean cotton tea towel scalded in the same way. Many years ago, I was told of a colleague who purportedly strained jams & jellies through her aertex knickers, but I would probably not advise going down this route myself........though if the rumour was true, fair play to her for resourcefulness, I say!

I like to let the fruit sit in the sieve to drain for about an hour or so. It's good stuff, you don't want to waste any! Then the final job is pouring it carefully into sterilised glass bottles & labelling it. The easiest option here is to use the original gin bottle, & I like to save small bottles too, for filling & giving as gifts.

Don't forget to leave yourself a tester. You wouldn't want to be giving sub-standard presents now, would you? What you do with the boozy leftover fruit is entirely up to you. I am feeling so totally chilled out, I'm wondering if the small bowl of this I ate with my lunch, kind of by way of one of my 5-a-day, was really one of my most top ideas, but later, with a sprinkle of sugar & a high-end vanilla ice-cream.....now I could be tempted by that!

As people who already make fruit liqueurs will know, there are pretty much limitless variations on this theme. Sloe gin is the traditional one, of course, & if you are confident with a bit of foraging, you can add blackberries & a few rosehips to sloes to make hedgerow gin. Damsons work brilliantly, though can be difficult to find in the shops & in the wild. Don't like gin? No matter, use vodka instead. Raspberry vodka is slurplicious & I made a Christmas cranberry vodka last year, using exactly the same method, but adding the zest of an orange, a few cloves & a cinnamon stick to the jar with the fruit & sugar. So, if you've never tried making your own liqueur, give it a go. They make great gifts (especially to oneself!) 

Before I sign off, I just want to share with you this tip I read in a magazine yesterday. I'm fascinated by strange household tips. Some are so fiendishly clever & are a way of keeping old wisdom alive. Others are frankly bizarre.  This one made me laugh so hard, I practically snorted biscuit crumbs out of my nose:

"If you are affected by sore runny eyes when chopping an onion, stick your head in the freezer".

OK. I can see that extreme cold might be soothing & temporarily call a halt to onion-eyes, but we have one of the tall freezers with separate drawers. To avail myself of this handy tip, I would have to keep a drawer at shoulder height permanently empty,in which to plunge my head in the event of a severely rogue onion. Even after my sampling of those 100%-proof berries, I'm spotting a few logistical issues with this one! 
Hope you're all having a pleasant week with your own festive preparations. And down with Black Friday! Home-made blackberry & apple gin is where it's at, not some horrible soulless scrum for another piece of electronic tat we neither need nor can afford. Here's to the simple life! I'll drink to that!
Till next time, when I'll be making up my festive home made hampers.
C x