12 Days, Santa and Guns?

I must have missed this in previous years, PNC Wealth Management tots up the cost of all the items specified in the Christmas song, Twelve days of Christmas. They say the cost of 5 gold rings has decreased slightly, but taking everything else into account, the total bill for all those items, repeated in every verse don’t forget, would be $101,119. They say the price of lords a leaping , ladies dancing and maids a milking remained about the same. Its an interesting article. I quote “Those with the money to spend would end up with 12 drummers drumming, 22 pipers piping, 30 lords-a-leaping, 36 ladies dancing, 40 maids-a-milking, 42 swans-a-swimming, 42 geese-a-laying, 40 gold rings, 36 calling birds, 30 French hens, 22 turtle doves, and 12 partridges in pear trees. (The price does not include bird maintenance.)”. Funny. As they point out, it would be a lot cheaper if you only bought one item as specified each day. The report also states that if you leave this til the last minute and shop on the internet, the cost of shipping the birds will be exorbitant.

Oh isn’t this lovely Santa Claus surrounded by guns at an Arizona gun club. What a lovely picture to show children. His bag was full of weaponry and people could pay $10 to pose with Santa and a bunch of machine guns. Whether you are a gun advocate or not, I think this is totally tasteless and inappropriate. Associating an icon of peace and goodwill with items of death and destruction.

A friend lent me a book the other day and said he hadn’t been too happy with it because it was full of description most of which he considered unnecessary, I am actually find it quite enjoyable except for one big gaffe, at least, the book is called Through a Glass Darkly and is set in 1760 something. There is a description of apple pies cooked with cinnamon. Sorry I would dispute the accuracy of that, certainly up until I left the country, apple pies were always baked with cloves. I might say they taste a lot better too, in my opinion. There is also a reference to turkey on a Christmas table although not as the main feature, I would be very surprised if that was accurate either, but I couldn’t swear to it. America had, of course,  been discovered by that time, but whether we had turkeys in the UK for food in those days, I can’t honestly say. The main course was in fact a boar which would have been accurate.

We have had such a beautiful November, people are now prophesying we will have a hard winter once winter proper sets in. Most seem to have forgotten, we didn’t get snow very early last year either, in fact we had a green Christmas, looks as though it could happen again this year.

This is such an easy recipe, I am certainly going to try it very soon.

Quick Vinegar-Braised Chicken with Garlic and Celery Leaves

Food and Wine

• FAST
• HEALTHY
• MAKE-AHEAD

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs, trimmed of all visible fat and cut into 2-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Celery leaves from 1 large bunch
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

In a large skillet, heat the oil until shimmering. Season the chicken with salt and pepper; add it to the pan in a single layer. Cook over high heat, turning once, until well browned, 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook over moderate heat just until fragrant, 1 minute. Add most of the celery leaves and stir just until wilted, 30 seconds. Add the stock and vinegar and cook, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pan, until the sauce is reduced to a few tablespoons, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the parsley and the remaining celery leaves and serve.

One Serving 245 cal, 11 gm fat, 2 gm sat fat, 2 gm carb, 0 gm fibre. Serve With Brown or white rice.

Have a great day