I had not planned on spending Christmas in the UK. Before we moved to the UK, we had made reservations to spend the week before Christmas at Disney and Christmas and the week after in the Florida keys which we canceled for obvious reasons. I told Super Handsome I wanted to spend Christmas in Spain. Sadly, that did not happen either....
So, now we were going to be in the UK and I had a bit of a tantrum. I really wanted to go to Spain! So, I started looking in the grocery stores to figure out what I was going to make and what I was going to cook. I looked at the gammon (pork) joints and I was very confused at what I needed to buy, how was I going to cook them and what if they tasted wrong? I could not find the lovely spiral sliced hams that we usually bought in the US for sure! So, in a fit I ordered our gammon (ham) from Marks & Spencer (M&S) (one of my favorite stores, think Kohl's with food, expensive, designer food!) I also ordered some food for Christmas Eve and two lovely desserts. When Super Handsome saw the cost, he was not happy, well, neither was I, and I certainly was not going to COOK! At least not much.... :)
I was still able to get out of making cookies this year. I have decided that I really may have a secret hate for making cookies. In my defense for skipping the cookies, I did not have a mixer. Who wants to make 12 dozen cookies and mix them all by hand. Is your hand raised? Neither is mine. I also had in my favor that the British make cakes or puddings around the holidays. At the present moment I have 5 cakes, ready to eat, in my house. I am not joking! I have two Italian cakes, one Christmas cake, one Christmas pudding (cake) and a Yule Log! We also have some profiteroles (like eclairs) that are sitting on some absolutely tasty chocolate mousse. So, I skipped baking the cookies! (Wouldn't you?)
A quick story about the Yule Log. Kids 3 is taking French and his French teacher apparently highly recommended to the children that if they went to Paris during Christmas, they should have one. At one point it was up for discussion about going since the trip to Spain was off. So, when I was picking out desserts from M&S, I couldn't resist getting it!
On Christmas Eve, we usually gather with my family and have appetizers with soup to eat. Well, the appetizers are not really the same here and I can't find all the ingredients that I have in the US. We made do with the local cheeses and spread on biscuits for cheese (crackers). I found some very delicious cheese with brown mustard, it was awesome with pretzels. We also found some smokey spreadable cheese and herb cheese. I bought some additional things from Marks and Spencer. We got prawns with dip (we had to make our own version of cocktail sauce with creamy horseradish sauce). I also purchased sausage and stuffing balls, bacon rolls, party sausages, pigs in a blanket (bacon wrapped sausages) and sausage and stuffing balls wrapped in bacon. Most of the items that I picked up from Marks & Spencer I had to cook, there were a couple of exceptions. Super Handsome and I also picked up some bread from a local bread maker on Saturday (market day) in Bishop's Stortford. We ate it with olive oil and pepper. It was a decent feast, but the kids did not like everything. We ended the day with a quick chat with Super Handsome's family. We missed my family when we tried to ring them. The kids headed to bed without dessert, they were anxious for Christmas morning!
On Christmas we woke up and had a typical day for us. The kids opened presents, Super Handsome made breakfast and we just took it easy. For dinner I made baked beans, gammon from Marks and Spencer, brussels sprouts and we had more bread from market day. The gammon was good, it did not smell the same as it was cooking, but it was tasty and more salty. Super Handsome had to actually cut it (gasp). Just kidding, he did great. We have plenty left. I choose the gammon with a bone in it so that Super Handsome can make our traditional New Year's Day bean soup. For those of you who know Super Handsome's hate of green veggies, you would be proud. I even got him to eat a Brussel sprout. I told him if he wanted me to play card games after dinner he had to eat one! So, guess who played cards Christmas day? This girl!
We ended our night playing 7Up. I stopped playing when the Downton Abby christmas special came on. Dessert were the profiteroles! Yum! And we still have 5 Christmas cakes to eat....
So, now we were going to be in the UK and I had a bit of a tantrum. I really wanted to go to Spain! So, I started looking in the grocery stores to figure out what I was going to make and what I was going to cook. I looked at the gammon (pork) joints and I was very confused at what I needed to buy, how was I going to cook them and what if they tasted wrong? I could not find the lovely spiral sliced hams that we usually bought in the US for sure! So, in a fit I ordered our gammon (ham) from Marks & Spencer (M&S) (one of my favorite stores, think Kohl's with food, expensive, designer food!) I also ordered some food for Christmas Eve and two lovely desserts. When Super Handsome saw the cost, he was not happy, well, neither was I, and I certainly was not going to COOK! At least not much.... :)
I was still able to get out of making cookies this year. I have decided that I really may have a secret hate for making cookies. In my defense for skipping the cookies, I did not have a mixer. Who wants to make 12 dozen cookies and mix them all by hand. Is your hand raised? Neither is mine. I also had in my favor that the British make cakes or puddings around the holidays. At the present moment I have 5 cakes, ready to eat, in my house. I am not joking! I have two Italian cakes, one Christmas cake, one Christmas pudding (cake) and a Yule Log! We also have some profiteroles (like eclairs) that are sitting on some absolutely tasty chocolate mousse. So, I skipped baking the cookies! (Wouldn't you?)
A quick story about the Yule Log. Kids 3 is taking French and his French teacher apparently highly recommended to the children that if they went to Paris during Christmas, they should have one. At one point it was up for discussion about going since the trip to Spain was off. So, when I was picking out desserts from M&S, I couldn't resist getting it!
On Christmas Eve, we usually gather with my family and have appetizers with soup to eat. Well, the appetizers are not really the same here and I can't find all the ingredients that I have in the US. We made do with the local cheeses and spread on biscuits for cheese (crackers). I found some very delicious cheese with brown mustard, it was awesome with pretzels. We also found some smokey spreadable cheese and herb cheese. I bought some additional things from Marks and Spencer. We got prawns with dip (we had to make our own version of cocktail sauce with creamy horseradish sauce). I also purchased sausage and stuffing balls, bacon rolls, party sausages, pigs in a blanket (bacon wrapped sausages) and sausage and stuffing balls wrapped in bacon. Most of the items that I picked up from Marks & Spencer I had to cook, there were a couple of exceptions. Super Handsome and I also picked up some bread from a local bread maker on Saturday (market day) in Bishop's Stortford. We ate it with olive oil and pepper. It was a decent feast, but the kids did not like everything. We ended the day with a quick chat with Super Handsome's family. We missed my family when we tried to ring them. The kids headed to bed without dessert, they were anxious for Christmas morning!
On Christmas we woke up and had a typical day for us. The kids opened presents, Super Handsome made breakfast and we just took it easy. For dinner I made baked beans, gammon from Marks and Spencer, brussels sprouts and we had more bread from market day. The gammon was good, it did not smell the same as it was cooking, but it was tasty and more salty. Super Handsome had to actually cut it (gasp). Just kidding, he did great. We have plenty left. I choose the gammon with a bone in it so that Super Handsome can make our traditional New Year's Day bean soup. For those of you who know Super Handsome's hate of green veggies, you would be proud. I even got him to eat a Brussel sprout. I told him if he wanted me to play card games after dinner he had to eat one! So, guess who played cards Christmas day? This girl!
We ended our night playing 7Up. I stopped playing when the Downton Abby christmas special came on. Dessert were the profiteroles! Yum! And we still have 5 Christmas cakes to eat....
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