Wednesday: The Second Day of Christmas

Good morning, everyone.
It's turned considerably colder since Christmas Day, hasn't it?  It has here anyway.  I woke early (again) and turned the electric blanket on for a while.  We had some heavy rain yesterday evening which seems to have stopped for the present, but the forecast is not great for today.

Today is W in the Twelve Days:  Winter Ware.  No, I haven't spelt that wrongly, I mean ware as in tableware.  When I emptied the dressers, etc, to have downstairs redecorated this summer, I re-discovered some Christmas plates.  Not a whole set, just two very large plates and three dinner-sized plates.  I bought them on Ebay, ages ago, when it was fairly new, comparatively un-commercialised and you could get real, genuine bargains.  The two huge plates are of the Spode Christmas Tree design, as are two of the dinner plates.  The third is a Portmerion The Holly and the Ivy design.  They're really lovely so, as a treat to myself, I will use the dinner plates until January 6th and maybe the huge plates as a sort of serving dish.

Yesterday was a very quiet, gentle day.  I almost made it a PJ day but decided not to, just in case I fancied going out.  I dealt with the turkey first thing - very organised this year - and now have stacks of cut off meat plus lots that boiled off the bones which will be fine for hotpot, pie and so on.  I shall zizz some into meat paste.  I also have loads of the most gorgeous, thick, jellied stock which I will use for all sorts of things.  Oh - and a stack of bones and other inedible bits which will go into the food recycling.
I do a three stage boil up.  A short one to loosen the rest of the chunks of meat and then another long, slow one to get as much flavour as possible out of the bones, skin, etc.  Then a final boil to reduce it all down.

I did the little bit of tidying up needed and swept the carpet before settling down with my Kindle and some recipe books.  I'm back on the food bandwagon again today after two days of indulgence that I seem to have got away with, fingers crossed, but no more tempting fate.

Today I will be out visiting which will be very pleasant.  Then it is back home and I must think ahead to when tuition resumes again next week.  For now, I must empty the dishwasher:  I've got into the habit of using it overnight on the cheaper rate and it is nice to have a relatively tidy kitchen each morning.  I didn't realise how much I missed having a reliable dishwasher until I got this one just before Christmas.

Well, I'd better go and get started.  First thing is coffee and while the kettle is boiling, I'll do dishwasher duty!  Have a good day and stay warm.


Here's how the Twelfth Night acrostic is working out so far
T:      Turkey
W:     Winter Ware