Winter Snowfall at Elder Fell Farm

Amy and Matt’s recipe for the perfect tea-time.

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Image by Cindy from Pixabay

It’s got to be Bolognese. It’s the only meal both boys will eat without one of them complaining. 

  • 1lb of mince
  • 1 tbspn of Olive oil (take label off bottle first, so that Oliver and Harry won’t see the word ‘olive’ written on it and refuse to eat the Bolognese.)
  • 1 tin of tomatoes
  • 1 onion, cut up small enough that Oliver won’t notice there’s onion in this.
  • 2 carrots, grated, so that Harry won’t notice there’s carrot in this.
  • 1 tbspn. of red pesto
  • 1 tbspn soy sauce (Matt mixed up the bottles of Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce in Amy’s kitchen, and because both boys said it tasted better, now there is always soy sauce in the Bolognese).
  • Oregano, Basil and Parsley. If Amy’s cooking, they’ll probably be fresh herbs from the pots on her windowsill. If it’s Matt’s kitchen, they’ll be dried.
  • A squirt of ketchup because of a long and tedious argument last year about what constitutes ‘tomato sauce’. Turned out that the easiest thing to do to stop Harry arguing about it was just to put a bit of ketchup into the Bolognese and say There, that’s proper tomato sauce now, isn’t it?
  • 4 helpings of pasta shapes. Don’t ever cook spaghetti Bolognese for Oliver and Harry using actual spaghetti, or it’ll end up all over their faces, clothes and the table.

In a big pan, fry the onion and carrot, hopefully before either of the boys comes into the kitchen to ask what’s for tea? and sees the vegetables. Then add the mince, and once the mince is browned, the tin of tomatoes. Once the tomatoes are in the pan they won’t notice the onion and carrot hiding in the sauce and it’s safe to let the boys see the pan. Once it’s bubbling, add the pesto, soy sauce and ketchup. Make sure the boys do see the ketchup and soy sauce going in as they’re the best bits and you can’t ever leave them out. Now cook the pasta while the big pan is simmering, and steam some broccoli to accompany it. Both boys will probably try and hide the broccoli, so remove from the room all plants and bunches of flowers that could conceal a piece of broccoli.

Be prepared to answer the question is it time for tea yet? at least four times. The answer, should you be in any doubt, is nearly. Once tea is ready, be prepared for the boys to race through it and be finished before you’ve even raised a fork to your mouth. Make sure that the answer to what’s for pudding? is either yoghurt or chocolate mousse. Under no circumstances suggest a piece of fruit. 

Congratulations! Tea is over, and now there’s just the washing up to do …

Image by Hans from Pixabay

A week on tour

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Last week was frantic for two reasons – firstly I went to London to visit my son (I haven’t seen him since June, so this was a long-awaited trip!) and secondly I was on a blog tour for the publication of ‘Winter Snowfall …’ If you don’t know about blog tours, this is where you ‘visit’ several different book blogs/bookstagrammers accounts during a week, and they either read and review or post content that the author provides. I’m always apprehensive about blog tours – what if everybody hates the book and all the reviews are awful?

At King’s Cross station, combining the virtual blog tour and the real visit to London

Blog tours can also be very illuminating – if everybody comments on the same thing, you know you are doing it right – or wrong. So, what did my reviewers and early readers tend to agree on?

One thing came through resoundingly. Harry and Oliver, Amy and Matt’s sons, were almost universally popular. I had thought about cutting down their parts in the next novel because I thought people might get a bit bored of their high-jinks, but now … Harry and Oliver possibly need their OWN novel!

I had hesitated over a rather sad moment in the book (I won’t say what it is as this might spoil the book for anyone who wants to read it) – I wasn’t sure if this would be too much for a Christmas novel. Enough people have told me that they were touched by it to make me think that I made the right decision in putting it at the heart of the story. Although I love everything about Christmas novels I like them to have something more thought-provoking than simply tinsel and hot chocolate. So I was relieved to hear that other people thought the same way as I do.

Several people told me that they didn’t like the character of Diane. Now, this was the point, because Diane is not a likeable person. However when I was writing about her, the story developed as I wrote – it wasn’t planned. Diane was one of those characters who leaps off the page, grabs the pen and starts to write her own story. She was an absolute joy to write about, and I’m quite glad that people didn’t like her!

A couple of people also said that Amy and Matt were a bit annoying too. I like all my characters to have flaws, and both Amy and Matt have their issues, and communicating is a problem for both of them. Yes, the story could have been less tense if they’d communicated better from the start – with each other and with Diane – but then they wouldn’t have had to learn about the importance of being honest with each other and there would’ve been no story!

I’m more than happy with the early responses of readers and reviewers – a novel that for a lot of last year had become a millstone around my neck now becomes a gleam of festive brightness!