THE FESTIVITY.

Everyone has a specific meaning of Christmas, depending upon what they believe in. People like to continue family traditions and culture from the past generations. One common thing regarding Christmas is a time for sharing and giving, a time for the family gets together, also catching up with friends and others.  It is an important and significant event of the year; thus, the celebration takes place with festivity.  Feasting and drinking well, the feast is grand and specific rituals followed by the generation to this day.  For example, for Christmas Feast, they served a hot
 Roast Whole Turkey with the trimmings. Followed by a warm

pudding served with brandy sauce as the dessert and so forth. 
The tradition stays a life and people hold on to it. But some people decided to have their own. They are getting more and more practical now.  Especially here in Australia, the month of December is hot and can be very hot, to serve the traditional Christmas dinner is too heavy and troublesome, too hot to prepare the food and too hot to eat them.  So, they are emphasised for the family gathering, celebrate friendship and enjoy the festivity based on their own culture or a new culture that they are comfortable to be in.  This is my observation of celebrating Chrismas here in Australia.


Our Home at Christmas, 2019
Not everyone was home for Christmas, but one of my daughters and her husband were there, it was good to have them, we were blessed.

This year, we celebrated Christmas much more straightforward, a dish that I prepared and cooked was Roast Turkey Crown, served for the main course.  My daughter contributed to cooking for the entree and the side dish-a salad. To close off the dinner, I prepared the tipsy cake with berries.  Only a few dishes and yet it was so festive, and everyone was so delighted also relaxed.  What a success!

This cooking for the festivity, unfortunately, there are no recipes. I will show you the process of cooking the food, it may give you an idea to cook for next Christmas, or for a special occasion.

The Preparations 
The Turkey Crown.
Wrap the fresh turkey breast with pancetta or prosciutto. 

Fresh turkey breast which was not easy to find, but at last we got it from Cole's supermarket. The only size I got was almost three kilograms.  It's enough for what we needed.
Wednesday morning, the turkey was dressed to roast and overall took two hours and 25 minutes to cook.
You do not need a recipe to cook the turkey breast, what you need to do is wash and pat it to dry thoroughly.  Rub with butter or oil, sprinkle with generous salt, and shredded lemon rinds. Wrap it with pancetta or prosciutto and tie it with strings securely.  Place on a baking tray, cover with baking paper and put in a fan-forced oven at 160 degrees C, baste the turkey now and then to cook thoroughly.

Roast Turkey Crown
with the Garnishes

While it is cooked and resting, prepare the vegetables and finish off the cooking of roast potatoes to crisp them up. Last but not least make the gravy out of the juice of the roasting meat, add some white stock, butter and a little thickener to make a smooth gravy.

Roast Turkey Crown

Place it to a platter together with the roast vegetable and potatoes, garnished with fresh herbs.  OH, forgot to take the picture. Delicious roast turkey we had. Good food makes us happy.  The roast potato and sweet potato were not crisps but deliciously moist not flat and dry.  They have complimented the salad, the side dish.
The entree was a different story, so beautiful, tasty, divine, out of this world, and it was prepared by my daughter Susan, I learnt a lot about this.

Banh Khot for the Entree.
It is prawn in a mini crispy pancake served with soft lettuce dressed with dried shrimp powder and a sauce, garnished with shredded fresh pickled daikon and carrot.
It's so appetising, so fresh and flavoursome.
I learnt a lot about the new dish, a lot of preparations though, but it's worth it.

To make the Roast Turkey Crown be festive, she prepared the gorgeous goat cheese salad for the side dish.  It is healthy, beautiful and colourfull.  Ingredients for the salad: radicchio, fresh fig, orange fillet, goat cheese, walnuts for the garnish and dressed with mustard dressing.  It's an absolutely perfect side dish.

Susan preparing the side dish.

For the dessert is my Tipsy Cake with Mixed Berries.

What is it?  It's a rose sponge cake, soaked with lots of sherry. Cut in half and spread with mixed berries jam which was added with sherry as well then joins the cake together.  The cake dressed with white chocolate ganache and top with raspberries and sugared rose petals.  It looked so Christmasy and Festive with the red berries.  

A good Christmas Dinner and a family effort indeed, it was.  Due to my unfitness of late, everyone voluntary to do the preparation and tidy up afterwards.  The table did look beautiful was done by my son in law, he was in charge of the drink as well.  Rayner also helped around, and he was the photographer, as I wanted things to be recorded. What a beautiful family I have, I am so proud and grateful.  I knew that the children came home to celebrate Christmas but also to care for us.  

Christmas has gone with sweet memory, not only with our family but also with the generous greeting of the neighbours.  We found three cards and gifts in the front door at Chrismas Eve.  Thank you all kind neighbours for helping us to have richer and better festivity.

Even though everyone was not home for Christmas, but they did not forget us.  They called and also Face Time to us, the grandchildren showing off their gifts and wishing us well.  The family was not in the same place as us, but we were together.

Thoughtful Gifts for the Children and Family

Always Gifts at Christmas.

Time to share and time to give.

The new idea of giving in our family that is giving the gift at Chrismas is not to each other but giving to the charity; instead, that is preferable.  I think it's brilliant, thanks to children for the kind gesture.  By saying that the children sent these thoughtful gives to us. How kind and generous they are as always. 

Always Gifts From the Pantry To add the Festivity.

Red is Festive Colour.

 The Kitchen Bench Dressed to the Christmas Mood.

Christmas, 2019 has gone, regardless of how simple it was, we celebrated the festivity joyfully, thanking you dear family.

Rephrase!

Christmas, 2019 has gone, regardless we did not have all the family with us, and the food was not varied but sophisticated enough to celebrate the festivity immensely and joyfully.  The entree and the salad - the side dish made the festivity. Thanks, Susan.

Indeed The Festivity was Grand and Glorious. It is Treasured.

Now is a time to get ready for the new coming year.  Another Feasting.

Have fun preparing for the new year!  Enjoy and God Bless.

Susy

CHRISTMAS, 2019

Happy Christmas.

Best Wishes 
From Our Home and Garden to Your Home at Christmas.

I hope you had a Lovely and Happy Christmas.

We had a very cheerful and peaceful Christmas, It was celebrated together with my daughter Susan, her husband-Tristan and their dog Alfie.  A Very Happy Christmas.

A snapshot on Christmas Day

A very cheerful, lovely and Happy Christmas I hope you have had as we did have.

December, After Boxing Day

Susy

Before Christmas.

With good spirit, the Christmas preparation has been going very well.  From the baking, cake to the organising the house and to get the garden clean was easy, took times though, but indeed very satisfactory.  Being busy is one of therapy to forget the unimportant, but thinking to make the family comfortable is number one, even though the capability is limited, moving very slow lots of works had been done.
Everyone got weary at the end of the year, it is expected, but with useful activities, we are enthusiastic, and surely we will be pleasantly surprised by our strength.  I spent time in the garden and also was busy in the house, it was all right.

The Baking Preparations.
Here, I was at it again, baking away the Christmas cake, beautiful brioche, and so forth.

  Baking Boiled Christmas Cake

 After brushing with lots of sherry over the freshly baked cake, cover with foil, and a clean tea towel, let it cool overnight.  Then take it out of the tin, place in a right container, it keeps well, and it is ready to be dressed or decorated for Christmas.  Usually, I bake the Christmas cake in November, but not this time, it was in early of December.

 Brioche is such a rich bread, and it is versatile, it can be shaped as many as you wish.  Brioche crown is always right to dress beautifully for the festive season.  Brioche a Te Te looks so classic, delicious for breakfast.

Brioche Baking

 Shaping, after the dough, has been sleeping overnight in the refrigerator.

Brioche Crown and Buns

 The recipe for basic brioche, please look on an older post.


Working very slow by days, and this year is a lot more, but the job can get done, only take more time, and I feel blessed.
Beautiful baking had been done, it will be a time to dress up all before Christmas.

 In the garden is the most relaxing to do.  Often I forget the time, I got carried away, It is priceless.

And here is the Christmas Cheers from our Home and Garden.

The garden looks alright, the plants, the flowers are at their right places now.  It has been raining for a bit, and the sun comes up every day, truly a blessing for the garden. Green Garden with a touch of red colour, the Red is the theme of our Christmas this year.

Relieved anticipation, we will reach the destination.  I hope, you all to have had a pleasant times before Christmas, the big day, the Day is not long to go.  God Bless You All


Until Christmas
Susy