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Sorry no pictures as i am not in tune with using my phone camera to do that. but we had an artisan smoked ham that my brother Ian brought from his pork stash from a purchase of half a pig. We cooked it slowly while i made scalloped potatoes ,broccoli in lemon and butter along with some sauteed mushrooms . We glazed the ham with a mixture of rum, maple syrup, grainy mustard and marmalade. the ham was so juicy and not at all salty. Cooked to 150F internal temp. Delicious. while taking the ham platter back to the kitchen my accident prone brother managed leave a trail of ham juice from the table all the way back to the kitchen and down the front of his shirt and pants……the dog was happy. everyone’s meals look very accomplished . merry Christmas.

We had a traditional Christmas lunch with all the usual suspects plus a large rocket, beetroot, goats cheese and walnut salad. There’s also ham, gravy in the jug and cranberry sauce. We are now into Boxing Day 26th and I must say that the left over salad went better with the cold turkey and left over stuffing this next day. The drink is the Italian Chinotto below.

Previously I have used 19g of Malted Milk powder in my bread recipe. I opened the jar tonight and it's full of rocks of said powder. I put 19g of water with a lump of Malted Milk concrete and we'll see how it goes in 10 minutes or so. Can I substitute Diastatic Malt Powder (which I have never used) and which doesn't expire until the middle of January 2026?

We had brunch - copious amounts of food - but I lost my mind and forgot to take picturesn because I found out that I'm going to be a GRANDMA IN JUNE!!! Best gift ever🥰

It's just dough; frozen rolls, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and instant vanilla pudding.

Continuing the airborne buffet... SIN-Bali, Singapore Airlines economy: Singapore carrot cake with prawns. Prawns were perfectly cooked.

Things went smoothly except food pix. Table and Nativity with Airedale After filet with onion sauce, braised greens and au gratin pots (not photo'd) There was sticky toffee pudding No complaints 😉

I’m behind, it’s already Boxing Day in Oz. Christmas Eve dinner was garlic lobster tails with roast potato and caramelised onion salad, plus a warm green veg salad. Blue hydrangeas from the garden. Then, on Christmas Day after the mandatory mango margarita, we had duck leg confit with roasted carrots on garlic whipped yogurt with leftover potato salad. I was hangry and didn’t take care with the pic. Sorry. Also on this plate some Davidson plum jam (an Australian bush tucker food).

Christmas Dinner - Chateaubriand for Two, served with a wine sauce. Sides were Parisienne potatoes, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, sautéed mushrooms and glazed carrots for Moe. Served with a lovely British Columbia wine, a 2022 Cabernet Franc from Fort Berens, decanted for 90 minutes.

I bought the e-book when it was on sale - I'm not seeing fan brushes in the description of the technique in the e-book - it would appear that it's actually flat brushes and what she considers wide - I might disagree. Here's what I got on my first attempt -

And in the airport as we had only a short time.... I had never tried bakwa, basically pork jerky that is brushed with a sweetish sauce and grilled. Damn that stuff is addictive...

About an hour before landing.... Quite pleasant.

Shrimp cocktail sounds so good right now. However, my mom and I just had a huge talk last night about Die Hard --and it is NOT (my opinion) a Christmas movie. My mom adamantly says Die Hard IS a Christmas movie. Yippee-Ki-Yay 😆

Hello @Teaeer Do you drink a variety of teas? Do you make your own blends? Tell us more! I'm an Assam tea drinker, myself. Welcome to eGullet.

Eek, i hope everyone starts feeling better. No pics but last night was our main feast with Partners daughter. Shrimp cocktail, salmon dip, and halibut with pasta and lemon sauce. Dessert was Tillamook raspberry white chocolate ice cream and a cobbler with blueberry, cherry and blackberry. Just the two of us tonight after a very chill day (yes we watched Die Hard) and it'll be pizza for dinner.

Those look really good @Shel_B

My sister sent me these salt samplers, which I receved yesterday. Opening the tins released an incredible and delicious aroma. Can't wait to try the samples ...

Looking forward to reading your blog!

I'll see what I can do. The lighting is crap and the kitchen is ugly, but I'll try to get a pic or two before I start packing them up into gift boxes etc.

Some clown has made a Luosifen Christmas Tree.

gremlins? conversely, sometimes those last few that seem really stuck come out perfectly 🤷‍♀️

Hi Pastrygirl, Thanks for the info, yes, I realized just last night that I was probably cooling too much. I saw a mention that it might be best to do the shelling soon after coloring the cavities so the chocolate and the butter both pull away from the mold together. I ran another batch this morning (with the compressor I got for Xmas, yay) and followed that procedure. I rolled a bunch of the shells and every one is perfect, below is one. I'm still very puzzled why in the past some of the shells that I've inspected before filling and capping end up sticking on de-molding, any opinion on that? Compression from the spatula while pushing the chocolate out when applying acetate? Also, what are you chilling with, a standard fridge or a humidity controlled unit? We are wet, but fortunately not torrentially like SoCal. I used to live down there and I'm glad I left... Cheers, Phil

If you could tease us with some photos, that would be appreciated. But, God forbid, I don't want to add anything at all to your tasklist!

Am I looking at bits of apple on top, or is that the dough?

Thank you @pastrygirl. Wish that I could take you up on your offer but those are not any of the chocolates that I work with. Good luck with Valentine's Day... just a short breather before production starts again!