Der Weihnachtsmarkt: Glühwein und Waffeln und Lebkuchen

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Hope I typed that right, have lead in my boots this morning. Had a great weekend with lots of Glühwein and Weinschorlen and Nikoläuser.
Didn't get back from a Christmas party till 8 last night and too late to make the Kranz. I usually start decorating on Dec 1st so will do that with d after school and then light a candle tonight.
We're in the UK as well for C'mas but I still do decorations, put the tree baubles in glass vases so even they get an outing.
I love white fairy lights, put some all over the place and in the evenings leave the lamps off and light downstairs with fairy lights alone.

The tree lighting on Saturday was great fun, friends of ours were there and their 13 yr old d took mine to the fire & waited 15 mins in the crowds for Nikolaus while I was plied with Glühwein.
Think my ideal Christmas is Advent here and C'mas day in the UK, then back here for Sylvester. So this year should be good.
Mind you when we're here we have roast beef on the 25th, or goose. Think if I served Truthahn, h would clobber me with it.

Taipo have mailed you.
Have only one school meeting this week but a stack of reports to write. It is very good for my rusty brain but v hard work getting into. Feel rather fragile this morning, housework beckons and all I want is a bucket of tea and an aspirin

I've tried to make them loads of times with variations on the oven temperature, batter thinner, thicker, egg size, even experimented with different flour types but always turned out wrong!

Indian food is very easy to cook once you get the basics. When we went to Pakistan I always ended up watching the women cooking too as they tended to send me to the women and the men sat in a different room wherever we went visiting. Learned alot when SIL stayed with us for 1 month too.

We will just be having a cheese selection, hot rolls and maybe croissants too. The later the better then we only need the Christmas dinner later. Bah humbug just has coffee anyway.

dd was asking if we could have waffles for breakfast because they sometimes had them in Kiga. I don't have a waffle iron since I'm not wild about them. Wouldn't know what to serve with tehm really. Quite a heavy breakfast considering we'll be eating mountains of food all day.

I think you could have Indian on Christmas day. It often looksvery festive in itself with all the little dishes and colourful things. If you had festive little bowls, candles etc, don't see why you couldn't eat Indian at Christmas. I'm not that wild about all these chewy old birds tbh

am never going to have a giant Karpfen swimming about in the bathtub to slaughter on Christmas Eve. Forget that one. Not sure if Germans were winding me up with that or if people really do have that as a traditional Christmas meal. Wondering why it would have to be killed fresh... I will never be doing that one though that's for sure, no matter how fantastic it might taste.

No, I've set my heart on having a traditional (or as close as I can get) meal. I'm fed up of Indian food.

Do they have cranberry sauce/jelly here in Germany?

Now that would put a smile on h's face - a Karpfen in the bathtub to kill and prepare.He loves fish but it has to be fried with onion, garlic, ginger and fresh tomatoes. Just thinking ofthe mess, no way.

haven't seen it in your run of the mill supermarket but did get it from Wertheim. If you have a biggish department store, I think you'd find it in their international section.

OK, will have to go into Karstadt in town.

Have you found cranberry sauce?

Actually I'm wondering now if the Karpfen is not for Silvester rather than Christmas....

Well we're all set, tree up, biscuits and cakes and all that stuff baked. Only the part I don't like ahead - cooking.

I should really learn to become a confident cook at my advanced age but I don't seem to have the gene for it

Hi all - dashing around for last minute things and enjoying DH at home.

Top tips for PERFECT yorkshires:

1. Hot hot hot oven - 230 C minimum.
2. Make sure oven hot before you start .
3. Do not use fan if have fan assisted oven.
4. Put oven tray at top of oven (do you get how important the hot oven is?)
5. 1/2 pint of milk, pinch of salt, egg and 4oz flour - always do the same. type 405 stuff here is fine. Chuck it all in the blender and stuff it in the fridge, night before if possible.
6. Use a muffin tin if you have it, the shallower the better, and put a bit of sunflower or vege oil in the bottom of each section, but not oliveoil as does not get hot enough.
7. Put tray in oven for 10m to heat through, then slide out (do not take out and put on the top) and pour in batter miture (mix it again first) so that you don't spill any trying to put it back in the oven.

20m and they are done.

DO NOT open the oven until they are done.

I cook them before I cook anything else to make sure I don't have to open the oven door, and then just pop them back in to heath through at the end.

Bloody hell!! Can't believe how much Hertie just tried to charge me for a jar of stilton!

I'm going for some stilton on the market tomorrow. Found a market stall with loads of UK cheeses so I won't feel too left out not being at home - Christmas evening has to involve a big cheese platter and different crackers (which I already payed an arm and a leg for online)

Still no cranberry sauce but they must have it in one of the big supermarkets because I'm sure Germans eat it with Hirsch and sometimes with those deep fried camembert.

Mmelindt not sure if this is really korma but it is my fave curry and h's least favourite! If you don't want to use the paste stuff you need to buy a selection of spices : whole cumin seeds, whole cardamon seeds, whole coriander seeds, bay leaves, ground cumin, ground chilli, turmeric, fresh ginger and garlic.

In a blender , blend 2 chopped onions and ginger (about 3cm) and garlic with a little water. Heat oil and fry the seeds (cumin, cardamon, coriander half tspn each) then pour in the paste. Fry for about 5 to 10 minutes, keep stirring, then add your spices depending on taste (start mild with level tspn of cumin, turmeric and chilli). Fry for a few minutes then add a finely chopped or blended tomato if you like and fry a few more minutes. You should now have a thickish paste - now you can add whatever you like, chicken, fish, veg. Coat in the paste then add a cup of water and reduce heat until cooked. At the end you can add coconut cream and a few dry fried almond flakes.

Mmmm, that sounds great. And if I get the food processor that I have been hinting madly about, I may even make it soon. If I don't get one I am just going to buy myself one. I have been asking for years now.

DH spent 4 hours in the town yesterday and did not find anything. He asked my friend and she sent him a text. "diamonds are a girl's best friend"

I am not expecting diamonds but a kenwood or a decent carving knife would be great.

Don't I sound boring?

Well done on the market stand Admyl - recipe sounds scrummy too. I got "preiselbeeren" stuff from Rewe this year, and I know Tengleman usually do it if that helps.

Well I settled for some loose stilton in the end, and got some Cathederal 16mnth matured so cheese platter is looking good in the Gabster household now too.

Have managed to get some parsnips now too, so all sorted.

Yup, ML, sorry - but this is what happens when you become old, married and with children. I was so excited my family all clubbed together last year and got me half the kitchenaid I had been hinting about for years.

Better go - DS is finally asleep so going to lay out the table and get as much done as possible so I can enjoy tomorrow as well as Xmas day.

I am starting to get abit worried about my turkey. I've invited people to Christmas dinner and I've never done a turkey breast in the oven as I am plannig - rule number 1 is never to make something for a party without a practise run atleast. Whatif it's a flop? I'll have to chop it up and make it into a quick curry!

I wanted to roast it with bacon on top but couldn't get any in the shops so I bought some schwarzwälder stuff that looked abit bacony, then another packet of something bacon looking. Hope it's OK.

It's a 1 kilo turkey breast, so I thought it might shrink and got a 2nd 1 kilo one. I bet I have far too much now.

Check out the FOOC thread for my turkey adventure.

You are better with too much than too little, admylin. I normally do the turkey in plenty of time so that it has at least 30 mins resting time after it comes out if the oven. Thatvgives me time to get the rest finished. Cover it with alufolie while you make your gravy, veg etc.

Finished wrapping the presents. Why do DH's family tho k that I should buy and wrap their presents? Bloody cheek. And my DB and SIL-to-be have done it again. 2 parcels, cost of posting over £70 and far too many presents. Presents from DB and Sil for the DC, from SIL's DC to our DC, from DB/SIL for us. They have spent a fortune. We don't spend anything like as much and I find it embarrassing.

Wow, that must be one big parcel they posted! I've managed to get my family convinced that they should buy only what I send on the dc's wish list and they do stick to it. Must admit this year they will have exactly 11 parcels to open each but they are all things they wanted - the rest is money from family.

It was two parcels. One came last week and one today. Today's is a present for DS. £35 for postage. We don't spend much more than that on DS's present.

My DB is getting married next year and does not bring home a great wage so it is a bit silly for them to spend so much. I know SIL us good at getting great bargains so the presents were probably not full price but still.

It's still lovely that they send anything with the cost of postage on top. They must miss you all especially now.

I'm so fed up at not having arranged to fly home. Yesterday I was in such a bad mood but tried to hide it from the dc - everything bugged me. I was in the cellar trying to put my bike away and it kept getting stuck or falling over then thelock wouldn't close first try so I was mumbling aloud to myself and then I noticed that the neighbour was on the stairs but she just said I understand, let it all out.

This morning I put the radio on and 'Away in a manger' was playing so I was singing along to it with dd then h emerged from his bed and said are you making it all Christmassy or what in a sarcastic voice - bah humbug bah humbug I could have thrown my coffee at him.

Anyway, have a lovely Heiligeabend mmelindt. Your dc get the best of both worlds!

Just bought a bit of stilton and some yummy swiss bergkäse from the market and it cost 15 euro. The woman was very clever handing out probier bits of her bergkäse as it wasn't on my list!

Admylin
Don't let Scrooge spoil your Xmas. I got a bit homesick yesterday when the Waitrose ad came on. All nostalgic Christmas scenes guaranteed to bring a lump to your throat.

We are going to the mountains to let the DC let of steam before we go mad. They were up at 6am again today.

LOL at ML's DCs obviously getting excited at the prospect of Christmas - up at 6am.

AD - did you get crowns in the end? If so, I just found a recipe this evening suggesting for the first half of the cooking time put some stock in the bottom of the pan and cover with foil to keep the meat moist, and then uncover to brown for the second half of cooking.

Does anyone think they are going to have a white one by the way? The woods here are looking suspiciously green again.

DS has got another round of this novo virus - this time the upchuky variety so looks like we are going to have a puky Christmas.

Oh well, I suppose this is what parenthood is all about.

Fröhe Weihnacht everyone.

PS - ad, take the stcok out when you uncover the crown, and use for gravy!

Merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten!

The DC were up at 6am again. Actually that is there normal time.

They were very excited and opened their presents by 7 am since then they have been playing reasonably quietly. We had a Lightning McQueen christmas this year. Almostveverything DS got was LM. Barbie was well reprecented too.

I got a travel charger and case for my iPhone and a cheese knife. :-)

Hope you all have a great day, that the turkey is delicious (got one in France btw) and that Santa was good to you and your families. Have a peaceful and relaxing day.