Friday 15th December 2023

Managed a little work at the computer this morning, then had to concentrate on preparing the food for tonight's gathering. Got Aki to slice my beetroot cured salmon with her sashimi knife, but it was more difficult to keep it shaped than we'd anticipated. Put half the slices in the freezer for New Year's Eve. Cooked up the nut roast to the Hairy Biker's festive recipe, and made a mushroom gravy, and a bread sauce. Tony turned up a little early, having come straight from work on the panto at the Palladium. Katrina followed half-an-hour or so later, and we sat down for dinner around 1915. I served the salmon with salad leaf, toast, horseradish sauce, pickled cucumber, and red cabbage. It went down well. The nut roast was a success, served up with roast potatoes, parsnips, baby carrots, celeriac, and broccoli, plus bread sauce, gravy, and cranberry sauce. Aki's chocolate cake followed, with whipped cream and mascarpone, followed by cheese and biscuits. Tony was delighted with the anthology of poetry collected, and signed, by Jeremy Corbyn in the the very seat he was sitting in. Waved them off into the night, and set about washing up before bed...