Every year, my husband’s family and mine rent a house at Echo Point in the Blue Mountains. We always get the same house as it’s huge, lovely and just right for the 10 of us. This year it seemed that some were out to ruin Christmas with last minute cancellations but despite this, and the many, many changes of plans we still had a fantastic Christmas, made even better because of the absence of Grinches! 
Breakfast spread (not shown, muesli)
Mmm bacon….food of the gods!
We had a range of foods for breakfast including of course French Toast with bacon and blueberry jam. During the day copious amounts of Watermelon (from a sweet and juicy 11kg behemoth melon) were consumed, one night was a Pot Luck plate dinner with Hawaiian bean salad, noodles, cheeses and dips.
Crimson Rosellas in the backyard (amongst many other native birds)
Eumundi Organic Sausages
The highlight was the Christmas Day BBQ which featured a Coke Butt Chicken (a Coke version of the Beer Butt Chicken, click here for the recipe), Eumundi Sausages in 3 flavours (Pork & Ginger; Chicken & Leek and Beef, Tomato & Spinach); vegetarian sausages, tofu patties, coleslaw, freshly buttered corn, caramelised onions, asparagus, rolls, and of course for dessert, gleaming Maple Cheesecake (recipe to come) and sweet, juicy watermelon.
BBQ’d onions
Tofu and vegetarian sausage platter
Grilled corn on the cob
Cooked Eumundi’s – yum!
Coke Butt Chicken
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December 28, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
I was asked by my mother to whip up something for a Christmas event with her friends at short notice. It’s not ordinarily how I like to do things – I prefer to pore over books and recipes and narrow down a selection and then judge each on their merits and suitability for the recipients. But as serendipity often occurs, I received an early Christmas present from my husband of the book Nigella Christmas and the Yule Log was one of the first things I saw that caught my eye.
I often dismiss Yule Logs thinking that they’ll be too hard to make and fiddly. They’re something of a craze around Christmas and indeed I saw a Japanese magazine featuring some being sold in Tokyo for Y5000+ ($70AUD or thereabouts) so I summarily dismissed it as a “hard to do” item. That was until I stopped and actually read the recipe. For all of its visual splendour, it’s just like a regular cake with a batter and icing and that is it. The key is in the decoration but even that can be faked, indeed a shaky or uncoordinated hand is best at making the tree-like squiggles and if I know anything about myself, it’s that I’m uncoordinated.
As I’m a slave to styling and wanted to give it a “just found in the forest” look, I sent my husband off in search of pine cones or similar pieces of nature. I would’ve just gone to a Department Store to buy some gold sprayed ones but no, the nature loving man looked out out kitchen window at the trees below and spotted a suitable tree and gathered up these little pieces of nature and another potential Christmas disaster was averted.
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December 25, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
I adore craisins, that rubied portmanteau of Cranberry and Raisin, a gloriously pink dried sweetened cranberries that just seems so Christmasy to me. And whilst I love a hot Christmas pudding, given our 40C degree weather during Summer, an Ice Cream pudding is much more preferable. As soon as I saw a picture of Donna Hay’s ice cream puddings last year, I knew I had to make them. Except I had a year to wait to do this. Sure I could’ve cheated and made it for a Christmas in July celebration. My life went on, the recipe tucked inside the “sweets” folder, always near the top, lest I forget. And when December hit and the mercury reached in the high 20s, I knew it was time.
These remind me of those little Nougat Christmas puddings that come out around Christmas time (or around October it seems nowadays) at Darrell Lea. I used to get one every year but haven’t for the last 10 years or so, but the sight of the rounded plastic spoon and the holly and berries reminds me of a time before food blogging. B.B. if you will, when I could just enjoy a meal without photographing it, when I could go to a restaurant twice without a second thought and when I didn’t have to pause for photographs before tucking into a meal. And then I think about how wonderful life is now that I get to count eating as a hobby and hopefully a living and the amazing people I’ve met I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Merry Christmas everyone! Thankyou for reading – your lovely support, comments and readership make writing this blog a true pleasure I hope that your Christmases are filled with fun and good food!
Lots of love,
NQN
xxx
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December 24, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
Around Christmas time, I have noticed that I tend to gravitate towards rubied red items. And this one has been a long time in the making. When we were small, my mother had a very, very thick cookbook tome full of all sorts of retro delights as well as classic dishes. Even when young, we’d be fascinated by these dishes. My mother would rarely cook them as my Father would only eat food from his Mother country and my sister and I would be left to flick through the glossy thick book, the spine wearing away to nothing but cotton threads from many trips on and off the bookshelf.
Sour cherries
The one items I always looked at longingly was a huge Cherries Jubilee set in a jelly mould (this was probably a nod to retro where everything was jellified). My father at the time worked for Davis Gelatine yet it was wasted on me as I didn’t like jelly at all. They’d always try and ply us with the company dessert only to have me turning my nose at it. Until I married a jelly freak. If you’ve ever wondered who buys those freakishly blue tubs of jelly from the supermarket may I offer you my husband.
Gelatine sheets
I saw a similar jelly in a picture in a while back and showed it to my husband. His eyes widened in anticipation and I knew that he would appreciate this.The timing was right, it was close to Christmas and for those of you who want to use real cherries, they’re in season now in Australia. You could eliminate all of the palaver with the 20 gelatine sheets by buying the required 5 packets of cherry jelly (and why not if you’re busy).
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December 22, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
I know, I know. Christmas is coming and as a foodie you’ve probably been asked to partake or at least bring a dish in the whole grand production that is Christmas. Or more perilous still, you’re the person who is hosting the Christmas shindig and you’ve got to come up with some fabulous courses in order to satisfy every picky eater that is part of your family along with having a quick cocktail get together with friends in the days preceding Christmas. And let’s not forget the vegetarians or kids in the mix…
Allow me to make some suggestions from the ghosts of recipes past:
Nibblies for a pre-Christmas get-together with friends:
Caramelised Camembert with macadamia nuts
The Union Square Cafe’s Nuts
Tetsuya’s Oysters with rice wine vinaigrette
Goat’s cheese, basil and walnut wontons
Smoked Trout Pate
Quail’s eggs with Za’atar
Christmas Pudding Vodka
Christmas Dinner en familie:
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December 20, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
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