Ginger Wine and Gingerbread and Doilies

A large rich Gingerbread is cooling on the dresser and when it's cool it'll be decorated with a lemon and ginger icing.
The icing will include stem ginger syrup and the juice of a whole lemon alongside a little ordinary warmed tap water.
Gorgeous for cutting into generous squares and serving on a tea plate with a little paper doiley.

Firming up on a baking sheet by the kitchen telly is my first attempt at a Nut and Cherry Brittle.
A mixture of hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, peanuts and pieces of chopped glace cherry were added to 300g of caramelized sugar.
The mess looked like a ransacked chest of  rough gemstones.
When I get a mo  I'll make cones out of doilies, slice the brittle into shards filling the cones to full capacity. Probably indulge a little further by encasing the coned sweets in gold wrapping paper (£1 for a huge roll).
Then I'll give them away.


As I write an eggcupful of Ginger Wine is wetting the bottom of my sherry glass.
I have, you see, been drinking for quite a while, (a week off and on)  and every Christmas whether I'm happy or no I let myself fall headlong into a bottle of Stones.
The amber juice, decanted, stands on the kitchen table and every evening for a week I've tippled. Not to excess, I don't do excess. But just enough to settle my Christmas roast beef nerves and heartache over mummy.
Talking of mummy...My old bean has barely eaten today, and her eyes puffed and red through lack of sleep, continue to stare emotionless unmoving at a never ending round of tv murders courtesy of ITV 3 and 4.
Damn you don't you know it's a religious holiday but thank you also for giving mother something to focus on.
Cheers. 


Now I must drain the glass and head into the kitchen where a rather lacklustre Shepherd's Pie is warming through.

Tomorrow will be better...