Pizza for Christmas

OK, this isn't an excerpt from the book Alive: we're not about to eat each other. But we are stranded "at altitude." It's not the Andes, exactly, but there are hills the car can't get up. We can go nowhere. And school is cancelled. Cue foreboding music: Maybe we will eat each other? Doubt it, but eating is definitely going on around here - lots of it.

View From The Back of Our House

I now know why there is so much rich, fabulous food associated with this time of year: Because in the olden days, if you were stranded indoors and lucky enough to have a full larder, you cooked and baked.

This past Friday, the weather descended. A full shop was done. Saturday evening: whiskey aperitifs, beef stew, apple sponge cake, red wine. Sunday, I roasted a duck. They take almost 4 hours, so the best day to tend to one, is a day when you can’t get more than a couple of rooms away from the oven. It was accompanied by roasted potatoes and green beans (thrown on the floor by the kids); hot chocolate pudding for afters. We rolled off to bed.

Today, the kids and I made Christmas cookies. I justified this two ways: 1, it was an activity that would keep them engaged and occupied; and 2, we were NOT going to eat these buttery delicacies, we were going to give them away as presents (please don’t laugh). The cookies took almost two hours between the mixing, refrigeration, cutting out shapes, baking and decorating. That was great, as it was two hours where they could fight over who was cracking eggs instead of trying to choke each other on the sofa. OK, yes, we did eat a few. There are enough left to give as presents. Small presents.

Tonight, I tried to take it easy on the calories with fish and salad. Got a text from the school however and, you guessed it: school closed again tomorrow. Now, we move into what’s in the freezer territory...a coconut milk chicken curry or fried liver? It’s almost the 21st of December. I won’t need to lose weight after the holidays; I’m going to need to lose weight before the holidays.

I shouldn’t worry as there are only a couple of dinners in the freezer. If this weather keeps up much longer we’ll be having frozen pizza for Christmas dinner.

Happy Holidays!