OV9

Roasted the ham yesterday - none of this trendy Coke-poaching. Just salt and pepper, a 1/4” of water in the bottom of the roasting tin and covered it with foil for the whole time in the oven. Tasted absolutely lovely. Noticed that it was the Tesco Woodside Farms brand, sane as the sausages I recommended. Cost £3.47; probably more for the electricity to cook it

Have had terminal man flu since the 25th, so missed out on most of the debauchery. Super.

Whisky sours, straight, old fashioneds, whisky & ginger ale etc. All of those for the win.

That and the codeine.

Merry Christmas!

Irish Whisky, boiling water, sugar, lemon and cloves…

Christmas eve's meal was more enjoyable than Christmas dinner. Homemade gravadlax and rye sourdough, a selection of nice cheeses, a few IPAs, negronis and white russians. Having said that, the hangover on Christmas day was pretty rough. It made Christmas dinner, with its complexity and breadth of ingredients seem excessive, especially when there was only two of us.

We had our first Chrimbo dinner at home. Only three of us now step daughter has moved out, and it was fine. Mrs H had done enough for about 6 people so there was barely room on the plate for the meat never mind the sausage meet stuffing provided by mother in law.

It was very nice, but if I was doing it I would have cut down on the spuds and veg and added yourkshires which are a must with any roast regardless of type of meat, and bread sauce.

We had a little Christmas dinner the weekend prior to coming away and it wasn't quite the same. The one thing I have really missed was my dad's gingerbread stuffing (Nigella recipe) as it's bloody lovely. Thankfully, he has frozen some for me.

Christmas day dinner consisted of fried cuttlefish, a seafood paella and some lovely Canarian red wine (chilled). It was cracking but I still missed a proper big Crimbo dinner,leftovers, and more leftovers over the next couple of days.