Menu:Egg Mousse and
cucumber mousse with Pim's Number 1
Shrimp wrapped in bacon, grilled
Smoked salmon on blinis with creme fraiche and caviar
3 turkeys with sausage stuffing one side and bread stuffing the other
Gravy
roast potatoes
2 pineapple glazed hams
(I forgot the wonderful cranberry sauce I made)
Leeks
Butternut squash
Balsamic glazed onions
cauliflower and broccoli almondine
2 different salads one with pomegranite seeds, one feta cheese and olives
Christmas cake (an island traditonal one)
Cheese cake with an amaretto biscuit base
Caramel Pecan tarts
Pinapple Fluff
Traditional boiled Xmas pud and brandy butter
Thanks to all the good advice everything went very well with the turkeys, and everything else too.
The worst of it all, I could not smell the wonderful cooking smells coming out of the kitchen, I had hot waves and dizzy spells and then a horrid 2 hour spasm of tight chest...Urrghh! but with 27 to a sit down meal in a few hours I could not stop for a minute. A darling friend came by and really helped out from noon, I would not have been able to get everything looking as good as it did without her help.
She did the salads and a dessert.
My Mum of 80 took charge the brandy butter and of the Xmas pudding done in the microwave for the first time ever, it worked a charm, no more 3 hour boiling.
Three bags of baking potatoes previously peeled had to be par-boiled before being stove-top deep fried...no room in the oven for the real thing unfortunately.
I was really concerned that things would be a wash out, literally, as the rain came down in buckets during the day. I had asked a friend sail maker at the 11th hour if it was possible to make an awning and supplied the measurements not thinking that anything would come of it. This dear friend worked after noon on the 23rd (after everyone else had left) to finish the awning....that was great...truly a life saver in the circumstances but the only one available to put it up was me and a gardener who has been known to drill his finger with the electric drill....
So in between stuffing turkeys, making cheesecake and setting up the dining tables, sloshing around in puddles and being soaked from the downpours (remember tropical rain means WET) I was up the ladder, with the chap on another ladder, pulling and stretching the awning and trying to screw in the wooden slats to the roof eves dodging raindrops...darn hard wood as it turns out. Had to have the chap push the drill from the back and try to keep the drill straight therefore the screws straight...etc.... OK, I'll admit I stripped the heads of 3 screws, I'll have to get a carpenter in to deal with putting this all up in a decent fashion after New Year.
A good thick line of black roof gunk along the top of the awning next to the wood and Bob's your Uncle, there was a Non-leaky awning in place...and you know what?????
DH did not even notice it until the next morning when he said as he was waking up...."I told you the rain would not wet everyone standing around the bar!"....My silence and crinkling eyes (it was so hard not to laugh) made him go to the area and LOOK...oh Lol! did we laugh then.
One thing I should have done during the turkey cooking was to turn the 2 turkeys side by side in the one roasting dish to have the other sides together. I cooked the turkeys until 165* inside. These inner legs were just slightly pink, I have them frozen for another meal. Other than that I only have carcasses left with very little meat. I do have a least half a ham left over which I'm glad about, love left overs to be used in a pie later.
It appears that New Years day I will have about 30 coming over but this time I going casual with a pot luck Barbie.
Now if only I can get rid of this tight chest!
cucumber mousse with Pim's Number 1
Shrimp wrapped in bacon, grilled
Smoked salmon on blinis with creme fraiche and caviar
3 turkeys with sausage stuffing one side and bread stuffing the other
Gravy
roast potatoes
2 pineapple glazed hams
(I forgot the wonderful cranberry sauce I made)
Leeks
Butternut squash
Balsamic glazed onions
cauliflower and broccoli almondine
2 different salads one with pomegranite seeds, one feta cheese and olives
Christmas cake (an island traditonal one)
Cheese cake with an amaretto biscuit base
Caramel Pecan tarts
Pinapple Fluff
Traditional boiled Xmas pud and brandy butter
Thanks to all the good advice everything went very well with the turkeys, and everything else too.
The worst of it all, I could not smell the wonderful cooking smells coming out of the kitchen, I had hot waves and dizzy spells and then a horrid 2 hour spasm of tight chest...Urrghh! but with 27 to a sit down meal in a few hours I could not stop for a minute. A darling friend came by and really helped out from noon, I would not have been able to get everything looking as good as it did without her help.
She did the salads and a dessert.
My Mum of 80 took charge the brandy butter and of the Xmas pudding done in the microwave for the first time ever, it worked a charm, no more 3 hour boiling.
Three bags of baking potatoes previously peeled had to be par-boiled before being stove-top deep fried...no room in the oven for the real thing unfortunately.
I was really concerned that things would be a wash out, literally, as the rain came down in buckets during the day. I had asked a friend sail maker at the 11th hour if it was possible to make an awning and supplied the measurements not thinking that anything would come of it. This dear friend worked after noon on the 23rd (after everyone else had left) to finish the awning....that was great...truly a life saver in the circumstances but the only one available to put it up was me and a gardener who has been known to drill his finger with the electric drill....
So in between stuffing turkeys, making cheesecake and setting up the dining tables, sloshing around in puddles and being soaked from the downpours (remember tropical rain means WET) I was up the ladder, with the chap on another ladder, pulling and stretching the awning and trying to screw in the wooden slats to the roof eves dodging raindrops...darn hard wood as it turns out. Had to have the chap push the drill from the back and try to keep the drill straight therefore the screws straight...etc.... OK, I'll admit I stripped the heads of 3 screws, I'll have to get a carpenter in to deal with putting this all up in a decent fashion after New Year.
A good thick line of black roof gunk along the top of the awning next to the wood and Bob's your Uncle, there was a Non-leaky awning in place...and you know what?????
DH did not even notice it until the next morning when he said as he was waking up...."I told you the rain would not wet everyone standing around the bar!"....My silence and crinkling eyes (it was so hard not to laugh) made him go to the area and LOOK...oh Lol! did we laugh then.
One thing I should have done during the turkey cooking was to turn the 2 turkeys side by side in the one roasting dish to have the other sides together. I cooked the turkeys until 165* inside. These inner legs were just slightly pink, I have them frozen for another meal. Other than that I only have carcasses left with very little meat. I do have a least half a ham left over which I'm glad about, love left overs to be used in a pie later.
It appears that New Years day I will have about 30 coming over but this time I going casual with a pot luck Barbie.
Now if only I can get rid of this tight chest!