My parents are appreciators of fine food. Which is probably why I am. My Mum is an amazing cook, and she and I (well, she mostly) prepared a Christmas feast. Actually, most of my holiday was spent eating.
Here is how we started Christmas day. Gone are the 5.00 am wake ups. I gave those up when I worked in retail - Christmas day was my only sleep in! I was up at around 8.00 am. A freshly laid duck egg in my Noddy eggcup (Dad's was in his Liverpool eggcup), cheesy toast and baked beans.
The day before Christmas Mum and I prepared some meat. This made it easier on Christmas day - less cooking. Mum basted a goose. I made stuffing, I heard the recipe on an American cooking podcast I download (The Splendid Table or KCRW Good Food - can't recall which one).
The ingredients were: sage and parsley from the garden
Snow peas and baby carrots
At night, we took my grandfather back to his house and went to our friends in Albury for another feast. There were two kangaroos on their property.
There was also cold turkey and ham, and berries and King Island cream for dessert.
I love this picture :)
It was a wonderful Christmas, spent with family and friends. Lots of laughs were had, and beautiful presents were given. Gift giving is my favourite part of Christmas, and I think my loved ones liked my gifts. I bought Mum some cute earrings - spun silver birds nest filled with pearl eggs and mother of pearl birds, and bought Dad a home brew voucher. Other presents I gave were handmade hairclips, a magnetic boyfriend, a stamp set, a book on macarons, a pocket mirror, nailpolish, a passport wallet, some resin bowls, fairy babushka dolls, a Sia CD, VW bookmarks, a cinema voucher, babushka doll measuring spoons, a games shop voucher, two earring trees, a luggage tag, a Lavalier ceramic brooch, a silver bird necklace and a scarf.
I have not yet unpacked my presents to photograph them - but I can give you a quick rundown of what I received: A travel voucher, some money, a Coles Myer voucher, a cheese slicer, some olive oil, a bracelet, a Mimco purse set and hairclips, a book on thrift, Heston Blumenthal DVD from the Not Quite Nigella blog, a Borders voucher (for birthday and Christmas), some home made shortbread, pyjama pants, coasters, a Christmas decoration and a notebook. Here are two gifts - the Mimco set and notebook. I was very spoilt - thank you to everyone who bought me something - I am so lucky! :)
On Boxing Day we carried out tradition of visiting friends on a milking farm in country Victoria and staying for lunch. We've been doing this since 1989 - when I met one of the girls in the Royal Children's Hospital. They have cows, sheep, horses and pigs.
When we returned, we went to my parent's neighbours for drinks.
The drink I have is peach schnapps, strawberry liquer, citrus vodka and ginger beer. My own impromptu invention. It was very nice.
The next day I caught up with an old school friend over morning tea. We spent a lovely morning, chatting, looking to bright futures, and shopping. She's going through a tough time but is really optimistic. And she's also on my list of really brainy people that I know - about to hand in her PhD! Good luck, R!
Dad had planned a cheese lunch - we ate Pyengana cheese and pickles. The cheese is from Tasmania, made in April. It is a sharp cheddar, hard and crumbly.
And of course, we ate food!
These are beautiful homemade shortbread biscuits that my manager gave to me. They have dried fruit in them. So yummy.
That's the bulk of the food eaten on my Christmas break. I have one more food related blog from the Christmas break to share - a review of my favourite cafe in Albury. Look out for it soon! We went to that cafe on Mum's birthday. Here is one of the other pictures from that special day.
I had such a nice holiday! Thanks Mum and Dad and the friends I saw :) There are few days until I return to work and in this time, I plan to tidy my room, sort my wardrobe, clean the fridge, spend some voucher, do some writing/plan article and see a movie. Can I fit it all in??
