gnimmel

03:23 pm: Mince Pyes
At approximately 11:50 last night, we decided it would be a good idea to make mince pies. We didn't have a recipe -- but then again, we had some mincemeat, and who needs a recipe for mince pies? And so now we have a little tray of pies shaped variously like sausage rolls, triangles, whales, dinosaurs without heads, &c., which probably proves that one shouldn't bake mince pies at midnight on Christmas Day.
Afterwards, we looked up recipes. To which all I can say is, that I now have a burning desire to cook a mince pie for next christmas, because it turns out that four hundred-odd years ago, the mince pye:
a) could be up to 100kg in size,
b) could contain rabbits, partridges, legs of beef, pigeons, capons, hares, liver, eggs, pickled mushrooms or indeed all of the above plus everything from a modern-day mince pie,
c) was often held together by iron clamps (see point a),
d) was banned by Oliver Cromwell, and
e) had a pastry model of the baby Jesus on the top.
But enough of pye! the main intention of this entry is to wish you all merriment and joy and suchlike, and to thank you again for being a superb friendslist over the year, and to mention that since I've not really got individual people hereon presents this year, I have instead bought you all some trees -- about a third of a tree each, as it happens. And I'll now return to my scheduled sherry and a surprisingly-circular pie. :)