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janewilliams20The house is clean, and tidy. I've done all the advance prep for tomorrow's meal that I can. The table is laid, the veg is chopped, the stuffing is mixed. Everything is ready. All pigs watered and ready to fly...
Tomorrow should be good. I thought I was cooking Xmas dinner for my parents: then yesterday afternoon I got a phone call. I hadn't heard from Raedwulf for ages, so we chatted... and chatted... and.... and he's also coming to Xmas dinner.
I picked up the goose from the Ashwell butcher yesterday: a proper free-range goose. This isn't some dumb bird that's spent a few months sitting around being fattened. This is a lean, mean, flying machine. It looks too good to bone and triple-stuff. My second choice had been the Forme of Cury "sauce madame" stuffing I did at Letton, but getting the quinces is hard. So instead it's a Delia recipe I found in a magazine: forcemeat in the neck (yes, making it properly), apple and cranberry in the body, and a cranberry glaze.
After a last-minute check, we now have a roasting tin long enough to take it, and while Dave was out shopping he hit the final reductions in the supermarkets, and accidentally picked up a 3kilo salmon for a few pounds. It's in the freezer, along with the guineafowl and the other random bits and pieces.
We cooked the gammon today (boiled then roasted, marmalade glaze), had the start of that for dinner, along with the bits from the goose that had been used to make stock for the gravy (in my case: Dave doesn't like offal), and a rather nice Finnish swede dish that's apparently traditional at Xmas for them.
Veg: roast spuds (I want to do them in goose fat, Dave wants to use Aunt Bessie's), parsnips (Dave wants honey roast wedges, I want pennies, I'm doing both), sprouts, possibly sweet potato, probably creamed leeks. Maybe cauliflower. I'll see how much space I have left in serving dishes.
Starter's going to be prawn cocktail: Gem lettuce, some giant king prawns Sainsburys were reducing from £5 to £2, the low-fat 1000-island dressing.
We've got a Duchy Original Xmas pud, though I'm not sure whether I'll boil, steam, or just microwave.
Cheese and biscuits. Port. Coffee. After Eights (one pack Grand Marnier flavour rather than mint). And several interesting meads...
Tomorrow should be good. I thought I was cooking Xmas dinner for my parents: then yesterday afternoon I got a phone call. I hadn't heard from Raedwulf for ages, so we chatted... and chatted... and.... and he's also coming to Xmas dinner.
I picked up the goose from the Ashwell butcher yesterday: a proper free-range goose. This isn't some dumb bird that's spent a few months sitting around being fattened. This is a lean, mean, flying machine. It looks too good to bone and triple-stuff. My second choice had been the Forme of Cury "sauce madame" stuffing I did at Letton, but getting the quinces is hard. So instead it's a Delia recipe I found in a magazine: forcemeat in the neck (yes, making it properly), apple and cranberry in the body, and a cranberry glaze.
After a last-minute check, we now have a roasting tin long enough to take it, and while Dave was out shopping he hit the final reductions in the supermarkets, and accidentally picked up a 3kilo salmon for a few pounds. It's in the freezer, along with the guineafowl and the other random bits and pieces.
We cooked the gammon today (boiled then roasted, marmalade glaze), had the start of that for dinner, along with the bits from the goose that had been used to make stock for the gravy (in my case: Dave doesn't like offal), and a rather nice Finnish swede dish that's apparently traditional at Xmas for them.
Veg: roast spuds (I want to do them in goose fat, Dave wants to use Aunt Bessie's), parsnips (Dave wants honey roast wedges, I want pennies, I'm doing both), sprouts, possibly sweet potato, probably creamed leeks. Maybe cauliflower. I'll see how much space I have left in serving dishes.
Starter's going to be prawn cocktail: Gem lettuce, some giant king prawns Sainsburys were reducing from £5 to £2, the low-fat 1000-island dressing.
We've got a Duchy Original Xmas pud, though I'm not sure whether I'll boil, steam, or just microwave.
Cheese and biscuits. Port. Coffee. After Eights (one pack Grand Marnier flavour rather than mint). And several interesting meads...
