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Mince pies and other festive comestibles

#1. Obviously nuts in shells, though I’ve not seen any in the supermarket yet, which is disturbing given the Brexit shortages.

#2. Satsumas. Again in limited supply. Tesco had some, but Asda only had unspecified ‘easy peelers’ which I suspect are fakes.

#3. Sprouts. Remarkably fine things, and as time moves ever closer to Christmageddon the price should decrease and quantities increase on an almost Moore’s Law curve.

I haven’t got to the point I allow myself to even look at mince pies yet. Diabetes and all that. Some shall be purchased at some point though.
 
Tony L said:
#1. Obviously nuts in shells, though I’ve not seen any in the supermarket yet, which is disturbing given the Brexit shortages.

#2. Satsumas. Again in limited supply. Tesco had some, but Asda only had unspecified ‘easy peelers’ which I suspect are fakes.

#3. Sprouts. Remarkably fine things, and as time moves ever closer to Christmageddon the price should decrease and quantities increase on an almost Moore’s Law curve.

I haven’t got to the point I allow myself to even look at mince pies yet. Diabetes and all that. Some shall be purchased at some point though.
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Plenty this way Tony; Booths and Waitrose have them in; Lidl had some in last week too
 
Retail mince pies are far too sweet nowadays. Luckily we know a retired Army cook who does copious batches of proper home-made mince pies in the run up to Christmas. :)
 
I always loved dates, mince pies, Christmas cake, clementines, nuts and stilton, but I can no longer taste any of them and find them difficult to swallow without the help of beer, red wine, whisky or port.
The good news is that I can get some taste from beer, red wine, whisky and port and have no difficulty in swallowing them.
 
We have a pudding made last year, and a cake ditto (we made two smaller ones of each and stored one of them). Normally we do this alternate years, so one year we make two cakes, the next we make two puddings. I've fed the cake again for the last three weeks, and we'll make marzipan, and ice it in a week or so, so it's nicely hard for when the festivities start. Ooer, missus.

There's also a couple of jars of homemade mincemeat left over, and a new batch shall be made shortly. We both love all these rich fruity Christmas treats and it's a sad day when the last of them has gone.

One we miss, that Sainsbury's used to do but doesn't appear to do now, is chocolate coated Christmas pudding bites. Sounds awful, but is actually lovely, if you use a good dark chocolate. We'll probably buy another pudding, cook it and break it into bite sized chunks, then coat with a nice >70% dark chocolate and leave in the garage to set.
 
Red cabbage, cooked down with cider vinegar, marmalade and fennel seeds or juniper berries (or both but then the flavours are a bit of a mess).
 
I love sprouts, but Mrs P-T doesn't. I believe there's a genetic thing, that sprouts taste bitter to some people. She usually indulges me around Christmas, though, so sprouts with chestnuts, maybe a bit of bacon, maybe in a colcannon, but above all, lightly steamed until al dente, and eaten with a roast dinner. Lovely!
 
narabdela said:
Retail mince pies are far too sweet nowadays. Luckily we know a retired Army cook who does copious batches of proper home-made mince pies in the run up to Christmas. :)
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I do copious batches of them myself.
Simple sweet pastry case in ratio 4:2:1 of Flour:butter:icing sugar. I make a massive batch of this every year: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/boozy-mincemeat
For the mince I often substitute things like different booze or nuts. Spiced rum was nice.
 
The standard Lidl stollen at £2.50ish is excellent too. Brussel sprouts on their tree and stood in water last a couple of weeks. Tiny ones at the top are a treat too.
 
Sprouts are truly the food of the Devil.

When I was a nipper, we used to go across to Liverpool to have Christmas lunch/dinner at my grandmother’s. After a huge roast dinner (two sittings needed) at around 2pm, ‘tea’ would be rolled out about two hours later, when we could barely move. As well as turkey sandwiches, there would be a notional salad (a few tomatoes and lettuce leaves), plus some celery in a jug of water. As far as I can recall, no-one ever ate the celery. There were various condiments, including picallili, which again was never touched (certainly not by me, anyway).

In the evening, out would come the Eat Me dates, but by that stage all the grownups were pissed and the dates would be scoffed up by the dog.
 
Around 27/8th we do a pie with chunks of left over meat, stuffing balls, sprouts and gravy. While it’s warming and the pastry’s baking, left over roast spuds and parsnips are revived in a slow, dry frying pan. It’s a proper fat lad’s lunch and the whole family love it.
 
Tony L said:
Satsumas. Again in limited supply.
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Aldi do a lidded tray of these for around £3. I can’t recall if they’re actual satsumas but they’re very nice and the tray is substantial enough to be used for small items that would otherwise roll around on the desk/workbench.
 
mjw said:
Around 27/8th we do a pie with chunks of left over meat, stuffing balls, sprouts and gravy. While it’s warming and the pastry’s baking, left over roast spuds and parsnips are revived in a slow, dry frying pan. It’s a proper fat lad’s lunch and the whole family love it.
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Sounds lovely and I'm sold, but your term 'left over' is unfamiliar to me. Can you explain? ;)
 
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