Christmas Day 2010

We didn’t have a white Christmas in London but it was certainly cold enough! Today was to be all about food and family, from a distance via skype!!!

 Breakfast saw us eating croissants with Scottish smoked Salmon and brie from Normandy washed down with Yorkshire tea. It was delicious. Throughout the day we snacked on the chocolate covered fruit and nuts we’d bought at Whiteleys and a selection of fig, date and apricot delights. We chatted to the family via the internet which was interesting, as they were at the other end of their Christmas celebrations! We even worked out how to link up and have a three way conversation on skype so at one stage we were able to talk to Holly at her place Kate from across the road at our home and us in London, my goodness I am becoming so good at this stuff!!!!!

Our Christmas breakfast table

Smoked Scottish salmon and brie from Normandy

Chocolate covered fruit and nuts

dates, apricots and figs.

We decided to forgo lunch as our breakfast was sufficient to carry us through to tea.  We spent a lazy day looking over some of the booklets we’ve bought and getting organised for our trip to Paris on the 27^th.

Michael and Elaine Christmas in our London apartment, was a quiet affair.

the traditional chocolate coins.

There is a good little oven in our room and we were able to prepare a very nice Christmas dinner that consisted of a small Pork crackling joint basted with Pork stock; Parmentier potatoes tumbled in shallot and garlic butter; Christmas root vegies: carrot, onion, parsnip and swede and gravy made from poultry stock flavoured with Oloroso Sherry and Deglet Nour dates. It was very successful, the crackling was a little tough but that’s nothing new for me!! All of this was in prepared packs, we only had to add oil to the root vegies, I didn’t have any so substituted melted margarine, it worked well.

the vegies, ready for the oven

Our christmas dinner

Desert was a scrumptious Christmas pudding with a mix of plump vine fruits, juicy glacé cherries and walnuts laced with brandy, rum and port served with Marks and Spencer thick and creamy custard, made with (quoting from the pack here) luxuriously creamy Channel Island milk and Madagascan vanilla, it was the richest pudding and creamiest custard ever! We topped it with some raspberries to add some Christmas colour.

served with the creamiest custard our pudding was sensational.