Happy Christmas!

Hi everyone, and Happy Christmas from myself, Eileen and all at River cottage.
We are all set for a festive feast and a white Christmas. Everything is winding down. The countryside is hushed, the birds quiet. The river is a murmur.

The tops of the hills and mountains in our view are covered in snow with more expected.

We have been busy decorating the tree, and bringing in holly and ivy from our garden and the surrounding hedgerows, to hang indoors.

Our shopping is done, the huge fresh ham and fresh free-range turkey sourced and bought locally.

The cranberry sauce and Christmas pudding, mince pies and Christmas cake are made. Today was the shortest day, the Winter Solstice. We have sent our cards to friends and family, bought in extra rations for our animals/pets - the cats, (wild rescue cats we adopted) Tom, Tammy and Mummy; our ducks, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck; our two hens, Marie and Henny; and our two patio pond goldfish - Whitey and Goldie.

We have plenty of carrots left to pull, some giant parsnips for roasting; beetroot, onions and shallots we saved; broad beans we froze. The vegetable garden is close to being rested in preparation for the new season, beginning with sowing early potatoes and onions in March around St. Patrick's day.

We shall be partaking in plenty of mulled wine and mince pies on Christmas Eve with a few friends, and we have plans for a a few dinner parties.

At some point in the lead up to New Year we shall be holding a Special Open Mike and getting together with our new neighbours to make our 'toasts', give thanks for life and all its blessings, and to reminisce about the past year.

We hope you have enjoyed following our blog during 2009 and stay with us during 2010.

Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Mark and Eileen :)

Homemade Horseradish Sauce!

The other day, having plucked up sufficient courage, we decided to dig up our horseradish plant and make some sauce to go with steak and beef.

For us, this tends to be a two-yearly operation as it takes that long for the horseradish plants to clump up and form good, potent (for potent read hot) roots. It is the roots we are interested in and which the sauce is made from. I said 'courage' was needed earlier as making horseradish sauce involves grating the roots which give off vapours that have a similar effect to peeling strong onions - but horseradish also burns.

Once the long pliable white roots have been grated, they are mixed with créme fraiche and balsamic vinegar (a spoon or two of mustard if you are a real sadist/masochist). Then they are thoroughly blended before being potted in previously sterilised small jars. We managed six 4oz jars from one plant.

The bought stuff can't hold a candle to this organic, ultra-fresh, hot hot hot home-made variety. It doesn't keep for long as there are no preservatives, of course. But who wants to keep it long? We can barely keep our hands off it. Fridge it, and over the next couple of months enjoy sirloin steak and roast beef like it is going out of fashion, all washed down with a big fruity red wine. Heaven! Now then, how do you like your steak?