Christmas Food and Drink

So, what are you all eating and drinking?

This year, our Christmas eatings are including the following (between 4 people):

Christmas eve:

York Ham with baked potatoes and spinach
Raspberry Pavlova (all home made of course)
Bethany Vineyard Shiraz 2001

Stilton (we buy half of an entire stilton (about 6lbs or so))
Warre's 1985 Vintage port

Home-made mince pies with almond shortcrust pastry

Christmas Day:

Lunch:
Side of smoked wild scottish salmon
Hearts of Romaine lettuce

Taittainger Champagne

Stilton
Warre's

More mince pies

Dinner:
Goose with sage and onion, thyme and parsley, sausage meat and chestnut stuffings
Roast potatoes in goose fat
Sprouts
Parsnips
Two bottles of Penfold's Bin 389 Shiraz 1999

Christmas pudding
Home-made brandy butter with ginger
Chateau Filhot Sauterne

Yet more mince pies, Warre's and stilton

The rest of this year will be eating leftovers of these things, including cold ham, cold goose, goose soup, pea and ham soup, etc....

 

Hmm, sounds like you do things properly at yours Isaac very posh...sounds very nice indeed.

Today's eatings:-

Breakfast = 1x mini bar of dairy milk, 1x bag of chocolate covered raisins

Lunch = Honey glazed turkey, roast spuds, bacon rolls (pigs in blankets), peas, carrots, broccoli and sprouts for those that like them, and apricot stuffing. No pudding as I was full. Orange juice to drink for me.

Tea = Probably a turkey sandwich, or smoked salmon if theres any left from the other day. Followed by a few tins of stella I expect.

Very nice indeed I really like Christmas.

 

tried to get goose fat to do a bit of cooking with. everywhere i went, no joy whatsoever!!!

ended up with:-

roast turkey, roast pototoes, carrots, sprouts, mashed potoroes, sausages, cranberry and apple sauce with a glass of sheridans afterwards.

followed by the obligatory xmas pud!

 

Forgot to add the Christmas beer list:

Marston's Pedigree
Marston's Double Drop
Marston's Single Malt (it's a beer)
Marston's Burton Bitter
Marston's Late Hopped
Black Sheep
Timothy Taylor's Landlord Ale
Shepard Neame Whitstable Bay

Nothing like doing christmas properly with someone else paying

 

Isaac, 8 pints of strong beer, champagne and wine, good effort, I'm surprised you had any room for food !

This year we went 'semi auto' and bought everything from Marks and Spencer. I say semi auto as it just needed cooking , nothing worse than preparing veg, etc. We also went for a fully dressed Turkey breast joint (on bone), It sounds boring but everybody agreed it tasted great, loads of leftovers for the obligatory Turkey sarnies , etc.
Another added extra this year was that my wife had pre-ordered the food from marks. When she got there to pay late on Xmas eve, they had sold out of one particular vegatable item, Mrs Coke complained (nicely as it was Xmas eve) and the lady gave her an instant £20 discount and also gave her two alternative items for free ( RRP £28- ) Bottom line, effectively Free Christmas dinner curtesy of M&S - Bargain !

 

Watch out Isaac,

You might end up paying more for your airline tickets in future

Bloat on....

Regards

 

Sounds like you're quite a gourmet.

Mince pies and Xmas pud. bring back memories ...

BTW, we also had a bottle of Chateau Filhot 1988 but that was slightly past its prime. What vintage was yours and how was it ?

Is your recipe for mince pies a family secret or would you consider making it public domain ?

Thanks

 

The Sauterne was 1999. It was perfectly pleasant, but I'm not a big sweet wine drinker.

The mince pies use mincemeat bought from the supermarket, but fortified with additional brandy. The pastry is home made... 12oz flour, 4oz ground almond, 8oz butter (go half and half with lard if you like), two egg yolks, 2 tsp of baking powder, pinch of salt and just enough water to make it stick (which really isn't much).

 

Thanks Isaac, I'll try and convince my wife to make some for me.

As for sweet wines, it's an acquired taste. Some are just fantastic, but the amount you can have will always be much less than regular red or white. And they are usually worth waiting for. I like medium-sweet wines best, in particular those from the Loire valley (Vouvray, Montlouis, CÃ'teaux du Layon). You may want to try one of those next time.

 

xmas eve
cassoulet au canard and french bread

xmas day
breakfast:
croissants (home made) and channel island butter with fresh coffee for breakfast

lunch:
smoked rainbow trout with thinly sliced brown bread

free range turkey
roast potatoes
roast butternut squash
brussel sprouts

christmas pud was abordet due to servere bloatation.

also copious amounts of hand made chocs and nibbles were consumed to result in the traditional christmas night heartburn and indegestion.

the only wine i'll actually drink is muscat de baume de venaisse (sp?) although i was drinking tonic with my dinner.

merry christmas everyone
cheers


julian

 

I think so. As a barbarian drinker, I've had some luck in past with more-or-less random purchases of Cadillac (no sniggering at the back), Monbazillac and various vin de paille whose names I have long since forgotten.
In the end I prefer a bone dry* palo fino or Manzanilla to anything sweet. Sherry still ranks as one of the great bargains of white wine IMO (Although I am looking forward to Sir G. correcting my error on this )

*Sherry, but not the stuff your grannie would recognise.

 

Not a bad choice in itself, although a bit restrictive ... But keep away from the stuff while on a diet. Lot's of sugar

If you have a taste for Beaumes de Venise, next time you are allowed, try "Clos des Bernardins", one of the best IMO.

 

Well, good wine rarely comes cheap, regardless of color, and if you've found a good quality/price ratio, let me know. As for Sherry (the real thing as you rightly point out), I'm a complete beginner, I've had Fino a couple times and Manzanilla once, and I know there are more types yet. I find it very distinctive, complex and refreshing, with a feeling I'll never quite understand it. Something to look forward to. And the last time I had Fino, the bottle was about 15 euros, which is not exactly cheap.