Xmas 2010

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Merry Xmas! Cisco the Christmas cat says hello! He spent Xmas morning underneath the Xmas tree, guarding the presents.

I hope everyone had a lovely day, full of family, friends and fab food. We had our traditional Orphans’ Xmas, though it was an unofficial Orphans’ gathering this year since my parents are currently visiting. Here are some pics of our day!

I think we had more booze than food this year. There were A LOT of bottles hiding underneath all that ice… but we were all very restrained and had a pretty sober day. How grown up!

There was food too, of course. We had quite a few things for nibbles. I made a lamb pizza thingiemabob, with coriander (sorry Dany) and cumin and tomato.


I really wanted to not waste too much food this year, so just put out some dip and crudités.

Dany went retro this year. She made vol le vents.

As well as devils on horseback. We decided that sometimes classics are classics for a reason – because they’re GOOD.

Dany also made baked brie with spiced apricots WRAPPED IN PASTRY. Be still my heart (no, seriously, I think it hardened my arteries). 😉

There was a bit of tequila. Droolie was right into it.

We made bacon flavoured water. It was DISGUSTING. The tablets created a grey sludge on top of the water. Shudder.

After a rest, we ate proper food. Bro and I had spent the previous day shelling 3kg of prawns. This was the result.

I made a batch of aioli from The Cook’s Companion. I halved the recipe and cut down on the garlic – but there was still a huge amount of aioli plus it was pretty damn potent!

Dany always makes ham, and this year was no exception.

And I hot smoked some salmon cutlets. Shit pic, but they were damn good. I actually lined up at Conway Fish Trading for an hour to purchase these cutlets at 7AM on Christmas Eve. I should’ve just gone straight to Little Saigon market – there was hardly anyone there at 8AM. Next year I’ll know what to do!

I made a bowl of braised red cabbage with bacon and apples. There was also potato salad, courtesy of Dany and a token green salad.

Then it was time for another rest while we played with one of Alastair’s presents – a hydrogen powered car (courtesy of Pat). I must admit it was kinda cool, if you like stuff like that. :p

This is vacuum cat – our present to Dany. He really has nothing to do with anything, but isn’t he cute? He vacuums!

And then on to dessert. Dany brought along home made mini mince pies. (I don’t like fruit mince, but I’m sure they were good.)

Nigel and Xinyu made trifle. So. Much. Cream. It was awesome!

And I made apple and raspberry pies. I really liked the pastry, but the filling seemed a bit weird to me. I don’t think cinnamon and raspberry work particularly well together. I knew that already, but must have forgotten!

And – with all that, it was another Xmas over! We did very well food-wise. There were left overs, but we ate them all on Boxing Day, with the exception of a small amount of pastry (from the cheese) that I threw out.

Hopefully you also had a great Xmas and didn’t end up like Droolie here! What fabulous food did you feast upon?