I keep my Christmas very simple these days, last year I decided to not send cards to all but a few and I found it very…. Soothing.  We had three little decorations, a good dinner and Kings College caroling in the background, I don’t think we even exchanged a present, it was perfect.  There was no anxiety, it had all gone.  This year will be even simpler, I won’t be buying any Christmas cards to send, or worrying about it either. Those that know me and want to be in my life, are in my life, its that simple.  But even with all my baah humbug tendencies, I do love a good look around, with half an eye on the prettiness of it all and the other at how well the marketing men do these days.

And so it was I found myself in John Lewis and accidentally came across their Christmas floor.

I really liked these, simple but effective.

And I loved the double decker buses, I didn’t love the prices though,  £30.00 for the bigger of the two.

Reindeer seem to be quite popular.

I loved the new styles of trees.

And I can never resist a stocking.

Who wouldn’t want to tuck into one of these on Christmas day. 

And I know hubby would be loving these – sadly I didn’t buy him any – they wouldn’t last!

Its all just so pretty. I can’t wait to go and see the other stores, only two months to do it in!

Everything seems to be glowing at Borough Market at the moment. Its the time of year when it all seems to come together. the bounty of the harvests go beautifully with the ripening cheeses, fat fish which have been feeding all summer and tender meats which have been nurtured by sweet meadow grasses.

Sadly this is the closest I will come to it this season.

I’m already spent up this term, so no expensive foody treats for me.

And as I was a poorly girl last weekend

I’ve got some catching up to do, which involve being tied to a sewing machine and a computer, not gallivanting around, aah well, maybe I’ll get to trot around next weekend.

If anyone had told me that I would love raw fish when I was growing up I would probably have replied with a very loud ‘Eeeewww’.  And certainly being landlocked in the middle of leafy Warwickshire Sushi wasn’t on the menu anywhere.  But overtime and being willing to give anything a go I found myself popping those lovely little mounds of rice topped with raw fish and a little smear of green wasabi into my mouth without a second thought – they were delicious.

Now I am in London – I can’t afford Sushi, well not as often as I’d like, but John Lewis have their food hall which is fabulous and I often wander in, about once a week, for a glass of wine in the almost hidden, not advertised to the outside world, wine bar and then a little shop around to find something delicious for a simple supper.

This time I found a packet of cubed tuna, (its about a third of the price of a tuna steak and is normally sold out!) a packet of potato salad, a little gem and some cherry tomatoes later with the added garnish of some pickled ginger and a home made french style dressing, supper is served.

At last some nice warm mittens all ready for winter. We had a bit of a gale the other day and it got me to thinking that I must really finish these lovely mittens. Since that day I have took them into University and back again every day without a single stitch being knitted.  I have good intentions and then other work simply takes over, that and I don’t want to be knitting a complicated cable on the train. But at last they are ready and I do love a bit of cable work to admire.

They took nearly a month for me to knit, which when you think what else I am cramming into a day isn’t too bad.

I’d have liked glamorous photographs but this is what’s attainable today,  you’ll have to look out for shots of them in my winter photographs.

But one thing is for certain, I love them and will most probably be making more cabled mittens in the future, they are just so cute.

I am deeply smitten.

And for those that are interested, this is Hinksey by Lily France, knitted in Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran (45% silk, 55% merino) in Moss on 4mm DPN.

There might not be much in the way of commentary in the next few weeks, mainly due to long working hours (12 hours yesterday!), illness (weird virusy thing – the weekend in bed) or sheer knackerdom (new word, you get the jist!).

This is what I achieved yesterday as well as making the vents of the sleeve, trying to get the sleeve set in was not successful and late, very late I got home, made supper and went to bed.

Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.

I had a few bits and bobs left in the fridge and needed to make full use of them as student loans have still to pay me, I’m hoping by the time you read this it will all be sorted.  But it is better to use up your ingredients and have a cooking session and then freeze.  Even if you only have a fridge, if you have some meat or fish that would be better cooked that day, cook it, even if your not going to use it, you’ve just extended the life of it by another three days, which is why you see things like rissoles and poached salmon and fish pies on lunch time menus, they are using up the stuff and adding shelf life to it at the same time.

So I had a bit of veg in various guises along with some beetroot from the garden and it set me on a path.  I was thinking of how brightly coloured they would look together and contemplated a beetroot and carrot salad and then spotted the brightly coloured red lentils,

which I have never seen quite such vibrantly coloured lentils before.   They reminded me of a Chinese dish of jewelled rice pudding, long since eaten and completely forgotten how I made it – I must look it up, I remember it was very sweet and very pretty.

So I peeled and chopped up the veg, fried the onions and garlic until they were rich and full flavoured, added the mushrooms and fried until they became mahogany and glistened with their juices.  Then I added the diced carrot and beetroot and fried those to reduce their natural moisture and release their sugars, like a mini roasting in the pan.

Added the sweetcorn,  lentils, tin of tomatoes,  water, salt, pepper, oregano, french mustard, tomato puree and balsamic vinegar and then let it bubble for forty minutes, or until the lentils are cooked.  I then decanted some because there was too much in the pan, peeled some potatoes sliced thinly to top the dish with and placed in the oven for an hour, then took off the lid of the pan for fifteen minutes to allow the potatoes to colour.

Soon I had this which I quickly dished up for me because by that time I was a very hungry girl.

And it made a magnificent lunch and I had all of this left for tomorrows meals and to feed Henry the Freezer.  Just Brilliant.

I came home one evening to find this beautiful creature looking rather sad and sorry for herself and meowing at next doors front door.  It was pitch black and raining and I gaily encouraged her into conversation, she wouldn’t come near but she did tell me she was hungry, when next doors front door opened and out came my neighbour carrying her supper.

During the conversation that ensued I learnt that her owner had been unable to cope with this mortal life and that his family had said they would come and collect the cat, three weeks ago!  During that time she had been living rough, had had two kittens which the foxes got and was looking very upset and thin.  She was completely spooked, won’t go near enough to people to get caught but will eat food and had started to take a shine to next door.  So I popped into the house and came out with 14 sachets of cat food, which my rather spoilt cat turns her nose up at, just to keep her going and talked about the good works that North London Cats Protection League do and how they might be able to help, when my neighbour gets her confidence and can catch her.

And then she started to come into our back garden, so I thought I would just give her a bit extra, see if she wants it.  Three sachets and a couple of handfuls of dry cat food later in 24 hours she stopped eating.  And that was besides what everyone else was giving her. 

Toile lets me know when she is about, I hear this Proowww sound come from her and I know the white cat is within vision.

Bless her, she has got sunburnt ears.

Fully fed, off on her travels.

Since these photo’s were taken I have stopped feeding her as I have learnt that she has now started to go in and sleep inside our neighbours home.  This is wonderful news as they will really start to bond and I wouldn’t want to upset that.  I really hope she has found her forever home.

During the summer I managed to get a reasonably priced ticket (not as cheap as War Horse) to see Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesties Theatre.   Again I used Theatre Monkey to check my seat out and found that I needed to purchase one that was nearer the front of the stalls so as not to miss the chandelier scene.  I love the fact that Theatre Monkey wrote about both the theatre and how the seating would affect the play that one had chosen to see. The musical was magnificent, the seats were a nightmare.   Its an old theatre and you are cramped in and my row of seats had this unusual feature where you felt you were tipped back, very weird.Would I go back, absolutely.  

It was amazing.  The woman next to me said she came twice a year to see it and explained how much she enjoys it.  After I’d seen it, I could see why, the sets, the opera, you just never knew what was going to come next, as I said, amazing.

Roast Chicken is a thing of beauty – well this one isn’t, this one looks a very sad sight thanks to the foil sticking.

But nevertheless it was succulent and tasty and was just what I needed.  Having only one leg missing from the bird I have quite a lot of left overs – its never a problem but it can get a bit samey.  So I decided to try a pesto version of a sauce to go with my chicken.  I roughly chopped some mushrooms, fried them off, added some cooked chicken, a couple of good handfuls of Kale and added a small jar of basil pesto, whilst trying not to look at the calorie count.

It was quick and delicious and I served it with some steamed basmati rice.