CHRISTMAS IS OVER AND THE SNOW I NEARLY GONE!

"Nu är glada Julen slut, slut, slut (Happy Christmas is over, nearly anyway!) And yesterday I put Hugo's Ginger cookie house calender away along with the big cookies and the advent candle holders.....and my lovely Christmas pigs from Skansen have been put back in the dark of the cupboard...see you all next Christmas.... The weather is misty and the snow has nearly all thored away.....tomorrow we are off our local pub for a New Years Eve Party.....looking forward to that....HAPPY NEW YEAR, I will be back with more tomorrow...

CHRISTMAS IN THE CASTLE, THE BEST OF TWO WORLDS

Christmas in the Castle is the best of two worlds. The Swedish Christmas and the English. We start on Christmas Eve morning with homemade warming rice porridge and then have a small Smörgåsbord at about 6.00 pm followed by opening the Christmas gifts. We dress the table according to Swedish traditions in red with lots of candles.
And on Christmas day, we start with stockings by the tree and then we always go for drinks at one of our local pubs "The Ebrington Arms". Bruce, my husband, did pheasant with all the trimmings assisted by his daughter Charmaine. Lovely! We dressed the table more elegant with sparkly black decorations.
We watched "Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special" and then we traditionally watched "It´s a wonderful life" together....

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM LONDON AND CHIPPING CAMPDEN

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR from me and my family....sorry for not having "been" here for a while but I have had a rough few weeks...my younger brother very sadly passed away last Friday....cancer took his life....
But life goes on and enjoy the very nice Christmas Tree that I found in London the other week in Benetton's window on Knightsbridge....inspiring
And we can this year enjoy a white Christmas in the Cotswolds. Just look at this lovely picture from an old ruin in Chipping Campden surrounded by sheep....
I will be back tomorrow with some last minute Christmas recipes and ideas!

WINTER IN THE CASTLE GARDEN WITH SAFFRON GRAVAD LAX

They call it "the big freeze" I call it Winter! Since being Swedish I kind of like it! Not too much snow but cold and no wind. It is winter in the Cotswold's and this is my back garden!
I am also preparing for our big Christmas party and again I am preparing the now famous Gravad Lax with Saffron. Just looked at the recipe from last year (look at my blog here from 15 December last year and you will find the instructions how to make it) and realized that the Saffron was/is actually missing! The recipe still works as it is but to get the Christmasy taste add 0,5 g of Saffron to the salt mix....lovely with Gravad Lax sauce....will be back tomorrow or on Thursday with that recipe!

CHRISTMAS MARKET AT DAYLESFORD AND BOOKSIGNING WITH JASPER CONRAN

Last Saturday was my birthday, and also the start of Daylesford Organic Christmas Market. A lovely coincidence! And they must have known I was coming for one of my favourite designers, Jasper Conran, was there to sign his new book, Country, he wrote me a very nice dedication in my personal copy. I you have not been to the original Daylesford Organic, Kingham in the Cotswolds it is high time you went. They have tried to recreate it in London, but it really works best with the Cotswold Stone and surrounded by cows and farmland.