Sunday, December 26, 2021

Christmas Day at our House

 We'll see how this goes. Internet has been FUBAR for the past few days. Likely weather related as we are wireless and reception is not always the best. Lots of snow this past few days and much more last night. Now that it is winter, Lucky has moved into the back porch which makes Tanya happy as it is easier to spoil him. He loves the deep snow and when Tanya shoveled the walks this morning and threw snow on him he was very happy. He took his ball outside and played hide and seek with it in the snow and remembered to take it back inside. Amazing as he has a 5 second attention span.

Winter Wonderland

Lucky debating whether to go out or not

My printer packed it in or I should say, I gave up on it. Two years without printing seized up the pores in the print head and there was no way to clean it completely. Bought a Canon PIXMA G4311. With replaceable print heads and refillable ink tanks. Took me a while to set it up as wireless. Not simple. Setting it up for Tanya in Russian will be another challenge. Bad enough that my dog is smarter than me but now the printer is too. 

Talker to my brother on the farm Christmas Eve. Rather listened. He has no one to talk to other than himself and his 6 cats and Lassie, his Collie. He has no TV until he hooks up his satellite dish as he was analogue. But he visits a great deal. He has a friend about two hours away, another loner like himself. His friend has two TVs, one set on YouTube and one on Fox. He records lots of stuff for my brother to watch on a playback projector. Nuff said. 

Dec 23rd was our 15th anniversary, so we had the immediate family over for supper last night Dec 25th. Celebrate "Catholic" Christmas and our anniversary at the same time. Tanya cooked all week and I helped where I could or was allowed. We had enough food for an army and only six adults. Masha did not come home from Kyiv, she will be home for New Years. Dasha eats like a bird, a very small bird, so she hardly counts.

Not a traditional Christmas meal by Canadian standards. We roasted two turkey thighs which we can buy cheap and that was as close as it got. Well, ok, mashed potatoes. I made the mushroom and French onion soup mix gravy.  Tanya made a crab salad which she converted into appetizers by wrapping it in thin slices of cucumber held together with a toothpick.  Red caviar on crackers. There was smoked salted Norwegian salmon, a full side fillet. Don't ask. 

Cold sliced roast pork loin. Cabbage rolls, голубцы, golubtsy in Russian and голубці, holubtsi in Ukrainian. I learned that one cabbage roll is golubets in Russian. Who knew, like who eats one cabbage roll. And kholodets, like head cheese, made from an old hen and four pigs knuckles boiled to death and let set in the cold. Eaten with hot mustard. I love it. We made beef liver pate cutlets. Ground beef liver and onions, add eggs and flour and fry into thin patties. Eat cold or hot with condiment of your choice. I love it. 

When Tanya and Masha were in Spain in mid December, she brought back Spanish ham, Spanish sausage, Spanish 'cheddar', and Spanish 'parmesan'.  If you have never eaten Spanish ham, you are in for a treat of a lifetime. It is dry cured and you slice it THIN. The really good stuff was 95 Euros per kg. That is not what Tanya bought but heavenly none-the-less. The sausage was also dry cured. All four items were to die for. 

The green salad was just a token gesture

Desert was two cakes, one traditional and one chocolate that Tanya made by combining two recipes. She will do that one again, for sure. We made chocolate muskrat houses cookies aka haystacks, (my aka 'feedlot specials'). They are the best ever. 

Tanya's chocolate cake

Dinner is eaten over a long period of time. Once everyone has had a good feed, it is time to visit over the dirty plates and eat more from time to time, eventually getting around to desert. Andrey had to work that night so he ate quickly, went into the bedroom and slept for two hours. I cleaned up what I could and went to my computer. Dasha played with the cats. They love her which is good as they usually don't like visitors. The four women talked. And drank. A 0.7 litre bottle of white wine split two ways. A 0.5 litre bottle of Finlandia vodka split mostly two ways as Andrey and I drank very little (for once). 

Baba Natasha did the dishes for which I was grateful and we packed up enough food for the three families, Natasha, Lina, and Andrey and Tanya, for at least two or three more meals. And we'll be eating well this week too. For breakfast I had crab salad, kholodets and chocolate cake.

As Tanya said, once a year, we can and need to do this. 

I hope all my readers had a good Christmas or a quite day at home with lots of naps or both. I wish you all a happy and safe new year as we try to move on from 2020 and 2021.



16 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a great Christmas -- so much food and so varied! My Rare One and I used to have a Ukrainian meal on Christmas Eve, but we've discontinued that because, as you know, "the problem with Ukrainian food is that you eat it and three days later, you're hungry again!" It's just too much for us right before another heavy traditional turkey dinner on Christmas Day. So now we have tacos on Christmas Eve and save the Ukrainian food for Orthodox Christmas in January.

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    1. I used to be able to pack away two consecutive feasts - forty years ago. Ukrainian food on Orthodox Christmas is a good idea. Did you go with the 12 meatless dishes? We sure never did. We have a goose to roast for New Years but there will be just the two of us I expect.

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  2. I like hearing how folks celebrate Christmas. All of us have unique twists that make our exoeriences different. From your run down, I am guessing you had a wonderful and memorable time. Excellent.

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    1. Everyone has their own Christmas meal traditions, for sure. It was fun, Mike. I have neither the capacity nor the stamina I used to but even helping Tanya put it all together was enjoyable. What I miss is stuffing. I need to learn to make it as it is not a common dish here.

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  3. Your Christmas sounds wonderful. And delicious. It was hot here (as usual). We had salads and will be eating them for several days yet. Lucky obviously values that ball if retaining it stays in his mind...

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    1. Yes, you are in Six White Boomers country. I ate a salad once. Not true, sometimes I get craving salad though not as often as Tanya and will consume a huge green chef's salad as a meal.
      Lucky does like that green tennis ball. One of his favourite toys. Outside in his yard, he favours a slightly deflated soccer ball that he can pick up and run with. He doesn't play with stuffed toys outside but inside he likes them, especially the squeaky ones.

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  4. Oh, my mouth is watering from the description and photos of your feast! The thing I miss most while we're complying with COVID restrictions is the chance to eat food that I didn't have to cook. Hubby and I had a turkey with all the trimmings yesterday. We put half in the freezer and we'll still be eating turkey for the next week. (Which is just fine - we both like leftovers.) Happy Boxing Day!

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    1. We have been to a restaurant twice this year, once inside and once outside. We can also order take out pizza and burgers from there but that is as good as it gets. Tanya usually doesn't like restaurants as she can cook better than they can.
      When the four kids were home we would roast a turkey once a month. Eaten hot once, then cold in sandwiches and soup from the bones.
      Go to Barcelona and enjoy Spanish food. Not sure what you can take back though

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  5. Sound like quite the feast.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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  6. I would loved to have been there. That sounds wonderful...what an amazing cook Tanya is..
    ydg is at old blog of west bygoddess texas..now yellowdog granny.. I just threw up a post to see what happens.

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    1. You would have been welcome. We had juice and Coka Cola but no Dr. PEPPER
      Tanya is a terrific cook.
      Send me a link. Google is not helpful.

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  7. Wow, what a Holiday Feast... tho' some of the Fear Factor Foods might intimidate me to try... but usually I'll eat anything once and twice if I like it! *LOL* It is Interesting to me what various Cultures eat that are so different and what each Country considers their delicacies. I remember the Cambodian DIL and Family had never eaten Lamb until we introduced them to it, whereas my Welsh Mom raised us eating it since it's big in her Country as a Protein Source. My Dad's Native American roots ate a lot of weird stuff that my Mom thought to be 'Heathen' and we'd laugh about her reluctance to eat some of it when in her Country they ate some really weird stuff too like Blood Sausage and Jobbins! *LOL*

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    1. Every culture does indeed have its own 'fear factor' food. I like the expression. My mother and both grandmothers were 'British' cooks. Meat was cooked to death, things were boiled and pepper was an exotic spice. The strangest foods I have ever eaten were in China. There were a couple things I could not eat. Deer penis soup, deep fried whole sparrows and fish with one side boiled and the other still alive.

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    2. Those Chinese Dishes don't Surprise me in the least, but like you, I would not, could not, eat. It wouldn't be a Green Eggs and Ham experience for me at all. Some of the delicacies Friends from the Middle East and Mexico eat aren't anything I'm inclined to incorporate into my regular Diet either. The British indeed eat a bland Diet for the most part and cook everything to Death. My Dad was a Master Chef and had a penchant for trying out new foods on us so I'm very experimental with Foods. I'd try at least a bite of something New to see if I could overcome any aversion it might initially have for me. A Friend was into eating Foods made from Bugs, he gave me some Cricket Crackers and they were actually quite good... Bug Foods would stretch me to try.

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    3. Most things I will try once. Some things regular people eat, I will eat if necessary to be polite but would rather not. When I worked in the Arctic, I have eaten raw caribou but never a warble bot from a caribou and never got a chance to eat raw seal's liver hot from a fresh carcass

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