|
Post by tod2 on Dec 16, 2016 13:21:03 GMT
Well, I have just completed my contribution to Xmas lunch. We tend to have it either on Xmas eve or more usually on the day at lunch time. Why midday is beyond me as that is bound to be stinking hot as usual! We have in recent years just BBq'd but even that can be unbearable in the heat so this year I have decided on a 'Finger Food' Xmas lunch. Lots of cold sliced gammon with a big salad, cheeses galore some bathed in honey and walnuts other wrapped in streaky bacon. A variety of chips and dips, smoked fish and some prawns.
Other dishes prepared this week for the holidays have been a rich beef in beer and made into pies with shortcrust pastry, a beef Rendang curry, and a quantity of spicy mince for tacos. I might make a large paella one of the evenings, but I feel relieved I wont be chained to the kitchen sink while everyone is out enjoying the sea air!
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2016 15:53:52 GMT
I have no plans yet, but I generally try to find something different from my usual diet and over my usual budget, even though your Christmas lunch sounds just fine to me -- having Christmas in summer is a game changer!
Next week, I will go to the Picard frozen food supermarket and maybe spring for some Cuban lobster tails, which I have not done for at least 3 years because the price shocks me. Then again, maybe not because every time I eat lobster, I realise that it is not one of my favourite foods -- I much prefer crabs or prawns. But in any case, it will almost certainly be seafood.
|
|
|
Post by onlyMark on Dec 17, 2016 16:27:02 GMT
If I can find a turkey, we'll have one. If not, then I'm not sure yet.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Dec 17, 2016 22:43:54 GMT
Definitely seafood. I already have some frozen wild-caught Argentinian red shrimp, bought from a Portuguese shop that seems to sell frozen fish more than anything else.
I have no idea what day this meal will be, ideally on the Solstice, but it could actually be on the 23rd or 24th - it depends on my friends. The friend who is in Cuba arrives on the 20th (unless there is a delay) but I doubt she'll feel like seeing friends, although there is no jet lag and it isn't a very long flight. I don't think the friend who is leaving for her native Argentina leaves before New Year's, to spend the austral summer down there...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Dec 17, 2016 23:46:18 GMT
we spend christmas eve (which is the "big event" with all the presents, here) at my dad's, and he usually makes beet root salad with fish and walnuts (it's traditional christmas food somewhere, sweden maybe?) and we also have bread and various types of ham and meat and cheese ... and of course lots of christmas cookies (my dad's wife usually makes five or six different kinds) ... christmas day we will probably be at home and i suppose mr. r. will cook, but no idea yet what - could be duck or goose or game or lamb ... next day at my mom's or at my brother b's place (depends on how my brother k is feeling, whether he is strong enough to celebrate with us) - but no idea what we will eat there. i hope there'll be duck on one of the christmas days, i like duck ...
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2016 19:00:49 GMT
For the first time in many, many years we are going with a group of close friends to a Revillion at one of our favorite restaurants on Christmas Eve.
|
|
LouisXIV
member
Offline
L'estat c'est moi.
|
Post by LouisXIV on Dec 21, 2016 17:54:59 GMT
On Christmas Eve my two exchange students and I will have grilled Delmonico steaks.
|
|
|
Post by amboseli on Dec 22, 2016 10:59:42 GMT
It's a surprise. On Christmas Eve we are invited at my son & DIL. I asked if I could be of any help, but they didn't want me to. On Christmas Day the whole family gathers at my brother's house for dinner. My brother will cook and doesn't want my help either. I'll have to wait until NY's Eve to open the box of frozen king crab legs. Can't wait!
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Dec 22, 2016 11:37:37 GMT
Louis - please explain 'Delmonico' steak? Is is the way it is prepared or a cut of meat?
Amboseli - where did you get them crab legs? In Belgium or Paris?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2016 12:22:31 GMT
I might be diverting Christmas to a magret de canard and do seafood on the 31st instead.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Dec 22, 2016 12:37:55 GMT
we good noodle stir fry as a take away yesterday for dinner, and a. suggested that this is what we should also have for christmas dinner ...
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Dec 22, 2016 15:02:38 GMT
Why not, if you all like that? I've sometimes gone the somewhat more "seasonal" route of buying a Chinese bbq duck.
|
|
|
Post by amboseli on Dec 22, 2016 16:31:36 GMT
Amboseli - where did you get them crab legs? In Belgium or Paris? In our local fish store in Belgium. Carrefour (supermarket) also has them around Xmas/NY.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2016 17:19:42 GMT
Oh crap, I don't know. I walked into Safeway the other day and almost burst into tears because I can't stand being around people and I can't make any decisions. I can't cook. My husband volunteers to do all of the cooking, and then he asks what he should make.
Anyway, we've resolved to spend Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day in the cabin, so my cooking options are limited. No turkey in an RV-sized oven. Perhaps duck Christmas, seafood on the Eve. I came across a recipe for Poulet à la Normande that was left out for me, but it doesn't seem festive enough for me in the cold light of day. Whatever we end up having, I discovered three different squashes waiting for me in Seattle so I guess we'll be having those.
I read today about the Icelandish (?is that a word?) custom of retiring to bed on Christmas Eve with a new book and a box of chocolates, which sounds right up my alley.
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Dec 22, 2016 17:25:10 GMT
Lizzy - The easiest Xmas fare ever is Finger Food. A little bit of this and a little bit of that, punctuated by large slugs of your favourite tipple. Everything thing is festive if you decide it is! Take lots of treats and have chocolates until the cows come home - Merry feasting!
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Dec 22, 2016 20:12:48 GMT
That is what we did for the Solstice yesterday evening. Minus the chocolate as none of us are big on sweets, but cheese makes up for the missing calories and fat. I do like a salad - not to be virtuous, but because it adds a certain freshness and greenery. Tod, are berries in season where you are?
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Dec 23, 2016 10:09:13 GMT
Depends what you mean by 'berries'? If you are thinking of Hawthorn berries on hedges then NO, those come out in June/July - our mid winter. If you are asking about fruit, like cherries & blueberries - No. Nearly all our stone berries are imported. We do have a cherry growing area in a place called Ficksburg, and lately noticed the blueberry packs marked 'Product of South Africa'. When will they be ready for picking - I am not sure. We grow loads of apples, pears, peaches, grapes etc. All in one specific area of the Cape Province. At this moment we have a flood of Zill mangoes - the enormous green/red ones with smooth flesh. Yesterday I bought some White Flesh nectarines grown locally. They have an intense sweetness and much preferred to the Yellow Flesh ones.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Dec 23, 2016 15:42:04 GMT
Is that the same part of the Cape where many of your prominent wineries are located? (grapes are fruit, after all).
|
|
|
Post by amboseli on Dec 23, 2016 17:26:43 GMT
Oh, those wineries ... we have visited various wine estates and drank some excellent wines while we travelled in the Western Cape.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2016 23:15:13 GMT
Ok, decisions were made today. I wanted turkey. Read above post re: oven size and small party. I was looking for thighs but I found only drumsticks. So I will bone and stuff the drumsticks. Sprouts, potatoes, cranberries, etc. Christmas Eve is pumpkin, pancetta and sage pasta. I'm making a pie with the other half of the pumpkin. Bought some biscotti and smoked salmon. Can't find goddamn mincemeat pies in this godforsaken country. Came away from Trader Joe's with quite a haul of wine, though.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2016 23:40:42 GMT
Yesterday I happened to notice the turkeys on sale at the local hypermarket in Paris. They were no bigger than ducks, maybe not even bigger than some of the big chickens that one can see in American stores. I would actually be willing to try cooking a turkey that size if I had anybody to whom to serve it.
Of course this makes me wonder why anybody would buy one here unless they were on a diet and wanted the bird with the least fat. For that size, I would much prefer a duck.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2016 23:42:09 GMT
Well, my husband threw a duck in the shopping cart today. "For New Year". I just wanted the nostalgia of the turkey because of my Dad.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2016 23:50:16 GMT
I certainly understand that, but you will find other ways/dishes to remember your dad. All of our parents had many facets, some of which are worth honouring with pleasant memories and probably some that can be forgotten with no offence to anybody.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2016 0:26:21 GMT
Oh, I'm sure I'll get over it. Let's just say it's an affectionate tribute to deal old Dad, this last time. My husband is beyond indifferent to turkey. He's indulging me.
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Dec 24, 2016 1:17:21 GMT
Your meal plan sounds delicious Lizzy.
I can not remember a Christmas without a turkey, just our tradition I guess, sometimes we add ham.
I have been baking cookies the past few days. I will bring some to my parents and some to my brother-in-law's which is where we will have dinner on Boxing Day. I will also bring a kale salad and a tomato pasta baked dish (my niece is a vegetarian). My mother-in-law is bringing the turkey. Looking forward to my sister-in-law's brussel sprouts.
There was rabbit at Sobey's the other day, I have to stop there tomorrow, if there is one left, I might bring one home and freeze it for New Year's Day dinner. My husband used to eat rabbit frequently when he was a child living in Germany. The family would travel every other weekend to his Grandfather's home in north eastern France (near Metz) where he remembers his pen of rabbits and his vegetable gardens. I have never cooked one before so there will be research to do this week.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Dec 24, 2016 16:23:02 GMT
Actually, K2, the dark meat isn't bad. It is mostly the white meat that tastes like packing material. I braise the dark meat in dark beer and it is tasty.
Christmas dinner per se is utterly up in the air - I'm invited a bit later in the week and may wind up doing nothing at all, and don't care. If I do eat poultry, it will probably me a Chinese bbq duck from my nearby Vietnamese superette. Like many Chinese merchants, they are Sino-Vietnamese so they have some south Chinese foods as well as typically Vietnamese ones, and sell food from China as well as Southeast Asia. It will actually cost me LESS to do that than buy a raw one and cook it. And I have the option of buying only a half if I prefer, though a whole bird would be meat for a week, and I love duck.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Dec 24, 2016 23:33:20 GMT
well, christmas eve dinner at my dad's just now was the usual herring-beetroot-walnut-potato salad, and bread, and various cheeses and meat cuts, as well as borschtsch, pirogy and cream supplied by my brother's polish girlfriend and her grandmother, and a paste made of various ingredients of which i only remember figs, made by my other brother's girlfriend.
for tomorrow's dinner, i bought a grilled duck as we decided this year we are too lazy to cook properly. we will have that duck with potatoes and a choice of red cabbage or green beans ...
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Dec 25, 2016 0:54:58 GMT
That sounds lovely, rikita. I wound up buying half a bbq duck. I would have preferred to have a whole one, as I know I'd eat the whole thing before it went bad or had to be frozen, but the only whole duck left was a sad, skinny little thing, and the half was from a duck that looked far more robust. Also buckwheat noodles and cress (watercress - cresson).
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2016 5:30:29 GMT
In the end I wound up eating soft shell crabs with braised endive.
|
|
|
Post by onlyMark on Dec 25, 2016 6:25:03 GMT
I'd be interested to see which cultures/countries eat the official Christmas dinner on the evening of the 24th and which eat it in the daytime of the 25th. Also, when do the kids open the presents? When we first had our kids we had to decide to do it either the German way, the evening of the 24th, or the British way of the 25th. I couldn't really see the advantage of doing it on Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day being a bit of a damp squib with no presents and no main 'Christmas Dinner' so Mrs M and I discussed it at length. I am proud to admit that for once in our proud history I actually won a discussion and we do it the British way. I was warned though at the time that hell would have to freeze over before I won another one. That has turned out to be true in any case.
|
|