December...part 1...Organising, Christmas Dinner and Boxing Day embarassment

On 14 December my parents who live in Northern Spain were coming to stay with us for a month.
Even though we were heading off to Center Parcs in a couple of days, my brother and his 3 children were going to be staying for a night before we went, it was Lauren's birthday while we were away, I still had a cake and a party tea to organise, had a couple of days of work to get through and I wasn't really sure I'd got all the presents I needed I thought I was pretty organised for Christmas! (I later realised I'd not written all the Christmas cards I should have - sorry!)
The night mum and dad were due to arrive Polly the cat started to act a bit strangely and before we knew it she was walking in circles and falling over, she didn't seem to be in any distress but we gave each other that knowing look and resolved to take her to the vets the next day, the second time this year we went expecting to hear the worst, well she did have her 19th birthday in October. We tucked her up in her bed.

Santa snack

At 11 o'clock I texted mum to say I was on my way to pick them up from the bus station, only to get a reply telling me their bus had broken down and it was past one o'clock before we all got back home. I was starting to think it was going to be one of "those" weeks, especially as the weather forecast had taken a turn for the worse and my brother was worrying about whether he would make it here, there had been a terrible accident on the M5 due to fog and snow which had added to his concern.

Presents!!

Stocking time

Things always seem better in the daylight, the vet told us that Polly had had a stroke, but not to worry she was recovering fine, would be OK to go on her holidays, my brother made an early start and arrived before the wind and cold got too much and my mum and dad made a trouble free bus

Messy Santa!!

journey back from Eastwood (although the theme for their stay continued to be bus issues!). Thursday was full of shopping for party food and making cakes, packing and then excitement as the 3 cousins arrived and we all tried to find somewhere to sleep, a few in with Nanny and Dandan, 1 in with Lauren, us in the front room and poor uncle Paul virtually in the conservatory with Polly.
We had a great time at Center Parcs, Lauren's birthday was good too, the cake went down well, but those stories are for my next blogs.
We returned to a couple of days of shopping and organisation. We took Lauren to the Westfield Centre in Derby, we had lunch at the food court and had a box from Yangtzee, four different items  for £4.60, Chinese or Thai, it was hot off the stove, very fresh and tasty. We then headed off to the Showcase Cinema De Lux where we saw Puss in Boots, well Lauren and I did, we just paid £9 for Tony to get a good sleep, bless him! In his defence the film was not the best, but Lauren loved it and that's all that matters.

Christmas Dinner

Christmas dinner was all based around the turkey. I won a decent M&S gift voucher at work and we decided to use it to get the best turkey we could. That was an Organic Bronze Turkey. I rested it on onions, garlic and bay leaves, seasoned it, smeared it with butter and covered it in streaky bacon to protect the breast and legs from drying. It was hard work to cook, obviously the more money it costs the less you want to ruin it, but even after some extra time it seemed to be leeching deep red blood. In the end I had to give up and say whatever it looks like, it must be cooked. The the legs were in danger of being overcooked. Legs on an organic bird are much smaller than those of a commercial bird, but their dark colour and strong flavour make them really worth trying. As with any organic bird, it makes you reminisce about the chicken we used to eat in the 70's, that actually tasted of chicken. A free range turkey is also a really good buy. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not against normal, big, fat commercial turkeys, we've eaten and enjoyed lots. I served it with some M&S red cabbage (you could cook your own, but I had run out of cooker space) and bread, sage and onion stuffing. We normally have a sausage meat stuffing but dad has to limit the amount of pork he eats, so as we were having sausage and bacon I thought we would go for the bread stuffing. I'm glad we did it, was really tasty and moist and without the fat content of pork stuffing. We accompanied this with Brussels sprouts off a stalk, carrots, broccoli, mashed swede and some home made gravy. I made it with some freshly made giblet stock (made from boiling the turkey giblets with onion, garlic, carrots, bay leaf and peppercorns), the meat juices and some flour to thicken. I had to use a little gravy powder to thicken it more, as Tony likes his gravy to coat the food not wet it, a sauce not a juice.
We had roast potatoes made with Maris Pipers, creamy white and nice and fluffy and some great Yorkshires - 1/2pt milk, 4oz plain flour, seasoning, 4 eggs - cooked on a high heat in some hot fat for about 15 minutes.

You can just about see the flames, Tony poured on so ,
much Brandy that the  pudding started to burn!

You may remember Countdown to Christmas Part One, I made my first ever Christmas puddings. I was very worried that Christmas day dessert was relying on the pudding being OK and so if you also see Countdown to Christmas Part Three you will see I made a Mincemeat Bakewell and some mince pies as alternatives, with my home made mincemeat from Countdown to Christmas Part Two.
We flambéed the pudding and served it with a choice of cream or custard.  I don't like Christmas pudding and neither does Lauren and I'm not sure my dad's that keen (I assume that's why we always used to have Vienetta's on Christmas Day), but all I can say is there were a few moments of silence, followed by the clanging of spoons into empty bowls, with a small exclamation from anyone finding a greaseproof wrapped 20 pence and Lauren's disappointment that she didn't get one. I can honestly say it was the nicest Christmas Pudding I've ever tasted, made all the better that I'd made it myself and that it had been so easy.
Funnily enough the standby pudding, the Mincemeat Bakewell, was a bit disappointing, it needed more mincemeat and a moister sponge. The mince pies though, were gorgeous, crisp and buttery and the mincemeat  was just the right balance.
Needless to say, we couldn't manage tea as always happens on Christmas Day, we might have had a bit of cheese and cracker and a chocolate though, I'm not going to say!

Boxing Day bought Ma and Danda round with a few more presents for the now traditional gammon and chips. I had a good sized gammon, I hate them being fussed with, so I cook mine as it is, but if you prefer you can cook it in coke or with cloves or covered in marmalade!
I divide the cooking time in two and add 10 or 15 minutes onto each half, then boil for half the time and bake for the final half and I always end up with a delicious ham. I get in some salad, some paté and cheese, plenty of pickles, the star this year being the chilli pickled onions that my friend Chris made and some lovely bread. The other star attraction is the home made chips and if you take a look at my wedding annniversary, you'll see how I do them. An extra special treat was Yorkshire Puddings, I'd made so much mixture there was enough for 2 days!
Well I'm going to leave it there for now, almost, Lauren got 2 sets o f Bendaroos for Christmas...nobody is left out of the embarrassment here! Apparently we are all chameleons!