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Our traditional Christmas Day on the farm
Food is definitely centre stage at Christmas. Since we moved to Canada almost 20 years ago we haven’t had a large family gathering but we are connected to our family through our traditional Christmas.
Mum always cooked a gammon before Christmas and we would have this with leftover turkey. She just boiled hers in water but I do mine in Cola… (get the recipe here - How to cook a Christmas Ham plus 2 of my favourite glazes)
On Christmas morning we try to call the relatives back home before they are too drunk then Carl feeds the animals, usually giving them extra feed.
I get started on dinner with my Christmas play list blaring some of my favourites are
Fairy tale of New York by the pogues - the best Christmas song ever IMO!
The lost Christmas Eve - the Trans Siberian Orchestra
It’s Christmas- Slade
Stay another day - East 17
Our oversized turkey goes in the oven before we open presents. I have to say there is no shame in having an 18lb turkey for 2 people, it’s the only day I cook one and I need leftovers. One year I bought a 7lb anorexic, free-range turkey that I think walked here from BC.
It was very disappointing because we didnt have enough leftovers for Boxing Day turkey curry!
We always do a toast before we eat with Asti Spumante and pull party crackers, read the silly joke and wear the silly hats.
When I took over cooking Christmas dinner I changed our starter from Prawn cocktail to celery and stilton soup, which was such a hit that every year someone would call me for the recipe.
Nowadays I don’t cook 27 (Ok slight exaggeration) different vegetables I stick with potatoes - boiled and roast, mashed carrot and Swede and of course the mandatory Brussels sprouts.
I used to have mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower cheese, roasted parsnips, roasted carrots and peas on top of that. Carl doesn’t do peas - he says they are too hard to load onto your fork and he has no time for that lol!
Our main meal is a lot smaller now and to make it easier I cook what I can the day before.
Along side the turkey we always have:
Chipolatas wrapped in streaky bacon,
Roast and boiled potatoes,
Mashed carrot and swede,
Brussel sprouts.
If we are lucky enough to get giblets we have giblet gravy.
There is no room for dessert, we prefer cheese and crackers if we can force feed ourselves anything else! We also don’t do Christmas cake, even though I have a great recipe from my Aunty Pat - it’s just too much cake!
After all that overindulging we have no option other than to plonk down in front of TV with a glass of port and some of our favourite chocolates.
Terrys chocolate oranges
After eight mints - I am that person who takes the chocolates out and leaves the wrappers in the box lol, this really annoys Carl lol.
Quality street - (is it just me or are the tins really small now?)
Then we binge watch some of our favourite Christmas TV
The Vicar of Dibley Christmas specials
Only Fools and Horses Christmas specials
Mrs Browns Boys - well I love it - Carl is not so keen!
That’s about the end of a traditional Christmas for us, Carl checks the animals again then we usually fall asleep on the couch!
Want to support our farm but can’t buy our pork
A coffee would be greatly appreciated 😊!
This blog post was written in participation in a Blogging Bee-an online gathering reminiscent of the quilting bees and sewing bees of days past when women would bring their work together to create art. If you enjoyed this post about “Traditions,” take a look at these posts from other farmers, small business owners, homesteaders, and creatives.
Three Sweet Traditions to Simplify the Holidays by Jessica Haberman
Our traditional Christmas Table - Celery and Stilton Soup
For years we had prawn cocktail as our Christmas starter but one year I made Celery and Stilton soup and every year since someone would call me for the recipe.
I always use stilton but you can use any blue cheese you like.
Ingredients
1lb celery washed and sliced thinly (save the leaves for garnish)
2 oz butter
7 oz potato peeled and cubed
1 small onion finely chopped
1 pint (570 ml) stock I use chicken or pork bone broth
5fl oz 150ml cream
5 oz stilton
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
In a large pan melt the 2oz butter and stir in the 1lb sliced celery, cubed potato and chopped onion. Stir everything well to coat with butter . Cook on low heat with a lid on for 10 mins.
Add the 1 pint pork or chicken stock, turn up the heat and when the soup starts to simmer put a lid on and cook gently for 30 mins until the vegetables are tender.
Remove from heat. Stir in the cream and use an immersion blender or liquidizer to blend until smooth.
Taste and then season with salt and pepper.
To serve - reheat gently - do not boil.
Our traditional Christmas table - Grannys Bread Sauce
Christmas dinner is one of our favourite meals of the year. It’s the only time we cook turkey.
I love the leftovers even if the turkey has gone and we are down to veg, bread sauce and gravy.
Bread sauce Originates in medieval England when using a stale loaf of bread to thicken a sauce, stew or soup would have been cheaper and more accessible than animal fat or eggs. After all bread is just flour and we use that all the time as a thickener.
Even though bread sauce doesn’t sound as appetizing as the Spanish Romesco sauce or the Tuscan soup Ribollito (both use bread as a thickener) it is delicious.
I always looked forward to my gran visiting at Christmas. We only saw her once or twice a year because it was a 4 hour trip - which doesn’t sound much to a Canadian but in the Uk it’s a horrible drive.
Gran was a great character. We would sit in The front room at Christmas watching whatever was on Tv and she would give me a nudge and say “don’t tell your dad” and sneak me extra chocolates and a sip of port.
I always got the job of taking her shopping because the rest of my family got embarrassed when she tried haggling with the grocer over the prices of oranges and potatoes, which she insisted were not as good as the ones she could get back home lol. Of course the grocer knew it was all in fun and he even called her Gran. Everyone called her Gran.
When I think about her I always remember her strirring a massive pan of damsons to make jam - she always left the stones in - which is why as kids we didn’t like it much. She would have a cigarette in her mouth, which would slowly become a tube of ash and I would be trying to stop the ash falling in the jam.
Luckily her bread sauce wasn’t subject to stirring because we cooked it in the oven. Nowadays I just make it on the stovetop because it’s quicker but it can be cooked in the oven or even in the microwave.
Her bread sauce doesn’t really have any measurements, like most things she made. Basically, you fry up a bit of chopped onion, add bread, cover with milk, and season well with salt and pepper.
My grannies Bread sauce
About 4 inches stale white bread - crusts removed and cut into small cubes
A handful of onion finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 pint full fat milk - approx (enough to cover the bread and a bit more)
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Soak bread cubes in milk
Melt butter over medium heat
Sauté finely chopped onion until soft
Add bread and milk and heat on a low heat, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens
season with salt and pepper and serve hot.
Our Traditional Christmas Table -Sage & Onion Stuffing.
Christmas is time for family and food, overindulging and making memories.
Up until we left the UK my mum always hosted Xmas dinner and I cooked. Anyone who was going to be alone would be invited, it was usually a very strange crowd but we had so much fun.
Our last big family Christmas was in 2003. Even though it’s just 2 of us I still cook a massive oversized turkey because it’s tradition!
Leftovers are part of Christmas for us and they are freezable! I freeze turkey dinners for Carl’s lunches and Boxing day is left over turkey curry day.
The first Christmas I cooked for a large crowd I really did overextend myself. Nowadays I don’t stress, anything that can be made a day ahead takes some of the pressure off - the stuffing, bread sauce, soup and boiled potatoes ready for roasting can all be done early.
A good stuffing is an essential part of our traditional Christmas and my favourite is sage & onion. ( Back home we used to have chestnut stuffing but I don’t have the patience to peel them so I only make it if I find peeled chestnuts - this year I actually found some in the frozen section of an Asian Grocery store.)
Our stuffings are different from the bread type stuffings that are popular here because they are mainly meat and yes it only uses 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs - which you can leave out if you prefer
I use our Cumberland Sausage or you can use ground pork and I don’t actually stuff the turkey anymore because it takes too long to cook. Instead, I cook the stuffing in muffin tins - sometimes mini muffin tins or even in a loaf tin. I have to make extra because we can’t help picking!
“It’s the best stuffing ever! I made it in a loaf tin and sliced it. - It’s delicious and very easy to make with a few ingredients.”
Sage & Onion Stuffing
2lb Cobblestone Farm Sausages or ground pork
4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 large onion finely chopped
1 heaped dessertspoon dried sage
1 beaten egg (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1) Mix breadcrumbs, onion and dried sage in a bowl.
2) Add sausagemeat/ground pork and egg if using, mix well.
3)Season with salt & pepper. (Fry a little of the stuffing up to taste it)
4)Put in muffin tins or loaf pan (or Stuff into turkey) and cook at 425 degrees for about 40 mins or until cooked through
How to cook a Christmas Ham plus 2 of my favourite glazes
What a crazy year this has been and now the silly season is here and most of us will be having a very quiet Christmas - We may not be able to celebrate with family but we can celebrate with food!
When we lived in the UK, Christmas dinner would take 2 days to prepare.
Day 1 would be for massaging the turkey with enormous amounts of butter, stuffing it with 2 different stuffings and prepping the veggies. Brussel sprouts, mashed carrot & swede, parsnips, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower cheese. I was sometimes lucky enough to have help, my hungover sister, what a great help, it would take her 2 hours to peel a carrot!!! I’m not even joking!
Day 2, Christmas day there would be chipolata sausages to wrap in bacon, celery & Stilton soup, bread sauce & the gravy to make. Mum always put the turkey in the oven, Dad did his bit, he was guaranteed entertainment and would always trip over a dog while carrying a huge cauldron of potatoes to the Aga.
The best part about a huge feast is all the leftovers - Turkey, ham, homemade pickled onions, crusty bread, Stilton, strong cheddar and Jacobs cream crackers. Add to this a good bottle of port, a tin of Quality Street, a Terrys chocolate orange and a Christmas cake the size of a small car and Christmas is complete!
Even though it’s just for Carl and myself I still make a huge feast and I wanted to share my favourite ham recipe which is Cola ham (we use Gammon but you can use smoked ham too just remember it is already part cooked so won’t take as long).
Slow cooking is by far the easiest way. My friend always cooks hers from frozen. She said she takes it straight from the freezer, puts it in the slow cooker in the morning and in the afternoon it’s done and delicious! You can’t get easier than that!
Tips
You can precook your gammon and glaze it just before you need to serve it - I never do this because Carl eats it all before I get a chance to glaze it! The upside of that is the whisky maple glaze is great on ice cream lol! -It’s my new favourite glaze!
You will need a longer glazing time for a precooked cold ham. Approx 45 mins from a room temperature.
Before carving your cooked ham, let it rest 15 minutes to redistribute juices and firm up the meat.
Cola Ham
Ingredients
1 onion (peeled and cut in half)
2 litres coca-cola - must be the full sugar stuff and this is the only time I buy cola & it is Christmas
Cloves for studding the fat
Directions
Put the gammon in a pan, add the onion, then pour over the Coke.
Bring to the boil, reduce to a good simmer, put the lid on, though not tightly, and cook for 2 hours. Or Cook in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours.
If the gammon's been in the fridge right up to the moment you cook it, you will have to give it a good 15 minutes or so extra so that the interior is properly cooked.
Make your favourite glaze.
Score the fat with a sharp knife to make fairly large diamond shapes, and stud each diamond with a clove.
Carefully apply your glaze
Finish in a 450F oven for about 10 mins until glaze is bubbly.
Oven-baked Smoked Ham
Ingredients
Glaze of your choice
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degree F
Score the fat.
Put ham in a roasting pan cut-side down.
Brush with your favourite glaze.
Tent it with foil.
Bake it for 20 minutes per pound.
Every 20 minutes or so, brush the ham with more glaze and baste it with the pan juices.
To finish, remove the foil tent, brush the ham with glaze and pan juices one more time, and turn the oven to broil.
Broil for about 3-to-5 minutes until the outside glaze is deliciously caramelized -- but watch it closely so it doesn't get too dark.
Whisky Maple Glaze
Ingredients
¼ cup melted butter
¼ cup of maple syrup
¼ cup of whisky - I used salted caramel whisky, it was delicious
Salt and pepper
Directions
Whisk together ingredients
Carefully pour over ham
Honey Mustard Glaze
Ingredients
1 heaped tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons English mustard powder
2 tablespoons turbinado or brown sugar
Directions
Carefully spread the honey over the fat.
Gently pat the mustard and sugar onto the sticky fat.