Climb Every Mountain

There was a period when I swear the Sound of Music film was shown on tv every Christmas and it may still be lurking in the myraid of channel options but it used to be mainstream, prime time, every year; but no more.



The song I remember most from the film was 'Climb Every Mountain' which rather fits with Christmas preparations in my house and the way I seem to acquire a food mountain in my larder as we lead up to the big day. It is kind of weird how it always seems so much better on the way up the mountain but as you stumble back down from Boxing Day towards New Year it loses its shine.

However hard you plan to make sure you are not eating up the Christmas bird all week there are the almost inevitable slips on the supplies calculations which leave you with a mountain of something and my personal 'butter mountains' this year were cheese, nuts and dates.

So when I saw a recipe in the Guardian paper from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for  Date, Blue Cheese & Hazelnut Salad  I felt quite chuffed that the mountain was about to get smaller. This is a really quick to prepare, packed with flavour and texture salad. Do bother to toast the hazelnuts if you have bought them unroasted as it is well worth the trouble and that is the only 'cooking' you will have to do. I used watercress instead of rocket because I prefer it and do use good dates, not the sort that come in dry blocks.