In My Kitchen – December 2024

Hello friends! We made it to the other side! Indeed, this month’s In My Kitchen is kind of a special edition because we’re not just celebrating a new month but a whole new year! Let’s hope 2025 is happy, healthy and altogether delicious!

Before I get stuck into the new year, I just want to thank Sherry for keeping us all connected with her monthly In My Kitchen catch ups – I enjoy them so much! Of course, it would be remiss if I didn’t take a quick look back at the month that was because honestly, it was a right cracker. Grab a cuppa and let me walk you through what December looked like in my kitchen…

I had a great girls’ weekend at the start of the month and when I discovered our resort was down the road from the Tiptree jam factory, I had to make a pit stop on the way home. There was every conserve and condiment you could think of, and then some.

As it was, I was quite restrained buying some rhubarb and ginger jam for the outlaws – it’s their favourite – some Tiptree Chutney for David and some champagne marmalade for me. I’m pleased to report I’ve enjoyed it both on toast and in cocktails, nom nom!

We decided to DIY our advent calendars this year – we’ve had our cloth advent calendars since we first met (20 years!) and they’ve travelled all the way to Australia with us and back again. I filled David’s with miniature Tony’s chocolates – his fave – and he filled mine with fun size chocolate treats and painstakingly wrapped my favourite sweets into tiny advent calendar pocket size parcels. These dinosaur jellies were my fave!

Christmas was a-coming so fudge was a-making much to the delight of friends, family and neigbhours. This Thermomix recipe always goes down a treat.

We had a wonderful few days at the Christmas Markets in Cologne and managed to squeeze in a day trip to Bonn while we were there. The Bonn Christmas markets and what we saw of the city was a delight but the highlight for me was visiting the flagship Haribo Store – as Bonn is the home of Haribo! As well as the usual crowd favourites, there were some international lines that we hadn’t seen before so I stocked up and got quite the Haribo haul!

Mulled wine was a big feature of the Christmas markets of which there are seven in Cologne. Each market serves it’s gluhwein in a cup unique to the market and when your wine is finished you can choose to either keep the cup or return it to the bar for a deposit. Of course, I decided to keep mine and acquired quite a collection in the short time I was in town! Unfortunately, I have been a bit over zealous clearing the house of Christmas so here’s a pic of me sampling the Gluwein in situ with a cup from my collection!

I made up my lack of minimalism with the cups by resisting the urge to buy a Christmas dinner set of my own. Once again, I borrowed my neighbour’s ‘spare’ set instead! Eating off Christmas plates is always a delight!

Talking of neighbours, some came over for a pre Christmas celebration, we started with this very rustic charcuterie Christmas tree and had Recipe Tin Eat’s Black Bean Chilli for mains which went down a right royal treat!

Christmas seemed to come around so quick, I didn’t make nearly as many festive foods as I wanted but I did share this recipe for Licorice Lovers Rocky Road. It was a huge hit at our place and with our friends and neighbours.

I make my rocky road in the Thermomix because it’s quick, easy and there’s only one bowl to wash up. The real reason I get so excited about using the thermie is that when the rocky road mixture is in the tin, I add some milk to the unwashed chocolatey Thermomix bowl and make a hot chocolate. It’s delish, even moreso when it’s served in a Santa mug.

Talking of Thermomix wizardry, I discovered the boiled egg function – it’s genius. For Christmas, we treated ourselves to a pair of Country Traditionals blue and white egg cups. Boiled eggs and soldiers never gets old, especially when the eggs are in Christmas fancy dress!

I can always find time to make some of these mini Christmas puddings – this year I found holly and berry sprinkles at Waitrose which were a lifesaver!

It came to my attention that while my selection of Christmas serving ware was most pleasing, I was seriously lacking some festive bowls. Lucky Marks and Spencer saved the day with this super star set. I love the pattern they have around the side (you can’t see it in this pic) and the different sizes make them really versatile.

We had a lovely Christmasat home just me, David and Teddy. David is a bit like Christmas, he comes (into the kitchen to cook) once a year! It’s the one day of the year when he cooks a full dinner. This year we had roast leg of pork, roast potatoes, stuffing, sprouts and honey roasted parsnips and carrots. We cheated with the yorkies and the pigs in blankets though and got the former form the freezer and the latter from the butcher.

I recently discovered Dom on Instagram and he’s such a delight! I actually used his recipe for roast potatoes, made them ahead of time, popped them in the freezer and David just had to heat them through. What a game changer!

Talking of Christmas veg, all the supermarkets in the UK reduce the cost of all the veggie staples in the week before Christmas. The prices are almost unbelievable, 15p for a 2kg bag of potatoes (that’s about 30 Aussie cents!) Can you believe?!

Surprisingly, we didn’t over cater or over eat at Christmas but we made sure we had enough for Boxing Day. I decided to upcycle the left overs into a pie. I literally chopped everything up – including potatoes, veg and stuffing – covered it in gravy and slapped a puff pastry sheet on top. By golly, it was delicious and the only way I want to eat roast dinner leftovers now!

Being a multi faith family, I was pretty excited that the first night of Hannukah started on Christmas Day. This is very unusual and has only happened a handful of times – the last in 2005 and the next in 2035. I was very excited to light my menorah and eat some donuts!

Not strictly in my kitchen but in my neighbour’s, was a little Lebanese cooking masterclass. His 89 year old mum kindly offered to show me how to make kibbeh and sambousek. Her memory is not what it used to be but she knew exactly how to make these dishes and it was such a joy to watch her cook.

My friend Lucy (I actually know 6 Lucys but this is the one I met through the blog!) knows me too well and got me this chocolate spoon set. You heat the milk and drop the chocolate spoon in to melt and make the hot chocolate of your dreams. I can’t wait to get stuck in!

Last but not least, I finally got a spice rack. All my herb and spice jars were taking up so much room in my food cupboard it was driving me wild! I am now a very happy Sam indeed!

So tell me how was your December? What are your must have spices? And what are you most looking forward to in 2025? Tell me everything in the comments!