Winter favorites

Gorgeous clothes

It's a cliché as old as the house of Chanel: Fashion people love cold weather. Warm, fuzzy scarves;

bulky-but-cute sweaters; miniskirts with woolly tights.

Fireplace

Yes, winter goes with fireplace. Warm and welcoming.

Scents

To me, scented candles are inevitable ingredients for the perfect home atmosphere during cold winter days and long chilly nights. To warm me up, I enjoy the woodsy scents or cinnamon – orangey..

Hot drinks and winter cocktails

         Mulled wine by Jamie Oliver

     2 Clementine’s

         1 lemon

         1 lime

         200 g caster sugar

         6 whole cloves

         1 stick cinnamon

         3 fresh bay leaves

         1 whole nutmeg, for grating

         1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways

         2 star anise

     2 bottles Chianti or other Italian red wine

This is dead simple to make and tastes like Christmas in a glass. It's a lovely celebration of those traditional festive spices like cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. If you've got your own favorite spices, then feel free to add those to the pot too. Let everything cook away and warm up gently so the flavors have time to mingle with the wine. I like to leave my mulled wine ticking over on a really low heat and just ladle some into glasses as and when guests pop in. peel large sections of peel from your Clementine’s, lemon and lime using a speed peeler. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel, and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in your halved vanilla pod and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar. 

Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you've got a beautiful thick syrup. The reason I'm doing this first is to create a wonderful flavor base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It's important to make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you'll burn off the alcohol. 

When your syrup is ready, turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and the rest of the wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it's warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve.

 Winter food

 The ideal roasted chicken recipe will leave your chicken golden brown and gleaming, tender and juicy. The crackle of chicken as it roasts and the wondrous aroma that perfumes the kitchen provoke a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment, specially when the chicken was grown in my own farm here in Lozen.

2 whole chickens,

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 large lemon, thinly sliced

2 small onions, peeled and trimmed

1 bunch of fresh thyme

4 tablespoons of softened butter

1 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of chopped potatoes

1 cup of chopped parnish (Pasternak) 

1/2 cup of chopped onions

I like to salt my meat for at least a few hours and up to a day before I roast it to maximize the flavor-boosting potential.

An hour before you’re ready to cook the chickens, take them out of the fridge to come to room temperature. At the same time, put your butter on the counter to soften, and preheat the oven to 250 C.

Once the chickens are no longer chilly, dry them off with a paper towel and stuff the cavities with lemon slices, onion, and thyme.

With a piece of string, tie the drumsticks together…place the rest of the vegetables 30 min before the chicken in ready.

I like to roast my chicken in a heavy stoneware crock covered for about 2 h. and another 30 min with open lid just to get golden brown.

(Julia Child's classic roast chicken recipes) 

Cozy evenings

To enjoy completely an idyllic winter evening, we need to be relaxed and totally present, which is often just an unattainable dream for most of us, while rushing from one task to another. Instead of blaming this wonderful period of the year for our bad mood, it is better for us to slow down a little bit and capture the infinite beauty of nature. Before moving on to the next, it is important to use every free moment to relax.

Snow sports

Ask ten people why they love snow sports and you're likely to get ten different answers: the spectacular beauty of the mountains, the exhilaration of hurtling down the slopes, the food, the après-ski, the off piste, the rustic mountain huts or simply being in picture-perfect villages surrounded by glistening snow. Once regarded the domain of the wealthy, snow sports have now become accessible to people of all budgets and all abilities. Holidays in the mountains should be as much about relaxing on a sun terrace admiring some of the planet's most spectacular scenery, taking long lunches in cozy restaurants and whooping loudly as you bag fresh tracks on a powder day as it is about perfecting your technique!

So, my dear friends,… I hope I gave you warm and cozy feeling and I believe you are inspired to make your own winter days and nights unforgettable.
We only live once, make it worth it!

Pic : Heremes, Botega veneta, here