Ok so the good news is that Mum is improving and she and Dad were happy to come up to Droushia today as planned for Sunday Lunch. We had a brief passing shower at around 6.30am when I got up to deal with the cats but then it cleared and it was overcast but ok. John got the fire lit early to ensure that everyone would be cosy warm but as I was cooking it got rather warmer than we had anticipated! I was, unusually, using the oven proper rather than the microwave combi-oven because I had rather a lot to be cooked at the same time. The oven proper seems to have three heat settings, luke-warm, hot-ish and bloody nuclear. I had an unfortunate incident the first Christmas we were here when I managed to melt a silicon sheet by placing it on the bottom. Today we were supposed to be having a pie but sadly, for some reason, the pastry wouldn't cook - around the edges it was black and crispy and in the middle it was soggy - I have no idea why and was a bit miffed but just removed the offending layer and served the filling.
If my pie pastry was a let-down my cauliflower cheese was, eventually, my piece de resistance, I say eventually because I made the cheese sauce from scratch and it was lumpy so I had to pass it through a sieve which was a bit laborious to say the least.
I don't normally like cauliflower except when it is raw but I have to say I absolutely loved this recipe - I reckon the addition of the mustard and the super cheesy super crispy breadcrumb topping made all the difference. I shall probably do something similar on Christmas Day because everyone wolfed it down.
Coming a very close second were my roastie potatoes which were crispy and crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside and I actually had to help myself to two additional ones a my original dip in!
The pie filling didn't seem to miss its overcoat which was just as well and having pre-cooked the beef beforehand in a fair old glug of one of John's beers it was pretty tasty - we had good old carrots and green beans to go with it all and then afterwards there was a choice of either my homemade mincemeat slab or homemade pear and ginger crumble, both went down well and as John wouldn't let the remainder of the mincemeat out of his sight we sent Mum and Dad home with a bowl of the crumble.
I know Mum will hate me for this photograph so I apologise well in advance but here she is looking like the International Woman of Mystery she is, either that or some International Card Sharp/Shark.
She managed to play without the aid of a head-torch and fared much better than I did because I kept getting hammered by the miz hands (which wont mean anything to anyone that doesn't play Noms but let's just say there is a penalty round and I copped most of the minus penalty points).
It is hard to believe that next Sunday it will be Christmas Eve and we will have Mum and Dad and Di and Rob dining with us. I have sorted the menu and started to prepare some of it in advance. We will be eating lunchtime and we want Mum and Dad to get back in good light so it wont be a long affair but I do have a game for us to play to get into the festive spirit. I do love Christmas and it could so easily just pass by as any other day because we don't have the magic of children to make it special but I have John and that is near enough!!!
The stress of my pastry obviously got to me as I developed a mega-headache shortly after Mum and Dad text to let us know they were home safely. I slept on the sofa for couple of hours before catching up on a bit of TV.
If my pie pastry was a let-down my cauliflower cheese was, eventually, my piece de resistance, I say eventually because I made the cheese sauce from scratch and it was lumpy so I had to pass it through a sieve which was a bit laborious to say the least.I don't normally like cauliflower except when it is raw but I have to say I absolutely loved this recipe - I reckon the addition of the mustard and the super cheesy super crispy breadcrumb topping made all the difference. I shall probably do something similar on Christmas Day because everyone wolfed it down.
The pie filling didn't seem to miss its overcoat which was just as well and having pre-cooked the beef beforehand in a fair old glug of one of John's beers it was pretty tasty - we had good old carrots and green beans to go with it all and then afterwards there was a choice of either my homemade mincemeat slab or homemade pear and ginger crumble, both went down well and as John wouldn't let the remainder of the mincemeat out of his sight we sent Mum and Dad home with a bowl of the crumble.
I know Mum will hate me for this photograph so I apologise well in advance but here she is looking like the International Woman of Mystery she is, either that or some International Card Sharp/Shark.She managed to play without the aid of a head-torch and fared much better than I did because I kept getting hammered by the miz hands (which wont mean anything to anyone that doesn't play Noms but let's just say there is a penalty round and I copped most of the minus penalty points).
It is hard to believe that next Sunday it will be Christmas Eve and we will have Mum and Dad and Di and Rob dining with us. I have sorted the menu and started to prepare some of it in advance. We will be eating lunchtime and we want Mum and Dad to get back in good light so it wont be a long affair but I do have a game for us to play to get into the festive spirit. I do love Christmas and it could so easily just pass by as any other day because we don't have the magic of children to make it special but I have John and that is near enough!!!
The stress of my pastry obviously got to me as I developed a mega-headache shortly after Mum and Dad text to let us know they were home safely. I slept on the sofa for couple of hours before catching up on a bit of TV.
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