by Spigzy » Thu Dec 26, 2019 4:15 pm
I've done mine at home every year bar one where we did a hotel Christmas special which was dire - first year of Sofitel opening if I recall. After being served two slices of turkey, one roast potato and whatever else they threw on the side, I was bitterly disappointed & decided to always cook at home instead. Free flow champagne is nonsense for me, it's all about getting totally stuffed with turkey, spuds and all the trimmings.
This year I didn't get my usual package from Blighty with ready made mince for pies or shortcrust pastry, so I made them totally from scratch with ingredients readily available at Thai Huot. I made enough in my first batch to make maybe 100 mince pies, may have to review the recipe I was using on serving sizes - got a feeling it meant 'big jars' rather than individual pies as the serving!!
Anyhow, I'll continue doing it probably even when my son has moved out - at the moment with a young lad in the house Christmas is very special, so doing all the traditional stuff is important to me & he absolutely loves it, super excited as I was when I was his age. When I'm older maybe it can be a smaller affair and just accept the crap that a hotel will serve up as a seasonal novelty & focus more on the port & cigar end of the deal.
I've done mine at home every year bar one where we did a hotel Christmas special which was dire - first year of Sofitel opening if I recall. After being served two slices of turkey, one roast potato and whatever else they threw on the side, I was bitterly disappointed & decided to always cook at home instead. Free flow champagne is nonsense for me, it's all about getting totally stuffed with turkey, spuds and all the trimmings.
This year I didn't get my usual package from Blighty with ready made mince for pies or shortcrust pastry, so I made them totally from scratch with ingredients readily available at Thai Huot. I made enough in my first batch to make maybe 100 mince pies, may have to review the recipe I was using on serving sizes - got a feeling it meant 'big jars' rather than individual pies as the serving!!
Anyhow, I'll continue doing it probably even when my son has moved out - at the moment with a young lad in the house Christmas is very special, so doing all the traditional stuff is important to me & he absolutely loves it, super excited as I was when I was his age. When I'm older maybe it can be a smaller affair and just accept the crap that a hotel will serve up as a seasonal novelty & focus more on the port & cigar end of the deal.
:-)