The Friday 5 #123
Not drinking, drinking more interestingly and the perfect chunky soup for this chilly weather.
Well. Here we are with the first Friday 5 of 2025 and a Happy New Year to you all!
It’s hard to know what to talk about at this time of year, quite frankly, which is why I’ve gone off-piste writing about retirement (or not retiring) and music groups (like book groups but less demanding).
What about wine? I drank well over Christmas so am not feeling in urgent need of a top up although it’s a good time to experiment with unfamiliar bottles. Tryanuary as the wine trade calls it.
Do you do Dry January? In my line of business it’s pretty well impossible but I’m certainly keen to moderate, a subject I’m exploring at a talk at the Pilgrm hotel in London on the evening of January 23rd with the founder of the mindful drinking organisation Club Soda, Laura Willoughby.
You’ll get the chance to try some really good alcohol-free options that will make the days you skip booze a lot easier and more pleasurable. If you’d like to join us, tickets are just £25 from The Pilgrm’s website and any profits we make will go to the men’s mental health charity Talk Club.
Also in this week’s newsletter, which is slightly longer than usual so you may have to finish reading it in the app, I’m sharing some of the things I’ve made and bought over Christmas.
They include a cracking variation on my usual turkey soup that you probably need to make with chicken by this stage, your turkey being long gone. Soup is going to be the subject of my well-loved cookbook challenge this month so start digging out those old recipes. More on that to follow.
If you’re a paid-up member it’s also your last chance to win a copy of Nicola Lamb’s much-praised baking book Sift which would make a great basis for a series of culinary adventures in 2025 especially if you have a sweet tooth. You’ll find the link to enter below.
And, again if you’re a paying subscriber, why not join me for my next online tasting which is on Sunday January 21st 19th (duh, sorry!) I thought it would be good to hold it on a Sunday for once, particularly at this time of year. I haven’t decided on the theme yet but I’m tempted by whisky as it’s a few days before Burns Night. What do you think or would you rather stick to wine?.
For those of you who are not paid subscribers can I just reiterate that you can join for as little as £5 a month though an annual subscription at £42 or £3.50 a month is much better value. You should save that on the wine recommendations alone.
What to drink if you’re not drinking …
If you’re doing dry January I suspect you won’t want to live on sparkling water particularly in the sub-zero temperatures that are hitting us this week so what are the best options? Normally I’d say a 0% beer or an alcohol-free gin and tonic but it’s a bit chilly for that too.