Christmas Dinner for the 7th time

I think it takes at least 3 repeats for something to become tradition. And the Christmas dinner for all our uni friends is now firmly cemented as such. And everytime a new mini tradition is added - secret santa presents, certain drinking games, brownies for pudding, etc.

We never manage to get everyone every year, but there is always a good number and every year there will be someone new (new boyfriends or girlfriend, new housemates, or colleagues) but it never matters - the philosophy has always been the more the merrier.

This year, in true festive spirit the snow came down thick and fast the morning of the dinner. It looked wonderful. But it did make the walk to ASDA a little more problematic. Though not as bad as the day before. When I fell over. Carrying 8 (yes EIGHT) carrier bags of food for the dinner (I had decided to do the booze and mixers on the day, so there were no bottles, however I was carrying all the potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc - basically everything bulky and heavy) I had carefully balanced myself with four bags of equal weight in each hand. Clearly the planning was not so great as I really did fall totally flat on my back. Carrots went rolling off, broccoli florets were bouncing across the frozen tarmac. And a line of traffic had to stop while I picked myself up. In fact three people FROM SEPARATE CARS (two were the actual drivers) had to get out of their vehicles to pick me and the shopping up. One even got some spare bags for life out of his boot. And to top it all off I still had over half the walk home, and am now sporting a rather impressive bruise on my bum. Great.

The walk on Saturday was slightly less eventful (I only fell down once, and the Wiganer was on hand to pick me up, also a hedge was blocking the view from the road so the humiliation was lessened). And luckily the Boyfriend picked us up in his brand new car (RIP the micra...).

But we were running really late - it was 3pm and the turkey was not even in the oven, and we were apparently eating at 6.30. No chance I hear you snort, but actually we were not far off that. Because we have an ingenious, foolproof, and most importantly, a lazy way of cooking the turkey.

Ingredients:
Turkey
4 Carrots
2 sticks of celery
2 Leeks
3 Onions
4 cloves of garlic
Seasoning
White wine (about half a bottle)
1 1/2 pints of chicken stock
Stuffing

First stuff and season your bird. Then roughly chop all the veg into fairly large chunks. Place in a large disposable aluminium roasting tray and put the turkey on top. Place on the hob and pour in the liquids. Bring to the boil on top of the hob and then cover with two layers of bacofoil and pop in a pre-heated oven (200 degrees) for 2 hours.

That is it. No basting, no need to check it. After two hours take it out, have a look and pierce it with a knife - juices run clear and no one should die. If there don't pop it back in for 20 minutes.

Once it is cooked take it out. Mix together some honey, a little butter/marg and some lemon juice. Using a pastry brush paint it all over the top of the turkey and then sprinkle with thyme. Into a hot oven for 20mins until crispy and brown. Take out and rest for 20mins until ready to carve (or be hacked apart by inexperienced Boyfriend).

We did the usual veggies and trimmings (homemade sausage meat stuffing was my piece de resistance). And rounded it all off with brownies and choc sauce, mince pies and creme fraiche, crackers and secret santa presents. And then we played games and danced and drank and eventually went out (but would not get into the cabs until some people had started a snowball fight).

We went to a club and danced. And got in at 3am to turkey and stuffing sandwiches and leftover brownies. Another tradition. Yum.

Festive baking

I have found a cheap, quick, low fat and practically fool proof way to make mince pies.

All you need is a pack of ready made filo pastry sheets, a jar of mincemeat and some milk.

Get a sheet of filo pastry and fold it in half. Cut it into 4 and place a teaspoon of mincemeat at one end. Flatten it out and then roll up the pastry like a cracker. Pinch the ends and repeat until all the pastry and mincemeat are used up (should you run out of mincemeat substitute with jam - especially if the Boyfriend has recently purchased some fancy stuff from Borough Market).

Place on a baking tray and brush with milk. Bake for 8-10mins until golden brown.

Leave to cool as molten mincemeat is hotter than the sun.

Festive preparations....

Obviously, any of you that actually know me either in person or via this blog will be aware of my potentially unhealthy obsession with all things festive.

Being ill has meant that my unwillingly forced pre-crimbo detox has only heightened this excitement to new levels. I have two advent calendars. One choccie courtesy of the Boyfriend who pitied my father's choice of a picture only calendar (which I secretly LOVE - a remnant of our mother's incredibly strict views on confectionary). The Boyfriend and I have bought a lovely selection of Christmas decorations (thanks to his sister's generous housewarming vouchers) and even looked at Christmas trees this week.

I'm currently putting the finishing touches to the preparations for the annual Christmas dinner with us and our friends (secret santa organisation takes time!) and have just invited some friends round to ours for an evening of festive songs, mince pies, mulled wine and (a newly discovered favourite last year) Winter Pimms (normal Pimms but with wintery clove flavours and a lot of brandy served warm with apple juice - AMAZING).

I shall be making my own mince pies, and found a lovely Delia recipe using filo pastry and making the mince pies into mince crackers! For me this sounds very exciting and shall be debuted next week. I shall let you know the results.

I am also going to attempt my own Yule Log (basically a swiss roll surely?) and although I have missed stir up Sunday, I may even attempt a Christmas cake.....

Oh the possibilities are endless!

Countdown to Christmas: Mince Pies

Every year the Wiganer and I have made mince pies.

It all started four years ago one April (yes April) when we spotted a tub of mincemeat in the reduced section of Tesco.

Now, before we go on I must add that the Wiganer loves mince pies. And not just in the way that we all do; she LOVES them. To the point that her Grandma stockpiles them at Christmas and rations them out to her for the rest of the year.

So after seeing this tub of mincemeat she insisted on buying it (as mince pies ready made in the shop were long gone).

So we bought it and decided to make pastry (with no recipe, but it was ok) and do the pies ourselves.

After several truly inedible batches (if you overcook mincemeat it takes on a consistency similar to chewing gum) we finally hit on the perfect balance of butter, flour, water and mincemeat.

And from that point in April onwards, we have made it a tradition to make our own mince pies every Christmas.

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend I truly got into the Christmas spirit.

On Saturday I opened my TWO advent calendars (one picture and one CHOCOLATE - was a deprived child and never allowed one before), bought Christmas cards, decorations, planned mine and Wigan's mini Christmas Roast and decorated our tree. All to the the XMAS party classics CD.

And I had a lovely time. It was wonderful and I am truly in the Christmas mood.

Our Christmas tree is a little pathetic looking. Being only three foot tall. And really quite bald.

But we covered it in far too many baubles. And loads of other foil based decorations.

We even topped it off with an angel (homemade by Wigan and I out of our cheese grater with some tin foil wings stuck on the back).

After that I decided that we needed to give the windows a bit of a christmas look. So we made paper snowflakes (and may I just add, Wigan was truly appalling at this. she is being paid an obscene amount of money to look after a couple of kids, and all they do all day is crafts. and yet ask her to make you a paper snowflak..... well after frustrated grunts, angry jabs with scissors and severe snowflake envy, the Wigan admitted defeat)

We have also got very into the festive food. The Wiganer has set a new record for eating. She has managed to get through not one, but three boxes of mince pies.Since december started.

We have a fourth, but it has been hidden, and is only being adminstired under strict supervision.

She is blaming the Tesco buy one get one free offer.

I shall be keeping you all up to date with my festive antics over the next few days. As I'm sure you can tell, they will be extensive.