Planning

The weather forecast looks to be reasonable for Tuesday, so I shall venture forth and buy some goodies for dinner on Wednesday night. Since the arrival of the Ottolenghi books, the menu has been re-jigged. Mr L has requested Bitter Frozen Berries with White Chocolate Cream for his dessert.  I need a couple of ingredients I had not been planning on but several more that were on my list are now off it again. I still need a nice Camembert to bake for the starter and some quality breadsticks to dunk into it. Wednesday will be busy so I can’t bake my own breadsticks.

Historically I have journeyed into Kirkwall between Christmas and New Year to buy food for our wedding anniversary dinner. Every year I come home moaning what a waste of time it was and how there was nothing on the shelves. This year we are resigning ourselves to serving frozen petits pois with our duckling and saving me the trek. If the weather is OK on the 23rd, we may fit in another trip to town to see what we can get with a suitable expiry date upon it.

Christmas Day falls on a Thursday. We largely ignore the festivities as a norm but do produce something marginally seasonal for a picnic lunch (mince pies, sausage rolls…) and take the dogs out for a few hours. Last year we did serve a dinner and for this I made a Parsnip & Cashew Nut Roast. It’s a Fast Day this year so we are looking at perhaps a 99% avoidance level. I may cook a chicken breast with sage present in some form or another. No stuffing, no bread sauce but I am sure I can produce something tasty and seasonal without exceeding 500 calories… Red cabbage, perhaps? Brussels Sprout Stir Fry, mayhap?