Having used up pretty much all my holiday entitlement this year - mainly as a consequence of our Skiing holiday in Switzerland and our language lessons in Granada together with our Autumn RWC themed break in UK, I was rather fortuitously able to cobble together a 5 day break mainly because of an unexpected public holiday on Christmas Eve (Prophet's Birthday) and being able to add the 1 1/2 days I had to work over Martyr's Day/National Day holidays to the 1/2 day holiday I had left over for the year (and a weekend) so it turned into a very pleasant break - timed nicely to coincide with Dad's arrival from UK. Christmas Eve was spent on last minute gift purchases (E.) and a visit to Galleries Lafayette for lunch followed by the ceremonial cooking of the Ham ready for Christmas Day. Dad and I had gone to Park 'n' Shop to pick up a larger ham and spotted a turkey at the Pork section counter so nabbed that (6kg - possibly a little on the large side) as well as a wrapped Gammon. There was a lady behind us also eyeing up the Turkey as her name had been missed off the Turkey reservation list (it as apparently on the ham list so obviously a breakdown in communication) and so was a little concerned about sourcing a bird on Christmas Eve.
We have been avidly watching Nigella Lawson's cookery show and she had done a spectacular ham in black treacle which (a) looked amazing and (b) looked very simple. E. had bought me the book for Christmas s o I was allowed to write out the recipe (essentially 1 ham, black treacle and some whole cloves/Demerara sugar and more treacle for the glazing). The most difficult bit was wrapping up the ham in tin foil so it was fully sealed after applying the treacle. The next step was to cook for between 15 and 24 hours....
After the ham, we went to the Children's Mass at St Francis. I had hoped to get there for the carols at 5 but the traffic was terrible so we arrived just in time for the start of mass - it was absolutely packed with no room in the Church o the hall so we sat out side where they had set up seating and big screen. It was very nicely done although we were right next tot he speaker so a little noisy!
We got home at about 7pm and I did Dad and I a quick BBQ - lamp chops for him and some salmon which I had marinade in an olive oil/balsamic/garlic/Thyme sauce which was very nice indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment