Xanthe Gladstone's Sustainable Christmas
Xanthe wearing the Maille Vest
How you spend Christmas
I spend Christmas up in the Scottish Highlands with my family where I grew up. We are very into our Christmas traditions, so every year looks quite similar. I have a big family which seems to be rapidly growing and so Christmas is quite chaotic for us in the best kind of way. Glen Dye (where we live) is a beautiful place and we are incredibly lucky to spend Christmas up there. We start off the day in my parents bed (all six of us adult children) and we move to the kitchen where we spend a lot of the rest of the day. We get quite a lot of our Christmas food prep done the day before, so it mostly involves finishing that off, eating it, and opening a few presents under the tree. We’ll always get outside for a nice walk before it gets dark, which seems to to be at about 3pm! We usually finish the day in our pjs in front of some kind of film, and that’s that!
Favourite Christmas recipe
Brussels sprouts and chestnut mushrooms on toast
Serves two people.
Ingredients:
120g chestnut mushrooms
200g brussels sprouts
2 garlic cloves
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
Two thick slices of sourdough
A big tablespoon of butter (or extra virgin olive oil)
1/2 tsp of apple cider vinegar
Sea salt and pepper
Method:
- Very finely chop the Brussels sprouts and the mushrooms, maybe using a mandolin if you have one.
- Crush the garlic cloves and heat up a frying pan on medium heat. Add the butter, allow it to melt, and add the garlic. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes and then add the sports, thyme, and apple cider vinegar. Season and let the sprouts cook until they begin to soften.
- After the sprouts have cooked for a few minutes, add the mushrooms. Let them cook and while they are cooking, toast the bread (you could either do it in the toaster, or on a griddle) and butter it.
- Pile the mushrooms and sprouts onto the toast and serve, maybe adding a poached egg too!
Your Christmas wish list
1. This dress is just beautiful.
2. Anything on Glassette
3. These earrings on G&S.
4. These boots.
5. As you know, I love anything from Skall, so would have to choose this.
Any tips on having a more Sustainable Christmas
Think about trying to keep your food waste to a minimum. It’s so easy to get complacent over the Christmas period but think about making food last. For example, if you are having roast chicken, make a stock out of the bones the next day. Maybe it’s the right time to start a compost as there are so many vegetable scraps, or order a food waste bin from you local council. A lot of us are lucky enough to have some more time over the Christmas period if we’ve taken holiday, so maybe taking extra time to make sure you don’t let things go to waste that might usually.
Check out Xanthe Gladstone -