How to cook Stilton and broccoli bake

Finally, I almost have my kitchen back. I feel like during Christmas, we give our kitchens over to a higher power: one who insists that we fill our fridges with enough prosecco to see us through a nuclear winter, that everything is spiked with brandy, and followed with a chaser of cheese. We didn’t even host Christmas this year: we were away for Christmas-proper and bookended it with visiting various friends and relatives. There is, really, no excuse, for such a high proportion of festive leftovers. And yet, for the last week, I’ve found soggy mince pies everywhere, and brandy butter I don’t remember buying.

But now, I am starting to regain control. The last, tired clementines have been tuned into marmalade with bright green, fragrant bay, redolent of the fruit’s leaves, and put carefully away in the cupboard, waiting to bring colour to drabber months. One solitary piece of Christmas cake stands on the worktop, having been made by my father-in-law, and carried as precious cargo from Cheshire after the festivities were over.