Sunday

Good morning.  Happy day before the day before the day before Christmas!

Yesterday turned out to be a very busy morning, a nice easy afternoon and a lovely evening.

I was so glad I went shopping early.  As planned, I went at six thirty; there were a few other hardy souls around and no stacks of stuff waiting to go on shelves.  By the time I was at the checkout, it was starting to fill up so I felt a bit smug.
I managed to get everything on my list except for mushroom pate which I couldn't see anywhere.  I like to have plenty of things that Beth can have, you see, and I know she likes mushroom pate.  No problem though, I remembered that I have a very simple recipe for the thermomix so I made sure I added a box of chestnut mushrooms to the pile of things in the trolley.

Basically, you zizz up some bread and onion into crumbs and set aside.  Melt some butter, zizz up some mushrooms and cook them in the butter, then add the onion and breadcrumbs and set aside for fifteen minutes.  Then add some soft cheese, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic granules, salt and pepper, spoon into a container and chill.  I filled a mini kilner jar plus a small ramekin and the contents of the jar totally disappeared during the evening.  I kept the other back for another day.

When I got home, I managed to find room for everything somewhere or other.  OK, there's a stack of boxes in a corner in the kitchen but they'll go soon enough.
Then I got going with things for the family evening.
I had previously bought a gammon ham - not a big piece but enough for more than one occasion so what I did was cut it in half and cooked one half for the evening, sliced some and popped it in the fridge.
And forgot to get it out!  Guess what's on the menu today.
The other half can be cooked on Christmas Eve or, if not, it can go in the freezer for another time.  The boiling water was really nice, not too salty and with a good hammy flavour, so today I will use it to make some soup.  Ham and lentil, ham and pea, mixed bean and veg . . . lots of options.

While that was boiling away, I made the mushroom pate as above, dead easy, put the sausages in to cook and mixed up a glaze, putting the two together and finishing them off just before they were needed.  The glaze was honey, mustard and other bits and bobs and it was nice.

On Friday I had served a bit of my cranberry sauce with the bread and cheese Val and I had and, while it was nice, I felt there was something a bit lacking.  So I popped it back in a pan, added a bit more sugar and boiled it up and then added some orange oil which improved the flavour out of all recognition.  Much better.

I got out plates, cutlery, etc, etc, etc, all of which made life a lot easier later on.  The rest of the morning was spent happily wrapping a few pressies and writing a few cards and in the afternoon I had a snooze.

It was a lovely evening!  I am so lucky to have both of my offspring living nearby.
I meant to take a photo of the table but forgot.
We ate and drank way too much and then Dave, Anna, Beth and Al played board games while I read and generally relaxed.
The Christmas cake was cut and was delicious.  I'm glad; I had visions of it being either under or over cooked and you can't tell until you cut it, can you.
And I love my dishwasher!

Today there's nothing scheduled so I will make the most of it and be lazy because the next four or five days will be quite busy one way or another.  There's a few things that disappeared during the evening that I need to replace but generally I reckon if we don't have it, it's not the end of the world and we certainly won't starve!

Today's music is a beautiful carol, sung angelically by Libera.  What a voice that young soloist has!  I rather like their performance robes too - all they need is some wings and a halo each.