Well, we left off our on holiday hi-jinx tale Christmas Eve had passed and we were all settled down for a long winters nap. Considering we went to sleep around 2:30 in the morning it technically wasn’t a very long nap at all. But, there were things to be done so up I got and downstairs I went. I had already prepped the bird and the first part of the stuffing the night before so that was sitting on the counter doing its thing irresistibly awaiting their time in the inferno. Until then, breakfast had to happen. Since Nate and Meg could not make it home for Christmas this year I told them that my gift to them for this year would be cooking all of the meals. They could just relax and try to enjoy the day as best they could so they didn’t feel too homesick. For breakfast we had a feast of eggs, bacon, toast, and mimosas. Now, many of you might be thinking that the mimosa part of the breakfast sticks out like a cramped toe. This tradition started in my family only a few years ago (obviously since the three of us were legal) when Dusty decided to do it…not too sure why but we went with it. Now it’s just become a normal aspect of Christmas morning for us, so I shared that with everyone else and they didn’t seem to mind at all.
Once breakfast was completed we cleaned up the dishes and decided to tackle the presents that were under the tree. Meg and Nate exchanged presents as well as Jeremy and me. I gave Jeremy (and myself) a ticket to the Crystal Palace-Norwich City match the next day at Selhurst Park. In return a received a lovely bottle of Bushmills Black Bush, a delicious sherry cask matured Irish whiskey that was designed as a digestif. Afterwards I also opened the gifts that had been sent to me from back home. My parents sent me the usual stocking stuffers: toiletries, Lifesavers, my coin set, a Starbucks gift card, and the new Canada mitts from The Bay! Aunt Rhonda also sent me a new journal which I can’t wait to start generating pen strokes on, and a very smart tie that I can be seen wearing in the pictures from the day on my Facebook profile. Overall, a great success!
From that point it was just a lot of lounging around and enjoying each other’s company. I managed to squeeze in a Skype conversation with my family later on in the afternoon so that I could see them open the presents that I sent them. Everything arrived in Sarnia safe and sound which was a relief and everyone seemed to love the gifts I sent them! In a strange “Smith” family moment I had packaged Dusty’s gift in a box that once contained a Fuller’s Vintage Ale from this year (they brew a different vintage ale every year). The ale itself was delicious but Dusty thought that the bottle of beer was the gift when he first opened it, not realizing that I had written “Maybe NOT what’s inside…” on the front. When he opened it there was an Arsenal tie inside that I had picked up from The Armoury. However, the twist comes when Dusty got up to give a gift to Scott and my Dad as well as himself. All of the gifts were a Fuller’s Vintage Ale!! The actual beer was inside of these boxes however, so everything worked out in the end and Dusty got his Fuller’s. Just thought I’d share that bizarre moment. Though, I can’t help but notice a lack of a Fuller’s Vintage Ale here…
Soon it became time to start getting the turkey ready to go. Now, I was obviously only preparing turkey for 7 people that evening, which is why I had such a small turkey!! Some people’s comments on the picture of it…geez. I admit it was a puny little guy but I was going to roast the shit out of it regardless. Luckily the sucker was gutted already so I just needed to run it under some cold water and pat dry. After applying butter to crisp up the skin I threw some salt, pepper, and rosemary on it and rubbed all of the spices in. I also decided to shove a bunch of dried thyme under the skin to help the flavours get down into the meat. I finished it off by brushing some olive oil on the skin to lock in the butter and onto a roasting pan it went. To accompany it I made a batch of my Mum’s world famous holiday stuffing of which the method and ingredients I cannot share with you. I wrapped up the stuffing in foil and placed it beside the turkey. Once those were in I roughly cut up a couple carrots, an onion, and a few cloves of garlic and put them into the pan to roast and fill the pan with their flavours. I covered the whole pan with foil and plopped them into the oven. I know what you’re thinking right now…and no, I didn’t teach Michael Smith how to cook but I do know that I’m awesome. Actually, I had a LOT of help from Google and YouTube to figure out cooking methods and times and was shitting myself the entire time hoping I didn’t botch it and give everyone food poisoning or transform the turkey into a blackbird. Luckily this was not the case.
Nate decided to roast up a small ham as well for dinner and Jeremy made up a spinach and ricotta salad with Fusili. Once those were completed we sat around a bit more and enjoyed a couple of drinks before our guests arrived. As I said before, Megan, Laura, and Jodi were invited over to dinner because they were also remaining in London for Christmas as opposed to returning to the motherland. They were kind enough to bring a couple of side dishes as well as wine to include in the dinner. We got an appetizer table of cheese, crackers, nachos, and dip going while everything was finishing up in the kitchen. Starting to feel like the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland I continuously looked at the time until finally it was the moment of truth. I pulled that bird out of the oven; the heavens opened up, light shone down, angels played trumpets, and God yelled “BOO-YA!”. It was perfect, cooked all of the way through but still very juicy and the skin crisp though not the brown colour I was hoping for. Either way, I was now faced with the task of carving a turkey (again, something I hadn’t done before). With more help from YouTube and Food Network I carved a mean turkey and gave it the Sweeny Todd treatment…I felt manly. After checking the stuffing (another nervous moment because I wanted it to taste like my Mum’s so bad) all was well and we plated and served everything up. After saying Grace we dug into our feast (photos available on Facebook) and all was well. Every bite of the stuffing I took made me miss home so much, it really is a taste that I had only ever previously had when I was home for the holidays. But, I made due and had a lot of friends to enjoy this day with which made it okay to be here.
Once dinner was completed and the clean-up effort was manned and womanned by all we sat down for a couple of fun games and some mulled wine. Rounding the night off with some Christmas beer pong (new tradition?) everyone headed their separate ways. Jer, Nate, and I stayed up for a bit later before finally calling it a highly successful day. I missed friends and family so much on this day but I was surrounded by people, was able to cook an awesome meal that I was very proud of, and really tried to make it feel like a Christmas at home even though it was miles away. Plus, Skype closed the gap a lot too. I hope everyone was able to have as wonderful a Christmas as well, hopefully soon I’ll be able to spend it with family and friends again.
Next up: Boxing Day attempt at a Crystal Palace game and dinner at Neale’s house
Until then…
Cheers and love,
Erik
No comments:
Post a Comment