elegentry

to all my LJ friends, whether I know you are reading or not.

I have had a very pleasant day. Nicely social, excellent food, met kittens, cooked, chatted, walked, knitted, ate, drank, exchanged gifts. All good. doushkasmum  made the best chicken stuffing I have ever eaten. sacred_chao 's Mum made fabulous frozen chrissie pudding.   Tired now.

Hope your day was at least as nice as mine.

I had a fabulous christmas day. No family involved other than over the phone, that part both sad and less stressful.

Started with a lovely breakfast with J and D, out on their back deck in the almost warm enough weather.
-spiced plums with spiced yoghurt and Christmas muesli-all home made.
-french toast made from panetone cake with berry sauce.    YUM
the drive over was fantastically quiet, best ever I think. The drive back only slightly less so, I waited until about 1:30 so anyone who was going to lunch already had.

Then I cooked for about 4hrs, around a long phonecall to the folks including my grampop and a 20min much needed powernap.

All good fun. J and D arrived bearing ham which D proceeded to glaze. We laid the table which looked spiffy, ironed godmother tablecloth and all. Even a centrepiece. The rest of the guests arrived and eight of us sat down to:
-Champagne
-Trio of seafood entrees:
classic prawn cocktail, blini with soucream and caviar, smoked salmon rolls with herbed cream cheese
-Main:
Baked, glazed ham
Scalloped potatoes
Corn pudding (glorious, contributed by the lovley S)
steamed sparrow's grass
tomato salad with basil and balsamic
orange salad with mint and mustard
-Dessert
pavlova. filled with strawberry cream and topped with raspberries and blueberries. Well received as always. It always was by me as a child which is why I keep making it.
I remembered all ingredients and didn't add anything horrid unintentionally (see previous post) but the poor thing got twice baked! The recipe is to cool it in the oven and I had forgotten to take it out before D turned on the oven for the ham!
-black sherry for the grown ups. There was much amusement after I thought to offer little R blackcurrent cordial in a sherry glass so she could join in. That was a real hit. I lost count of how many times she demanded we refill her glass.

We had great crackers with superior paper hats - shiny gold ones, definitely a cut above the usual pastels.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Thanks to all who came and made it worth doing. Now I need to lever myself up to go deal with the rest of the dishes. Not as bad as it would have been thought if the lovely G had not done two loads between courses! Thanks again.