Thursday, 23 December 2010

Christmastime is here (almost)

I love Christmastime. Usually, during this time of year, there is a lot of cheer and giving (not to mention receiving) but as I'm not with my family (my brother and sister have both flown back to Thailand, which was quite lucky as a lot of people have been stranded because of the heavy snow here in London.)

I am having an orphan's Christmas with Dan and his friend Simon down at the Ickburgh house. To go in theme, we have decided to be very frugal. 

I have managed to buy a quite sizable turkey for the 3 of us at £9.00 and wrapping it with steaky bacon under the turkey skin so it doesn't dry out, 2 packets of streaky bacon £2.00 and pork with crackling for £6.00 which I have pre cooked in a marmalade glaze that was already in my fridge.)

I find pork trickier to cook than turkey, but now it's all done - I can reheat 30 minutes before I bring the turkey out of the oven on Christmas day. The trick to reheating pork without drying it out is to let it sit in a bain marie in the oven.

I boiled the pork before I roasted it and I will use the pork stock to parboil the roast potatoes. The trick to getting crispy roast potatoes is to score it with a fork.

I am getting the boys to peel the potatoes and carrots, which will probably cost about £3.00 and I have bought pre cooked roast parsnips at £1.00 and I have asked them to get brussell sprouts which will be another £1.00.

I went to Waitrose and purchased some PAXO sage and onion stuffing (£0.40) that I will mix with some sausage meat and an apple to make the stuffing and some apple sauce (£0.60) for the pork as well as some cranberry sauce (£1.45).

I think we won't have Christmas pudding but I have bought an imitation sacher torte, which I think tastes wonderful and at £1.90 it's not bad at all for the price.

As for the drinking, well you can never be frugal with it, but I have asked the boys to take care of this side of things and will report back on how much was spent.

What is everyone else doing for Christmas?

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