When will we learn that we can't trust these latin types?
When will we learn that we can't trust these latin types?
:nono: She's not there to manage, she's their to 'intercede' with her son.
I was always somewhat troubled by that. It broughyt to mind Jesus as this nasty chap sitting there saying, " lols, this lad can die of cancer, what larks!" and his mum saying, "Jesus be a good boy and let him live, go on, just for your old mum" which didn't really fit with the mild-mannered loving figure protrayed in the gospels.
Theology is hard, man!
Talking of christmas stuffings, my wife is English and demands two types of stuffing at christmas: 1) pork, onion and sage, which she refers to as 'forcemeat', and 2) some concoction of breadcrumbs and cranberries or some other nonsense, which she calls the 'stuffing'.
She also insists on having bread boiled in milk.
The English are an odd bunch.
It also puts a bit of a hole in the idea of divine infallibility if Jesus has to be talked out of things by his mammy. I mean how dare she - a mere Jewish housewife, after all - presume to question the will of God?
It's almost as if the whole Marian cult is fundamentally heretical. :rubchin:
Unpopular opinion: Christmas dinner is shíte.
Is there anyone whose heart doesn't sink slightly as their Christmas plate becomes overfilled and you essentially end up with a plateful of random, overlapping pig and bird flesh, heavy carbs and sprouts slathered in an indiscernible gloop of gravy/bread/cranberry sauce?
No matter how well done the individual elements, they are too many and too incongruent for it to work as a whole. It just becomes a heap of food. I've usually lost my appetite before I've taken a bite of the unholy mess.
The secret is to ignore the extraneous items and add only the good stuff.
A nice piece of goose leg. Some crispy roast potatoes. A few Brussels sprouts, pleasing if only for the novelty value. The rich giblet gravy. Perhaps a little forcemeat. Parnsips, red cabbage and so on can simply be ignored.
It's a Sunday roast :shrug: What's not to like?
Here we go, the annual traditional whinge about Christmas dinner.
It's as seasonal* as mince pies.
* The whinge**.
** And the dinner.
I'm doing goose this year as the cretinous in-laws only arrive for leftovers and ham on Boxing Day.
I'v chosen a Ray White recipe as the starting point. Legs in for 2 1/2 hours, breast for 1 hour. Sounds wonderful.
And bread stuffing cooked separately as only a mad man stuffs the bird itself. With goose stock made from the neck and innards, date, apple and cranberry. And home made foie gras chunks scattered around. All roast vegetables in goose fat.
I may never make turkey again. :-(
But come on! You must accept that there is no other point during the year when you would dream of putting poultry, ham, sausages, gravy and pork-based stuffing on the same plate - not because Christmas is a unique feast, etc, but because those things just don't go together and all their individual charms become lost in the meaty melée.
I do the Raymond Blanc thing where you joint the goose (removing the wishbone, of course), roast just the crown and confit the legs and wings. It's very good.
Trouble is, this year I'll have to do a Turkey as well, as my stepsons profess to actually like the damn thing.
I'm slow roasting the legs and using the wings for stock/jus. But yes, completely joint the bird, which you should do with turkey as well BTW.
Braised turke legs are quite wonderful and always the star of my Christmas dinner. This year it will be slow roasted legs which are then de-boned, roughly chopped and mixed through with chunks of my foie gras. :eat:
The lure of the small sausage is remarkable. Every year I make fancy nibbles. I make gravadlax, mini Lobster thermidors - that sort of thing. But I also make a big rake of chipolatas in honey and wholegrain mustard.
Guess which of these disappears most quickly. :-(
Whence I first arrived in England and was living in Barnes the local butcher (Bob, top chap) told me that English people eat turkey or goose on Christmas Day and leftovers and ham on Boxing Day.
I have eaten thus ever since. And sorry but I'm taking butcher Bob's view over yours. :nod: