yes i'd never recommend one it all just tasted weird and sort of greasy but dry not like a delicious succulent turkey

christmas in oz is just a different experience!! going to the beach etc. at a relative one year they served NO BREAD SAUCE OR GRAVY *faints* and not only that but a whole boiled cauliflower with NO CHEESE SAUCE i don't know what shit they were trying to pull but i wasn't falling for it. I ended up doing a christmas dinner at easter to make up for it

A whole boiled cauliflower with no cheese sauce?? Such philistines!! No gravy?? And no bread sauce....well that's not a Christmas dinner. The bread sauce is an integral part of the proceedings. As is the stuffing. My mother made the most divine stuffing ever....the day before Christmas eve she would get me and my Granddad to grate up blocks of stale bread she'd saved into crumbs, then on Christmas eve she would be chopping up proper suet, parsley, the lemon zest, with egg and milk and this would make dozens of stuffing balls and the filling for the bird. I tried to reproduce this but never got it quite as she did, possibly due to using Atora and not having the same sort of heavy white bread. Those balls would be crisp and fragrant, fluffy inside and crunchy out, citrussy and herby and the perfect accompaniment to the turkey and other trimmings!


Excuse this stuffing eulogy...Oh the memories

I knew you'd understand the horrific nature of these traumatising flashbacks

Awh i love your mum's stuffing memories. It's memories like that that are so priceless. I had one of those moments of awareness this christmas when my mum and i were mincing the left over turkey for the rissoles. I was totally aware of the ephemeral nature of things like this.

We never had much money but my mum would always make christmas a lovely occasion. I think it's why all the whiners annoy me so much. A hundred times the money and minus a hundred times the effort and the will to make other people happy. grrr!!!

can i get you some tea and christmas cake? i need to get ready for Sherlock

You sit down, I'll make us a tray and bring the cake in Just waiting for Sherlock myself! Indeed, the memories I have of how Christmas was back then, and the small amounts of things that were bought in real terms....a small box of Quality Street and a quarter of chocolate gingers, and the jellied orange and lemon slices. It was the only time we ever had a fruit bowl. The turkey would be chosen at the farm by Dad and I and he would fetch it back in a cardboard box a couple of days before Christmas, and it lay in state on the floor of the larder covered in damp tea towels. To me it seemed like a period of incredible extravagance yet in real terms we had so little compared with now.

ooo lovely i've been looking forward to this!!!

*passes chocolate orange*

Nicely caught us up with events

SIX Thatchers????? One was more than enough

*rocks* the horror the horrror

Just seen the horrible bust of one of them

some kind of nightmare porn

Sherlock's in his usual blazing form Thatcher's in pieces!!

I love watching the Thatchers being smashed!! BWA HAAA!

It was arctic, albeit the Arctic on a spring day. It was just under 11 degrees C. But I put the storage heaters on high during the evening "boost" and busied my self unpacking and such like. Then got into bed with an electric blanket and watched TV on my laptop for a bit.

Of course I got the stock pot on when I got back too. It all adds to the heat! I only did the body part so I stil have the legs and wings to look forward to later in the month. This morning the stock had cooled and I was able to pull another 4 ounces of meat from between the ribs and so forth. It is only suitable for soup but that will be lovely for lunches this week.

The value is superb. We paid £14 for an Aldi frozen turkey weighing 6.1 kilos. We had 8 proper dinners from it. At least 8 turkey sandwich lunches. 3 portions of fricasse and one baked potato filling. We have already eaten 8 portions of soup from the cooking liquer. This batch of stock will make 4 portions of very hearty soup and I expect I will get another 4 from the wings and legs although maybe not so chunky. So it has worked out at about 38 pence per meal (excluding veg and a few incidentals added)

Crikey! When you break it down like that I can see how cheap it really is. I've realised the small local butchers will be shut today in lieu of yesterday so will wait til tomorrow to look for turkey bits. Just as well as taking down all the decs is wearing me out, I seem to have very little energy after this bug

It's the most glorious, if cold, day here....bright blue clear skies, winter sun and barely a breath of wind. Beautiful

Don't over do it Twass. You are barely off your sick bed. Although a 9 hour sleep over new year will have no doubt helped aid your recovery. The Jews swear by chicken soup as a restorative and I don't see why turkey would be any the less life giving.

I have turned today's stock into a variation of cock-a leekie. Obviously using turkey instead of chicken, lots of leeks and dates instead of prunes. It was very tasty. Hoping a soup diet this week will chase away some of the Christmas poundage. Although my bulk buy of mice pies and cut price stollen won't help that mission.

Mice pies

All the decs are down, packed, cupboard tetris has been played, it's all back out of sight and I've dusted and hoovered. Worn out so will now rest for the duration. But tis done I could do with some turkey broth!! What there is is toast, an elderly avocado and similarly elderly tomato that want consuming.

Legacy from the beginnings of this thread Twass. I can't remember the reason now, maybe a spelling mistake, but for some reason even now we are in part 3 I still feel the need to call mince pies, mice pies in this thread. Planets will get it.

Avocado on toast with a grind of black pepper and salt is lovely, one of my favourites and avocado is very nutricious. However you are welcome to have some of my turk-a-leekie.

*holds bowl out eagerly* I had avo on toast with a squeeze of lemon juice and black pepper, I find I don't need the salt. It was lovely and I have the other half avo for tomorrow's toast topper!

I'm yearning for sprouts again so have found a salmon and spinach pastry thing in the freezer I can have with sprouts and jacket spud later Tomorrow I will go and trawl the butchers til I come up trumps. I hope they've not all turned the excess legs into turkey mince!

Afternoon lovely Sillies!!

I've brought some delicious mice pies especially in honour of An returning home. Hope you've warmed up An!

Twass hope you haven't over done it? *looks stern*

probably time for tea and christmas cake mustn't slack off on the meds in case you have a relapse

*puts kettle on*

Afternoon planets! I've spent the afternoon on the sofa wearing two fleeces and under the slanket, with the fire crackling away. I was pooped after my labours but fine now and the cough and nose blowing is disappearing nicely!

Still, best to keep the meds up, eh....*holds plate out*

Oh in that case i'd better double your dosage to make sure....

*brings tray of tea, christmas cake, delicious almond clouds and half a chocolate orange*

now i want that plate cleaned

i'm in the mood for some sort of lovely film there's bugger all on telly gonna have to search through my dvd library

I've not looked for telly progs yet, but it doesn't surprise me to hear there's nowt on. Did you enjoy Sherlock yesterday?

*rapidly cleans plate* My appetite has also returned!

I sort of did and didn't!

I like the show a lot but some of the gaping holes irritated me (why would 6 statues of thatcher be cast in Trebilisi 6 years ago? as a plot convenience? also they were cheap plaster no one would keep names and addresses of buyers of cheap plaster tat). When i let them go and just accepted that Mary was in fact Superman and could move faster than a speeding bullet i felt better

I liked the balloon Watson I liked the first part but i'm not convinced by Mary as a superspy, so it all fell down a bit when relying on me accepting that premise. However i did like how she and Sherlock banter and play so i was magnanimous and let it go

how about you?

well done! turkey rissoles and bread sauce for you later

p.s. i love rupert graves as greg lestrade

I have been entertained all afternoon by Monkey Life back to back. Its my favourite TV at present. Can I tempt anyone to a drop of Ameretto?