So much food…so little time

4

December 29, 2012 by shelouliebaking

So as I sit here thinking about what I need to say about my foodie Christmas, I am literally full to bursting point of cheese, pate and homemade chutney (and maybe a few pringles and a bit of humus!!!).

We’ve had a lovely Christmas which for me, as usual, has revolved a lot around food. In the lead up to Christmas I was full of anticipation and busy scheduling time to make all the foodie gifts I needed to make as well as preparing the main meal itself. I even had an argument with my other half about not having a gammon joint this year or indeed cranberry sauce. You see, this year for the first time in eight years we spent most of Christmas day on our own and had Christmas lunch for two!! So I already knew that “all the trimmings” would need to be scaled back a little as there simply wasn’t the point for just two of us. But when he said he wasn’t fussed by a gammon joint, doesn’t like cranberry sauce and then finally didn’t want yule log I have to say I got a lot angry….. and almost stupidly decided to just cook any other normal old roast!!! But after my over reaction I calmed down and got on with organising my slightly simpler Crimbo meal….which I have to say was indeed lovely. So I hear you ask….what did the foodie do for a simpler Christmas meal???

Turkey crown based with orange juice, wine and chicken stock which was lovely and moist. Jamie Oliver’s roasted carrots, parsnips and potatoes with rosemary (no garlic because I forgot to buy it) and done in goose fat. Butcher’s chipolatas wrapped in smokey bacon, sprouts fried off with sesame seeds & smokey bacon (again sans garlic), mulled wine red cabbage and finally pork meat stuffing with apple and cranberries ….phew!!!! Oh and it was all topped off by my make ahead gravy…. It was all DELICIOUS if I do say so my self!

 

Enough of what I ate, and lets talk about what I made for others….

First off I made spiced pecans to jar up and give to my mum and my dad, and I enjoyed eating the spare ones that wouldn’t fit in to the jars. I scaled back the recipe a little as 1 lb of pecans is an awful lot! And maybe I got my quantities a bit out as they were still a little sticky so I roasted them off to dry and dry them out.

The pecans drying out before I jarred them up to give away.

Yummy low sugar Orange and Pecan biscuits

My dad and another friend of mine are diabetic so I decided to make them both some low sugar biscuits which were yummy, and I made them even more Christmasy by cutting them into Christmas tree shapes rather than circles. Find the recipe for low sugar orange and pecans biscuits here.

I also made some of the Hummingbird Bakery “snickerdoodle cookies” for a few other people where sugar content wasn’t an issue! My dad was also lucky enough to benefit from some of the olive bread sticks from Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake book.

All in all it has been a wonderful food filled Christmas and I feel as though there is so much food still to be eaten here, and there is so little time in which to eat it. Should it all be eaten by the New Year, is that when you start a health kick? Or does the health kick start once you finally finish the mountains of cheese and chocolate that we have?? There’s also still got to be time somewhere for a turkey curry….maybe that will be for dinner on New Years day when I can’t be bothered to make anything else!

Oh…I almost forgot to tell you that the Plum, ginger and chilli chutney is lovely. The consistency is a little loose but I love it and will certainly be making some more next year, only maybe I’ll add a little more chilli.

Lets round this bumper Christmas blog off with a New Year’s resolution….I WILL get around to completing another Bake Off application!!!

I wish you all a happy, fun-filled and prosperous 2013 xx