Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

Generali

lostinrates wrote: »

There is no point trying to have a roast w/ trimmings in heat for Christmas lunch IMO. I remember it from childhood and it was awful. Mind you I am not sure barbecue Christmas were 'right ' either.

Gen, you would on the money, nice seasonal food where you are. There is no reason you couldn't make it symbolic if you chose to....

On onsies...my dogs were wearing them and you lot used to snigger at me. Hurumph. They are practical on dogs too. Dog dog however cannot wear hers since her leg breaks .she seems to find them uncomfortable. She used to hate coats with fastenings but now she is tolerating those.

An Xmas meal is meant to be a celebration. For me that means getting really nice ingredients and taking a little bit if time and effort to make then a little bit special. Opening a bottle of something decen rather than drinking '2 buck chuck' goon bags (slang for cheap wine: a goon bag is a box of wine, you can work out 2 buck chuck if you understand chuck = vomit).

It's funny how much 'winter food' we eat on hot days over here. Boeuf Bourgingon is great on a hot day for example. You can prep in in the cool of the morning and bung it in the slow cooker all day so it doesn't heat the house up. Lots of meals from hot parts of Europe are cooked slowly and so presumed to be for cold days in English culture.

When I was visiting last summer I had a bunch of mates over for lunch. Mum thought I was mad for doing chicken cacciatore (sp?) but it worked really well on a 30C day with some salad and then ice cream for afters.

Think about Indian food: not just rice and lentils of the really poor but the more middle class veggie curries. They're all stews really. As is a tagine.

It's funny the cultural baggage food is carried in. I wonder if North Africans think the Brits are mad for eating stews in winter when they should be cooking spicier stuff or grilled meat or something.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

An Xmas meal is meant to be a celebration. For me that means getting really nice ingredients and taking a little bit if time and effort to make then a little bit special. Opening a bottle of something decen rather than drinking '2 buck chuck' goon bags (slang for cheap wine: a goon bag is a box of wine, you can work out 2 buck chuck if you understand chuck = vomit).

It's funny how much 'winter food' we eat on hot days over here. Boeuf Bourgingon is great on a hot day for example. You can prep in in the cool of the morning and bung it in the slow cooker all day so it doesn't heat the house up. Lots of meals from hot parts of Europe are cooked slowly and so presumed to be for cold days in English culture.

When I was visiting last summer I had a bunch of mates over for lunch. Mum thought I was mad for doing chicken cacciatore (sp?) but it worked really well on a 30C day with some salad and then ice cream for afters.

Think about Indian food: not just rice and lentils of the really poor but the more middle class veggie curries. They're all stews really. As is a tagine.

It's funny the cultural baggage food is carried in. I wonder if North Africans think the Brits are mad for eating stews in winter when they should be cooking spicier stuff or grilled meat or something.

DH says your spelling is correct. Its a masculine singular.

I tend to think the Chinese, from the very small amount I have read, have it right.....you eat stuff that makes you feel cool when you are too hot and stuff that makes you feel warm when you are too cold.

For me long slow cooking is more desirable when my house is cold than when my kitchen is warm......but spice flavours the smaller amount one wants to eat in the heat.

In fact, I used to go days and days just making jugs of gazpacho and drinking that.

I agree....celebration food. Time, but I also like theme or relevancy or representation in a sort of childishly pedantic way.

I'm trying to learn not to over provide. Over provision is I think, almost as offensive as under provision. I think over facing people with stuff is both wasteful if it cannot be frozen and sort of stomach churning.

Because I am sort of late generation of a maternal family that didn't miss the war but missed the British experience there has been a sort of Victorian over abundance in our tables for guests and I feel......wrong not giving bountiful choice but it leans to vulgarity at times. I 'd like to be able to make a simple menu and feel confident it would be acceptable and enough. . I do feel I am getting better. On the old style boards many did multiple joints for Christmas and I just found myself thinking.....why? We have done two birds in previous Christmases, but....wouldn't do it now, not unless numbers forced it, and then I'd not do what mother did of turkey and goose, but two geese. Or if numbers were too immense, turkeys.

tomterm8

I'm pretty sure that if I was in oz I'd be doing a barbecue christmas on the beach, with a bucket of ice-cooled wine.


:Goes to google:
: Taps in onesie:
:Giggles:

lostinrates

Today on my meal plan for the week is hortobagyi pancakes but I think we've hit an eating wall. The tiddler goose has just a few cold cuts left, there is cheese, and smoked salmon, we made khachapuri last night....I think there is ample for a plate.


I'm hoping to get time to bake a cake for a friend too after whipping big dog for her check up. Weather is vile again.

tomterm8

I've never eaten hortobagyi pancakes, but they look nice from the description in wikipedia.

I think we'll be eating something salad like today, something easy with cold cuts of pork or meat.

Edit: normally would be going round to relatives but have had a stinking cold for the last two weeks, and don't want to give it to anyone else.

Generali

tomterm8 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that if I was in oz I'd be doing a barbecue christmas on the beach, with a bucket of ice-cooled wine.


:Goes to google:
: Taps in onesie:
:Giggles:

Most homes have a gas barbie like this:



You can turn that into an oven with a little practice.

At many beaches and parks there'll be a BBQ like this:



They're normally free (they might cost a dollar or two in a National Park). Take a bunch of steaks & sausages, a bowl of salad and some bread rolls in one cool box. A load of soft drinks and some beers in another. Finally a pavlova with fruit and cream for pudding. Eat off paper plates and drink out of plastic cups so that can all go in the bin. Perfect.

TBH, that sort of thing would be my choice. For my kid's end of season soccer BBQ we did exactly that. Then we got out a ball and played dads vs kids for an hour or so. Dads won by a single last-minute goal. We look forward to taking on the under-9s next year to defend our cup.

John_Pierpoint

PasturesNew wrote: »

I got 47%. The trouble with these things is they give you questions to answer that aren't part of your life..... so you have to pick something.

65% so less posh than Pastures - or perhaps just male?

I too had to interpret some questions such as "wombling" for supermarket points - never none it but done something similar with petrol receipts.

It is sad to say that some branding really does work - research shows that if you switch the packs contents contents of drugs (eg pain killers), perfumes, some drinks and some foods - the stuff out of the premium packaging tastes better.
So perhaps you are doing your guests a favour by making the Xmas food taste better even though it came from Aldi ?

Tahlullah

Generali wrote: »

At many beaches and parks there'll be a BBQ like this:



They're normally free (they might cost a dollar or two in a National Park). Take a bunch of steaks & sausages, a bowl of salad and some bread rolls in one cool box. A load of soft drinks and some beers in another. Finally a pavlova with fruit and cream for pudding. Eat off paper plates and drink out of plastic cups so that can all go in the bin. Perfect.

.

Wow, what a fantastic place to live. Where the Authorities have the foresight to provide free facilities which allow people to come together and share, food, sun and fun.

Just jealous to be honest.

Yorkie1

A belated Merry Christmas, Boxing Day, and day after Boxing Day to all NPs

Just caught up with quite a few pages of posts :eek:

Glad your dog is through the op OK, lir :T

Pleased you survived, PN :beer:

Hope your back is better now Sue

Parents left this morning to drive back down the A1(M) to Herts; it's windy here so hope their journey will be OK.

We had roast beef on Christmas Day as usual. Everything got cooked (and we didn't forget to serve anything!).

I've found that it's really hard to time everything so it cooks at the same time, AND also incorporate eating the starters into the timing when you're working towards the main course being ready and there's lots of final preparation to pull together. How do people do it?! :wall:

Anyway, as it's only once a year and I've just seen the range of seasonal smillies, here is the full suite until this time next year!!

:santa2::rudolf::xmassmile:xmastree::xmassign: :snow_laug :snow_grin

Generali

Tahlullah wrote: »

Wow, what a fantastic place to live. Where the Authorities have the foresight to provide free facilities which allow people to come together and share, food, sun and fun.

Just jealous to be honest.

It is a great idea and very simple. A couple of heated metal plates under some shade. It prevents people from taking their own BBQs when there's a fire ban on.