Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Calming down day
Christmas Eve is traditionally a lentil soup day. Knocked up around six litres of the stuff which six of us did for in a sitting. Bought five large loaves from Cheam that morning which have to last until Friday. Consumption has been negative exponential with 2.5 going on the first day and there being 0.5 left as I write. Should just about make it. A bit more thought though says that negative exponential while sounding good does not really meet the case. That is to say very big consumption on day 1, small on day 2, small on day three and starting to climb again today.
There was a late spurt in the size of Christmas houses at the baker, ending up with hollow affairs about 11 inches cubed. I learn afterwards that these are made out of gingerbread and have been featured on Blue Peter for many years. I didn't enquire how much they costed but they looked to involve a fair amount of work. £25? The Christmas tree chalet was solid and cost £15.
Branched out with a new event this year and sang happy birthday to Jesus before we started Christmas dinner.
Don't go a bundle on turkey as not favourite (although would not seem the same without it) food, so settled for a twenty pound job complete with interior oiling from Mr Sainsbury. Did very well on its giant cherry flavoured plate from the Hemingford side of the family. Two meals more or less did for it. A pie and soup to go with the now not so new stock pot on its first stockly outing.
Gravy good. Boiled up giblets with vegetables. Put cooked carrots and giblets less bones through the food mixer and put back in strained remainder. Stock then fairly thick, slightly gritty texture. I think the grittiness is down to the crop. The proceeded in a near normal way making the roux with corn flour. Most useful to tart up the mashed potato which we have with cold turkey on day 2. Who can make the biggest crater lake without getting wet turkey? I win, naturally.
Stuffing OK but not brilliant. Cooked outside the turkey and used dried thyme and marjoram having forgotten to check sage supplies and cooked in the rather deep loaf tin ordnarily used for seed cakes. Should have remembered the debugging rule which says do not make two changes at the same time.
Discovered that custard cream - one of the two accompaniments to Christmas pudding from the Canadian side of the family - is a cousin to brandy butter. Both starting with butter and suger, the former finishing with custard to give a soft sweet sauce, the latter with a small amount of brandy to give a hard sweet sauce, a bit crunchy. We are investigating whether the latter is improved by the addition of apperitif port.
Discovered that La Frogge tastes better out of small glasses than big ones. That is to say the first attempt after some modest amount of beer tasted rather odd. The second attempt when in slightly fresher condition went down rather better. Perhaps also because it provided an opportunity to show off the new glass cupboard which now contains three differant sizes of spirit glasses.
Third flight of last year's hot air balloon. The new launch stand and the hot air blower got the thing up fast enough but there was still the problem that however still the air seems, a balloon is going to drift. In this case coming down in the next door garden. Got it back OK but it has got some scorch holes from the air blower. Maybe the Thais in today's paper have got it right with a small light hanging under the canopy and you just let the thing go, rather than trying to tether and reuse.
Branched back on Boxing Day and resurrected the lego was a major occupation for around 10 years. The boys went for height with a sort of Technic Eiffel Tower while I went for a rather more sturdy tower built out of castle lego and standing on the pirate lego base. Have yet to reinstall the sharks in the dungeon.
First visit to the allotment for a few days and continued digging the broad bean patch for next year. Must get round to ordering the seed beans. Two deer present, one on the path to my allotment, one just across the fence in the school field. Chased the one on my side away, turned around a few minutes later and it had come back again. Or the one in the field had simply jumped the fence - which seems more likely although I would like to catch it doing it. But if the fence is jumpable, faffing about mending it is not going to do. So back to thinking about the rather major works needed to protect my fruit trees on a private basis. What a pain.
Maybe Friday will be bonfire day. It has been rather wet since I cut the willow down but maybe the wood has dried out for all that.
There was a late spurt in the size of Christmas houses at the baker, ending up with hollow affairs about 11 inches cubed. I learn afterwards that these are made out of gingerbread and have been featured on Blue Peter for many years. I didn't enquire how much they costed but they looked to involve a fair amount of work. £25? The Christmas tree chalet was solid and cost £15.
Branched out with a new event this year and sang happy birthday to Jesus before we started Christmas dinner.
Don't go a bundle on turkey as not favourite (although would not seem the same without it) food, so settled for a twenty pound job complete with interior oiling from Mr Sainsbury. Did very well on its giant cherry flavoured plate from the Hemingford side of the family. Two meals more or less did for it. A pie and soup to go with the now not so new stock pot on its first stockly outing.
Gravy good. Boiled up giblets with vegetables. Put cooked carrots and giblets less bones through the food mixer and put back in strained remainder. Stock then fairly thick, slightly gritty texture. I think the grittiness is down to the crop. The proceeded in a near normal way making the roux with corn flour. Most useful to tart up the mashed potato which we have with cold turkey on day 2. Who can make the biggest crater lake without getting wet turkey? I win, naturally.
Stuffing OK but not brilliant. Cooked outside the turkey and used dried thyme and marjoram having forgotten to check sage supplies and cooked in the rather deep loaf tin ordnarily used for seed cakes. Should have remembered the debugging rule which says do not make two changes at the same time.
Discovered that custard cream - one of the two accompaniments to Christmas pudding from the Canadian side of the family - is a cousin to brandy butter. Both starting with butter and suger, the former finishing with custard to give a soft sweet sauce, the latter with a small amount of brandy to give a hard sweet sauce, a bit crunchy. We are investigating whether the latter is improved by the addition of apperitif port.
Discovered that La Frogge tastes better out of small glasses than big ones. That is to say the first attempt after some modest amount of beer tasted rather odd. The second attempt when in slightly fresher condition went down rather better. Perhaps also because it provided an opportunity to show off the new glass cupboard which now contains three differant sizes of spirit glasses.
Third flight of last year's hot air balloon. The new launch stand and the hot air blower got the thing up fast enough but there was still the problem that however still the air seems, a balloon is going to drift. In this case coming down in the next door garden. Got it back OK but it has got some scorch holes from the air blower. Maybe the Thais in today's paper have got it right with a small light hanging under the canopy and you just let the thing go, rather than trying to tether and reuse.
Branched back on Boxing Day and resurrected the lego was a major occupation for around 10 years. The boys went for height with a sort of Technic Eiffel Tower while I went for a rather more sturdy tower built out of castle lego and standing on the pirate lego base. Have yet to reinstall the sharks in the dungeon.
First visit to the allotment for a few days and continued digging the broad bean patch for next year. Must get round to ordering the seed beans. Two deer present, one on the path to my allotment, one just across the fence in the school field. Chased the one on my side away, turned around a few minutes later and it had come back again. Or the one in the field had simply jumped the fence - which seems more likely although I would like to catch it doing it. But if the fence is jumpable, faffing about mending it is not going to do. So back to thinking about the rather major works needed to protect my fruit trees on a private basis. What a pain.
Maybe Friday will be bonfire day. It has been rather wet since I cut the willow down but maybe the wood has dried out for all that.
# posted by Jim @ 7:26 AM 
