Christmas in the Back Woods . . .

In the pioneer days, the home was decorated with green branches and homemade decorations. They did not have a big Christmas tree because there was no room for a large tree in their small homes. Pine cones, nuts, berries and popcorn chains were hung on the tree. Figures or dolls out of straw or yarn were made. Cookie dough ornaments and gingerbread men were also hung on the tree.

The Christmas dinner was planned and preparation of the food began weeks ahead of time. The Christmas goose was fattened up and the plum pudding was left to age in the pot until Christmas day. There were chores that began months before Christmas - such as making the gifts for the family members ( corn husk dolls, sachets, carved wooden toys, pillows, footstools and embroidered hankies ). Scarves, hats, mitts and socks had to be knitted. Girls were able to knit before they were six years old. Boys would make boxes for presents.



If there had been a good harvest that year, presents were placed inside stockings . The stockings were hung on the fireplace . Cookies and fruit might also be found in the stockings.

Christmas Eve was a night for singing carols and telling stories around the fireplace. Christmas Day the whole family attended church and returned home to a Christmas meal. Then it was time to visit friends and neighbors.

German settlers brought with them the German custom of decorating an evergreen tree for Christmas. The tiny candles were lit for only a few minutes at a time because of the danger of fire. On Christmas Eve, a neighbour often dressed up in a mask as Belsnickel and visited households, bringing candies for good children and a switch to frighten bad children. On Christmas morning, the children hoped to find candies shaped like animals waiting on their plates.



As Christmas approached, English settlers bought raisins and spices at the general store so they could make mince pies and plum pudding. They dragged a huge oak log in and kept it burning for the Twelve Days of Christmas. This yule-log custom goes back to early pagan times. English settlers fattened several geese through the fall to be ready for Christmas Dinner. Children looked forward to presents of oranges (precious because they could only be bought at this time of year) and candies. Gifts weren't exchanged, but mother might knit new mittens or hats for the younger ones, and father might carve a toy for the baby.

Irish settlers had their own customs. On Christmas Eve the youngest child placed a lit candle in the window to welcome Mary and Joseph. The Mary of the family (almost every family had a Mary) would snuff out the candle on Christmas Day. Irish families also made small nativity scenes to help children understand the Christmas story.

Santa Claus first came to North America with Dutch Settlers, who first called him Saint Nicholas, then Sinter Klaas and finally Santa Claus.



Scottish settlers were surprised to find their neighbours celebrating Christmas. In Scotland, it was a day to spend quietly in church. Their festive day was New Years Eve, Hogmanay.

As the years passed, settlers in the backwoods and in the towns borrowed ideas from their neighbours and soon, instead of a German or Irish, English or Scottish Christmas, there was a distinctly North American Christmas.



I think it must have been very special to be a child back in the pioneer days at Christmas time. It must have been a wonderful time for families to reflect on their many blessings of the past year and look forward to their dreams for the coming year...a time when they could forget all the work and hard times and enjoy a special moment with family, friends and neighbours. A simple time . . . but, it seems to me, a wonderfully rich time, steeped in traditions, both old and new . . .

Here's a delicious meal to cook for supper on these colder nights, when the wind is blustering away outside and rattling your windows and doors . . .



*Lemon Roasted Chicken With Croutons*
Serves 3 - 4
Printable Recipe

A simple chicken, stuffed with lemon, roasted and then sliced onto a bed of warm croutons so they soak up all the delicious juices of the chicken . . . How good is that??? In my opinion, roast chicken in any way shape or form can’t be beat!

1 (2.5lb.) roasting chicken
1 large onion, sliced
Olive oil
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 unwaxed lemons, quartered
2 TBS butter, softened
6 cups bread cubes, ¾ inch (1 baguette or round boule,
I have even used a cubed olive ciabatta loaf)

Pre-heat oven to 200*C/400*F. Toss the onion with a little olive oil in a small roasting pan. Wash your chicken and remove any excess fat and pinfeathers. Sprinkle the insides with salt and pepper then stuff with the lemon quarters, giving each one a little squeeze before you put it in. The last quarter I squeeze all over the outside of the chicken before finally placing it inside. Rub the outside of the chicken with the softened butter, sprinkle with more salt and pepper and place on top of the onions in the roasting tray.

Roast for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between the leg and the thigh. Cover with foil and allow to sit for 15 minutes while you do the croutons. The onions in the bottom will probably be burnt looking, but don’t worry, the flavour will be good.

Heat a large saute pan with 2 TBS olive oil until very hot. Lower the heat to medium low and saute the bread cubes, stirring frequently, until nicely browned. This will take around 10 minutes or so. Just before they are done I stir in a knob of butter and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.

Place the croutons on a serving platter and slice the chicken on top. Strain the juices from the pan, discarding the onion and spoon over all. Serve warm.



Baking in The English Kitchen today, some tasty Chocolate and Toffee Cookies!

God's Christmas Autograph . . .

On Christmas Eve I saw
God’s autograph in the snow . . .
Tiny creature tracks so fine,
All lacy in a row.
And with the dazzling Christmas dawn,
My eyes did then behold.
God’s signature grown ever dear,
Etched in sunlight gold.
~Rosalyn Hart Finch

As a child, growing up in Canada, long about the middle of November . . . beginning of December, I would start to look for snow. As the days grew shorter, the temperatures dipped, and the ground grew hard and cold . . . I would scan the sky daily for those tell tale feathery first flakes that would begin to fall and alight on my eyelashes and face. Is there anything on earth that tastes better? I think not! Those first few flakes of the season were eagerly anticipated and greeted with great aplomb, for if the snow was falling . . . the arrival of Christmas and Santa Claus could not be too far behind!


(First Snowfall by Phillip Hill)

As an adult there is nothing more peaceful then the air that rings with silence early in the morning after a heavy night-time snowfall. How I love to look out over the pristine fields adorned with a heavy white blanket . . . it's smooth as silk top only disturbed by the small hop-hop-hoppings of tiny bird feet upon it's surface. . .

All the branches of the surrounding trees draped in it's heavenly sugarlike decorations. There is no more beautiful sight on earth, to my way of thinking anyways. I can always tell when snow is "in the air" . . . I believe I can actually smell it's impending arrival, and the sky takes on a peculiar dark grey leaden appearance.



As children, the first snowfall brought about a flurry of activity. Our absolute first chore was to build the first snowman of the year, of course!! We would spend hours rolling the snow into big balls, three in number . . . each one getting a bit smaller than the last . . . and heaping them one on top of the other, with the very smallest on top. Those first snowmen were always adorned with the last few escaped leaves from autumn's flurry of raking . . . little prizes missed from the rake's ruthless prongs. Sticks were sought out and discarded, for only the straightest and best were sufficient for the snowman's most capable arms. Stones were prised from the frozen earth at the sides of the roadway to be used as eyes and mouth . . . and mom always donated a carrot for the nose. An old scarf and hat were also donated, only after much begging of course! (I'm quite sure she kept an old one in the utility room to be used year after year for just this purpose!) What a wonderous sight that snowman would be to behold when he was done. They sprung up all over the neighbourhood like welcome immigrants from a mysterious and snowy foreign land that was visited upon us for a time . . .



I know that the snow was not as welcomed by our parents, for it heralded the season of the back breaking labour of shovelling and having to clean the car off every time they wanted to go somewhere . . . but it was a wonderful gift from above for the young at heart . . . it would be several weeks for the novelty to wear off.

I do admit that throughout the ten years I have been living here in the UK, I have missed the snow . . . especially before Christmas. A green Christmas, when I was growing up, always meant a season of doom, for, if all the old wive's tales were to be believed . . . it meant a season of illness, and possibly even a death in the family. So, while we kids eagerly awaited those first snowy flakes for all the joy they would bring . . . our parents eagerly awaited them as well, despite the work they would bring, for they heralded a season of good health for the family and others . . .



And so this past week of snow and ice and cold has warmed my heart in a lot of ways . . . as it brought back many of those snowy memories of my childhood growing up in Canada . . . Oh, for sure, I know that it does create a lot of hardship for many over here . . . we just are not equipt to deal with it . . . and it's probably a certainty that come Christmas time . . . there will be none to be found, but if you don't have to go anywhere, and can just enjoy the luxury of staying at home, it is truly a beautiful thing.

And now for some refreshments! These have to be my favourite cookies, but then again, I am a sucker for Peanut Butter and Jam! How about a nice hot cuppa and some of these???



*Peanut Butter and Jam Cookies*
Makes about 30 (depending on how big you make them)
Printable Recipe

Us North Americans are nuts about Peanut Butter! It’s one of our favourite things and we use it to flavour cookies, pies, cakes and even savoury dishes . . .and we absolutely love Peanut Butter and Jam together. In fact, in the grocery stores, you can get jars of the two swirled together already. I forget what it’s called though. My husband thinks it’s a crazy combination and you would never get him to eat a Peanut Butter and jam sandwich . . . but he sure gobbles up these cookies!

½ cup plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
Few drops of vanilla essence
¼ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
¾ cup caster sugar
¼ cup soft light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
Strawberry jam

FOR THE FROSTING:
¼ cup plus 2 TBS icing sugar
1 ½ TBS milk
¼ cup creamy peanut butter

Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Sift together the flour and baking powder and set aside.

Blend together the peanut butter and the butter with you electric hand mixer, until fluffy and well combined. Add the caster sugar and the brown sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture to combine.

Shape TBS of the dough into balls and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Press down a bit with your fingertips and then with your thumb, gently dent the centre of each cookie. Spoon about ½ tsp of the jam into these dents. Bake for about 12 minutes or until lightly golden and done. Remove from the oven and pan to cool on a wire rack.

Beat together the ¼ cup of peanut butter and the icing sugar. Beat in the milk a little at a time until it reaches a good consistency for piping. Place into a plastic sandwich bag and squish it all down into one corner. Snip of a tiny bit of the corner of the bag and pipe the frosting onto the cooled cookies. Enjoy!





Over in The English Kitchen today, there's a real treat for the kiddies! A Gingerbread Man Cake!

The Christmas Bake Shop . . .

Well, here we are the end of the first week of December and my mind is naturally turned to all things Christmas. When I was a child,the weeks and days before Christmas were filled with the spicy smells and tantalizing odours of my mother busy in the kitchen baking up all sorts of treats for the Christmas Season.

One thing that she made us each year was her Date Squares. Her mother's recipe they had beautiful layers of buttery crumbly Oats with deliciously sweet and sticky dates in the middle. These were a firm family favourite which we were never treated to any other time of the year. She would also make rich and buttery Scotch Shortbread cookies . . . each one decorated with slivers of candied red and green cherries.



At Christmas we could always rely on her baking a War Cake. This was a cake that was developed during WW2 and it didn't use much in the way of flour, eggs or sugar. We loved it because it was full of fat sticky seedled raisins. I haven't seen a big fat raisin like the ones she used in years . . .

The piece de resistance was always her Feather Squares. With a delicous buttery cake like bottom, layered with sweet raspberry jam and a coconut meringue topping, these tasty delites were always my very favourite thing. They weren't good keepers because of the meringue though . . . so you had to eat them up within the first day or so! Yumm! NOT a problem!! I loved the way the jam seeped into the cake after the first day and made what was already good, fabulous!



There would be ginger cookies and mince pies and fruitcakes, both light and dark. Christmas was the one time of year that the house was filled with an abundance of goodies and treats for us all to enjoy!

I carried on the baking tradition after I got married and had a family of my own. Along about mid November, and the beginning of December, my kitchen would be a flurry of activity and smells as I spent hours preparing Christmas Delights for my family and friends. I always liked to make up a baking tray of delicious goodies as gifts for friends. Money was short and these were always welcome. I made the same things as my mother had baked for us as children, and a few extra besides.



Women's magazines at that time of year always contained a small Robin Hood baking leaflet introducing new products and recipes for Christmas baking, and I always liked to try something new each year. Firm favorites were always my Dutch Almond Cookies. These had a spicy almond batter filled with a delicious almond filling, which was a delightful surprise when you bit into them. I also used to make these apricot squares that were lovely and buttery . . . crumbly and full of delicious pieces of dried apricots. Then again . . . how could I forget the 7 layer bars, with the layers of crushed graham wafers and butter, coconut, chocolate chips, walnuts and sweetened condensed milk?

My friend Leona introduced me to Peanut Butter Balls and so I made those every year as well. Lovely little bite sized balls of peanut butter, rice crispies cereal, walnuts and sugar, dipped in melted chocolate. My sister introduced me to Mexican Wedding Cookies, buttery and nutty little bits of tender goodness, covered in layers and layers of powder sugar, that absolutely melted in your mouth. I also liked to make my whipped shortbread cookies . . . just as tasty as the rolled ones but alot easier to manage because there was no rolling out. Half with work with double the satisfaction.



Sugar cookies, gingerbreadmen, pecan tassies, egg nog logs, butterscotch bars . . . oh the treasures and delights my nimble fingers produced . . . the smells, the hustle and bustle . . . I miss those days. There is just Todd and I now, and we could never begin to touch a portion of all those tasty treats in a million years, so I don't do much Christmas baking anymore. Besides my ever widening girth doesn't really need it all! We live too far away from family.

Oh how I would enjoy putting together some treats for my grandsons . . . although in truth, they live too far away and I doubt the customs people would allow them in to the country . . . I am planning on making up a few trays of goodies for gifts though, and I'm not going to say here who's going to get them either! (Don't want to spoil the surprise) So over the next few weeks, I am going to do a bit of baking and I am really looking forward to it. with any luck I'll get a few pictures taken to share and obviously there'll be a few recipes to share as well. Maybe I'll inspire a few to don aprons and do a bit of Christmas Baking of their own . . . I like that thought!!

Here's a little tidbit to help get you started.



*Leona's Peanut Butter Balls*
Makes 30
Printable Recipe

A holiday tradition in my home for the past 30 years! Where I come from you won’t find too many houses without a plate of these on offer at Christmas time! Easy and quick to make, and delicious too!!

1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup icing sugar
½ cup chopped nuts (I prefer walnuts)
½ cup rice crispies cereal
4 ounces semi sweet chocolate
1 TBS butter

Cream together the peanut butter and icing sugar. Stir in the nuts and cereal. Shape into small balls and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Melt together the chocolate and butter, mixing until smooth. Dip the chilled balls into the chocolate and set aside on a parchment paper lined plate. Set in the fridge to harden. These also freeze really well so they are an excellent make ahead!!



Cooking in The English Kitchen today a deliciously warming Curried Parsnip and Apple Soup!

Decorating the tree . . .

Well, it's official. The Christmas Season is upon us and my lounge now looks like a Santa's grotto at the mall. I am just waiting for the kids to start lining up. They're going to be dissappointed as he will either be very short and look suspiciously like a fat Canadian woman or really skinny and look like Todd. Normally I try to rein him in a bit, but this year I let Todd go full out and decorate the lounge to his heart's delight. All the walls are festooned with garlands now and there are a few bells hanging here and there, and I have to admit it does look very festive and pretty. I did the tree. It's not a real one of course, but there's a definite gingerbread theme going on there.



We always had a real tree when I was growing up, well at least until I was in my late teens anyways. Dad would bring it in and he always had to cut some of the trunk off so that it would fit. My mother would drag out the Christmas ornament boxes and we children would sit on the couch and watch. Dad always got the job of untangling the lights and putting them on the tree. I loved the lights . . . they were those big fat ones of long ago, not the tiny twinkly ones of today. The lights was always a very long and frustrating operation. Inevitably one or two would be burnt out and he would have to check the whole string, one light at a time, to see which one was a dud and replace it before they would all work. Once the lights were on the tree and all was in preparation, my mother would begin to decorate it. I don't actually remember helping her so we probably weren't allowed to until we were older. There were gaily coloured blown glass balls, some with pretty sparkled snowflakes painted on them. There were also blown glass birds that clipped onto the branches. My very favorite ones were these little tin ones that looked like small tin pie plates and had little red mushrooms in the middle with white polkadots on them. There were little bits of greenery on them as well. I absolutely loved those and used to run my fingers over them when my mom wasn't looking. (Sounds like I was a sneaky child doesn't it!) There were tinsel icicles and sparkly garlands and bunches of angel hair. The tree was so beautiful when it was done . . . special and magic to my child's eye.



The box that the Christmas ornaments were stored in smelled all Christmasy and wonderful. There were a few things in the box that had nothing to do with Christmas, but it was the only time we got to see them, as my mother stored them in there the rest of the year. I don't suppose they were ornaments really that anyone would want setting out. There was a little cardboard box that had an old fashioned porcelain potty in it and a toilet with an actual lid and seat that went up and down. I remember there was some poem as well printed on the box having something to do with old fashioned and modern, although I can't exactly remember the words. The other thing was a little ceramic German girl that they had gotten in Germany. She was squatting down, holding up her skirts. There was a hole in her bottom and there were these little funny tinfoil looking things that if you put them in the hole and lit them . . . she would go to the toilet. Naughty I know, but it just wasn't Christmas for us kids unless my mother set the little girl on the table and lit one of them for us. We were absolutely fascinated with it! (small minds you know)



My Aunt Freda had a beautiful Christmas Tree each year. It was easily as tall as the ceiling and then again as wide. I'm not sure where Uncle Harold got it, but it was always the most beautiful tree ever. She would spend hours decorating it, sometimes days. It was covered with the most beautiful ornaments, most largely handmade and going over to see it was always one of the highlights of my Christmas's. I believe my Aunt Freda probably loved Christmas more than anyone I know. The other day I was talking to my mother on the phone and told her I couldn't find the presents I had bought for my dad for Christmas, that I had put them somewhere and couldn't remember where. She said that sounds just like your Aunt Freda, she would do that all the time . . . I especially miss her at Christmas. It is hard to believe she has been gone some 3 1/2 years now . . . She is our own special Christmas Angel now.



After the tree went up yesterday I spent the rest of the afternoon baking some Christmas goodies and listening to Christmas Carols on the computer. Here's another entry for your Christmas Goodie tray this year!



*Snow Pillows*
Makes 30
Printable Recipe

These tender little bites are also known as Mexican Wedding cookies, but I like to call them Snow Pillows . . . it just sounds more festive. In Austria they are called Kipel, and in Greece, Kourabiedes. Snow Pillows is definitely my favourite name . . . but in any language they are just plain delicious.

1 cup plain flour
1 cup pecan meal (finely ground pecans)
¼ tsp salt
½ cup butter at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar, divided
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4. Lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside.

Stir together the pecan meal, flour and salt. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and 1/3 cup of the icing sugar until fluffy. Stir in the vanilla, then stir in the flour mixture, mixing it in well. Chill the dough for 20 minutes.

Shape pieces of the dough into 1 inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake about 12 minutes until light brown and firm to the touch.

Have the remainder of the icing sugar waiting in a bowl and immediately upon removing the cookies from the oven drop them a few at a time gently into the icing sugar and roll them around until they are well coated. Remove with a slotted spatula to a wire rack to finish cooling. Repeat until all are well coated.

The icing sugar melts and makes a sweet coating. Once they are cool I repeat the process, which is what gives them that snowy look.



Over in The English Kitchen today, I'm baking Candy Cane Cookies!

Sweet Christmas Memories . . .

As a child growing up in the late fifties and early sixties, candy was not something I got to eat very often. There were only a few times of the year that it was generally on offer, and in abundance, and one of those was Christmas.

A few days before Christmas, my mother's special candy dishes would appear on the living room coffee table. The one I remember the most was like two shallow bowls attached in the centre with a small handle in the middle that you could lift it with. One side was a pale blue ceramic and the other side a yellow.



Into that would go small coloured pillows of hard Christmas Candy. There were flat waffles types of red and green and yellow, their dimpled surface calling to my sweet tooth and making my mouth water. Puffy little squares of every colour under the sun . . . some filled with the spicy flavour of cinnamon. Round ones, coloured on the outside surface, but with a picture in the centre . . . looking like little jewels. I could never quite make out what the picture was, but I tried . . .



Red and White striped peppermint balls. I remember choking on one of those once during one Christmas season. My mom and dad were out, so we had been left with a babysitter. No doubt we were taking full advantage of her kindness and begging her to let us eat some of the Christmas candy. I remember the pure panic of not being able to breath and the babysitter hanging me upside down and knocking it out of me.



The candy I loved most of all was the ribbon candy. It's flat sweet surface curled up like ribbons, gaily striped in various shades of primary colours. Red, green, yellow, white . . . some was vaguely peppermint flavoured, some spicy cinnamon, but mostly just generically sugary sweet.



We didn't have stockings as children, but every Christmas Eve we would put a bowl in our place at the table before we went to bed, and just like magic, when we awoke in the morning it would be filled. There would be a tangerine, a few nuts, a candy cane, and an assortment of other Christmas Candies . . . the favorite one being a barley candy toy. Clear like glass, and shaped like choochoo trains, Santa Claus or different animals these were the piece de resistance of Christmas Candies . . . Oh, how I delighted in their different shapes and colours!! They only came in red, green and if you were lucky a pale yellow. These little babies lasted all day. It was impossible to bite them, and so you had to content yourself with sucking them . . . and sucking them . . . and sucking them . . .



Mom always made her special fudge at Christmas. It was always the same flavour every year, with no variation, with perhaps the exception of a few walnut meats being stirred in . . . if there were any leftover from the Christmas baking. Peanutbutter Fudge . . . and we loved it.

She had a special pot that she used only for making fudge. She didn't actually measure the ingredients, so there is no specific recipe for it. She just knew by looking at the pot exactly how much of everything she needed to put into it. Into the pot would go brown sugar up to a certain level in the pot and then she would add milk. She knew just how much to add by the way it would look with the sugar. Then there'd be a big lump of butter.





Onto the stove it would go and she would stand there stirring while it melted and bubbled away . . . a tumbler of water sitting close by. After it had been boiling for what seemed like forever to me, she would drop a bit of the mixture into the water and if it formed a soft lump she knew it was ready. That's when the fun would start. Into the hot mass a lump of peanut butter would go, along with the nuts if she was using them.



She would then beat it . . . the wooden spoon hitting the sides of the pot, making a hollow metalic thumping noise. It was magic to me, how those few simple ingredients could turn into such a lucious treat. When I got a bit older, she would let me beat it for her, always watching me carefully so that I didn't burn myself or so that the whole mass didn't suddenly turn into fudge in the pot. You had to beat it only to a certain point at which you quickly had to turn it into a buttered pan. Her's was a shallow tin square pan with these pretty swirls on the bottom. To this day, fudge just doesn't taste the same for me unless it has those pretty swirled patterns on the bottom . . . anything else is but a pale imitation of what fudge should be, or at least to me anyways.

I made fudge with my kids as well when they were growing up. It was never quite the same as my mom's, and sometimes we ended up having to eat it with a spoon . . . but I know my kids must have fond memories of our fudge making days. I wonder if many mom's make fudge with their kids today? There is a special magic in looking around a table at sticky sweet little faces and knowing that you played a part in putting the smiles of satisfaction and contentment there. I think this year that I will make some fudge for Todd . . . I'm sure he'd love it. Probably not quite in the same way . . . and I won't have that swirly bottomed pan to set it in either . . . but one must do what one must do . . .

Here's a delicious Christmas Candy Treat that will amaze your family and friends! Just perfect for dunking into hot chocolate! Fabulous laid out in a pretty box, and given as Christmas Gifts! Easy and quick to make!



*White Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Sticks*
Makes 12
Printable Recipe

Pretty and perfect to use as stir sticks for that yummy hot chocolate you are going to be sipping on Christmas Eve. They also make a fabulous gift!

12 five-inch peppermint sticks
7 ounces of white chocolate
1/4 cup non-pariels

Line a baking pan with some parchment or wax paper. Set aside.

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Be careful not to allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water and do be careful not to let any water get into the bowl of chocolate, or it will seize.

Dip the peppermint sticks, about a third of the way up, into the melted chocolate, one at a time. Transfer to the baking pan. Allow to set for 5 minutes. Roll the chocolate coated ends into the non-pariels and then return to the lined baking pan to set completely at room temperature. Store in a tightly covered container.



In The English Kitchen today, delicious Applesauce Pancakes with a Spicy Apple Syrup.

PS - Yesterday was the first time I saw a Doctor for my knee pain, the other times it had just been the Nurse Practioner. The Doctor gave me two prescriptions, one for co-codemol (for pain) and one for an anti-inflamatory (ibuprophen). I also now have an appointment for an x-ray on Friday and then if it warrants it, a knee replacement. They are keen to get on with it as the new changes in the NHS that the government wants to push through will see a drastic reduction in the amounts of knee and hip replacements done in the future.