Edible gold and cranberry syrup.

I've already written a post all about Christmas dinner when I had a house-full in 2012, but I wanted to share this year's menu too.  It wasn't as complicated as two years ago, we just had my parents for dinner so there were only six of us, but I was still pretty excited and inspired weeks in advance by the festive editions of the food magazines, especially Feel Good Food which is a favourite at present. It was the cover of this magazine which featured a red velvet roulade that caught my eye and I was immediately on ebay ordering edible 24 carat gold at a very reasonable £2.49!  More of this later, here's a rundown:

Champagne / Cranberry Gin Fizz / Fruit juices

Sausage rolls (made by my Mum)

Iberico ham and melon on sticks

Crisps

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Beetroot & vodka cured salmon

Pickled cucumber salad

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Roast Turkey with sausage, sage & onion stuffing

Pigs in blankets

Apple & Bourbon roast smoked gammon (served cold)

Deluxe roast potatoes & parsnips

Glazed sprouts & carrots with nutmeg

Bread sauce, cranberry sauce, gravy

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Red velvet roulade with white chocolate and gold leaf

served with Bailey’s cream

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Cheese and biscuits, grapes, port

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Coffee / tea, chocolate mint leaves

The cranberry gin fizz was an idea in the Lidl Christmas magazine.  Frozen cranberries were cooked with sugar and water to make a syrup when mashed with a potato masher and sieved.  One part of the cooled syrup was mixed with one part of gin and topped up with prosecco, and frozen cranberries added instead of ice cubes.  I has one as a little cook's treat while cooking the veg.

The Iberico ham and melon on sticks was a memory of our Spanish holiday this summer (see earlier post), Lidl had some Iberico ham in and it went beautifully with the drinks. I used the little wooden sticks that come with my graze boxes which was a nice touch, a little less boring than plain old cocktail sticks.

The salmon was cured on the Sunday before Christmas, giving it four days in the fridge. This was also from the Feel Good Food magazine. I'd cured salmon with beetroot before but this was a slightly different twist, using vodka, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, salt, sugar, lemon zest and grated raw beetroot with dill. It was served with a simple salad of ribboned cucumber dressed with white wine vinegar, sugar and more chopped dill.

The turkey was simply cooked, as was most of the main course, and I haven't got photos of it, but above is one of the gammon.  It was boiled in apple juice and spices, then roasted with a glaze of apple sauce and bourbon whisky.  We did find it a bit dry, and I think in future I'll always roast gammon instead of boiling as somehow it does turn out to be more juicy that way.  It was still nice though, and has all been eaten!

Here's the aforementioned roulade. I made the red velvet swiss roll on Christmas Eve, using up all the rest of my "Christmas red" food colouring paste. After it had cooled and been spread with the cream cheese icing, I cut the ends off and left it in the fridge overnight to set before decorating.  Eating the ends on Christmas Eve I was a bit worried the sponge wasn't actually all that tasty but it got better by the morning.  My daughter had made white chocolate decorations with a kit of templates and a silicone mat given to me by a friend for my birthday, so I added those plus gold edible glitter and the edible gold leaf which was a bit tricky to handle but not too bad once you got the hang of manipulating it with a table knife.

I also used the edible gold on this trifle, made a few days later for a Christmas get together with my husband's family. Chocolate cake and white chocolate chunks soaked in blueberry liqueur, lemon jelly with blackberries and blackcurrants, custard, cream with crushed meringues,lemon zest and decorations (plus non edible holly from my tree).

The family gathering featured a gingerbread nativity competition.  We didn't win,but here's our entry, complete with jelly baby Jesus:

Finally, here's a fun idea that I found on Facebook, my children and I made two with my nieces when they came to stay recently.  A Terry's chocolate orange in the middle, with maltesers stuck to it, white chocolate and icing holly on the top.

All in all, there was much feasting, and as January beckons, I'm thinking about abstinence and healthy eating!

Thank you for reading,

Caroline :-)