Cats, Capons and Christmas Trees

Happy Christmas Eve everyone – rather late in the day but hope you have had an enjoyable day?

I have had a busy day, lots of cooking, but I am now relaxing after a lovely meal with a very nice glass of wine and finishing this post. We have gone a little French/European this year and enjoyed a celebratory meal this evening, with our capon, some roasted vegetables, my Grandmother’s bread sauce and stuffing. It felt wrong to follow all our usual traditions this year as so many people are not together, so we are doing things a little differently. It is particularly awful to hear of those who cannot get home for time with their families, particularly the truck drivers trying to get back to mainland Europe from the UK this week. Our best wishes are with them.

Last year was the first time I had ever bought and cooked a capon, but it was recommended to me so we gave it a go. Delicious. So this year we were back to order our capon in November. A slight contrast to last year when we needed the largest capon the local farm could offer, as we had lots of family staying for Christmas. This year we were after the smallest! The instructions were to collect the capon in the car park. So yesterday evening in the dark and rain, we had our capon encounter in the market place car park in Cordes sur Ciel! After money changed hands we left with a 4.5kg capon – perfect for 2!! (We will be eating capon in many guises for weeks to come).

What a week for everyone. I know that this year has been challenging and many of you will have had to change your plans for Christmas. It is tough not to be with family and friends but we can look forward to better times ahead.

On a more positive note we have continued to have the most amazing sunrises and sunsets until today. The skies have been breath-taking, the colours so vivid and beautiful. I think I am a little sky obsessed!

The kittens are enjoying the Christmas tree – so much. Too much! A couple of the lower branches are now bare and the tinsel may not survive. As I mentioned we have kept decorations to a minimum this year and non-breakable – we hope. Over the last few years, we have got into the habit of buying the Christmas tree that no-one else seemed to want. They tend to be not entirely symmetrical. The last few have been short and squat – and have become known as Little Chubby the Christmas Tree. Well this year we found another one, Little Chubby the third– perfect for the kittens as it is off the ground – we thought but the kittens are quite happy to leap at the table it is on and skid across under the tree! Yesterday they also discovered the dog’s bowls and tipped them over – food and water. But not before they pulled all the laundry off the airer so that the dog’s food and water could land on the clean clothes. I do love them. All this while I was off having my hair cut – another style – my hairdresser’s choice of course! (See Lockdown Life Again post to hear about this).

As it is Christmas and I have been talking about recipes for a few weeks, over the next 12 days I will be posting a recipe a day. The 12 days of Christmas recipes. I mentioned that we had agreed to go vegan for Christmas Day, so the recipes will be vegan – some adaptations of things we love to eat (from someone who has just thoroughly enjoyed eating the capon) and some quick and easy recipes. I hope you enjoy them too.