to not have turkey on christmas day as its over priced

[ReallyTired]

We are planning on having sirloin of beef instead. It is a fraction of the price of a christmas turkey. I am going to go out to Tescos on boxing day to see if we can buy and freeze a turkey on the 26th.

DH Ds and I are having our own Christmas at home, just us, and then traveling to family. boxing day and the weekend. We've gone for a goose can't wait!

I don't want to think about death camps, but that is what farms and abattoirs are.

I used to live on a chicken farm. In a bad hot spell we lost 10,000 chickens in a few days, then we had to go in with a JCB to get rid of the carcasses. You can imagine the smell.

I buy free range now. I don't need animals to be tortured so I can buy them a bit cheaper.

Fabulous if you buy things to grow, kill and eat again, the trick is to name them so you know you are going to eat them from the start. We had a goose once that we named Christmas. It was a savage thing, and I eventually sold it as a guard goose! The turkeys were also called Christmas, Christmas, etc you get the picture. My sister used to raise pigs, and she would name them things like Bacon and Chop, but the first pair she got she named after the office bully at work and her fat sidekick! Naming them for something you are going to eat makes them so much easier to eat.

No one joining me with shepherds pie then?

Hmmm no not Shepherd's pie, although Nigella had a nice sounding one made with Venison that she called Rudolph Pie and suggested decorating it with a Glace Cherry.

I do love a shepherds pie, but it's more of a 'cosy Monday evening in January' meal rather than a 'wahoo it's Christmas' one.

We have had some amazingly tasty and beautifully moist turkeys over the years. And one or two disasters, one notable one being the year we were all in various stages of suffering from, coming down with and getting over noro virus and still decided to go ahead with trying to cook the whole Christmas meal. That was not a good year.

But this year we'll have a turkey crown and maybe a small gammon ham.

Like Brussels sprouts turkey tastes wonderful when cooked by my Granny but otherwise not my favourite meat or veg.