Mincemeat is now made

This time last year, thinking that I might be away for the first week of December, I was more organised for Christmas than I had ever been. It was a little scary, and in the end I wasn't away. I still seemed to have lots of last-minute thing to do, so I'm not sure there was any real benefit to such efficiency.

At least, that's how I see it now, when - until yesterday - the only single thing I'd done towards Christmas was to make this year's cake.

This morning, I decided to take my second step. I made a couple of kilograms of mincemeat, using our traditional family recipe.


It doesn't even take long - about fifteen minutes, I suppose, including peeling and grating apples, grating lemon rind and squeezing the juice.

So, at least that's done. And it's still only November.

(And the temperature is still 25C during the day. A stark contrast to the UK where there is, currently, ice and snow....)