So that was Christmas

I've decided I'm no good at this blogging malarkey. Other food bloggers (ha, as if I can even call myself a food blogger) put full recipes with lots of information and tons of glossy mouth-watering photos. Whereas I tempt you with some talk about pheasants and then forget to take my camera to snap Jack dismembering them, and then of course, braise them in red wine without making a single note on how I did it and now it's so long I can't actually remember. I did learn the following: good knives are invaluable; pheasants are harder to pluck than skin because the skin tears so easily; it didn't smell very much and certainly wasn't gross. The pheasant went down very well with most of us - Number One Daughter is always more picky about meat so it was a stretch for her, but Number Two Daughter is a ravening beast when confronted with poultry so was very happy.

So on to Christmas. We had a full house so lots of cooking was done. Cashell's of Crickhowell provided my turkey which was a bronze "very very special turkey" from Copas at a very very special price...

Apparently they are raised in cherry orchards & grassy meadows and "each night at dusk, border collie 'turkey dogs' herd our Free Range Bronze turkeys into their sheds for overnight shelter and protection from local foxes." I should think there are humans who would quite fancy life like that. Anyway the turkey tasted delicious and was accompanied by roast potatoes, mashed parsnips with garlic and double cream (Joyce Molyneaux recipe from the Carved Angel, I think), brussels sprouts with chestnuts and pancetta (a Nigella recipe from Feast), oranges in vinagrette salad, carrots, bread sauce (Nigella again), cranberry sauce (and again) and a prune, chestnut and pear stuffing (meant to have liver in too but I forgot to get it, and it was lovely without - from my Encyclopedia of World Cookery by Elizabeth Campbell, Italy section).

Leftovers were eaten the following day after we climbed this: