Creating something from nothing – or to repeat my own oft quoted words, making much of little… or not even much but at least something – is the focus of my thoughts today.
This is what I ended up doing yesterday evening. We had all been out to various Christmas lunches and celebrations and had arrived home later in the afternoon with some of us needing to return to work on our computers while others had physical tasks to catch up on. Darkness fell… the moon climbed higher in a clear sky as the temperature plummeted and the evening became icily cold.
I knew that no one would need or want a proper meal after the feasts which we had variously consumed only hours earlier, so I peered in the fridge to see what I could find. A couple of ends of cold joints, some heels of cheese, a bit of salad. In the cake tins I found some delicious fruit, nut and honey cake which is a Maltese Christmas delicacy which one of us had recently brought home from a cruise which had passed that island. I also discovered half a pink sponge cake and some German spice cakes… cheese biscuits, and so on.
I carved the meat into finger friendly thin slices and set everything out on a large board with a couple of homemade chutneys and all the appropriate cutlery, the bowl of salad and the platter of sweet stuffs. Homemade rolls were popped in the oven to warm. Butter was warming in seasonal dish shaped as a smiling little deer. This was all set on the shelf next to the Aga where this year’s wooden Advent calendar lights up a dark corner. I added a couple of candles and wound up my husband’s German musical box which plays ‘Tanenbaum’ – the scene was set!
Everyone congregated in the cosy warmth from our faithful old cream stove and as we ate and shared the ‘bits and pieces’ which we were all suddenly ravenous for and which tasted amazingly good, everyone relaxed, laughter and chatter flowed and the atmosphere grew warmer – and not just from the Aga!
I sometimes do this for afternoon tea – raid all the cake tins and fridge/freezer and assemble al the ends of packets, pieces of cake and biscuits on one small table which then overflows with tasty treats and possibilities. If there is any shortfall, out comes a loaf of bread and the toasting fork and we indulge in slices made golden brown by the blazing fire, dripping with butter or honey… toast never tastes so good as when it is done on an open fire!
So, good people, do not despair at all the disparate ends and remnants of foods that have accumulated in your fridges and cupboards… get them all out and arrange an eat-up feast and turn it into a special occasion, not simply a tiresome task, or another case when everything ends up in the waste food bucket.
Extra ingredients: light a candle… possibly pour a glass of wine (or a cup of tea or coffee) and give each other a hug – after all, it is Christmas!
