Christmas dinner

What did you have for your holiday celebrations? We had an extremely local dinner:

Local goat cheese mixed with local raw cream and herbs
Bagel chips

Terrine of goose giblets (from our own goose, with local sausage and our own fresh sage)
Homemade Major Grey's chutney

Roasted goose breast (see above)
Red wine gravy

Parsnips, carrots, potatoes, and turnips roasted in goose fat (the carrots and turnips were our own)

Spinach salad with carrots, green onions, and fennel (100% ours!)

Buttered cooked cabbage (also ours!)

Homemade applesauce (not local--Georgia apples were very hard to come by this year)

Mini mince pies made with homemade pear mincemeat
Whipped local raw cream

Steamed date pudding
Brandied hard sauce

So delicious--and shared with good friends. Happy holidays, everyone!

Christmas is dead

The goose, not the holiday.

Am I a wuss for deciding not to be present?

Are we wusses for being so daunted by the prospect of wrestling a large, mean goose for its very life that we had our friend shoot it with a shotgun?

I am told I have a monstrous plucking job in front of me...but it's a chilly day, so we'll let the weather keep our goose cold for us while we have a cozy, unrelated dinner. I'll deal with the pre-holiday carcass-wrangling this evening.

Update

Hi everyone! I haven't felt very writerly lately, and I've been awfully busy--in a fun way, mostly. But it has been called to my attention that I am neglecting my blog. I guess this is probably not the first time someone's blog has suffered as a result of the holiday season. And it is probably not the first time it has happened as a result of someone's Ravelry invitation coming through...or of some well-intentioned person introducing her to Scrabulous.

Anyway, things have been pretty good. The s.o. put up his lights again, only gloriously more so. If anyone in town was in doubt about the location of our house, they shouldn't be now, since they can see it all the way from the crossroads.

We are ranging our three turkeys with the waterfowl. It's working out great, although Amelia* the Royal Palm turkey is a smart aleck.



I made my first traditional English pudding out of local, grass-fed beef suet. This one is apple with orange and ginger. It's fabulous, and you can find the recipe in Sophie Grigson's Country Kitchen.



I am going to Ohio from Saturday through Wednesday to visit family, so cross your fingers for mild weather! It'll be hard to leave the 75-and-sunny weather we've had here.

----------

* According to the s.o.: "Because she flies, and one day we're not gonna be able to find her ass."

Hot damn

The new Knitty is really above and beyond the call of duty, isn't it? I want it all. And I think I'm going to use those laughing carrots to make something truly disturbing.