The sky is blue, the sun is shining, the weeding is done, the pantry tidied up and the shelves in the fridge can now be seen. Post Christmas activities are thus in full swing, and we are starting to enjoy the days between Christmas and New Year, forgetting what day of the week it is and wondering how and when we will ever use up all the leftovers. Anyway, here’s what we got up to.
Christmas Eve
As regular readers will know, we celebrate Christmas Eve, and as per tradition. our friends came round to help us enjoy the feast. There was the usual spread of smoked salmon (cold smoked, hot smoked with pōhutukawa and horopito dry rub hot smoked from Aoraki Salmon), two types of herring, smoked oysters, meatballs, sausages, Janssons frestelse, potatoes, three salads (cucumber, coleslaw, green bean and tomato with feta), devilled eggs, ham, salami, pâté and three types of bread (including a proper rye bread from Shelley Bay Baker). This was followed by strawberries, Christmas cake, cheese, mince pies, home made truffles (thanks to our friends’ daughter) and chocolate. And yes…there was wine, beer and, of course, snaps to make toasts with at various intervals.
Gifts all round
After all that, it was time to open our presents. I got perfume and earrings from Karl, cute Christmas napkins, a sweet little cruet set and some lovely green glass earrings in the shape of kina (a New Zealand sea urchin) which you can see on the right. On Christmas morning, we opened our stockings and as well as useful little things like hand-cream and shower gel, there were several miniatures of gin(!) and 5 bars of special chocolate (2 to me and 3 to Karl) that will keep us going for months (the licorice caramel sounds particularly interesting).
Christmas Day
The feasting continued on Christmas Day at our friends, with a wonderful tray of canapés, giant ham, salmon, nut roast and salads followed by pavlova, Christmas cake and cheese. We almost had to roll down the hill home…..
Boxing Day and a very mini disaster
Boxing Day is a day to use up leftovers, so lunch was a potato salad, liberally sprinkled with the last of the dill. some of the hot smoked salmon and the rest of the cucumber salad. As per our sort of tradition, we headed out to the cinema, this year going to see Two Tickets to Greece, a French comedy about friendship set in the Greek islands. It was fine, certainly the right feel for a Boxing Day afternoon but not exactly a great movie.
Feeling efficient, I had made a quiche before we left using some of the leftover ham, a little leek, and topped with cheese. It was sitting in the fridge waiting to be cooked when we got home. As it was baking, lovely smells wafted towards the living room. I took it out of the oven, but as I placed it onto the table it somehow slipped out of my oven gloved hands and went crashing onto the floor, face down. There was nothing that could be done to save it, so I just had to cook some pasta with more leftover ham, leftover cream, basil, garlic and spinach. This was very tasty but not what was planned!
Anyway, hope you all had a lovely Christmas with lots of food, laughter and merriment. And that you didn’t drop any dish on the floor…
Also entered in Boondock Ramblngs Traffic Jam Reboots.
Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.
You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com
Thistles and Kiwis 
What wonderful feasts you enjoyed! I am sorry about your quiche; it reminded me of a time when I did the same to a large dish of macaroni cheese. It had been a special request from my grandchildren and really did smell delicious, but – like you – it inexplicably slipped out of my hands onto the kitchen floor. Of course the glass baking dish broke and in two ticks my son’s dog was gobbling up the macaroni! I hope your dish didn’t break.
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Oh gosh that must have been awful! the food and the broken glass all mixed up. Luckily the quiche was in a tin and we have wooden floors and not carpet.
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The food all looks delicious! We are living on leftovers at the moment too but that is all part of Christmas/New Year festivities isn’t it? I can sympathize with you with your quiche disaster. I had prepared the biscuit base for my Ricotta cheesecake and was taking it to the refrigerator when the bottom of the springform pan fell out and biscuit crumbs went everywhere!!! Happy New Year to you and I look forward to continuing our connection in 2024. x
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Thanks and yes being creative with leftovers is part of the festive season isn’t it? Oh sorry about your cheesecake issue – did you make another base or just give up? All the best for 2024 and yes looking forward to keeping up the connections.
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sounds like you had a wonderful feast and a lovely festive season! cheers sherry
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What a feast! We also celebrated on the 24th (early,) and when relatives from the US called us late on the 25th my daughter and I had already taken down the tree and decorations! We usually do this around New Year, but since we are moving at New Year I had to start packing.
Your Christmas celebrating sounds lovely.
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Good luck with your move! And all the best for 2024.
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Thank you! All the best!
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Now this is a feast! I’ll be happy to come over for leftovers any time this week…
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🙂 You would be most welcome!
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Your holiday feasts look absolutely fabulous, Barbara. On Christmas Day we had Salmon and Prawns (for 4 of us). The day after we hosted our family celebration (11 of us) and had traditional turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. I did make-ahead stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes this year. I will definitely be doing that again.
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Thank you! Your feasts sound wonderful.
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What a catastrophe! But the rest seemed more than good enough to make up for it.
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The words I used cannot be repeated….but it could have been worse…we could have had visitors….
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Bummer about the quiche. I’ve dropped a loaf of hot straight from the oven bread on the floor. Fortunately, my glass loaf pan didn’t break somehow. The rest of your food looks amazing.
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It is so annoying to drop food like that – such a waste but nothing to be done about it except pick it up and start again!
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I dropped a pot of mac and cheese when camping. With limited food. We had PB and honey sandwiches for supper. I wonder if my kids remember that?
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Oh no! That must have been awful.
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As the tale goes that was the least of my 😟 worries
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Other than the ruined quiche it sounds like you had a really wonderful Christmas celebration.
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I’m glad the mini disaster was merely the culinary kind! Hope you enjoyed the movie. And all the festivities. Happy new year to you. #TrafficJamReboot.
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Yes luckily it was only a dropped quiche! Nothing more serious though I cannot tell you how annoyed I was at the time!
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