Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com rockpool in the kitchen: A kilo of chestnuts..

Sunday, December 19, 2004

A kilo of chestnuts..

Well, lunch is over. And went alright, despite (daily) problem of Granny rarely starting anything till a couple of hours before and Beloved having to have everything ready by yesterday - in a state of rare anxiety if it isn't.

Now (contrary to above) Granny is faced with shelling a kilo and a half of chestnuts. Along with requesting her baby-sitting services for the whole of Christmas Eve, Beloved (truly) Daughter-in-law asked 'could you make your Christmas stuffing?' Granny can and will. But since shelling the things for latter, incompatible with fulfilling former, it has to be done here. Can't imagine too many of her fellow passengers will have large bag of Spanish chestnuts, processed as above, on flight home. The chestnuts are a yearly event in her family - long-used French recipe from Elizabeth David, always in demand. (The secret is adding apples and leaving out the bread, and the sausage-meat.) You can use tinned chestnuts but it isn't the same.

There are few years that Granny hasn't spent Christmas with sore finger-nails - the chestnut shells pierce into the quick. Only year she didn't suffer them was because she went to Timbuctu. Yes, really. It was an attempt - wholly successful, not to say bizarre not to say wonderful- to get away from being, she was a lone woman then, the ghost at everyone else's feast. Not so long ago. But in life with Beloved now, it seems so. (They are not in fact spending Christmas day with each other this year; his family's needs duties and hers are at odds. It doesn't matter. New Year's Eve will do. Not to mention all those other, many, days and nights.)

6 Old comments:

Blogger D said...

Distance no object, eh? Nice. And did you know that we Australians (as far as I'm aware, anyway) are not familiar with chestnuts? We have that Christmas carol ("chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." etc.) but no chestnuts. Ripped off.

1:34 pm  
Blogger granny p said...

I'm sending you a virtual marron glace by return. (Patronising with French eh?..) And now, here's a thought for you. Plant a chestnut grove alongside your coffee trees and fill Oz with the glorious things. Chestnuts are ..heavenly.

2:25 pm  
Blogger D said...

Not patronising, no: I've got no idea what a marron glace is. Sigh. But I bet it's lovely. As would be the chestnuts. Our local Christmas images all seem to be borrowed from far away. Even the (supposedly local) Google banner shows snowmen, and it was about 28 degrees Celcius or something today. Oh, it's a hard life (laughing. Cue: "What a whinger!").

Merry Christmas, bon voyage, etc. Have a lovely time in the UK.

11:38 am  
Blogger D said...

Just to clarify: the Google banner shows polar bears, & I am a bloody idiot (laughing yet again). Oh dear. Must be Christmas or something...

12:23 pm  
Blogger granny p said...

My sister in Sydney - in Belrose somewhere up beyond French's Forest - lives in a street which is supposed to have the most elaborate Christmas lights in all NSW - maybe all Oz. They get TV cameras most years - they- I'm told - have sleighs, reindeer, fathers c, bears etc etc etc, the lot. And there they are having barbies and roasting with heat. Granny, On the other hand, was somewhere north of Newcastle in June once, on a sister-bonding trip and got the winter solstice - complete with tree, father c, carols etc. An odd experience. So what's the odd polar bear on Google?!

1:15 pm  
Blogger D said...

True - and the Google bears were actually quite cute. (The Christmas Light thing is like a virus - it seems to be taking over the country. You could probably look down from space & pick out "Seasons Greetings" in flashing lights.)

1:20 pm  

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