Monday, 26 December 2011

Christmas Dinner and Angels.

.
Thank you all for your Seasonal good wishes and lovely comments (and ‘reacties‘) on last weeks blog. You are all very kind. Many times this year, I have often thought the comments to be more interesting than my posting!
At the moment, the weather here is very mild for the time of the year and yesterday morning, as I looked out up a very sad, drab and colourless garden, I noticed my Christmas dinner approaching to pick up the seeds I had put out as bait.
Three Red Legged Partridge…….but sadly, no Pear Tree!
.

.
Only joking. I couldn't eat such lovely wild birds.

It’s turkey for me as usual.

By now you will have all had your ’fill’ of Christmas cheer. I certainly felt full to bursting at three o’clock yesterday. Everything was just too good to leave.
  
For many years now I have shared Christmas Day with a very good friend. Not only do we share company, but also the cooking. I cook the turkey here at my place and she does all the vegetables and trimmings. I load the hot cooked turkey into the car and drive the 163 miles over to her house.

No, no! I joke about the miles. It’s a five minute trip.
This scheme works well. Using two ovens is so much easier to get things right.

Get ready!
.

.
Get steady!
.

.
Go!

It doesn’t get cold and is in fact ideal, because I read the other day:-

“Do let the turkey rest. It’s a crucial part of the cooking time, so never, ever, carve a turkey straight out of the oven. It needs at least half an hour covered in foil and sitting on the side, (valuable time in which to make the gravy and finish the vegetables).” 

It arrived safely and a smashing meal was enjoyed by all.

The jokes in the crackers were unusually good this year.
I saved mine and thought I’d share it with you…… 

-+-

When four of Father Christmas’s Elves fell sick, the trainee Elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.
The Elf 'n Safety directives from the eu, were also causing extra expense and long delays.
Then Mrs Claus told Santa that her Mother was coming to visit, and that stressed Santa even more.
Later that evening, when he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.
Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the sacks fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.
Frustrated, Father Christmas went in the house for a glass or two of mulled cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the Elves had drunk all the cider and taken the only bottle of rum. 
In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor.
He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the bristles off the end of the broom.
Just then the doorbell rang, and an very irritated Santa crunched his way to the front door, yanked it open, and there stood a sweet little angel with a great big Christmas tree.
The little angel said very cheerfully, 
“Merry Christmas, Santa“. 
“Isn’t this a lovely day?” 
“I have a beautiful tree here for you – 
where would you like me to stick it?”
.


.
And so started the age old tradition of putting......
.... an Angel on top of the Christmas Tree!


Poor old Wes, for the first time ever, on Christmas Day, he had been on his own.
Well, as I'd brought back home the turkey remains to make soup, I carved off a big plateful for him. That cheered him up no end and as I settled down with a big glass of Green Ginger Wine, he curled up on my feet to sleep it off.
(The turkey that is. Not the Ginger Wine!)
.

.
Wired up for "Carols from Kings".
.






15 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed the festivities Uncle B. I suspect we will be treated to a few more cracker jokes throughout the year :-D

    All the best to you and Wes xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good afternoon Bernard....Lol!! I understand the story completly I think...now i know where the expression "you can stick it up your" .....is coming from....Glad you had a good time and did a great job on the turkey...that looks delicious!!...can amagine that Wesley enjoyed that too...but i guess he slept through "The Carols from Kings"....fijne tweede Kerstdag avond...doe rustig aan en groetjes Francien.

    ReplyDelete
  3. At last, all is clear now about the Christmas fairy on top of the tree, I've often wondered why she chose somewhere so uncomfortable.

    Wesley looks proper stuffed, knowing a cat's ability to sleep around the clock, I bet he wasn't too lonely while you were out enjoying dinner.

    By gum, your turkey did look nice, we had pork and chicken for a change but I think I'll do turkey for New Years Day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bernard your Christmas sounded great, ours was nice too. I love the picture of Wes curled up on your slippers. Happpy New Year to both of you x

    ReplyDelete
  5. How lovely that you have someone to share Christmas with (human I mean)lol and love the cracker joke,I look forward to many more,the season has passed as quickly as it came,I hope the new year is as enjoyable for you..

    ReplyDelete
  6. The turkey was picture perfect and I'm sure quite tasty. Glad to know you and your friend had such a lovely day complete with crackers. Dear Weasley---I do love him so from afar. Our cats are also partial to slippers for pillows. Do have a Happy 2012 and please keep blogging.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a lovely picture of Wesley,replete, warm, comfortable and his slave back to look after him. It seems an ideal solution to have two cooks on Christmas Day, which makes lighter work and doesn't spoil the broth - perhaps it's something other families might try.
    Your cracker must have been e-n-o-r-m-o-u-s to have such a long joke in it - whatever was the gift inside it???? I can imagine Wes struggling to find somewhere to hide it; now there's an idea for a cartoon!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lol Wes looks really comfy there, bless.
    What a lovely idea to share the cooking like that between you and your friend Bernard, you did have me going there for a minute......163 miles lol, I was thinking that the turkey would be well rested after that journey, lovely photographs.
    Wishing you a vey happy new year once it arrives Bernard.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your day sounds just perfect and from the looks of Wes he was quite content too :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your day sounded great Bernard. We've eaten far too much over the last few days and gaied weight but the New Year means more parties and food !! Will it never end?
    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  11. Is that bacon on top of the turkey? I've never seen that before, we just use butter and baste a lot. I bet bacon would make the skin really tasty. This blog is better than the cooking channel.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Kath,
    I’ve actually a WP file devoted to old jokes. Long jokes, short jokes and cracker jokes. :o
    Sadly - no good jokes! :

    ‘afternoon Francien,
    I’m glad you got the joke. It must be difficult to translate some of our jokes into other languages. Sometimes the humour is lost in the translation.
    Do you remember - “Oompah! Oompah! Stick it up your jumper!” from the 1950’s?
    Those were the days! LOL

    Hi Julie,
    I’m glad to hear that you found that tale enlightening. Yes, Wes is bit of a glutton.
    He has a habit of thinking every meal is his last for the day, and fills himself up.
    He has never heard of ‘a little and often’. Turk was Sainsbury’s Frozen Free-range - ‘twas not bad.

    Hello Molly,
    Wesley has a real ’foot fetish’. Useful for cold feet!

    Thank you Carole.
    And a Very Happy New to you & all your family.


    Hi Marilyn.
    Thanks for all your kind thoughts and comments ‘from afar’.
    Wesley says he want to know where ’afar’ is? He is wanting to get sight of your cats I guess. Ha,ha.

    Hello Sylve.
    The two ovens idea started because there was not room for everything in the one.
    Years ago I had a cooker with two - one large and one smaller underneath. That was useful. I fibbed about the joke from a cracker. We had crackers but the jokes were ‘one-liners’ and very poor!

    Hi Ann.
    Ha,ha. You have to take much of what I say with a ‘pinch of salt’.
    All the best for 2012.

    Hi Cherrypie,
    Yes, there were two ’Happy Bunnies’ that evening.


    A great day Helen.
    Yes, and too much to eat. Not too much drinking though as I was driving home later with some turkey pieces for Wes. I don’t celebrate the new year. I give my tummy a rest. Might have a Haggis though, if I can dig one out of the freezer.

    Hello Jan.
    Some turkeys come ‘self basting’ - they inject butter under the skin which melts on cooking. I’m not a proper cook, I just copy what my Dad did when I was a lad. I always had to help in those days, as, with a family of seven, the huge turkey took two of us to get it in and out of the oven for basting. Dad would get up at six to start the cooking on a very, very ‘slow’ oven. (Seven hours cooking!)
    Nowadays I use bacon as you can see. It is best with streaky bacon. I used what I had knocking around - Back bacon I think. That bird took three hours in a roaster bag.

    Thank you all for all the lovely comments that you have left me throughout 2011.
    What a year! Many ups & downs.
    Nearly over now.
    Here's wishing everybody All the Very Best for 2012.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello Bernard - just catching up - lovely to hear that you had a great Christmas - Wesley looks very contented - I think cats must be the same as dogs - they can quite contently pass away a few hours - especially on a full tummy - I always tell Bluey that she is going to have a pyjama day - and she doesn't seem to mind - that saying comes from the grandkids - when they want to stay home and play with the gadgets - have a brilliant new year - and keep on blogging as they say! Jane

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow that turkey looks good. Glad you had a good Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  15. You've wired Wesley up to something! Is that electric heated slippers or something?
    I see that glass of wine next to the turkey!

    ReplyDelete