So That Was Christmas...
26 Dec 2013 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatI hope everyone who celebrates has had a lovely couple of Festive Days, if you are lucky enough to be in a country that regards one day off as much too stingy, and a good day if you are one of the unfortunate ones!
If you are interested in how my Christmas went just click the link to
D-d came home to sleep for a couple of nights, and she and I went to church on Christmas Eve to sing carols and listen to the readings we know so well. Then home for mulled wine and the last of the preparations; chop the cabbage, apple, and onion and put it on to start cooking, prepare the goose, peel parsnips...
Christmas day was bright and calm - the first day without gales for ages.
D-d may be a grown-up advocate these days but she still had a stocking to empty before breakfast then we put the goose in the oven, got dressed and went to church for another of my favourite services of the year - much joy and sharing of greetings with friends and family.
When we got home there was a turkey crown to also put on to roast - S2C feels it isn't Christmas without turkey... Thank goodness for a double oven.
We had coffee and opened our under the tree presents - mine included the Extended Edition of The Hobbit P1, new gloves, some Isle-of-Man specific cookie cutters, a couple of Oxfam gifts that mean other people benefit...
Dinner should have been proceeding nicely. But there seemed to be much less fat draining out of the goose than expected - the foil roasting tin, above which it sat in its rack, should have had at least an inch of golden fat in it - but there was almost none...
The problem was solved when I went out to the kitchen and saw a pool of fat forming under the oven door!
I had managed to put one foot of the rack through the foil - and the goose fat had melted and pooled in the base of the oven until it had started to leak under the door.
Major panic. We whipped the goose out and put it on the bench, switched off the oven (which is well sealed so no fat had come into contact with the electrics or the heating elements, thank goodness), and began to soak up the fat.
Eventually the oven was dry and fairly fat free - we put it on again and put the goose back to finish cooking! All my timings had gone astray and I was much confused.
However my sous-chef and I got it all together and we sat down to goose and turkey, roast potatoes and roast parsnips, slow cooked spiced red cabbage, pigs in blankets, two sorts of stuffing, and very good gravy - washed down by a bottle of Cava sent by my mum.
It was all very good. There was so much dinner we had no room for pudding - which would have been pears poached in mulled wine.
We entertained ourselves by watching 'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists', then The Hobbit Part 1, playing the Pointless card game, drinking mulled ginger wine, and occasionally eating a small snack or two once it got to about 7pm.
My sister had given us a food hamper with all sorts of goodies - including things to dip, oils and vinegars to dip them in, cheeses (including some Stinking Bishop that D-d devoured with great pleasure) - which along with cold goose and turkey kept us admirably sustained. We also cut into the Christmas cake -I really like the Nigella recipe I used this year - D-d says it is perfectly good - but NOT proper Christmas cake and we will return to a properly matured fruit cake next year. The Boss Has Spoken!
All in all a good day.
D-d breakfasted this morning on the poached pears - she thinks adding plum and rum spiced double cream might have been a step too far at 9am - but says it was very good anyway.
We visited my Mum this afternoon - taking her a portion of goose and some Christmas cake. D-d had now gone to a friend's -S2C and I have been watching the Lord of the Rings which is on TV, even though we have the DVDs - and the storm is raging outdoors again after the lull.
If you are interested in how my Christmas went just click the link to
D-d came home to sleep for a couple of nights, and she and I went to church on Christmas Eve to sing carols and listen to the readings we know so well. Then home for mulled wine and the last of the preparations; chop the cabbage, apple, and onion and put it on to start cooking, prepare the goose, peel parsnips...
Christmas day was bright and calm - the first day without gales for ages.
D-d may be a grown-up advocate these days but she still had a stocking to empty before breakfast then we put the goose in the oven, got dressed and went to church for another of my favourite services of the year - much joy and sharing of greetings with friends and family.
When we got home there was a turkey crown to also put on to roast - S2C feels it isn't Christmas without turkey... Thank goodness for a double oven.
We had coffee and opened our under the tree presents - mine included the Extended Edition of The Hobbit P1, new gloves, some Isle-of-Man specific cookie cutters, a couple of Oxfam gifts that mean other people benefit...
Dinner should have been proceeding nicely. But there seemed to be much less fat draining out of the goose than expected - the foil roasting tin, above which it sat in its rack, should have had at least an inch of golden fat in it - but there was almost none...
The problem was solved when I went out to the kitchen and saw a pool of fat forming under the oven door!
I had managed to put one foot of the rack through the foil - and the goose fat had melted and pooled in the base of the oven until it had started to leak under the door.
Major panic. We whipped the goose out and put it on the bench, switched off the oven (which is well sealed so no fat had come into contact with the electrics or the heating elements, thank goodness), and began to soak up the fat.
Eventually the oven was dry and fairly fat free - we put it on again and put the goose back to finish cooking! All my timings had gone astray and I was much confused.
However my sous-chef and I got it all together and we sat down to goose and turkey, roast potatoes and roast parsnips, slow cooked spiced red cabbage, pigs in blankets, two sorts of stuffing, and very good gravy - washed down by a bottle of Cava sent by my mum.
It was all very good. There was so much dinner we had no room for pudding - which would have been pears poached in mulled wine.
We entertained ourselves by watching 'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists', then The Hobbit Part 1, playing the Pointless card game, drinking mulled ginger wine, and occasionally eating a small snack or two once it got to about 7pm.
My sister had given us a food hamper with all sorts of goodies - including things to dip, oils and vinegars to dip them in, cheeses (including some Stinking Bishop that D-d devoured with great pleasure) - which along with cold goose and turkey kept us admirably sustained. We also cut into the Christmas cake -I really like the Nigella recipe I used this year - D-d says it is perfectly good - but NOT proper Christmas cake and we will return to a properly matured fruit cake next year. The Boss Has Spoken!
All in all a good day.
D-d breakfasted this morning on the poached pears - she thinks adding plum and rum spiced double cream might have been a step too far at 9am - but says it was very good anyway.
We visited my Mum this afternoon - taking her a portion of goose and some Christmas cake. D-d had now gone to a friend's -S2C and I have been watching the Lord of the Rings which is on TV, even though we have the DVDs - and the storm is raging outdoors again after the lull.
