Smart Feeder - Light sensor values

[Christian]

Yes, I was moving it to a thread of it's own to allow for searches in future. You were too quick to reply Poet!

 

Walnut pate en croute can be found here

[Patricia W]

I brined the turkey a al Nigella a couple of years ago. It was good, if a bit of a faff so not sure I'd bother again. That was the year I cooked the ham in Cola as well. Again, not sure it was worth it - it was a very funny colour on the outside!

[Christian]

Try the ham in Cherry coke. Mmmmmm

[bluekarin]

We will be having the traditional turkey and all the trimmings again this year. I do like it, as do I love the cold turkey sarnies with cranberry sauce for a few days after I didn't even think of looking in M&S for a turkey, so I shall pop in there later this week. Hopefully they'll have one or two left.

[Cinnamon]

When we did have turkey (as it was traditional & we just sort of stuck with it ),it was always an M&S one

[Seagazer]

I actually quite prefer our usual Boxing Day meal of cold turkey and ham with mashed potato, salads, pickles and mushy peas to the big meal on Christmas Day. It was something I had at my aunt's one year and I insist on it every year - I even got some of the kids into eating it. My husband always went but last year he actually tried some of the mushy peas.

 

The only other time I have mushy peas is when I have fish and chips at the Pilot Inn in Dungeness

[Cinnamon]

I love the Boxing Day meal too,but have Baked Beans instead of mushy peas

There is something about the combination of mash,Branston Pickle & Heinz Baked Beans that really does it for me

[majorbloodnock]

When we did have turkey (as it was traditional & we just sort of stuck with it ).....

That's something I've never been able to understand. It wasn't until the early 20th Century that turkey became the predominant roast for Christmas Dinner, yet I hear so many people saying their choice is because of tradition rather than their taste buds.

 

Please don't get me wrong; I'm not criticising or trying to suggest people should give up eating turkey. Nor am I a Christmas Dinner s"Ooops, word censored!". It's just Cinnamon's post reminded me of several discussions from recent years where colleagues have openly questioned my lack of traditionalism in not cooking something that, in fact, has little tradition behind it.

[Griffin]

We're at home for the first Christmas in goodness knows how many years and with no visiting family WOOHOOOOOO! We are undecided about the meat at the moment. It might be a three bird roast or it might be a stuffed turkey crown.

 

Last months Good Food magazine was invaluable. It's inspired much of our meal We're starting off with mushroom butter on toast. The meat will be accompanied by sausagemeat & cranberry stuffing, sprouts with chestnuts & pancetta, swede & parsnip bake, pigs in blankets, our own body weight in roasties, my yorkshire puddings (mine because they rise better than his!) and real gravy. I doubt there'll be much room left for Christmas pudding I'll make a massive Tiramisu to eat after our tea

[Christian]

Turkey and stuffing sandwiches with plenty of healthy salt is my favourite food at Christmas.

[chickencam]

We are having a free range bronze turkey with all the trimmings. We don't usually have a starter, I like to keep room for several different stuffings usually from M&S, bread sauce etc etc. We will finish with a Hrrod's Christmas Pud left over from a hamper last year (it is dated sept 2012 )

 

We will probably eat quite late then just pick at leftovers about 10pm.

[Mrs Webmuppet]

The jury is still out in the Webmuppet household..............I think it might come down to what I can get at the Supermarket ..............I am away at Dads for a few days just before Christmas and will have to drag myself off to the supermarket on my return.

 

LMW wants turkey, Mr W wants chicken and a ham...........plus we have a guest this year so I will have to put in a little bit of extra effort.The elderly lady next door's husband died earlier this year so all the neighbours have drawn up a plan so that she does not spend Christmas time alone......so it's Christmas dinner with us and then over the road for her Christmas tea

[Seagazer]

That's nice Mrs Webmuppet. We did that the year a friend from down the road lost her remaining parent. Her and her son came to dinner on Christmas Day. I hope we cheered her up, probably drove her mad.

[Couperwife]

The elderly lady next door's husband died earlier this year so all the neighbours have drawn up a plan so that she does not spend Christmas time alone......so it's Christmas dinner with us and then over the road for her Christmas tea

 

oh, what a lovely idea, what lovely neighbours you are

 

im sure she will be thrilled with whatever you put infront of her

 

cathy

x

[Griffin]

Tis all agreed now I bought a small turkey today which I've frozen and I'm going to Sainsburys to order their three bird roast. It's duck, turkey and guinea fowl stuffed with pork, cranberries, apricots, black cherries, calvados & sherry YUMMY!

[C&T]

The elderly lady next door's husband died earlier this year so all the neighbours have drawn up a plan so that she does not spend Christmas time alone......so it's Christmas dinner with us and then over the road for her Christmas tea

 

Now that is the essence of Christmas!! What a lovely bunch of neighbours!

 

We have Turkey and all the trimmings. Love it. Followed by Christmas Pudding, Mince Pies and Cheeses. And also love the cold meat and all the salads the next few days - but has to be a Jacket Potato, not mash.....

 

We don't actualy have Turkey that often the rest of the year, so it is still special to us - although agree as it becomes more and more readily available, it becomes less special, so understand why people go for other things.

[poachedegg]

We're having turkey too We will have a starter, however we like to have large gaps in courses so we can play table/parlour games or the children can go and do something on their own for a bit - our Christmas lunch lasts about 10 hours!

[The Dogmother]

I'm nearly all set - 10 for Christmas Day as usual. I have been over to see a friend and despatched, gutted, etc and frozen my christmas lunch chook

 

Starter: Warm salad of pan fried wild pigeon breasts in a red wine and shallot jus, on a rocket salad

Main: Roast chicken

Roast potatoes

Yorkshire puds (everyone likes them with everything!)

Roasted parsnips with parmesan

Carrots in butter and ginger

Homegrown peas (from frozen)

Orange and cinnamon stuffing balls

Free range pork chipolatas roasted in honey

Dessert: not given this a lot of thought yet; I usually do a boozy pavlova with the fruit from making blackberry/raspberry vodka, topped up with fresh cream and lots of fresh fruit. My dad loves home made lemon meringue pie, so will do one of those... need to think of a diabetic pud for Phil's mum, so any suggestions are welcome.

 

I shall need a lie down after doing all that!

[ClaireG]

As long as Phil's Mum doesn't go crazy with the boozy pavlova she should be fine Claret.

 

We're at my parents this year and will be having smoked salmon on bread with champagne or bucks fizz, turkey and all the trimmings and then either christmas pud or a chocolate cheesecake/torte that im making with boozy sauce (raspberry coulis with gin) and then cheese.

[Cinnamon]

Blimey,you lot can really put it away can't you?

 

We don't have a starter,& we generally skip the Christmas Pudding until much later in the day,as we are too full

[Guest]

i've got some organic bacon and organic sausages to make my own angels/devils on whatsits!? I'll use some of it too to make my own stuffing and some of the bacon to go with our homegrown sprouts for a side dish with some chestnuts.

 

I've bought pre made bread sauce because when I looked at the recipe i would have had to buy in spices and things I'd probably not use again til next year so didn't seem worth it.

 

I'm going to do as much prep as I can the day before, make stuffing and wrap sausages etc.

 

I've kept and frozen the fat off the last chicken stock I made, i believe it's called schmaltz? and it will make the roast potatoes sing

 

This is only the 2nd time I've cooked Christmas dinner myself, we always used to alternate btwn parents but since dad died, mum goes off with aunt and unc over to the cousins and ian's folks have too much of a houseful and his sister has a big lolloping spaniel that keeps tryingt o get fresh with moll so we prefer to have a quiet lunch now, just us and Moll.

 

I'm just hoping I can get everything to be ready at the same time and nothing goes cold, particularly the veg. I only have a small oven so it's going to take some careful planning

[Lesley]

Be careful with some bought bread sauce - I was very surprised to see that Colmans has egg in it Co-op's own doesn't have any egg.

 

It's my sister's turn this year so all I have to do is an alternative pudding..........and it's going to be Sticky Toffee Pudding with lots of toffee sauce! We won't get round to eating it until later in the afternoon as we'll be too stuffed.

[Guest]

Be careful with some bought bread sauce - I was very surprised to see that Colmans has egg in it Co-op's own doesn't have any egg.

 

.

 

it's this one which doesn't have egg in http://www.schwartz.co.uk/productdetail.cfm?ID=5082

 

but to be honest, i never thought to check as the recipes i'd looked at didn't include egg. the things egg appears in is surprising sometimes innit

[sage]

We have at 2pm

Capon

Pigs in blankets

Stuffing

Roast potatoes

Roast parsnips

Yorkshires

Carrots

Peas

Sprouts

Lots of gravy.

All washed down with a bottle of red.

 

We usually have pudding for T at 7-8pm. This year its Hubbys turn to choose so it will be bakewell tart with vanilla icecream.

 

Boxing day we used to go to the coast for a long walk and put the meat left from xmas day in a curry but since having little Zoe we have her both lots of parents round so this year hot roast pork sarnies with apple sauce & stuffing.

 

Sage

[Lesley]

Be careful with some bought bread sauce - I was very surprised to see that Colmans has egg in it Co-op's own doesn't have any egg.

 

.

 

it's this one which doesn't have egg in http://www.schwartz.co.uk/productdetail.cfm?ID=5082

 

but to be honest, i never thought to check as the recipes i'd looked at didn't include egg. the things egg appears in is surprising sometimes innit

 

Same here - I usually make my own and bread sauce doesn't have any egg in it - we found out the hard way...... looked at the packet after we'd bought it.