Will there be a Forum Christmas Party?

Yep There is NO WAY I want to be associated with Hartley Hare.

If this means nothing to anyone then you are not a) in the UK and b) over 35 and c) scarred by bad children's TV.

Before my time I think.

You didn't miss much, believe me. Do a search for Pipkins on http://www.sausagenet.com/ - in fact that is a great site in general for UK kids TV nostalgia.

*current version

hey this thread started christmassy..why not!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

What on earth is wrong with Hartley Hare?

I'll give you yam yams, they do talk funny!

Well in keeping with Xmassy and also unashamedly UK in theme, it is officially the start of Christmas chez moi as I have the Xmas copy of the Radio Times. For the benefit of those of you wondering why our TV magazine is called the Radio Times, there is a TV Times too - but the Radio Times is the BBC version from a long time back when there was ... radio ...

Anyway that's one of our little quirks that we like. I think even if I had no TV or lived in Japan I'd have to have the Xmas Radio Times.

Today I start buying the stuff I only have once a year ... dates and walnuts ... and the Xmas supply of satsumas and/or clementines Later today, the tree might go up - or tomorrow maybe ... this weekend!!

And today I am roasting butternut squash in the following marinade, ready to be stored in the freezer along with the Kale dish I will make later, which joins the sprouts with chestnuts:

Marinade:

!/2 orange, squeezed
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp dried thyme, or 1 of fresh
Garlic, in slivers (I am using THREE cloves of smoked garlic I brough back from France last month ... wow a month has passed? whoa!!)
Splash of JD

***

Ciaran, I always had you down as the Chorlton and the Wheelies type. You'd be Chorlton, clearly, and I am OBVIOUSLY going to be Fenella!

I have yet to make all my Christmas purchases. The things I am making myself are done, with the exception of the paté, which I will be doing on monday so it is nicely matured by Christmas eve, as previously mentionned. Due to my appalling inability to budget properly, I will be buying most of my presents and my tree next friday, so I will sadly miss the next Friday Thread. This is for the best, as it would be difficult to keep to my pledge in my sig if I were around here on friday. I had mean't to make some home made mead last winter ready for this Christmas, but I didn't get around to it until the summer. I just tried some this morning and it's like paint thinner. A little bit more time to mature is needed, methinks.

Actually I use smoked garlic all year round in things (I've built my own cold smoker out of a small oil drum, a barrel and a length of steel pipe - inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall).

Don't have the facility to do that ... but smoked garlic is always just fantastic. If I had a smoker, I'd not have the excuse to naff off to France so it's all good.

I've been saying I will make Mead every year since I was about 14. My dad made wine ... lots of it, far too sweet for my tastes and generally rocket fuel. He also used to make loads of liqueurs by macerating stuff in Polish spirit ... as a kid I was fascinated to see whole cherries disappear, stones and all, into a drink I then was forbidden to have.

Maybe that's where the name comes from. He died this year, and I wish now that I'd had the sense to carry on that family tradition (I am the only one who would, of my siblings). It would have been a nice way to remember him, and one which he'd have approved of - still, next year for sure. And the Mead.

Bullaces make an excellent liqueur. If you can't get them, then damsons or plums will do just as well. Add the fruit and some caster sugar to some really really cheap vodka and leave for 2-3 years. Well worth it.

I'm doing a taste-test this year. Normally I make fruitcakes in early november, wrap them in cheesecloth and plastic, then once a week, brush them with a quarter cup of Jameson's. Mind, I don't use those icky colored candied fruits; I use dried apricots, papayas, cherries, dates, plums, etc, and for nuts, cashews, brazilians, almonds, and pecans. By Christmas, YUM. Of course you could set your breath on fire after 2 months of a quarter cup of booze. This year I'm running a taste test. Two of the cakes are being soaked in Jameson's, and 2 are being soaked in bourbon. We'll see what the difference is!

The only bad thing about making fruitcakes, is that usually the soaking process goes like this: a quarter cup for the cakes, 2 cups for Oryx. A quarter cup for the fruitcakes, and 2 more cups for Oryx.

I was thinking I'd do something with kumquats. As well as being a funny name, it would be a little in joke in his memory. I was making something with them once, sorbet I think, in any case something which needed a lot of sugar. Dad simply refused to believe that it would be bitter, on the basis that it was small it must be sweet (he didn't learn from his 5ft daughter that small does not always mean sweet lol). So I let him take one despite the dire warnings ... the look on his face was a picture as he said "Urgh! This tastes like battery acid!".

I'm getting an inferiority complex!

coco

This thread is now making my mouth water! You all sound like my kind of people

Oh yes! ... <sigh>

I had the dubious pleasure of trying Polish spirit once ... I had to dilute it .. a number of times actually ... I put my serious reduction in brain cells down to it in fact.

Chortle. the appearance of the Christmas Radio and TV Times is symbolic. Do you go through and 'circle' things like The Wizard Of Oz? I dont either. Christmas started on the 1st December in my house with the appearance of the tree and the lighting of a scented Yankee Candle.

Chorlton and the Wheelies!!! Wow you must be as old as me!

I sometimes visit a Polish eatery, ironically in a town called Linden, and have had the pleasure of sampling various home made concoctions. definitely not for the faint of heart, or stomach.

Nope, you are as young as me. Simple!

Wow, Linden. I didn't even put two and two together until you wrote that. Well, we know there is no relation there. Which place are you talking about Brenda?

/me wants to put it on my list of "places I must try" list

Big Stash's on Wood Ave.

/me puts that in my address book and goes to Chowhound to ask friends about it

I am the proud owner of an overseas Radio Times subscription.
Which is hilariously expensive. And I have to renew soon. AND it means the Christmas issue STILL hasn't arrived.



Apart from that, I don't care much about the whole Christmas thing...never have. Sorry! (Apart from good food that is!)