We’ve had the most glorious few weeks with family and friends! Here are a few pics from our holiday feasting…
I made Jamie Oliver’s fabulous chicken liver parfait – it’s delicious and cream-free…
My niece tried to eat the entire pot on her own!
Homemade curry puffs, deep fried by Big Boy…
This season’s glazed ham started with a magnificent Black Forest Smokehouse half leg, made from Borrowdale free range pork.
Here’s the method again (I’ve blogged it previously, but it’s buried in the archives)… we melted a jar of Pete’s quince jelly with a few tablespoons of dark brown sugar to form the glaze. The fat was scored and studded with cloves, and then half the glaze was painted on. The leg was baked on a rack over a pan of water at 240C with fan for 20 minutes, then removed from the oven and coated with the remaining glaze, before returning to bake for a further 20 minutes at 200C with fan…
Christmas lunch included lovely Andrew’s homemade pudding…it came to the table in a blaze of brandy…
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For a recent dinner party, we slow roasted two local lamb shoulders, rubbed with rosemary, garlic, oil and salt. After resting, the bones simply pulled out of the meat… (recipe is here)…
There was, of course, heaps of sourdough bread. I made these kissing loaves by shaping two long sticks and sitting them side by side in my enamel roaster…
New Year’s Eve dinner was a quiet one at home. We each had a massive grassfed T-bone steak (I couldn’t finish mine), accompanied by mashed potatoes and garden beans, and washed down with Bollinger champagne. Simple and oh so good…
Our friends have been cooking up a storm as well!
We had lunch with Stephen and Marcella last week, and they made this fabulous pan-fried salmon topped with papaya and coriander…
…and for our dinner last night, Kevin roasted this Tasmanian grassfed fillet to perfection!
Hope you’re all having a wonderful start to 2017!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Scrumptious! That liver concoction had me salivating… brought me memories of when I lived in Paris and enjoying their country liver terrines at every chance…
beautiful bread, meat, all that’s wonderful!
It all looks delicious!
Delicious looking food!
Wow, you have definitely been feasting, I am drooling
Goodness, it looks like you’ve been eating very well! That lamb looks especially tempting.
That all looks so delicious, Celia. And, now I’m hungry! Meg:)
Le pain a l’air bon !
wow that looks so good
Oh yum! This has been a slow appetite-raising scroll :) ! Have made the Jamie Oliver parfait a couple of times and everyone loves it. The one idea I’ll adopt in the next few days is that of the salmon topped with pawpaw and coriander: what a fabulous summer offering!! Had never thought of the combo . . .
All looks great
What a feast, Celia! Speaking of garden beans, we haven’t seen any garden updates lately. Would love to see what’s happening to your always productive garden.
I think you could subtitle this post, the food of life. It is a gift, this appreciation & enjoyment of food. We have to eat, we may as well make the best of it. You are fortunate to have friends & family who feel the same way.
Cruel to read this as I can smell our left over frozen dumplings cooking! I can’t decide which of these is the most tempting! :)
Beautiful food cooked and shared with loved ones…just how it should be!
That all looks wonderful. I hope you have a fabulous 2017.
You do have access to the best meat. It is a Australian thing – my daughter in Melbourne gets really good meat too – I must look up the chicken liver parfait – think i still have a bag of chicken livers in the freezer. I am glad you had a great festive period! love c
The salmon with papaya and coriande looks so good! 💗
Your post made me hungry!
Looks like a wonderful start to an abundant new year!
You are one lucky ‘duck’!! :)
My but you HAVE been eating well! I love the “kissing loaves” and can’t wait to make them myself. Gidget, one of Priscilla’s babies, is still going strong! Happiest of New Years, Celia.
Those kissing loaves are gorgeous and all that wonderful food you are enjoying makes me very happy for you all. It’s nice that the boys are big enough to create things in the kitchen on their own. You can sit back and be waited on. heh
Happy New Year to you too, your holiday looks absolutely wonderful, I’ll have to try that Jamie Oliver recipe, looks wonderful.
ah, coriander, the most evocative of herbs…well next to rosemary and mint and..oh well herbs generally, it speaks of the east and satays and seafood and…generally just yum! wishes for a truly content and healthy 2017 from our house to yours.
One of these days I am going to come and eat all your delicious food! It all looks so fantastic and delicious, especially the ham and lamb.
Gosh,Celia! You guys do it right! Everything looks so very appetizing and perfect for the celebration. Cin cin!
The food looks wonderful! :)