Oh my Darling Clementine!

Who doesn't like a Christmas Stocking? Finding small, individual treats to pop inside is the essence of giving. Waking up and groping for the lumpy bumpy stocking at the end of the bed is the joy of receiving. I'm in my fifties and my husband and I still do stockings for one another. My grown up children say it's still the most exciting part of Christmas Day. The anticipation and the pure selfish decadence is a wonderful start to the day.

One item guaranteed to be there is an orange (tangerine, clementine or satsuma). St. Nicholas allegedly threw gold into the homes of poor girls who had no dowry and some of it landed in the stockings hanging to dry. We now put oranges in Christmas stockings to represent that gold. Another story is that during the depression when toys and sweets were unavailable, an orange would provide a sweet, healthy treat.

Either way, we all love a form of orange in our Christmas stockings. It can be a nutritious start to the day, be saved or returned to the fruit bowl, or, made into a festive drink such as a Ginger St. Clement's along with squeezed juice from fresh root ginger, red grapefruit and lemon juice.

Christmas Pudlets!

I read this recipe in a magazine and hope I've remembered it correctly. It's an easy-peasy Christmas canapé dessert; ideal as party food  and can be made a few days in advance and refrigerated.

Buy a 500g Christmas pudding (one suitable for vegetarians)

Crumble into a bowl either using fingers or an electric mixer

Melt 100g dark chocolate and stir or whisk into above mixture to evenly distribute

Using hands roll mixture into even sized balls (I weigh each one because I'm quite OCD)

Put in the fridge to cool whilst you melt 100g white chocolate

Dribble the white chocolate over the top of the cooled mini puds

Decorate with icing holly leaves or red and green sprinkles

They are best served direct from the fridge. A little taste of Christmas in one mouthful

Sterling Stuff!

So this week's big news for vegetarians and vegans has been the shocking announcement that traces of tallow (rendered animal fat) are to be found in the new £5 notes. This has caused outrage with at least one vegetarian cafe refusing to accept the notes. Whilst my personal reason for being vegetarian relates to basically not liking meat, I don't want animals to suffer for the sake of feeding the world. However, the fact that a by-product of the animal is being used in the making of money (quite literally) does not offend me. Having said that it seems odd that, in our world of substituting artificial ingredients to replicate natural ones, we can't find a suitable alternative.

In the soap making world, tallow and lard were often used but now widely substituted with natural palm oil. I wonder if this would work in our Lady Godivas?

Although the production of palm oil is a contentious issue with indigenous people and animals being uprooted as land and forests are cleared for oil palm plantations. This in turn causes many environmental problems.

I don't know what the solution is; perhaps going back to the old notes which have served us so well for many years? Perhaps carrying a bit more shrapnel in our purses?

To my knowledge neither the Queen, nor Winston Churchill were vegetarian so I'm sure they won't mind.