These are v. serious days indeed on CT, but I wanted to share with you the most perfect girly evening I have had in a long time.
It started in Le Bon Marche, the frilliest department store in Paris, where I bought gift boxes, tissue paper and ribbons (predominantly pink of course). Le Bon Marche is the place you go to if you absolutely must spend 11.65 euro on glace cherries. Everyone there was much too posh to make me feel out of place in my shabby runners, though I did have to make the walk of shame to the farthest corner of the booze shop after I asked for cooking brandy.
Then home to combine hot cider and brown sugar with currants, candied orange peel, freshly ground almonds, cloves, 3 granny smiths, juice and rind of a lemon, a cinnamon stick and said cherries in a pot over a low heat for 40 minutes*, sipping the remaining fresh cider while stirring as the sauce reduced, and re-reading for the umpteenth time the final two chapters of Persuasion. Result; lovely christmas-y cooking smells and the best mincemeat I’ve ever made.
Tonight, I just have to bake the pies (pastry is ‘resting’ in the fridge as we speak), shake some icing sugar over them, wrap them in the lovely boxes, tie their little ribbons and work out how and when to deliver them, red riding hood style.
And if that’s not girly enough for yiz, you should try a personality quiz courtesy of spacefem, and via the cadetblue Invisible Adjunct. I am blueviolet. I don’t know what you have to answer to be pretty pink.
*Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s recipe in domestic goddess, though I’ve a lot less time for her after hearing via Ophelia of Nigella’s contribution to the MMR debate. Perhaps, as retaliation, those of us who know nothing about cooking should wax outraged about how the tv chef business is driven by uncaring, orthodox, control freaks who are in hock to Sainsburys and don’t care a damn if our children get, um, fat?
{ 13 comments }
Kieran Healy 12.16.03 at 11:33 am
You’re invited to our house for next Christmas. Laurie was sold once you mentioned Persuasion. Just be sure to bring the mince pies.
a Canadian 12.16.03 at 1:17 pm
Perhaps, as retaliation, those of us who know nothing about cooking should wax outraged about how the tv chef business is driven by uncaring, orthodox, control freaks who are in hock to Sainsburys and don’t care a damn if our children get, um, fat?
Thanks for that great start to my day. Too funny.
And the Persuasion is an apt refrence on this, Jane Austen’s birthday. Did you know or was it simply serendipitous?
dsquared 12.16.03 at 1:21 pm
I didn’t know Nigella was orthodox; I could have sworn I’d seen a recipe for bacon or pork or something.
Maria 12.16.03 at 1:36 pm
Pure serendipity! I had no idea today was Jane Austen’s birthday (poor thing, she must have endured a lifetime of all in one christmas and birthday presents.) Extra cause for celebration then.
Cheers Kieran & Laurie. Throw another shrimp on the barbie for me.
Daniel – you must be thinking of her infamous recipe for ham and coke. Surely coke’s not kosher?
John isbell 12.16.03 at 1:39 pm
Lovely girly post. I for my part am a girly man.
I had a dear friend who lived around the back of the Bon Marche, Simone, who recently died. it’s where I used to stay. I’ve always liked that pretty much the most expensive department store in Paris has a name meaning “The Cheap Place.” It’s like New College, Oxford.
Ophelia Benson 12.16.03 at 1:45 pm
“Perhaps, as retaliation, those of us who know nothing about cooking should wax outraged about how the tv chef business is driven by uncaring, orthodox, control freaks who are in hock to Sainsburys and don’t care a damn if our children get, um, fat?”
I’ve been daydreaming of a lot of items along these lines. The world is so full of rich possibilities for tv movies featuring feisty single mothers taking on brutal establishments, isn’t it? Why, it may even be infinite. “Socks! Wool-cotton blend socks! He was fine, then I bought him this pair of socks – and now look at him! Something happened to him!” Heartless sock-manufacturers slink away in shame as tv audience cheers. “Squashed-fly biscuits! She was reading Heidegger – in German, mind you – then I gave her a squashed-fly biscuit for tea – only one! – and within seconds she started dribbling and now she can barely read Alain de Botton. Something happened to her!” Heartless squashed flies drag themselves away in shame while tv audience munches on ginger creams.
Chris Bertram 12.16.03 at 3:04 pm
Thanks Maria, I needed cheering up!
(On Nigella: when she dyed her hair a rather awful shade of blonde, a colleague sent me an email with the subject line “custard tart”.)
laura 12.16.03 at 7:34 pm
I did that color quiz. I’m extremely unsaturated apparently. I wish my cholesterol levels reflected that.
Ted Barlow 12.16.03 at 8:18 pm
Today is Jane Austen’s birthday?
It’s also my fiancee’s birthday.
It’s also my co-worker’s wife’s birthday.
It’s also Atrios’s wife’s birthday.
No joke. This means something.
agitpropre 12.16.03 at 8:31 pm
Ted Barlow – add Ludwig von Beethoven to the birthday list.
Jane Finch 12.17.03 at 12:40 am
I’m deep pink….that’s close enough, no? Well maybe not for Bon Marché…one of my fondest memories of Paris was walking into the accessories department and discovering that handbags came in 5 or 6 different shades of pink…and then there were the other 328947 colours. Fab.
ahem 12.17.03 at 3:56 am
I’ve a lot less time for her after hearing via Ophelia of Nigella’s contribution to the MMR debate
I started having less time for her when I heard that she was shtupping Charles Saatchi even before John Diamond had shuffled off. (With his blessing, apparently, but still.) And cooking at No. 10 for Dubya sealed it.
Ross 12.17.03 at 3:08 pm
I’m a manly man (check out my beard!) and I enjoyed stopping in Bon Marche while in Paris with my wife (who’s pregnant now, as if you needed more evidence of my manliness). Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
On the issue of the MMR-Autism debate and the crisis in the UK, I’ve blogged the daylights out of the issue over at my place.
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