Welcome to our Vintage Christmas!

I decided this year for Christmas, I would do something similar to that. The first item I decided to choose was the turkey after seeing it on Angela's blog Spinach Tiger. It was a turkey that didn't need any basting at all through an ingenious method of cooking it which still left it tender, golden and utterly delicious. After that, the rest of the food seemed quite easy. It was all in the vintage theme of Christmas with traditional turkey accompaniments and the dessert was a chocolate peppermint cake based on a vintage snow globe design.

Recipe Quicklinks:

Christmas Lavosh Crackers

Mummy Turkey

Cornbread Ham Stuffing

Home made Cranberry Sauce

Classic Wedge Salad

Hasselback Potatoes

Snow Globe Cake

Peppermint Hot or Iced Chocolate

I was having dinner with my friend Mystery Guy one evening when he regaled me with a story that had me bent over in laughter. At him, of course. He had signed up to a neighbourhood martial arts school after being beseeched by a door knock appeal. Arriving at the studio, he surveyed the crowd of potential class mates and combatants. There was a man in crisp white martial arts gear kicking and slicing the air with his hands and a crowd of small kids. Everyone looked at each other warily because they knew that they'd be paired up and you didn't want to go for the man in the white who was clearly more advanced.

A young boy near Mystery Guy was doing the same. The young lad surveyed the crowd, saw the man in white, saw the gaggle of young kids and his eyes settled on Mystery Guy standing nearby him. He pointed at Mystery Guy and said "Mummy, he looks weak!" The mother, mortified at the insult to Mystery Guy told the child that he could "clock him if he wanted to" but the damage was done to Mystery Guy's ego. "This child had ascertained that I was the weakest out of everyone, children included", he said to me while I was laughing with tears in my eyes.

Picking the perceived low hanging fruit is common in human nature. After all, the idea of expending the least effort for a gain is appealing.

And in the spirit of vintage, home made cranberry sauce. Way back before cranberry sauce came in a jar!

Although we never grew up eating potatoes, I seem to have developed some sort of odd knack for cooking potatoes. A friend once said "you're known for your potatoes" which seemed as random as hearing that I was known for a rounded bottom - just totally out of the blue. Anyway, I feel the need to do potatoes all the time now after hearing that (and how embarrassing if she were only being polite!).

One thing that I grew up eating was rice. I wasn't sure what my father would say to what I thought might be a travesty to his plain steamed white rice but he gave this a thumbs up. And my father never gives thumbs up. In fact I never knew he had thumbs they were used so sparingly :P

Coleslaw is a staple in our fridge and there's no such thing as too much crunchy, healthy salad. We served two at Christmas dinner, a regular sort of sweetcorn coleslaw...

As well as another salad called a Wedge Salad with iceberg lettuce cut into wedges, served with bacon, blue cheese dressing and green onions.

I also got into some low level crafting too. You perhaps won't believe how low level a crafter I am but I don't even own a hole punch-that's how low. But I figured with some pipe cleaners and some wire (i.e. bent paper clips), I could make a herb wreath. I first saw the idea for this on Celia's blog via HeidiAnnie.

I asked Mr NQN. "Why don't my things ever look as good as the stuff in the shops or one other people's blogs?"

"I don't know" he said sighing deeply with a shake of his head. Perhaps even this low hanging fruit was not low enough for me :P

And no Christmas is complete without a tray of my lovely reader Matilda's cookies! Every year I hope that I'm on her list of good girls and boys and cross my fingers that these lovingly made beautiful Italian home made biscuits ends up on my doorstop.

Before we get to the recipes, I just want to say a very big thank you to all of you for reading my little blog. It's been such a pleasure to share ideas, recipes and food with all of you and your curiosity, good nature and helpfulness towards each other makes me so proud to think that you have chosen to read this blog! I've always said that my readers are truly the nicest people around! I wholeheartedly wish all of you and your families and friends a wonderful Christmas, full of love and laughter and joy and of course good food!

Lots of Love,

Lorraine (and Mr NQN dressed as Santa!)

xxx

P.S. I'd love to know Dear Reader, what are you having for Christmas lunch or dinner?

Anyway, enough of this crazy crafting! Onto our vintage Christmas!

Peppermint Hot or Iced Chocolate

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Print Recipe

Click here for Peppermint Hot or Iced Chocolate

Mummy Turkey

Click here for Mummy Turkey

Cornbread and Ham stuffing

Click here for Cornbread Ham Stuffing

Home Made Cranberry Sauce

Click here for Home Made Cranberry Sauce

Wedge Salad

Click here for Classic Wedge Salad

Sweetcorn Coleslaw

I always have a batch of coleslaw in the kitchen and this week it is cabbage coleslaw instead of cauliflower as I bought a massive 5.5 kilo cabbage. When I was walking to the car holding my cabbage in plain view because there was no bag big enough to hold it, people stopped and stared at me and some commented on the humongous size of my appendage. I felt a bit sexually harassed until I realised that it was really just the cabbage and not me...

5-6 cups of cabbage, thinly shredded
2 medium carrots (about 180grams)
1 cup tinned sweet corn (use the Edgells super sweet one)
1 cup chopped green onions/shallots
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 tablespoons milk (not soy)
1/2-1 tablespoon mustard (depending on how hot your mustard is)
Juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Step 1 - Grate the carrots into a large bowl (you can peel these first but I like to keep the skin on, just wash them well). Then remove the stem from the cabbage and with a large knife, slice thinly. Add this to the bowl. Add the onion to the mix and with two spoons, mix the vegetables so that they are evenly distributed.

Step 2 - In a bowl, add the mayonnaise, milk and mustard and using a small whisk or fork to combine. Pour this in two batches over the shredded vegetables and toss between additions. Add the lemon, salt and pepper and toss some more to combine and taste for seasoning. I like this best when it has sat for a little while but you can eat it straight away too.

Pan Buttered Rice

This was for my father who once left a holiday in Japan because he couldn't find the right kind of rice there (I wish I were kidding). Although he has relaxed and now enjoys Thai Jasmine and Basmati on occasion, I thought I'd expand his horizons even more with this garlicky pan buttered rice. The inspiration for this pan buttered rice was from the shrimp trucks on the North Shore of Oahu that serve a fantastic garlic butter rice with their shrimp (prawns).

2.5 cups chicken stock, hot
4 teaspoons chicken powder
100g/3.5 ozs. butter
1.5 cups jasmine or basmati rice
4 garlic cloves, chopped

Step 1 - Dissolve the chicken powder in the hot chicken stock. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then top with the stock and rice and then turn down the heat and place the lid on the pan tightly so that the liquid evaporates. After about 10 minutes, it should have disappeared. Stir around the rice moving the rice from the top to the bottom and add the garlic in and keep the lid on for another 5 or 10 minutes.