Thoughts of Christmas

So its that time of year again...I know its only November but Mr. Chops and I have been discussing our Christmas dinner already. It looks like its just going to be us again this year which is a very blissful thought indeed. Its nice to cook the dinner our way and by our own schedule. Last year was the same. We got up around 10.30am, opened the presents and got most excited by Doggie Chops' reaction to his pressies; there's nothing like watching a dog eviscerate wrapping paper, joy to the world indeed! After a leisurely morning of stuffing the turkey; changing the vegetable water in various pots; and early morning home-cooked ham and brown bread for breakfast, we had a nice long walk with said Doggie who was wearing his Santa jacket. Westhighland Terrier's look very fetching in red it really shows off their noses:

Late afternoon, we had our starter. The plan of action was at least 1-2hours between starter and main course and sure an auld drop of wine inbetween! Our starter last year was a Tomato & Chorizo tartlet. It was my own invention. I defrosted the puff pastry and halved one sheet; created an edge by scoring it lightly with knife, pricked the middle part and then spread over sliced cherry tomatoes, fried slices of chorizo (the full sausage not the pre-sliced packets you get) and a good sprinkling of grated mozarella. Cooked it in the oven for roughly 20-25mins approx and served with a peppery salad of rocket and watercress. To accompany it we popped open a bottle of pink Cava from Tesco. It was a lovely start to the meal.

When we were ready for the main event and the turkey had its sufficient time. We sat down to the traditional full meal with all the trimmings: roast turkey, honey & mustard roast ham, roast potatoes, roast carrots with honey, roast parsnips with maple syrup, potato stuffing, bread stuffing and gravy. Mr.Chops didn't speak for at least an hour, so I think he enjoyed it. Then we weren't the only ones who had pig for Christmas: