More Christmas Preparations

We were both absolutely exhausted by the end of today.  We got up early as we have a million and one things to do.  John had checked the weather forecast for the forthcoming week and deemed it to be stable enough to tackle the carport project but not before he made the new tabletop for the dining table for Christmas Day and we moved all the furniture to accommodate it.  The grey chairs went into the conservatory and the rug was turned and the table turned.  It will mean a much less intimate (for which read cramped) eating space which is good.  Hence my need for decorations yesterday as I want this space to have a bit of a wow factor - that way people might forgive me if my food is crap!!!

I spent the day cooking while John carefully removed nearly 400 terracotta tiles from the carport roof in readiness for them to be replaced.

I did the vegetables for lunch on Sunday.  We are having the cheesy mashed potato topped with cheesy scalloped potato combo I did the other week along with carrots, peas, beans and mashed swede.  The mashed swede came about because I had some left over from making the boxing day pasties which I decided this time I would make, cook and then freeze to try and avoid the pastry disaster of the other day and because Argy has kindly allowed me to use her freezer.

On that subject she called today because the Cornish Cream Tea (scones, jam and clotted cream and Cornish Pasties) which I had sent as a present had arrived and they were going to be eating them this evening.  I really hope that they are ok.  The trouble with ordering gifts online is that you know what you have ordered but you don't actually know what people receive!!!  Anyway it will be a culinary experience for them both and the were sent with love and will give them an idea of what we will be eating on Boxing Day!!!

I made the Boxing Day pasties.  I had been going to make the pastry after all the recent disasters but I had bought some and decided to use it and even though it was a big box it just and just made four pasties and even though I carefully crimped the edges the crimping pattern just disappeared during the cooking process.

The crimping of the edges is very important.  Generally there are 20 crimps around the edge which formed a handle for the miners to hold with their arsenic-covered hands. Once the pasties were consumed the miners would discard the handles and leave them to keep the "knockers" (ghosts of the mines) happy.

These didn't look too bad and they had plenty of pepper and meat inside.  In fact the skirt from Naz was the best I have had from him and needed very little trimming much to the disappointment of Charlie who had taken up prime position just in case I needed someone to do some quality control tasting.  Actually even though I tried to use up all the meat there was enough left over for all three cats to have a bit of a treat.

I had our meal ready for when John had finished both he and I had not stopped all day so we had a nice shower, a nice meal and sank into the sofa of our newly transformed dining room (which looks enormous) to see another SUFC defeat unfold.  Ah well you cant have it all!