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Christmas Eve

December 26, 2008 1 Comment Filed Under: Christmas, Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

Last night:

I finally made the perfect…


Margarita cocktail:
3 capfuls of tequila
1 capful of cointreau
1 1/2 limes squeezed
Prior to this, wet the rim of your glass with the lime and place upside down in a saucer of salt, thereby rimming the glass.
Put ice in glass.
Add mix above.
Perfect. Drank 3 on the trot.
Linguine Vongole recipe:

Fry shallots, bay leaves, in olive oil.
Add garlic, like a bulbs worth.
Then chop up flat leaf parsley and add.
Meanwhile, you have rinsed your fresh clams, discarding any that will not close under running fresh water.
Add white wine, half a bottle to your sauce, then the clams.
Then add your cooked linguine or bavetti, al dente, to the sauce.
Mix and service with ground black pepper.
Drink rest of white wine.
For dessert a gooey chocolate pudding, courtesy of Nigella. 
Melt dark chocolate in a bain-marie.
Whisk 4 eggs, flour, salt, sugar, vanilla essence.
Add cooled melted chocolate to mixture.
Pour into little moulds.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Roasting oven of an Aga.
The puddings are gooey on the inside and slightly spongy on the outside. 
Serve with creme fraiche or vanilla ice-cream.
Then we go to the church at the end of my road. My teenager won’t come because she is sulking in her bedroom. Sister-woman and I arrive late for the service and sit at the back. But the vicar says “you’ve missed the best bits” to us from the pulpit. My sister shouts out, “Well, do it again”.
We sing carols ‘Come all ye faithful’, ‘We three kings’, ‘Silent night’. We have such beautiful carols in Britain. I only go to church once a year, basically to sing carols.
I go up to receive communion. I say a little prayer.
On the way out the vicar clasps my hands. I’ve met him a few times. He lives opposite me. “You should come more often”, he pressurises. 
“Well, I’m not a Christian and I don’t believe in God. I just come to sing carols.”
As we walk out my sister says: “That was rude, why do you have to shove it down his throat?”
I’m thinking, I just wanted to make it clear. I’ve had these conversations with him before and I don’t want to give him hope. In fact every time I do go to church, the more preposterous Christianity appears to me. Do I really want to worship a young man in his 20’s and 30’s? I simply cannot relate to this religion.
I slightly wish my sister would go away. Bossy cow.

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  1. Canal Explorer

    December 28, 2008 at 7:32 pm

    Haha, you’re hilarious!!

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
My piece in the @hamandhigh about the 3 day @heat My piece in the @hamandhigh about the  3 day @heathostile training course. Incredibly interesting & challenging. Link: https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/things-to-do/hostile-environment-training-9037980 to read more #hostileenvironmenttraining
Supper club dishes from Saturday: pickled beetroot Supper club dishes from Saturday: pickled beetroot eggs, cheeseboard, stracciatella & cucumber, tomato/strawberry/peashoot salad with real balsamic & spruce oil, home cured dill gravlax, smoked salmon, homemade sourdough crisp bread, potato salad with wild fennel & lots more! #supperclub #midsummer #eattherainbow (miss you @linnsoederstroem)
Last nights supper club. My first supper club in 2 Last nights supper club. My first supper club in 2 years was great fun. I’m pleased with my food, the guests were lovely, it looked magical in the garden. But the weather! I even had to bring my duvets from the bedroom out. They looked like refugees. But this brought even more laughter! Next event September
My first supperclub in two years will take place t My first supperclub in two years will take place this Saturday 18th June starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are £50 byo you can book here: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club there are still a few places left. Pescetarian menu. Scandi and botanical influences. #gettingbackonmyfeet #postpandemic #smallbusinesses #supperclub #london
I recently completed the 3 day @heathostile train I recently completed the 3 day  @heathostile training course. On the last day I was kidnapped by ex-special forces for a few hours & learnt how to deal with compliance training & a hostile environment. It was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. 3 intense days of combat first aid, navigation & how to survive in a war zone. I handled short, long guns, mortars, grenades, bullets, and tourniquet & bandaged an amputee. I learnt where to sit in a car, where to hide from a bullet, where to protect myself if in a car. It was brilliant. Highly recommended for any journalists, photographers, cameramen, charity workers, paramedics going into any difficult environment say a disaster or war. The stories from the tutors & the other participants were so interesting. My piece on it out soon. Book a course: https://hostile-environment.co.uk/  They also do jungle & desert training. I’d love to join the Antarctic expedition. Anyway that’s me hooded in the front. #adventures #het #hostileenvironmenttraining #experiences #travel
Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking o Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking on doors, going to libraries, searching through graveyards for my Irish forebears. It’s really hard to find information prior to 1850. I found this in last years trip to Arbroath in Scotland. Headstones wear out, records are lost or burnt in a fire, everybody has the same name and are known by nicknames, successive children have the same first name, that usually means they died and the next one is called by the same thing. Women did have children out of wedlock, and people remarried more often than you’d think, plus families fall out & never see each other again. I learnt that my Irish great grandfather michael went to Glasgow & met a woman who came from a similar place: somewhere wild & beautiful by the sea. Then they and their children came to london. Chasing the work & the money always. Politics and economics matter for they push people around from rural to city. And now we rodgers are Londoners. #ireland #scotland #family #travel #roots
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Tullaghan, county Leitrim, Donegal, where my grea Tullaghan, county Leitrim, Donegal,  where my great great grandfather john Rodgers was a postman, then a tailor, then a pawnbroker. #irishheritage #donegal #myancestry #irish #rodgers #travel
I’ve taken down the previous post as it’s poor I’ve taken down the previous post as it’s poor timing considering what’s happened over the last 24 hours. Being British I’ve not grown up around guns. It’s interesting to be on this course and find out more about the reality of them, although my focus is learning the ‘golden triangle’ of first aid, communications and navigation. But at the same time It’s depressing how in America nothing will ever change regarding gun law. RIP.
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in June I’m having my first supper club in two y in June I’m having my first supper club in two years: here is the link to book: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club £50 18th June  Saturday night. Byo.
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