The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater. Read Along Thread 2022 PART 2

[LillianGish]

A continuation of the brilliant thread started by @Dillidilly who I hope is still lurking somewhere and reading along

Ah yes, the Boxing Day sandwich or Bubble and Squeak. DD hosted yesterday, so we don’t have any left overs for the first time in my adult life. Not quite sure how I feel about that.

ihavedogs I think I’ll be making the shift from host to guest in next couple of years. I feel quite ambivalent about it.
i ordered a meat hamper from butchers which had sausage meat in it. I thought I would make stuffing balls with it. Slightly regretted this on Christmas Eve when rolling umpteen standard and gf balls.

So part of me will be happy to do less but it’s a big change and I like the leftovers…

No leftovers here, we gave them all to my parents, none of us are keen on them. we prefer to get back to normal food from today.

@HannahDefoesTrenchcoat DD recently moved and wanted to host this year as she now has the space. I still made the three stuffings and nut roast and took them over, so not prep free, but I didn’t roll stuffing balls which cut down work massively. I did end up washing up yesterday rather than just bunging almost everything into the dishwasher which was a bit of a shock to the system 🤣

@EspeciallyD I don’t like having leftovers hanging around after Boxing Day, but at the moment I am missing the prospect of a festive sandwich and bubble and squeak.

DH did suggest we cooked some veg for bubble and squeak, but it wouldn’t be the same as having left overs.

👋 to all. Still feeling rough. We have no leftovers, rather a fridge full of untouched food - didn’t do anything at all yesterday, just relaxed and watched films together. Presents are still unwrapped and ungiven. We’ll hopefully have a festive NYE/NYD instead.

Ironically DH and I are both craving turkey - it’s our least favourite Christmas roast by far and this year we’d decided against. But something about the quite non-descript and not-too-rich flavour seems to appeal just now. Really wish we had a crown to cook today or tomorrow.

I’m not reading CC atm so will have to catch up. Hope each of you had a really lovely Christmas and that you’re enjoying your Boxing Day.🎄

We don't have a roast dinner at my parents on Christmas Day as none of us are particularly fond of it. We just do a massive table of all the things we like best - blinis, pate, nice hams, steak, prawn cocktails, nice salads etc and just help ourselves. We then reset for another big table of all the things we like best for dessert!

For my husband, we have a roast dinner on Boxing Day (currently cooking now!) - I much prefer doing it today - lots less pressure and stuff going on and it feels like there is less pressure for everything to be perfect.

Oh dear, Tangled.
I'm shattered. We polished off the cauliflower/leek cheese today, with half the sprouts and stuffing.

@Ihavedogs I wish I could give you some of our leftovers. Turns out that dh's family don't really like sprouts and I did loads!

@Swissnotswiss how annoying. I love sprouts. It’s ‘gammon day’ tomorrow. DH will be having gammon and vegan sausages for me. Both of us will be having vegan cauli cheese and sprouts, along with some roasties.

I've got leftover sprouts, too.

Carrot/parsnip mash turned out to be lovely, much nicer than carrots!

Tomorrow we'll have beef bourguignon pie, jacket spuds, swede/carrot mash, maybe salad (sprouts?) and various bits that make it a bit more buffet like.

Pavlova with some of the gin soaked plums, pomegranate and Sharon fruit.
Chocolate cake.
A random Tesco frozen dessert DH picked up.

I'm a bit past it now.

December 27.

The prospect of soup.

I will take advantage of the oven being on for lunch, and roast my bones before souping them. It makes the stock darker and stronger, I think.

Thanks Nigel, handy reminder!

DM won't stop talking long enough for me to get my head in order.

With all my left-overs from Boxing Day, today I have made -

Turkey Soup (no carcass, alas, as we had a boneless crown)

Bubble and Squeak (for the first time - looks dreadful but tastes nice).

Pistachio Sables (from the Delia Smith Christmas book). Didn't burn them this time!

And my triumph - Turkey and Pork Scotch Eggs from the F&M Christmas Book which actually have runny yolks!

Very impressive!!

Back to the calm of my own home tonight - we had left a few presents under the tree to save lugging everything back and forth across the Channel which made for a nice Christmassy return so I don’t feel too flat. Apartment feels pleasantly festive and of course I have my new Trudon candle to extend the Nigel vibe. What we don’t have is any leftover food (or indeed much of anything to eat) so I will have to pop out tomorrow to stock up afresh. Planning a Nigelesque trip to all the individual shops around the corner (cheese shop, boulangerie, greengrocers, deli etc) to get back in the spirit. Thanks for keeping up the titles @picklemewalnuts - will you be OK to see us through to the finish?

I'm happy to, but am in fact a day late with today's! Luckily there's an off day so I'll be caught up by tomorrow!

Welcome home, Lilian!

2*8 December

A sweet moment*

28 December

A sweet moment

30 December

Christmas stamps and bubble and squeak.

31st December

Fizz and Focaccia.

I have a similarly laid back approach to NYE. For me, it simply marks the end of the holidays.

I'll do a good breakfast on NYD, might pop in on friends at some point NYE, but don't stay up or watch the TV countdown!

I've had friends over in the past, but find it hard to stay festive that long! DH is introverted, so there's just not enough energy to see us through!

Tonight we're going to friends for a couple of hours, there will probably be board games, I may choose to keep Granny company while everyone else plays. Save my precious brain cells!

I seem to have dropped off this thread and got behind. I had an awful virus over Christmas and haven't really recovered or felt festive. We didn't even remember to drink the apricot liqueur!!

Ah, for me (Scottish), it's lentil soup, steak pie and shortbread day tomorrow. I think my parents would be more outraged if we weren't there for New Year's Day than if we weren't there for Christmas Day. My Dad remembers Hogmanay being a much bigger deal in Scotland than Christmas until around the 60/70's and then it changed. We've still got the extra bank holiday!

We don't normally first foot but I do open the back door to let the old year out and open the front door to let the new year in.

Same! I love our New Year traditions!

And the queues at the butchers for steak pies started yesterday and Tescos has a full aisle of steak pies for tomorrow!

My dear granddad used to disappear just before midnight so he could first foot us!