Festive Spirit

Traditionally when it comes to celebrating religious festivals I'm a bit of a bah-humbug and being in a hot country at Christmas time does not conjure up those childhood memories of twinkling lights and snow ball fights. I don't go in for lavish Christmas trees and decorations nor do I pile my home full of useless tut, but when it comes to food and drink I can certainly start to feel a little festive. This year Mr. E is at home, so instead of dinner for one I'm preparing a feast or turkey and all the trimmings. When he comes home from work (yes some people still have to work on 25th December!) we'll be over indulging and probably fall asleep on the sofa!
With 3 weeks to go here's what we've been preparing....

To get us into the spirit of things I've prepared a bottle of Christmas Vodka. Inspired by a recipe from Delicious Online we currently have a bottle of vodka infusing with ginger, cinnamon, cloves and syrup hidden away in our store cupboard - can't wait to taste that on Christmas evening but now I have to decide which canapés will be best to serve with it.

I love making chutney and I think the apple and pear spiced chutney should be delightful with our Boxing Day cheese plate. Ideally the chutney should be left for at least a month before eating so I left it a little late to make but still I'm sure it will be tasty. I've got 5 jars of it so it better be!

Following German tradition our festivities started yesterday (December 6th). This is the day that it is believed St. Nicholas left children sweeties in their shoes if they had been good, or a pile of sticks for the naughty. We of course had been very good so a treat of home made gluhwein (mulled wine) and zimtsterne (cinnamon stars) was our first taste of Christmas. To make the gluhwein, remove the rind of an orange and insert about 8-10 cloves into the peel, squeeze the juice into a saucepan, add about 50g sugar heat until the sugar dissolves then add the orange peel, 1 cinnamon stick and 1 star anise. simmer until the juice is thick and syrupy - about 10 minutes. Add half a bottle of red wine and stir well, heat through for around another 10 minutes (dont boil) then remove the spices and peel and serve. 

Not sure if you will believe it but we did only have 1 mug of gluhwein each. Had we been at the Weihnachtsmarkt in Erfurt I'm sure a few more would have been consumed along with several shots of amaretto to keep up the Erbe family tradition.

I found the recipe for the zimtsterne from Edd Kimber in BBC Good Food magazine. The recipe is simple to follow and calls for only a few ingredients. Whisking egg whites by hand was not so much fun but if you've got an electric whisk then these tasty biscuits are super easy. The recipe made about 35 stars - lots for us and some for gifts. 



A very merry festive season to all - Eat, drink and enjoy yourselves!