Christmas Dinner at the 3 Acres

Christmas was almost upon us and our party of four (Dannie was sadly absent) were being chauffeured, very slowly I might add, along the dark country roads to our destination for the evening. Phoebe’s boyfriend, Alex, has become our designated driver for this end-of-year gathering and for one night only we re-christen him James; I made it very clear that next year he simply must wear a peaked cap. As we picked up speed and the exhaust started making lots of noise it became apparent as to why we had been doing a frustrating 20mph – any faster and we sounded as if we were about to take off.

As we rounded the final bend in the road the familiar sight of the 3 Acres came into view with the twinkling red lights of Emley Moor Television Mast hanging in the night sky. We’d been looking forward to tonight for months, as this has now become a yearly ritual and we know that we won’t be disappointed. Upon entering, the place is warm, cosy and inviting. Every year as we take our seats around the table we comment that it feels like the living embodiment of a Dickensian Christmas. Large church candles placed throughout mean that tonight I don’t have to worry about a lack of ‘ambience’.

As we settle into our chairs and scan the delicious sounding menu we all agree that it’s good to be back here as it finally feels like Christmas is in the air. As conversation flows and we catch up with each others lives over the past few weeks I discover that I’ve started a new trend - warm mince pies topped with a generous dollop of thick Bailey’s cream. It’s one of my indulgences at this time of year and seems to have caught on with the other ladies and their partners, especially Catherine’s husband who previously didn’t even like mince pies. Be sure to try it yourself.

A Festive Feast

The 3 Acres does the best turkey dinner ever and so it was without any hesitation or pondering that we ordered unanimous Christmas dinners all round. While waiting for our food to arrive we remembered the long curved plastic fingernails which three of us had procured the previous week while pulling crackers at our work Christmas party. We’d brought them along this evening as they are very witch-like and we’d become quite attached to them and their obvious use as a comedy prop. We were very quickly served with “roast locally reared turkey” and crispy belly pork, apple, shallot and cranberry chutney, pork & chestnut sausage, sage & onion stuffing, bread sauce & mustard sauce, mashed potato & roast potato, roast parsnip, an accompanying tureen of sprouts, carrot & swede mash and cauliflower, not forgetting the gravy boat. It was as good as it sounds, and to say that we thoroughly enjoyed every last morsel of our meals doesn’t really do it justice, but our four empty plates were an indication of our complete appreciation; and even though I was feeling pretty full at this stage, if someone had placed another dinner in front of me I would have had a good go at it as I’m sure the other ladies would.

Once the plates had been cleared and we were about to peruse the dessert menu it was with horror and panic that Catherine realised her plastic nail had gone. She’d left it on her side plate which had now departed to the kitchen. The waitress we called over and explained the predicament to very kindly went to the kitchen to see if said nail could be retrieved. She returned with the sad news that it was probably in the bin. We didn’t mourn its loss for too long as there was now the important task ahead of what to have for dessert. Ordinarily I’m too full by this point and opt instead for a liqueur coffee but tonight was special and I felt I had a little room left.  Once again we were united in our choice as we all opted for a “trio of Christmas puddings” which consisted of Christmas pudding & dark rum sauce, mince pie & brandy butter and rum & raisin ice-cream. We were all in agreement that the quality of tonight’s food and the attention to detail was superb. As if that wasn’t enough we were all then entertained by a local brass band playing carols. Wonderful!

‘Read All About It’ - December’s Theme

After pulling Christmas crackers that contained not only jokes but facts and charades as well, and exchanging our Secret Santa gifts under the table so the secret could be truly secret, it was now time to present our themes, this months being ‘Current Affairs’. I’d bought and read a lot of newspapers over the past few weeks in the hope that a stand-out article would jump off the page and grab my attention in a positive way. But the papers seemed to be full of stories of doom and gloom interspersed with indispensable Christmas shopping lists to encourage more spending as the high street goes into melt-down. But amongst the stories of rising divorce rates and an unsteady economy I did find an article that gave me some hope; it was about proposals to rid Dorset's villages of the urban clutter of unsightly road signs, road markings, traffic lights and speed cameras. A few years ago I saw a programme about these schemes that had been put in place in other European countries where they worked very well. The projects are designed to improve traffic’s relationship with pedestrians, and the methods used change the perception and expectations in the drivers mind. I think these projects should be rolled out countrywide and I also suggested that it would work very well alongside some of the proposals offered up by Mary Portas and so help us to also transform our town centres. I also proposed tree lined streets and old fashioned shop awnings alongside other ideas to make market stalls form a cohesive part of the shopping experience.

When I embarked on this theme it felt like a struggle but I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. It gave me a much more rounded picture of what was going on in the world in December 2011 and I was also very happy that Victoria Beckham won designer brand of the year at the start of my theme, and it was announced that Tracey Emin was going to be the new Professor of Drawing at the end of my theme.

The article that caught Catherine’s attention was about a café in London’s West End, frequented by actors since 1965, that was facing closure. The falafels at Gaby’s Deli had always been a crowd pleaser until this Christmas when a planning application was passed for its redevelopment as a chain restaurant. Many of the country's best-known performers and writers are now queuing up for the chance to support the deli by appearing in a series of impromptu cabaret nights. Before reading this article Catherine had never heard of Gaby’s Deli, but the more she read the more she realized that this was a story that would resonate with everyone as we face the prospect of throwing our history aside to make room for even more cold, generic, heartless chain stores. Mary Portas had just been in the news with her plan to revitalize the high street and although most people are feeling the pinch it’s vital that we support our local shops and restaurants. Catherine felt that Gaby’s is the representation of every struggling independent business; a small part of the big picture that makes up our local community that we so desperately need to preserve.

For Phoebe this month has been all about Gareth Malone, a man that she now has a major crush on as do many ladies across the land. He's the cherished TV choirmaster who inspires stirring deeds from people who never knew what they had in them and the article was about the path his life has taken and how he is now hoping to beat the X Factor single to the Christmas No.1 slot. The choir’s that he has formed have brought communities together and by giving them a voice he has demonstrated the power of music to make them and others feel good. With his current single he enlisted 40 military wives and girlfriends and allowed them to express, in public, emotions that they might otherwise feel obliged to disguise with the lyrics being lifted from the women’s letters to their husbands in Afghanistan. Phoebe loved that Gareth has made choir singing cool and trendy, and has seen its impact first-hand as her sister Laura has now joined a choir and is loving it. To get the Intellectual Dinner Club into the spirit she provided us all with our own little pamphlet of Christmas carols so we can sing our way through the festive season.

Caroline felt that the word that summed her up this month was ‘frazzled’. Work had been too much and constant transcribing had given her ‘transcription pedal knee’, so the thought of ploughing through the papers and reading about politicians filled her with dread. To relieve stress and provide some relaxation she treated herself to a pile of glossy magazines and found that it wasn’t an article that caught her eye but an advert. A rather feisty looking young woman appears to be kick-boxing her way into the New Year which gave Caroline the inspiration needed to decide that exercise and getting fit are going to be top of her list for the New Year. 2011 was almost over and rather than regretting the things that hadn’t been done she was looking forward to 2012 and all its possibilities. With this in mind she decided that resolutions were not the way to go as they so often fall by the wayside; instead she was going to embark on the concept of ’12 into 2012’ where she will commit to doing one thing each month that she has always wanted to do. An inspired idea that would get us all thinking.


Home James

With the theme over it was almost time to depart but not before the ladies surprised me with some gorgeous presents for my birthday in just a few days time; a lovely little mirror compact decorated with birds and then a book I’ve been coveting for months – ‘True British’ by Alice Temperley – perfect presents. They very nearly had me in tears. Conversation then turned to Christmas trees and Catherine asked if we’d seen the TV advert of Peter Andre being netted up like a tree? I hadn’t but as we waited for our chauffer to arrive it gave us great amusement imagining Peter Andre standing in our living rooms, arms outstretched, holding glittering baubles aloft. And so our third year of The Intellectual Dinner Club was almost at an end. Who knows what awaits us in our fourth year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Amanda xxx